Designing an ontology for managing the diets of hypertensive individuals

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an ontology which could act as a recommendation system for hypertensive individuals. The author has conceptualized and developed an ontology which describes recipes, nutrients in foods and the interactions between nutrients and prescribed drugs, disease and general health. The paper begins with a review of the literature on several ontology designs. The previous ontology models guide the development of classes, properties and restrictions built into the hypertensive diet ontology. The model is constructed following the Ontology 101 methodology. The ontology was validated using proto-personas to create competency questions which were used to test the ontology. The findings show that the ontology may be used to provide information with the goal of assisting individuals in making sense of complex effects of diet on health and outcomes. It is concluded that the ontology can be used to provide support to patients as they seek to manage chronic illnesses such as hypertension. The study has relevance for creators of knowledge organization systems and ontologies in the healthcare field.