JMIR mHealth and uHealth
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Apr 2019
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyUse of the Smartphone App WhatsApp as an E-Learning Method for Medical Residents: Multicenter Controlled Randomized Trial.
The WhatsApp smartphone app is the most widely used instant messaging app in the world. Recent studies reported the use of WhatsApp for educational purposes, but there is no prospective study comparing WhatsApp's pedagogical effectiveness to that of any other teaching modality. ⋯ Compared to traditional e-learning, the use of WhatsApp for teaching residents was associated with worse clinical reasoning despite better global appreciation. The use of WhatsApp probably contributes to the dispersion of attention linked to the use of the smartphone. The impact of smartphones on clinical reasoning should be studied further.
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Apr 2019
The Use of Wearable Activity Trackers Among Older Adults: Focus Group Study of Tracker Perceptions, Motivators, and Barriers in the Maintenance Stage of Behavior Change.
Wearable activity trackers offer the opportunity to increase physical activity through continuous monitoring. Viewing tracker use as a beneficial health behavior, we explored the factors that facilitate and hinder long-term activity tracker use, applying the transtheoretical model of behavior change with the focus on the maintenance stage and relapse. ⋯ The results suggest that activity trackers may be an effective technology to encourage physical activity among older adults, especially those who have never tried it. However, initial positive response to tracker use does not guarantee tracker use maintenance. Maintenance depends on recognizing the long-term benefits of tracker use, social support, and internal motivation. Nonadoption and relapse may occur because of technology's limitations and gaining awareness of one's physical activity without changing the physical activity level itself.
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Apr 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialA Smartphone App to Assist Smoking Cessation Among Aboriginal Australians: Findings From a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.
Mobile health (mHealth) apps have the potential to increase smoking cessation, but little research has been conducted with Aboriginal communities in Australia. ⋯ Smoking cessation apps need to be integrated with commonly used functions of mobile phones and draw on social networks to support their use. Although they have the potential to increase utilization of cessation support services and treatments, more research is needed to identify optimal implementation models. Robust evaluation is critical to determine their impact; however, an RCT design may not be feasible in this setting.
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Mar 2019
Perception of Older Adults Toward Smartwatch Technology for Assessing Pain and Related Patient-Reported Outcomes: Pilot Study.
Chronic pain, including arthritis, affects about 100 million adults in the United States. Complexity and diversity of the pain experience across time and people and its fluctuations across and within days show the need for valid pain reports that do not rely on patient's long-term recall capability. Smartwatches can be used as digital ecological momentary assessment (EMA) tools for real-time collection of pain scores. Smartwatches are generally less expensive than smartphones, are highly portable, and have a simpler user interface, providing an excellent medium for continuous data collection and enabling a higher compliance rate. ⋯ All participants had overall positive views of the smartwatch technology for measuring PROs to facilitate patient-provider communications and to provide more targeted treatments and interventions in the future. Usability concerns were the major issues that will require special consideration in future smartwatch PRO user interface designs, especially accessibility issues, notification design, and use of intuitive assessment scales.
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Mar 2019
A Smartphone App to Assess Alcohol Consumption Behavior: Development, Compliance, and Reactivity.
There are disadvantages-largely related to cost, participant burden, and missing data-associated with traditional electronic methods of assessing drinking behavior in real time. This potentially diminishes some of the advantages-namely, enhanced sample size and diversity-typically attributed to these methods. Download of smartphone apps to participants' own phones might preserve these advantages. However, to date, few researchers have detailed the process involved in developing custom-built apps for use in the experimental arena or explored methodological concerns regarding compliance and reactivity. ⋯ Smartphone apps participants download to their own phones are effective and methodologically sound means of obtaining alcohol consumption information for research purposes. Although further investigation is required, such apps might, in future, allow for a more thorough examination of the antecedents and consequences of drinking behavior.