JMIR mHealth and uHealth
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Dec 2018
Developing Typologies of User Engagement With the BRANCH Alcohol-Harm Reduction Smartphone App: Qualitative Study.
Understanding how users engage with electronic screening and brief intervention (eSBI) is a critical research objective to improve effectiveness of app-based interventions to reduce harmful alcohol consumption. Although quantitative measures of engagement provide a strong indicator of how the user engages with an app at the group level, they do not elucidate finer-grained details of how apps function from an individual, experiential perspective and why, or how, users engage with an intervention in a particular manner. ⋯ This was the first study to identify typologies of user engagement with eSBI apps. Although in need of replication, it provides a first step in understanding independent categories of eSBI users, who may benefit from apps tailored to a user's typology or motivation. It also provides new evidence to suggest that apps may be used more effectively as a tool to raise awareness of drinking, instead of reducing alcohol use, and be a step in the care pathway, identifying at-risk individuals and signposting them to more intensive treatment.
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Nov 2018
Mobile Apps for Blood Pressure Monitoring: Systematic Search in App Stores and Content Analysis.
Using a mobile app for self-management could make it easier for patients to get insight into their blood pressure patterns. However, little is known about the availability, quality, and features of mobile apps targeting blood pressure. ⋯ This study provides an overview of the best apps currently available in the app stores and important key features for self-management that can be used by health care providers and patients with hypertension to identify a suitable app targeting blood pressure monitoring. However, the majority of the apps targeting blood pressure monitoring were of poor quality. Therefore, it is important to involve medical experts in the developmental stage of health-related mobile apps to improve the quality of these apps.
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Nov 2018
A Tool to Measure Young Adults' Food Intake: Design and Development of an Australian Database of Foods for the Eat and Track Smartphone App.
Dietary assessment is reliant on the collection of accurate food and beverage consumption data. Technology has been harnessed to standardize recording and provide automatic nutritional analysis to reduce cost and researcher burden. ⋯ A food and beverage database has been developed to underpin the EaT app, enabling data collection on the eating-out habits of 18- to 30-year-old Australians. The development process has resulted in a database with commonly used food names, extensive coverage of foods from ready-to-eat chains, and commonly eaten portion sizes. Feedback from app usability testing led to enhanced keyword searching and the addition of functions to enhance usability such as adding brief instructional screens. There is potential for the features of the EaT app to facilitate the collection of more accurate dietary intake data. The database and the app will be valuable dietary assessment resources for researchers.
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Sep 2018
An mHealth App for Self-Management of Chronic Lower Back Pain (Limbr): Pilot Study.
Although mobile health (mHealth) interventions can help improve outcomes among patients with chronic lower back pain (CLBP), many available mHealth apps offer content that is not evidence based. Limbr was designed to enhance self-management of CLBP by packaging self-directed rehabilitation tutorial videos, visual self-report tools, remote health coach support, and activity tracking into a suite of mobile phone apps, including Your Activities of Daily Living, an image-based tool for quantifying pain-related disability. ⋯ Engagement among participants who completed the Limbr program was high, and program utility was rated positively by most respondents. Your Activities of Daily Living was significantly associated with ODI scores, supporting the validity of this novel tool. Future studies should assess the effect of Limbr on clinical outcomes, evaluate its use among a wider patient sample, and explore strategies for reducing attrition.
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JMIR mHealth and uHealth · Sep 2018
Development and Feasibility Testing of an mHealth (Text Message and WeChat) Intervention to Improve the Medication Adherence and Quality of Life of People Living with HIV in China: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.
Most people living with HIV (PLWH) reside in middle- and low-income countries with limited access to health services. Thus, cost-effective interventions that can reach a large number of PLWH are urgently needed. ⋯ This pilot study represents one of the first efforts to develop a text messaging (SMS)- and WeChat-based intervention that focused on improving the medication adherence and QoL of PLWH in China. Our data indicates that an mHealth intervention is feasible and acceptable to this population. The data collected through this pilot study will inform the future designs and implementations of mHealth interventions in this vulnerable population. We recommend more innovative mHealth interventions with rigorous designs for the PLWH in middle- and low-income countries.