Journal of medical Internet research
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Dec 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialUse of home telemonitoring to support multidisciplinary care of heart failure patients in Finland: randomized controlled trial.
Heart failure (HF) patients suffer from frequent and repeated hospitalizations, causing a substantial economic burden on society. Hospitalizations can be reduced considerably by better compliance with self-care. Home telemonitoring has the potential to boost patients' compliance with self-care, although the results are still contradictory. ⋯ Home telemonitoring did not reduce the number of patients' HF-related hospital days and did not improve the patients' clinical condition. Patients in the telemonitoring group contacted the Cardiology Outpatient Clinic more frequently, and on this way increased the use of health care resources.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Dec 2014
Comparative StudyNonprobability Web surveys to measure sexual behaviors and attitudes in the general population: a comparison with a probability sample interview survey.
Nonprobability Web surveys using volunteer panels can provide a relatively cheap and quick alternative to traditional health and epidemiological surveys. However, concerns have been raised about their representativeness. ⋯ Consistent with studies from other countries on less sensitive topics, volunteer Web panels provided appreciably biased estimates. The differences seen with Natsal-3 CASI questions, where mode effects may be similar, suggest a selection bias in the Web surveys. The use of more complex quotas may lead to some improvement, but many estimates are still likely to differ. Volunteer Web panels are not recommended if accurate prevalence estimates for the general population are a key objective.