Journal of medical Internet research
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialInteractive sections of an Internet-based intervention increase empowerment of chronic back pain patients: randomized controlled trial.
Chronic back pain (CBP) represents a significant public health problem. As one of the most common causes of disability and sick leave, there is a need to develop cost-effective ways, such as Internet-based interventions, to help empower patients to manage their disease. Research has provided evidence for the effectiveness of Internet-based interventions in many fields, but it has paid little attention to the reasons why they are effective. ⋯ Results suggest that interactive sections as part of Internet-based interventions can positively alter patients' feelings of empowerment and help prevent medication misuse. Detrimental effects were not observed.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialDoes brief telephone support improve engagement with a web-based weight management intervention? Randomized controlled trial.
Recent reviews suggest Web-based interventions are promising approaches for weight management but they identify difficulties with suboptimal usage. The literature suggests that offering some degree of human support to website users may boost usage and outcomes. ⋯ In common with most Web-based intervention studies, usage of POWeR was suboptimal overall. However, our findings suggest that supplementing Web-based weight management with brief human support could improve usage and outcomes in those who take it up.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2014
ReviewEducational technologies in problem-based learning in health sciences education: a systematic review.
As a modern pedagogical philosophy, problem-based learning (PBL) is increasingly being recognized as a major research area in student learning and pedagogical innovation in health sciences education. A new area of research interest has been the role of emerging educational technologies in PBL. Although this field is growing, no systematic reviews of studies of the usage and effects of educational technologies in PBL in health sciences education have been conducted to date. ⋯ This literature review demonstrates the generally positive effect of educational technologies in PBL. Further research into the various applications of educational technology in PBL curricula is needed to fully realize its potential to enhance problem-based approaches in health sciences education.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2014
Comparative StudyElectronic versus paper-based assessment of health-related quality of life specific to HIV disease: reliability study of the PROQOL-HIV questionnaire.
Electronic patient-reported outcomes (PRO) provide quick and usually reliable assessments of patients' health-related quality of life (HRQL). ⋯ The electronic PROQOL-HIV introduces minor modifications to the original paper-based version, following International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) ePRO Task Force guidelines, and shows good reliability and face validity. Patients can complete the computerized PROQOL-HIV questionnaire and the scores from the paper or electronic versions share comparable accuracy and interpretation.
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J. Med. Internet Res. · Jan 2014
A case study of the New York City 2012-2013 influenza season with daily geocoded Twitter data from temporal and spatiotemporal perspectives.
Twitter has shown some usefulness in predicting influenza cases on a weekly basis in multiple countries and on different geographic scales. Recently, Broniatowski and colleagues suggested Twitter's relevance at the city-level for New York City. Here, we look to dive deeper into the case of New York City by analyzing daily Twitter data from temporal and spatiotemporal perspectives. Also, through manual coding of all tweets, we look to gain qualitative insights that can help direct future automated searches. ⋯ While others have looked at weekly regional tweets, this study is the first to stress test Twitter for daily city-level data for New York City. Extraction of personal testimonies of infection-related tweets suggests Twitter's strength both qualitatively and quantitatively for ILI-ED prediction compared to alternative daily datasets mixed with awareness-based data such as GSQ. Additionally, granular Twitter data provide important spatiotemporal insights. A tweet vector-map may be useful for visualization of city-level spread when local gold standard data are otherwise unavailable.