MHealth

BACKGROUND: Adolescent obesity remains a significant public health issue within the United States. Mobile application technology growth and popularity offer new opportunities for research and health improvement. The development of a consolidated mobile health application (mHealth app) for adolescents on these platforms has the potential to improve health outcomes. Thus, this study describes the co-development process working with adolescent users. The aims are as follows: (I) to explore the visual design and functional requirements when developing the CommitFit mHealth app, (II) to uncover the gamification techniques that incentivize adolescents to set and achieve healthy lifestyle goals, and (III) to identify adolescent expectations when using the CommitFit mHealth application...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency (PHE) resulted in rapid expansion and use of telehealth services. Regulatory and reimbursement flexibilities were put in place to ensure patients had continued access to care while the health system was overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases. These changes have allowed clinicians to use and researchers to evaluate telehealth in new ways. METHODS: This narrative review focuses on highlighting telehealth research and evaluation that took place from March 2020 to February 2023 in the outpatient setting of the United States healthcare system...

BACKGROUND: Applying a digital health intervention to measure health and wellbeing status offers opportunities to guide and augment healthcare and promotion. In our scenario, we consider mainly digital-native patients and present an evaluation of a new Healthcare Magenta Scorecard towards this end. METHODS: Grounded in the six domains of health and promotion (physical activity; sleep quality; nutrition; habits/lifestyle; mental health; quality of life) we developed a health Magenta Scorecard (Magenta Score), a mobile based Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (e-PRO) that measures patients health and wellbeing every 3-5 months...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to affect sexual and gender minorities, predominantly men who have sex with men (MSM). Stigma, medical mistrust, and apprehension towards discussing sexual health with one's medical provider are significant barriers in seeking or accessing preventive services. Those obstacles could be surpassed through novel digital and electronic health interventions, specifically with virtual avatar technology. Avatars are digital self-representative agents that are controlled with an interactive electronic device...

BACKGROUND: Although the prevalence of smoking is significantly higher among sexual and gender minorities (SGM) than the general population, no text-based smoking cessation intervention has been specifically tailored to this group. The objective of this phase of our study was to develop SmokefreeSGM, an SGM-tailored text-based smoking cessation program, and pilot test its design to inform the refinement of the program. METHODS: SmokefreeSGM was adapted from SmokefreeTXT, the National Cancer Institute's text-based smoking cessation program, to respond to the needs of SGM smokers...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Among the unique challenges for parents in the transition of infant care from neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to home are the medical complexity of their babies and the psychological burden of caring for this special patient population. Despite the increased use and accessibility of smartphones, mobile applications (apps) intended for use by families during this transition remain underdeveloped and understudied. Apps to support parents of infants in the NICU represent an accessible potential solution to mitigate existing disparities in follow up...

BACKGROUND: Emerging research demonstrates telehealth disparities for patients who communicate in languages other than English. A better understanding of pediatric telehealth use with families who communicate in languages other than English is needed to inform interventions to promote telehealth equity. METHODS: We conducted a mixed methods study of telehealth care in a children's hospital health system using electronic health record data for outpatient video telehealth encounters from April 2020 to July 2021 and qualitative interviews with clinical staff and Spanish-speaking parents of telehealth patients...

BACKGROUND: The benefits of health apps can only be realized when consumers purchase them for use. Thus, it is important to understand what factors influence consumers' willingness to purchase health apps. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the influence of health app attributes and sociodemographic characteristics on consumers' willingness to purchase health apps, and how the value of the health app attributes varies for individuals with different sociodemographic characteristics...

Most individuals at risk for or already experiencing mental disorders have no access to mental health care. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) can be effective in preventing and treating mental disorders. A taxonomy of digital interventions was previously proposed to organize the different types of digital tools being developed to expand mental health service delivery. This article updates that framework and presents illustrations for four types of digital interventions specific to mental health and revises their definitions...

BACKGROUND: The rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Australia is a public health concern, contributing to significant disease burden and economic costs. Text-message programs have been shown to improve health outcomes for people with type 2 diabetes, however they remain underutilized, and no evidence exists on their cost-effectiveness or costs of scale up to a population level in Australia. This study aimed to determine the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of a 6-month text-message intervention (DTEXT) to improve glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and self-management behaviors for Australian adults with type 2 diabetes...

Healthcare in the 21st century has become more dependent on technologies than ever before). The cultural transformation called digital health has brought a range of advanced technologies into the practice of medicine and the delivery of healthcare. This has led to a rise of consumerism, an approach that would put the interests of the patients on top of those of healthcare or medical professionals in general. Companies that have traditionally been involved with developing medications, medical technologies and biotech inventions, have started to turn to developing digital health-related solutions and products...

BACKGROUND: Due to decreased access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and an increase in depressive symptoms, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated the risk of unsafe sexual behaviors among already vulnerable young adults assigned female at birth (AFAB). Despite its potential for improving SRH outcomes, little is known about how young adults view virtual SRH counseling. We designed a survey to examine these perspectives and further characterize pandemic-associated changes in mood and healthcare access in young adults AFAB...

BACKGROUND: Rapid weight gain and overweight in infancy are associated with childhood obesity. Thus, effective, accessible interventions to promote healthy infant feeding practices to prevent early obesity are essential. METHODS: This mixed-methods study involved diverse parents of infants in an urban, low-income pediatric clinic. Qualitative interviews explored parental attitudes towards feeding, early obesity, and communication with the pediatrician. A pilot, randomized controlled trial (RCT) informed by feedback provided by clinic parents compared text messages delivered for 12 months promoting healthy feeding practices to usual care to prevent early pediatric obesity...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Excessive gestational weight gain is associated with negative maternal and infant health outcomes. Digital health approaches may help overcome barriers to participating in lifestyle interventions requiring in-person visits. The purpose of this study was to develop and examine the feasibility of a web-based gestational weight gain intervention. METHODS: Intervention development included feedback and input from pregnant women. We conducted a 12-week one-arm pilot study during which participants engaged in an online discussion board with coaches and other pregnant women, tracked their weight gain with an interactive graph, and accessed a list of online resources for pregnancy health...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.21037/mhealth-22-41.].

The development of mobile telephones has made it possible to design blood pressure (BP) monitors with data transmission via cellular lines, contributing to the emergence of "e-health". Today, the direct-to-consumer marketing of devices create a new context allowing an algorithmic processing of information for remote decision-making either by the patient or by a healthcare professional. The home BP telemonitoring (HBPT) is the remote transmission of BP values, measured at home and transmitted to the doctor's office or hospital, by means of telehealth strategies...

BACKGROUND: People with spinal cord injuries (SCI) are physically inactive. Smartphone applications (or apps) may prove as one strategy to overcome this. This study examines the theoretical underpinning of a novel mHealth intervention that aims to improve physical activity in people with SCI, namely, the Accessercise smartphone app, using the behaviour change wheel (BCW). METHODS: Accessercise was evaluated using the BCW in eight steps across the following three stages: (I) understanding the behaviour, (II) identifying intervention options, and (III) identifying content and implementation options...

BACKGROUND: Women are interested in and need to receive more information about pelvic floor muscles (PFMs), its functions, and dysfunctions. The aim of this study is to develop and validate a multimedia application (app) aimed to enhance health education on PFM among pregnant and postpartum women in Brazil. METHODS: This is a descriptive, transversal study in the modality of technological production, consisting of three stages, namely, bibliographic review, development of the multimedia app prototype, and validation of the multimedia app by specialists in the fields of health and technology as well as pregnant and postpartum women...