Browsing by Subject "mHealth"
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Item A Pilot Study of a Mobile Intervention to Support Mental Health and Adherence Among Adolescents Living with HIV in Western Kenya(Springer, 2022) Chory, Ashley; Callen, Grant; Nyandiko, Winstone; Njoroge, Tabitha; Ashimosi, Celestine; Aluoch, Josephine; Scanlon, Michael; McAteer, Carole; Apondi, Edith; Vreeman, Rachel; Graduate Medical Education, School of MedicineMobile technologies represent potentially novel and scalable intervention delivery platforms for adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) in low- and middle-income countries. We conducted a prospective, mixed methods pilot study to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of the WhatsApp® platform to deliver individual counseling services and facilitate peer support for ALWH in western Kenya. Thirty ALWH (17 female, mean age 15.4) on ART, engaged in HIV care and aware of their status, were enrolled. After 6 months, participants described their experiences with the intervention. Treatment adherence, stigma, and mental and behavioral health were assessed prospectively. Participants reported overall positive experiences and indicated that the platform encouraged peer network development. They endorsed potential benefits for treatment adherence, stigma reduction, and mental and behavioral health. All participants supported intervention expansion. In western Kenya, WhatsApp® was an acceptable and feasible platform for mobile counseling and peer support for ALWH.Item Acceptability of an mHealth App for Youth With Substance Use and Mental Health Needs: Iterative, Mixed Methods Design(JMIR Publications, 2021-12-24) Adams, Zachary; Grant, Miyah; Hupp, Samantha; Scott, Taylor; Feagans, Amanda; Phillips, Meredith Lois; Bixler, Kristina; Nallam, Phani Teja; La Putt, Dorothy; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBackground: Treating substance use disorders (SUDs) during adolescence can prevent adult addiction and improve youth outcomes. However, it can be challenging to keep adolescents with SUDs engaged in ongoing services, thus limiting potential benefits. Developmentally appropriate tools are needed to improve treatment engagement during and between sessions for youth with SUDs and mental health disorders. Mobile health apps may augment or replace psychotherapy components; however, few have been developed specifically for youth with SUDs following user-guided design principles, which may limit their appropriateness and utility. Formative research on acceptability to intended end users is needed before the efficacy of such tools can be examined. Objective: This study involves user-centered, iterative development and initial user testing of a web-based app for adolescents with SUDs and mental health concerns. Methods: Adolescents aged 14 to 17 years with past-year involvement in outpatient psychotherapy and behavioral health clinicians with adolescent SUD treatment caseloads were recruited. Across 2 assessment phases, 40 participants (alpha: 10 youths and 10 clinicians; beta: 10 youths and 10 clinicians) viewed an app demonstration and completed semistructured interviews and questionnaires about app content and functionality. Results: Participants expressed positive impressions of the app and its potential utility in augmenting outpatient therapy for youth with SUDs and mental health concerns. Noted strengths included valuable educational content, useful embedded resources, and a variety of activities. Adolescents and clinicians favored the app over conventional (paper-and-pencil) modalities, citing convenience and familiarity. The app was found to be user-friendly and likely to improve treatment engagement. Adolescents suggested the inclusion of privacy settings, and clinicians recommended more detailed instructions and simplified language. Conclusions: The novel app developed here appears to be a promising, acceptable, and highly scalable resource to support adolescents with SUDs and mental health concerns. Future studies should test the efficacy of such apps in enhancing adolescent behavioral health treatment engagement and outcomes.Item An mHealth App to Support Caregivers in the Medical Management of Their Child With Cancer: Beta Stage Usability Study(JMIR, 2024-10-17) Mueller, Emily L.; Cochrane, Anneli R.; Campbell, Madison E.; Nikkhah, Sarah; Holden, Richard J.; Miller, Andrew D.; Pediatrics, School of MedicineBackground: Previous research demonstrated that caregivers of children with cancer desired a mobile health (mHealth) tool to aid them in the medical management of their child. Prototyping and alpha testing of the Cope 360 app (Commissioning Agents, Inc) resulted in improvements in the ability to track symptoms, manage medications, and prepare for urgent medical needs. Objective: This study aims to engage caregivers of children with cancer in beta testing of a smartphone app for the medical management of children with cancer, assess acceptance, identify caregivers' perceptions and areas for improvement, and validate the app's design concepts and use cases. Methods: In this pilot, study caregivers of children with cancer used the Cope 360 mHealth app for 1 week, with the goal of daily logging. Demographics and a technology acceptance survey were obtained from each participant. Recorded semistructured interviews were transcribed and analyzed iteratively using NVivo (version 12, QSR International) and analyzed for information on usage, perceptions, and suggestions for improvement. Results: A total of 10 caregivers participated in beta testing, primarily women (n=8, 80%), married, with some college education, and non-Hispanic White (n=10, 100%). The majority of participants (n=7, 70%) had children with acute lymphocytic leukemia who were being treated with chemotherapy only (n=8, 80%). Overall, participants had a favorable opinion of Cope 360. Almost all participants (n=9, 90%) believed that using the app would improve their ability to manage their child's medical needs at home. All participants reported that Cope 360 was easy to use, and most would use the app if given the opportunity (n=8, 80%). These values indicate that the app had a high perceived ease of use with well-perceived usefulness and behavioral intention to use. Key topics for improvement were identified including items that were within the scope of change and others that were added to a future wish list. Changes that were made based on caregiver feedback included tracking or editing all oral and subcutaneous medications and the ability to change the time of a symptom tracked or medication administered if unable to do so immediately. Wish list items included adding a notes section, monitoring skin changes, weight and nutrition tracking, and mental health tracking. Conclusions: The Cope 360 app was well received by caregivers of children with cancer. Our validation testing suggests that the Cope 360 app is ready for testing in a randomized controlled trial to assess outcome improvements.Item Categorizing Health Outcomes and Efficacy of mHealth Apps for Persons With Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review(JMIR, 2017-08-20) Bateman, Daniel R; Srinivas, Bhavana; Emmett, Thomas W; Schleyer, Titus K; Holden, Richard J; Hendrie, Hugh C; Callahan, Christopher M; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBackground Use of mobile health (mHealth) apps is growing at an exponential rate in the United States and around the world. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer disease, and related dementias are a global health problem. Numerous mHealth interventions exist for this population, yet the effect of these interventions on health has not been systematically described. Objective The aim of this study is to catalog the types of health outcomes used to measure effectiveness of mHealth interventions and assess which mHealth interventions have been shown to improve the health of persons with MCI, Alzheimer disease, and dementia. Methods We searched 13 databases, including Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, the full Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Ei Compendex, IEEE Xplore, Applied Science & Technology Source, Scopus, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google Scholar from inception through May 2017 for mHealth studies involving persons with cognitive impairment that were evaluated using at least one quantitative health outcome. Proceedings of the Annual ACM Conferences on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium, and the IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers were searched in the ACM Digital Library from 2012 to 2016. A hand search of JMIR Publications journals was also completed in July 2017. Results After removal of duplicates, our initial search returned 3955 records. Of these articles, 24 met final inclusion criteria as studies involving mHealth interventions that measured at least one quantitative health outcome for persons with MCI, Alzheimer disease, and dementia. Common quantitative health outcomes included cognition, function, mood, and quality of life. We found that 21.2% (101/476) of the fully reviewed articles were excluded because of a lack of health outcomes. The health outcomes selected were observed to be inconsistent between studies. For those studies with quantitative health outcomes, more than half (58%) reported postintervention improvements in outcomes. Conclusions Results showed that many mHealth app interventions targeting those with cognitive impairment lack quantitative health outcomes as a part of their evaluation process and that there is a lack of consensus as to which outcomes to use. The majority of mHealth app interventions that incorporated health outcomes into their evaluation noted improvements in the health of persons with MCI, Alzheimer disease, and dementia. However, these studies were of low quality, leading to a grade C level of evidence. Clarification of the benefits of mHealth interventions for people with cognitive impairment requires more randomized controlled trials, larger numbers of participants, and trial designs that minimize bias. Trial Registration PROSPERO Registration: PROSPERO 2016:CRD42016033846; http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ display_record.asp?ID=CRD42016033846 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6sjjwnv1M)Item Classification and Prediction of Post-Trauma Outcomes Related to PTSD Using Circadian Rhythm Changes Measured via Wrist-Worn Research Watch in a Large Longitudinal Cohort(IEEE, 2021) Cakmak, Ayse S.; Perez Alday, Erick A.; Da Poian, Giulia; Rad, Ali Bahrami; Metzler, Thomas J.; Neylan, Thomas C.; House, Stacey L.; Beaudoin, Francesca L.; An, Xinming; Stevens, Jennifer S.; Zeng, Donglin; Linnstaedt, Sarah D.; Jovanovic, Tanja; Germine, Laura T.; Bollen, Kenneth A.; Rauch, Scott L.; Lewandowski, Christopher A.; Hendry, Phyllis L.; Sheikh, Sophia; Storrow, Alan B.; Musey, Paul I., Jr.; Haran, John P.; Jones, Christopher W.; Punches, Brittany E.; Swor, Robert A.; Gentile, Nina T.; McGrath, Meghan E.; Seamon, Mark J.; Mohiuddin, Kamran; Chang, Anna M.; Pearson, Claire; Domeier, Robert M.; Bruce, Steven E.; O’Neil, Brian J.; Rathlev, Niels K.; Sanchez, Leon D.; Pietrzak, Robert H.; Joormann, Jutta; Barch, Deanna M.; Pizzagalli, Diego A.; Harte, Steven E.; Elliott, James M.; Kessler, Ronald C.; Koenen, Karestan C.; Ressler, Kerry J.; Mclean, Samuel A.; Li, Qiao; Clifford, Gari D.; Emergency Medicine, School of MedicinePost-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition resulting from threatening or horrifying events. We hypothesized that circadian rhythm changes, measured by a wrist-worn research watch are predictive of post-trauma outcomes. Approach: 1618 post-trauma patients were enrolled after admission to emergency departments (ED). Three standardized questionnaires were administered at week eight to measure post-trauma outcomes related to PTSD, sleep disturbance, and pain interference with daily life. Pulse activity and movement data were captured from a research watch for eight weeks. Standard and novel movement and cardiovascular metrics that reflect circadian rhythms were derived using this data. These features were used to train different classifiers to predict the three outcomes derived from week-eight surveys. Clinical surveys administered at ED were also used as features in the baseline models. Results: The highest cross-validated performance of research watch-based features was achieved for classifying participants with pain interference by a logistic regression model, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.70. The ED survey-based model achieved an AUC of 0.77, and the fusion of research watch and ED survey metrics improved the AUC to 0.79. Significance: This work represents the first attempt to predict and classify post-trauma symptoms from passive wearable data using machine learning approaches that leverage the circadian desynchrony in a potential PTSD population.Item Consumer Health Informatics: Empowering Healthy-Lifestyle-Seekers Through mHealth(Elsevier, 2016) Faiola, Anthony; Holden, Richard J.; Department of Biohealth Informatics, School of Informatics and ComputingPeople are at risk from noncommunicable diseases (NCD) and poor health habits, with interventions like medications and surgery carrying further risk of adverse effects. This paper addresses ways people are increasingly moving to healthy living medicine (HLM) to mitigate such health threats. HLM-seekers increasingly leverage mobile technologies that enable control of personal health information, collaboration with clinicians/other agents to establish healthy living practices. For example, outcomes from consumer health informatics research include empowering users to take charge of their health through active participation in decision-making about healthcare delivery. Because the success of health technology depends on its alignment/integration with a person's sociotechnical system, we introduce SEIPS 2.0 as a useful conceptual model and analytic tool. SEIPS 2.0 approaches human work (i.e., life's effortful activities) within the complexity of the design and implementation of mHealth technologies and their potential to emerge as consumer-facing NLM products that support NCDs like diabetes.Item Consumer Perspectives on Maternal and Infant Health Apps: Qualitative Content Analysis(JMIR Publications, 2021-09) Biviji, Rizwana; Williams, Karmen S.; Vest, Joshua R.; Dixon, Brian E.; Cullen, Theresa; Harle, Christopher A.; Health Policy and Management, School of Public HealthBackground: Despite the popularity of maternal and infant health mobile apps, ongoing consumer engagement and sustained app use remain barriers. Few studies have examined user experiences or perceived benefits of maternal and infant health app use from consumer perspectives. Objective: This study aims to assess users' self-reported experiences with maternal and infant health apps, perceived benefits, and general feedback by analyzing publicly available user reviews on two popular app stores-Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Methods: We conducted a qualitative assessment of publicly available user reviews (N=2422) sampled from 75 maternal and infant health apps designed to provide health education or decision-making support to pregnant women or parents and caregivers of infants. The reviews were coded and analyzed using a general inductive qualitative content analysis approach. Results: The three major themes included the following: app functionality, where users discussed app features and functions; technical aspects, where users talked about technology-based aspects of an app; and app content, where users specifically focused on the app content and the information it provides. The six minor themes included the following: patterns of use, where users highlighted the frequency and type of use; social support, where users talked about receiving social support from friends, family and community of other users; app cost, where users talked about the cost of an app within the context of being cost-effective or a potential waste of money; app comparisons, where users compared one app with others available in app stores; assistance in health care, where users specifically highlighted the role of an app in offering clinical assistance; and customer care support, where users specifically talked about their interaction with the app customer care support team. Conclusions: Users generally tend to value apps that are of low cost and preferably free, with high-quality content, superior features, enhanced technical aspects, and user-friendly interfaces. Users also find app developer responsiveness to be integral, as it offers them an opportunity to engage in the app development and delivery process. These findings may be beneficial for app developers in designing better apps, as no best practice guidelines currently exist for the app environment.Item Creating the Map of Interactive Services Aiding and Assisting Persons With Disabilities (MSAADA) Project: Tutorial for the Novel Use of a Store Locator App(JMIR, 2022-12-08) Etling, Mary Ann; Musili, Michael; Eastes, Kaytlin; Oyungu, Eren; McHenry, Megan S.; Pediatrics, School of MedicineBackground: An estimated 15% of the global population is living with a disability. In Kenya, children with disabilities remain among the most vulnerable populations, experiencing substantial barriers to wellness and inclusion. Smartphone ownership and internet access have been increasing across sub-Saharan Africa, including in Kenya. Despite these advances, online or mobile resources remain limited and difficult to find and navigate. Objective: This paper aims to describe the novel use of a store locator app to develop an interactive map of organizations that provide medical, educational, and socioeconomic resources to individuals with disabilities in Kenya. The target audience is individuals with disabilities, medical professionals, and organization leaders. Methods: A comprehensive list of organizations, government county offices, educational assessment and resource centers, and institutions was compiled. Organizations were contacted via email, WhatsApp, or in person for semistructured interviews. Based on the services offered, each organization was assigned categorical search tags. The data were entered into a third-party store locator app. The resulting map was inserted into a page on the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) website. Results: The Map of Interactive Services Aiding and Assisting Persons With Disabilities (MSAADA; this abbreviation is also Swahili for "help") was launched in July 2020 in both English and Swahili. The map included 89 organizations across Kenya. Of these, 51 were reached for an interview (for a 57% response rate). Interviewees cited limited paid staff and dependence on grant-based funding as primary challenges to growth and sustainability. Conclusions: MSAADA is an interactive, virtual map that aims to connect individuals with disabilities, medical professionals, and organization leaders to resources in Kenya. The novel use of a store locator app to compile resources in remote settings has the potential to improve access to health care for a wide variety of specialties and patient populations. Innovators in global health should consider the use of store locator apps to connect individuals to resources in regions with limited mapping.Item Design and development of an integrated mHealth platform to improve kangaroo mother care in Kenya(APHA 2021 Annual Meeting and Expo, 2021-10) Padmanaban, Priya Geetha; Joshi, Siddhi Hareshkumar; Purkayastha, Saptarshi; Ekhaguere, Osayame; Linnes, Jacqueline C.; Esamai, Fabian; Bucher, SherriBackground and Significance: There are 15 million preterm births a year. Premature babies suffer the highest rates of newborn mortality, occurring primarily in low/middle-income countries (LMICs). Neonatal hypothermia (low body temperature) is a life-threatening complication, which is prevented by Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), but in Kenya, a profound shortage of health workers and lack of resources are barriers to KMC. Our international team has developed an integrated platform (educational and data collection apps + biomedical device) to improve the implementation of KMC in health facilities. Methods: From August 2020 – February 2021, a multi-disciplinary team from the United States and Kenya utilized agile development (weekly scrum meetings) and human-and user-centered design techniques to develop high-fidelity wireframes (Figma) of Android apps which are designed to integrate with a patented self-warming biomedical device (US10390630B2; NG/PT/IC/2016/053394) that utilizes wireless sensors to track KMC babies, continuously monitor infant vital signs, and display physiological data on mobile phones/tablets. Results: High-fidelity wireframes have been developed for two user interfaces of an integrated app, NeoRoo. The NeoRoo-Family app is for KMC parents; the NeoRoo-HealthWorker app is built for nurses and doctors. NeoRoo-Family provides parental caregivers with: (a) automated monitoring of key vital signs for their baby; (c) ability to alert a clinician as needed; (c) tracking of KMC metrics and goals, such as number of hours of skin-toskin care completed in a week; and (d) educational resources for evidence-based newborn care. The NeoRoo- HealthWorker app interface enables clinicians to: (a) simultaneously track breathing, heart rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation for multiple KMC infants in real-time; (b) review each infant’s past clinical history and vital signs trends; (c) receive automated and parent-generated alerts; (d) support harmonized dissemination of key educational messages to families. Conclusions: By providing education, continuous thermal support, and integrated, automated vital signs monitoring for premature babies, via the NeoRoo mHealth platform, we hope to better equip parents and health workers in Kenya to: (1) prevent hypothermia; (2) automatically monitor vital signs in newborns; (3) track key KMC metrics; (4) promote more effective task-sharing among KMC teams. On-going work includes participatory design interviews and a usability assessment.Item Development of an Innovative Mobile Phone-Based Newborn Care Training Application(Springer, 2019) Bucher, Sherri; Meyers, Elizabeth; Kshatriya, Bhavani Singh Agnikula; Avanigadda, Prem Chand; Purkayastha, Saptarshi; BioHealth Informatics, School of Informatics and ComputingMobile infrastructure in low - and middle-income countries (LMIC) has shown immense potential to reach the unreachable. Healthcare providers (HCP) are one such group who are at the frontline of the fight against infant mortality in LMICs. Mortality among newborn infants (birth to 28 days) now accounts for around 45% of all under 5-years child mortality. Birth asphyxia is one of the three leading causes of newborn death; neonatal resuscitation training, among health care providers, reduces mortality from birth asphyxia. We have developed a mobile phone-based training app, called mobile Helping Babies Survive (mHBS), to support the training of health care providers on neonatal resuscitation. mHBS is integrated with the District Health Information System (DHIS2) platform, which is used in over 60 countries around the world. The mHBS/DHIS2 training app is a part of an application suite which includes another DHIS2-linked data collection app, mHBS tracker. The mHBS training application has the potential to scale-up integration with other neonatal training apps. Ultimately, the mHBS training suite will provide new insights into healthcare worker education along with the necessary tools for effective care of newborn babies.