OBJECTIVE: This study aims to design and develop a smartphone app called OASapp to improve medication adherence among older adult stroke survivors and evaluate its usability.
METHODS: OASapp was developed in a three-phase development process. Phase 1 is the exploration phase (including a cross-sectional survey, a systematic review, a search for stroke apps on the app stores of Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and a nominal group technique). In phase 2, a prototype was designed based on the Health Belief Model and Technology Acceptance Model. In phase 3, Alpha and Beta testing was conducted to validate the app.
RESULTS: Twenty-five features for inclusion in the app were collected in round one, and 14 features remained and were ranked by the participants during nominal group technique. OASapp included five core components (medication management, risk factor management, health information, communication, and stroke map). Users of OASapp were satisfied based on reports from Alpha and Beta testing. The mean Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX) score was 71.4 points (SD 14.6 points).
CONCLUSION: OASapp was successfully developed using comprehensive, robust, and theory-based methods and was found to be highly accepted by users. Further research is needed to establish the clinical efficacy of the app so that it can be utilized to improve clinically relevant outcomes.
RESULTS: This study blended 5% and 10% palm stearin into palm oil to investigate the deep-frying performance and impact on food quality. Increasing the palm stearin content improved the frying oil's oxidative and hydrolytic stability, evidenced by reduction of total polar material, free fatty acid and total oxidation value. Addition of palm stearin increased the slip melting point which improved the oil's oxidative stability but no significant increase in oil content of instant noodles was observed. Scanning electron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy showed the formation of larger pores in the noodle structure that facilitated oil retention.
CONCLUSION: Blending palm stearin into frying oil enhanced the frying stability and minimally affected the oil uptake in instant noodles. This article presents the viability of blending palm stearin into frying oils to develop longer-lasting frying oils. © 2024 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.
METHODS: After translating the original English version into Chinese (GMAS-C) following the forward-backward translation and expert review procedure, we conducted a pilot study among 10 chronic disease patients. Each patient took about 10 min to complete the scale and was asked about the difficulty of understanding or filling the scale. Then a total of 312 patients aged 18 years or older with chronic illness were selected from the outpatient departments of two tertiary hospitals and a community center in Tianjin from April 2019 to May 2020 by convenience sampling. Cronbach's α coefficient, item-total correlation and test-retest reliability were used to evaluate the scale reliability; expert evaluation method was used to evaluate the content validity of the scale; and exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and known group validity were used to evaluate the construct validity of the scale.
RESULTS: As a result of the adaptation process, the GMAS-C's structure was determined. It included 3 dimensions and 11 items and was reliable and valid for Chinese patients with chronic diseases. Total Cronbach's α coefficient of the scale was 0.781 and test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.883 after two weeks. The item-level content validity indexes (CVIs) were ≥ 0.78 for all items. A Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and Bartlett' test of sphericity test indicated that the sample met the requirements of factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three factors with eigenvalue >1, and 60% of the total variance was explained by three-factor solution. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable fit indices (χ2/df = 1.58, IFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.94, CFI = 0.96 and RMSEA = 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: The GMAS-C demonstrates satisfactory reliability and validity. This scale can be a clinically useful tool to identify the levels of medication adherence and possible barriers for adherence of the medication regime in patients with chronic diseases.