OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of social media as an educational medium to effectively translate emerging research evidence into clinical practice.
METHODS: The study used a mixed-methods approach. Evidence-based practice points were delivered via social media platforms. The primary outcomes of attitude, knowledge, and behavior change were assessed using a preintervention/postintervention evaluation, with qualitative data gathered to contextualize the findings.
RESULTS: Data were obtained from 317 clinicians from multiple health disciplines, predominantly from the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, India, and Malaysia. The participants reported an overall improvement in attitudes toward social media for professional development (P
OBJECTIVE: The main objective was to examine the short- and long-term effects of SMS text messaging on exercise frequency in older adults. Secondary objectives were to investigate how SMS text messages impact study participants' exercise frequency and the effects of the intervention on secondary outcomes.
METHODS: The Malaysian Physical Activity for Health Study (myPAtHS) was a 24-week, 2-arm, parallel randomized controlled trial conducted in urban Malaysia. Participants were recruited via health talks in resident associations and religious facilities. Older Malaysians (aged 55-70 years) who used mobile phones and did not exercise regularly were eligible to participate in the study. Participants randomly allocated to the SMS texting arm received an exercise booklet and 5 weekly SMS text messages over 12 weeks. The content of the SMS text messages was derived from effective behavior change techniques. The non-SMS texting arm participants received only the exercise booklet. Home visits were conducted to collect outcome data: (1) exercise frequency at 12 and 24 weeks, (2) secondary outcome data (exercise self-efficacy, physical activity-related energy expenditure, sitting time, body mass index, grip and leg strength) at baseline and at 12 and 24 weeks. Intention-to-treat procedures were applied for data analysis. Semistructured interviews focusing primarily on the SMS text messages and their impact on exercise frequency were conducted at weeks 12 and 24.
RESULTS: In total, 43 participants were randomized into the SMS texting arm (n=22) and the non-SMS texting arm (n=21). Study-unrelated injuries forced 4 participants to discontinue after a few weeks (they were not included in any analyses). Overall retention was 86% (37/43). After 12 weeks, SMS texting arm participants exercised significantly more than non-SMS texting arm participants (mean difference 1.21 times, bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap [BCa] 95% CI 0.18-2.24). Interview analysis revealed that the SMS text messages positively influenced SMS texting arm participants who experienced exercise barriers. They described the SMS text messages as being encouraging, a push, and a reminder. After 24 weeks, there was no significant difference between the research arms (mean difference 0.74, BCa 95% CI -0.30 to 1.76). There were no significant effects for secondary outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that SMS text messaging is effective in promoting exercise in older adults from an upper-middle-income country. Although the effects were not maintained when SMS text messaging ceased, the results are promising and warrant more research on behavioral mobile health interventions in other regions.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02123342; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02123342 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6eGSsu2EI).
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a Web-based continuing professional development (CPD) program on "general intention" of the health carers to perform daily mouth cleaning for stroke patients using the theory of planned behavior (TPB).
METHODS: A double-blind cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted among 547 stroke care providers across 10 hospitals in Malaysia. The centers were block randomized to receive either (1) test intervention (a Web-based CPD program on providing oral hygiene care to stroke patients using TPB) or (2) control intervention (a Web-based CPD program not specific to oral hygiene). Domains of TPB: "attitude," "subjective norm" (SN), "perceived behavior control" (PBC), "general intention" (GI), and "knowledge" related to providing oral hygiene care were assessed preintervention and at 1 month and 6 months postintervention.
RESULTS: The overall response rate was 68.2% (373/547). At 1 month, between the test and control groups, there was a significant difference in changes in scores of attitude (P=.004) and subjective norm (P=.01), but not in other TPB domains (GI, P=.11; PBC, P=.51; or knowledge, P=.08). At 6 months, there were significant differences in changes in scores of GI (P=.003), attitude (P=.009), SN (P
OBJECTIVE: In an attempt to understand this relationship, this study aimed to carry out an investigation on online intervention features for effective management of Facebook addiction in higher education.
METHODS: This study was conducted quantitatively using surveys and partial least square-structural equational modeling. The study involved 200 postgraduates in a Facebook support group for postgraduates. The Bergen Facebook Addiction test was used to assess postgraduates' Facebook addiction level, whereas online intervention features were used to assess postgraduates' perceptions of online intervention features for Facebook addiction, which are as follows: (1) self-monitoring features, (2) manual control features, (3) notification features, (4) automatic control features, and (5) reward features.
RESULTS: The study discovered six Facebook addiction factors (relapse, conflict, salience, tolerance, withdrawal, and mood modification) and five intervention features (notification, auto-control, reward, manual control, and self-monitoring) that could be used in the management of Facebook addiction in postgraduate education. The study also revealed that relapse is the most important factor and mood modification is the least important factor. Furthermore, findings indicated that notification was the most important intervention feature, whereas self-monitoring was the least important feature.
CONCLUSIONS: The study's findings (addiction factors and intervention features) could assist future developers and educators in the development of online intervention tools for Facebook addiction management in postgraduate education.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to use data systematically extracted from multiple sources (ie, grant, publication, and patent databases) to investigate the development, research, and fund application of health-related CIs and associated stakeholders (ie, countries, organizations, and collaborators).
METHODS: A multifaceted search query was executed to retrieve records from 9 databases. Bibliometric analysis, social network analysis, and term co-occurrence analysis were conducted on the screened records.
RESULTS: This review included 42 funded projects, 428 research publications, and 162 patents. The total dollar amount of grants awarded was US $30,297,932, of which US $13,513,473 was awarded by US funding agencies and US $16,784,459 was funded by the Europe Commission. The top 3 funding agencies in the United States were the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Boston Medical Center was awarded the largest combined grant size (US $2,246,437) for 4 projects. The authors of the publications were from 58 countries and 566 organizations; the top 3 most productive organizations were Northeastern University (United States), Universiti Teknologi MARA (Malaysia), and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS; France). US researchers produced 114 publications. Although 82.0% (464/566) of the organizations engaged in interorganizational collaboration, 2 organizational research-collaboration clusters were observed with Northeastern University and CNRS as the central nodes. About 112 organizations from the United States and China filed 87.7% patents. IBM filed most patents (N=17). Only 5 patents were co-owned by different organizations, and there was no across-country collaboration on patenting activity. The terms patient, child, elderly, and robot were frequently discussed in the 3 record types. The terms related to mental and chronic issues were discussed mainly in grants and publications. The terms regarding multimodal interactions were widely mentioned as users' communication modes with CIs in the identified records.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provided an overview of the countries, organizations, and topic terms in funded projects, as well as the authorship, collaboration, content, and related information of research publications and patents. There is a lack of broad cross-sector partnerships among grant agencies, academia, and industry, particularly in the United States. Our results suggest a need to improve collaboration among public and private sectors and health care organizations in research and patent activities.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of a virtual reality condition on students' learning ability and physiological state.
METHODS: Students were shown 6 sets of videos (3 videos in a two-dimensional condition and 3 videos in a three-dimensional condition), and their learning ability was analyzed based on a subsequent questionnaire. In addition, we analyzed the reaction of the brain and facial muscles of the students during both the two-dimensional and three-dimensional viewing conditions and used fractal theory to investigate their attention to the videos.
RESULTS: The learning ability of students was increased in the three-dimensional condition compared to that in the two-dimensional condition. In addition, analysis of physiological signals showed that students paid more attention to the three-dimensional videos.
CONCLUSIONS: A virtual reality condition has a greater effect on enhancing the learning ability of students. The analytical approach of this study can be further extended to evaluate other physiological signals of subjects in a virtual reality condition.
OBJECTIVE: This scoping review aims to identify (1) strategies used to implement web-based apps for health screening, (2) frameworks used for implementing web-based apps for health screening, (3) outcome measures of implementation strategies, and (4) effective implementation strategies.
METHODS: This scoping review was conducted based on Arksey and O'Malley's framework. After identifying the review question, two researchers independently screened and selected relevant literature from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO, International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Registry, OpenGrey, ClinicalTrials.gov, World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, and Web of Science. This was followed by charting the data using a standardized form. Finally, we collated, summarized, and reported the results quantitatively and qualitatively based on the review objectives.
RESULTS: A total of 16,476 studies were retrieved, of which 5669 were duplicates. From a total of 10,807 studies, 10,784 studies were excluded based on their titles and abstracts. There were 23 full-text articles reviewed, and 4 articles were included in the final analysis. Many studies were excluded because they focused on the effectiveness and not on the implementation of web-based apps. Facilitation was the most cited implementation strategy used, followed by reminders, clinical champions, and educational meetings and materials. Only 2 studies used implementation frameworks to guide the evaluation of their studies. Common outcome measures for implementation strategies were feasibility, fidelity, and penetration. Implementation strategies reported to be effective were quality improvement meetings, facilitation, educational meetings, and clinical champions.
CONCLUSIONS: There is a dearth of literature on the implementation of web-based apps for health screening. Implementation strategies were developed without any reported use of implementation theories or frameworks in most studies. More research on the development and evaluation of web-based screening app implementations is needed.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to assess the psychobehavioral responses to the COVID-19 outbreak and examine their associations with mass and social media exposure.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study among medical and health sciences students from the Fujian Medical University in Fuzhou, China, was conducted between April 6-22, 2020.
RESULTS: A total of 2086 completed responses were received. Multivariable analyses demonstrated that four constructs of the Health Belief Model (HBM)-higher perception of susceptibility (odds ratio [OR] 1.44; 95% CI 1.07-1.94), severity (OR 1.32; 95% CI 1.10-1.59), self-efficacy (OR 1.61; 95% CI 1.21-2.15), and perceived control or intention to carry out prevention measures (OR 1.32; 95% CI 1.09-1.59)-were significantly associated with a higher mass media exposure score, whereas only three constructs-higher perception of severity (OR 1.43; 95% CI 1.19-1.72), self-efficacy (OR 1.85; 95% CI 1.38-2.48), and perceived control or intention to carry out prevention measures (OR 1.32; 95% CI 1.08-1.58)-were significantly associated with a higher social media exposure score. Lower emotional consequences and barriers to carry out prevention measures were also significantly associated with greater mass and social media exposure. Our findings on anxiety levels revealed that 38.1% (n=795; 95% CI 36.0-40.2) of respondents reported moderate-to-severe anxiety. A lower anxiety level was significantly associated with higher mass and social media exposure in the univariable analyses; however, the associations were not significant in the multivariable analyses.
CONCLUSIONS: In essence, both mass and social media are useful means of disseminating health messages and contribute to the betterment of psychobehavioral responses to COVID-19. Our findings stress the importance of the credibility of information shared through mass and social media outlets and viable strategies to counter misinformation during a pandemic.
OBJECTIVE: This scientometric investigation aims to examine collaborative research networks, dominant research themes and disciplines, and seminal research studies that have contributed most to the field of telemedicine. This information is vital for scientists, institutions, and policy stakeholders to evaluate research areas where more infrastructural or scholarly contributions are required.
METHODS: For analyses, we used CiteSpace (version 4.0 R5; Drexel University), which is a Java-based software that allows scientometric analysis, especially visualization of collaborative networks and research themes in a specific field.
RESULTS: We found that scholarly activity has experienced a significant increase in the last decade. Most important works were conducted by institutions located in high-income countries. A discipline-specific shift from radiology to telestroke, teledermatology, telepsychiatry, and primary care was observed. The most important innovations that yielded a collaborative influence were reported in the following medical disciplines, in descending order: public environmental and occupational health, psychiatry, pediatrics, health policy and services, nursing, rehabilitation, radiology, pharmacology, surgery, respiratory medicine, neurosciences, obstetrics, and geriatrics.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite a continuous rise in scholarly activity in telemedicine, we noticed several gaps in the literature. For instance, all the primary and secondary research central to telemedicine was conducted in the context of high-income countries, including the evidence synthesis approaches that pertained to implementation aspects of telemedicine. Furthermore, the research landscape and implementation of telemedicine infrastructure are expected to see exponential progress during and after the COVID-19 era.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate current telemedicine usage by urologists, urologists' perceptions on the necessity of in-person clinic appointments, the usability of telemedicine, and the current barriers to its implementation.
METHODS: We conducted a global, cross-sectional, web-based survey to investigate the use of telemedicine before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Urologists' perceived usability of telemedicine was assessed using a modified Delphi approach to create questions based on a modified version of the validated Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ). For the purposes of this study, telemedicine was defined as video calls only.
RESULTS: A total of 620 urologists from 58 different countries and 6 continents participated in the survey. Prior to COVID-19, 15.8% (n=98) of urologists surveyed were using telemedicine in their clinical practices; during the pandemic, that proportion increased to 46.1% (n=283). Of the urologists without telemedicine experience, interest in telemedicine usage increased from 43.7% (n=139) to 80.8% (n=257) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among urologists that used telemedicine during the pandemic, 80.9% (n=244) were interested in continuing to use it in their practice. The three most commonly used platforms were Zoom, Doxy.me, and Epic, and the top three barriers to implementing telemedicine were patients' lack of technological comprehension, patients' lack of access to the required technology, and reimbursement concerns.
CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to quantify the use, usability, and pervading interest in telemedicine among urologists during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of this pandemic, urologists' usage of telemedicine nearly tripled, demonstrating their ability to adopt and adapt telemedicine into their practices, but barriers involving the technology itself are still preventing many from utilizing it despite increasing interest.
OBJECTIVE: This study examines the sources of information for COVID-19 used by the Malaysian public and identifies those that are associated with building public confidence and positive perceptions toward the Malaysian government.
METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey of 4850 Malaysian residents was conducted. Participant demographics, media use, information sources, and attitudes surrounding COVID-19 were assessed. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to gauge the relationship between demographics, information sources, and attitudes toward COVID-19.
RESULTS: Malaysians primarily used television and internet news portals to access information on COVID-19. The Malaysian Ministry of Health was the most preferred source of COVID-19 information. Respondents who referred to the Ministry of Health, television, and the Malaysian National Security Council for information were more likely to believe that the country could win the battle against COVID-19 and that the government was handling the health crisis well compared to those who referred to other information sources. Those who used the World Health Organization, friends, YouTube, family, and radio as sources of information were less likely to harbor confidence and positive belief toward combating COVID-19.
CONCLUSIONS: Managing information and sustaining public confidence is important during a pandemic. Health authorities should pay considerable attention to the use of appropriate media channels and sources to allow for more effective dissemination of critical information to the public.