Background: Investing in mental well-being is considered a supplement to current mental health service delivery in which the treatment and prevention of mental disorders are core components. It may be possible for people to enhance their well-being by boosting their “mental fitness.” Objective: Psyfit, an online, multi-component, fully automated self-help intervention, was developed with the aim of improving well-being and reducing depressive symptoms. The efficacy and...

Background: Recent research using mobile phone interventions to address public health issues such as smoking, obesity, depression, and diabetes provides a basis for trialing a similar approach toward reducing the negative consequences of risky drinking. Objective: This feasibility study aims to recruit drinkers between 18–34 years to a website where they will design and enter their own personal messages (repeating or one-off) to be sent to their mobile phones when they are drinking to...

Background: The home and family environment is a highly influential psychosocial antecedent of pediatric obesity. Implementation of conventional family- and home-based childhood obesity interventions is challenging for parents, often requiring them to attend multiple educational sessions. Attrition rates for traditional interventions are frequently high due to competing demands for parents’ time. Under such constraints, an Internet-based intervention has the potential to modify...

The rapid rise in the use of collaborative writing applications (eg, wikis, Google Documents, and Google Knol) has created the need for a systematic synthesis of the evidence of their impact as knowledge translation (KT) tools in the health care sector and for an inventory of the factors that affect their use. While researchers have conducted systematic reviews on a range of software-based information and communication technologies as well as other social media (eg, virtual communities of...

Introduction: The science of information systems, management, and interpretation plays an important part in the continuity of care of patients. This is becoming more evident in the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. The high replication rates, selective pressure, and initial infection by resistant strains of HIV infer that drug resistance will inevitably become an important health...

Background: Schizophrenia is a high-cost, chronic, serious mental illness. There is a clear need to improve treatments and expand access to care for persons with schizophrenia, but simple, tailored interventions are missing. Objective: To evaluate the impact of tailored mobile telephone text messages to encourage adherence to medication and to follow up with people with psychosis at 12 months. Methods: Mobile.Net is a pragmatic randomized trial with inpatient psychiatric wards allocated to...

Background: Type 2 diabetes (diabetes) is a serious threat to public health in the United States and disproportionally affects many racial/ethnic minority groups, including African Americans. Limited access to treatment and high attrition rates further contribute to health disparities in diabetes-related morbidity and mortality among minorities. Greater opportunities for increasing access and decreasing barriers to treatment are needed. Technology-based interventions have potential for...

Background: Youths eat fewer fruits and vegetables than recommended. Effective methods are needed to increase and maintain their fruit and vegetable consumption. Goal setting has been an effective behavior change procedure among adults, but has had limited effectiveness among youths. Implementation intentions are specific plans to facilitate goal attainment. Redefining goal setting to include implementation intentions may be an effective way to increase effectiveness. Video games offer a...

Background: Public adherence to cancer screening guidelines is poor. Patient confusion over multiple recommendations and modalities for cancer screening has been found to be a major barrier to screening adherence. Such problems will only increase as screening guidelines and timetables become individualized. Objective: We propose to increase compliance with cancer screening through two-way rich media mobile messaging based on personalized risk assessment. Methods: We propose to develop and...

Emergency medicine departments within several organizations are now advocating the adoption of early intervention guidelines for patients with the signs and symptoms of sepsis. This proposed research will lead to a comprehensive understanding of how diverse emergency department (ED) sites across British Columbia (BC), Canada, engage in a quality improvement collaborative to lead to improvements in time-based process measures and clinical outcomes for septic patients in EDs. To address the...

Background: Young adults (aged 18 to 35) are a population group at high risk for weight gain, yet we know little about how to intervene in this group. Easy access to treatment and support with self-monitoring of their behaviors may be important. Smartphones are gaining in popularity with this population group and software applications (“apps”) used on these mobile devices are a novel technology that can be used to deliver brief health behavior change interventions directly to...

Background: Patients with cardiovascular risk factors can reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by increasing their physical activity and their physical fitness. According to the guidelines for cardiovascular risk management, health professionals should encourage their patients to engage in physical activity. Objective: In this paper, we provide insight regarding the systematic development of a Web-based intervention for both health professionals and patients with cardiovascular risk...

Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to be severely and disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome) epidemic in the United States. Effective antiretroviral therapy has altered the HIV epidemic from being an acute disease to a chronic, manageable condition for many people living with HIV. The pervasiveness, low cost, and convenience of Short Message Service (SMS) suggests its potential suitability for...

Background: Diabetes care in rural communities often suffers because of physician shortages. When patients need to see an endocrinologist, long-distance travel to urban centers can constitute a barrier to care. Objective: To address this problem, we tested whether diabetes telemedicine consultations would be acceptable to rural patients and their primary care providers as an alternative care model. Methods: Twenty-five patients with diabetes in a rural, medically underserved community...

Background: The high prevalence of asthma among children continues to be a major public health issue. In particular, low-income African-American and Hispanic children often receive asthma care in the emergency department and lack access to continuity of care. Objective: The aim of the current study was to test the feasibility of implementing a computerized program for empowering low-income children with asthma to manage their own disease. This pilot program consisted of a guided,...

Background: Current health care systems are not optimally designed to meet the needs of our aging populations. First, the fragmentation of care often results in discontinuity of care that can undermine the quality of care provided. Second, patient involvement in care decisions is not sufficiently facilitated. Objective: To describe the development and the content of a program aimed at: (1) facilitating self-management and shared decision making by frail older people and informal caregivers,...

Background: Computer-automated depression interventions rely heavily on users reading text to receive the intervention. However, text-delivered interventions place a burden on persons with depression and convey only verbal content. Objective: The primary aim of this project was to develop a computer-automated treatment for depression that is delivered via interactive media technology. By using branching video and audio, the program simulates the experience of being in therapy with a master...

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in males and the second in females throughout the developed world. Population screening using fecal occult blood tests (FOBTs) facilitates early detection and greater chance of survival, but participation rates are low. We developed a Web-based decision tool to provide information tailored to an individual’s decision stage for CRC screening and attitude toward screening utilizing the Preventive Health Model...

Background: Usability can influence patients’ acceptance and adoption of a health information technology. However, little research has been conducted to study the usability of a self-management health care system, especially one geared toward elderly patients. Objective: This usability study evaluated a new computer-based self-management system interface for older adults with chronic diseases, using a paper prototype approach. Methods: Fifty older adults with different chronic diseases...

Background: The Internet can provide a confidential and convenient medium for sexual health promotion for young people. Objective: This paper describes the development of an interactive, theory-based website (Sexunzipped) aimed at increasing safe sexual behavior of young people, as well as an outline of the evaluation protocol. Methods: The website focuses on safer sex, relationships, and sexual pleasure. An overview of the site is provided, including a description of the theoretical...

Background: Postpartum depression is a significant public health problem affecting approximately 13% of women. There is strong evidence supporting Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for successful psychosocial treatment. This treatment model combines cognitive and behavioral strategies to address pessimism, attributions for failure, low self-esteem, low engagement in pleasant activities, social withdrawal, anxiety, and low social support. Encouraging results have been reported for using...

Background: Depression is the most common mental health problem among adolescents. Despite policy guidance and governmental support to develop usable mental health services, there is still a lack of easily accessible and modern interventions available for adolescents in Finland’s majority official language. Objective: Our objective was to develop a user-friendly and feasible Internet-based support system for adolescents with depression. Methods: The Internet-based support system for...

Background: There are calls for low and middle income countries to develop robust health financing policies to increase service coverage. However, existing evidence around financing options is complex and often difficult for policy makers to access. Objective: To summarize the evidence on the impact of financing health systems and develop an e-tool to help decision makers navigate the findings. Methods: After reviewing the literature, we used thematic analysis to summarize the impact of 7...

Background: Physical function is essential for performing most aspects of daily life and musculoskeletal aging leads to a decline in physical function. The onset and rate of this process vary and are influenced by environmental, genetic, and hormonal factors. Although everyone eventually experiences musculoskeletal aging, it is beneficial to study the factors that influence the aging process in order to prevent disability. The role of occupational physical activity in the musculoskeletal...

Background: The delivery of optimal care depends on accurate communication between patients and clinicians regarding untoward symptoms. Documentation of patients’ symptoms necessitates reliance on memory, which is often imprecise. We developed an electronic diary (eDiary) for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer to record symptoms. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to describe the utility of an eDiary designed for AYAs with cancer, including dependability of the mobile...