Personal Health Care Research Articles

A collaboration between first- and second-line healthcare for persons with a disability in Flanders to strengthen quality of care, continuity of care and affordability of care.

The introduction of personal financing within the disability sector, in Flanders, in 2017, created the opportunity to enter into broader collaborations with other professional services. This allows us to strengthen the quality of care and support for people with disabilities. We therefore started a collaboration between first and second line healthcare. This collaboration is based on 3 major pillars, quality of care, continuity of care and affordability of care. With the introduction of personal financing in the disability sector, care focusses more on the person with a disability. The adult person is allocated a budget based on his need for support and can buy care and support with it. These can be purchased more widely than only from the healthcare providers licensed by the VAPH (Flemish Agency for Persons with Disabilities). When we look at quality of care, we use the expertise of both partners. The licensed care provider mainly directs the disability-specific part whereas support in the daily ADL activities comes from home care. Both partners always coordinate with each other and the first focus is always on the person with a disability, which takes a central role. Drawing up individual support plans, linked to objectives, is one of the tasks of the licensed healthcare provider. Home care provides value in carrying out this objective together with the person with a disability. In a concrete example: the residential supporter indicates that the resident is learning to handle money, the home care supporter takes this into account during the purchases at the bakery together with the client and gives feedback to the residential supporter about the experience. We strengthen the quality of care by combining the expertise of both parties and create more time to work at the person's pace. In doing so, we focus on talent, rather than starting from the disability.Two components are important for the continuity of care: the effective presence, but also the fixed character of the employees who are present. People with disabilities are more sensitive to change than other target groups. That is why focusing on continuity, both in time and in person, is important in this partnership. The home care selects a group of employees to commit as a team. The residents therefore can always rely on the same people for support at home: the number of faces remains limited and a bond of trust is created. To ensure continuity in time, the team members replace each other when needed, so the support is continuous. With home care we enter the (replacing) home situation and we focus the tasks on supporting the person. As a result, we can also invoice the person according to the regulations within home care. We only have to calculate the customer contribution and that makes it affordable. We work in 1-on-1 situations, but we also support in groups. In the latter case, the costs are shared by all persons who use the support. Through this partnership, we create a more high-quality, affordable care for people with disabilities.

Core-Sheath Heterogeneous Interlocked Conductive Fiber Enables Smart Textile for Personalized Healthcare and Thermal Management.

Whereas thermal comfort and healthcare management during long-term wear are essentially required for wearable system, simultaneously achieving them remains challenge. Herein, a highly comfortable and breathable smart textile for personal healthcare and thermal management is developed, via assembling stimuli-responsive core-sheath dual network that silver nanowires(AgNWs) core interlocked graphene sheath induced by MXene. Small MXene nanosheets with abundant groups is proposed as a novel "dispersant" to graphene according to "like dissolves like" theory, while simultaneously acting as "cross-linker" between AgNWs and graphene networks by filling the voids between them. The core-sheath heterogeneous interlocked conductive fiber induced by MXene "cross-linking" exhibits a reliable response to various mechanical/electrical/light stimuli, even under large mechanical deformations(100%). The core-sheath conductive fiber-enabled smart textile can adapt to movements of human body seamlessly, and convert these mechanical deformations into character signals for accurate healthcare monitoring with rapid response(440ms). Moreover, smart textile with excellent Joule heating and photothermal effect exhibits instant thermal energy harvesting/storage during the stimuli-response process, which can be developed as self-powered thermal management and dynamic camouflage when integrated with phase change and thermochromic layer. The smart fibers/textiles with core-sheath heterogeneous interlocked structures hold great promise in personalized healthcare and thermal management.

Viral Hemorrhagic Fever

Most viruses implicated in these diseases require vectors for transmission to humans, most are transmitted by arthropods or rodent-borne infections, and due to the zoonotic nature of these diseases, these diseases are generally confined to endemic areas where their hosts live. Symptoms of the hemorrhagic fever virus include fatigue, aches, cough, fever, shortness of breath, and eye redness. Given that viral genome detection is the best tool for diagnosis, however, blood sampling requires personal medical training and involves important risks for the patient as well as for personal healthcare. Sampling may therefore be by non-invasive methods (eg, saliva or urine), as well as multiplex PCR, lateral flow assays, and non-invasive sampling, including saliva and urine. It was found that there are many immune indicators related to the hemorrhagic fever virus, including protein C and D-dimer, which were found to increase when infected with hemorrhagic fever. As for inflammatory cytokines, they were found to play an important role in causing infection with the hemorrhagic fever virus, including interleukin 6, interferon gamma, as well as About tumor necrosis factor.

The Necessity of Interoperability to Uncover the Full Potential of Digital Health Devices.

Personalized health care can be optimized by including patient-reported outcomes. Standardized and disease-specific questionnaires have been developed and are routinely used. These patient-reported outcome questionnaires can be simple paper forms given to the patient to fill out with a pen or embedded in digital devices. Regardless of the format used, they provide a snapshot of the patient's feelings and indicate when therapies need to be adjusted. The advantage of digitizing these questionnaires is that they can be automatically analyzed, and patients can be monitored independently of doctor visits. Although the questions of most clinical patient-reported outcome questionnaires follow defined standards and are evaluated by clinical trials, these standards do not exist for data processing. Interoperable data formats and structures would benefit multilingual and cross-study data exchange. Linking questionnaires to standardized terminologies such as the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) and Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes (LOINC) would improve this interoperability. However, linking clinically validated patient-reported outcome questionnaires to clinical terms available in SNOMED CT or LOINC is not as straightforward as it sounds. Here, we report our approach to link patient-reported outcomes from health applications to SNOMED CT or LOINC codes. We highlight current difficulties in this process and outline ways to minimize them.

Detection and Diagnostic Accuracy of Cardiac Arrhythmias Using Wearable Health Devices: A Systematic Review.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is the wearable devices' most widely used technology for monitoring heart rate. The systematic review used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) standards and guidelines. This systematic review seeks to establish the effects of wearable health devices on cardiac arrhythmias concerningtheir impacton the personalization of cardiac management, their refining effect on stroke prevention strategies, and their influence on research and preventive care of cardiac arrhythmiasand their re-evaluation of the patient-physician relationship. The population, exposure, control, outcomes, and studies (PECOS) criteria were used in the systematic review. This review considered studies that covered the tests conducted on individuals who presented with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and also healthy people. The intervention for studies included wearable health devices that could detect and diagnose cardiac arrhythmias. The study considered articles that reported on the personalization of cardiac management, stroke prevention strategies, influence in research and preventive care of cardiac arrhythmias, and the re-evaluation of the patient-physician relationship. Two independent researchers were used in the extraction of the data. In case of dispute, the issue was resolved using a third party. The study's quality analysis was conducted using AXIS. The management of atrial fibrillation (AF) lies heavily in the prevention of stroke. The accuracy being reported in the prediction of arrhythmias and the monitoring of heart rates makes wearable devices an efficient means to personalize health care. Personalization of health and treatment in preventing and managing arrhythmias becomes possible due to the portability of smart wearable devices. However, limitations may be observed due to the high costs incurred in their purchase and use. Using smart wearable devices for the detection of cardiac arrhythmias was very significant.

Opportunities to Increase Science of Diversity and Inclusion in Clinical Trials: Equity and a Lack of a Control.

The United States witnessed a nearly 4-fold increase in personal health care expenditures between 1980 and 2010. Despite innovations and obvious benefits to health, participants enrolled in clinical trials still do not accurately represent the racial and ethnic composition of patients nationally or globally. This lack of diversity in cohorts limits the generalizability and significance of results among all populations and has deep repercussions for patient equity. To advance diversity in clinical trials, robust evidence for the most effective strategies for recruitment of diverse participants is needed. A major limitation of previous literature on clinical trial diversity is the lack of control or comparator groups for different strategies. To date, interventions have focused primarily on (1) community-based interventions, (2) institutional practices, and (3) digital health systems. This review article outlines prior intervention strategies across these 3 categories and considers health policy and ethical incentives for substantiation before US Food and Drug Administration approval. There are no current studies that comprehensively compare these interventions against one another. The American Heart Association Strategically Focused Research Network on the Science of Diversity in Clinical Trials represents a multicenter, collaborative network between Stanford School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine created to understand the barriers to diversity in clinical trials by contemporaneous head-to-head interventional strategies accessing digital, institutional, and community-based recruitment strategies to produce informed recruitment strategies targeted to improve underrepresented patient representation in clinical trials.

Stretchable, ultrasensitive strain sensor with high-linearity by constructing crack-based dual conductive network

An increasing attention has been paid to crack-based strain sensors due to their ultrahigh sensitivity. However, two main challenges with such sensors still need to be addressed. Firstly, most crack-based sensors face a trade-off between sensitivity and detection range. Secondly, the problem of low linearity occurs widely among crack-based sensors. This paper presents a simple and efficient method to obtain a multidimensional (1D/2D) crack-based stretchable sensor with dual conductive (electronic/ ionic) network. The process involves creating a hybrid conductive film consisting of Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets (MXene) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) via vacuum-assisted filtration, and developing a flexible substrate with ionic conductivity through convenient UV-initiated curing. The prepared sensor exhibited a broad range of workable strain (0–389 %), high sensitivity (GF = 216.8), rapid response/ recovery (165 ms/ 86 ms) and exceptional durability. Most notably, this strain sensor demonstrates strong linearity (R2 = 0.983) with the synergistic effect of the dual conductive network and cracked hybrid film, an advantage over other crack-based sensors. Therefore, our novel dual-conductive strain sensors, with its superior comprehensive performance, can effectively monitor various large and subtle human movements, including joint bending, pulse, and speech recognition. It is credible that this highly stretchable sensor possesses tremendous potential in human motion monitoring, personal healthcare monitoring, and human–computer interaction.

NiTiO3/Bi2O3/MoS2 double Z-type heterojunction catalysts realize dual-function applications of photocatalytic fuel cells and lactic acid sensing

Sensors in intelligent monitoring and personal healthcare generally face power supply problems, such as cycle charging, regular maintenance, and battery replacement, which greatly limit the applications of sensing devices. Self-powered sensing system with a visible-light-driven photo-fuel cell (PFC) exhibits the advantage of not requiring any external power source for the chemical sensing of analytes. In this work, an enzyme-free PFC self-powered sensing platform was established for sensing sweat lactate using photoelectric conversion technology. A NiTiO3/Bi2O3/MoS2 double Z-type heterojunction system was prepared by electrostatic interaction and self-assembly as the anode of the PFC. NiTiO3, Bi2O3 and MoS2 formed a double Z-type heterojunction system accelerated the electron transfer and improved the light absorption and photocatalytic efficiency, which in turn improved the perception of LA. In addition. lactic acid sensing experiments showed that the prepared non-enzymatic photoelectrochemical sensors had good detection performance. The assay results showed that the prepared biosensor has a wide detection range (30 μM-5 mM), low detection limit (6 μM), high selectivity(8μA μM−1 cm−2) and long-term stability. These assay results demonstrate its potential for applications in fields such as biomedicine and drug analysis.

Stretchable Electronics with Strain-Resistive Performance.

Stretchable electronics have attracted tremendous attention amongst academic and industrial communities due to their prospective applications in personal healthcare, human-activity monitoring, artificial skins, wearable displays, human-machine interfaces, etc. Other than mechanical robustness, stable performances under complex strains in these devices that are not for strain sensing are equally important for practical applications. Here, a comprehensive summarization of recent advances in stretchable electronics with strain-resistive performance is presented. First, detailed overviews of intrinsically strain-resistive stretchable materials, including conductors, semiconductors, and insulators, are given. Then, systematic representations of advanced structures, including helical, serpentine, meshy, wrinkled, and kirigami-based structures, for strain-resistive performance are summarized. Next, stretchable arrays and circuits with strain-resistive performance, that integrate multiple functionalities and enable complex behaviors, are introduced. This review presents a detailed overview of recent progress in stretchable electronics with strain-resistive performances and provides a guideline for the future development of stretchable electronics.

Developing quality measures fornon-pharmacological prevention andrehabilitation inprimary health care forchronic conditions: a consensus study.

Poor health-related behaviours are root causes of a large number of chronic conditions; however, this study is the first to develop guideline-based quality measures targeting health-related behaviours through generic non-pharmacological secondary prevention and rehabilitation in municipal primary health care for persons with chronic conditions. From January 2020 to September 2021, a consensus study was conducted in accordance with the current scientific recommendations for developing guideline-based quality measures. A clinical expert panel (n = 11) was established and included a patient representative, health care professionals, researchers, and key specialists. The process for developing quality measures was led by methodologists and encompassed a modified Research and Development/University of California at Los Angeles (RAND/UCLA) study to evaluate consensus in the expert panel. The consensus recommendations were directed to a steering group including the Danish Ministry of Health, the Danish Regions, and the Local Government Denmark. The expert panel rated 102 clinical practice recommendations. Consensus was demonstrated on 13 quality measures assessing whether the patients are offered participation in and adhere to: self-management, smoking cessation, physical exercise training, nutritional efforts, and preventive consultation on excessive alcohol consumption; whether the patients participate in a closing meeting, whether they are offered follow-up, and whether reasons for dropout are documented. The identified quality measures constitute a framework for assessing the quality of non-pharmacological prevention and rehabilitation in municipal primary health care for persons with chronic conditions. The next steps focus on field testing of the quality measures to refine measure criteria and assess implementation. A close link between clinical practice, the evidence and practice recommendations, the data infrastructure, economic considerations, and national priorities was a key to the consensus process.

Disentangling the age-related manner in the associations between gut microbiome and women’s health: a multi-cohort microbiome study

ABSTRACT Women’s health encompasses life-course healthcare, and mounting evidence emphasizes the pivotal contribution of gut microbiota. Therefore, understanding the temporal dynamics of gut microbiota and how age influences disease-gut microbiota associations is essential for improving women’s health. By analyzing metagenomic data from 3625 healthy women, we revealed significant effects of age on gut microbiota and age-dependent patterns in microbial features, such as relative abundance, Shannon index, and microbial network properties. Additionally, declining trends in the predictive accuracy of gut microbiota for age groups were shown using iterative sub-sampling based random forest (ISSRF) model. Age-specific species markers were also identified, many of which were shared across age groups. To investigate the influence of age on disease-gut microbiota associations, metagenomic data from 681 women with various disease conditions and 491 matched healthy controls were collected. A substantial proportion of species markers for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACVD), and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) differed in relative abundance across age groups, and were also age-specific species markers. Besides, the microbiota-based probabilities of IBD and ACVD were positively correlated with age. Furthermore, the age specificity of disease-gut microbiota associations was explored using the ISSRF model. Associations between IBD and gut microbiota were age-specific, with reduced stability of disease species markers in childhood and adolescence, possibly due to decrease in the effect size between patients and controls. Our findings provided valuable insights into promoting healthy aging and developing personalized healthcare strategies for women.

An Emerging Era: Conformable Ultrasound Electronics.

Conformable electronics are regarded as the next generation of personal healthcare monitoring and remote diagnosis devices. In recent years, piezoelectric-based conformable ultrasound electronics (cUSE) have been intensively studied due to their unique capabilities, including nonradiative monitoring, soft tissue imaging, deep signal decoding, wireless power transfer, portability, and compatibility. This review provides a comprehensive understanding of cUSE for use in biomedical and healthcare monitoring systems and a summary of their recent advancements. Following an introduction to the fundamentals of piezoelectrics and ultrasound transducers, the critical parameters for transducer design are discussed. Next, five types of cUSE with their advantages and limitations are highlighted, and the fabrication of cUSE using advanced technologies is discussed. In addition, the working function, acoustic performance, and accomplishments in various applications are thoroughly summarized. It is noted that application considerations must be given to the tradeoffs between material selection, manufacturing processes, acoustic performance, mechanical integrity, and the entire integrated system. Finally, current challenges and directions for the development of cUSE are highlighted, and research flow is provided as the roadmap for future research. In conclusion, these advances in the fields of piezoelectric materials, ultrasound transducers, and conformable electronics spark an emerging era of biomedicine and personal healthcare.

Recrystallization‐Induced Laser Lift‐Off Strategy for Flexible Thermal Sensors with Near‐Limit Sensitivity

AbstractFlexible thermal sensors have attracted immense interest as an alternative to conventional rigid sensors in personal healthcare monitoring, biomedical applications, and human‐machine interaction. However, most metal‐based flexible thermal sensors exhibit low sensitivity, primarily resulting from electron scattering due to manufacturing defects. The heat‐intolerant polymer substrate hinders the pathway to improve the sensitivity of metal thin films through high‐temperature annealing. Herein, a recrystallization‐induced laser lift‐off strategy is proposed to overcome the contradiction between the flexible substrate and high‐temperature annealing. Systematically theoretical and experimental studies reveal the mechanism of thermal‐induced recrystallization in increasing the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and the separation of sensors from rigid substrates. Valuable insights are acquired in the modulation of interface adhesion by altering the surface roughness of nickel. A critical temperature is provided to guide the detachment of the sensor. The fabricated thin‐film flexible thermal sensor achieves a TCR of 6.2‰°C−1, approaching the TCR limit of bulk material. This strategy opens a new general route for fabricating high‐temperature annealed sensors on flexible substrates.

Revolutionizing Biological Science: The Synergy of Genomics in Health, Bioinformatics, Agriculture, and Artificial Intelligence.

With climate emergency, COVID-19, and the rise of planetary health scholarship, the binary of human and ecosystem health has been deeply challenged. The interdependence of human and nonhuman animal health is increasingly acknowledged and paving the way for new frontiers in integrative biology. The convergence of genomics in health, bioinformatics, agriculture, and artificial intelligence (AI) has ushered in a new era of possibilities and applications. However, the sheer volume of genomic/multiomics big data generated also presents formidable sociotechnical challenges in extracting meaningful biological, planetary health and ecological insights. Over the past few years, AI-guided bioinformatics has emerged as a powerful tool for managing, analyzing, and interpreting complex biological datasets. The advances in AI, particularly in machine learning and deep learning, have been transforming the fields of genomics, planetary health, and agriculture. This article aims to unpack and explore the formidable range of possibilities and challenges that result from such transdisciplinary integration, and emphasizes its radically transformative potential for human and ecosystem health. The integration of these disciplines is also driving significant advancements in precision medicine and personalized health care. This presents an unprecedented opportunity to deepen our understanding of complex biological systems and advance the well-being of all life in planetary ecosystems. Notwithstanding in mind its sociotechnical, ethical, and critical policy challenges, the integration of genomics, multiomics, planetary health, and agriculture with AI-guided bioinformatics opens up vast opportunities for transnational collaborative efforts, data sharing, analysis, valorization, and interdisciplinary innovations in life sciences and integrative biology.

Special care in dentistry in France: Issues, current situation, outlook

The question of oral health care and access to it for persons with disabilities is a key public health issue. This contribution describes the general landscape of access to oral health care for persons with disabilities since Law no.2005-102 of February 11, 2005, taking a broad approach that spans initial training and continuing education in the sector, the Romain Jacob charter, and the implementation of several networks. It also provides an analysis of the use of financial measures to incentivize the recognition of overtime spent providing care for persons with disabilities. The results of this study show that: considerable progress has been made in training; the missions of disability specialists must be redefined at the departmental level to enable these professionals to play their role; the enhanced financial recompense offered for this care is a step in the right direction but is insufficient to improve access to care for persons with disabilities; and, although care networks have proliferated, their future is uncertain given the precariousness of their funding. They remain, however, a system for providing care operating in parallel to mainstream care. While definite progress has been made over the past ten years, the Handifaction barometer shows that there is still much room for improvement as regards persons with disabilities’ satisfaction with access to oral health care in France.

Effectiveness of oral health education in enhancing oral care knowledge,attitudesand behaviors for family caregivers of persons with dementia

AbstractBackgroundDue to the loss of cognitive function and memory, persons with dementia gradually lose their self‐care and social skills, and the weakening of their oral care ability can easily lead to periodontal disease, dry mouth, and root caries. Studies have shown that oral health maintenance can help prevent dementia and delay functional deterioration. Therefore, it is important to provide oral hygiene guidance to family caregivers to improve the quality of oral health care for persons with dementia.Oral care questionnaires and oral health assessment scales were used to assess the knowledge, attitude and behavior of family caregivers towards oral care for the person with dementia. Based on the assessment results, an oral health education program was designed, including: 1. immediate oral care health education at the outpatient clinic; 2. mailing of dementia oral care health education leaflets; and 3. individual health education and discussion by telephone one week after mailing. A post‐test was conducted one week after the intervention to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.ResultsFamily caregivers' oral care knowledge correctness increased from 49% to 88.9%, attitude correctness increased from 29% to 71.45%, and behavior correctness increased from 84% to 100%.ConclusionThe results showed that a multicomponent oral health education program could improve the oral care knowledge, attitude, and behavior for family caregivers of persons with dementia. In particular, the use of telephone health education and assessment during the COVID‐19 epidemic may provide a reference.

CORONET online risk assessment tool and Charlson comorbidity index in predicting fatalities in cancer patients with COVID-19

Purpose of the study. Сomparing and evaluating the prognostic potential of the CORONET online risk assessment tool and the Charlson Comorbidity Index in predicting mortality in cancer patients with COVID-19.Materials and methods. The results are drawn from the data of 168 case histories of cancer patients who were undergoing inpatient treatment for COVID-19 at the University Clinical Hospitals of Sechenov University between March 2020 and February 2022. The study was conducted as part of the program of the world-class research center “Digital Biodesign and Personalized Healthcare” of Sechenov University, with participation in the ESMO-CoCARE Registry project. Patients with a history of solid or hematologic malignancies were included in the study; their treatment period before the study was 5 years or less. The age ranged from 37 to 100 years, the median age was 69 years. The CORONET online risk assessment tool and the Charlson comorbidity index were used to objectify the severity of multimorbidity status and prognosis of fatal outcomes in cancer patients with COVID-19.Results. It was demonstrated that statistically significant effects on the prognosis of mortality in patients with cancer were: age, percentage of saturation on admission, treatment in intensive care units (ICU), National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) distress syndrome severity scale score, computed tomography (CT) assessment of disease course severity, decreased blood albumin and platelet counts, and increased blood neutrophil counts in both categorical and immediate indicator value formats. In addition, it was determined that as the number of comorbidities increased, the probability of mortality increased significantly, odds ratio (OR) = 2.162 (CI 95 % 1.016–4.600; p = 0.045). The CORONET calculator score yields one of the highest OR values among all established statistically significant predictors,20.410 (CI 95 % 4.894–85.113; p < 0.001). For oncopathology in COVID-19 patients, the Charlson index score shows statistical significance as a predictor of mortality, OR =1.396 (CI 9 5 % 1.105–1.765; p = 0.005).Conclusion. The obtained advantages in using the CORONET online decision support tool over the Charlson comorbidity index in predicting mortality in cancer patients with COVID-19 are recognized as convincing.

The leading global health challenges in the artificial intelligence era.

Millions of people's health is at risk because of several factors and multiple overlapping crises, all of which hit the vulnerable the most. These challenges are dynamic and evolve in response to emerging health challenges and concerns, which need effective collaboration among countries working toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and securing global health. Mental Health, the Impact of climate change, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes, Infectious diseases, health system, and population aging are examples of challenges known to pose a vast burden worldwide. We are at a point known as the "digital revolution," characterized by the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and a fusion of technology types. AI has emerged as a powerful tool for addressing various health challenges, and the last ten years have been influential due to the rapid expansion in the production and accessibility of health-related data. The computational models and algorithms can understand complicated health and medical data to perform various functions and deep-learning strategies. This narrative mini-review summarizes the most current AI applications to address the leading global health challenges. Harnessing its capabilities can ultimately mitigate the Impact of these challenges and revolutionize the field. It has the ability to strengthen global health through personalized health care and improved preparedness and response to future challenges. However, ethical and legal concerns about individual or community privacy and autonomy must be addressed for effective implementation.

Adolescents’ and Families’ Needs to Prevent Repeated Adolescent Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study

Repeated adolescent pregnancy affects maternal and child health and the family. This issue has become more prevalent in Thailand and requires strategies to address this. mHealth, an emerging tool in the digital era, has been highlighted to lead to better healthcare outcomes. This qualitative descriptive study explored end-users’ needs in decision-making for choosing contraception via mHealth to prevent repeated adolescent pregnancy. Purposive sampling was undertaken with the snowball technique to select 31 key informants: ten adolescent mothers, ten of their family members, and 11 healthcare providers. Data were collected by conducting semi-structured, in-depth interviews at hospitals, homes and healthcare workplaces and were analyzed using content analysis, the trustworthiness of the data employed with data triangulation, member checking, and peer debriefing. Three main themes emerged from the findings: 1) The meaning of repeated pregnancy in adolescence involved being considered a trite event, a bullied girl, a burden and stress; 2) Motivating repeated pregnancy involved a lack of contraceptive knowledge, knowing methods and lack of awareness, knowing how to use but not using it, intending use and failing to use it; 3) The needs for repeated adolescents’ pregnancy prevention were easily accessible knowledge, having a trusted person, social support, and adolescent-friendly healthcare services. Knowledge about adolescents and their family needs to prevent repeated pregnancy is necessary for developing mHealth and valuable guidelines to improve contraceptive services to prevent repeated adolescent pregnancy.

Consistent Healthcare Safety Recommendation System for Preventing Contagious Disease Infections in Human Crowds

The recent impact of COVID-19, as a contagious disease, led researchers to focus on designing and fabricating personal healthcare devices and systems. With the help of wearable sensors, sensing and communication technologies, and recommendation modules, personal healthcare systems were designed for ease of use. More specifically, personal healthcare systems were designed to provide recommendations for maintaining a safe distance and avoiding contagious disease spread after the COVID-19 pandemic. The personal recommendations are analyzed based on the wearable sensor signals and their consistency in sensing. This consistency varies with human movements or other activities that hike/cease the sensor values abruptly for a short period. Therefore, a consistency-focused recommendation system (CRS) for personal healthcare (PH) was designed in this research. The hardware sensing intervals for the system are calibrated per the conventional specifications from which abrupt changes can be observed. The changes are analyzed for their saturation and fluctuations observed from neighbors within the threshold distance. The saturation and fluctuation classifications are performed using random forest learning to differentiate the above data from the previously sensed healthy data. In this process, the saturated data and consistency data provide safety recommendations for the moving user. The consistency is verified for a series of intervals for the fluctuating sensed data. This alerts the user if the threshold distance for a contagious disease is violated. The proposed system was validated using a prototype model and experimental analysis through false rates, data analysis rates, and fluctuations.