Health Education Tool Research Articles

Using Korean Dramas as a Precision Mental Health Education Tool for Asian Americans: A Pilot Study.

Precision mental health (MH) holds great potential for revolutionizing MH care and reducing the burden of mental illness. Efforts to engage Asian Americans in precision MH research is necessary to help reduce MH disparities. Korean drama (“K-drama”) television shows may be an effective educational tool to increase precision MH knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (KAB) among Asian Americans. This study determined whether KAB improved after participating in a K-drama precision MH workshop, and examined the participants’ perspectives about K-dramas’ utility as an educational tool. A K-drama precision MH workshop in English/Vietnamese/Korean was conducted with a convenience sample (n = 122). Pre-/post-tests on precision MH KAB (genetics and genetic testing, and MH and help-seeking) and a survey on K-dramas’ utility as an educational tool were administered. Findings revealed a significant difference in the pre- and post-test KAB scores overall, by genetics and genetic testing, and by MH and help-seeking. There were also significant increases in the overall post-test KAB scores by workshop (language) participation. Overall, participants responded positively on the utility of K-dramas as a precision MH educational tool. This study demonstrates the feasibility of K-drama as an innovative and widely available health education tool to educate communities about precision MH.

177-LB: Use of Online Diabetes Management Programs among Patients with a New Diabetes Diagnosis

Objective: Online wellness programs offer a convenient way for newly diagnosed patients to engage with targeted health education and self-management tools, but there is limited evidence on use rates and user characteristics. We examined patient characteristics associated with use of an online diabetes self-management program among patients with a new diabetes diagnosis in a large integrated health system. Research Design and Methods: A diabetes self-management program was introduced on the health system's patient portal website in 2010 without formal clinician promotion. Using the health system clinical diabetes registry, we identified patients newly diagnosed with diabetes in 2010-2018 and examined the use of diabetes care tool in the same year they joined the registry. We examined use of the online diabetes program and used multivariable logistic regression model to examine the association between use and patient characteristics including age, gender, race/ethnicity, neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and baseline HbA1c. Results: Among 277,032 total patients diagnosed with diabetes 2010-2018, 1,734 (0.63%) patients used the diabetes management program in that same year. Patients of older age (OR=0.34, 95% CI: 0.27-0.43 for age 75+ vs. <45), male (OR=0.48, 95% CI:0.44-0.53), non-white (e.g., OR=0.32, 95% CI: 0.28-0.37 for Asian vs. white), living in a low SES neighborhood (OR=0.71, 95% CI: 0.63-0.81) were less likely to use the online diabetes wellness program. Patients with higher baseline HbA1c were more likely to use the program (OR=1.29, 95% CI: 1.04-1.59 for A1c 9+ vs. A1c <7). Conclusions: Few newly diagnosed diabetes patients used the diabetes management program on their own, with evidence of a digital divide in use. It is encouraging, however, that patients with higher baseline A1c were more likely to use the program. Efforts to promote patient-facing online tools use in clinical care delivery from providers may increase use, and research is needed on clinical impacts. Disclosure J. Huang: None. I. Graetz: None. M. Reed: None. Funding National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Utilizing the Lean Launchpad Method to Determine Feasibility of Creating Interactive Digital Media As A Health Education Tool for Phosphorus Management in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Utilizing the Lean Launchpad Method to Determine Feasibility of Creating Interactive Digital Media As A Health Education Tool for Phosphorus Management in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Integration of Rehabilitation Activities Into Everyday Life Through Telerehabilitation: Qualitative Study of Cardiac Patients and Their Partners.

BackgroundImplementation of cardiac rehabilitation has not been optimal, with patient participation rates below 50%. Factors that contribute to cardiac patients’ lack of participation in rehabilitation programs are patient motivation, logistical difficulties in getting to the rehabilitation facilities, lack of psychosocial elements, and individualization of activities in the rehabilitation programs. Telerehabilitation has been proposed as a new way to address the challenge of engaging and motivating cardiac patients and their partners to participate in rehabilitation.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the experiences of cardiac patients and their partners of participating in the Teledialog Telerehabilitation Program (TTP). The Teledialog program consisted of a digital rehabilitation plan, transmission of health data from patient’s home to hospital and health care center, and an interactive Web portal with information and training videos.MethodsThis case study used a theoretical approach combining the “community of practice” approach and self-determination theory. A triangulation of data collection techniques was used, including documents, participant observation (72 hours), and qualitative interviews with cardiac patients and their partners enrolled in the telerehabilitation group. A total of 14 cardiac patients, 12 patient spouses/partners, and 1 son participated in the study. The participants were interviewed at enrollment in the telerehabilitation program and after 12 weeks of participation in the program. Interview data were analyzed using NVivo 11.0.ResultsPatients and their partners found the Web portal ActiveHeart.dk and the electronic rehabilitation (e-rehabilitation) plan to be helpful tools for health education, coordinating rehabilitation goals, creating an overview of the data, and ensuring continuity in the rehabilitation process. The patients felt that the TTP treated them as individuals, gave them a sense of autonomy, and provided enhanced relatedness to health care professionals and partners and a sense of competence as active participants in their own rehabilitation process. Some patients missed being part of a community of practice with other cardiac patients and did not use the Web forum. Patients’ partners found that the telerehabilitation program gave them a sense of security and helped them balance their involvement as a partner to the patient and not push the patient too hard.ConclusionsCardiac patients and their partners found telerehabilitation technologies a useful digital toolbox in the rehabilitation process. Telerehabilitation motivated the patients to integrate rehabilitation activities into their work schedule and everyday life and made them feel like unique individuals. Participating in the Teledialog Telerehabilitation Program might not be a suitable strategy for all cardiac patients. Being a patient’s partner in the telerehabilitation program was associated with a heightened sense of security, navigation between active involvement in the rehabilitation process, being an equal partner, and not pushing the patient too hard.

Development and validation of a risk predictive model for student harmful drinking—A longitudinal data linkage study

BackgroundThis study aimed to develop a predictive model to quantify the risk of student harmful drinking associated with emergency department (ED) visits and/or campus-wide incidents reported to campus authorities in a U.S. public university. MethodsSix-year (2010/11–2015/16) student enrollment data were linked to subsequent harmful drinking events defined as either alcohol intoxication associated with ED visits or alcohol-related incidents reported to authorities within 1 year following the annual (index) enrollment. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to develop a risk predictive model based on the first 3-year student cohort (n = 93,289), which was then validated in the following 3-year student cohort (n = 85,876). ResultsA total of 2609 students in the derivation cohort and 2617 students in the validation cohort had at least 1 harmful drinking event within 1 year following the index enrollment, providing an incidence of 2.8% and 3.1%, respectively. Student demographics (gender, age, ethnicity, parental tax dependency), academic level, Greek life member, transfer students, first-time enrolled students, having been diagnosed with depression or injury, and violence involvement were statistically significant predictors. C-statistics of the model were 0.86 in both cohorts, with excellent calibration and no evidence of over- or under-prediction observed from calibration plots. ConclusionsBy linking routinely collected student data, a robust risk predictive model was developed and validated to quantify absolute risk of harmful drinking for every student. This model can provide a useful tool for clinicians or health educators to make real time decision to plan target interventions for students at elevated risk.

Impacts of using the electronic-health education program ‘The Vicious Worm’ for prevention of Taenia solium

BackgroundTaenia solium is a zoonotic tapeworm widely distributed across sub-Saharan Africa. Specific health education is regarded as a central element in controlling T. solium. In 2014, an electronic health education tool called ‘The Vicious Worm’, which was concerned with prevention of T. solium was introduced to health and agricultural professionals in Mbeya, Tanzania, an endemic setting.Introduction to ´The Vicious Worm’ of 1.5 hours significantly improved the participants’ knowledge. This study revisited the same study subjects one year later to assess persistence of knowledge regarding T. solium taeniosis/cysticercosis and to assess if the health education had changed work practices for the participants and the public. MethodsThe study was conducted in Tanzania between June and August 2015, with a fixed population of health and agricultural professionals recruited from a previous study testing ‘The Vicious Worm’. The study used a test, a questionnaire survey, as well as semi-structured group and individual interviews. ResultsThe 79 study subjects, all health or agricultural professionals, had within one year relocated from Mbeya to 16 of 21 administrative regions of Tanzania. Sixty-four agreed to participate in the test and 48 to an interview. The test showed significant improvement in knowledge regarding T. solium taeniosis/cysticercosis, compared with the baseline knowledge level of the participants. Interview data found that the participants had used ‘The Vicious Worm’ as an educational tool and applied the knowledge from the program to implement new practices consisting of by-laws and practical workshops on building latrines, pig pens and hand washing stations in their communities. ConclusionIntroduction to ‘The Vicious Worm’ led to changed practices and persistence in knowledge regarding T. solium. Incorporating health education as a specific health intervention tool should be encouraged and implemented at national or programmatic level.

YouTube as a tool for health education.

YouTube as a tool for health education.

An Experiential Learning-Based Approach to Neurofeedback Visualisation in Serious Games.

This study explores brain-computer interfacing, its possible use in serious or educational games and frameworks. Providing real-time feedback regarding cognitive states and behaviours can be a powerful tool for mental health education and games can offer unique and engaging environments for these neurofeedback experiences. We explore how EEG neurofeedback systems can be affordably created for further research and experimentation and suggest design choices that may assist in developing effective experiences of this nature.

Medicine package inserts from the users' perspective: are they read and understood?

The written information on medicines has been acknowledged as an important tool for health education. To analyze the use and understanding of medicine package inserts by users and assess sociodemographic and medical factors associated with their comprehension. Data in this analysis are part of the PNAUM National Survey - a cross-sectional population-based study conducted in Brazil. Descriptive statistics and the Pearson χ2 tests were performed to compare proportions between sociodemographic and medical characteristics, as well as use and understanding of medicine package inserts. A total of 28.427 individuals responded to questions related to medicine package inserts. From these, 59.6% (95%CI 57.7 - 61.5) said they usually read the inserts, and 98.4% (95%CI 98.0 - 98.8) considered them necessary. Among people who read the medicine package inserts, more than half indicated difficulties with legibility (57.4%; 95%CI 55,2 - 59,6) and readability (54.1%; 95%CI 52.1 - 56.1). People from a lower education level reported greater difficulty in understanding them. The larger portion of the population usually read medicine package inserts. Nevertheless, people have difficulty in reading and understanding them.

Websites as a tool for public health education: determining the trustworthiness of health websites on Ebola disease.

ObjectivesHealth service providers use internet as a tool for the spreading of health information and people often go on the web to acquire information about a disease. A wide range of information with varying qualities and by authors with varying degrees of credibility has thus become accessible by the public. Most people believe that the health information available on the internet is reliable. This issue reveals the need for having a critical view of the health information available online that is directly related to people's life. The Ebola epidemic is an emergency situation in the international public health domain and the internet is regarded as an important source for obtaining information on this disease. Given the absence of studies on the trustworthiness of health websites on Ebola, the present study was conducted to assess the trustworthiness of websites which are focused on this disease.Methods:The term "Ebola" was searched in Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines. Google Chrome browser was used for this purpose with the settings fixed on yielding 10 results per page. The first 30 English language websites in each of the three search engines were evaluated manually by using the HONcode of conduct tool. Moreover, the official HONcode toolbar was used to identify websites that had been officially certified by HON foundation. Results: Almost the half of the retrieved websites were commercial (49%). Complementarity was the least-observed criterion (37%) in all the websites retrieved from all three-search engines. Justifiability, Transparency and Financial Disclosure had been completely observed (100%).Discussion:The present study showed that only three criteria (Justifiability, Transparency and Financial Disclosure) out of the eight HON criteria were observed in the examined websites. Like other health websites, the websites concerned with Ebola are not reliable and should be used with caution.Conclusion:Considering the lack of a specific policy about the publication of health information on the web, it is necessary for healthcare providers to advise their patients to use only credible websites. Furthermore, teaching them the criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of health websites would be helpful.

What do Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) doctors look like online? A cross-sectional exploration of the social media presence of SEM doctors in the UK

ObjectivesTo explore the social media presence of Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) doctors from the UK. Secondary aims were to identify whether there were any differences in years since qualification...

“Illicit Use of Tobacco” - A Street Play to Spread Antitobacco Awareness Among the General Public Attending Tagore Dental and Medical College & Hospitals, Chennai, India

Background: Tobacco is the foremost preventable cause of death and disease in the world today, killing half of the people who use it. In the south-east Asia Region (SEAR), smoking prevalence ranges from 29.8% to 63.1% among men and 0.4%–15% among women. The practice of tobacco needs attention. World No Tobacco Day is the event dedicated to call attention toward the impact of tobacco use on public health and reduce individual tobacco dependence. The day is further intended to draw attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects. Aim: · To assess the effectiveness of street play in creating awareness of tobacco hazards among rural population of Chennai.⋅ To evaluate the knowledge gained by the rural population about tobacco hazards from street play using a closed ended questionnaire. Methods: The study was a cross sectional and community based study. The target population for this study was the outpatients attending Tagore Medical and Dental Hospitals, Rathinamangalam, Chennai. The current study was conducted between 19th May 2017 to 26th May 2017, among the outpatients attending Tagore Medical and Dental Hospitals, Rathinamangalam, Chennai. Mainly, the awareness is created by stressing the ill effects and illicit use of any form of tobacco through street play conducted daily for a week in the hospital premises. Result: The preintervention assessment revealed poor knowledge scores on various aspect of harmful effects of tobacco, which significantly improved after intervention. It is conceptual that rural population is not aware of passive smoking or second hand smoke, but our study group accounted to 86% of awareness. Feedback received after street play: after any street play or role play it's good to have feedback from community members to know how effective our play was in spreading the message among them. We were fortunate enough to get good response from community members post play. Overall the feedback of the street play excelled with a score of 96% gaining new knowledge about tobacco hazards, enlightening the thought process in this regard. Conclusion: As a result, the street play in local language and pictorial posters proved to be an effective health educational tool among illiterates and repeated use, before the transition season, for maximum impact.

Shadow Puppets and Neglected Diseases: Evaluating a Health Promotion Performance in Rural Indonesia.

‘Rama and the Worm’ is a shadow puppet production targeting neglected diseases in Central Java. It is an entertainment-based intervention study to promote health by reducing the impact of parasitic diseases such as soil-transmitted helminths (STH). The study uses traditional Javanese shadow puppetry (wayang kulit) as a vehicle in village communities to disseminate health messages and promote behaviour change to prevent diseases caused, primarily, by inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. The health education messages contained in the play, although using traditional characters and themes, required the creation of a completely new narrative script, using characters and plot lines familiar to the wayang kulit repertoire, but placing them in new situations that relate specifically to health promotion objectives. The intervention was piloted in a village in Central Java, Indonesia using a pre/post design with both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A total of 96 male and female villagers, aged between 7 and 87 years, provided both baseline and follow up data. Participant knowledge and behaviours related to gastrointestinal and helminth-related disease were assessed before and after the intervention through a questionnaire administered by interview. Results revealed statistically significant improvements in both knowledge (48.6% pre-intervention score vs. 62.8% post-intervention score, p < 0.001) and behaviour (77.4% vs. 80.6%, p = 0.004) related to gastrointestinal and helminth disease. Findings of the study indicate the wayang kulit performance is an effective health education tool. The results provide proof of concept with scaling up the next step forward. The wayang kulit production provides a significant additional component for an integrated, comprehensive approach to reduction and elimination of STH infection.

Reasons for low adherence to diet-diaries issued to pediatric dental patients: a collective case study.

ObjectiveDietary habits are an important etiological factor in the development of dental caries. Several tools, such as 24-h dietary recall (retrospective) and diet-diaries (prospective), have been recommended for dietary assessment in dental practice. Diet-diaries are commonly advocated as a tool for oral health education; however, low adherence is found to be a recognized downside of their use in dental settings, as well as nutritional research more widely. However, the reasons for poor adherence to diet-diaries remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the reasons for poor adherence to diet-diaries issued to children in a dental hospital setting.MethodsA qualitative collective case study design was employed to explore the use of diet-diaries as a health education tool. Twenty-eight data sources across 11 appointments included: observation of dentist–patient interactions, semi-structured interviews with child–parent dyads and dentists, in addition to documentary analysis of returned diet-diaries (this included 11 observations of dentist–patient interactions, 14 interviews with the child/parent dyads and dentists, and documentary analysis of three completed diet-diaries). Data from these multiple sources were integrated in a thematic analysis to identify themes and sub-themes.ResultsTwo overarching themes were identified: 1) the diet-diary is perceived as a test which carries a potential for embarrassment and blame, which in turn generates defensive behavior from parents; and 2) parents’ values, priorities, and circumstances affect the level of commitment to completing a diet-diary.ConclusionLow adherence to diet-diary completion in clinical dentistry results from interacting factors related to the diet-diary itself, the patient, and the clinician. This study identifies a need for a more appropriate tool for dietary assessment that is patient-centered and compatible with modern lifestyles.

Blood Sugar, Your Pancreas, and Unicorns: The Development of Health Education Materials for Youth With Prediabetes.

Background. The obesity epidemic has led to an increase in prediabetes in youth, causing a serious public health concern. Education on diabetes risk and initiation of lifestyle change are the primary treatment modalities. There are few existing age-appropriate health education tools to address diabetes prevention for high-risk youth. Aim. To develop an age-appropriate health education tool(s) to help youth better understand type 2 diabetes risk factors and the reversibility of risk. Method. Health education tool development took place in five phases: exploration, design, analysis, refinement, and process evaluation. Results. The project resulted in (1) booklet designed to increase knowledge of risk, (2) meme generator that mirrors the booklet graphics and allows youth to create their own meme based on their pancreas' current mood, (3) environmental posters for clinic, and (4) brief self-assessment that acts as a conversation starter for the health educators. Conclusion. Patients reported high likability and satisfaction with the health education tools, with the majority of patients giving the materials an "A" rating. The process evaluation indicated a high level of fidelity and related measures regarding how the health education tools were intended to be used and how they were actually used in the clinic setting.

Pegadas

Applications for learning and training have been developed and highlighted as important tools in health education. Despite the several approaches and initiatives, these tools have not been used in an integrated way. The specific skills approached by each application, the absence of a consensus about how to integrate them in the curricula, and the necessity of evaluation tools that standardize their utilization are the main difficulties. Considering these issues, Portal of Games and Environments Management for Designing Activities in Health (Pegadas) was designed and developed as a web portal that offers the services of organizing and sequencing serious games and virtual environments and evaluating the performance of the user in these activities. This article presents the structure of Pegadas, including the proposal of an evaluation model based on learning objectives. The results indicate its potential to collaborate with human resources training from the proposal of the sequencing, allowing a linked composition of activities and providing the reinforcement or complement of tasks and contents in a progressive scale with planned educational objective-based evaluation. These results can contribute to expand the discussions about ways to integrate the use of these applications in health curricula.

Preferences of Young People in the Use of Facebook as a Health Education Tool for HPV

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Preferences of Young People in the Use of Facebook as a Health Education Tool for HPV

The accessibility and popularity of social networks makes them appropriate tools for promotion and prevention interventions in health, reaching a large audience with greater efficiency. One of its most attractive features is interaction, which not only allows great diffusion of the messages, but also supplies them with greater interest and credibility. Platforms such as Facebook are very popular among young people, a high risk group for Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection due to ignorance, prejudice and sexual behavior that is risked and active. The objective of this research is to know the preferences and attitudes of young people towards (1) interaction and (2) type of information about HPV on Facebook. Increasing our knowledge in this area will help to make interventions in this field more useful. Through a questionnaire validated in previous research, was made a cross-sectional descriptive study of the preferences of 120 young universities in the use of facebook as a tool for health promotion about HPV. More than half of the participants would follow a page on the HPV to be informed and share information on prevention, vaccines and campaigns. The preferred resources were: multimedia, testimonials and articles by specialists. They prefer to "share" to "create themselves" messages. A group of subjects who reject the use of the tool is detected, arguing that they would not do it for (1) a lack of interest, (2) because people can relate them personally to the sickness or (3) for possible bugs and criticisms.

Rates and risk factors for human cutaneous anthrax in the country of Georgia: National surveillance data, 2008–2015

IntroductionAnthrax is endemic in the country of Georgia. The most common cutaneous anthrax form accounts for 95% of anthrax cases and often is self-resolving. Humans are infected from processing contaminated animal products, contacting sick animals, or by insect bites.ObjectiveWe aimed to describe the burden of human cutaneous anthrax and associated risk factors using the national surveillance data.MethodsWe extracted all human cutaneous anthrax cases from Electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance System (EIDSS) from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2015. We conducted descriptive analyses to characterize the number of confirmed, probable and suspected cases by age groups, gender, ethnicity, year and geographic area.ResultsOut of 911 reported cutaneous anthrax cases, 299 (33%) were rejected. Out of remaining 612 cases, 437 (71%), 172 (28%), and 3 (<0.004%) were classified as confirmed, probable and suspected cases of cutaneous Anthrax, respectively; 467 (76.3%) were male. Georgians accounted for 56% (343/612) of cutaneous anthrax cases. Handling animal products (aOR 4.36, 95% CI 2.61–7.26) and living near pastoralist routes (aOR 2.74, 95%CI 1.57–4.76) were associated with cutaneous anthrax.ConclusionsThis study provides eight-year trends for cutaneous anthrax in humans in the country of Georgia. A comprehensive explanation for the observed rise and fall of the incidence rates of human cutaneous anthrax in 2008–2015 remains to be clarified but is likely associated with discontinuation of mandatory national livestock vaccination in 2008 coupled with weakened human and animal national health systems which were disrupted after the Soviet Union collapsed. Our analysis identifies living near pastoralist routes, handling animal products and travel to endemic areas within two weeks before the disease onset as risk factors for cutaneous anthrax. The evidence underscores the importance of One Health recommendations to activate anthrax awareness campaigns, supervise the destruction of known anthrax carcasses, record global position system coordinates of sites and disinfect infected soils and introduce a participatory health education tool on anthrax.

EHealth Technologies, Multimorbidity, and the Office Visit: Qualitative Interview Study on the Perspectives of Physicians and Nurses.

BackgroundeHealth is a broad term referring to the application of information and communication technologies in the health sector, ranging from health records to telemedicine and multiple forms of health education and digital tools. By providing increased and anytime access to information, opportunities to exchange experiences with others, and self-management support, eHealth has been heralded as transformational. It has created a group of informed, engaged, and empowered patients as partners, equipped to take part in shared decision making and effectively self-manage chronic illness. Less attention has been given to health care professionals’ (HCPs) experiences of the role of eHealth in patient encounters.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine HCPs’ perspectives on how eHealth affects their relationships with patients living with multiple chronic conditions, as well as its ethical and practical ramifications.MethodsWe interviewed HCPs about their experiences with eHealth and its impact on the office visit. Eligible participants needed to report a caseload of ≥25% of patients with multimorbidity to address issues of managing complex chronic conditions and coordination of care. We used a semistructured discussion guide for in-depth interviews, and follow-up interviews served to clarify and expand upon initial discussions. Constant comparisons and a narrative approach guided the analyses, and a relational ethics conceptual lens was applied to the data to identify emergent themes.ResultsA total of 12 physicians and nurses (6 male, 6 female; median years of practice=13) participated. eHealth tools most frequently described were Web-based educational resources for patients and Web-based resources for HCPs such as curated scientific summaries on diagnostic criteria, clinical therapies, and dosage calculators. Analysis centered on a grand theme of the two-way conversation between HCPs and patients, which addresses a general recentering of the ethical relationship between HCPs and patients around engagement. Subthemes explain the evolution of the two-way conversation, and having, using, and supporting the two-way conversation with patients, primarily as this relates to achieving adherence and health outcomes.ConclusionsEmerging ethical concerns were related to the ambiguity of the ideal of empowered patients and the ways in which health professionals described enacting those ideals in practice, showing how the cultural shift toward truly mutually respectful and collaborative practice is in transition. HCPs aim to act in the best interests of their patients; the challenge is to benefit from emergent technologies that may enhance patient-HCP interactions and effective care, while abiding by regulations, dealing with the strictures of the technology itself, and managing changing demands on their time.