Ordinary Home Research Articles

Decisional needs for older adults, home health care nurses and dental hygienists during team-based oral health assessments in ordinary home settings – a qualitative study

BackgroundParticipation by all actors involved in health planning is a prerequisite for person-centred care and healthy ageing. Understanding the multiple knowledge needs and the values that shape oral health assessments in home settings is important both to enable participation in oral health planning and to contribute to healthy ageing.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate decisional needs during oral health assessments in ordinary home settings from the perspectives of older adults, home health care nurses and dental hygienists.MethodsData was collected in ordinary home settings through 24 team-based oral assessments and 39 brief, semi-structured interviews including older adults (n = 24), home health care nurses (n = 8) and dental hygienists (n = 7). Data was analysed using content analysis with a deductive approach. The analysis was guided by the Ottawa Decision Support Guide.ResultsThe analysis revealed that all participants considered participation in decision-making important but until now, older adults might not have participated in making decisions regarding oral health issues. The older adults considered participation important because the decisions had a strong impact on their lives, affecting their health. The professionals considered decision-making important for knowing what step to take next and to be able to follow up and evaluate previous goals and treatments. Organizational and personal barriers for shared decision-making among home health care nurses and dental hygienists were identified. Of the 24 older adults, 20 had different oral health conditions that objectively indicated the need for treatment. An initial important decision concerned whether the older adult wanted to make an appointment for dental care, and if so, how. Another decisional conflict concerned whether and how assisted oral care should be carried out.ConclusionIt is important for key participants in ordinary home settings to participate in interprofessional teams in home health care. To further anchor this in theory, conceptual models for professionals from different care organizations (municipal care, dental care) need to be developed that also involve older adults as participants. Future research could bridge theory and practice by including theories of learning while exploring interorganizational oral health planning in home settings.

Improving Quality of Life and Reducing Behavioral Problems of People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Through Deinstitutionalization.

People with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) with extensive support needs are more likely to live in segregated and highly institutionalized environments. The aim of this study was to analyze changes in functioning and quality of life for people with IDD and extensive support needs after transitioning to ordinary homes in the community. The sample included 54 adults with IDD and extensive support needs, who were assessed at three time points: before transition, six months later, and one year after transition. The Resident Choice Scale, San Martin Quality of Life Scale, Active Support Participation Measure, and the Behavior Problem section of the Inventory for Client and Agency Planning were administered. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and t-tests for repeated measures were carried out. There were significant improvements in decision-making, participation and independence in daily activities and quality of life, as well as a reduction in the presence and intensity of behavioral problems. The benefits found in this study support transformation processes towards more inclusive services and professional practices that foster people's rights and feeling of belonging to the community.

A Swedish study about how staff reason and act when they suspect domestic abuse perpetrated by informal caregivers of persons with dementia

ABSTRACT Older persons with dementia have several risk factors for being exposed to domestic abuse, for example dependency on others to manage daily life. The purpose of the study was to explore how staff act and reason when suspecting domestic abuse perpetrated by informal caregivers of persons with dementia. Eight semi-structured group interviews were conducted with staff (n = 39) working with persons with dementia living in their ordinary homes. A thematic analysis generated two themes; Missing a map for guidance and Being left to one’s own inner compass for direction indicating that staff experienced a lack of guidelines and protocols to work from when suspecting abuse. This resulted in staff taking actions based on their own norms, values, and experiences when suspecting domestic abuse. Not knowing how to act risks leading to staff ending up doing nothing or being unable to identify effective interventions, accompanied by feelings of guilt and ethical stress. The results highlight the necessity of providing staff with tools for how to act when they suspect domestic abuse, such as collaboration with others, colleagues, and other organisations where different options for interventions can emerge.

The impact of nursing home residency on psychotropic drug use in major neurocognitive disorder: A nationwide comparison.

Psychotropic drugs are utilized against neuropsychiatric symptoms among people with major neurocognitive disorder (NCD) despite well-documented risks, and older people in nursing homes are expected to be more frequently exposed to those medicines. This study compared psychotropic drug use and associated factors between older people with major NCD and matched references. This cross-sectional study included individuals from three national registries in Sweden. References were randomly matched 1:1 by age and sex from the Swedish Total Population Register. Drug use was defined as at least one prescription fill from 1 July to 31 December 2019 and presented as proportion of drug users. In addition, ORs regarding psychotropic drug use and associated factors use were analysed using generalized estimating equations. There were 102,419 complete matching pairs alive on 31 December 2019. The proportions of psychotropic drug users were 59% in the population of people with major NCD and 28% in the reference group. Moreover, there was a substantial number of individuals in nursing homes who had been treated with antipsychotics but who, for unknown reasons, had not been diagnosed with major NCD. Psychotropic drug use was positively associated with both major NCD and nursing home residency. The difference in drug use in relation to major NCD was more pronounced among people living in ordinary homes. Despite well-documented risks in people with cognitive impairment, psychotropic drug use was overall high and positively associated with both major NCD and nursing home residency. Taken together, interventions to better target neuropsychiatric symptoms in older people are warranted. Hypnotic drug use among older people in general as well as antipsychotic drug exposure among older people in nursing homes appear to be two important focus areas.

Co-occurrence of phthalate and non-phthalate plasticizers in dust and hand wipes: A comparison of levels across various sources

E-waste dismantlers' occupational exposure to plasticizers, particularly non-phthalate (NPAE) plasticizers, is poorly understood. This study monitored 11 phthalates (PAEs) and 16 NPAEs in dust and hand wipe samples from Central China e-waste workplace and ordinary homes. Concentrations of plasticizers in dust from e-waste dismantling workshops (median: 217 μg/g) were significantly lower than that from ordinary homes (462 μg/g; p < 0.01), however, the trend was similar but not significant in hand wipes from these two scenarios (50.2 vs. 72.3 μg/m2; p = 0.139). PAEs were still the dominant plasticizers, which is, on average, 5.46 and 3.58-fold higher than NPAEs. In all samples, di-(2ethylhexyl) phthalate (65.4%) and tri-octyl trimellitate (44.9%) were the most common PAE and NPAE plasticizers. Increasing dust concentrations of di-iso-nonyl ester 1,2-cyclohexane dicarboxylic acid, citrates and sebacates were significantly associated with their levels in worker’s hand wipe, by contrast, this trend was not found in general population. Dust ingestion was the main channel, followed by hand-to-mouth contact, all participants’ daily plasticizer intakes (median: 154 ng/kg bw/day) are within safety limits. Our work highlights knowledge gaps about co-exposure to PAEs and NPAEs by multiple pathways in occupational e-waste workers, which could provide baseline data in the future.

Viscosity Measurement Results of a Commercially Available Universal Design Food (UDF: Can be Crushed with the Longue) using the Line Spread Test (LST)

In Japan, which is a super-aged society, people need the nursingcare foods in recent years.For the prevention of aspiration pneumonia, there is a demand for safe and delicious nursing care foodfor not only patients but also senior citizen. To create food for swallowing that can be easily prepared even at ordinary homes, among the previous studies that have already been reported, using a type of universal design food,but that can be crushed with the tongue, for which the results have not yet been shown, is suitable or not for nursing care food is not sure. To obtain theviscosity, we investigated using eight types of thickeners and reported them.After adding 1 g, 2 g, and 3 g of each of the eight types of thickeners to commercially available shrimp gratin, a line spread test (LST) was performed using a superficial thickness measuring plate (manufactured by Saraya Co., Ltd.). As a result, by adding 1 g, it was possible to obtain a thick viscosity of 30 mm or more and less than 32 mm, which is thought to promote safe swallowing. Eight kinds of thickeners are commercially available products containing xanthan gum, among which the thickener containing xanthan gum, calcium lactate, and trisodium citrate showed the highest viscosity. In the future, it will be necessary to investigate the effects of thickeners on universal design foods (UDF) that can be crushed with the tongue and have different nutritional values.

Survey Activities in the Field of Healthcare in the Republic of Moldova Under the Ukraine Crisis by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) 2nd Team

Introduction:The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022. UNHCR reported, as of April 6th, more than 4.3 million refugees have fled Ukraine, with 401,704 refugees arriving in the Republic of Moldova, around 100,000 of whom have remained in the country. JICA investigated whether Moldova's healthcare needs were burdened by accepting a large number of Ukrainian refugees, and examined the way to support them.Method:JICA dispatched the 3rd team as a survey team. The 2nd team consisted of two medical doctors, one nurse/midwife, one clinical engineer (CE), one Japan DMAT logistician, and two JICA staff. The dispatch period was three weeks when five major hospitals were visited in the capital, evaluating the current situation and the need for support for the future.Results:As of April 6, 2022, 3,853 people were staying in refugee accommodation centers, while the rest lived in ordinary Moldovan families. Evacuees, like Moldovan citizens, were covered by health insurance, and evacuees had access to medical care. Medical institutions were not overwhelmed by medical needs due to the Ukraine crisis. There was no epidemic of infectious diseases even at evacuation centers. However, since there was no system to share emergency information between hospitals, we held a disaster medical seminar to introduce the current situation of disaster support in Japan and supporting EMTCC.Conclusion:As a survey team, not only doctors but also nurses, midwives, and CEs surveyed, making it easier to understand the specific medical needs at medical facilities. Most of the evacuees stayed in ordinary Moldovan homes, and it is possible that avoiding a crowded environment at the evacuation shelters prevented the epidemic of infectious diseases.

Home-Based Real-Time Abnormal Movement Detection System Deployed on On-Device Artificial Intelligence

In response to the aging trend in society and to Human Augmentation beings for home-based activities, this paper proposes an Abnormal Movement Detection system, using the common at-home movements of standing up and hand tremors while picking up items for abnormal movement verification. This can be easily applied in ordinary homes or long-term care institutions; for those living alone with limited resources, there is no longer any need to purchase expensive monitoring equipment to achieve improved quality of life. Therefore, this research collected and built the own dataset as the first important step of the study. The proposed Abnormal Movement Detection system is implemented by designing a deep learning network. Several issues, including the network architecture, the novel method of data augmentation and the scoring method of expanding the intervals between abnormality levels, are studied. For achieving the home-based real-time detection, there are four main contributions of this paper. The first is that a training dataset was collected and established: From this, the pathognomonic movement categories are easy to observe in home activities and geometric data augmentation can be used to improve the related home activity video collection. The second is the abnormal behavior detection architecture: This architecture has several important function blocks including detecting object, detecting action, inspecting abnormal movement and reminding event, using Convolutional Neural Network combined with Long Short-Term Memory ([Formula: see text]) as the core network for abnormal motion detection. With movement abnormality evaluation based on different levels, it can judge abnormal behaviors and conduct model training, performance evaluation and architecture optimization with both public domain datasets and the movement dataset collected in this research project. The third is the proliferation of new attributes in the videos: New attributes are added to the original videos through a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), producing new training videos; the effectiveness of two different generation methods is evaluated. Finally, the algorithms developed in this paper are deployed on resource-constrained On-device Artificial Intelligence (AI). Activity videos from a total of 20 people were collected; in all, 53 videos of StandUp and 60 videos of PickUpItems were obtained to establish the training dataset. When CNN and LSTM network were added to Batch Normalization (BN), and Global Average Pooling (GAP) replaced Fully Connected (FC) layers, the accuracy rate reached 98.4%. In terms of data augmentation, geometric transformations and GAN were used to estimate the performance. The experimental results showed that the geometric transformation using brightness adjustment had the highest accuracy rate of 98.6%. Finally, the Softmax layer using Phi-Softmax–tan(⋅) function was shown to be the best method to expand the intervals between abnormality levels.

Neither spectacular nor ordinary: a visual essay on imaginations and homes in Beijing from 2007 to 2019

This visual essay explores the intertwining relationships between urban transformation, homes (the physical dwellings), and imagination in Beijing over a time span of 12 years. The visual materials used in this study are photographs taken in and around the city of Beijing from the time leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games, in 2007, up to the pre-COVID-19 period. Inspired by Arjun Appadurai’s (1996) writing on the social practice of imagination, this article explores the ways in which the imagination – the image, the imagined, and the imaginary – reflects, as well as constructs, the discursive practices of ‘the good life’ in dwellings. The images of the ordinary home not only help investigate the practices of imagination in ordinary life, but more importantly, they serve as a tactical intervention that encourages as well as urges us to contemplate and reflect on the transformation of China. They compel us to ask questions. How do the politics of the spectacular Beijing intersect with the politics of non-spectacular, ordinary everyday life? How have imaginations of the good life that drive support for the state-orchestrated development been displayed, constructed, disseminated, and materialised in the social lives of the ordinary? I argue that imagination of the good life carries the potential to aspire and transform; yet, it can also impose control, and subjugate one to the network of power relations that produces order and normativity.

Predicting abiotic factors to develop a smart office system

The article deals with the prediction of abiotic factors for the Smart Office system. Scientific research in the field of forecasting is given. This article discusses the technology for installing an energy-saving system and its operating principles. Methods of building and managing smart systems are used. Also describes the increase in comfort, thanks to the Smart Office technology. User-friendly interface is used. Affects functions such as: optimization of lighting, heating, protection and control of the house remotely, using mobile devices and special key fobs. Mainly considered the system of automation of business structures depending on the scale. All currently available methods were suggested, which are key factors in the optimization of all business processes. And also considered options for modeling and system development, taking into account all the current problems of automation of smart systems. The importance of the scientific topic affects the high potential for the development of smart home systems and the lack of uniform standards for devices included in these systems. The hardware-software complex under development can be used both in ordinary homes, offices and production facilities. The system is scalable, allowing it to be used for almost any purpose. The article deals with the creation of an autonomous microprocessor-based climate data transmission system. In this paper, we developed a microprocessor-based climate measurement system designed to measure relative humidity and air temperature. The measuring system of climatic parameters is designed to collect measuring information, its further processing, storage and display in a form convenient for the operator’s perception.

Research on different toilet options and toilet improvement methods

This paper describes the flushing principles of various modern toilets and the effects of using different liquids to flush on objects, and provides relatively optimal options and improvement schemes through related research. The flushing effect of modern toilets can wash away objects more easily and cleanly, and through different flushing methods, direct water pressure or siphon principle can wash away those strangely shaped, hard surface, and sticky foreign objects. The device is suitable for a variety of ordinary homes and a variety of public areas for the use of basic human excretion, it is simple to operate, flushing raw materials are easy to obtain, has a complete set of hydraulic system and drainage channel pumping system, and does not require external power supply, through the water pressure plus external force to press the flush button can complete the cleaning of the object in the toilet.

PURWARUPA SISTEM RUMAH PINTAR BERBASIS INTERNET OF THINGS

A smart house is a house that can provide comfort and a sense of security to the residents in it, a smart home is one application of the use of advanced technology. The development of this smart home system prototype aims to provide an overview of implementation, comfort, security, and convenience when the home uses a smart home, this smart home prototype uses an android application as a medium for controlling electronic devices. Users have access to control electronic devices and also monitor temperature, humidity, smoke, LPG gas, and carbon gas. The problems that exist in ordinary homes that do not apply smart home technology are the lack of security at home, and the wasteful use of electricity when forgetting to turn off electronic devices, therefore this system was created to solve these problems. In the development of this system the author uses the waterfall model, the programming language used is C language, and uses Block diagrams for its design.

Design and Implementation of a Self-Learner Smart Home System Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Smart home systems are the integration of technology and services through the network for a better quality of life. Smart homes perform daily housework and activities more easily without user intervention or with remote control of the user. In this study, a machine learning-based smart home system has been developed. The aim of the study is to design a system that can continuously improve itself and learn instead of an ordinary smart home system that can be remotely controlled. The developed machine learning model predicts the routine activities of the users in the home and performs some operations for the user autonomously. The dataset used in the study consists of real data received from the sensors as a result of the daily use. Naive Bayes (NB) (i.e. Gaussian NB, Bernoulli NB, Multinomial NB, and Complement NB), ensemble (i.e. Random Forest, Gradient Tree Boosting and eXtreme Gradient Boosting), linear (i.e. Logistic Regression, Stochastic Gradient Descent, and Passive-Aggressive Classification), and other (i.e. Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine, K Nearest Neighbor, Gaussian Process Classifier (GPC), Multilayer Perceptron) machine learning-based algorithms were utilized. The performance of the proposed smart home system was evaluated using several performance metrics: The best results were obtained from the GPC algorithm (i.e. Precision: 0.97, Recall: 0.98, F1-score: 0.97, Accuracy: 0.97).

No ordinary adult life: Living conditions from the perspective of adults with intellectual disabilities.

This study focuses on the subjective experience of the living conditions of adults with intellectual disabilities as related to the Uppsala Quality of Life model (UQoL2). Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted to study issues raised by people with intellectual disabilities. Study participants had their own home, either in an ordinary dwelling or group home. The findings show that the dependence on support in daily life infringes on the sense of adult social status and control of life. Staff and family had a mandate to define Quality of Life, which countered the possibilities of a life based on the preferences of those with intellectual disabilities. Knowledge about factors that affect living conditions, one of the social determinants of health, has implications for public health in general and the development of society's efforts for people who are in lifelong dependence on support and service from others.

Research on the Impact of Home Nursing Based on Intelligent Medical Internet of Things on the Quality of Life of Patients with Hemophilia.

The purpose of this paper is to study the feasibility and economic benefits of intelligent medical Internet of Things (IOT) systems for improving the quality of life of hemophilia patients, thereby reducing the risk of teratogenicity and disability for patients. This article selects 60 severe hemophilia patients who were followed up in our hospital from 2018 to 2019 as the research object. In the intelligent medical system, the Gaussian mixture model discretization algorithm is used to preprocess patient data collection. The observation group uses the intelligent medical system to implement home nursing for the patients, and the control group uses ordinary home nursing. This paper evaluates the quality of life of the two groups of patients 6 months after the intervention, including self-care ability, transfer function, and home nursing cognitive ability. The research results show that the home nursing based on smart medical IOT proposed in this paper is feasible and effective for improving the quality of life of patients. It can effectively improve the patient's self-care ability and joint functions and has important reference value for the development of intelligent medical IOT equipment.

Early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease using Continuous Convolution Network: Handwriting recognition based on off-line hand drawing without template

The examination of patients' handwriting has become an important auxiliary method for the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson's disease which can be used for early self-diagnosis of patients with Parkinson's disease. However, at present, the recognition of writing disorders based on artificial intelligence technology mainly relies on pattern templates and intelligent dynamic acquisition equipment, which has some design limitations. And professional acquisition equipment is not suitable for ordinary home patients. In order to facilitate the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and get more accurate diagnostic results, this paper is devoted to studying various features of spiral hand drawing of Parkinson's disease and developing an auxiliary diagnosis scheme based on hand drawing. Firstly, through the ablation experiment with open dataset, it is verified that the visual information of hand drawing can better reflect the characteristics of hand drawing of patients with Parkinson's disease than the original dynamic information. Secondly, an Archimedes spiral hand drawing dataset is established that can accurately reflect the tremor, shape and spacing characteristics of the image, with no limitation of the application scenario. Finally, Continuous Convolution Network (CC-Net) is proposed to reduce the pooling layer. Compared with the traditional classification network, CC-Net can accurately extract diversified features of hand drawings and maximize the retention of image information, and obtain a higher classification accuracy with qualified stability (the classification accuracy on the dataset of this paper is about 89.3%, MCC is about 0.733, and average AUC is about 0.934).

Tensions between infection control regulations and the home care working environment: An interview study with health care providers early during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Therefore, the objective of this study was to elucidate caregivers’ experiences of ordinary homes as a working environment in home care and home health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, hospital care was in focus and the care of older adults was criticized around the world. Design and methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted in two municipalities in Sweden between March 2020 and May 2021. One large municipality (population 155,000) with experience of care recipients with COVID-19, and a smaller municipality (population 32,000) were included; both had a focus on preventing the spread of the infection. A total of 27 participants working in home care were interviewed; these were occupational therapists, physical therapists, nurses, and assistant nurses. The interview material was analyzed using content analysis. Results: The interviews provided a comprehensive insight into the complex work environment in municipal home care during the pandemic. The staff had to deal with constantly changing information and new guidelines. They were also given new tasks and work routines that demanded more planning and were time-consuming. The staff experienced higher workload and pressure during the pandemic and did not have enough time to recover. Conclusions: During a pandemic situation, the information must be comprehensive and gathered in one place, and the managers must ensure sufficient staffing levels, time for reflection, and support for prioritization. The managers must also ensure the mental health of staff and meet their needs for recovery, both at and outside work.

How is leadership experienced in joy-of-life-nursing-homes compared to ordinary nursing homes: a qualitative study

BackgroundNursing homes are under strong pressure to provide good care to the patients. In Norway, municipalities have applied the ‘Joy-of-Life-Nursing-Homes’ (JoLNH) strategy which is based on a health-promoting approach building on the older persons’ resources. Meanwhile job satisfaction is closely related to less intention to leave, less turnover and reduced sick leave. The knowledge about adjustable influences related with job satisfaction might help nursing home leaders to minimize turnover and preserve high quality of care. This study explores leadership in Norwegian nursing homes with and without implementation of JoLNH: How does leadership influence the work environment and how is leadership experienced in JoLNH compared to ordinary Nursing Homes?MethodWe used a qualitative approach and interviewed 19 health care personnel working in nursing homes in two Norwegian municipalities. The analysis was conducted following Kvale’s approach to qualitative analysis.ResultsThe main categories after the data condensing were [1] the importance of leadership, and [2] the importance of leadership for the work environment in a municipality with (a) and without (b) an implementation of the JoLNH strategy.ConclusionsThe health care personnel in the municipality with an implementation of JoLNH emphasize that the leader’s influence may lead to increased motivation among the staff and better control of changes and implementation processes. Our findings may indicate that the employee from a JoLNH municipality experience a more trustful relationship to the leader.

The uncanny place: A critical appraisal of popular paranormal TV shows

This article examines the construction of the uncanny place in reality paranormal television. Two introductory sequences from the British programme Most Haunted () are analysed that investigate ‘ordinary homes’ to consider the way that place is framed. Using textual analysis, the content of these sequences, including visual, auditory and discursive signifiers, is considered to identify themes where the inversion of the ordinary and the de-stabilizing of homeliness emerged. The use of binary oppositions and representations of liminality are identified as frequent tropes in the production of reality paranormal television. It is argued that these elements frame places as potentially uncanny and invite the viewers to participate in the paranormal possibility of the home. The uncanny, it is concluded, forms an integral part of the narratives that construct reality paranormal programmes and their success at sustaining an engaged and exploratory audience.

Application of geometric morphometrics for facial congenital anomaly studies.

The face is a small complex three-dimensional (3D) structure composed of various bones and essential organs. Congenital anomalies of those organs represent various deformities; therefore, their quantification has been challenging. Linear measurements, such as lengths or angles between landmarks, called conventional morphometrics, have been used to quantify their phenotypes usually using 2D images, such as photographs or X-ray images. During analysis, geometric information, which refers to the relative position of each structure, is lost. Geometric morphometrics (GM) uses shape configurations, including anatomical landmarks, which can retain geometric information throughout analysis and can help visualize the results, making it tremendously advantageous compared to conventional methods. Morphometric studies investigate variations within groups, identification of group differences, simulation of the ontogeny, or association with specific organs or genetic disorders, and GM can be applied to these purposes using multivariate statistical methods. The calculation of high-dimensional data is usually required and has prevented GM from becoming a major morphometric method. However, recent developments in computer technology and software have enabled us to perform it easily with ordinary home computers, and the number of morphometric studies applying GM for facial congenital anomalies has been increasing recently. In this article, we introduce the concept and application of GM and review previous morphometric studies with GM regarding congenital facial anomalies.