Use Of Personal Mobile Phones Research Articles

ROAD CHARACTERISTICS, TRAFFIC NATURE AND DRIVERS’ PROPENSITY TO USE MOBILE PHONE

The objective of this study was to investigate whether drivers’ propensity to use mobile phone during active driving was determined by given road type, road condition and traffic nature. Naturalistic observations of vehicles were conducted on intra-city roads in Lagos, Ibadan and Ile-Ife and intercity roads between Lagos-Ibadan and Ibadan-Ife expressways. Interview was also conducted with 26 drivers purposively selected to provide narrative account of personal mobile phone use while driving. Descriptive and content analysis techniques were used to present the results of both the observation and interview. Results showed that 5.18% of a total 2627 drivers observed on the intracity roads were seeing with their phones during active driving while 6.09% of 952 drivers observed on the intercity expressways were seeing using their mobile phones. Results also revealed that high percentage of drivers would not use their phone on high-ways (H-Ws), bumpy roads (BRs) and lowdensity traffic (LDT) while most drivers use their mobile phones on street-level roads (SLRs), smooth surface roads (SSRs). Factors such as exigency of calls, suitability to pick calls, consideration for speed, chaotic potential outcomes were among factors that determine their penchant to pick calls.

Mobile phone use and the welfare of community health nurses in Ghana: An analysis of unintended costs

The use of mobile phones is fast transforming the healthcare delivery landscape in Ghana. A substantial number of health facilities are now dependent on mobile phones to facilitate their work. Evidence of the use of mobile phones in Ghana’s healthcare is however limited. In order to contribute to the evidence of the value of using mobile phones to promote healthcare, we interrogated and highlighted unexpected costs imposed on community health nurses who use their personal mobile phones for healthcare delivery in the country. Data for the study were derived from 598 completed questionnaires and extracts from focus group discussions with community health nurses who were sampled from three regions across the three main ecological zones of Ghana. The results show that over 90% of nurses bear the cost of paying for airtime, bundles and chargers used for work-related activities, yet less than 10% of them receive direct compensation. This costly burden has the potential to demotivate the nurses and threaten the country’s progress towards the achievement of universal health coverage. More significantly, the data strongly suggest that physical distance, regional location and gender are the main factors triggering extra costs incurred by the nurses. We conclude that the use of personal mobile phones for healthcare delivery imposed huge financial burden on community health workers in Ghana. A suggested intervention to forestall negative consequences on performance is to offer incentive packages to nurses as a compensation for the financial and non-physical costs of using personal mobile phones for work-related activities.

Formalising ‘informal’ mHealth in Ghana: Opportunities and challenges for Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

ABSTRACT While mobile phones promise to be an important tool for bridging the healthcare gaps in resource-poor areas in developing countries, scalability and sustainability of mobile phones for health (mhealth) interventions still remain a major challenge. Meanwhile, health workers are already using their own mobile phones (referred to as ‘informal mhealth’) to facilitate healthcare delivery in diverse ways. Therefore, this paper explores some strategies for integrating ‘informal mHealth’ in the healthcare delivery of Ghana, by highlighting some opportunities and challenges. The study mainly employed a combination of literature review, focus group discussions and key informant interviews with community health nurses (CHNs) and other stakeholders, who were purposively selected from the three ecological zones in Ghana. The study found that, while scale-up of ‘formal mhealth’ remains challenging in Ghana, almost all CHNs in our study are using their personal mobile phones ‘informally’ to bridge healthcare gaps, thereby promoting universal health coverage. This provides opportunities for promoting (or formalising) ‘informal’ mhealth in Ghana, in spite of some practical challenges in the use of personal mobile phones that need to be addressed to ensure sustainable healthcare delivery in the country.

Are health care workers following preventive practices in the COVID-19 pandemic properly? - A cross-sectional survey from India

Background and aimsHealth care workers (HCWs) are at increased risk of getting infected with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and suboptimal preventive practices have been identified as an important risk factor in this regard. This study was done to evaluate the preventive practices being followed by health care workers and identify reasons for suboptimal compliance. MethodsA cross-sectional survey was done in HCWs belonging to various occupational roles and socio-cultural backgrounds across India through online platforms and telephonic interviews from July 30, 2020 to August 30, 2020. A scientifically designed and pre-validated questionnaire with good validity (CVR = 0.87, S-CVI/Av = 0.978) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.85) was used. ResultsThe responses of 956 participants were analysed. Various suboptimal practices like touching outer surface of masks, lack of social distancing in cafeteria and duty rooms, inability to wash hands for adequate duration and properly follow steps of hand hygiene, inability to don and doff PPE properly, carrying PPE to duty rooms before completely doffing, use of personal mobile phones during duty and improper sleep were identified. Lack of knowledge, long duty hours, shortage of PPE, high patient workload, and casual attitude regarding own safety were identified as important barriers. Resident doctors and paramedical staff in the age group 18–30 years reported lower adherence. ConclusionsSuboptimal compliance in preventive practices like handling PPE, distancing in cafeteria/duty rooms and hand hygiene is not uncommon in HCWs. Certain barriers are identified which should be addressed to ensure adequate safety of HCWs against COVID-19.

Mobile use Style Mobile Phone use Style among College Students

The main purpose of present study was to find out mean difference certain personal mobile phone use style in college students the tata sample insisted of 200 students among which 100 of girls and 100 boys selected from different area of rural and urban of amreli city the research tool used for mobile phone use style by wikle (2003) It consists of 18 items to check in ‘t’ test and correlation of college students methods was used in mobile phone use style in gender and areas variables were showed not significant difference at 0.05 levels and correlation analysis showed that high positive in mobile phone use style gender and areas result.

The Social Implications of Technology Diffusion: Uncovering the Unintended Consequences of People’s Health-Related Mobile Phone Use in Rural India and China

After three decades of mobile phone diffusion, thousands of mobile-phone-based health projects worldwide (“mHealth”), and hundreds of thousands of smartphone health applications, fundamental questions about the effect of phone diffusion on people’s healthcare behavior continue to remain unanswered. This study investigated whether, in the absence of specific mHealth interventions, people make different healthcare decisions if they use mobile phones during an illness. Following mainstream narratives, we hypothesized that phone use during an illness (a) increases and (b) accelerates healthcare access. Our study was based on original survey data from 800 respondents in rural Rajasthan (India) and Gansu (China), sampled from the general adult population in 2014 in a three-stage stratified cluster random sampling design. We analyzed single- and multi-level logistic, Poisson, and negative binomial regression models with cluster-robust standard errors. Contrary to other research at the intersection of mobile phones and healthcare, we captured actual health-related mobile phone use during people’s illnesses irrespective of whether they own a phone. Our analysis produced the first quantitative micro-evidence that patients’ personal mobile phone use is correlated with their healthcare decisions. Despite a positive association between phone use and healthcare access, health-related phone use was also linked to delayed access to public doctors and nurses. We considered theoretical explanations for the observed patterns by augmenting transaction cost and information deficit arguments with the prevailing health system configuration and with notions of heuristic decision-making during the healthcare-seeking process. Our study was a first step toward understanding the implications of mobile technology diffusion on health behavior in low- and middle-income countries in the absence of specific mHealth interventions. Future research will have to explore the causal relationships underlying these statistical associations. Such a link could potentially mean that development interventions aimed at improving access to healthcare continue to require conventional solutions to sustain healthcare equity.

RCN advises nurses on use of personal mobile phones for work purposes.

Nurses should not use personal mobile phones to record, transmit or store a patient's personal details, health information or images, according to updated guidance from the RCN.

Sociotechnical analysis of nurses’ use of personal mobile phones at work

BackgroundNurses’ use of personal mobiles phones at work is a growing trend in healthcare organizations. Although recent studies have explored the positive and negative implications of nurses using personal mobile phones at work, none has yet analyzed the interactions of sociotechnical components (users, technology and policy) on nurses’ use of personal mobile phones at work. ObjectivesIdentify sociotechnical interactions by analyzing each sociotechnical component (users, technology and policy) that affects nurses’ use of personal mobile phones at work. MethodsIn-depth interviews were conducted with 30 nurses employed in 13 hospitals in the Philippines. The respondents include staff nurses (n=23), charge nurses (n=4), and nurse managers (n=3). Staff nurses were asked on their use of personal mobile phones at work, while charge and nurse managers were asked on their observations regarding staff nurses’ use of personal mobile phones at work. Responses were analyzed qualitatively using sociotechnical analysis. ResultsSociotechnical analysis indicated that staff nurses used their personal mobile phones at work in various ways because its use helped in their nursing work, but inevitably altered a few of their routines. Although most hospitals had policies that prohibit the use of mobile phones, staff nurses justified their use of personal mobile phones by using it for work purposes and for the benefit of their patients. Staff nurses highlighted the absence of hospital-provided mobile phones as a key reason for using personal mobile phones at work. Charge nurses and nurse managers also influenced staff nurses’ use of personal mobile phones at work. ConclusionsNurses could use their personal mobile phones at work for work purposes to enhance their clinical performance and improve patient care. Hospital administrators can leverage on nurses’ use of personal mobile phones at work by formulating policies that consider both the benefits and potential drawbacks of mobile phone usage. Recommendations are made for the formulation of hospital policies to optimize the use of personal mobile phones of nurses at work.

Nursing Performance and Mobile Phone Use: Are Nurses Aware of Their Performance Decrements?

BackgroundPrior research has documented the effect of concurrent mobile phone use on medical care. This study examined the extent of hospital registered nurses’ awareness of their mobile-phone-associated performance decrements.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to compare self-reported performance with reported observed performance of others with respect to mobile phone use by hospital registered nurses.MethodsIn March 2014, a previously validated survey was emailed to the 10,978 members of the Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses. The responses were analyzed using a two-proportion z test (alpha=.05, two-tailed) to examine whether self-reported and observed rates of error were significantly different. All possible demographic and employment confounders which could potentially contribute to self-reported and observed performance errors were tested for significance.ResultsOf the 950 respondents, 825 (8.68%, 825/950) met the inclusion criteria for analysis. The representativeness of the sample relative to the US nursing workforce was assessed using a two-proportion z test. This indicated that sex and location of primary place of employment (urban/rural) were represented appropriately in the study sample. Respondents in the age groups <40 years old were underrepresented, while age groups >55 years old were overrepresented. Whites, American Indians/Alaskan natives, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders were underrepresented, while Hispanic and multiple/other ethnicities were overrepresented. It was decided to report the unweighted, rather than the weighted survey data, with the recognition that the results, while valuable, may not be generalizable to the entire US registered nursing workforce. A significant difference was found between registered nurses’ self-reported and observed rates of errors associated with concurrent mobile phone use in following three categories (1) work performance (z=−26.6142, P<.001, Fisher’s exact test), (2) missing important clinical information (z=−13.9882, P=.008, Fisher’s exact test), and (3) making a medical error (z=−9.6798, P<.001, Fisher’s exact test). Respondents reported that personal mobile phone use by nurses at work was a serious distraction; always (13%, 107/825), often (29.6%, 244/825), sometimes (44.6%, 368/825), rarely (8.7%, 72/825), or never (1.2%, 10/825). On balance, 69.5% (573/825) of respondents believed that nurses’ use of personal mobile phones while working had a negative effect on patient care. Since all possible confounders were tested and none were deemed significant, a multivariate analysis was not considered necessary.ConclusionsMany hospitals are drawing up policies that allow workers to decide how to use their devices at work. This study found that nurses express a disproportionately high confidence in their ability to manage the risk associated with the use of mobile phones and may not be able to accurately assess when it is appropriate to use these devices at work.

Non-work-related use of personal mobile phones by hospital registered nurses.

BackgroundPersonal mobile phones and other personal communication devices (smartphones and tablet computers) provide users with an ever-increasing number and diversity of non-work-related activities while at work. In hospitals, where the vigilance of health care workers is essential for patient care, the potential distraction of these devices could be hazardous to patients.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to determine the frequency of non-work-related use of personal mobile phones and other personal communication devices among hospital registered nurses.MethodsIn March 2014, a previously validated 30-question survey was emailed to the 10,978 members of the Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses. There were 825 respondents who met the inclusion criteria.ResultsThe use of a personal mobile phone or other personal communication device while working (excluding meal times and breaks) was reported by 78.1% (644/825) of respondents. Nurses reported regularly (sometimes, often, or always) sending personal emails and text messages (38.6%, 318/825), reading news (25.7%, 212/825), checking/posting on social networking sites (20.8%, 172/825), shopping (9.6%, 79/825), and playing games (6.5%, 54/825) while working.ConclusionsThis study found that hospital nurses frequently use their personal mobile phones or other personal communication devices for non-work-related activities at work. The primary activity reported was to send personal emails and text messages to family and friends.

Are thyroid dysfunctions related to stress or microwave exposure (900 MHz)?

In the last decade, numerous scientific evidence suggested possible adverse health effects from exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF'S) and the use of mobile phones. According to some studies EMF induced changes of trans-membrane Ca++ flux may lead to altered metabolism and/or secretion of neurohormones including TSH, ACTH, GH, prolactin and melatonin. The aim of this research was to analyse the effects of mobile phone use on thyroid function and to evaluate the possible role of occupational stress. 2598 employees (1355 men and 1243 women) with different duties (vendors, operators and network technicians) were included in the study. Exposure to EMF'S, generated by mobile phones, was assessed both by submitting a questionnaire directly to the employees and acquiring data regarding conversation times. The workers were divided into three groups on the basis of their personal mobile phone use. Moreover, a group of 160 workers with TSH values below 0.4 UI/l was characterized. No statistically significant difference regarding TSH values below 0.4 UI/l was observed among workers with different duties but there was a greater prevalence of subjects with low SH values among 192 employees with more than 33 hrs./month conversation time; this difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). On the basis of our data, it is not possible to establish whether this result is determined by exposure to EMF'S from mobile phones of by the stress of using these instruments.

Big tobacco is watching: British American Tobacco's surveillance and information concealment at the Guildford depository

The 1998 State of Minnesota legal settlement with the tobacco industry required British American Tobacco (BAT) to provide public access to the 8 million pages housed in its document depository located near Guildford, UK, and to any company documents sent to the Minnesota depository. While the Minnesota depository is managed by an independent third party, BAT's Guildford depository is run by the company itself. Starkly different from the Minnesota depository, at the Guildford depository it is extraordinarily more difficult to access, search, and obtain requested documents. BAT's approach to running the Guildford depository, in our view, amounts to concealing what is supposed to be public information. Newly produced BAT documents from subsequent litigation, dating from 1996 to 2001 disclose the company's efforts to gather intelligence on visitors and their work. We believe that BAT has acted to make access to information more difficult by delaying document production requested by public visitors and refusing to supply requested documents in an electronic format despite, in the company's own words, the establishment of "big time imaging" capabilities at the Guildford depository. During testimony in 2000, then BAT Chairman, Martin Broughton stated to the UK House of Commons Health Select Committee that the scanning and subsequent placement of the Guildford collection online "would be an extreme effort for absolutely no purpose whatsoever", stating that "there is no indication to me that serious researchers are showing any interest in the papers em leader ". New documents show that not only did the company recognise the importance of research undertaken by visitors, but also invested substantial resources and undertook numerous scanning projects during that time. The vulnerability of this important resource is demonstrated by the decreased number of files listed on the electronic database and the inadvertent deletion of an audio tape housed at the depository. With regard to intelligence gathering, BAT's law firm reported to BAT on the daily activities of depository visitors. Despite assurances to the contrary, these depository visitor reports show that BAT apparently tracked the database searches of a visitor. The company also tracked the physical movement of visitors and, in at least one instance, observed and noted the personal mobile phone use of a visitor. These activities raise ethical issues about BAT and/or its solicitors observing the work of lawyers and researchers representing health and government bodies. Given this new evidence, we assert that BAT is incapable of operating its depository in the spirit of the Minnesota settlement and should, therefore, be divorced from its operation. Accordingly, we recommend that the company provide its entire document collection electronically to interested parties thus allowing greater access to the public-health community as has been done in the USA.