How does a poetry audiobook app improve the perception of well-being in older adults? A study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The worldwide population over 60 years of age is increasing. Thus, older adults should maintain interest and participate in social and family activities to help preserve their independence and promote their well-being. Well-being is a part of human health in its most general sense which manifests itself in all areas of human activity. Leisure activities such as listening to an audiobook may provide enjoyment and promote relaxation in older people and help improve the well-being of older adults. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the impact of an audiobook mobile application on the well-being perception of older adults and to evaluate the usability of a mobile application specifically designed for this population. METHODS: This protocol is a quasi-experimental study that will be conducted with 60 older adults who will use an audiobook mobile application for 4 weeks. Participants will be evaluated pre and post intervention through validated questionnaires on digital competences, usability, and perception of well-being. RESULTS: A positive impact on the perception of well-being is expected in older adults who listen to poems through an audiobook mobile application. CONCLUSIONS: This study will allow us to know the impact on the perception of the older adult's well-being and stimulate other groups to do research on other populations and literary genres. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier-NCT05891925 (An Audiobook-based Intervention on Community-dwelling Older Adults in Concepción, Chile). URL-https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05891925.

Relationship Between Executive Function Subdomains and Postural Balance in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

BACKGROUND: Executive function (EF) deficits are a significant risk factor for falls among older adults (OAs). However, relationship between EF subdomains (shifting, updating, and inhibition), postural balance (PB), and fall risk in healthy OAs, remains poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between EF subdomains (shifting, updating, and inhibition) and PB, and to assess their impact on risk of falls in community-dwelling OAs. METHODS: A cross-sectional study involving 50 OAs aged over 60 years (average age of 72 years) was conducted. Participants underwent assessments of EF subdomains and PB using validated tests. A correlation analysis was employed to examine the relationships between EF and PB. RESULTS: The study revealed significant correlations between subdomains and PB. Mental set shifting (r = -.539; p < .001) and inhibition (r = -.395; p = .050) exhibited inverse relationships with PB. Stepwise multiple linear regression showed that Trail Making Test Part B was associated with the PB (R2 = .42, p < .001). CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the importance of assessing EF subdomains, particularly shifting and inhibition, to identify risk of falls. Trail Making Test Part B largely explains the variability of the PB. Integrating PB assessments and EF training, such as the Mini-BESTest, into routine care can be vital for fall prevention strategies. Significance/Implications: This knowledge underscores the need for cognitive training interventions focusing on shifting and inhibition to enhance PB and potentially reduce falls. Additionally, incorporation of EF assessment tools as Trail Making Test Part B and the Mini-BESTest into routine clinical practice for community-dwelling OAs is recommended to address fall prevention strategies.

Social+Me: a persuasive application to increase communication between students and their support networks in Southern Chile.

Technology can improve university students' communication, helping them maintain relationships. Although there are many available technological tools, students face challenges-e.g., living far from home, failing grades, depression-that may isolate them from their networks. Most research into these topics has been conducted in countries in which students leave their parents' home while at university, which is not the case for most students in southern Chile. In this context that has been seldom studied, this paper presents two studies, focusing on two research questions: (1) How do university students in southern Chile communicate? (2) Can a mobile application persuade university students to increase their communication patterns? To answer these questions, we conducted a survey with 90 students in southern Chile, and then developed a persuasive application called Social+Me, aimed at monitoring communication with students' support networks and persuading them to keep in touch. We conducted a preliminary evaluation of Social+Me, and the application was well received by participants, who felt that it improved their communication with their social network. The main impact of our study lies in applying persuasive technologies to the communicative practice of university students to prevent students from feeling isolated or unsupported.

Enabling Older Adults' Health Self-Management through Self-Report and Visualization-A Systematic Literature Review.

Aging is associated with a progressive decline in health, resulting in increased medical care and costs. Mobile technology may facilitate health self-management, thus increasing the quality of care and reducing costs. Although the development of technology offers opportunities in monitoring the health of older adults, it is not clear whether these technologies allow older adults to manage their health data themselves. This paper presents a review of the literature on mobile health technologies for older adults, focusing on whether these technologies enable the visualization of monitored data and the self-reporting of additional information by the older adults. The systematic search considered studies published between 2009 and 2019 in five online databases. We screened 609 articles and identified 95 that met our inclusion and exclusion criteria. Smartphones and tablets are the most frequently reported technology for older adults to enter additional data to the one that is monitored automatically. The recorded information is displayed on the monitoring device and screens of external devices such as computers. Future designs of mobile health technology should allow older users to enter additional information and visualize data; this could enable them to understand their own data as well as improve their experience with technology.

Spanish version of the mini-BESTest: a translation, transcultural adaptation and validation study in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Balance is affected in numerous neurologic disorders, like stroke, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease contributing to falls, and diminishing quality of life and functionality. The mini-BESTest is one of the most recommended scales to detect balance disorders in people with Parkinson's disease, which has solid psychometric properties. Unfortunately, this scale has not been validated in Chile and there are no other validated scales that can determine balance disorders in patients with Parkinson's disease to date. The study objective was to validate the mini-BESTest scale in Chilean Parkinson's disease patients. The translation and adaptation to Chilean Spanish of the mini-BESTest scale were made following a cross-cultural adaptation process, to then obtain face and content validity by an expert committee. Afterwards, the demographic data and psychometric properties of internal consistency and ceiling and floor effects were measured with a sample of 50 subjects with Parkinson's disease. Furthermore, 10 subjects of the sample were evaluated with the purpose of measuring inter rater reliability. The scale presented a good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.845), and an excellent inter rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.97), no ceiling or floor effects were found. The results of the face and content validity and psychometric properties are adequate, achieving the validation of the mini-BESTest scale for balance in Chilean people with Parkinson's disease.

Understanding Monitoring Technologies for Adults With Pain: Systematic Literature Review.

BACKGROUND: Monitoring of patients may decrease treatment costs and improve quality of care. Pain is the most common health problem that people seek help for in hospitals. Therefore, monitoring patients with pain may have significant impact in improving treatment. Several studies have studied factors affecting pain; however, no previous study has reviewed the contextual information that a monitoring system may capture to characterize a patient's situation. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to (1) determine what types of technologies have been used to monitor adults with pain, and (2) construct a model of the context information that may be used to implement apps and devices aimed at monitoring adults with pain. METHODS: A literature search (2005-2015) was conducted in electronic databases pertaining to medical and computer science literature (PubMed, Science Direct, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore) using a defined search string. Article selection was done through a process of removing duplicates, analyzing title and abstract, and then reviewing the full text of the article. RESULTS: In the final analysis, 87 articles were included and 53 of them (61%) used technologies to collect contextual information. A total of 49 types of context information were found and a five-dimension (activity, identity, wellness, environment, physiological) model of context information to monitor adults with pain was proposed, expanding on a previous model. Most technological interfaces for pain monitoring were wearable, possibly because they can be used in more realistic contexts. Few studies focused on older adults, creating a relevant avenue of research on how to create devices for users that may have impaired cognitive skills or low digital literacy. CONCLUSIONS: The design of monitoring devices and interfaces for adults with pain must deal with the challenge of selecting relevant contextual information to understand the user's situation, and not overburdening or inconveniencing users with information requests. A model of contextual information may be used by researchers to choose possible contextual information that may be monitored during studies on adults with pain.