ABSTRACT
Etrasimod is an investigational, once-daily, oral, selective sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 1,4,5 modulator used as an oral treatment option for immune-mediated inflammatory disorders. This randomized, double-blind, placebo- and positive-controlled, parallel-group, healthy adult study investigated etrasimod's effect on the QT interval and other electrocardiogram parameters. All participants received etrasimod-matched placebo on day 1. Group A received once-daily, multiple ascending doses of etrasimod (2-4 mg) on days 1-14 and moxifloxacin-matched placebo on days 1 and 15. Group B received etrasimod-matched placebo on days 1-14 and either moxifloxacin 400 mg or moxifloxacin-matched placebo on days 1 and 15. The primary analysis was a concentration-QTc analysis using a corrected QT interval by Fridericia (QTcF). The etrasimod concentration-QTc analysis predicted placebo-corrected change from baseline QTcF (ΔΔQTcF) values and associated 90% confidence intervals remained <10 milliseconds over the observed etrasimod plasma concentration range (≤279 ng/mL). Etrasimod was associated with mild, transient, asymptomatic heart rate slowing that was most pronounced on day 1 (2 mg, first dose). The largest-by-time point mean placebo-corrected changes in heart rate from time-matched day -1 baseline (∆∆HR) on days 1, 7 (2 mg, last dose), and 14 (4 mg, last dose) were -15.1, -8.5, and -6.0 bpm, respectively. Etrasimod's effects on PR interval were small, with the largest least squares mean placebo-corrected change from baseline in PR interval (∆∆PR) being 6.6 milliseconds. No episodes of atrioventricular block were observed. Thus, multiple ascending doses of etrasimod were not associated with clinically relevant QT/QTc effects in healthy adults and only had a mild, transient, and asymptomatic impact on heart rate.
Subject(s)
Acetates , Electrocardiography , Fluoroquinolones , Indoles , Adult , Humans , Moxifloxacin/adverse effects , Sphingosine-1-Phosphate ReceptorsABSTRACT
Etrasimod is an investigational, once-daily, oral, selective sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 1,4,5 modulator in development for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs). Here, we report the human safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of etrasimod obtained from both a single ascending dose (SAD; 0.1-5 mg) study and a multiple ascending dose (MAD; 0.35-3 mg once daily) study. Overall, 99 healthy volunteers (SAD n = 40, MAD n = 59) completed the 2 studies. Evaluated single and multiple doses were well tolerated up to 3 mg without severe adverse events (AEs). Gastrointestinal disorders were the most common etrasimod-related AEs. Over the evaluated single- and multiple-dose ranges, dose-proportional and marginally greater-than-dose-proportional etrasimod plasma exposure were observed, respectively. At steady state, etrasimod oral clearance and half-life mean values ranged from 1.0 to 1.2 L/h and 29.7 to 36.4 hours, respectively. Dose-dependent total peripheral lymphocyte reductions occurred following etrasimod single and multiple dosing. Etrasimod multiple dosing resulted in reductions from baseline in total lymphocyte counts ranging from 41.1% to 68.8% after 21 days. Lymphocyte counts returned to normal range within 7 days following treatment discontinuation. Heart rate lowering from pretreatment baseline on etrasimod dosing was typically mild, with mean reductions seen after the first dose of up to 19.5 bpm (5 mg dose). The favorable safety, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic properties of etrasimod in humans supported its further development and warranted its investigation for treatment of IMIDs.
Subject(s)
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Healthy Volunteers , Humans , Adult , Male , Female , Young Adult , Middle Aged , Half-Life , Administration, Oral , Double-Blind Method , Sphingosine 1 Phosphate Receptor Modulators/administration & dosage , Sphingosine 1 Phosphate Receptor Modulators/pharmacokinetics , Sphingosine 1 Phosphate Receptor Modulators/adverse effects , Sphingosine 1 Phosphate Receptor Modulators/pharmacology , Drug Administration Schedule , Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Receptors , Adolescent , Area Under CurveABSTRACT
This study aimed to systematically investigate the relationship between bilingualism, age, L2 onset age of acquisition (AoA), and white matter integrity (operationalized as fractional anisotropy, FA), addressing inconsistencies in the literature. We conducted a meta-analysis of 23 studies and used meta-regression models to assess the influence of age and L2AoA on effect sizes in studies comparing monolinguals and bilinguals. Even though the overall between-group effect size across the whole brain was unreliable, bilingualism was associated with increased white matter integrity in specific tracts and in groups with a limited range of age and L2AoA. Age had a small, negative effect on white matter integrity, with differences between monolinguals and bilinguals more pronounced in younger adults, consistent with a view of an initial increase in white matter integrity, followed by remodeling for efficiency over time. In contrast, later L2AoA was associated with greater white matter integrity in bilinguals than monolinguals, again consistent with the remodeling for efficiency model. Our findings highlight the importance of considering age and L2AoA when examining the neural basis of bilingualism on white matter in the brain and how bilingualism contributes to structural changes that stave off cognitive decline in older age.
Subject(s)
Multilingualism , White Matter , Adult , Humans , Anisotropy , Brain/diagnostic imaging , Brain Mapping , White Matter/diagnostic imaging , Young Adult , AgedABSTRACT
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has established a health systems strengthening initiative for measuring the performance of public sector health facilities in Bangladesh. The objective of the performance management initiative is to establish routine systems for measuring and scoring health facility performance and promote best practices in public health service management. The performance initiative includes a set of assessments conducted across the four tiers of the public health sector. The findings of assessments demonstrate improvements in the quality of health services and a sharp increase in the utilisation of services across all tiers during the period 2017-2019. The performance management initiative has also identified areas for improvement in the supply-side health system readiness, including ensuring an adequate supply of human resources, essential medicines, and functioning medical equipment and technologies. This initiative outlines the need to systematically address the issue of high health workforce vacancy rates through effective human resource planning and management strategies. The reporting of these ongoing health systems successes and challenges through the performance management initiative in Bangladesh provides an opportunity to develop evidence-based policy reforms for strengthening supply-side health systems. The initiative results, particularly in the context of growing public demand for services, also justifies a monitoring and evaluation mechanism focusing on the quality and coverage of frontline health facilities and the development of more integrated health systems. The performance management initiative will facilitate the maintenance of essential health services while addressing emergency health needs and tracking progress towards achieving the Universal Health Coverage goal.
Subject(s)
Public Health , Secondary Data Analysis , Humans , Bangladesh , Public Sector , Universal Health InsuranceABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Obesity and insulin resistance negatively influence neural activity and cognitive function, but electrophysiological mechanisms underlying these interrelationships remain unclear. This study investigated whether adiposity and insulin resistance moderated neural activity and underlying cognitive functions in young adults. METHODS: Real-time electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in 38 lean (n = 12) and obese (n = 26) young adults with (n = 15) and without (n = 23) insulin resistance (18-38 years, 55.3% female) as participants completed three neurocognitive tasks in working memory (Operation Span), inhibitory control (Stroop), and episodic memory (Visual Association Test). Body fat percentage was quantified by a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan (DEXA/DXA). Fasting serum insulin and glucose were quantified to calculate Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) values, for which a higher value indicates more insulin resistance. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis tested these interrelationships. RESULTS: In males, greater frontal negative slow wave (fNSW) and positive slow wave (PSW) amplitudes were linked to higher working memory accuracy in participants with low, but not high, body fat percentage and HOMA-IR levels. In contrast, body fat percentage and HOMA-IR did not moderate these associations in females. Furthermore, body fat percentage and HOMA-IR values moderated the relationship between greater fNSW amplitudes and better episodic memory accuracy in males, but not females. Finally, body fat percentage and insulin resistance did not moderate the link between neural activity and inhibitory control for either sex. CONCLUSION: Young adult males, but not females, with higher body adiposity and insulin resistance showed reduced neural activity and worse underlying working and episodic memory functions.
Subject(s)
Insulin Resistance , Memory, Episodic , Male , Young Adult , Humans , Female , Adiposity , Insulin Resistance/physiology , Obesity , Glucose , InsulinABSTRACT
Background: Existing research has demonstrated the potential of mHealth apps in improving the caregiving outcomes of stroke. Since most of the apps were published in commercially available app stores without explaining their design and evaluation processes, it is necessary to identify the user experience issues to promote long-term adherence and usage. Objective: The purpose of this study was to utilize published user reviews of commercially available apps to determine the user experience issues to guide future app development in stroke caregiving. Methods: User reviews were extracted from the previously identified 46 apps that support stroke caregiving needs using a python-scraper. The reviews were pre-processed and filtered using python scripts to consider English reviews that described issues faced by the user. The final corpus was categorized based on TF-IDF vectorization and k-means clustering technique, and the issues extracted from the various topics were classified based on the seven dimensions of user experience to highlight factors that may affect the usage of the app. Results: A total of 117,364 were extracted from the two app stores. After filtration, 13,368 reviews were included and classified based on the user experience dimensions. Findings highlight critical issues that affect the usability, usefulness, desirability, findability, accessibility, credibility, and value of the app that contribute to decreased satisfaction and increased frustration. Conclusion: The study identified several user experience issues due to the inability of the app developers to understand the needs of the user. Further, the study describes the inclusion of a participatory design approach to promote an improved understanding of user needs; therefore, limiting any issues and ensuring continued use.
Subject(s)
Stroke , Telemedicine , Humans , Caregivers , Cluster Analysis , Stroke/therapyABSTRACT
Etrasimod (APD334) is an investigational, once-daily, oral, selective sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 1,4,5 modulator (S1P1,4,5 ) in development for treatment of various immune-mediated inflammatory disorders. The disposition and mass balance of a single 2-mg [14 C]etrasimod dose were evaluated in 8 healthy males. An in vitro study was also conducted to identify etrasimod's oxidative metabolizing enzymes. Peak concentrations of etrasimod and total radioactivity in plasma and whole blood were typically reached 4-7 hours postdose. Etrasimod constituted 49.3% of total radioactivity plasma exposure, with multiple minor/trace metabolites making up the remainder. Etrasimod was slowly cleared mainly via biotransformation, predominantly by oxidative metabolism, with unchanged etrasimod recovered in feces accounting for only 11.2% of the dose and none in urine. The mean apparent terminal half-lives of etrasimod and total radioactivity in plasma were 37.8 and 89.0 hours, respectively. Mean cumulative recovery of radioactivity in excreta over 336 hours was 86.9% of the dose, mostly in feces. The prevalent metabolites eliminated in feces were M3 (hydroxy-etrasimod) and M36 (oxy-etrasimod sulfate), accounting for 22.1% and 18.9% of the dose, respectively. From in vitro reaction phenotyping, the predominant enzymes involved in the oxidation of etrasimod were CYP2C8, CYP2C9, and CYP3A4, with minor contributions from CYP2C19 and CYP2J2.
Subject(s)
Acetates , Indoles , Male , Humans , Healthy Volunteers , Oxidative StressABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Globally, stroke is a leading cause of death and disability, with most care undertaken by caregivers who are generally family and friends without prior experience of care. The lack of experience or unpreparedness results in feelings of uncertainty, burnout, anxiety, burden, etc. Hence, it is necessary to identify the needs of caregivers to better support them in their caregiving journey and improve the quality of care delivered. METHODS: The study employed a grounded theory methodology that utilizes information gathered from literature reviews and social media to represent the needs and create a storyline visually. The storyline is further refined and evaluated using an online survey of 72 participants recruited through online stroke caregiving communities. RESULTS: The study identified four core categories of needs: (i) Information: sufficient information delivered in layman's terms based on the individual situation of the caregiver and survivor through oral and hands-on demonstrations, (ii) Involvement: inclusion in the decision-making processes at different stages of recovery through face-to-face communication at the hospital, (iii) Self-care: ability to engage in work and leisure activities, (iv) Support: receive support in the form of resources, services and finances from different other stakeholders. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to create a caregiver-centered approach in stroke recovery to ensure limited obstruction to care and reduced uncertainty in stroke recovery. Moreover, through the inclusion of caregivers in stroke recovery, it may be possible to reduce the burden of care to the caregiver and ensure the satisfaction of the healthcare system throughout stroke recovery.
Subject(s)
Disabled Persons , Stroke , Humans , Caregivers , Self Care , Grounded Theory , Stroke/therapyABSTRACT
The aim of the present study was to investigate how resting state EEG rhythms reflect attentional processes and bilingual experience. We compared alpha and beta rhythms for monolingual and bilingual young adults in eyes open and eyes closed conditions using EEG measures of frequency power, reactivity, and coherence. Power shows the amount of brain activity at a given frequency band; reactivity indexes the desynchronization of neuronal activity when individuals open their eyes at rest; and coherence indicates the brain regions that have correlated activity. The results showed that bilinguals had similar alpha power as monolinguals in both resting conditions but less alpha reactivity across the whole scalp. There was also more focused activation for bilinguals expressed as more coherence in posterior electrodes, particularly when eyes were opened to direct attention. For beta, there were no group differences in power or reactivity, but there was higher coherence for monolinguals than bilinguals, a pattern consistent with previous literature showing that beta frequency was related to language learning and native language proficiency. These results are in line with a neural efficiency theory and suggest that bilinguals have a more efficient brain for attentional mechanisms than monolinguals at rest.
Subject(s)
Multilingualism , Young Adult , Humans , Brain/physiology , Brain Mapping , AttentionABSTRACT
Gains in immunization coverage and delivery of primary health care service have stagnated in recent years. Remaining gaps in service coverage reflect multiple underlying reasons that may be amenable to improved health system design. Immunization systems and other primary health care services can be mutually supportive, for improved service delivery and for strengthening of Universal Health Coverage. Improvements require that dynamic and multi-faceted barriers and risks be addressed. These include workforce availability, quality data systems and use, leadership and management that is innovative, flexible, data driven and responsive to local needs. Concurrently, improvements in procurement, supply chain, logistics and delivery systems, and integrated monitoring of vaccine coverage and epidemiological disease surveillance with laboratory systems, and vaccine safety will be needed to support community engagement and drive prioritized actions and communication. Finally, political will and sustained resource commitment with transparent accountability mechanisms are required. The experience of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on essential PHC services and the challenges of vaccine roll-out affords an opportunity to apply lessons learned in order to enhance vaccine services integrated with strong primary health care services and universal health coverage across the life course.
ABSTRACT
The global mHealth app market is rapidly expanding, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many of these mHealth apps have serious issues, as reported in their user reviews. Better understanding their key user concerns would help app developers improve their apps' quality and uptake. While app reviews have been used to study user feedback in many prior studies, many are limited in scope, size and/or analysis. In this paper, we introduce a very large-scale study and analysis of mHealth app reviews. We extracted and translated over 5 million user reviews for 278 mHealth apps. These reviews were then classified into 14 different aspects/categories of issues reported. Several mHealth app subcategories were examined to reveal differences in significant areas of user concerns, and to investigate the impact of different aspects of mhealth apps on their ratings. Based on our findings, women's health apps had the highest satisfaction ratings. Fitness activity tracking apps received the lowest and most unfavourable ratings from users. Over half of users who reported troubles leading them to uninstall mHealth apps gave a 1-star rating. Half of users gave the account and logging aspect only one star due to faults and issues encountered while registering or logging in. Over a third of users who expressed privacy concerns gave the app a 1-star rating. However, only 6% of users gave apps a one-star rating due to UI/UX concerns. 20% of users reported issues with handling of user requests and internationalisation concerns. We validated our findings by manually analysing a sample of 1,000 user reviews from each investigated aspect/category. We developed a list of recommendations for mHealth apps developers based on our user review analysis.
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Research on the cognitive consequences of bilingualism typically proceeds by labeling participants as "monolingual" or "bilingual" and comparing performance on some measures across these groups. It is well-known that this approach has led to inconsistent results. However, the approach assumes that there are clear criteria to designate individuals as monolingual or bilingual, and more fundamentally, to determine whether a communication system counts as a unique language. Both of these assumptions may not be correct. The problem is particularly acute when participants are asked to classify themselves or simply report how many languages they speak. Participants' responses to these questions are shaped by their personal perceptions of the criteria for making these judgments. This study investigated the perceptions underlying judgments of bilingualism by asking 528 participants to judge the extent to which a description of a fictional linguistic system constitutes a unique language and the extent to which a description of a fictional individual's linguistic competence qualifies that person as bilingual. The results show a range of responses for both concepts, indicating substantial ambiguity for these terms. Moreover, participants were asked to self-classify as monolingual or bilingual, and these decisions were not related to more objective information regarding the degree of bilingual experience obtained from a detailed questionnaire. These results are consistent with the notion that bilingualism is not categorical and that specific language experiences are important in determining the criteria for being bilingual. The results impact interpretations of research investigating group differences on the cognitive effects of bilingualism.
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Attention has recently been proposed as the mechanism underlying the cognitive effects associated with bilingualism. However, similar to bilingualism, the term attention is complex, dynamic, and can vary from one activity to another. Throughout our daily lives, we use different types of attention that differ in complexity: sustained attention, selective attention, alternating attention, divided attention, and disengagement of attention. The present paper is a focused review summarizing the results from studies that explore the link between bilingualism and attention. For each level of attention, a brief overview of relevant theoretical models will be discussed along with a spotlight on paradigms and tasks used to measure these forms of attention. The findings illustrate that different types and levels of attention are modified by the variety of bilingual experiences. Future studies wishing to examine the effects of bilingualism on attention are encouraged to embrace the complexity and diversity of both constructs rather than making global claims about bilingualism and attention.
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BACKGROUND: Recent surveys, studies and reviews in urban areas of Pakistan have highlighted the impacts of social inequities on access of women and children to health services for women and children in Pakistan. OBJECTIVES: The Urban Slum Profiles and coverage surveys were conducted between 2017 and 2019. The objective of the profiles was to obtain an updated listing of slums and other underserved areas, and to better understand current vaccination and health service coverage in these areas. Utilising findings from these studies, this paper aims to better understand the gender and social determinants of health that are giving rise to health inequalities in the slums. METHODS: The Urban Slum Profiles adopted a mixed methods approach combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study was comprised of two main survey approaches of Urban Slum Profiles and Immunisation Coverage Survey in 4431 urban poor areas of the 10 most highly populated cities of Pakistan. RESULTS: Findings are classified into six analytic categories of (1) access to health services, (2) female workforce participation, (3) gender-friendly health services, (4) access to schools and literacy, (5) social connections, and (6) autonomy of decision making. Out of a national sample of 14,531 children in urban poor areas of 10 cities, the studies found that just over half of the children are fully immunised (54%) and 14% of children had received zero doses of vaccine. There are large shortages of health facilities and female health workforce in the slums, with significant gaps in the quality of health infrastructure, which all serve to limit both demand for, and supply of, health services for women and children. Results demonstrate low availability of schools, low levels of female literacy and autonomy over decision making, limited knowledge of the benefits of vaccination, and few social connections outside the home. All these factors interact and reinforce existing gender norms and low levels of health literacy and service access. CONCLUSION: The Urban Slum profiles and coverage studies provide an opportunity to introduce gender transformative strategies that include expansion of a female health workforce, development of costed urban health action plans, and an enabling policy environment to support community organisation and more equitable health service delivery access.
Subject(s)
Poverty Areas , Social Determinants of Health , Child , Cities , Female , Humans , Male , Pakistan , Urban Population , Vulnerable PopulationsABSTRACT
Background: Caregiving in stroke is complex, with most carers having little to no preparation to care for individuals with a history of stroke, leading to emotional impact. Technologies such as Mobile Health can provide the carer with real-time support and prepare the carer to assume their new roles and responsibilities. Objectives: To perform a heuristic evaluation of mHealth interventions designed to support carers of individuals with a history of stroke and determine the user preferences in stroke caregiving technology to inform future researchers and developers regarding the best practices to support these individuals. Methods: Twenty adults (i.e. 10 usability experts and 10 carers) participated in an iterative user-centred design study that focused on developing and modifying the mHealth intervention (StrokeCaregiver (SeCr)) created to support stroke caregiving. The intervention was repeated in four cycles, including two cycles with five usability experts each and five carers each. Results: SeCr was iteratively improved to develop a highly usable product in multiple cycles. Participants demonstrated critical needs in personalized information support, communication with their healthcare needs, and the trust of the user, content, and developer. These critical needs are required to be met to promote long-term acceptance and adherence. Conclusions: While SeCr was developed to address the needs of carers of individuals with a history of stroke, several considerations must be made to ensure it can be used in a real-world setting. Researchers and developers can use co-design or living lab approaches to further meet the needs and expectations of the carer and enable these individuals to be better prepared for stroke caregiving.
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Early research that relied on standardized assessments of intelligence reported negative effects of bilingualism for children, but a study by Peal and Lambert (1962) reported better performance by bilingual than monolingual children on verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests. This outcome led to the view that bilingualism was a positive experience. However, subsequent research abandoned intelligence tests as the assessment tool and evaluated performance on cognitive tasks, making the research after Peal and Lambert qualitatively different from that before their landmark study, creating a disconnect between the new and earlier research. These newer cognitive studies showed both positive effects of bilingualism and no differences between language groups. But why were Peal and Lambert's results so different from previous studies that were also based on intelligence tests? The present study analyzed data from verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests that were collected from 6,077 participants across 79 studies in which intelligence tests were administered as background measures to various cognitive tasks. By including adults, the study extends the results across the life span. On standardized verbal tests, monolinguals outperformed bilinguals, but on nonverbal measures of intelligence, there were no differences between language groups. These results, which are different from those reported by Peal and Lambert, are used to reinterpret their findings in terms of the sociolinguistic, political, and cultural context in which the Peal and Lambert study was conducted and the relevance of those factors for all developmental research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Multilingualism , Adult , Child , Humans , Intelligence , Intelligence Tests , LanguageABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: There has been a steady rise in the availability of health wearables and built-in smartphone sensors that can be used to collect health data reliably and conveniently from end users. Given the feature overlaps and user tendency to use several apps, these are important factors impacting user experience. However, there is limited work on analyzing the data collection aspect of mobile health (mHealth) apps. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to analyze what data mHealth apps across different categories usually collect from end users and how these data are collected. This information is important to guide the development of a common data model from current widely adopted apps. This will also inform what built-in sensors and wearables, a comprehensive mHealth platform should support. METHODS: In our empirical investigation of mHealth apps, we identified app categories listed in a curated mHealth app library, which was then used to explore the Google Play Store for health and medical apps that were then filtered using our selection criteria. We downloaded these apps from a mirror site hosting Android apps and analyzed them using a script that we developed around the popular AndroGuard tool. We analyzed the use of Bluetooth peripherals and built-in sensors to understand how a given app collects health data. RESULTS: We retrieved 3251 apps meeting our criteria, and our analysis showed that 10.74% (349/3251) of these apps requested Bluetooth access. We found that 50.9% (259/509) of the Bluetooth service universally unique identifiers to be known in these apps, with the remainder being vendor specific. The most common health-related Bluetooth Low Energy services using known universally unique identifiers were Heart Rate, Glucose, and Body Composition. App permissions showed the most used device module or sensor to be the camera (669/3251, 20.57%), closely followed by location (598/3251, 18.39%), with the highest occurrence in the staying healthy app category. CONCLUSIONS: We found that not many health apps used built-in sensors or peripherals for collecting health data. The small number of the apps using Bluetooth, with an even smaller number of apps using standard Bluetooth Low Energy services, indicates a wider use of proprietary algorithms and custom services, which restrict the device use. The use of standard profiles could open this ecosystem further and could provide end users more options for apps. The relatively small proportion of apps using built-in sensors along with a high reliance on manual data entry suggests the need for more research into using sensors for data collection in health and fitness apps, which may be more desirable and improve end user experience.
Subject(s)
Mobile Applications , Telemedicine , Data Collection , Ecosystem , Humans , SmartphoneABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Caregivers often use the internet to access information related to stroke care to improve preparedness, thereby reducing uncertainty and enhancing the quality of care. METHOD: Social media communities used by caregivers of people affected by stroke were identified using popular keywords searched for using Google. Communities were filtered based on their ability to provide support to caregivers. Data from the included communities were extracted and analysed to determine the content and level of interaction. RESULTS: There was a significant rise in the use of social media by caregivers of people affected by stroke. The most popular social media communities were charitable and governmental organizations with the highest user interaction-this was for topics related to stroke prevention, signs and symptoms, and caregiver self-care delivered through video-based resources. CONCLUSION: Findings show the ability of social media to support stroke caregiver needs and practices that should be considered to increase their interaction and support.
Subject(s)
Caregivers , Quality of Life , Social Media , Social Support , Stroke Rehabilitation , Stroke , HumansABSTRACT
AIM: This rapid review examines the technology-based interventions for caregivers of stroke proposed in the literature while also identifying the acceptance, effectiveness and satisfaction of the implemented approaches. BACKGROUND: The increasing burden of supporting stroke survivors has resulted in caregivers searching for innovative solutions, such as technology-based interventions, to provide better care. Hence, its potential to support caregivers throughout the disease trajectory needs to be assessed. EVALUATION: Five electronic databases were systematically searched for articles related to stroke caregiving technologies based on well-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. KEY ISSUE(S): Fifteen articles met the inclusion criteria that focused on supporting caregivers through functionalities such as education, therapy and support, remote consultations, health assessments and logs and reminders using different devices. The majority of interventions demonstrated positive conclusions for caregiving impact, acceptance, effectiveness and satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the influences of technology in improving stroke caregiving and the need to include user-centred design principles to create a meaningful, actionable and feasible system for caregivers. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Technology can educate and support stroke caregivers, thereby minimizing uncertainty and ensuring better care for the survivor.