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Introduction and objective: Mobile health applications (mHealth) can bring revolutionary changes to health care by making it more accessible, cost-effective, and efficient. The successful adoption of mHealth is largely determined by its acceptance by providers and end users. The acceptance of mHealth among nursing students, who are the future nurses, needs to be understood. This study aimed to determine the preferences, acceptability, and usage of mHealth applications among undergraduate nursing students. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in two selected universities in southern and northern India. A convenience sample of 567 undergraduate nursing students was recruited for the study. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire via Google Forms. Results: mHealth applications were presently used by 32.9% of the students. The most common types of mHealth applications used were diet related (27.6%) and lifestyle related (23.4%). The majority of nursing students were willing to use mobile phones for consulting health professionals (78.8%) for prevention and management of health and disease. (83.1%), and for emergencies (73.3%). While more than half of the students were willing to recommend mHealth applications for patients, those students who were using two or more mHealth apps were more likely to recommend the same for the patients. Conclusion: The results of the study highlight about the usage of mobile health applications among the nursing students. The students consider mHealth applications to be useful for delivering health-related services to end users. The study underscores the need to sensitize students about the possible usage of mHealth in healthcare delivery.
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BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide, especially in developing countries. More than one-fifth of newly diagnosed cervical cancer cases are occurring in India. Cervical cancer is a highly preventable and curable cancer compared with other types of cancer, if detected at an early stage. The present study has been carried out to assess whether a community-based, multicomponent, nurse-led intervention program improves cervical cancer screening behavior of women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An experimental randomized controlled trial was carried out by recruiting 419 women in the age group of 30-60 years (246 in the experimental group and 173 in the control group) residing in a selected rural community (selected tribal settlements) of Idukki district of Kerala, India, using multistage cluster sampling. The intervention comprising small group education followed by reinforcement session, telephonic reminders, navigation and guidance for Pap smear, and follow-up visit by the investigator was administered to the experimental group, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Knowledge, attitude, and screening behavior of women related to prevention of cervical cancer were assessed before and twice after the intervention. RESULTS: The experimental and control groups were homogenous in all baseline sociodemographic variables. The community-based intervention program was effective in improving knowledge (P < 0.001), attitude (P < 0.001), and screening behavior (P < 0.001) of women regarding the prevention of cervical cancer. A significant moderate positive correlation was found between knowledge and screening behavior (r = 0.408). Significant association was found between knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding prevention of cervical cancer with education, age at the time of marriage, and number of pregnancies. CONCLUSION: The community-based, multicomponent, nurse-led intervention program was effective in improving cervical cancer screening behavior among women. Repeated motivation and reinforcement are needed to bring behavioral change and to increase uptake of screening services among rural women.
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INTRODUCTION: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created havoc within a few weeks of its outbreak affecting over 100 countries. The rapid increase in the established cases urged for the prevention and control of COVID-19 belligerently on both national and worldwide fronts to prevent the healthcare systems from collapsing. For the sake of successfully preventing and restricting a fatal pandemic outbreak such as COVID-19, it requires the apex health institutions to have a uniform, urgent, flexible and effective policy response framework ensuring strict adherence too. In this regard, the Apex Institutes of National Importance in India (INIs) have released a series of documents on COVID-19 prevention and management. METHODS: Documents regarding COVID-19 preparedness and management were retrieved from the official websites of the INIs in India. The general population and healthcare workers' guidelines, standard operating procedures (SOPs) on COVID-19 prevention and management, action and response plans were included in the study. The full text of each document was analysed in detail and themes and subthemes were derived through content analysis. RESULTS: A total of 68 documents was included in the study. Five major themes and 12 subthemes were formulated after content analysis. A major similarity was found across all INIs on screening and testing and infection prevention control measures. The INIs formulated guidelines adhering to the World Health Organization, Indian Council of Medical Research and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Recommendations. CONCLUSION: Common measures like quarantine, social distancing, travel bans and mass gathering restrictions were adopted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the initial period. The INIs have developed policies and standard operating protocols on COVID-19 management based on the Government of India guidelines. Better understanding of these guidelines will help in effective implementation of the nationwide pandemic management.