Engagement and loyalty in mobile applications for restaurant home deliveries.

This study examines user engagement and loyalty in mobile applications for restaurant home deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the concepts of loyalty, engagement, and interactivity, with convenience and safety as drivers for continued use. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equations Modelling (PLS-SEM), data from 349 users of restaurant ordering apps in Colombia was analysed. Results indicate that engagement, convenience, and safety positively influence loyalty. Interactivity indirectly affects loyalty through engagement. This research sheds light on the factors impacting engagement and loyalty, specifically during the pandemic. It addresses underexplored marketing relationships and guides companies operating such apps to understand key drivers of user loyalty.

Oral Health Education for Children: Development of a Serious Game with a User-Centered Design Approach.

Background: Children can learn efficiently with well-designed serious games. The use of applications to promote health has proliferated, but there is a lack of scientific studies on educational games in oral health. Materials and Methods: We developed the Brazilian version of a British and Jordanian oral health education game for children from the perspectives of Brazilian specialists and users. This descriptive study, with a qualitative and quantitative approach, comprised three phases: I-Experts' discussion of the appropriateness of the previous version of the game to Brazil; II-Development of the first Brazilian version of the game; and III-Evaluation of the first version with 15 children from 4 to 8 years of age. Results: In Phase I, the specialists agreed with the development of the Brazilian version of the game, with minor adjustments on: advice on eating; advice on oral hygiene habits, users' age group, game characters, and game purpose. Phase II: a version with a few changes in images and recommendations, written and spoken in Brazilian Portuguese. Phase III: The global average of correct answers in the game's tasks was 75.3%, ranging from 50.0% to 100%. Children reported having fun with the game, and most understood the content and its interface; their parents found the information relevant and enjoyed the gameplay with their children. Conclusions: The Oral Health Education Game offered basic information for preventing dental caries to Brazilian children aged 4-8 years old in an interactive and fun way; it could support professionals in improving oral health education.

Mobile health: Is your next rehabilitation's specialist in your pocket?

The past few decades have witnessed an unprecedented surge in health-related mobile applications. However, most of these applications primarily focus on lifestyle domains such as sleep, fitness, and nutrition. A notable stride in this landscape involves the emergence of applications catering specifically to rehabilitation needs. This expert review aims to provide an encompassing overview of the wide spectrum of apps available for both assessment and rehabilitation. It delves into the existing constraints associated with these tools and deliberates on the potential avenues for future advancements and integration for future advancements and integration. The transformative potential of this mobile, affordable, and user-friendly technology in reshaping the field of rehabilitation sciences will be highlighted. This article underscores how harnessing these innovations can elevate accessibility and effectiveness in the rehabilitation processes, leading to improved overall outcomes and wellbeing.

Exploring dietitians' views on digital nutrition educational tools in Malaysia: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Dietitians frequently use nutrition education tools to facilitate dietary counselling sessions. Nevertheless, these tools may require adaptation to keep pace with technological advancements. This study had a 2-fold purpose: first, to identify the types of nutrition education tools currently in use, identify their limitations, and explore dietitians' perspectives on the importance of these tools; second, to investigate the features that dietitians prefer in digital nutrition education tools. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A semi-structured face-to-face interview was conducted among 15 dietitians from selected public hospitals, primary care clinics, and teaching hospitals in Malaysia. Inductive thematic analysis of the responses was conducted using NVivo version 12 software. RESULTS: Most dietitians used physical education tools including the healthy plate model, pamphlets, food models, and flip charts. These tools were perceived as important as they facilitate the nutrition assessment process, deliver nutrition intervention, and are time efficient. However, dietitians described the current educational tools as impersonal, outdated, limited in availability due to financial constraints, unhandy, and difficult to visualise. Alternatively, they strongly favoured digital education tools that provided instant feedback, utilised an automated system, included a local food database, were user-friendly, developed by experts in the field, and seamlessly integrated into the healthcare system. CONCLUSION: Presently, although dietitians have a preference for digital educational tools, they heavily rely on physical nutrition education tools due to their availability despite the perception that these tools are outdated, impersonal, and inconvenient. Transitioning to digital dietary education tools could potentially address these issues.

The landscape of decentralized clinical trials (DCTs): focusing on the FDA and EMA guidance.

Decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) consist of off-site trial-related procedures referred to as decentralized elements. We aimed to provide an overview of the landscape of DCTs by comparing regulatory guidance reports and analyzing decentralized elements from clinical trial registries. Two guidance reports on DCTs published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agencies were summarized and analyzed. Both guidance publications commonly emphasized an assessment of the appropriateness of decentralized elements along 2 axes: patient safety and data integrity. DCT cases were identified from ClinicalTrials.gov by searching with 6 keywords: decentralized, remote, mobile, digital, virtual, and hybrid. Cases where the keyword was used in a non-DCT context, such as digital flexor tendon, were excluded by means of natural language processing. A total of 4,874 trials were identified as DCT cases, with annual increases, especially after 2020. The most common keywords were 'mobile' and 'digital' (36.2% and 24.8%, respectively). Interventions in the DCT cases were analyzed by means of a network analysis. Behavioral and technological tokens were frequently combined, such as 'rehabilitation' and 'app.' Drugs were used in only 1.8% of the DCT cases. Of these, most drugs had been approved previously (96.8%) and were in oral formulation (67.2%). Most of the DCT cases identified in this study involved simple interventions and low-risk drugs. These characteristics were in accordance with the common recommendations in the DCT guidance publications.

Experiences of receiving an mHealth application with proactive nursing support among community-dwelling older adults: a mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: As the population ages, a plethora of digital and mobile health applications for assistance with independent living have emerged. Still unknown, however, is how older adults sustain the use of these applications. AIM: This study sought to explore the experiences of older adults following their participation in a programme that combined the use of an mHealth application with proactive telecare nursing support. METHODS: We employed a concurrent mixed-methods design for this study. The quantitative strand included a survey, whereas the qualitative strand included open-ended questions as part of the survey to understand the participants' experiences. Participants for this study were community-dwelling older adults who had taken part in an interventional study that sought to examine the effects of mHealth and nurse support. A convenience sampling approach was employed to recruit potential participants for this study. FINDINGS: Fifty-five older adults participated. The majority expressed positive attitudes and satisfaction with the app and the nurses' support. The app and nurses' support helped participants to understand their health status and obtain health information. Reasons to halt app usage included technical issues and limited social support. CONCLUSION: Mobile apps with professional follow-up support could potentially support older adults in the community, although emerging concerns need to be addressed to sustain long-term usage of these apps.

Use of portable single-lead electrocardiogram device as an alternative for QTc monitoring in critically ill patients.

PURPOSE: Acquired QT prolongation is frequent and leads to a higher mortality rate in critically ill patients. KardiaMobile 1L® (KM1L) is a portable, user-friendly single lead, mobile alternative to conventional 12-lead electrocardiogram (12-L ECG) that could be more readily available, potentially facilitating more frequent QTc assessments in intensive care units (ICU); however, there is currently no evidence to validate this potential use. METHODS: We conducted a prospective diagnostic test study comparing QT interval measurement using KM1L with conventional 12-L ECG ordered for any reason in patients admitted to an ICU. We compared the mean difference using a paired t-test, agreement using Bland-Altman analysis, and Lin's concordance coefficient, numerical precision (proportion of QT measurements with <10 ms difference between KM1L and conventional 12-L ECG), and clinical precision (concordance for adequate discrimination of prolonged QTc). RESULTS: We included 114 patients (61.4% men, 60% cardiovascular etiology of hospitalization) with 131 12-L ECG traces. We found no statistical difference between corrected QT measurements (427 ms vs. 428 ms, p = .308). Lin's concordance coefficient was 0.848 (95% CI 0.801-0.894, p = .001). Clinical precision was excellent in males and substantial in females (Kappa 0.837 and 0.781, respectively). Numerical precision was lower in patients with vasoactive drugs (-13.99 ms), QT-prolonging drugs (13.84 ms), antiarrhythmic drugs (-12.87 ms), and a heart rate (HR) difference of ≥5 beats per minute (bpm) between devices (-11.26 ms). CONCLUSION: Our study validates the clinical viability of KM1L, a single-lead mobile ECG device, for identifying prolonged QT intervals in ICU patients. Caution is warranted in patients with certain medical conditions that may affect numerical precision.

Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of a Smartphone App-Led Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression Under Therapist Supervision: Open Trial.

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder affects approximately 1 in 5 adults during their lifetime and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Yet, a minority receive adequate treatment due to person-level (eg, geographical distance to providers) and systems-level (eg, shortage of trained providers) barriers. Digital tools could improve this treatment gap by reducing the time and frequency of therapy sessions needed for effective treatment through the provision of flexible, automated support. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary clinical effect of Mindset for Depression, a deployment-ready 8-week smartphone-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) supported by brief teletherapy appointments with a therapist. METHODS: This 8-week, single-arm open trial tested the Mindset for Depression app when combined with 8 brief (16-25 minutes) video conferencing visits with a licensed doctoral-level CBT therapist (n=28 participants). The app offers flexible, accessible psychoeducation, CBT skills practice, and support to patients as well as clinician guidance to promote sustained engagement, monitor safety, and tailor treatment to individual patient needs. To increase accessibility and thus generalizability, all study procedures were conducted remotely. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed via attrition, patient expectations and feedback, and treatment utilization. The primary clinical outcome measure was the clinician-rated Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, administered at pretreatment, midpoint, and posttreatment. Secondary measures of functional impairment and quality of life as well as maintenance of gains (3-month follow-up) were also collected. RESULTS: Treatment credibility (week 4), expectancy (week 4), and satisfaction (week 8) were moderate to high, and attrition was low (n=2, 7%). Participants self-reported using the app or practicing (either on or off the app) the CBT skills taught in the app for a median of 50 (IQR 30-60; week 4) or 60 (IQR 30-90; week 8) minutes per week; participants accessed the app on an average 36.8 (SD 10.0) days and completed a median of 7 of 8 (IQR 6-8) steps by the week 8 assessment. The app was rated positively across domains of engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information. Participants' depression severity scores decreased from an average Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score indicating moderate depression (mean 19.1, SD 5.0) at baseline to a week 8 mean score indicating mild depression (mean 10.8, SD 6.1; d=1.47; P<.001). Improvement was also observed for functional impairment and quality of life. Gains were maintained at 3-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that Mindset for Depression is a feasible and acceptable treatment option for individuals with major depressive disorder. This smartphone-led treatment holds promise to be an efficacious, scalable, and cost-effective treatment option. The next steps include testing Mindset for Depression in a fully powered randomized controlled trial and real-world clinical settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05386329; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05386329?term=NCT05386329.

The Better Operative Outcomes Software Tool (BOOST) Prospective Study: Improving the Quality of Cataract Surgery Outcomes in Low-Resource Settings.

PURPOSE: Post-operative vision impairment is common among patients who have undergone cataract surgery in low-resource settings, impacting quality of clinical outcomes and patient experience. This prospective, multisite, single-armed, pragmatic validation study aimed to assess whether receiving tailored recommendations via the free Better Operative Outcomes Software Tool (BOOST) app improved surgical outcomes, as quantified by post-operative unaided distance visual acuity (UVA) measured 1-3 days after surgery. METHODS: During the baseline data collection round, surgeons in low and middle-income countries recorded clinical characteristics of 60 consecutive cataract cases in BOOST. Additional data on the causes of poor outcomes from 20 consecutive cases with post-operative UVA of <6/60 (4-12 weeks post-surgery) were entered to automatically generate tailored recommendations for improvement, before 60 additional consecutive cases were recorded during the follow-up study round. Average UVA was compared between cases recorded in the baseline study round and those recorded during follow-up. RESULTS: Among 4,233 cataract surgeries performed by 41 surgeons in 18 countries, only 2,002 (47.3%) had post-operative UVA 6/12 or better. Among the 14 surgeons (34.1%) who completed both rounds of the study (1,680 cases total), there was no clinically significant improvement in post-operative average UVA (logMAR units ±SD) between baseline (0.50 ± 0.37) and follow-up (0.47 ± 0.36) rounds (mean improvement 0.03, p = 0.486). CONCLUSIONS: Receiving BOOST-generated recommendations did not result in improved UVA beyond what could be expected from prospective monitoring of surgical outcomes alone. Additional research is required to assess whether targeted support to implement changes could potentiate the uptake of app-generated recommendations and improve outcomes.

Feasibility and Acceptability of Pediatric Smartphone Lung Auscultation by Parents: Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: The use of a smartphone built-in microphone for auscultation is a feasible alternative to the use of a stethoscope, when applied by physicians. Objective: This cross-sectional study aims to assess the feasibility of this technology when used by parents-the real intended end users. Methods: Physicians recruited 46 children (male: n=33, 72%; age: mean 11.3, SD 3.1 y; children with asthma: n=24, 52%) during medical visits in a pediatric department of a tertiary hospital. Smartphone auscultation using an app was performed at 4 locations (trachea, right anterior chest, and right and left lung bases), first by a physician (recordings: n=297) and later by a parent (recordings: n=344). All recordings (N=641) were classified by 3 annotators for quality and the presence of adventitious sounds. Parents completed a questionnaire to provide feedback on the app, using a Likert scale ranging from 1 ("totally disagree") to 5 ("totally agree"). Results: Most recordings had quality (physicians' recordings: 253/297, 85.2%; parents' recordings: 266/346, 76.9%). The proportions of physicians' recordings (34/253, 13.4%) and parents' recordings (31/266, 11.7%) with adventitious sounds were similar. Parents found the app easy to use (questionnaire: median 5, IQR 5-5) and were willing to use it (questionnaire: median 5, IQR 5-5). Conclusions: Our results show that smartphone auscultation is feasible when performed by parents in the clinical context, but further investigation is needed to test its feasibility in real life.

Development and Feasibility Evaluation of Smart Cancer Care 2.0 Based on Patient-Reported Outcomes for Post-Discharge Management of Patients with Cancer.

Purpose: A "Smart Cancer Care" platform that integrates patient-reported outcomes (PROs) with management has been established in Korea. This study focused on improving health behaviors and connecting patients to welfare services by introducing and assessing the feasibility of "Smart Cancer Care 2.0," an enhanced version designed for monitoring complications post-cancer treatment. Materials and Methods: Smart Cancer Care 2.0 was developed by conducting a literature review and consulting with expert panels to identify symptoms or variables requiring monitoring and management guidelines based on the treatment type. Qualitative and quantitative surveys were conducted to assess the feasibility of the app and web system based on the experiences of patients with cancer and healthcare workers. Results: A total of 81 symptoms or variables (chemotherapy-, surgery-, radiotherapy-, rehabilitation-, and health management-related) were selected for management in Smart Cancer Care 2.0. PROs for these symptoms were basically categorized into three severity grades: (1) preventive management, (2) self-treatment, and (3) consultation with a healthcare worker or visit to a healthcare institution. The overall mean scores in the feasibility evaluation by patients and healthcare workers were 3.83 and 3.90 points, respectively, indicating high usefulness. Conclusion: Smart Cancer Care 2.0 leverages the existing ICT-based platform, Smart Cancer Care, and further includes health behaviors and welfare services. Smart Cancer Care 2.0 may play a crucial role in establishing a comprehensive post-discharge management system for patients with cancer as it provides suitable interventions based on patients' responses and allows the regularly collected PROs to be easily viewed for streamlined care.

Mobile applications in nursing science education: A scoping review with snowballing method.

OBJECTIVES: To review the available evidence on the use and effectiveness of mobile applications to assist nursing students in comprehending, utilising, and applying specialised language and knowledge terminologies when learning the language of biosciences. DESIGN: A scoping review. DATA SOURCES: The databases CINAHL Complete, ERIC, EMCare, MEDLINE, PubMed, the OVID scholarly interface and the web search engine Google Scholar were searched. REVIEW METHODS: Peer-reviewed literature published in English during the period 2010-2023 was reviewed. Snowballing methods saw the reference lists of all included articles searched, and a secondary search of the Scopus ranked top ten nursing journals. Articles were included if they reported on any app or digital resource used when teaching undergraduate nursing students biosciences/science language skills, concepts, or terminology. Studies were excluded if the participants were non-nursing student cohorts or content did not meet the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Mobile applications generally contribute positively to nursing students' education. These applications are deemed valuable tools, offering structured content in easily digestible formats. Some applications also foster teamwork and collaboration during clinical placements, promoting peer learning, and a sense of community. User internet access and preparation for learning were the only noted barriers. A range of science-based concepts were taught using applications, including diabetes mellitus, medical terminology, asthma, and cardiac conditions. Despite the promise shown by using mobile applications to teach nurse sciences, few are dedicated to bioscience language and scientific terminology. Recognising the challenging nature of teaching these concepts, developing specialised applications could substantially improve the educational experience for nursing students. CONCLUSION: Nurse educators are encouraged to teach with applications given their reported effectiveness in knowledge gains for students learning science concepts. Rigorous interventional study designs are warranted to extend suggestions that using applications enhances student understanding of challenging scientific concepts and support quality in clinical learning.

Validated mobile applications in otolaryngology head and neck surgery for patient and physicians: A systematic literature review.

IMPORTANCE: Mobile apps in the field of ORL-HNS, are widely used by patients and physicians, but neither necessarily developed in collaboration with healthcare professionals nor subjected to regulations by the United States Food and Drug Administration guidelines, with a resultant potential of risk for its users. OBJECTIVE: To provide the ORL-HNS physician with an updated list of scientific peer review literature- validated mobile apps for safe use for both the clinician and the patients, for screening, diagnosis, therapy and follow up for various ORL-HNS pathologies. EVIDENCE REVIEW: A comprehensive systematic review of the scientific literature was conducted in "PubMed," "EMBASE," and "Web of Science" without limitation of publication date up to January 1st, 2023. The included papers validated mobile apps in the ORL-HNS discipline. Each study was evaluated using the "Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology" (STROBE) tool. FINDINGS: From the thousands of unregulated ORL-HNS mobile apps available for download and use in the various app stores, only 17 apps were validated for safe use by the clinician and/or patient. Their information is listed. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The limited number of validated mobile apps highlights the importance to use validated apps in clinical practice, to improve evidence-based medicine and patient safety. Physician are encouraged to use and recommend their patients to use validated mobile apps only, like any other tool in clinical practice in the evidence-based era.

The acceptability, usability, engagement and optimisation of a mHealth service promoting healthy lifestyle behaviours: A mixed method feasibility study.

Objective: Mobile health (mHealth) services suffer from high attrition rates yet represent a viable strategy for adults to improve their health. There is a need to develop evidence-based mHealth services and to constantly evaluate their feasibility. This study explored the acceptability, usability, engagement and optimisation of a co-developed mHealth service, aiming to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours. Methods: The service LongLife Active® (LLA) is a mobile app with coaching. Adults were recruited from the general population. Quantitative results and qualitative findings guided the reasoning for the acceptability, usability, engagement and optimisation of LLA. Data from: questionnaires, log data, eight semi-structured interviews with users, feedback comments from users and two focus groups with product developers and coaches were collected. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. A mixed method approach was used to interpret the findings. Results: The final sample was 55 users (82% female), who signed up to use the service for 12 weeks. Engagement data was available for 43 (78%). The action plan was the most popular function engaged with by users. The mean scores for acceptability and usability were 3.3/5.0 and 50/100, respectively, rated by 15 users. Users expressed that the service's health focus was unique, and the service gave them a 'kickstart' in their behaviour change. Many ways to optimise the service were identified, including to increase personalisation, promote motivation and improve usability. Conclusion: By incorporating suggestions for optimisation, this service has the potential to support peoples' healthy lifestyle behaviours.

A systematic search, heuristic evaluation and analysis of dental trauma mobile applications.

BACKGROUND: Despite the exponential growth of mobile device applications in promoting awareness on traumatic dental injuries (TDIs), the overall validity of existing applications in content, engagement, usability, functionality, esthetics, and user perception remains largely uncertain. AIMS: The primary aim was to systematically search and assess the quality, functionality, perceived impact and usability of available applications related to TDIs using the User Version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (uMARS) and the Coventry, Aberdeen, and London-Revised (CA-LO-RE) scale. A heuristic evaluation was additionally performed. The secondary aim was to categorize existing mobile applications according to their target users, including general population, dentists, dental students, medical healthcare professionals, and researchers. METHODS: A systematic search for dental trauma applications (free and paid) was conducted using the AppStore and Google Play store. Two reviewers independently performed data extraction and quality assessment for all the included applications using uMARS and CA-LO-RE. A user experience architect conducted a heuristic evaluation. RESULTS: Only 6 of the 3061 initially screened applications were eligible for qualitative and quantitative assessments. These applications' average star uMARS rating was 12.5 (standard deviation [SD] 2.6). The mean and SD for the uMARS objective items were as follows: A-engagement (mean 12.1 [SD 3.3]), B-functionality (mean 15.5 [SD 1.4]), C-esthetics (mean 9.5 [SD 2.5]), and D-information (mean 13 [SD 4.5]). The severity rating for the heuristic evaluation criteria was low to moderate for all the included applications, excluding tooth emergencies with a high severity score. CONCLUSION: Despite moderate quality, functionality, user perception, behavioural impact and usability scores, the inclusion of advanced features to "engagement" and "usability" in existing trauma based apps will enhance their purpose. A design-thinking approach coupled with interactive features is recommended for future mobile applications on TDIs.

Pelvic Floor Muscle Training Using the Perifit Device for the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence: A Pragmatic Trial Using Real-World Data.

Introduction: There is a need for home-based alternatives for women to self-manage urinary incontinence (UI). Using a real-world data approach, the aim of this analysis was to evaluate whether training with the Perifit device was effective in reducing UI symptoms. Materials and Methods: A total of 6060 women (45 ± 10 years) with UI who purchased the Perifit device, completed a validated symptoms questionnaire before training (T1) and again at one or several predefined timepoints during training: T2, after completing 40-60 games; T3, after 90-120 games; and/or T4, after 280-300 games. Results: UI symptom score decreased progressively from 8.4 ± 4.8 points at T1; to 6.3 ± 4.7 points, 5.5 ± 4.5 points, and 4.6 ± 4.5 points at T2, T3, and T4, respectively (all p < 0.001). The percentage of respondents reporting objective improvement in UI symptoms increased from 71%, to 79%, to 85% at T2, T3, and T4, respectively. Effect size was medium (T2) to large (T3, T4). Higher symptom score at baseline was associated with higher likelihood of improvement. There was no effect of other characteristics including respondent age, menopausal status, time since childbirth, prolapse, or baseline strength on symptom improvement. Conclusions: This analysis of responses from over 6000 real-world users suggests that home training with the Perifit may be an effective way to reduce UI symptoms in women of all ages. Given the quality of life, economic, and social burdens of living with UI symptoms, home-based pelvic floor muscle training with the Perifit may be a promising tool to allow women to self-manage UI.

IoT-based incubator monitoring and machine learning powered alarm predictions.

BACKGROUND: Incubators, especially the ones for babies, require continuous monitoring for anomaly detection and taking action when necessary. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to introduce a system in which important information such as temperature, humidity and gas values being tracked from incubator environment continuously in real-time. METHOD: Multiple sensors, a microcontroller, a transmission module, a cloud server, a mobile application, and a Web application were integrated Data were made accessible to the duty personnel both remotely via Wi-Fi and in the range of the sensors via Bluetooth Low Energy technologies. In addition, potential emergencies were detected and alarm notifications were created utilising a machine learning algorithm. The mobile application receiving the data from the sensors via Bluetooth was designed such a way that it stores the data internally in case of Internet disruption, and transfers the data when the connection is restored. RESULTS: The obtained results reveal that a neural network structure with sensor measurements from the last hour gives the best prediction for the next hour measurement. CONCLUSION: The affordable hardware and software used in this system make it beneficial, especially in the health sector, in which the close monitoring of baby incubators is vitally important.

Functional size measurement of postnatal care apps: Morocco case study.

This study empirically evaluates the functionality coverage of 18 mobile applications (apps) for Postnatal care including a recently developed app in Morocco "Mamma&Baby". This evaluation is based on a comparison of the COSMIC _ISO 19,761 functional size of these apps with the score obtained in a previous evaluation based on functions extraction through a quality assessment questionnaire. This comparison allows to discuss the relationship between the functional size of the 18 apps, their users' ratings in the Play Store as well as the number of downloads. While for most of the assessed apps, there is only a small shift between the rankings of the two evaluations, for some apps, the shift is huge due to the number of features added and not covered by the score previously obtained. This study illustrates the use of COSMIC as an effective method for corrective or evolutionary updates since it takes into account all the functions and features of postnatal apps. For the "Mamma&Baby" app, efforts are required to boost the number of downloads, optimize its visibility, and attract the highest number of users.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on training and technology use among Chilean amateur athletes.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic was a health problem which affected the entire world. Sports were strongly affected, especially outdoors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on training and technology use among Chilean amateur athletes. Method: An observational descriptive cross-sectional study, carried out during the 2021-2. Nonprobabilistic convenience sample of people over 18 years. Data were obtained via online survey and analyzed with Stata 16.0 statistical program for runners, triathletes, cyclists. Results: The sample was 179 athletes, average age was 42.5 years ±10.2; males were 58.6%. 22.65% of the sample were triathletes, 58% runners, and 18.2% cyclists. Training habits were measured during Pre-Pandemic (PP), Pandemic With Quarantine (PWQ), and Pandemic Without Quarantine (PWOQ). In total sample, a decrease was observed in variables of average training frequency of 1.28 sessions per week (p = 0.001; d = 0.648); weekly average training time of 189.63 min (p = 0.005; d = 0.293); days per week with high and medium intensity training of 0.95 (p = 0.001; d = 0.833) and 0.37 (p = 0.001; d = 0.327) respectively; and days per week with cardio training of 1.01 (p = 0.001; d = 0.678), comparing the PP and PWQ periods. When comparing PWQ and PWOQ, an increase was observed in the same variables mentioned above of 1,57 sessions per week (p = 0.001; d = 0.513); 162.68 min per week (p = 0.020; d = -0.245); days per week with high of 0.82 (p = 0.001; d = -0.714) and medium intensity training of 0.46 (p = 0.001; d = -0.412); days per week with cardio training of 1.14 (p = 0.001; d = -0.730); and included strength training of 0.42 (p = 0.012; d = -0.312). For technology incorporation, over 78% (p = 0.023) claimed to used devices to measure training, with the watch being the preferred device in over 72% (p = 0.002) during the three timeframes. Highlighted the rise in use of training software during and after the lockdown period of more than 23% (p < 0.001). Discussion: All variables related with training habits decreased comparing PP and PWQ and all variables rose between PWQ and PWOQ; however, comparing PP and PWOQ, there are small differences, which do not always favor the PWOQ, reflecting how athletes have not yet been able to recover their training rhythms. Finally, we should note that the use of technology increased, in all periods.

Mobile Application-Based Support for Periodontal Treatment Improves Clinical, Cognitive, and Psychomotor Outcomes: A Randomized Controlled Trial Study.

This study aims to evaluate the clinical, cognitive, and psychomotor changes that emerged among patients with gingivitis and patients with periodontitis via mobile application assistance. Forty subjects were randomly and evenly distributed into test and control groups and were administered a professional mechanical plaque removal (PMPR) procedure. The clinical parameters examined were bleeding on probing (BoP), probing pocket depth (PPD), and the oral hygiene index (OHI-S). The test group was administered a mobile application intervention, namely PerioUICare, which provided users with continuous education and motivation and served as a daily dental hygiene reminder. The comparative results of the mean values of all parameters between the groups (inter-group) and within the groups (intra-group) after one- and three-month evaluations were analyzed. A one-month inter-group evaluation uncovered significant differences in the BoP, PPD, cognitive, and psychomotor scores of subjects with gingivitis and the BoP, OHI-S, cognitive, and psychomotor scores of subjects with periodontitis. A three-month inter-group evaluation revealed significant differences across all parameters except for PPD in subjects with periodontitis. The results of the intra-group comparison demonstrated statistically significant differences in all parameters in the test group but no significant differences in the cognitive and psychomotor scores of the control group. This study revealed that mobile application-based support for periodontal treatment can be considered effective.