eSticky: An Advanced Remote Reminder System for People with Early Dementia.

While the European population is ageing, the number of people with dementia is dramatically rising. With this comes an increased need for products that help affected people to be more independent and able to live in their own home for as long as possible. eSticky addresses this need by providing a sophisticated reminder system that replaces the old-fashioned sticky notes by electronic versions thereof, which can be programmed from near and far in a device-independent manner via the internet and using a standard web browser. For this purpose, a set of low-cost ePaper displays are used, accompanied by a small and unobtrusive base station situated at the user's home, and supported by a web platform for user management and the authoring and scheduling of the message reminders. The displays can be placed at several strategically useful places in a user's home, to enable users and/or care persons to place reminders that will, based on the user's daily routines, most probably be read. A sub-set of displays, named active displays, even enable the user to press a confirmation button to show that he or she has actually read the reminder. The confirmation is then made available to the authors of the particular reminder through the web platform. The system is developed using a user-centred design approach, to take all stakeholders' wishes and needs into account, in order to come up with a system that is easy to use and provides good service to many people. In this extended version of the paper, besides a detailed description of the technological advancements of the project, both in terms of software and hardware, we provide an insight of the eSticky device design methodology and results from the design user evaluation.

Trauma-related symptoms in Sri Lankan adult survivors after the tsunami: pretraumatic and peritraumatic factors.

Limited research has addressed factors associated with psychological distress following disasters among non-Western populations. The 2004 tsunami affected 1.7 million people across South Asia and Africa, with considerable variations in trauma-related outcomes. Pretraumatic and peritraumatic conditions associated with trauma-related symptoms in 305 Sri Lankan adult survivors (28% male, aged 18-83 years; mean = 39.9 years; standard deviation = 15.3), clinically assessed 1 month posttsunami, were evaluated retrospectively. Outcome measures were total scores on 11 trauma-related symptoms. Multivariate linear regression analyses tested for associations between pretraumatic and peritraumatic conditions and symptom scores, with peritraumatic conditions adjusted for pretraumatic variables. Pretraumatic conditions of female gender, employment, prior health and social issues, and substance use and peritraumatic conditions of loss of family, witnessing the tsunami, or suffering an injury were associated with trauma-related symptoms. The findings facilitate understanding cultural contexts that define risk factors associated with trauma-related symptoms in Sri Lankans, which are critical for developing culturally appropriate interventions.

The validity of the family relationships index as a screening tool for psychological risk in families of cancer patients.

The Family Relationships Inventory (FRI) has been proposed as a measure of psychological risk however its validity has only been tested in one cross-sectional study against another measure of family functioning where patients had less than six months to live. The current study presented longitudinal data on the validity of the FRI in identifying family dysfunction, and clinical levels of depression and anxiety in 48 families where the patient had been recently diagnosed. Over the three phases, the FRI identified all families at risk of family dysfunction, 88% or more families with one or more members with clinical depression and 78% or more with a member with clinical levels of anxiety. The FRI was also far more sensitive in identifying families with a member with clinical levels of depression and anxiety than the General Functioning (FAD-GF) scale of the Family Assessment Device. Although other measures of screening adequacy (such as specificity), suggested that the FRI identified too many false positives, the higher sensitivity of the FRI makes it preferable to the FAD-GF as a screening measure for families at risk of a poor psychological outcome in the oncology setting. However, because of the FRI's poor specificity, further follow-up of those families that are identified as being at some risk of a poor psychological outcome should be undertaken before referral to a mental health professional is warranted.

The psychological impact of a cancer diagnosis on families: the influence of family functioning and patients' illness characteristics on depression and anxiety.

A diagnosis of cancer is a very stressful event for the patients and their families. Patients, partners and other family members can suffer from clinical levels of depression and severe levels of anxiety and stress reactions. The similarity in levels of distress between patients and partners and patients and offspring suggests that there are common factors that impact on families' distress levels. The current study examined levels of depression and anxiety in newly diagnosed adult patients (n = 48) and their adult relatives (n = 99). Family functioning and patients' illness characteristics were identified as factors that might impact on families' depression and anxiety. Results from multilevel models indicated that family functioning was important. Families that were able to act openly, express feelings directly, and solve problems effectively had lower levels of depression. Direct communication of information within the family was associated with lower levels of anxiety. Aside from differences anxiety due to cancer type, patients' illness characteristics appear to be risk factors in patients' but not relatives' depression and anxiety. The results from the current study suggest that researchers and clinicians need to be family-focused as cancer affects the whole family, not just the patient.

Self-reported health beliefs of government housing tenants.

Our aim was to provide a description of the self-reported health beliefs of a sample of Victorian public housing tenants, and to identify how gender, age and geographic location relate to these beliefs. Telephone interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of 360 tenants, asking questions such as what they believe are the major health problems for men and women, what they do to keep healthy, and what makes it difficult to keep healthy. There were many differences in the beliefs held by older participants compared with those of younger participants. By asking about health in general, rather than specific aspects of health, this research identified the views about health which are most salient to participants, rather than those prompted by a survey on a particular disease or health behaviour. The health promotion implications of these findings are discussed.