Relationships Between the Usage of Televisions, Computers, and Mobile Phones and the Quality of Sleep in a Chinese Population: Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: No study has comprehensively investigated the association between the usage of typical screen-based electronic media devices and sleep quality in a Chinese population with individuals in a wide range of ages. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to understand the characteristics of television (TV) viewing, computer usage, and mobile phone usage in a representative Chinese population in Macau and to examine their roles in predicting the variations in sleep quality. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was an analysis of 1500 Macau residents aged 15 to 90 years based on a community-based health needs assessment study entitled, "Healthy Living, Longer Lives." Data collection was conducted in 7 districts of Macau from 2017 to 2018 through face-to-face interviews. The durations of daily TV viewing, computer usage, and mobile phone usage were recorded in a self-administered questionnaire. The Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess the sleep quality. RESULTS: The prevalence of TV, computer, and mobile phone usage was 78.4% (1176/1500), 51.6% (769/1490), and 85.5% (1276/1492), respectively. The average daily hours of usage were 1.75 (1.62), 1.53 (2.26), and 2.85 (2.47) hours, respectively. Females spent more time watching TV (P=.03) and using mobile phones (P=.02) and less time on the computer (P=.04) as compared to males. Older adults were more likely to watch TV while young people spent more time using the computer and mobile phones (P for all trends<.001). The mean PSQI global score was 4.79 (2.80) among the participants. Females exhibited significantly higher PSQI scores than males (5.04 vs 4.49, respectively; P<.001). No linear association was observed between the PSQI score and the amount of time spent on the 3 electronic devices (P=.58 for PSQI-TV, P=.05 for PSQI-computer, and P=.52 for PSQI-mobile phone). Curve estimation showed significant quadratic curvilinear associations in PSQI-TV (P=.003) and PSQI-computer (P<.001) among all the participants and in PSQI-mobile phone among youths (age, 15-24 years; P=.04). After adjustment of the gender, age, body mass index, demographics, and lifestyle factors, more than 3 hours of TV viewing and 4 hours of computer usage or mobile phone usage was associated with 85% (95% CI 1.04-1.87; P=.008), 72% (95% CI 1.01-2.92; P=.045), and 53% (95% CI 1.06-2.22; P=.03) greater odds of having poor sleep quality (PSQI score>5), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The mobile phone was the most popular screen-based electronic device used in the Macau population, especially among young people. "J" shape associations were observed between sleep quality and the duration of TV viewing, computer usage, and mobile phone usage, indicating that the extreme use of screen-based electronic devices predicted poorer sleep status, whereas moderate use would be acceptable.

Characteristics of CPOE systems and obstacles to implementation that physicians believe will affect adoption.

BACKGROUND: Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) has the potential to decrease medical errors and improve quality. Our health system plans to implement CPOE in response to the ARRA HITECH Act. OBJECTIVES: To determine (A) physicians' projections of the most important characteristics of a CPOE system that will affect their willingness to adopt CPOE, and (B) the obstacles they foresee in adopting CPOE. METHODS: All members of our health system's physician quality organization were invited to participate in a confidential survey. RESULTS: Two hundred twenty-four of 549 (41%) recipients responded to the survey. Respondents ranked "disruption in my work routine" (72%) and "improve efficiency in placing orders" (63%) as the two most important characteristics that would affect their utilization of CPOE. They believed CPOE would enable orders to be placed more efficiently (3.3, sd = 1.2), carried out rapidly (3.4, sd = 0.9), and have fewer errors (3.7, sd = 0.9). The most commonly cited obstacles to CPOE implementation were: Efficiency-Inefficiency (23%), Hardware Availability (12.7%), Computer Restrictions (10.8%), Training (8.8%), Simplicity - Ease of Use (8.5%), and Physician Buy-in (8.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of physicians believed CPOE would lead to a reduction of medical errors and more efficient patient care. However, physicians are highly concerned with how CPOE will affect their own work efficiency.

ICT applications as e-health solutions in rural healthcare in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions (e.g. e-health, telemedicine, e-education) are often viewed as vehicles to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban healthcare centres and to resolve shortcomings in the rural health sector. This study focused on factors perceived to influence the uptake and use of ICTs as e-health solutions in selected rural Eastern Cape healthcare centres, and on structural variables relating to these facilities and processes. Attention was also given to two psychological variables that may underlie an individual&s acceptance and use of ICTs: usefulness and ease of use. Recommendations are made with regard to how ICTs can be used more effectively to improve health systems at fi ve rural healthcare centres where questionnaire and interview data were collected: St. Lucy&s Hospital, Nessie Knight Hospital, the Tsilitwa Clinic, the Madzikane Ka-Zulu Memorial Hospital and the Nelson Mandela General Hospital.

A framework for studying perceptions of rural healthcare staff and basic ICT support for e-health use: an Indian experience.

Current research observes that electronic healthcare has various advantages, such as easy recording, retrieval, and sharing of patient data anytime and anywhere while providing data privacy. Almost all developed countries currently practice e-health. On the other hand, many developing countries still rely on traditional paper-based healthcare systems that are quite vulnerable to data loss, loss of patients' privacy due to nonsecured data sharing, and mandatory consumption of physical space to store patients' records as stacks of files. India is a developing country that broadly applies a traditional healthcare system. Unfortunately, no studies have been conducted to identify precise reasons why e-health solutions have not been adopted in the Indian primary health centers (PHCs). To fill the research gap, this work is an attempt to propose a complete framework that includes (1) a systematic survey of available resources at the level of healthcare staffs' perceptions toward using e-health and basic information communication technology (ICT) supports at the organizational level and (2) a mathematical model to engineer significant factors for analysis of overall preparedness of the health centers. Healthcare administrators (Block Medical Officer of Health) from each PHC (n = 10) and in total 50 healthcare staff (e.g., doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and midwives) participated in the study. Initially, a systematic survey was conducted to explore the possible factors at the individual (e.g., healthcare personnel) and organizational (e.g., healthcare administration) levels. A questionnaire was generated to capture the data based on the factors identified. The collected data were mathematically modeled to run regressions with significance tests examining the effects of these factors on the level of satisfaction of the end users. The result shows that basic ICT for support at the organizational levels is significantly lacking to implement e-health in these PHCs, although healthcare staffs are ready to use it. Proper measures have to be adopted mostly at the organizational level, such as improving basic ICT support before what will in all probability be a successful implementation and practice of e-health in Indian PHCs.

Computer and internet access for long-term care residents: perceived benefits and barriers.

In this study, the authors examined residents' computer and Internet access, as well as benefits and barriers to access in nursing homes. Administrators of 64 nursing homes in a national chain completed surveys. Fourteen percent of the nursing homes provided computers for residents to use, and 11% had Internet access. Some residents owned personal computers in their rooms. Administrators perceived the benefits of computer and Internet use for residents as facilitating direct communication with family and providing mental exercise, education, and enjoyment. Perceived barriers included cost and space for computer equipment and residents' cognitive and physical impairments. Implications of residents' computer activities were discussed for nursing care. Further research is warranted to examine therapeutic effects of computerized activities and their cost effectiveness.

Planning health education: Internet and computer resources in southwestern Nigeria. 2000-2001.

The use of the Internet as a health education tool and as a resource in health education planning is widely accepted as the norm in industrialized countries. Unfortunately, access to computers and the Internet is quite limited in developing countries. Not all licensed service providers operate, many users are actually foreign nationals, telephone connections are unreliable, and electricity supplies are intermittent. In this context, computer, e-mail, Internet, and CD-Rom use by health and health education program officers in five states in southwestern Nigeria were assessed to document their present access and use. Eight of the 30 organizations visited were government health ministry departments, while the remainder were non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Six NGOs and four State Ministry of Health (MOH) departments had no computers, but nearly two-thirds of both types of agency had e-mail, less than one-third had Web browsing facilities, and six had CD-Roms, all of whom were NGOs. Only 25 of the 48 individual respondents had computer use skills. Narrative responses from individual employees showed a qualitative difference between computer and Internet access and use and type of agency. NGO staff in organizations with computers indicated having relatively free access to a computer and the Internet and used these for both program planning and administrative purposes. In government offices it appeared that computers were more likely to be located in administrative or statistics offices and used for management tasks like salaries and correspondence, limiting the access of individual health staff. These two different organizational cultures must be considered when plans are made for increasing computer availability and skills for health education planning.

A multi-channel telemetry system for brain microstimulation in freely roaming animals.

A system is described that enables an experimenter to remotely deliver electrical pulse train stimuli to multiple different locations in the brains of freely moving rats. The system consists of two separate components: a transmitter base station that is controlled by a PC operator, and a receiver-microprocessor integrated pack worn on the back of the animals and which connects to suitably implanted brain locations. The backpack is small and light so that small animal subjects can easily carry it. Under remote command from the PC the backpack can be configured to provide biphasic pulse trains of arbitrarily specified parameters. A feature of the system is that it generates precise brain-stimulation behavioral effects using the direct constant-voltage TTL output of the backpack microprocessor. The system performs with high fidelity even in complex environments over a distance of about 300 m. Rat self-stimulation tests showed that this system produced the same behavioral responses as a conventional constant-current stimulator. This system enables a variety of multi-channel brain stimulation experiments in freely moving animals. We have employed it to develop a new animal behavior model ("virtual" conditioning) for the neurophysiological study of spatial learning, in which a rat can be accurately guided to navigate various terrains.

Equipamiento informático ideal en un servicio de Anatomía Patológica / Computing equipment in a Pathology Department

Los modernos sistemas de información de Anatomía Patológica han permitido facilitar el trabajo de los patólogos y de todo el personal hospitalario en general, consiguiéndose en los últimos años que nuestros sistemas de información sean un componente esencial de la historia de salud electrónica. Mientras que la gestión de informes ha avanzado significativamente, la digitalización de la imagen en Anatomía Patológica ha recibido muy poca atención por parte de los responsables de los sistemas de información hospitalarios. En este artículo se analiza el equipamiento informático ideal para un servicio de Anatomía Patológica, detallando el tipo de ordenador, impresoras, escáneres, etc. más adecuado para cada usuario; la utilidad de ordenadores de bolsillo o tablet PCs; el uso de videoconferencia y de redes de comunicaciones en general; las ventajas de la digitalización total de preparaciones y de la integración de dispositivos. En cuanto a los programas informáticos o software, se revisa una amplia gama de soluciones, desde el sistema operativo o los sistemas de gestión de informes a los sistemas de reconocimiento de voz o de caracteres (OCR), pero prestando más atención a los programas de almacenamiento o retoque de imágenes y vídeo y aspectos de seguridad e Internet. (AU)

[Survey of office space and computer availability offered to full time practitioners in departments of anaesthesia and intensive care of French university hospitals]. / Enquête sur les bureaux et l'équipement informatique mis à la disposition des anesthésistes-réanimateurs travaillant à plein temps dans les hôpitaux universitaires de France métropolitaine.

INTRODUCTION: Office space and computer facilities offered to medical practitioners in departments of anaesthesia (DA) belonging to university hospitals in metropolitan France in 2002 were surveyed. METHOD: A questionnaire was mailed to the 72 heads of DA belonging to university hospitals in metropolitan France in order to assess: (1) the number of full time anaesthesiologists sharing each office; (2) whether a computer was provided to all full time anaesthetists who required one; (3) the adequacy of the offices in terms of the DA's needs; (4) the subjective appreciation of the comfort level of the DA office space when compared to other departments within the institution; (5) whether an office space with a computer was specifically reserved for fellows. RESULTS: Sixty-two replies were received (86.1%). Among full time anaesthesiologists surveyed:only 21.8% occupied an office alone; 1.2% had no office; 36.5, 21.7, 8.2, 3.4, 3.9, 3.2% shared one office with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, more than 5 colleagues, respectively; 25.8% had a personal computer. Fifty percent of DA surveyed did not reserve a specific office for fellow's need; 75.8% of the offices surveyed were evaluated as being of inadequate comfort level; 64.5% of the offices surveyed were evaluated at a lower comfort level when compared to the office space of other departments within the institution. CONCLUSION: A high response rate was obtained. DA were found to be insufficiently provided with offices and computer facilities in french university hospitals. Such a situation, which is both surprising and questionable in an industrialised country, warrants a debate.