The feasibility and appeal of mobile "apps" for supporting healthy food purchasing and consumption among socioeconomically disadvantaged women: a pilot study

Aim This pilot study aimed to assess the feasibility and appeal of using existing hand-held mobile technology (iPod or iPad) ‘apps’ as tools promoting healthy food planning, shopping and eating behaviours among socioeconomically disadvantaged women. Methods Surveys were administered before and immediately after a 4-week trial of seven currently available iPod or iPad apps, each of which addressed known barriers to healthy eating among socioeconomically disadvantaged women. A convenience sample was recruited from a local community in Melbourne, Australia, comprising 19 women with a low education (fewer than 12 years of formal education) or a low income (a household income of less than $1000 per week, and/or having a pension or benefit as the main source of income). Results More than half of the sample (n = 11, 61%) used most apps at least weekly over the study period. Few found any of the apps complex or difficult to use, and most (n = 14) reported that they would use their preferred apps again. Features liked included portability, simplicity, user-friendliness, and novelty/new knowledge provided by certain apps; less appealing features included requirements for time-consuming data entry and inability to access features offline. Conclusions Selected iPod and iPad apps are useable and appealing to socioeconomically disadvantaged women. Particular features of apps, including simplicity of use and providing seasonal information, appear helpful in assisting women to plan, shop and consume healthy foods. So what? This study demonstrates a promising approach for reaching and engaging socioeconomically disadvantaged target populations in healthy eating, through the use of mobile apps. Further research establishing the effectiveness of these apps in promoting healthy food planning, shopping and eating behaviours is now warranted

Upgrading Smallholders Through “Farmer-to-Consumer” Entrepreneurial Model? Implications of Rice Value Chain Interventions in Indonesia and Malaysia

Rice smallholders continue to seek opportunities to upgrade their value chains through rural entrepreneurship. This study investigates the development claims of a ‘farmer-to-consumer’ model, which facilitates direct participation through the system of rice intensification, in Central Java (Indonesia) and Selangor (Malaysia). Through farmer organizations, the model was revealed to provide opportunities for improving members’ production processes, products, and functions. However, one type of rent-seeking behavior was replaced by another in both cases. Distrust among members prevented either farmer organizations from achieving scale upgrading, denying the aggregation function and, in a broader sense, economic roles for both farmer organizations. It is recommended that collective governance should account for socially oriented factors in addition to economic considerations so facilitating more effective value chain intervention. Keywords: rural entrepreneurship, value chain development, upgrading, direct marketing, rice, smallholder _______________________________ Améliorer les petits exploitants grâce à un modèle entrepreneurial « agriculteur à consommateur » ?Implications des interventions sur la chaîne de valeur du rizen Indonésie et en Malaisie RésuméLes petits exploitants de riz continuent à chercher des opportunités pour améliorer leurs chaînes de valeur grâce à l’entrepreneuriat rural. Cette étude examine les revendications de développement d’un modèle « agriculteur à consommateur », qui facilite la participation directe via le système d’intensification du riz, dans le centre de Java (Indonésie) et le Selangor (Malaisie). À travers des organisations agricoles, le modèle s’est révélé offrir des opportunités d’amélioration des processus de production, des produits et des fonctions des membres. Cependant, un type de comportement de recherche de rente a été remplacé par un autre dans les deux cas. La méfiance entre les membres a empêché les deux organisations d’agriculteurs de réaliser une mise à l’échelle, niant la fonction d’agrégation et, dans un sens plus large, les rôles économiques des deux organisations d’agriculteurs. Il est recommandé que la gouvernance collective tienne compte des facteurs à vocation sociale en plus des considérations économiques, ce qui facilite une intervention plus efficace dans la chaîne de valeur. Mots-clés: entrepreneuriat rural, développement de la chaîne de valeur, modernisation, marketing direct, riz, petits exploitant

The impact of service quality on business commitment in B2B segment of agribusiness: an exploratory study of HORECA sector in Malaysia

In competitive markets, agribusiness firms have embarked on improving their service quality for building and maintaining a profitable relationship with their customers. However, such impact of service quality on business commitment has not been empirically investigated. To fill this gap, this study explores the relationship between service quality and commitment, using a case of supplier selection of fresh produce by hotel, restaurant, and catering (HORECA) sector in Malaysia. Using SERVQUAL as the main component of the conceptual framework, the relevant information was collected from 195 random HORECA operators and analyzed using partial least squares. The results indicate that service quality explains little of HORECA's decision to stay with their current suppliers. While most service quality factors were insignificant, "responsiveness" in term of providing delivery service had a statistically significant positive impact on HORECA's contractual arrangement with their current suppliers. These findings imply that quality service is being seen as a supplement; economic factors (e.g., prices and their stability, credit term) are likely to be the key drivers affecting buyer-seller relationships. If suppliers want to stay on course, they have to improve their service quality and focus more on delivery service. In addition, more research is needed in this relatively new area

Factors influencing the adoption of bundled sustainable agricultural practices: a systematic literature review

Farm sustainability issues are diverse but interconnected and complex. Many organizations have begun to promote packaged sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs). Some of these bundled SAPs (i.e. organic agriculture and integrated pest management) have long been employed by farmers, and studied by scientists seeking to understand their response to these alternative agricultural approaches. This paper reviews and synthesizes recent research in this area. It identifies key explanatory factors, which frequently lead to the adoption of bundled SAPs. Vote count analysis reveals that variables implying economic motivation and facilitation regularly explain farmers' behaviour. In addition, a new finding emerged, in which factors inferring higher learning and superior management capacity provided further indicators to adoption. In particular, the training that provided by non-governmental organizations and rural institutions complements change agents (i.e. public extension services). While this finding is novel, more research is required to generate better understanding of farmer reaction to bundled SAPs, particularly dynamic ones (i.e. private standards) in which farm business sustainability depends upon good agricultural practices being implemented

Supporting the Delivery of Total Knee Replacements Care for Both Patients and Their Clinicians With a Mobile App and Web-Based Tool: Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol

Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 01.03.2017. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.Background: Total knee replacement (TKR) surgeries have increased in recent years. Exercise programs and other interventions following surgery can facilitate the recovery process. With limited clinician contact time, patients with TKR have a substantial burden of self-management and limited communication with their care team, thus often fail to implement an effective rehabilitation plan. Objective: We have developed a digital orthopedic rehabilitation platform that comprises a mobile phone app, wearable activity tracker, and clinical Web portal in order to engage patients with self-management tasks for surgical preparation and recovery, thus addressing the challenges of adherence to and completion of TKR rehabilitation. The study will determine the efficacy of the TKR platform in delivering information and assistance to patients in their preparation and recovery from TKR surgery and a Web portal for clinician care teams (ie, surgeons and physiotherapists) to remotely support and monitor patient progress. Methods: The study will evaluate the TKR platform through a randomized controlled trial conducted at multiple sites (N=5) in a number of states in Australia with 320 patients undergoing TKR surgery; the trial will run for 13 months for each patient. Participants will be randomized to either a control group or an intervention group, both receiving usual care as provided by their hospital. The intervention group will receive the app and wearable activity tracker. Participants will be assessed at 4 different time points: 4 weeks before surgery, immediately before surgery, 12 weeks after surgery, and 52 weeks after surgery. The primary outcome measure is the Oxford Knee Score. Secondary outcome measures include quality of life (Short-Form Health Survey); depression, anxiety, and stress (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales); self-motivation; self-determination; self-efficacy; and the level of satisfaction with the knee surgery and care delivery. The study will also collect quantitative usage data related to all components (app, activity tracker, and Web portal) of the TKR platform and qualitative data on the perceptions of the platform as a tool for patients, carers, and clinicians. Finally, an economic evaluation of the impact of the platform will be conducted. Results: Development of the TKR platform has been completed and deployed for trial. The research protocol is approved by 2 human research ethics committees in Australia. A total of 5 hospitals in Australia (2 in New South Wales, 2 in Queensland, and 1 in South Australia) are expected to participate in the trial. Conclusions: The TKR platform is designed to provide flexibility in care delivery and increased engagement with rehabilitation services. This trial will investigate the clinical and behavioral efficacy of the app and impact of the TKR platform in terms of service satisfaction, acceptance, and economic benefits of the provision of digital services

A behaviour and disease transmission model: Incorporating the Health Belief Model for human behaviour into a simple transmission model

The health and economic impacts of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 affect all levels of a community from the individual to the governing bodies. However, the spread of an infectious disease is intricately linked to the behaviour of the people within a community since crowd behaviour affects individual human behaviour, while human behaviour affects infection spread, and infection spread affects human behaviour. Capturing these feedback loops of behaviour and infection is a well-known challenge in infectious disease modelling. Here, we investigate the interface of behavioural science theory and infectious disease modelling to explore behaviour and disease (BaD) transmission models. Specifically, we incorporate a visible protective behaviour into the susceptible-infectious-recovered-susceptible (SIRS) transmission model using the socio-psychological Health Belief Model to motivate behavioural uptake and abandonment. We characterize the mathematical thresholds for BaD emergence in the BaD SIRS model and the feasible steady states. We also explore, under different infectious disease scenarios, the effects of a fully protective behaviour on long-term disease prevalence in a community, and describe how BaD modelling can investigate non-pharmaceutical interventions that target-specific components of the Health Belief Model. This transdisciplinary BaD modelling approach may reduce the health and economic impacts of future epidemics

A review of an international sustainability standard (GlobalGAP) and its local replica (MyGAP)

In light of growing concerns about sustainable development, international sustainability standards are prevalent and are replicated by local governments to form country-specific sustainability standards. A consensus has been reached that local sustainability standards can be considered to underperform in view of their limited adoption. Supplementing the current literature, this study hypothesizes additional explanations of this phenomenon through a review of both the GlobalGAP (international) and Malaysian Good Agricultural Practices (MyGAP) standards. Through content analysis, the findings indicate that MyGAP provides a weak institutional framework and market opportunity structure. In addition, since it lacks transparency and accountability, its credibility is questionable. Although it is not clear whether such a credibility issue has a direct impact on the local market, sustainable produce is neither differentiated nor rewarded through premiums. The GlobalGAP standard was found to be an exemplar, and potential improvements are suggested to help support local sustainability standards

Breaking habits with mindful snacking? An email-based intervention targeting unwanted snacking habits in an Australian sample

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (November 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyObjective To investigate the potential for an email-based, mindful eating exercise to improve unwanted snacking habits. Method Australian participants (N = 78, 86% female) with unwanted snacking habits engaged in a mindful eating email-based intervention, over a practice period of two weeks. All measures were completed using an online survey. Habit strength was measured using the Self-Report Habit Index (SHRI). Mindful eating was measured using the Mindful Eating Questionnaire (MEQ) and self-compassion was measured using the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). Participants were emailed a mindful eating exercise and asked to make action plans to practice it. Reminders to perform the task were sent via email after one week. After two weeks, the MEQ, SCS and SHRI were readministered. Results Habit strength significantly increased over the two-week period and self-compassion significantly decreased. The amount of practice reported was not associated with these changes, but self-reported effort expended during practice sessions was partially associated. Discussion The intervention resulted in increased habit strength; potential mechanisms underlying these changes are discussed. Decreased self-compassion may be linked to both the electronic delivery of the intervention and the nature of the mindful eating task

Matching energy intake to expenditure of isocaloric exercise at high- and moderate-intensities

Background Those seeking to manage their bodyweight use a variety of strategies, but the most common approaches involve attempting to exercise more and/or consume fewer calories. A poor comprehension of the energy cost of exercise and the energy content of food may contribute to weight-gain and the poor success rate of exercise weight-loss interventions. Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate individuals' ability to consciously match energy intake with energy expenditure after isocaloric exercise at moderate and high intensities. Method In a counterbalanced cross-over study design, 14 low- to moderately-active, lean individuals (7 male, 7 female; mean age 23 ± 3 years; mean BMI 22.0 ± 3.2 kg·m− 2) completed both a moderate-intensity (60% VO2max, MOD) and a high-intensity (90% VO2max, HIGH) exercise bout on a treadmill, matched for energy expenditure, EE (450 kcal). Participants were blinded to the intensity and duration of each bout. Thirty minutes post-exercise, participants were presented with a buffet, where they were asked to consume food in an attempt to match energy intake with the energy expended during the exercise bout. This was termed the “matching task,” providing a matching task energy intake value (EIMATCH). Upon finishing the matching task, a verbal estimate of energy expenditure (EST) was obtained before the participant was allowed to return to the buffet to consume any more food, if desired. This intake was covertly measured and added to EIMATCH to obtain an ad libitum intake value (EIAD LIB). Results A significant condition × task interaction showed that, in MOD, EST was significantly lower than EE (298 ± 156 kcal vs. 443 ± 22 kcal, p = 0.01). In the HIGH condition, EE, EIMATCH and EST were similar. In both conditions, participants tended to over-eat to a similar degree, relative to EST, with EIMATCH 20% and 22% greater than EST in MOD and HIGH respectively. Between-condition comparisons demonstrated that EIMATCH and EST were significantly lower in MOD, compared with HIGH (374 ± 220 kcal vs. 530 ± 248 kcal, p = 0.002 and 298 ± 156 kcal vs. 431 ± 129 kcal, p = 0.002 respectively). For both conditions, EIAD LIB was approximately 2-fold greater than EE. Discussion Participants exhibited a strong ability to estimate exercise energy expenditure after high-intensity exercise. Participants appeared to perceive moderate-intensity exercise to be less energetic than an isocaloric bout of high-intensity exercise. This may have implications for exercise recommendations for weight-loss strategies, especially when casual approaches to exercise and attempting to eat less are being implemented