Mobile Health (mHealth) Channel Preference: An Integrated Perspective of Approach-Avoidance Beliefs and Regulatory Focus

It has been suggested that the mobile health (mHealth) channel is effective in assisting with chronic disease management. However, little is known about the mHealth channel preferences of consumers who may be vulnerable to chronic disease. Integrating the lens of approach-avoidance beliefs with regulatory focus theory, we: (1) focus on mHealth channel preference (CHANNEL) as our dependent variable, (2) identify perceived mHealth usefulness (PU) as an approach belief and perceived mHealth risk (RISK) as an avoidance belief, and (3) develop hypotheses pertaining to the how the regulatory focus of the individual (operationalized as perceived vulnerability to chronic disease, i.e., VULN) moderates the impacts of PU and RISK on CHANNEL. Based on analyses using structural equation modeling of survey data collected from 954 individuals in the US, we find that, compared to a promotion regulatory focus (low VULN), a prevention regulatory focus (high VULN) amplifies the effect of RISK on CHANNEL and suppresses the effect of PU on CHANNEL. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practice, and future research related to mHealth channel preferences

Unravelling technology-acceptance factors influencing farmer use of banana tissue culture planting materials in Central Uganda

Effective management of plant health is fundamental for food and income security to meet the growing demands of local and global markets. This however requires farmers’ adequate access to quality planting materials under the prevailing contextual and psycho-social factors. This study, anchored in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies, unravels technology-acceptance factors that influence farmers’ intentions to use banana tissue culture planting materials in the control of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt. Data were collected from 248 randomly sampled banana farmers using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using structural equation modelling to examine hypothesized paths in the uptake of banana tissue culture planting materials. Results show that farmer intentions to use tissue culture planting materials are dependent on two constructs: social influence and farmer innovativeness. However, social influence is the main predictor of intentions to use tissue culture planting materials. In particular, farmer innovativeness mediates facilitating conditions and social influence in predicting intentions to use tissue culture planting materials. Thus, this study reveals two factors that influence farmer intentions to use tissue culture planting materials: social influence and farmer innovativeness. The findings imply that social influence and farmer innovativeness are critical in disseminating novel agricultural technologies in Uganda and elsewhere

USER ACCEPTANCE OF CELL PHONE SUPPORT FOR SMOKING CESSATION: A UK - CANADA COMPARATIVE EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

This paper presents a theoretical model of user reasons to adopt or resist the use of cell phones as a support tool in smoking cessation interventions and its empirical testing in two country settings with significantly different mobile phone penetration rate: the UK and Canada. A model comprising both factors favourable to adoption and resistance factors was constructed and tested simultaneously with 170 participants recruited across the UK and 252 participants recruited across Canada. Results show the model having motivation as favourable factor and perceived risk of using cell phones as a resistance factor was appropriate in explaining smokers’ intentions to use these devices as a support for smoking cessation if they decided to quit smoking. Although differences in perceptions between participants in UK and Canada were noticed, these were not statistically significant

Alter ego, state of the art on user profiling: an overview of the most relevant organisational and behavioural aspects regarding User Profiling.

This report gives an overview of the most relevant organisational and\ud behavioural aspects regarding user profiling. It discusses not only the\ud most important aims of user profiling from both an organisation’s as\ud well as a user’s perspective, it will also discuss organisational motives\ud and barriers for user profiling and the most important conditions for\ud the success of user profiling. Finally recommendations are made and\ud suggestions for further research are given

Innovations that Address Socioeconomic, Cultural, and Geographic Barriers to Preventive Oral Health Care

This report focuses on nine oral health innovations that integrate service delivery and workforce models in order to reduce or eliminate socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural barriers to care. Two additional reports in this series describe the remaining programs that provide care in non-dental settings and care to young children. Although the programs are diverse in their approaches as well as in the specific characteristics of the communities they serve, a common factor among them is the implementation of multiple strategies to increase the number of children from low-income families who access preventive care, and also to engage families and communities in investing in and prioritizing oral health. For low-income children and their families, the barriers that must be addressed to increase access to preventive oral health care are numerous. For example, even children covered by public insurance programs face a shortage of dentists that accept Medicaid and who specialize in pediatric dentistry.(Guay, 2004).The effects of poverty intersect with other barriers such as living in remote geographic areas and community-wide history of poor access to dental care in populations such as recent immigrants . Overcoming these barriers requires creative strategies that address transportation barriers; establish welcoming environments for oral health care; and are linguistically and culturally relevant. Each of these nine programs is based on such strategies, including:-Expanding the dental workforce through training new types of providers or adding new providers to their workforce to increase reach and community presence;-Implementing new strategies to increase the cost-effectiveness of care so that more oral health care services are available and accessible;-Providing training and technical assistance that increase opportunities for and competence in delivering oral health education and care to children;-Developing creative service delivery models that address transportation and cultural barriers as well as the fear and stigma associated with dental care that may arise in communities with historically poor access.The findings from the EAs of these programs are synthesized to highlight diverse and innovative strategies for overcoming barriers to access that have potential for rigorous evaluation that could emerge as best practices. If proven effective, these innovative program elements could then be disseminated and replicated to increase access for populations in need of preventive oral health care

Design of a Digital-Based, Multicomponent Nutrition Guidance System for Prevention of Early Childhood Obesity

Interventions targeting parenting focused modifiable factors to prevent obesity and promote healthy growth in the first 1000 days of life are needed. Scale-up of interventions to global populations is necessary to reverse trends in weight status among infants and toddlers, and large scale dissemination will require understanding of effective strategies. Utilizing nutrition education theories, this paper describes the design of a digital-based nutrition guidance system targeted to first-time mothers to prevent obesity during the first two years. The multicomponent system consists of scientifically substantiated content, tools, and telephone-based professional support delivered in an anticipatory and sequential manner via the internet, email, and text messages, focusing on educational modules addressing the modifiable factors associated with childhood obesity. Digital delivery formats leverage consumer media trends and provide the opportunity for scale-up, unavailable to previous interventions reliant on resource heavy clinic and home-based counseling. Designed initially for use in the United States, this system’s core features are applicable to all contexts and constitute an approach fostering healthy growth, not just obesity prevention. The multicomponent features, combined with a global concern for optimal growth and positive trends in mobile internet use, represent this system’s future potential to affect change in nutrition practice in developing countries

Intent and the Use of Wearables in the Workplace – A Model Development

Due to reasons like demographic changes and variations in the spectrum of illness, worldwide expenditures in the health market have exploded.Contemporary information systems are evolving rapidly in the field of ubiquitous computing and nowadays support health in various fields. Wearables and tracking technologies have emerged in private life for health and fitness support.This adoption reveals future possibilities for innovating the health-supporting systems in the workplace. The crucial point of introducing wearables in the occupational health management system is the acceptance of employees. This paper provides a literature-driven measurement model to explain the behavioral intention to use wearables in the occupational health management system. The model provided is supported by 17 hypothesized relationships between relevant constructs and validated by card-sorting

Toward better allergy management in the digital era: empirical essays

The prevalence of pollen-induced allergies stagnates on a high level, ranging from 15% to 25% worldwide. Since allergy is a chronic health condition, it requires long-term therapy. The efficiency of every pharmacological treatment or supporting health behavior is limited by the patient’s cooperation, especially, if it requires self-administration and is performed outside of healthcare institutions. It is well-known, that most noncompliance is intentional. Thus, interventions focusing on improvement of health behavior of allergic individuals, should address the root causes of inappropriate health behavior. Anti-allergic medications are symptomatic and have to be taken as needed. Allergen avoidance strategies make sense only if performed at the moment, when airborne pollen concentration is high. Pollen information provided to allergic individuals via a pollen application, might become an important aid in avoiding exposure to allergenic pollen, as well as planning medication and outdoor activities. However, little is known about factors motivating sustained pollen application use. Depending on the phenological and meteorological factors, airborne pollen concentration shows considerable fluctuation in its amount during the main pollen season. Robust forecasting techniques providing prediction of airborne pollen levels on a diurnal scale are of paramount importance to support a proper allergy management. The doctoral thesis contains four contributions to scientific literature. Contribution 1 examines the current situation regarding the impairment caused by allergic symptoms and frequently performed health behavior. Contribution 2 investigates the influencing factors explaining the health behavior of allergic individuals. Contribution 3 focuses on influencing factors facilitating the acceptance and utilization of pollen applications as a supporting tool in allergy management. Contribution 4 is devoted to development of predictive models of airborne pollen concentrations on a 3-hourly scales of pollen data using time series analysis and machine learning techniques. The contribution 1 explores health behavior of allergic individuals by means of a cross-sectional study. It confirms that pollen allergy remains a serious health-related problem with a profound effect on the health-related quality of life of allergic individuals, with negative implications in social life, everyday activities, and significant decline of work productivity. Despite perceived symptoms, a considerably small proportion of the allergic individuals seek medical support or undergo specific immunotherapy. Allergen avoidance strategies and pollen information services are moderately used by allergic individuals. The biggest share of allergic individuals self-manages allergic symptoms using over-the-counter medication. The contribution 2 investigates the determinants of utilization of various allergy management measures using Protection Motivation Theory. It shows that the threat appraisal, consisting of perceived severity of the symptoms and perceived seriousness of allergy, is the most relevant motivator of allergy management efforts performed by allergic individuals. However, educational interventions aiming at promoting appropriate allergy management and raising awareness of health risks associated with inadequate allergy management should be accompanied by measures increasing self-efficacy of allergic individuals. The contribution 3 explores motivational factors facilitating the acceptance and utilization of pollen applications by allergic individuals. Empirical data collected in the course of an online experiment shows that the IT-driven factors have substantially greater influence on the acceptance of pollen applications, than allergy characteristics. Therefore, to assure sustained use, pollen applications have to focus on providing high quality health content and pollen information in order to be perceived as a useful supporting tool in allergy management. The contribution 4 tests ability of four forecasting techniques, namely ARIMA, dynamic regression, artificial neural network and neural network autoregression to accurately predict airborne pollen concentrations of Betula and Poaceae on a 3-hourly scale of data. In general, forecasting techniques explicitly using autoregression and considering external meteorological variables performed well in forecasting airborne pollen levels. However, seasonal ARIMA, being the simplest among tested forecasting methods, was superior in predicting Poaceae airborne pollen concentration. A possible extension of the present scientific work, is to test the utility of the provided recommendation using experimental and longitudinal study designs. These research questions are especially interesting in context of the third contribution presenting a pollen application as a supporting tool in allergy management