Digital solutions for self-monitoring physical health and wellbeing during pregnancy

Perinatal disorders were among the top ten causes of global burden of disease in 2019. Better access to perinatal healthcare would help to reduce preventable morbidity. The increase in access to and use of smartphones presents a unique opportunity to transform and improve how women monitor their own health during pregnancy. This thesis aims to investigate the quality and usage of currently available pregnancy digital health tools for self-monitoring and to validate a newly developed, custom-built pregnancy self-monitoring tool. In Chapter 2, the most popular, commercially available pregnancy apps and their monitoring tools were evaluated for their quality by conducting a pregnancy app scoping review. In Chapters 3 and 4, pregnant women and healthcare professionals were surveyed and interviewed to better understand their usage of and attitudes towards digital health, as well as their thoughts about two hypothetical app features (a direct patient-to-healthcare professional communication tool and a novel body measurement tool). In Chapter 5, we test the performance of a first generation, custom-built body measurement tool (which we called BMT-1) by comparing the digital measurements extracted from photos taken on smartphones to physical measurements taken with measuring tape. The performance of BMT-1 was also assessed on a longitudinal set of digitally constructed pregnancy models. Collectively, the findings from Chapters 2, 3 and 4 provide evidence that there is both opportunity and scope for the development of new digital health tools to support and enhance the quality of care during pregnancy. The results from Chapter 5 indicate that BMT-1 successfully extracted body measurements from both photos and digitally constructed pregnancy models, though would require refinement before it could be launched. To finalise, in Chapter 6, I outline how these findings could help to guide the design, development and implementation of new pregnancy digital health tools

Basic and Clinical Endocrinology Up-to-Date

This book provides the most up-to-date information on the basic and clinical aspects of endocrinology. It offers both researchers and clinicians experts, gold-standard analysis of endocrine research and translation into the treatment of diseases such as insulinoma, endocrine disease in pregnancy and steroid induced osteoporosis. Investigates both the endocrine functions of the kidneys and how the kidney acts as a target for hormones from other organ systems. Presents a uniquely comprehensive look at all aspects of endocrine changes in pregnancy and cardiovascular effects of androgens

Young mothers’ experiences of relationship abuse: Personal stories and public narratives

Domestic abuse has historically been defined and constructed as an adult issue. However, in recent years there has been increasing awareness that young people also experience abuse within their relationships that can have serious and long-term effects on their health and wellbeing. Research has revealed higher rates of abuse reported by younger women than by adult women (Barter et al, 2009) and young mothers in particular appear to be at significant risk of experiencing relationship abuse (Wood et al, 2011). However, there is a lack of empirical research that has explored young mothers’ experiences of abuse and, therefore, little is known about the ways in which they understand and make sense of relationship abuse and negotiate their mothering within an abusive relationship. By focusing exclusively on mothers who became pregnant before they were 18, this research addresses this gap in knowledge and offers an original contribution to the evidence base. The primary aim of the research was to offer young mothers who experienced relationship abuse an opportunity to tell their stories. Underpinned by a feminist, social constructionist epistemology, the research adopted a narrative methodology and used semi-structured interviews to generate data. Participants were six young women who became pregnant before their eighteenth birthday and who had experienced relationship abuse in the last year; two were pregnant with their first child and four were already mothers. Narrative analysis of the data using The Listening Guide explored how participants constructed themselves and made sense of their relationships, paying particular attention to the ways in which personal stories reflected or contested available narratives about relationships, abuse, motherhood and teenage pregnancy. The emerging stories offer an insight into how these young mothers negotiated limited and sometimes contradictory narratives in order to make sense of their experiences and tell their own story. Participants told stories about their relationships and stories about becoming and being a mother that were inextricably linked. Stories of relationships and abuse overwhelmingly reflected narratives of romantic love; narratives that place responsibility for relationships with women, perpetuate gender inequalities and normalise male control and abuse. Their stories of motherhood reflected currently available narratives of ‘good’ mothering and rejected dominant narratives about teenage motherhood that were inconsistent with being a good mother. The findings highlight the limited repertoire of narratives available to young mothers who have experienced relationship abuse and reveal the potentially constraining nature of dominant narratives. Recommendations are made for policy, practice and future research

Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Signaling in Neuroprotection

Alzheimer’s disease; Neurodegenerative diseases; Nicotine; Transporter; Gli

Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Signaling in Neuroprotection

Alzheimer’s disease; Neurodegenerative diseases; Nicotine; Transporter; Gli

eHealth in Chronic Diseases

This book provides a review of the management of chronic diseases (evaluation and treatment) through eHealth. Studies that examine how eHealth can help to prevent, evaluate, or treat chronic diseases and their outcomes are included