eHealth and People with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

eHealth is the transfer of health services and health care by information and communications technology. People with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD) use the Internet for general and health-related reasons. Yet, it is unclear what kind of schizophrenia-related health information this population finds online. eHealth literacy is the ability of Internet users to find, understand, and apply the health information they acquire, to make appropriate health decisions. People with SSD exhibit cognitive deficits and consequently, their eHealth literacy can be affected. The goal of the study was to describe schizophrenia-related health information, to investigate eHealth use among adults with SSD in Finland and Greece, and to compare the country groups. The methodology consisted of three principle procedures. First, a mixed methods study was conducted with descriptive, cross-sectional design, in order to describe and compare schizophrenia-related health information and videos found online when searched in Finnish and Greek language. Content analysis was performed. Data were analyzed with quantitative and descriptive statistics. Second, a survey study with a descriptive, cross-sectional design was conducted to describe and compare eHealth use among Finnish and Greek people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD). Data were collected by a structured questionnaire and analyzed with quantitative, descriptive statistics, partially, group comparisons were made with logistic regression techniques. Third, a systematic literature review and meta-analysis were performed to assess the potential effectiveness of social media interventions for people with SSD. Our findings, first, showed that assessed online schizophrenia-related health information tended to be of low quality, with no significant differences between the two countries. Furthermore, schizophrenia-related videos tended to present mental illness in a negative, not medically-oriented way, again, without significant differences between the countries. Second, Internet use (FI: 87% vs. GR: 33%) and eHealth literacy (FI: mean 27.05 vs. GR: mean 23.15) of Finnish people with SSD was significantly higher (P<.0001) than their Greek counterparts. The interest component of attitudes toward computer/Internet was significantly higher (P=.006) among the Greek group (FI: mean 2.60 vs. GR: mean 3.16). Third, the systematic review and meta-analysis did not show superiority of social media mental health interventions than treatment as usual. In conclusion, it is recommended that in the future, better quality mental health information and videos need to be made available in several languages and to be easily accessible through the most popular search engines and social media sites. eHealth literacy instruction and training is necessary so that people with SSD can find, understand, and apply the health information they retrieve online.Sähköiset terveyspalvelut skitsofreniaspektrin sairauksien hoidossa eHealth –käsite tarkoittaa terveyspalveluja, jotka välitetään informaatio- ja kommunikaatioteknologian avulla. Skitsofreniaspektrin häiriöitä sairastavat henkilöt käyttävät Internetiä yleisiin ja terveyteen liittyviin tarkoituksiin. On kuitenkin epäselvää, minkälaista skitsofreniaan liittyvää terveystietoa he löytävät Internetistä. Sähköinen terveyslukutaito kuvaa Internetin käyttäjien kykyä löytää ja ymmärtää löytämäänsä terveystietoa sekä käyttää sitä tarkoituksenmukaisesti terveyteen liittyvissä päätöksissä. Koska henkilöillä, joilla on skitsofreniaspektrin häiriö, ilmenee usein kognitiivisia vajavaisuuksia, heidän terveyslukutaitonsa saattaa olla alentunut. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata skitsofreniaan liittyvää terveystietoa sähköisissä palveluissa, selvittää näiden terveyspalvelujen käyttöä aikuisten, skitsofreniaspektrin häiriöitä sairastavien henkilöiden keskuudessa sekä Suomessa että Kreikassa ja verrata maiden ryhmiä toisiinsa. Aluksi toteutettiin tutkimus eri tutkimusmenetelmiä yhdistämällä (mixed methods) deskriptiivisellä, poikkileikkaavalla tutkimusotteella. Tarkoituksena oli kuvata ja verrata Internetistä suomeksi ja kreikaksi löytyvää terveystietoa ja videoita skitsofreniaa koskien. Aineisto analysoitiin sisällönanalyysin sekä kuvailevin tilastomenetelmin. Seuraavaksi suoritettiin kysely samalla tutkimusasetelmalla, jossa kuvattiin ja verrattiin sähköisten terveyspalvelujen käyttöä suomalaisten ja kreikkalaisten skitsofreniaspektrin häiriöitä sairastavien henkilöiden keskuudessa. Aineisto kerättiin strukturoidulla kyselylomakkeella ja analysoitiin kuvailevin tilastomenetelmin. Ryhmien väliset vertailut tehtiin logistisen regressioanalyysin avulla. Kolmanneksi tehtiin systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus ja meta-analyysi, jossa arvioitiin sosiaalisen median vaikuttavuutta skitsofreniaspektrin häiriöitä sairastavien henkilöiden hoidossa. Tulokset osoittivat, että skitsofreniaan liittyvää terveystieto oli yleisesti ottaen huonolaatuista molemmissa maissa; tutkittavien maiden välillä ei ollut tilastollisesti merkitseviä eroja. Skitsofreniaan liittyvät videot kuvasivat mielisairauksia negatiivisessa, ei-lääketieteellisessä valossa; tulokset eivät eronneet tilastollisesti maiden välillä. Suomalaisten skitsofreniaspektrin häiriöitä sairastavien henkilöiden Internetin käyttö (Suomi 87% vs. Kreikka 33%) ja sähköisen terveystiedon lukutaito (ka 27.05 vs. ka 23.15) oli korkeampi suomalaisilla kuin kreikkalaisilla potilailla; maiden väliset erot olivat tilastollisesti merkitsevät (P<.0001). Tietokoneisiin/Internetiin kohdistuvat asenteet olivat merkittävästi positiivisimmat kreikkalaisen keskuudessa (ka 2.60 vs. ka 3.16, P=.006). Systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus ja meta-analyysi eivät osoittaneet sosiaalisen median olevan tehokkaampi kuin perinteiset hoitomenetelmät. Tulevaisuudessa korkealaatuista mielenterveysinformaatiota ja videoita olisi oltava helposti löydettävissä eri kielillä suosituimpien hakukoneiden ja sosiaalisen median avulla. Potilaat tarvitsevat koulutusta sähköisten palvelujen medialukutaitoon.Siirretty Doriast

Smart and Pervasive Healthcare

Smart and pervasive healthcare aims at facilitating better healthcare access, provision, and delivery by overcoming spatial and temporal barriers. It represents a shift toward understanding what patients and clinicians really need when placed within a specific context, where traditional face-to-face encounters may not be possible or sufficient. As such, technological innovation is a necessary facilitating conduit. This book is a collection of chapters written by prominent researchers and academics worldwide that provide insights into the design and adoption of new platforms in smart and pervasive healthcare. With the COVID-19 pandemic necessitating changes to the traditional model of healthcare access and its delivery around the world, this book is a timely contribution

P5 eHealth: An Agenda for the Health Technologies of the Future

This open access volume focuses on the development of a P5 eHealth, or better, a methodological resource for developing the health technologies of the future, based on patients’ personal characteristics and needs as the fundamental guidelines for design. It provides practical guidelines and evidence based examples on how to design, implement, use and elevate new technologies for healthcare to support the management of incurable, chronic conditions. The volume further discusses the criticalities of eHealth, why it is difficult to employ eHealth from an organizational point of view or why patients do not always accept the technology, and how eHealth interventions can be improved in the future. By dealing with the state-of-the-art in eHealth technologies, this volume is of great interest to researchers in the field of physical and mental healthcare, psychologists, stakeholders and policymakers as well as technology developers working in the healthcare sector

Adoption of information technology based patient education in psychiatric nursing

The overall goal of the study was to describe adoption of information technology (IT)-based patient education (PE) developed for patients and nurses use in psychiatric nursing. The data were collected in three phases during the period 2000-2006 in a variety of psychiatric settings in Finland. Firstly, the development process of IT-based PE for patients with schizophrenia spectrum psychosis was described. Secondly, nurses’ adoption of IT-based PE and the variables explaining adoption were demonstrated. Moreover, use of daily IT-based PE in clinical practice and factors associated with use were identified and described. And thirdly, nurses’ experiences of the IT-based PE after one year clinical use were evaluated. IT-based PE program was developed in several stages based on users’ needs and it included information and multimedia applications. Altogether, almost 500 IT-based PE sessions were carried out by the nurses on the study wards and revealed nurses’ activity in educating patients using IT to vary and depend on the hospital in which they worked. Almost 80% of all the possible IT-based PE sessions involved 93 patients and 83 nurses. Less than 2% of the IT-based PE sessions were interrupted and less than 10% suffered disturbances due to the patients or external causes. Moreover, the patients whose education took more days had poorer mental status than those whose education was carried out over a shorter period. After a year’s experience, advantages and disadvantages were described by the nurses for both patients and nurses of the IT-based PE. IT-based PE can be used even on closed acute psychiatric wards with patients with serious mental health disorders. However, technology adoption requires time, and therefore, it must fit in with clinical practice. Collaboration between users and developers is needed when developing user-centered methods in the area of mental health services. Moreover, it is important to understand factors that affect IT adoption in healthcare settings. IT-based PE is one option in interactive and co-operative health care practice between patients and nurses. Therefore the staff should begin to refer patients to established, credible and well-maintained Internet sites that provide information on common psychological problems. Even if every nurse should be trained and engaged to carry out IT-based PE, by targeting the training especially for the most active nurses aids them to support the less active ones. Adoption should also be understood from a perspective that includes aspects related to the context where it is implemented and examine how and in what circumstances it works.Siirretty Doriast

Nudging lifestyles for better health outcomes: crowdsourced data and persuasive technologies for behavioural change

For at least three decades, a Tsunami of preventable poor health has continued to threaten the future prosperity of our nations. Despite its effective destructive power, our collective predictive and preventive capacity remains remarkably under-developed This Tsunami is almost entirely mediated through the passive and unintended consequences of modernisation. The malignant spread of obesity in genetically stable populations dictates that gene disposition is not a significant contributor as populations, crowds or cohorts are all incapable of experiencing a new shipment of genes in only 2-3 decades. The authors elaborate on why a supply-side approach: advancing health care delivery cannot be expected to impact health outcomes effectively. Better care sets the stage for more care yet remains largely impotent in returning individuals to disease-free states. The authors urge an expedited paradigmatic shift in policy selection criterion towards using data intensive crowd-based evidence integrating insights from system thinking, networks and nudging. Collectively these will support emerging potentialities of ICT used in proactive policy modelling. Against this background the authors proposes a solution that stated in a most compact form consists of: the provision of mundane yet high yield data through light instrumentation of crowds enabling participative sensing, real time living epidemiology separating the per unit co-occurrences which are health promoting from those which are not, nudging through persuasive technologies, serious gaming to sustain individual health behaviour change and intuitive visualisation with reliable simulation to evaluate and direct public health investments and policies in evidence-based waysJRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ

Wearables at work:preferences from an employee’s perspective

This exploratory study aims to obtain a first impression of the wishes and needs of employees on the use of wearables at work for health promotion. 76 employ-ees with a mean age of 40 years old (SD ±11.7) filled in a survey after trying out a wearable. Most employees see the potential of using wearable devices for workplace health promotion. However, according to employees, some negative aspects should be overcome before wearables can effectively contribute to health promotion. The most mentioned negative aspects were poor visualization and un-pleasantness of wearing. Specifically for the workplace, employees were con-cerned about the privacy of data collection

Geneva Health Forum 2020 Poster Book

From 16 to 18 November 2020, the eighth edition of the Geneva Health Forum, which took place in the difficult context of the Covid 19 pandemic, hosted 165 posters. The present collection offers through 65 posters a wide range of topics discussed