12,109 research outputs found
Social Media And Health: Implications For Primary Health Care Providers
This report is the second deliverable of the ?Digital Inclusion and Social Knowledge Media for Health: Frameworks and Roadmaps? project. The first discussed the concept of social and digital exclusion whilst this report focuses on the emerging phenomenon of social media. The report outlines current knowledge on the users and usages of social media for health and goes on to discuss social media in the context of a continuing focus (ref. D1.1) on the areas of mental health, smoking cessation and teenage lifestyles. The report concludes with an outline of an approach to a ?social media strategy? and with suggestions for directions for future research
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Pro-tobacco marketing and anti-tobacco campaigns aimed at vulnerable populations: A review of the literature.
INTRODUCTION:We reviewed research literature on pro-tobacco marketing and anti-tobacco campaigns targeting eight vulnerable populations to determine key findings and research gaps. Results can inform tobacco policy and control efforts and the design of public education campaigns for these groups. METHODS:Five journal databases in medicine, communication, and science, were used to identify 8875 peer-reviewed, original articles in English, published in the period 2004-2018. There were 144 articles that met inclusion criteria on pro-tobacco marketing or anti-tobacco campaigns aimed at eight US groups: women of reproductive age, racial/ethnic minority groups (African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native), Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) populations, groups with low socioeconomic status, rural/inner city residents, military/veterans, and people with mental health or medical co-morbidities. We summarized the number of articles for each population, type of tobacco, and pro-tobacco or anti-tobacco focus. Narrative summaries were organized by population and by pro-tobacco or anti-tobacco focus, with key strategies and gaps by group. RESULTS:There were more studies on pro-tobacco marketing rather than anti-tobacco campaigns, and on cigarettes rather than other tobacco products. Major gaps included studies on Asian Americans, American Indian/Alaska Natives, pregnant women, LGBT populations, and those with mental health or medical co-morbidities. Gaps related to tobacco products were found for hookah, snus, and pipe/roll-your-own tobacco in the pro-tobacco studies, and for all products except cigarettes in anti-tobacco studies. Common tobacco industry methods used were tailoring of product and package design and messages that were used to reach and appeal to different sociodemographic groups. Studies varied by research design making it difficult to compare results. CONCLUSIONS:We found major research gaps for specific groups and tobacco products. Public education campaigns need a stronger foundation in empirical studies focused on these populations. Research and practice would benefit from studies that permit comparisons across studies
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The Economic Impact of Smoking and of Reducing Smoking Prevalence: Review of Evidence
BACKGROUND: Tobacco smoking is the cause of many preventable diseases and premature deaths in the UK and around the world. It poses enormous health- and non-health-related costs to the affected individuals, employers, and the society at large. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, globally, smoking causes over US151 billion. 2. The costs of smoking notwithstanding, it produces some potential economic benefits. The economic activities generated from the production and consumption of tobacco provides economic stimulus. It also produces huge tax revenues for most governments, especially in high-income countries, as well as employment in the tobacco industry. Income from the tobacco industry accounts for up to 7.4% of centrally collected government revenue in China. Smoking also yields cost savings in pension payments from the premature death of smokers. 3. Smoking cessation measures could range from pharmacological treatment interventions to policy-based measures, community-based interventions, telecoms, media, and technology (TMT)-based interventions, school-based interventions, and workplace interventions. 4. The cost per life year saved from the use of pharmacological treatment interventions ranged between US1,450 and up to US2 to US500 and US16,400 to US2,000 and US150 and $540 per nonsmoking employee. Implementing smoke-free workplaces would also produce myriads of new quitters and reduce the amount of cigarette consumption, leading to cost savings in direct medical costs to primary health care providers. Workplace interventions are, however, likely to yield far greater economic benefits over the long term, as reduced prevalence will lead to a healthier and more productive workforce. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the direct costs and externalities to society of smoking far outweigh any benefits that might be accruable at least when considered from the perspective of socially desirable outcomes (i.e., in terms of a healthy population and a productive workforce). There are enormous differences in the application and economic measurement of smoking cessation measures across various types of interventions, methodologies, countries, economic settings, and health care systems, and these may have affected the comparability of the results of the studies reviewed. However, on the balance of probabilities, most of the cessation measures reviewed have not only proved effective but also cost effective in delivering the much desired cost savings and net gains to individuals and primary health care providers
USE OF ONLINE HEALTH COMMUNITIES IN SMOKING CESSATION: A SOCIAL SUPPORT PERSPECTIVE
Online health communities could be effective interventions for smoking cessation. This study aims to explore the reason why smokers turn to online health communities to support their smoking cessation from the social support perspective. We conducted a qualitative study by interviewing seven users of an online smoking cessation community in Finland. Our findings uncover that emotional support, informational support, and companionship are strong motivators for smokers to use smoking cessation online communities. Further, informational support and companionship are found to have different importance for people at different stages of smoking cessation. The role of companionship also varies between posters and lurkers of smoking cessation online community. The findings in this research provide practical guidelines to smoking cessation online health communities on how to understand smokersā needs and retain them to use smoking cessation online health communities from the social support perspective, aiming to support their smoking cessation
Influences on the Uptake of and Engagement With Health and Well-Being Smartphone Apps: Systematic Review
Background: The public health impact of health and well-being digital interventions is dependent upon sufficient real-world uptake and engagement. Uptake is currently largely dependent on popularity indicators (eg, ranking and user ratings on app stores), which may not correspond with effectiveness, and rapid disengagement is common. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify factors that influence uptake and engagement with health and well-being apps to inform new approaches that promote the effective use of such tools. Objective: This review aimed to understand what is known about influences on the uptake of and engagement with health and well-being smartphone apps among adults. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies. Studies conducted on adults were included if they focused on health and well-being smartphone apps reporting on uptake and engagement behavior. Studies identified through a systematic search in Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, or MEDLARS Online (MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PsychINFO, Scopus, Cochrane library databases, DataBase systems and Logic Programming (DBLP), and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital library were screened, with a proportion screened independently by 2 authors. Data synthesis and interpretation were undertaken using a deductive iterative process. External validity checking was undertaken by an independent researcher. A narrative synthesis of the findings was structured around the components of the capability, opportunity, motivation, behavior change model and the theoretical domains framework (TDF). Results: Of the 7640 identified studies, 41 were included in the review. Factors related to uptake (U), engagement (E), or both (B) were identified. Under capability, the main factors identified were app literacy skills (B), app awareness (U), available user guidance (B), health information (E), statistical information on progress (E), well-designed reminders (E), features to reduce cognitive load (E), and self-monitoring features (E). Availability at low cost (U), positive tone, and personalization (E) were identified as physical opportunity factors, whereas recommendations for health and well-being apps (U), embedded health professional support (E), and social networking (E) possibilities were social opportunity factors. Finally, the motivation factors included positive feedback (E), available rewards (E), goal setting (E), and the perceived utility of the app (E). Conclusions: Across a wide range of populations and behaviors, 26 factors relating to capability, opportunity, and motivation appear to influence the uptake of and engagement with health and well-being smartphone apps. Our recommendations may help app developers, health app portal developers, and policy makers in the optimization of health and well-being apps
KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN A SMOKING CESSATION ONLINE COMMUNITY: A PRIVACY CALCULUS PERSPECTIVE
The paper presents a study design intended to disentangle the various components of social support and privacy concerns related to knowledge-sharing in a smoking cessation online health community from a privacy calculus perspective. In the research model, social support confers benefits of informational support, emotional support, esteem support, and network support, all of which have a positive effect on knowledge-sharing behaviour therein. The privacy concerns, articulated in terms of risks, entail threat appraisals (perceived severity and perceived vulnerability) and coping appraisals (response efficacy and self-efficacy). Threat appraisals negatively affect knowledge-sharing in the smoking cessation OHC, whereas coping appraisals have a positive effect on the sharing. Under privacy calculus theory, the risk-benefit analysis determines individual usersā knowledge-sharing behaviour in a smoking cessation OHC. The individual userās smoking cessation OHC usage experience and the stage of smoking cessation are set as moderators in the proposed research model to explore user differences in knowledge sharing behaviour in the smoking cessation OHC. This study may contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the core antecedents to knowledge-sharing in smoking cessation OHCs
Understanding User Contributions in Smoking cessation Online Health Communities
Users make contributions to online communities in different ways. Prior literature has rarely investigated how different user groups make contributions to smoking cessation OHCs. To illuminate the contribution of different user groups in smoking cessation OHCs, this study aims to evaluate user contribution from two dimensions (Content-contribution and popularity) associated with usersā questioning and answering behaviors. Based on the user log data collected from a smoking cessation OHC in Finland (Stumppi.fi), we plan to assess user contribution level for four different user groups (lurker, conversation-starter, conversation-replier, and Conversation-starter & replier) based on user activity data via applying entropy method. The research might make theoretical contributions to the literature on user contribution and offer practical implications to smoking cessation OHC service providers
Understanding Continuance Intention to Use Smoking Cessation Online Health Community: A Social Exchange Perspective
This study aims to investigate the factors determining smokersā continuance intention to use smoking cessation online health communities from a social exchange perspective. This study proposes that the benefits of using smoking cessation online health community consists of informational benefit, emotional benefit, and companionship, which have positive effects on usersā continuance intention to use smoking cessation online health communities, whereas the cost is composed of time and efforts as well as privacy concern, which exert a negative impact on smokersā continuance intention. In addition, some factors are set as moderators in the proposed research model to explore the different roles of benefits and costs in shaping continuance intention among different user groups
A Mobile Game to Support Smoking Cessation: Prototype Assessment
Background: Cigarette smoking results in an estimated seven million deaths annually. Almost half of all smokers attempt to quit each year, yet only approximately 6% are successful. Although there are multiple effective interventions that can increase these odds, substantial room remains for improvement. One effective approach to helping smokers quit is contingency management, where quitting is incentivized with the delivery of monetary rewards in exchange for objective evidence (e.g., exhaled carbon monoxide levels) of abstinence.
Objective: We assessed the feasibility and promise of Inspired, a contingency management mobile app for smoking cessation that uses game-based rewards to incentivize abstinence from smoking instead of the monetary (or material) rewards typically used. We sought participant feedback and limited objective data on: the features and design of Inspired, interest in using Inspired when it becomes available, the likelihood of Inspired being an effective cessation aid, and the rank order preference of Inspired relative to other familiar smoking cessation aids.
Methods: Twenty-eight treatment-seeking smokers participated in this study. Participants attended a single one-hour session in which they received an overview of the goals of the Inspired mobile game, practiced submitting breath carbon monoxide (CO) samples, and played representative levels of the game. Participants were then told that they could play an extra level, or they could stop, complete an outcome survey, receive payment, and be dismissed. A sign-up sheet requesting personal contact information was available for those who wished to be notified when the full version of Inspired becomes available.
Results: Using binary criteria for endorsement, participants indicated that, assuming it was currently available and fully developed, they would be more likely to use Inspired than: any other smoking cessation aid (21/28, 75%), the nicotine patch (23/28, 82%), a drug designed to reduce smoking cravings (23/28, 82%), or a program involving attendance in training sessions or support group meetings (27/28, 96%). In the questionnaire, participants indicated that both the Inspired program (26/28, 93%) and the Inspired game would be āFunā (28/28, 100%), and 71% (20/28) reported that the program would help them personally quit smoking. Fifty-eight percent of participants (15/26) chose to continue playing the game rather than immediately collecting payment for participation and leaving. Eighty-two percent of participants (23/28) signed up to be notified when the full version of Inspired becomes available.
Conclusions: This was the first study to evaluate a game-based contingency management app that uses game-based virtual goods as rewards for smoking abstinence. The outcomes suggest that the completed app has potential to be an effective smoking cessation aid that would be widely adopted by smokers wishing to quit
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