Anamneses-Based Internet Information Supply: Can a Combination of an Expert System and Meta-Search Engine Help Consumers find the Health Information they Require?

An increasing number of people search for health information online. During the last 10 years various researchers have determined the requirements for an ideal consumer health information system. The aim of this study was to figure out, whether medical laymen can find a more accurate diagnosis for a given anamnesis via the developed prototype health information system than via ordinary internet search

Conceptualising health information seeking behaviours and exploratory search: result of a qualitative study

The Internet has become an important source of health information for many people, including non-medical experts. While much health information is provided through the Internet, such information is often spread across multiple websites and providers. With the decentralised nature of the Internet, people are often unable to access health information at a single point, and thus extra efforts are needed for seeking information with search engines. The information seeking process is a crucial step for obtaining the needed health information. According to prior research, seekers apply an exploratory approach in the information seeking process of health-related topics. Although information seeking behaviours have been studied extensively in past research, few details specifically about information seeking in the health context can be found. This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigates the information needs and behaviours of health information seekers. Based on the results of the study, we present a model conceptualising health information seeking behaviours as well as the characteristics of the exploratory search approach observed in the health information seeking process

Development and initial evaluation of a smartphone application based on acceptance and commitment therapy

Background: An intervention, consisting of an ACT-based smartphone-application and a web-based psychoeducation, has been developed. The smartphone-application, together with the psychoeducation, aims to function as a self-help intervention for living consistently with one's values. The study is an exploratory investigation of this new smartphone-based tool. Case description: Primarily, the study aims at investigating a new field, providing a basis for generating hypotheses for further research. The first aim of this initial, exploratory study was to examine if this intervention had an effect on the variables of: valued actions, psychological flexibility, and life satisfaction as well as the states of depression, anxiety and stress, for a non-clinical sample of 11 Swedish Iphone users. This was made with a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design without control group. The second aim was to investigate how the participants experienced the intervention, as measured by a qualitative questionnaire. Discussion and evaluation: The group analyses showed that the participants increased their valued action and psychological flexibility significantly during the intervention. Furthermore, value-based actions and psychological flexibility showed small effect sizes when comparing pretest and posttest score. However, the design of the study makes it impossible to draw any certain conclusions. The qualitative questionnaire showed a general positive experience of the intervention. Conclusions: The results from the present study indicated that the intervention should be studied further. The findings also generated a number of hypotheses that could be investigated in further research

Obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and smoking

It is becoming increasingly clear that arterial stiffness may be determined not only by age(ing) and blood pressure, but also by exposure to other cardiovascular risk factors. This chapter reviews the evidence provided by studies adopting an aetiological model of analyses of determinants of arterial stiffness, mainly derived, if available, from prospective designs. Specifically, the following risk factors are examined: the critical axis (central) obesity – metabolic syndrome – (type 2) diabetes, and also smoking. There is convincing evidence, reinforced by recent aetiological prospective studies, that these risk factors, all of which may be preventable, increase arterial stiffness. This may explain, at least in part, the increased cardiovascular disease risk observed in these conditions. However, the molecular basis of greater arterial stiffness associated with these risk factors remains to be fully elucidated. In addition, the prognostic significance of arterial stiffness indices in individuals with these risk factors, and the extent to which intervention on these risk factors improves cardiovascular outcome through beneficial impact on arterial stiffness, is still unclear. Given the high and/or increasing prevalence of these risk factors, these issues constitute an important research agenda