Reconsidering Priorities for Digital Maternal and Child Health: Community-Centered Perspectives from South Africa

Especially in developing regions, parents are rarely given a direct voice in the design of digital maternal and child health (MCH) interventions. Instead, MCH needs and requirements are driven by organizations and health workers. In this research, we engage with both rural and urban parents and community leaders to better understand their challenges and priorities for digital MCH and propose a parent-centered agenda for human-computer interaction research. This paper reports on the community-based, digital MCH priorities identified in our research, and describes how we approached community discourse and co-design of digital initiatives for these priorities, through parent-centered workshops with low-resource South African communities. Furthermore, we provide the parent-centered design opportunities and tensions we discovered for digital MCH in South African contexts, such as designing for local contexts and languages, designing for accessibility and connectedness, and highlighting the underdeveloped digital MCH niches. Finally, we highlight the importance of including facilitators for co-design workshops, such as using intermediaries and design cards

Digital Health Technologies for Maternal and Child Health in Africa and Other Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Cross-disciplinary Scoping Review With Stakeholder Consultation

Background: Maternal and child health (MCH) is a global health concern, especially impacting low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Digital health technologies are creating opportunities to address the social determinants of MCH by facilitating access to information and providing other forms of support throughout the maternity journey. Previous reviews in different disciplines have synthesized digital health intervention outcomes in LMIC. However, contributions in this space are scattered across publications in different disciplines and lack coherence in what digital MCH means across fields. Objective: This cross-disciplinary scoping review synthesized the existing published literature in 3 major disciplines on the use of digital health interventions for MCH in LMIC, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We conducted a scoping review using the 6-stage framework by Arksey and O'Malley across 3 disciplines, including public health, social sciences applied to health, and human-computer interaction research in health care. We searched the following databases: Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, and PLOS. A stakeholder consultation was undertaken to inform and validate the review. Results: During the search, 284 peer-reviewed articles were identified. After removing 41 duplicates, 141 articles met our inclusion criteria: 34 from social sciences applied to health, 58 from public health, and 49 from human-computer interaction research in health care. These articles were then tagged (labeled) by 3 researchers using a custom data extraction framework to obtain the findings. First, the scope of digital MCH was found to target health education (eg, breastfeeding and child nutrition), care and follow-up of health service use (to support community health workers), maternal mental health, and nutritional and health outcomes. These interventions included mobile apps, SMS text messaging, voice messaging, web-based applications, social media, movies and videos, and wearable or sensor-based devices. Second, we highlight key challenges: little attention has been given to understanding the lived experiences of the communities; key role players (eg, fathers, grandparents, and other family members) are often excluded; and many studies are designed considering nuclear families that do not represent the family structures of the local cultures. Conclusions: Digital MCH has shown steady growth in Africa and other LMIC settings. Unfortunately, the role of the community was negligible, as these interventions often do not include communities early and inclusively enough in the design process. We highlight key opportunities and sociotechnical challenges for digital MCH in LMIC, such as more affordable mobile data; better access to smartphones and wearable technologies; and the rise of custom-developed, culturally appropriate apps that are more suited to low-literacy users. We also focus on barriers such as an overreliance on text-based communications and the difficulty of MCH research and design to inform and translate into policy

Green inclusive leadership and employee green behaviors in the hotel industry: Does perceived green organizational support matter?

Building on theories of social exchange, social identity, social learning, and organizational support, this study examines the impact of green inclusive leadership (GIL) on employees’ green behaviors in the hotel industry. These behaviors were green innovative work behavior (GIWB), green service recovery performance, and green knowledge sharing behavior. Among the links proposed, perceived green organizational support (GOS) was employed as a mediating variable. Data in this study were collected from 436 hotel direct supervisors and employee dyads. Using structural equation modelling, the results suggest that GIL predicted GIWB, green service recovery performance, and green knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, perceived GOS was found to mediate the proposed relationships. Finally, implications for theory and practice are discussed in this study. © 2022 The AuthorsFAR004This research project has been financed by the research funds provided by the department of Economics at the university of Isnubria (Italy) under the funding scheme of “Leadership at the workplace in diverse types of organizations“. Funding reference: FAR004–NOVO-NORDISK, UA.00.02-2020 budget.This research project has been financed by the research funds provided by the department of Economics at the university of Isnubria (Italy) under the funding scheme of “Leadership at the workplace in diverse types of organizations“ . Funding reference: FAR004–NOVO-NORDISK , UA.00.02-2020 budget

Green inclusive leadership and employee green behaviors in the hotel industry: Does perceived green organizational support matter?

Building on theories of social exchange, social identity, social learning, and organizational support, this study examines the impact of green inclusive leadership (GIL) on employees’ green behaviors in the hotel industry. These behaviors were green innovative work behavior (GIWB), green service recovery performance, and green knowledge sharing behavior. Among the links proposed, perceived green organizational support (GOS) was employed as a mediating variable. Data in this study were collected from 436 hotel direct supervisors and employee dyads. Using structural equation modelling, the results suggest that GIL predicted GIWB, green service recovery performance, and green knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, perceived GOS was found to mediate the proposed relationships. Finally, implications for theory and practice are discussed in this study

A user-centred design framework for mHealth

BACKGROUND: Mobile health (mHealth) has the potential to improve access to healthcare, especially in developing countries. The proliferation of mHealth has not been accompanied by a corresponding growth in design guidelines for mHealth applications. This paper proposes a framework for mHealth application design that combines the Information Systems Research (ISR) framework and design thinking. We demonstrate a use case for the proposed framework in the form of an app to read the result of the tuberculin skin test (TST), which is used to screen for latent tuberculosis infection. The framework was used in the re-design of the TST reading app but could also be used in earlier stages of mHealth app design. METHODS: The ISR framework and design thinking were merged based on how the modes of design thinking integrate with the cycles of the ISR framework. Using the combined framework, we re-designed an mHealth app for TST reading, intended to be used primarily in a developing context by healthcare workers. Using the proposed framework, the app was iterated upon and developed with the aid of personas, observations, prototyping and questionnaires. RESULT: The combined framework was applied through engagement with end-users, namely ten healthcare workers and ten graduate students. Through review of the literature and iterations of the app prototype, we identified various usability requirements and limitations. These included challenges related to image capture and a misunderstanding of instructions. These insights influenced the development and improvement of the app. CONCLUSION: The combined framework allowed for engagement with end-users and for low-cost, rapid development of the app while addressing contextual challenges and needs. The integration of design thinking modes with the ISR cycles was effective in achieving the objectives of each approach. The combined framework acknowledges the importance of engaging users when implementing mHealth technologies, especially in developing and under-resourced contexts. Findings from this study support the use of this framework as a guide in the design of user-centred mHealth interventions