A systematic review of the effect of individualized risk communication strategies on screening uptake and its psychological predictors: the role of psychology theory

People might be more likely to attend for health screening if they are told their individual risk of an illness. The way this risk of ill-health is communicated might have an effect on screening uptake or its psychological proxies. It is possible that the format, presentation, and details of the information as well as the complexity of an intervention and use of psychological theory to inform the intervention may impact the effectiveness of individual risk communication. This systematic review collates, analyses and synthesizes the evidence for effectiveness of these aspects of individual risk communication. The synthesis indicated that written, individualized risk scores or categories are effective at supporting screening uptake and its psychological proxies. Complex, or theory-based interventions, surprisingly, are no more effective than simpler or atheoretical interventions

A qualitative exploration of experiences of diagnosis amongst people living with type 2 diabetes

Background: Previous research has found that experiences of being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) shape how people regard their condition, which can later have an impact on self management. This research examines experiences of diagnosis reported by people living with T2D. Methods: Using semi-structured interviews (N = 25), focus groups (3 x N = 12 participants) and open-ended questionnaires (N = 6), people living with T2D were recruited from a community-based T2D participation group. Data were analysed thematically using a framework analysis. Results: Patients’ accounts of diagnosis yielded 3 main themes: (1) Routes to diagnosis; (2) Symptom status during diagnosis experience; and (3) Responses to T2D diagnosis. It was found that participants’ routes to diagnosis and their experiences of symptoms prior to, and during, the diagnosis process presented varying barriers and facilitators to receiving, understanding and/or acting on, the ramifications of their condition. This, in turn, shaped how participants’ responded to their diagnosis. Conclusion: The paper concludes that positive experiences of diagnosis may be possible if barriers to receiving a T2D diagnosis are removed through health promotion measures. Equally, healthcare professionals should seek to resolve the uncertainties that people experience around the time of diagnosis. It is recommended that the latter could be achieved by tailoring patient information and support according to 1) routes to diagnosis, and 2) the stage of the condition has reached at the time of diagnosis

Personality traits and pre-treatment beliefs and cognitions predicting patient adherence to continuous positive airway pressure : a systematic review

Adherence to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) can be improved by behavioural interventions which modify patients’ beliefs and cognitions about OSA, CPAP, and themselves. We have conducted the first systematic review of the literature on beliefs and cognitions held before starting treatment, and personality (which influences the former) that predict the decision to purchase or start CPAP, or CPAP adherence one month or more after CPAP initiation. A systematic search and screen of articles identified 21 eligible publications from an initial 1317. Quality assessment performed using an adapted Newcastle-Ottawa Scale demonstrated that 13 (62%) studies were poor quality and only seven (33%) were high quality. Eighteen factors, such as self-efficacy (confidence) in using CPAP and value placed on health predicted CPAP adherence; however, for only six (33%), utility as an intervention target is known, from calculation of individual predictive power. Studies did not use new behavioural frameworks effective at explaining adherence behaviours, nor did they interview patients to collect in-depth data on barriers and facilitators of CPAP use. Future studies cannot have these limitations if high quality evidence is to be generated for intervention development, which is currently sparse as highlighted by this review

A Hybrid Spam Detection Method Based on Unstructured Datasets

This document is the accepted manuscript version of the following article: Shao, Y., Trovati, M., Shi, Q. et al. Soft Comput (2017) 21: 233. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00500-015-1959-z. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015.The identification of non-genuine or malicious messages poses a variety of challenges due to the continuous changes in the techniques utilised by cyber-criminals. In this article, we propose a hybrid detection method based on a combination of image and text spam recognition techniques. In particular, the former is based on sparse representation-based classification, which focuses on the global and local image features, and a dictionary learning technique to achieve a spam and a ham sub-dictionary. On the other hand, the textual analysis is based on semantic properties of documents to assess the level of maliciousness. More specifically, we are able to distinguish between meta-spam and real spam. Experimental results show the accuracy and potential of our approach.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Data on diabetes-specific distress are needed to improve the quality of diabetes care [Correspondence]

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