Differential Effects of Emotional Information on Interference Task Performance Across the Life Span

While functioning in multiple domains declines with age, emotional regulation appears to remain preserved in older adults. The Emotion Inhibition (Emotional Stroop) Test requires participants to name the ink color in which neutrally and emotionally valenced words are printed. It was employed in the current investigation as a measure of affective regulation in the context of an interference task in relation to age. Results demonstrated that while participants ranging from 20 to 50 years of age performed significantly worse on the emotion Stroop Inhibition relative to the neutral Stroop Inhibition condition, subjects over 60 years of age displayed the converse of this pattern, performing better on the emotion than the neutral condition, suggesting that they are less affected by the emotional impact of the positive and negative words used in the former condition. This pattern of age-related change in the ability to manage emotion may be related to blunting of affective signaling in limbic structures or, at the psychological level, focusing on emotional regulation

Older adults\u27 needs and preferences for a nutrition education digital health solution: A participatory design study

Background: The global population is ageing rapidly and there is a need for strategies to promote health and wellbeing among older adults. Nutrition knowledge is a key predictor of dietary intake; therefore, effective educational programmes are urgently required to rectify poor dietary patterns. Digital health technologies provide a viable option for delivering nutrition education that is cost-effective and widely accessible. However, few technologies have been developed to meet the unique needs and preferences of older adults. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore technology use among older adults and qualitatively determine the content needs and design preferences for an online nutrition education resource tailored to older adult consumers in Australia. Methods: Twenty adult participants aged 55 years and older (95% female) participated in one of four 2-h participatory design workshops. In each workshop, prompted discussion questions were used to explore participants\u27 technology use and preferences and to explore content needs and design preferences for an online nutrition education resource specific to older adults. Results: All participants were regularly using a range of different devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets and computers) and reported being comfortable doing so. Participants wanted a website that provided general nutrition information, practical advice and recipes. To enhance engagement, they sought a personalised resource that could be adjusted to suit their needs, included up-to-date information and allowed for easy sharing with others by exporting information as a PDF. Conclusions: Participatory design methods generate new knowledge for designing and tailoring digital health technologies to be appropriate and useful for the target audience. Specifically, older adults seek an online resource that has large and simple fonts with clear categories, providing them with practical advice and general nutrition information that can be personalised to suit their own needs and health concerns, with the option to export and print information into a paper-based format. Patient or Public Contribution: Older adults actively participated in the development and evaluation process to generate ideas about potential features, functionalities, uses and practicalities of an online nutrition education resource

Behaviour Change Techniques Used in Mediterranean Diet Interventions for Older Adults: A Systematic Scoping Review

Mediterranean diet interventions have demonstrated positive effects in the prevention and management of several chronic conditions in older adults. Understanding the effective components of behavioural interventions is essential for long-term health behaviour change and translating evidence-based interventions into practice. The aim of this scoping review is to provide an overview of the current Mediterranean diet interventions for older adults (≥55 years) and describe the behaviour change techniques used as part of the interventions. A scoping review systematically searched Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO from inception until August 2022. Eligible studies were randomized and non-randomized experimental studies involving a Mediterranean or anti-inflammatory diet intervention in older adults (average age \u3e 55 years). Screening was conducted independently by two authors, with discrepancies being resolved by the senior author. Behaviour change techniques were assessed using the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy (version 1), which details 93 hierarchical techniques grouped into 16 categories. From 2385 articles, 31 studies were included in the final synthesis. Ten behaviour change taxonomy groupings and 19 techniques were reported across the 31 interventions. The mean number of techniques used was 5, with a range from 2 to 9. Common techniques included instruction on how to perform the behaviour (n = 31), social support (n = 24), providing information from a credible source (n = 16), information about health consequences (n = 15), and adding objects to the environment (n = 12). Although behaviour change techniques are commonly reported across interventions, the use of the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy for intervention development is rare, and more than 80% of the available techniques are not being utilised. Integrating behaviour change techniques in the development and reporting of nutrition interventions for older adults is essential for effectively targeting behaviours in both research and practice

Understanding Technology Preferences and Requirements for Health Information Technologies Designed to Improve and Maintain the Mental Health and Well-Being of Older Adults: Participatory Design Study

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, the population is aging rapidly; therefore, there is a growing interest in strategies to support and maintain health and well-being in later life. Although familiarity with technology and digital literacy are increasing among this

Privacy Practices of Health Information Technologies: Privacy Policy Risk Assessment Study and Proposed Guidelines

BackgroundAlong with the proliferation of health information technologies (HITs), there is a growing need to understand the potential privacy risks associated with using such tools. Although privacy policies are designed to inform consumers, such policies have consistently been found to be confusing and lack transparency. ObjectiveThis study aims to present consumer preferences for accessing privacy information; develop and apply a privacy policy risk assessment tool to assess whether existing HITs meet the recommended privacy policy standards; and propose guidelines to assist health professionals and service providers with understanding the privacy risks associated with HITs, so that they can confidently promote their safe use as a part of care. MethodsIn phase 1, participatory design workshops were conducted with young people who were attending a participating headspace center, their supportive others, and health professionals and service providers from the centers. The findings were knowledge translated to determine participant preferences for the presentation and availability of privacy information and the functionality required to support its delivery. Phase 2 included the development of the 23-item privacy policy risk assessment tool, which incorporated material from international privacy literature and standards. This tool was then used to assess the privacy policies of 34 apps and e-tools. In phase 3, privacy guidelines, which were derived from learnings from a collaborative consultation process with key stakeholders, were developed to assist health professionals and service providers with understanding the privacy risks associated with incorporating HITs as a part of clinical care. ResultsWhen considering the use of HITs, the participatory design workshop participants indicated that they wanted privacy information to be easily accessible, transparent, and user-friendly to enable them to clearly understand what personal and health information will be collected and how these data will be shared and stored. The privacy policy review revealed consistently poor readability and transparency, which limited the utility of these documents as a source of information. Therefore, to enable informed consent, the privacy guidelines provided ensure that health professionals and consumers are fully aware of the potential for privacy risks in using HITs to support health and well-being. ConclusionsA lack of transparency in privacy policies has the potential to undermine consumers’ ability to trust that the necessary measures are in place to secure and protect the privacy of their personal and health information, thus precluding their willingness to engage with HITs. The application of the privacy guidelines will improve the confidence of health professionals and service providers in the privacy of consumer data, thus enabling them to recommend HITs to provide or support care

Technology-enabled person-centered mental health services reform: strategy for implementation science

Health information technologies are being rapidly developed to improve the delivery of mental health care; however, a range of facilitators, barriers, and contextual conditions can impact the adoption and sustainment of these solutions. An implementation science protocol supports researchers to achieve primary effectiveness goals in relation to mental health services reform and aids in the optimization of implementation processes to promote quality health care, prolonging sustainability.The aim of this paper is to describe our implementation science protocol, which serves as a foundation by which to systematically guide the implementation of technology-enabled solutions in traditional face-to-face and Web-based mental health services, allowing for revisions over time on the basis of retrospective review and constructive feedback from the services in which the technology-enabled solutions are implemented.Our implementation science protocol comprises four phases. The primary objective of the scoping and feasibility phase (Phase 1) is to determine the alignment between the service partner and the quality improvement goals supported by the technology-enabled solution. This is followed by Phase 2, the local co-design and preimplementation phase, which aims to utilize co-design methodologies, including service pathway modelling, participatory design, and user (acceptance) testing, to determine how the solutions could be used to enhance the service. In Phase 3, implementation, the accepted solution is embedded in the mental health service to achieve better outcomes for consumers and their families as well as health professionals and service managers. Using iterative evaluative processes throughout Phase 3, the solution is continuously developed, designed, and refined during implementation to adapt to the changing needs of the stakeholders, including consumers with lived experience and their families as well as the service. Thus, the primary outcome of Phase 3 is the optimized technology-enabled solution that can be maintained in a service during the sustainment and scalability phase (Phase 4) for the purposes of mental health services reform.Funding for the protocol was provided by the Australian Government Department of Health in June of 2017 for a period of 3 years. At the time of this publication, the protocol had been initiated in 11 services, serving three populations, all of which are currently operating in Phase 3. The first results are expected to be submitted for publication in 2020.With the aim of improving mental health service quality, our implementation science protocol aids in the identification of factors that predict the likelihood of implementation success, as well as the development of strategies to proactively mitigate potential barriers to achieve better implementation outcomes. Putting in place a theoretically sound implementation science protocol is essential to facilitate the uptake of novel technology-enabled solutions and evidence-based practices into routine clinical practice for the purposes of improved outcomes

Enhancing equitable engagement for digital health promotion: Lessons from evaluating a childrearing app in Indonesia

Part of the appeal of digital health interventions, including mHealth, is the potential for greater reach in places where conventional health promotion is hampered by geographical, financial or social barriers. Yet, ‘engagement’ – typically understood as user experience and interactions with technology - remains a persistent challenge, particularly in places where technology access or familiarity with technology is limited. We undertook an evaluation of a childrearing app to promote socioemotional and cognitive development in early childhood across the world. In this article, we present findings from qualitative research on app rollout in Indonesia, the first of numerous low- and middle-income countries targeted by the app. We draw on systems theory and complexity thinking to broaden the lens of ‘engagement’ beyond individual users to encompass collective systems (families and communities), exploring how the intervention was harnessed to meet local contextual needs. The qualitative research involved semi-structured interviews, workshops and audio diaries with 57 diverse stakeholders, including Indonesian parents, caregivers, and collaborators involved in funding, development, and dissemination of the app. We observed the importance of social connection, sense-making, and interactive learning for enhancing engagement with the app and its messages. Enthusiastic users, strongly linked across community networks (e.g. kindergarten teachers), improvised dissemination strategies to facilitate uptake. Interactive learning that tapped into familiar social structures (e.g. intergenerational hierarchies) was crucial for engagement. Understanding ways the app failed to tap into structures of social connection served to highlight the need to embed strategies to support collective engagement