Mobile health technology adoption across generations: Narrowing the digital divide

Mobile health (m-health) technologies offer many benefits to individuals, organizations, and health professionals alike. Indeed, the utilization of m-health by older adults can foster the development of proactive patients, while also reducing financial burden and resource pressures on health systems. However, the potentially transformative influence of m-health is limited as many older adults resist adoption leading to the emergence of an age-based digital divide. This study leverages protection motivation theory and social cognitive theory to explore the factors driving resistance among older adults. This mixed methods study integrates survey findings with insights from qualitative interviews to highlight that the m-health digital divide is deepening due to older adults’ perceived inability to adopt, and their unwillingness to adopt stemming from mistrust, high risk perceptions, and strong desire for privacy. The paper contributes to the privacy and social inclusion literature by demonstrating that while many older adults have access to m-health, they are currently excluded, and require careful consideration by technology organizations and researchers. The study provides recommendations for narrowing the m-health digital divide through inclusive design and educational efforts to improve self-efficacy, develop privacy literacy, and build trust, thereby ensuring older citizens are both capable, and willing to adop

Beyond ‘nothing to hide’:When identity is key to privacy threat under surveillance

Privacy is psychologically important, vital for democracy, and in the era of ubiquitous and mobile surveillance technology, facing increasingly complex threats and challenges. Yet surveillance is often justified under a trope that one has ‘nothing to hide’. We conducted focus groups (N = 42) on topics of surveillance and privacy and using discursive analysis, identify the ideological assumptions and the positions that people adopt to make sense of their participation in a surveillance society. We find a premise that surveillance is increasingly inescapable, but this was only objected to when people reported feeling misrepresented, or where they had an inability to withhold aspects of their identities. The (in)visibility of the surveillance technology also complicated how surveillance is constructed. Those interested in engaging the public in debates about surveillance may be better served by highlighting the identity consequences of surveillance, rather than constructing surveillance as a generalised privacy threat

Socio-demographic factors associated with pet ownership amongst adolescents from a UK birth cohort

Background: In developed nations, pet ownership is common within families. Both physical and psychological health benefits may result from owning a pet during childhood and adolescence. However, it is difficult to determine whether these benefits are due to pet ownership directly or to factors linked to both pet ownership and health. Previous research found associations between a range of socio-demographic factors and pet ownership in seven-year-old children from a UK cohort. The current study extends this research to adolescence, considering that these factors may be important to consider in future Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) research across childhood.Results:The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) collected pet ownership data prospectively via maternal reports from gestation up to age 10 years old and via self-report retrospectively at age 18 for ages 11(n= 3063) to 18 years old (n= 3098) on cats, dogs, rabbits, rodents, birds, fish, tortoise/turtles and horses. The dataset also contains a wide range of potential confounders, including demographic and socio-economic variables.The ownership of all pet types peaked at age 11 (80%) and then decreased during adolescence, with the exclusion of cats which remained constant (around 30%), and dogs which increased through 11–18 years (26–37%). Logistic regression was used to build multivariable models for ownership of each pet type at age 13 years, and the factors identified in these models were compared to previously published data for 7 year-olds in the same cohort. There was some consistency with predictors reported at age 7. Generally sex, birth order, maternal age, maternal education, number of people in the household, house type, and concurrent ownership of other pets were associated with pet ownership at both 7 and 13 years (the direction of association varied according to pet type).Factors that were no longer associated with adolescent pet ownership included child ethnicity, paternal education,and parental social class.Conclusions:A number of socio-demographic factors are associated with pet ownership in childhood and adolescence and they differ according to the type of pet, and age of child. These factors are potential confounders that must be considered in future HAI studies

Feasibility study of intelligent autonomous determination of the bladder voiding need to treat bedwetting using ultrasound and smartphone ML techniques

Unsatisfactory cure rates for the treatment of nocturnal enuresis (NE), i.e. bed-wetting, have led to the need to explore alternative modalities. New treatment methods that focus on preventing enuretic episodes by means of a pre-void alerting system could improve outcomes for children with NE in many aspects. No such technology exists currently to monitor the bladder to alarm before bed-wetting. The aim of this study is to carry out the feasibility of building, refining and evaluating a new, safe, comfortable and non-invasive wearable autonomous intelligent electronic device to monitor the bladder using a single-element low-powered low-frequency ultrasound with the help of Machine Learning techniques and to treat NE by warning the patient at the pre-void stage, enhancing quality of life for these children starting from the first use. The sensitivity and specificity values are 0.89 and 0.93 respectively for determining imminent voiding need. The results indicate that customised imminent voiding need based on the expansion of the bladder can be determined by applying a single-element transducer on a bladder in intermittent manner. The acquired results can be improved further with a comfortable non-invasive device by adding several more features to the current features employed in this pilot study

Season of Birth and Dopamine Receptor Gene Associations with Impulsivity, Sensation Seeking and Reproductive Behaviors

Season of birth (SOB) has been associated with many physiological and psychological traits including novelty seeking and sensation seeking. Similar traits have been associated with genetic polymorphisms in the dopamine system. SOB and dopamine receptor genetic polymorphisms may independently and interactively influence similar behaviors through their common effects on the dopaminergic system.Based on a sample of 195 subjects, we examined whether SOB was associated with impulsivity, sensation seeking and reproductive behaviors. Additionally we examined potential interactions of dopamine receptor genes with SOB for the same set of traits. Phenotypes were evaluated using the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory, the Barratt Impulsivity Scale, the Eysenck Impulsivity Questionnaire, the Sensation Seeking Scale, and the Delay Discounting Task. Subjects were also asked about their age at first sex as well as their desired age at the birth of their first child. The dopamine gene polymorphisms examined were Dopamine Receptor D2 (DRD2) TaqI A and D4 (DRD4) 48 bp VNTR. Primary analyses included factorial genderxSOB ANOVAs or binary logistic regression models for each dependent trait. Secondary analysis extended the factorial models by also including DRD2 and DRD4 genotypes as independent variables. Winter-born males were more sensation seeking than non-winter born males. In factorial models including both genotype and season of birth as variables, two previously unobserved effects were discovered: (1) a SOBxDRD4 interaction effect on venturesomeness and (2) a DRD2xDRD4 interaction effect on sensation seeking.These results are consistent with past findings that SOB is related to sensation seeking. Additionally, these results provide tentative support for the hypothesis that SOB modifies the behavioral expression of dopaminergic genetic polymorphism. These findings suggest that SOB should be included in future studies of risky behaviors and behavioral genetic studies of the dopamine system

Finding a cure for tuberous sclerosis complex: from genetics through to targeted drug therapies

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare, autosomal dominant genetic condition caused by a mutation in either the TSC1 or TSC2 gene. Phenotypically, this leads to aberrant cell growth and the formation of benign tumors called hamartomas in multiple organs. Understanding the mechanisms of pathology that are caused through the presence of disease causing mutations is a real hurdle for many rare genetic disorders; a limiting factor that restricts knowledge of the disease and any hope of a future cure. Through the discovery of the TSC1 and TSC2 genes and the signaling pathways responsible for the pathology of TSC, a new drug target called mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) was discovered. Rapamycin, an mTORC1 inhibitor, is now the only pharmacological therapy approved for the treatment of TSC. This chapter summarizes the success story of TSC and explores the future possibilities of finding a cure

Associations between depressive symptoms and disease progression in older patients with chronic kidney disease: results of the EQUAL study

Background Depressive symptoms are associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients with end-stage kidney disease; however, few small studies have examined this association in patients with earlier phases of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We studied associations between baseline depressive symptoms and clinical outcomes in older patients with advanced CKD and examined whether these associations differed depending on sex. Methods CKD patients (>= 65 years; estimated glomerular filtration rate <= 20 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) were included from a European multicentre prospective cohort between 2012 and 2019. Depressive symptoms were measured by the five-item Mental Health Inventory (cut-off <= 70; 0-100 scale). Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to study associations between depressive symptoms and time to dialysis initiation, all-cause mortality and these outcomes combined. A joint model was used to study the association between depressive symptoms and kidney function over time. Analyses were adjusted for potential baseline confounders. Results Overall kidney function decline in 1326 patients was -0.12 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/month. A total of 515 patients showed depressive symptoms. No significant association was found between depressive symptoms and kidney function over time (P = 0.08). Unlike women, men with depressive symptoms had an increased mortality rate compared with those without symptoms [adjusted hazard ratio 1.41 (95% confidence interval 1.03-1.93)]. Depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with a higher hazard of dialysis initiation, or with the combined outcome (i.e. dialysis initiation and all-cause mortality). Conclusions There was no significant association between depressive symptoms at baseline and decline in kidney function over time in older patients with advanced CKD. Depressive symptoms at baseline were associated with a higher mortality rate in men