Exposing Privacy Concerns in Mhealth

We conducted several exploratory focus groups to understand what privacy concerns Patients might have with the collection, storage and sharing of their personal health information, when using mHealth devices. We found that Patients want control over their health information, and we noticed privacy trends that were particular to Patients in the same age group and with similar health experiences

Anxiously attached: Personality predictors of privacy attitudes, trust, and willingness to share information on the internet

Privacy concerns surrounding Internet and technology use are higher now than ever, yet, people continue to use the Internet and Internet-connected technologies to share information without coercion and often with recipients they do not have a relationship with. Our research addresses how people’s personality, particularly two personality dimensions (anxiety and avoidance) together known as attachment style, affects their self-reported willingness to share and their actual sharing behavior. We conducted two studies on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N=984). Study 1 surveyed 500 participants (193 women, 304 men, 3 transgender) aged 20-79 (Mdn = 35, SD = 11.65); and Study 2 surveyed 484 participants (223 women, 260 men, 1 transgender) aged 19-78 (Mdn = 35; SD = 11.69). Multiple regression analyses controlling for demographics and the personality factors neuroticism and extraversion show that anxiously attached individuals are more concerned (ßs = .24 and .33) than less anxiously attached individuals about their private data being disclosed, yet paradoxically, they report more trust in the security of digital communications (ßs = .21 and .34), making them more likely to share personal information on the Internet (ßs = .26 and .22). This research bears theoretical implications (e.g., understanding the psychology of sharing behavior), as well as practical ones (e.g., for tailoring existing privacy and sharing controls to individuals based on their personality characteristics)

Negotiating spaces: A study of street life, peer involvement, and homelessness in Harvard Square

Though researchers acknowledge that not all youth and young adults who engage in street life are actively homeless, and that they correspond to different subcultural styles, little is understood about this diversity and the dimensions and dynamics of their peer involvement (Caputo et al. 1997; Kipke et al. 1997a). Drawing on theories of social capital, delinquency, subculture, and networks, I explored interactions that occurred in one urban street congregating area (the Pit in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts) where a collection of homeless and non-homeless youth and young adults of various ages and subculture affiliations congregate. ^ I conducted participant observation over one 6 month period (June-November, 2006). During this time I also conducted 56 in-depth interviews with participants. ^ Congregating here provided a social experience for marginalized young people who came to identify with one another through their participation. Despite their differences, participants found commonalities with one another and interacted. While they engaged in various forms of delinquency, peers provided practical and symbolic resources for one another, alleviating harms associated with street life and homelessness, while providing a source of solidarity. The negotiation processes that underlie these intergroup interactions shaped identities, social relations and norms and consequently benefited the multiple groups that participated. ^ Young homeless populations are neither isolated, nor exclusive groupings. An analysis of their street peers in a setting where they congregate offers insight into a highly evolved world of diversity and dimension. I offer a new way of looking at homeless street youth and young adult populations as participants in extended heterogeneous social networks of transitioning young people and offer suggestions for future research and theoretical development in these areas.

Understanding Sharing Preferences and Behavior for mHealth Devices

If people are not in control of the collection and sharing of their personal health information collected using mobile health (mHealth) devices and applications, privacy concerns could limit their willingness to use and reduce potential benefits provided via mHealth. We investigated users ’ willingness to share their personal information, collected using mHealth sensing devices, with their family, friends, third parties, and the public. Previous work employed hypothetical scenarios, surveys and interviews to understand people’s information-sharing behavior; to the best of our knowledge, ours is the first privacy study where participants actually have the option to share their own information with real people. We expect our results can guide the development of privacy controls for mobile devices and applications that collect any personal and activity information, not restricted to health or fitness information. Our study revealed three interesting findings about people’s privacy concerns regarding their sensed health information: 1) We found that people share certain health information less with friends and family than with strangers, but more with specific third parties than the public. 2) Information that people were less willing to share could be information that is indirectly collected by the mobile devices. 3) We confirmed that privacy concerns are not static; mHealth device users may change their sharing decisions over time. Based on our findings, we emphasize the need for sensible default settings and flexible privacy controls to allow people to choose different settings for different recipients, and to change their sharing settings at any time

MELD Score Is an Important Predictor of Pretransplantation Mortality in HIV-Infected Liver Transplant Candidates

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection accelerates liver disease progression in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and could shorten survival of those awaiting liver transplants. The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score predicts mortality in HIV-negative transplant candidates, but its reliability has not been established in HIV-positive candidates. We evaluated predictors of pretransplantation mortality in HIV-positive liver transplant candidates enrolled in the Solid Organ Transplantation in HIV: Multi-Site Study (HIVTR) matched 1:5 by age, sex, race, and HCV infection with HIV-negative controls from the United Network for Organ Sharing. Of 167 HIVTR candidates, 24 died (14.4%); this mortality rate was similar to that of controls (88/792, 11.1%, P = .30) with no significant difference in causes of mortality. A significantly lower proportion of HIVTR candidates (34.7%) underwent liver transplantation, compared with controls (47.6%, P = .003). In the combined cohort, baseline MELD score predicted pretransplantation mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.27; P < .0001), whereas HIV infection did not (HR, 1.69; P = .20). After controlling for pretransplantation CD4 + cell count and HIV RNA levels, the only significant predictor of mortality in the HIV-infected subjects was pretransplantation MELD score (HR, 1.2; P < .0001). Pretransplantation mortality characteristics are similar between HIV-positive and HIV-negative candidates. Although lower CD4 + cell counts and detectable levels of HIV RNA might be associated with a higher rate of pretransplantation mortality, baseline MELD score was the only significant independent predictor of pretransplantation mortality in HIV-infected liver transplant candidates