Examining the Persuasive Potential of Web-based Health Behavior Change Support Systems

Understanding the persuasive potential of systems to support behavior change is increasingly important. If systems are not designed properly, their persuasive potential is not fulfilled. Previous research has shown that persuasive system design has a significant impact on adherence. Moreover, persuasive system features are likely to be advantageous in boosting effective user engagement with the technology and keeping the users motivated in their endeavors. In this study, we identify persuasive system features used in a selection of Web-based health behavior change support systems targeting excessive alcohol use and weight loss. We conducted en expert-based evaluation using the persuasive systems design model as a lens to view the twelve selected Web-based systems. The evaluation included a hands-on approach in which we used the systems for at least one month each and evaluated in terms of four categories: primary task support, computer-human dialogue support, system credibility, and social support. The results suggest that the systems harness a decent number of persuasive features. However, they had room for improvement (e.g., in terms of tailoring). Further research is needed to increase our understanding of how and under what conditions specific persuasive system features, either in isolation or collectively, lead to positive health outcomes in behavior change support systems across diverse contexts and populations. This study adds to the body of knowledge on designing persuasive health behavior change support systems

Yritysten sota markkinaosuuksista : Kauppalehti ja Taloussanomat metafora-analyysissa

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library.Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla.Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler.Tutkielma käsittelee metaforien käyttöä talousjournalismissa ja metaforien kautta välittyviä ideologioita. Aihevalinnan taustalla on talousjournalismin aseman vahvistuminen mediakentässä ja se seikka, että talousuutiset vaikuttavat usein objektiivisuuden sijaan ajavan tiettyjä selkeitä arvoja – mikä tutkielman aineiston perusteella pitää paikkansa. Aineistoksi valikoituivat yhden päivän Kauppalehti ja Taloussanomat helmikuun 5. päivältä 2003. Kyseessä ovat Suomen ainoat viitenä päivänä viikossa ilmestyvät, talousuutisiin keskittyvät sanomalehdet. Käytetty metaforan määritelmä ja menetelmä syntyivät pääasiassa George Lakoffin ja Mark Johnsonin (1980) sekä Iina Hellstenin (1997) töiden pohjalta. Olennaista työni kannalta on, että konstruktivismin ajatusten mukaisesti kielen nähdään voivan vaikuttaa ihmisten kuvaan maailmasta ja sitä kautta heidän toimintaansa. Metaforien käyttö taas on osa retoriikkaa, jonka ominta aluetta ovat arvosidonnaiset kysymykset. Tätä kautta päästään ideologian käsitteeseen. Tärkein tutkimuskysymykseni on: millaisia metaforia aineistoni talousuutisissa esiintyy ja mitä ne kertovat aineiston tekstien välittämästä ideologiasta, tai ideologioista? Löydetyt metaforat jaetaan analyysiosuudessa Lakoffin & Johnsonin ja Hellstenin ajatusten pohjalta ryhmiin, joista merkittävimmiksi muodostuivat kehollisten ja strukturaalisten metaforien ryhmät. Edelliseen kuuluvat muun muassa korkeuden ja kasvun käsitteiden metaforinen käyttö sekä erilaisten talouden ilmiöiden elollistaminen. Viimeksimainittuun taas kuuluvat esimerkiksi sota-, urheilu-, lääketiede-, liikenne-, rakennus- ja taidemetaforat. Näistä osa oli aiempien tutkimusten (mm. Koistinen 1998, Allén et al.1992) perusteella odotettuja, osa taas uusia. Esimerkiksi liikenne-, rakennus- ja taidemetaforia en aiemmista talousjournalismia käsittelevistä tutkimuksista tai artikkeleista löytänyt. Analyysin pohjalta rakentuu kaksi laajaa ideologista rakennetta. Ensinnäkin metaforien kautta löytyi suositus aggressiiviseen pyrkimykseen olla muita parempi sekä vahvempi ja siten kasvattaa voittoja. Toiseksi nousevat esille ominaisuudet, joita talouden toimijalla – esimerkiksi yrityksellä – tulisi olla menestyäkseen. Näitä ovat suuruus, tehokkuus, kovuus, nopeus ja keveys. Myös valtiontalouden tulisi olla tehokas, ja esimerkiksi verojen alhaisia. Muita merkillepantavia asioita ovat talouden ja sen eri osa-alueiden näyttäytyminen elollisina olioina tai luonnonilmiöinä, joiden oikkuihin ihmiset eivät voi vaikuttaa; naisten marginalisoiminen muutenkin kuin maskuliinisuutta korostavien metaforien kautta; yksioikoinen, lähes rasistinen suhtautuminen muihin kuin länsimaihin sekä voimakas keskittyminen niihin asioihin, jotka ovat muutettavissa numeroiksi. Lopuksi ehdotetaan vaihtoehtoisia metaforisointeja, jotka edesauttaisivat ajatusta ihmisten ehdoilla ja pitkäjänteisemmin toimivasta talousjärjestelmästä

Postpericardiotomy syndrome after cardiac surgery

Postpericardiotomy syndrome (PPS) is a well-known complication after cardiac surgery. The syndrome results in prolonged hospital stay, readmissions, and invasive interventions. Previous studies have reported inconsistent results concerning the incidence and risk factors for PPS due to the differences in the applied diagnostic criteria, study designs, patient populations, and procedure types. In recent prospective studies the reported incidences have been between 21 and 29% in adult cardiac surgery patients. However, it has been stated that most of the included diagnoses in the aforementioned studies would be clinically irrelevant. This challenges the specificity and usability of the currently recommended diagnostic criteria for PPS. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that PPS requiring invasive intervention such as the evacuation of pleural and/or pericardial effusion is associated with increased mortality. In the present review, we summarise the existing literature concerning the incidence, clinical features, diagnostic criteria, risk factors, management, and prognosis of PPS. We also propose novel approaches regarding to the definition and diagnosis of PPS.Key messages: Current diagnostic criteria of PPS should be reconsidered, and the analyses should be divided into subgroups according to the severity of the syndrome to achieve more clinically applicable and meaningful results in the future studies. In contrast with the previous presumption, severe PPS - defined as PPS requiring invasive interventions - was recently found to be associated with higher all-cause mortality during the first two years after cardiac surgery. The association with an increased mortality supports the use of relatively aggressive prophylactic methods to prevent PPS. The risk factors clearly increasing the occurrence of PPS are younger age, pleural incision, and valve and ascending aortic procedures when compared to CABG

CONSUMERS\u27 PERCEPTIONS OF A VIRTUAL HEALTH CHECK: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

After years of the development of information systems (IS) designed primarily for healthcare managers and professionals, there is an increasing interest in reaching consumers and patients directly through consumer health information technology (IT). Consumer-centric health information systems enable individuals to manage their health better and maintain a healthier lifestyle. However, the foremost challenge in developing systems for health behavior change is that there is modest knowledge of how individuals interact with these systems and how they process and act on information. In addition, technologies cannot have the capacity to help facilitate self-monitoring and self-management or improve consumers\u27 health outcomes if the consumers do not adopt them. The objective of this study is to investigate consumers? perceptions of a virtual health check. Specifically, we propose and test factors affecting perceived persuasiveness of the system and whether perceived persuasiveness predicts intention to adopt virtual health coaching. A theoretically driven research model is constructed, and a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, namely partial least squares (PLS), is used to test the model against the data gathered from 130 subjects. The results of the study lend support to the proposed model. Studying the adoption, use, and impact of innovative consumer health IT is worthwhile, as it will guide future implementations

Native Mobile Applications For Personal Well-Being: A Persuasive Systems Design Evaluation

Smartphone applications have shown promise in supporting people to adopt healthy lifestyles. Hence, it is critical to understand persuasive design strategies incorporated in native mobile applications that facilitate behavior change. The aim of our study was to identify distinct persuasive software features assimilated in twelve selected applications using Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model and provide a methodical framework for systems developers and IS researchers to extract and evaluate such features. Further, this study aimed to provide deeper comprehension of persuasive design and strategies by learning from practice. Exhaustive evaluations were performed by four researchers specializing in persuasive information systems simulating users walking through the applications step-by-step performing regular tasks. The results disclose the need for improvement in designing and incorporating persuasive techniques in personal well-being applications. While self-monitoring and personalization were moderately exploited, tailoring, a key persuasive feature, was not identified among the evaluated applications. In addition, evaluated applications lacked features that could augment human-computer dialogue as well as social support. The contribution of this paper is two-fold: while it exposes weakness in persuasive design of native mobile applications for personal well-being, it provides a methodical approach for enhancing general persuasiveness of such applications for instance, through enhanced dialogue support. We propose that designers and IS researchers perform rigorous evaluations of persuasive features incorporated in personal well-being applications

Sepelvaltimotautipotilaan eteisvärinä

This diploma thesis is focused on problems in personal consultancy, especially on the agenda of personal agencies. The introductory part deals with consultancy theory, personal consultancy and personal management in organizations. The main theme of this work is general information on personal agencies in the Czech Republic, characteristic of their activities and the role of personal consultants. The next chapter includes a description of cooperation and communication among candidates, a personal consultant and a client in the process of recruiting workers. This is followed by characteristics of working tasks of personal consultans for two typical products of personal agencies - recruitment and temporary help. It includes a comparison between working tasks of the two above mentioned types of personal consultants. The final chapter describes the solution of my personal project. This project analysed the taking-over of all employees of the contributory organization of Zdravotnické zařízení Smíchov by a new managing company of the Kartouzská Health Care Centre - the private company of Medifin. The author of this diploma thesis was acting as a personal consultant in this project, and was involved in the implementation of recruiting and affiliation of new workers - to the Medifin company, respecting the current..

Knowledge mining of unstructured information: application to cyber-domain

Information on cyber-related crimes, incidents, and conflicts is abundantly available in numerous open online sources. However, processing the large volumes and streams of data is a challenging task for the analysts and experts, and entails the need for newer methods and techniques. In this article we present and implement a novel knowledge graph and knowledge mining framework for extracting the relevant information from free-form text about incidents in the cyberdomain. The framework includes a machine learning based pipeline for generating graphs of organizations, countries, industries, products and attackers with a non-technical cyber-ontology. The extracted knowledge graph is utilized to estimate the incidence of cyberattacks on a given graph configuration. We use publicly available collections of real cyber-incident reports to test the efficacy of our methods. The knowledge extraction is found to be sufficiently accurate, and the graph-based threat estimation demonstrates a level of correlation with the actual records of attacks. In practical use, an analyst utilizing the presented framework can infer additional information from the current cyber-landscape in terms of risk to various entities and propagation of the risk heuristic between industries and countries

Cauliflower ear among Finnish high-level male wrestlers and judokas is prevalent and symptomatic deformity

Our research aimed to study the prevalence, concerns, and treatment practices related to cauliflower ear among Finnish wrestlers and judokas. In total, 32 Finnish wrestlers and 31 judokas completed a questionnaire at training sessions or at a competition. All participants were adults competing at the national or international levels. We also took lateral digital photographs of participants' ears. A senior author graded the overall appearance of the auricles on a scale from 0 to 5 (0 = normal auricle, 5 = extreme cauliflower ear). Cauliflower ear was more prevalent among male athletes (84%, 46/55) than female athletes (0%, 0/8, P <.001). Almost all (96%) had sought treatment for an auricular hematoma. The most prevalent treatment modality was needle aspiration (96%). Most (76%) had received treatment from individuals not representing the healthcare profession. Only one athlete reported receiving successful treatment. No complications from treatment were reported. Almost all participants (96%) reported some symptom from the cauliflower ear, typically pain. None regretted their cauliflower ear(s), and 41% of athletes with cauliflower ear considered it desirable. Cauliflower ear is a common and symptomatic deformity among high-level Finnish wrestlers and judokas. Despite the symptoms, it is accepted and sometimes even desired among the athletes.Peer reviewe

The effectiveness of email-based exercises in promoting psychological wellbeing and healthy lifestyle: a two-year follow-up study

Web-based interventions provide a possibility to enhance well-being in large groups of people. Only a few studies have studied the effectiveness of the interventions and there is no information on the sustainability of the effects. Study aims were to investigate both the short (2-month) and long-term (2-year) effects of email-based training for mental health and lifestyle.Peer reviewe