An Online Sales System to Be Managed by People with Mental Illness

The percentage of the population aged 65 and over is increasing during the last decades. It is one of the problems that the European health system, and in particular the Spanish system, has to face out. This increase is linked to the rising of dependent people, whose suffer progressive deterioration of both their physical and mental capacities. In this context, technology plays a key role in improving the quality of life, not only of older people but also their caregivers. A technological ecosystem to support patients with mental illness, their caregivers, and the connection with their relatives was developed in previous works. This solution is prepared to evolve according to the users’ and organization’s needs. In this sense, the present work describes the inclusion of a new software tool, an online sales platform that promotes active ageing, seeking that it can be used and managed by older people who may have cognitive impairment problems. Although there are many e-commerce platforms on the market, they not consider users with special needs. The objective has not been to develop a software prototype from scratch, but to focus on aspects relating to accessibility and usability to improve online stores and apply these improvements to an existing solution, following the philosophy of Open Source software development. This work aims to describe the definition process itself

Uncovering treatment burden as a key concept for stroke care: a systematic review of qualitative research

<b>Background</b> Patients with chronic disease may experience complicated management plans requiring significant personal investment. This has been termed ‘treatment burden’ and has been associated with unfavourable outcomes. The aim of this systematic review is to examine the qualitative literature on treatment burden in stroke from the patient perspective.<p></p> <b>Methods and findings</b> The search strategy centred on: stroke, treatment burden, patient experience, and qualitative methods. We searched: Scopus, CINAHL, Embase, Medline, and PsycINFO. We tracked references, footnotes, and citations. Restrictions included: English language, date of publication January 2000 until February 2013. Two reviewers independently carried out the following: paper screening, data extraction, and data analysis. Data were analysed using framework synthesis, as informed by Normalization Process Theory. Sixty-nine papers were included. Treatment burden includes: (1) making sense of stroke management and planning care, (2) interacting with others, (3) enacting management strategies, and (4) reflecting on management. Health care is fragmented, with poor communication between patient and health care providers. Patients report inadequate information provision. Inpatient care is unsatisfactory, with a perceived lack of empathy from professionals and a shortage of stimulating activities on the ward. Discharge services are poorly coordinated, and accessing health and social care in the community is difficult. The study has potential limitations because it was restricted to studies published in English only and data from low-income countries were scarce.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b> Stroke management is extremely demanding for patients, and treatment burden is influenced by micro and macro organisation of health services. Knowledge deficits mean patients are ill equipped to organise their care and develop coping strategies, making adherence less likely. There is a need to transform the approach to care provision so that services are configured to prioritise patient needs rather than those of health care systems

Aesthetic response to color combinations: preference, harmony, and similarity

Previous studies of preference for and harmony of color combinations have produced confusing results. For example, some claim that harmony increases with hue similarity, whereas others claim that it decreases. We argue that such confusions are resolved by distinguishing among three types of judgments about color pairs: (1) preference for the pair as a whole, (2) harmony of the pair as a whole, and (3) preference for its figural color when viewed against its colored background. Empirical support for this distinction shows that pair preference and harmony both increase as hue similarity increases, but preference relies more strongly on component color preference and lightness contrast. Although pairs with highly contrastive hues are generally judged to be neither preferable nor harmonious, figural color preference ratings increase as hue contrast with the background increases. The present results thus refine and clarify some of the best-known and most contentious claims of color theorists