Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2014 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 5 Articles
Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic. Qatar, a rapidly developing country in the Middle East, has seen a sharp increase\nin the prevalence of obesity. The increase can be attributed to several reasons, including sedentary lifestyles imposed by a harsh\nclimate and the introduction of Western fast food. Mobile technologies have been used and studied as a technology to support\nindividuals� weight loss. The authors have developed a mobile application that implements three strategies drawn from proven\ntheories of behavioral change.The application is localized to the cultural context of its proposed users. The objective of this paper\nis to present a method through which we adapted the messaging content of a weight loss application to the context of its users\nwhile retaining an effective degree of automation.The adaptation addressed body image, eating and physical exercise habits, and\nregional/cultural needs.The paper discusses how surveying potential users can be used to build a profile of a target population, find\ncommon patterns, and then develop a database of text messages. The text messages are automated and sent to the users at specific\ntimes of day, as suggested by the survey results...
In recent years, the advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have resulted in the development of systems\nand applications aimed at supporting rehabilitation therapy that contributes to enrich patients� life quality. This work is focused on\nthe improvement of the telemedicine systems with the purpose of customizing therapies according to the profile and disability of\npatients. For doing this, as salient contribution, this work proposes the adoption of user-centered design (UCD) methodology for\nthe design and development of telemedicine systems in order to support the rehabilitation of patients with neurological disorders.\nFinally, some applications of the UCD methodology in the telemedicine field are presented as a proof of concept...
This paper aims to study the performance of support vector machine (SVM) classification in detecting asthma attacks in a wireless\nremotemonitoring scenario.Theeffect of wireless channels on decision making of theSVMclassifier is studied in order to determine\nthe channel conditions under which transmission is not recommended from a clinical point of view. The simulation results show\nthat the performance of the SVM classification algorithm in detecting asthma attacks is highly influenced by themobility of the user\nwhere Doppler effects are manifested. The results also show that SVM classifiers outperform other methods used for classification\nof cough signals such as the hidden markov model (HMM) based classifier specially when wireless channel impairments are\nconsidered....
This study investigated effect of a 6-week telephysiotherapy programme on quality of life (QoL) of patients with knee osteoarthritis\n(OA). Fifty patients with knee OA were randomly and equally assigned into two treatment groups: clinic group (CG) and\ntelephysiotherapy group (TG). The CG received physiotherapist-administered osteoarthritis-specific exercises in the clinic thrice\nweekly for 6 weeks while the TG received structured telephone monitoring with self-administered osteoarthritis-specific exercises\nfor the same duration at home. Participants� QoL was assessed using WHOQoL-Bref at baseline, second, fourth, and sixth week of\nintervention. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and independent Student�s t-test. Within-group comparison showed significant\nimprovements in physical health domain (P = 0.00* for TG and CG) and psychological domain (P = 0.02* for TG; P = 0.00* for\nCG) ofWHOQoL following six-week intervention.However, there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) inTGandCG�s social\nrelationship and environment domains. Between-group comparison showed no significant differences (P > 0.05) between CG and\nTG�s physical health, psychological, and social relationships domains ofWHOQoL following 6-week intervention. However, there\nwas significant difference in the environment domain (P < 0.05). Telephysiotherapy using telephone medium improved QoL in\npatients with knee OA comparable to clinic based treatment....
Background. A steady rise in the prevalence of depression among college students has negatively affected student quality of\nlife. This study investigates the feasibility and acceptability of a Web-based model, including Skype, to screen and provide\npsychiatric consultation to depressed college students. Methods. Students completed the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire\n(PHQ-9) online; those who screened positive (PHQ-9 = 10) or endorsed any level of suicidal ideation were offered Web-based\npsychiatric consultation using Skype. After the consultation, students filled out a 7-item satisfaction questionnaire to report on\nthe acceptability of this Web-based method. Results. A total of 972 students consented to the online depression screening and\n285 screened positive. Of those, 69 students consented and 17 students successfully completed the psychiatric consultation via\nSkype. Thirteen (76.4%) students found the interview useful in helping them understand their depression. Fifteen (88.2%) students\nthought that psychologists and psychiatrists could successfully see patients via videoconferencing. Conclusions. Current online\ntechnologies can provide depression screening and psychiatric consultation to college students; those who participated reported a\npositive experience. Future studies will need to address the low levels of participation among college students and attract students\nwho are underserved, as well as use a videoconferencing platform that adequately protects data confidentiality...
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