How is digital technology used to facilitate shared decision-making between healthcare professionals and patients in cardiovascular care? A scoping review.

Aims: To (1) identify characteristics of digital technologies (DTs) used to facilitate shared decision-making (SDM) within the field of cardiovascular care, (2) examine conceptualizations of SDM underpinning these DTs, and (3) summarize designs and outcomes of evaluation studies concerning these DTs.

Methods And Results: We conducted a scoping review following methodological guidelines by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Ten scientific databases were searched.

Relevant determinants of Dutch patients' informed decision-making and use of online access to medical records.

Patient online access to medical records can foster patient empowerment and advance patient-centered healthcare. Despite high patient interest, user rates often remain low. While previous research has identified determinants influencing the adoption of online access, this study assessed the relevance of these determinants.

Community Perspectives on Inequalities in the Provision of Basic Healthcare Services for the Most Vulnerable Populations in the Eastern Congo: A Qualitative Study.

Background: There is a notable lack of evidence regarding the factors that shape the provision of essential healthcare services in post-conflict settings.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore and describe the factors influencing the provision of basic health care services for the most vulnerable populations in the Eastern Congo.

Method: Employing a qualitative research approach, twenty individual interviews with community members and thirteen focus group discussions were conducted.

Working Elements in Interventions to Reduce Problematic Alcohol Use According to Older Adults: A Realist Evaluation.

This study explored working elements (E) and mechanisms (M) in interventions within different contexts (C), contributing to the outcome (O) of reducing (problematic) alcohol use among older adults. Guided by a realist evaluation approach, interviews with older adults participating in interventions ( = 20) were conducted. In different contexts, several working elements were identified: (1) receiving information about alcohol and health (risks); (2) paying attention to abstinence; (3) being in contact with and receiving support from peers and relatives; (4) maintaining contact with a practitioner or peer/buddy who is always or flexibly available for communication; and (5) learning to manage drinking behavior, and one important mechanism was identified: motivation.

Barriers and facilitators to maternal healthcare in East Africa: a systematic review and qualitative synthesis of perspectives from women, their families, healthcare providers, and key stakeholders.

Background: In East Africa, women face significant challenges accessing maternal healthcare during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period. While several studies have examined barriers and facilitators to maternal care, there is no comprehensive review reflecting the various perspectives of women, their families, healthcare providers, and key stakeholders. We systematically reviewed qualitative literature on maternal healthcare in East Africa, synthesizing insights from multiple perspectives and exploring barriers and facilitators across socioecological levels.

Systematic optimization and evaluation of a Dutch sexual health intervention: Role model stories for chlamydia prevention, testing, and treatment.

Background: The rapidly evolving nature of eHealth necessitates regular optimization and subsequent evaluation. Within the Dutch sexual health intervention Sense.info, we utilized a mixed-methods cyclic evaluation process to assess and optimize the potential impact of the chlamydia page.

Psychometric Validation of the German Version of the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA): A Secondary Analysis of Cross-Sectional Survey Data.

Background And Aims: Regular physical activity holds numerous health benefits for older people, yet the majority of older people do not meet the World Health Organization's physical activity recommendations. Brief physical activity screening tools can support healthcare professionals in identifying patients who would benefit from physical activity promotion and counselling. The Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA) questionnaire is a validated brief physical activity screening tool designed for clinical practice.

Evaluating the Implementation of Home-Based Sexual Health Care Among Men Who Have Sex with Men: Limburg4zero.

Home-based sexual health care (including self-sampling testing) could reduce barriers to clinic-based testing. This study systematically evaluated the implementation of home-based sexual health care ('Limburg4Zero') among men who have sex with men (MSM) in a mixed urban-rural region of the Netherlands. We systematically assessed implementation outcomes (contextual domains, population reached, effectiveness, adoption by health care providers (HCP), implementation fidelity, and maintenance) using the practical, robust implementation and sustainability model.

Optimising the treatment of chronic ischemic heart disease by training general practitioners to deliver very brief advice on physical activity (OptiCor): protocol of the systematic development and evaluation of a complex intervention.

Background: Chronic ischemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Physical activity (PA) is an effective secondary preventive strategy in IHD management. The German treatment guideline recommends that general practitioners (GPs) deliver PA advice to patients.

A digitally supported multimodal lifestyle program to promote brain health among older adults (the LETHE randomized controlled feasibility trial): study design, progress, and first results.

Background: The Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) multimodal lifestyle intervention yielded cognitive and other health benefits in older adults at risk of cognitive decline. The two-year multinational randomized controlled LETHE trial evaluates the feasibility of a digitally supported, adapted FINGER intervention among at-risk older adults. Technology is used to complement in-person activities, streamline the intervention delivery, personalize recommendations, and collect digital biomarkers.

Determinants of Citizens' Intention to Participate in Self-Led Contact Tracing: Cross-Sectional Online Questionnaire Study.

Background: Contact tracing (CT) is a key intervention to contain outbreaks of communicable diseases. During large-scale outbreaks, public health services may lack the resources required to perform CT effectively. One way of mitigating this issue is to shift some of the tasks in CT normally performed by public health services to cases and their contacts, supported by digital tools.

Social networks and COVID-19 vaccination intention in Dutch middle-aged and older adults in 2020: Insights into individual, interpersonal, community, and societal determinants - The SaNAE study.

Background: Social networks, our social relationships, influence the spread of infectious diseases and preventive behaviors such as vaccination. Here, we aimed to assess which individual, interpersonal (social network characteristics), community and societal factors are associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination intention during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, prior to vaccine availability.

Methods: This cross-sectional study collected primary data from 5,001 community-dwelling adults aged 40 years and older in the Netherlands, using an online questionnaire from August and November 2020.

A systematic review on eHealth technology personalization approaches.

Despite the widespread use of personalization of eHealth technologies, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding regarding its application. This systematic review aims to bridge this gap by identifying and clustering different personalization approaches based on the type of variables used for user segmentation and the adaptations to the eHealth technology and examining the role of computational methods in the literature. From the 412 included reports, we identified 13 clusters of personalization approaches, such as behavior + channeling and environment + recommendations.

Evaluating the Impact of a Dutch Sexual Health Intervention for Adolescents: Think-Aloud and Semistructured Interview Study.

Background: Engagement with and the potential impact of web-based interventions is often studied by tracking user behavior with web analytics. These metrics do provide insights into how users behave, but not why they behave as such.

Objective: This paper demonstrates how a mixed methods approach consisting of (1) a theoretical analysis of intended use, (2) a subsequent analysis of actual use, and (3) an exploration of user perceptions can provide insights into engagement with and potential impact of web-based interventions.

Keep it CooL! Results of a two-year CooL-intervention: a descriptive case series study.

Background: Coaching on Lifestyle (CooL) is a two-year healthcare intervention for people with overweight or obesity, stimulating weight reduction by promoting sustained healthier behavior. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of CooL on participants' anthropometrics, personal factors and behavioral factors over the two-year timeframe of CooL.

Methods: A descriptive case series study, using a broad set of routinely collected data on anthropometrics, personal factors and behavioral factors of adults living across the Netherlands.

Understanding Practical, Robust Implementation and Sustainability of Home-based Comprehensive Sexual Health Care: A Realist Review.

This review identifies which elements of home-based comprehensive sexual health care (home-based CSH) impacted which key populations, under which circumstances. A realist review of studies focused on home-based CSH with at least self-sampling or self-testing HIV and additional sexual health care (e.g.

Making it transparent: A worked example of articulating programme theory for a digital health application using Intervention Mapping.

Objective: Digital health interventions for behaviour change are usually complex interventions, and intervention developers should 'articulate programme theory', that is, they should offer detailed descriptions of individual intervention components and their proposed mechanisms of action. However, such detailed descriptions often remain lacking. The objective of this work was to provide a conceptual case study with an applied example of 'articulating programme theory' for a newly developed digital health intervention.

Combined Lifestyle Interventions in the Prevention and Management of Asthma and COPD: A Systematic Review.

(1) Background: A healthy lifestyle has a protective role against the onset and management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Therefore, combined lifestyle interventions (CLIs) are a potentially valuable prevention approach. This review aims to provide an overview of existing CLIs for the prevention and management of asthma or COPD.

Socio-Cognitive Determinants of Lifestyle Behavior in the Context of Dementia Risk Reduction: A Population-Based Study in the Netherlands.

Background: Unhealthy behavior increases the risk of dementia. Various socio-cognitive determinants influence whether individuals persist in or alter these unhealthy behaviors.

Objective: This study identifies relevant determinants of behavior associated to dementia risk.

Exploring physical activity preferences and motivation in long-term cardiac prevention: An Austrian cross-sectional survey.

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients often do not sustain physical activity (PA) behaviour in the long run, once they progress into a self-management stage of secondary prevention. This study aimed to explore former CR patients' PA preferences, determinants (i.e.

Patient online access to medical records in general practice: Perceived effects after one year follow-up.

Objective: Online access to medical records is expected to foster patient empowerment and patient-centred healthcare. However, data on actual experienced effects remain limited. We aimed to examine the development of effects patients perceive from online access.

Professionals' perspectives on interventions to reduce problematic alcohol use in older adults: a realist evaluation of working elements.

Objectives: This study set out to understand how (which elements), in what context and why (which mechanisms) interventions are successful in reducing (problematic) alcohol use among older adults, from the perspective of professionals providing these interventions.

Design: Guided by a realist evaluation approach, an existing initial programme theory (IPT) on working elements in alcohol interventions was evaluated by conducting semistructured interviews with professionals.

Setting And Participants: These professionals (N=20) provide interventions across several contexts: with or without practitioner involvement; in-person or not and in an individual or group setting.

Patients' experiences and perspectives regarding the use of digital technology to support exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation: a qualitative interview study.

Introduction: Despite the well-known benefits of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, participation in cardiac rehabilitation programmes and adherence to secondary prevention recommendations remain limited. Digital technologies have the potential to address low participation and adherence but attempts at implementing digital health interventions in real-life clinical practice frequently encounter various barriers. Studies about patients' experiences and perspectives regarding the use of digital technology can assist developers, researchers and clinicians in addressing or pre-empting patient-related barriers.