Issue Addressed: The Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) Health Promotion Unit was awarded a Cancer Institute NSW grant to raise awareness of bowel cancer and promote the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) among Aboriginal communities in SLHD. The COVID-19 pandemic thwarted initial plans for face-to-face workshops and plans pivoted to digital products and dissemination of messages on a range of communication platforms.
Discussion: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic provided staff with the freedom, flexibility, and ability to be creative in ways not possible prior to the pandemic and ultimately ended up with a superior product with a reach further than anticipated.
Background/objectives: Few quality intervention studies have assessed whether a combined telephone and short message service (SMS) intervention to mothers is effective in reducing BMI and obesity risk behaviors of children at 3 years of age. This study aimed to assess effectiveness of telephone and SMS support in reducing children's body mass index (BMI) and obesity risk behaviors.
Subjects/methods: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 662 women of 2-year-old children (with the proportion of overweight and obesity being similar to the general population) was conducted in Sydney, Australia, March 2019-October 2020.
Background: Noncommunicable diseases can be prevented or delayed through health promotion programs. Little is known about programs delivered by partnership organisations that address lifestyle behaviours. The study's purpose was to review the literature on physical activity or healthy eating health promotion programs, delivered in partnership by the local government and local health services, to describe characteristics of programs and their impact on physical activity, healthy eating or related health outcomes among middle-aged adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Having a COVID-19 vaccination, getting tested, and self-isolating if symptomatic are some of the most important mitigation strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19. This study aimed to investigate whether demographic factors are associated with mothers' willingness to vaccinate their 4-year-old children against COVID-19 if a suitable vaccine becomes available or to get tested and self-isolate if they themselves have COVID-19 symptoms and whether the willingness could be influenced by the Greater Sydney lockdown 2021.
Methods: A cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted between 24th February and 26th October 2021.
This article introduces the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) MedWatch adverse event reporting program that consumers and healthcare professionals can use to voluntarily report potential problems associated with medical devices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPublic and internal databases were examined to evaluate software-related recalls in the medical device industry sector. In the analysis of recalls reported from 2005 through 2011, 19.4% of medical device recalls are related to software.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
April 2008
The driving privilege is a critical component of independent living for individuals who have acquired a brain injury. To date, measures of driving capacity following neurological compromise remain limited to gross performance measures, such as subjective behind the wheel evaluations. The current study demonstrates the use of a virtual reality (VR) driving simulator to provide objective and precise measures of driving behavior not previously available for clinical assessment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
February 2008
The goal of this research was to evaluate the usefulness of a wireless custom monitor in measuring real-time finger posture over an extended period of time as the wearer goes about daily life activities. One individual wore the device for 25 continuous hours in the research facility and at home. Initial data analysis methods have been presented to explore different aspects of hand activity over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA wearable finger flexion monitor developed to measure hand function in individuals with hand dysfunction was evaluated for feasibility, measurement repeatability and reliability, fidelity of wireless transmission, and user acceptance. Configuration of the monitor allows use in situations when a traditional measurement glove cannot be worn. Five healthy individuals participated in the study of repeatability, while 10 healthy individuals and 10 individuals with acquired brain injury participated in trials to assess feasibility and user comfort.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of virtual environments with head-mounted displays (HMDs) offers unique assets to the evaluation and therapy of clinical populations. However, research examining the effects of this technology on clinical populations is sparse. Understanding how wearers interact with the HMD is vital.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neuroeng Rehabil
March 2005
BACKGROUND: Objective measures of hand function as individuals participate in home and community activities are needed in order to better plan and evaluate rehabilitation treatments. Traditional measures collected in the clinical setting are often not reflective of actual functional performance. Recent advances in technology, however, enable the development of a lightweight, comfortable data collection monitor to measure hand kinematics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Head Trauma Rehabil
September 2004
The objective of this article was to (1) review the engineering and medical literature to structure the available information concerning the assessment of spasticity in the neurological population; (2) to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods currently in use in spasticity assessment; and (3) make recommendations for future efforts in spasticity outcome assessment. Spasticity textbooks, Web sites, and OVID, IEEE, and Medline searches from 1966 through 2003 of spasticity, quantitative measure, or outcome assessment in the rehabilitation population were used as data sources. Over 500 articles were reviewed.
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