Health Literacy-Based Heart Failure Self-care (H2Lit) Application: Development and Usability Testing.

The purpose of this study was to describe the development of a health literacy-focused heart failure self-care intervention (H2Lit Web-based app) and assess its usability using an online testing platform. We used an iterative approach, wherein participants evaluated more refined versions of H2Lit over four rounds of testing. Healthy participants were recruited for the earlier rounds of testing, and participants with heart failure were recruited for the final round.

Leveraging Natural Learning Processing to Uncover Themes in Clinical Notes of Patients Admitted for Heart Failure.

Heart failure occurs when the heart is not able to pump blood and oxygen to support other organs in the body as it should. Treatments include medications and sometimes hospitalization. Patients with heart failure can have both cardiovascular as well as non-cardiovascular comorbidities.

Improving the Factual Accuracy of Abstractive Clinical Text Summarization using Multi-Objective Optimization.

While there has been recent progress in abstractive summarization as applied to different domains including news articles, scientific articles, and blog posts, the application of these techniques to clinical text summarization has been limited. This is primarily due to the lack of large-scale training data and the messy/unstructured nature of clinical notes as opposed to other domains where massive training data come in structured or semi -structured form. Further, one of the least explored and critical components of clinical text summarization is factual accuracy of clinical summaries.

Nightly Variation in Sleep Influences Self-efficacy for Adhering to a Healthy Lifestyle: A Prospective Study.

Background: Self-efficacy, or the perceived capability to engage in a behavior, has been shown to play an important role in adhering to weight loss treatment. Given that adherence is extremely important for successful weight loss outcomes and that sleep and self-efficacy are modifiable factors in this relationship, we examined the association between sleep and self-efficacy for adhering to the daily plan. Investigators examined whether various dimensions of sleep were associated with self-efficacy for adhering to the daily recommended lifestyle plan among participants (N = 150) in a 12-month weight loss study.

The association between sleep health and weight change during a 12-month behavioral weight loss intervention.

Background: Prior research on the relationship between sleep and attempted weight loss failed to recognize the multidimensional nature of sleep. We examined the relationship between a composite measure of sleep health and change in weight and body composition among adults in a weight loss intervention.

Methods: Adults (N = 125) with overweight or obesity (50.

The SMARTER Trial: Design of a trial testing tailored mHealth feedback to impact self-monitoring of diet, physical activity, and weight.

Background: Self-monitoring food intake and physical activity (PA) is positively related to weight loss and the addition of feedback (FB) messages has been shown to reinforce behavior change. Moreover, the more immediate the delivery of reinforcing FB messages, the more likely they will promote the desired behaviors.

Purpose: Describe design and rationale of SMARTER, a National Institute of Heart, Lung, and Blood (NHLBI)-sponsored randomized, controlled trial, which compares the differential efficacy of two weight loss treatments among 530 adults, ages 18 and older.

Empirically Tested Health Literacy Frameworks.

Background: Health literacy is a significant determinant of health behaviors, but the pathways through which health literacy influences health behaviors are not completely clear nor consistent. The purpose of this systematic review is to critically appraise studies that have empirically tested the potential pathways linking health literacy to health behavior.

Methods: We performed searches of the electronic databases PubMed, Embase, and CINAHL to identify studies that proposed a conceptual framework and empirically tested the proposed mechanism through which health literacy influences certain health behaviors.

Efficacy of Mobile Health for Self-management of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Theory-Guided Systematic Review.

Background: Although mobile health (mHealth) technologies are burgeoning in the research arena, there is a lack of mHealth interventions focused on improving self-management of individuals with cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs).

Objective: The purpose of this article was to critically and systematically review the efficacy of mHealth interventions for self-management of CMRF while evaluating quality, limitations, and issues with disparities using the technology acceptance model as a guiding framework.

Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Lilacs were searched to identify research articles published between January 2008 and November 2018.

A Health Literacy-Focused Intervention for Latinos with Hypertension.

Latinos in the United States are experiencing increasing incidences of uncontrolled high blood pressure (HBP). Health literacy is an important determinant of adequate HBP self-management, yet no community-based intervention has effectively addressed health literacy in the management of HBP in the target community. The purpose of this study was to test the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of a health literacy-focused HBP intervention in Spanish-speaking Latinos with uncontrolled HBP.

Participant retention practices in longitudinal clinical research studies with high retention rates.

Background: There is a need for improving cohort retention in longitudinal studies. Our objective was to identify cohort retention strategies and implementation approaches used in studies with high retention rates.

Methods: Longitudinal studies with ≥200 participants, ≥80% retention rates over ≥1 year of follow-up were queried from an Institutional Review Board database at a large research-intensive U.

Adaptation and coping in patients living with an LVAD: A metasynthesis.

Objective: To synthesize information supporting coping and adaptation of LVAD patients and to identify opportunities for future interventions.

Background: Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) patients demonstrate improvements in quality of life and functional status, but qualitative research has not been meaningfully integrated.

Methods: Qualitative meta-synthesis using Lazarus and Folkmans' Transactional Model of stress and coping.