Background: Many individuals with intellectual disability (ID) have a sedentary lifestyle. Few interventions aimed at increasing their level of physical activity (PA) have shown lasting effects.
Aim: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of a pilot intervention study using innovative mobile health (mHealth) support systems to encourage PA in individuals with ID.
Introduction: We examined if we could identify predictors for smoking cessation at six months post cessation, among smokers enrolled in a large Norwegian population-based intervention study.
Methods: We followed 4333 (72.1% women) smokers who enrolled in an internet-based smoking cessation intervention during 2010-2012.
Background: Several studies have shown that individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have low levels of physical activity (PA), and intervention studies on PA suggest inconsistent evidence. The use of technology as a means of motivation for PA has yet to be extensively explored and needs to be further investigated.
Objective: We aim to assess the feasibility and acceptability of procedures for an intervention arm in a future trial on mobile health (mHealth) to support PA for individuals with IDs.
Background: For people with Type 2 diabetes (T2D), lifestyle changes may be the most effective intervention. Online groups for people with diabetes holds a great potential to support such changes. However, little is known about the association between participation in online groups and lifestyle changes based on internet information in people with T2D.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have lower levels of physical activity (PA) and greater barriers for participation in fitness activities compared with members of the general population. As increased PA has positive effects on cardiovascular and psychosocial health, it is exceedingly important to identify effective interventions for use in everyday settings. Mobile health (mHealth) methods such as motion sensor games (exergames) and smartphone reminders for PA have been explored and found to be promising in individuals with IDs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is a need to deliver smoking cessation support at a population level, both in developed and developing countries. Studies on internet-based and mobile phone-based smoking cessation interventions have shown that these methods can be as effective as other methods of support, and they can have a wider reach at a lower cost.
Objective: This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed to compare, on a population level, the efficacy of an identical, tailored smoking cessation intervention delivered by mobile text messaging versus email.
Background: The prevalence of diabetes and the use of electronic health (eHealth) are increasing. People with diabetes need frequent monitoring and follow-up of health parameters, and eHealth services can be highly valuable. However, little is known about the use of eHealth in different socioeconomic groups among people with diabetes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The prevalence of diabetes and the use of electronic health (eHealth) resources are increasing. People with diabetes need frequent monitoring and follow-up of health parameters, and eHealth services can be of great significance in this regard. However, little is known about the extent to which different kinds of eHealth tools are used, and how the use of eHealth is associated with the use of provider-based health care services among people with diabetes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSex Reprod Healthc
October 2015
Objective: This study assessed the current screening for and brief intervention (BI) on alcohol use in pregnancy among midwives in Norway, as well as perceived barriers for such practice.
Design, Setting And Participants: An Internet and telephone survey was conducted among all 200 registered municipal midwives in the Norwegian health regions North, West and South in the period December 2013-May 2014. Of these, 103 midwives were reached and responded (52%).
Background: Internet is used for a variety of health related purposes. Use differs and has differential effects on health according to socioeconomic status.
Objective: We investigated to what extent the Norwegian population use the Internet to support exercise and diet, what kind of services they use, and whether there are social disparities in use.
Background: An increase in physical activity for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cardiac rehabilitation has multiple therapeutic benefits, including decreased mortality. Internet- and mobile-based interventions for physical activity have shown promising results in helping users increase or maintain their level of physical activity in general and specifically in secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases and cardiac rehabilitation. One component related to the efficacy of these interventions is tailoring of the content to the individual.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study describes a novel approach to the identification of the motivational processes in text data extracted from an Internet support group (ISG) for smoking cessation. Based on the previous findings that a "prevention" focus might be more relevant for maintaining behavior change, it was hypothesized that 1) language use (ie, the use of emotional words) signaling a "promotion" focus would be dominant in the initiating stages of the ISG, and 2) that the proportion of words signaling a prevention focus would increase over time. The data were collected from the ISG site, spanning 4 years of forum activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Internet-based physical activity interventions have great potential in supporting patients in cardiac rehabilitation. Health behavior change theories and user input are identified as important contributors in the effectiveness of the interventions, but they are rarely combined in a systematic way in the design of the interventions.
Objective: The aim of this study is to identify the appropriate theoretical framework, along with the needs of the users of a physical activity intervention for cardiac rehabilitation, and to combine them into an effective Internet- and mobile-based intervention.
Inform Health Soc Care
January 2013
The use of the internet for health purposes is increasing, as is the number of sites and online communities aimed at helping people to stop smoking. Some of the effects of online communities may be mediated through a sense of community. By using the computer-program Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count with a Norwegian dictionary, we investigated whether there was a development of sense of community in a forum related to a Norwegian smoking cessation intervention, by examining the use of self-referencing vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cardiac rehabilitation is very important for the recovery and the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, and one of its main strategies is to increase the level of physical activity. Internet and mobile phone based interventions have been successfully used to help people to achieve this. One of the components that are related to the efficacy of these interventions is tailoring of content to the individual.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Studies suggest that tailored materials are superior to nontailored materials in supporting health behavioral change. Several trials on tailored Internet-based interventions for smoking cessation have shown good effects. There have, however, been few attempts to isolate the effect of the tailoring component of an Internet-based intervention for smoking cessation and to compare it with the effectiveness of the other components.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScand J Caring Sci
December 2009
Aim: The aim of this work is to study the 10 year trends in the use and projected use of internet for health purposes in Norway. This includes more detailed analyses of changes in latter years, current uses, valuation as source of health information, reported effects and projected developments.
Method: Surveys on the use of the internet for health purposes have been conducted in Norway in the years 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007.
Background: In the last decade, the number of Internet users worldwide has dramatically increased. People are using the Internet for various health-related purposes. It is important to monitor such use as it may have an impact on the individual's health and behavior, patient-practitioner roles, and on general health care provision.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To analyse how web-based consultations for parents of children with atopic dermatitis affect self-management behaviour, health outcome, health resource use and family costs.
Methods: Ninety-eight children with atopic dermatitis were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group received remote dermatology consultations through a secure web-based communication system.
Background: The Internet is a promising channel for delivering health-promoting interventions. A common problem for Internet-based interventions is low adherence. The current paper reports adherence rates from three different Internet-based trials with potential covariates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to explore relations between Internet use, socio-economic status (SES), social support and subjective health. Participants were from representative samples between 15 and 80 years of age from seven different European countries. Two different survey datasets were used: (i) eHealth trends (eHT; N = 7934) and (ii) the European social survey (ESS2; N = 11248).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNorwegian psychologists' use of and attitudes towards e-media such as email and mobile text messaging in interaction with clients (e-therapy) were explored. A two-dimensional scale for measuring attitudes towards e-therapy was developed. A total of 1040 (23%) members of the psychologist association responded to a questionnaire June 2003.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe conducted a national survey about access to and use of videoconferencing in Norwegian mental health care. A questionnaire was mailed to 300 institutions, with 113 returned (38%). Attitudes towards videoconferencing were positive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Educ Res
February 2008
The main objective of this study was to assess whether self-efficacy (SE) could function as a moderator of the effect of a tailored Internet-based intervention aimed at increasing self-reported diabetes self-care behaviours. In a two-group, 1-month interval pre-test-post-test randomized controlled trial, participants (N = 64) were assigned at random to either a group that received an intervention on the area of self-care (blood glucose monitoring, diet management or physical activity) for which the reported SE was lowest (LSE group) or to a group that received an intervention on area of self-care for which the reported SE was highest (HSE group). Improvements in self-care were observed for both groups, but the HSE group improved more.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite the common use of electronic communication in other aspects of everyday life, its use between patients and health care providers has been slow to diffuse. Possible explanations are security issues and lack of payment mechanisms. This study investigated how patients value secure electronic access to their general practitioner (GP).
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