Journal of Medical Internet Research

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine and virtual consultations worldwide, complex factors that may affect the use of virtual clinics are still unclear.

Mental illness stigma has been a global concern, owing to its adverse effects on the recovery of people with mental illness, and may delay help-seeking for mental health because of the concern of being stigmatized. With technological advancement, internet-based interventions for the reduction of mental illness stigma have been developed, and these effects have been promising.

The efficacy of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly dependent on adherence, and one of the main reasons for poor adherence is forgetfulness. Therefore, it is important to explore how to remind users to take their medicine on time.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is linked to major health consequences and a poor quality of life. Despite the fact that CKD is becoming more prevalent, public knowledge of the disease remains low.

Prior research on health information behaviors of people with dementia has primarily focused on examining the types of information exchanged by people with dementia using various web-based platforms. A previous study investigated the information behaviors of people with dementia within a month of their diagnosis. There is an empirical gap in the literature regarding the evolution of health information needs and behaviors of people with dementia as their condition progresses.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been increased reports of racial biases against Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander individuals. However, the extent to which different Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander groups perceive and experience (firsthand or as a witness to such experiences) how COVID-19 has negatively affected people of their race has not received much attention.

Pregnancy and the postnatal period can be a time of increased psychological distress, which can be detrimental to both the mother and the developing child. Digital interventions are cost-effective and accessible tools to support positive mental health in women during the perinatal period. Although studies report efficacy, a key concern regarding web-based interventions is the lack of engagement leading to drop out, lack of participation, or reduced potential intervention benefits.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a critical public health crisis worldwide, and policymakers are using lockdowns to control the virus. However, there has been a noticeable increase in aggressive social behaviors that threaten social stability. Lockdown measures might negatively affect mental health and lead to an increase in aggressive emotions. Discovering the relationship between lockdown and increased aggression is crucial for formulating appropriate policies that address these adverse societal effects. We applied natural language processing (NLP) technology to internet data, so as to investigate the social and emotional impacts of lockdowns.

Prevalence of diabetes has steadily increased over the last few decades with 1.5 million deaths reported in 2012 alone. Traditionally, analyzing patients with diabetes has remained a largely invasive approach. Wearable devices (WDs) make use of sensors historically reserved for hospital settings. WDs coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms show promise to help understand and conclude meaningful information from the gathered data and provide advanced and clinically meaningful analytics.

Motivational interviewing (MI) can increase health-promoting behaviors and decrease health-damaging behaviors. However, MI is often resource intensive, precluding its use with people with limited financial or time resources. Mobile health–based versions of MI interventions or technology-delivered adaptations of MI (TAMIs) might increase reach.

Patients with cancer undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy face an elevated risk of developing serious infection as a consequence of their treatment, which lowers their white blood cell count and, more specifically, their absolute neutrophil count. This condition is known as neutropenia. Neutropenia accompanied by a fever is referred to as febrile neutropenia, a common side effect of chemotherapy with a high mortality rate. The timely detection of severe neutropenia (<500 absolute neutrophil count/μL) is critical in detecting and managing febrile neutropenia. Current methods rely on blood draws, which limit them to clinical settings and do not allow frequent or portable monitoring. In this study, we demonstrated the usability of PointCheck, a noninvasive device for neutropenia screening, in a simulated home environment without clinical supervision. PointCheck automatically performs microscopy through the skin of the finger to image the blood flowing through superficial microcapillaries and enables the remote monitoring of neutropenia status, without requiring venipuncture.

Heart failure (HF) is a common disease and a major public health problem. HF mortality prediction is critical for developing individualized prevention and treatment plans. However, due to their lack of interpretability, most HF mortality prediction models have not yet reached clinical practice.