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Abstract BackgroundIn an aging population, it is important to activate older adults in taking care of their own health. Increasing physical activity is one way to avoid or lessen age-related physical and mental impairments. Interest in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) tools to promote physical activity among older adults is growing considerably. Such tools are suitable for communicating activation factors—skills, knowledge, and motivation—by integrating a variety of behavior change techniques (BCTs) to enhance physical activity. Although activation factors have been incorporated into physical activity interventions using ICT, little is known about the actual integration methods used in such interventions or about the effects of activation factors on influencing behavior change. ObjectiveThe first aim of this study was to identify which of the activation factors were covered in physical activity–promoting ICT interventions for older adults and which BCTs were used to address them. The second objective was to classify the user interaction interfaces and delivery modes that were used to promote these activation factors. MethodsThe search engines of PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect were used to search for and identify articles examining the effectiveness of ICT interventions for promoting physical activity in older adults. References and related data were selected, extracted, and reviewed independently by 2 reviewers. The risk of bias was assessed, and any conflict was addressed by a third separate reviewer. Selected articles included older adults aged ≥55 years without pre-existing medical diseases and other physical or mental conditions that could hinder movement. ResultsIn total, 368 records were retrieved, and 13 studies met all inclusion criteria. Articles differed in terms of themes, timescales, user interaction interfaces, and outcome measures; therefore, a quantitative data synthesis was not feasible. Motivation was the most promoted activation factor among all trials (33 times). An app and a smartwatch were used in the majority of intervention groups (7/20, 35%) for tracking physical activity and receiving personalized feedback based on the individual goals. Skills (25 times) and knowledge (17 times) were the next most commonly addressed activation factors. Face-to-face interaction was the most used approach to targeting users’ skills, including providing instructions on how to perform a behavior and exchanging knowledge via education on the health consequences of insufficient physical activity. Overall, integrating all 3 activation factors and using multiple user interaction interfaces with a variety of delivery modes proved the most effective in improving physical activity. ConclusionsThis study highlights commonly used BCTs and preferred modes of their delivery. So far, only a limited number of available BCTs (21/102, 21%) have been integrated. Considering their effectiveness, a larger variety of BCTs that address skills, knowledge, and motivation should be exploited in future ICT interventions.

Objectives: Complications following breast cancer treatment result in chronic upper limb disabilities. To plan an informed and effective rehabilitation for timely intervention to prevent, mitigate, or manage the functional impairments for breast cancer survivors, especially in settings with limited resources, the burden of upper limb disabilities needs to be ascertained. This study examined upper limb disabilities and associated factors among breast cancer survivors., Methods: This cross-sectional quantitative study recruited 60 breast cancer survivors using purposive sampling method. Text messages and face-to-face interactions were used to inform participants about the study. Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire was used to ascertain the upper limb disabilities. To determine lymphedema, tape measurements of upper limb circumference were translated into a limb volume with the geometric formula for a truncated cone. Visual analogue scale, hand dynamometer, and goniometer were used to measure pain, grip strength, and shoulder range of movement, respectively. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize data. Linear regression was used to determine the correlation between upper limb disabilities and selected variable. Alpha level was set at p  < 0.05., Result: The prevalence of upper limb disabilities was 73%. Pain, lymphedema, shoulder range of movement, and grip strength showed strong correlation with upper limb disabilities. Pain and lymphedema increased by around 0.095 and 0.061 units, respectively, for every unit increase in disability. Conversely, there was a decrease of 1.394, 0.770, 0.285, and 0.045 in shoulder flexion, shoulder abduction, grip strength, and body mass index, respectively, for every unit increase in disability., Conclusion: Upper limb disabilities had high prevalence and significantly correlated with every variable that was examined. The high prevalence of upper limb disabilities and their interaction with related variables calls to action for routine screening and prompt intervention to identify, prevent, or manage upper limb functional impairments in breast cancer survivors., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

To review the effects of Otago exercise program (performed individually or in group) on several physical and psychosocial outcomes for community-dwelling and institutionalized older adults. Fourteen articles met the inclusion criteria. Three electronic databases and reference lists of identified studies were searched. Eligibility criteria included clinical trials of the Otago exercise program conducted among older adults. Two studies were conducted in institutions, 2 in groups. None of the studies reviewed reported the post-intervention result of the Otago exercise program on depression or any other psychological construct. Otago exercise program was effective in reducing falls, improving balance, strength, mobility, and health-related quality of life within the community and in institutions. Available evidence suggests group performance may be better than individual programs. The Otago exercise program is an important and effective exercise strategy which can be administered in groups or individualized to both community-dwelling and institution-resident older adults. Future reviews, especially, systematic reviews with meta-analysis should be performed.

Background: Late-life experiences such as protracted and indisposing medical disorders can negatively impact older adults' psychological and mental health, making them vulnerable to depression. Majority of the assessment tools for depression were developed for use in western countries. There is therefore the need for availability of culture- and environment-specific tools for assessment of depression in low-and-middle-income countries. This study was designed to cross-culturally adapt and validate the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15) into Igbo language and culture., Methods: The English version of the GDS-15 was translated into Igbo language; synthesized, back-translated, and underwent expert panel review, pretesting and cognitive debriefing interview, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons' guidelines. The Igbo version of the GDS-15 was tested for concurrent and structural validities, and internal consistency among consecutively recruited 140 consenting older adults (62.9% females) in Enugu North Senatorial District at 0.05 level of significance., Results: The English version of the GDS-15 was successfully cross-culturally adapted to Igbo with all the 15 items still retained on the Igbo version of the GDS-15. The Igbo version of the GDS-15 exhibited the same structure as the English version, and displayed a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.53 with no significant ceiling (0%) and floor (0%) effects. The correlation between the participants' total scores on the Igbo and the English versions of the GDS-15 (ρ = 0.86) was adequate. There was no significant difference between corresponding scores in the English and Igbo versions of the GDS-15 (p = 0.89)., Conclusions: The Igbo version of the GDS-15 is a valid and culturally specific instrument, and can be used for assessing depression among Igbo older adults in Nigeria., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Rare diseases affect between 25 and 30 million people in the United States, and understanding their epidemiology is critical to focusing research efforts. However, little is known about the prevalence of many rare diseases. Given a lack of automated tools, current methods to identify and collect epidemiological data are managed through manual curation. To accelerate this process systematically, we developed a novel predictive model to programmatically identify epidemiologic studies on rare diseases from PubMed. A long short-term memory recurrent neural network was developed to predict whether a PubMed abstract represents an epidemiologic study. Our model performed well on our validation set (precision = 0.846, recall = 0.937, AUC = 0.967), and obtained satisfying results on the test set. This model thus shows promise to accelerate the pace of epidemiologic data curation in rare diseases and could be extended for use in other types of studies and in other disease domains., (©2021 AMIA - All rights reserved.)

This study evaluated the effects of aerobic exercise program on the cardiovascular parameters, body composition, and quality of life (QoL) of people living with human immune virus (HIV). Patients were recruited from the HIV clinic in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Fish bowl method was used to randomize the patients to either experimental or control group. Experimental group received nutritional counseling and aerobic exercise program on a treadmill, 3 times a week for a period of 6 weeks, while the control group received only nutritional counseling. Cardiovascular parameters, aerobic fitness, body composition parameters, and QoL were evaluated at baseline and 6 weeks. Descriptive statistics was used to explore demographic data while the hypothesis was tested using inferential statistics of t -test. Alpha level was set at P <0.05. The result showed that there was an improvement in cardiovascular parameters in both groups, attaining significance in the experimental group ( P =0.000). Aerobic fitness increased significantly in experimental group ( P =0.000). Body composition decreased significantly while there was a significant difference in the muscle mass (%) between groups ( P <0.05). All domains of QoL had a significant improvement in both groups ( P <0.005). A 6-week aerobic exercise program in addition to nutritional counseling was able to significantly improve cardiovascular fitness, body composition, and QoL in people living with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Nutritional counseling alone can bring about an improvement only in QoL parameters., Competing Interests: CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.