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BackgroundMobile phone short message service (SMS) text messaging, has the potential to serve as an intervention medium to promote sustainability of weight loss that can be easily and affordably used by clinicians and consumers. ObjectiveTo develop theoretically driven weight loss sustaining text messages and pilot an mHealth SMS text messaging intervention to promote sustaining recent weight loss in order to understand optimal frequency and timing of message delivery, and for feasibility and usability testing. Results from the pilot study were used to design and construct a patient privacy compliant automated SMS application to deliver weight loss sustaining messages. MethodsWe first conducted a pilot study in which participants (N=16) received a daily SMS text message for one month following a structured weight loss program. Messages were developed from diet and exercise guidelines. Following the intervention, interviews were conducted and self-reported weight was collected via SMS text messaging. ResultsAll participants (N=16) were capable of sending and receiving SMS text messages. During the phone interview at 1 month post-baseline and at 3 months post-baseline, 13/14 (93%) of participants who completed the study reported their weight via SMS. At 3 months post-baseline, 79% (11/14) participants sustained or continued to lose weight. Participants (13/14, 93%) were favorable toward the messages and the majority (10/14, 71%) felt they were useful in helping them sustain weight loss. All 14 participants who completed the interview thought SMS was a favorable communication medium and was useful to receive short relevant messages promptly and directly. All participants read the messages when they knew they arrived and most (11/14, 79%) read the messages at the time of delivery. All participants felt that at least one daily message is needed to sustain weight loss behaviors and that they should be delivered in the morning. Results were then used to develop the SMS text messaging application. ConclusionsStudy results demonstrated the feasibility of developing weight loss SMS text messages, and the development of an mHealth SMS text messaging application. SMS text messaging was perceived as an appropriate and accepted tool to deliver health promotion content.

Health care providers, policy makers, and investigators are dependent upon the quality and accuracy of published research findings to inform and guide future practice and research in their field. Systematic reviews, the synthesis of outcomes across studies are increasingly more common in the family literature; however, published review reports often lack information on strategies reviewers used to insure dependability of findings, and minimize methodological bias in the review. In this article, we summarize findings from systematic reviews of interventions and outcomes from family involvement in adult chronic disease care published between 2007 and 2016. In addition, we explore procedures reviewers used to insure the quality and methodologic rigor of the review. Our discussion provides guidance and direction for future studies of family involvement in chronic disease care.

In this talk, Linda Davis discusses observation at the adolescent level. She explains that we must "adjust our approach for the third plane of development, for when they are becoming adults." Using examples, she discusses the characteristics of this plane, which are helpful to recall when thinking about what to expect when observing adolescents. She reminds us that observation at this age is not simply the teacher observing the student. As they work towards an understanding of themselves and their place in society, adolescents "are becoming conscious participants in this process of unlocking potential. They are observing us." [Paper presented at the "Observation: The Key to Unlocking the Child's Potential," North American Montessori Teachers' Association (NAMTA) Conference, Part 1 (Denver, CO, November 5-8, 2015).]

By July 2021, >33 million cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), were documented in the United States, and most cases involved contact [...]

The current study compared the effects of hand raising and response cards during a writing instruction class in a middle-school resource classroom with students who were learning English as their second language. Response cards increased the rate and accuracy of academic responding, increased weekly quiz scores, and had mixed effects on off-task behavior, but most students reported that they preferred hand raising.

Although family home care problems are frequently described in the health care literature, the ways in which families and other informal caregivers manage those problems are not often addressed. We conducted a descriptive analysis of interviews in which spouses caring for a partner with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease were asked to describe difficult home care problems and how they managed those problems. Analysis of these interviews indicated three recurring management styles. Adapters told stories about applying pre-existing skills to manage home care problems. Strugglers told stories of reoccurring home care problems for which they had few or no management strategies. Case managers' interview stories focused on the challenges of finding and coordinating home care services. These findings suggest that caregiving burden might be influenced more by the caregiver's management style than the demands of the care situation. Suggestions for tailoring support programs for the three types of caregivers are proposed.

Dementia caregiving can be burdensome with many challenges, especially for spousal caregivers who are elderly and may have limited resources and chronic conditions of their own. However, it can also be an opportunity for growth and transcendence. Thematic qualitative analysis was conducted with 11 caregiver interviews to investigate how spousal caregivers of individuals with dementia found personal meaning in their caregiving experience. Caregivers commonly had altruistic values, and the discipline to live those values. They found meaning by believing in a choice of attitude and perceiving satisfaction in living according to their values in life. They had faith in a higher power, a strong sense of love for their spouses and they derived strength from past challenges. Positive attitudes among caregivers of individuals with dementia may be enhanced by sharing these stories and strategies. Study results also provide an expansion beyond commonly held views of caregiving for nurses.

Purpose of the Study: This paper is a report of a study of the Assistance, Support, and Self-health Initiated through Skill Training (ASSIST) randomized control trial. The aim of this paper is to understand whether participating in ASSIST significantly changed the out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Design and Methods: Secondary analysis of randomized control trial data, calculating average treatment effects of the intervention on OOP costs. Enrollment in the ASSIST trial occurred between 2002 and 2007 at 2 sites: Durham, North Carolina, and Birmingham, Alabama. We profile OOP costs for caregivers who participated in the ASSIST study and use 2-part expenditure models to examine the average treatment effect of the intervention on caregiver OOP expenditures. Results: ASSIST-trained AD and PD caregivers reported monthly OOP expenditures that averaged $500-$600. The intervention increased the likelihood of caregivers spending any money OOP by 26 percentage points over usual care, but the intervention did not significantly increase overall OOP costs. Implications: The ASSIST intervention was effective and inexpensive to the caregiver in direct monetary outlays; thus, there are minimal unintended consequences of the trial on caregiver financial well-being.