Older Adults’ Perceptions of Using iPads for Improving Fruit and Vegetable Intake: An Exploratory Study

Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption can improve older adults’ health outcomes, but conventional interventions can be resource demanding and make it difficult to provide just-in-time intervention content. iPad-based interventions may help overcome these limitations, but little is known about how older adults might perceive and use iPads for FV consumption. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a qualitative study to explore older adults’ perceptions and use of iPads for improving FV consumption between February and August of 2012. Five focus group sessions each lasting 120 min were conducted with 22 older adult participants. During each session, participants received guided exposure and instruction on iPad use and then explored three iPad applications targeting FV consumption (MyFood, FiveADay Lite, and Whole Foods Market Recipes). Detailed notes from focus group interviews were analyzed with a grounded theory approach that applied a constant comparative method to enable themes to emerge from the data. Three themes were identified from the data regarding participants’ baseline perceptions of iPads. These included (a) limited knowledge on iPad’s functions, (b) iPads were intended for younger users, and (c) iPads were too expensive. Themes identified regarding participants’ perceptions of iPads after guided exposure included (a) the touchscreen was easier to use than a computer mouse, (b) tapping the interface required practice, (c) portability was an asset in conjunction with functionality, (d) portability and functionality supported personal interests, (e) the difficulty of learning an iPad’s functions varied, and (f) practice and instruction helped overcome fear of the iPad. Finally, participants recommended iPad app features that could help them overcome barriers to their FV intake. These included (a) locating inexpensive FV from nearby sources, (b) providing tailored food and recipe suggestions, and (c) tracking and communicating FV intake with a doctor. These findings have important implications for future research on mobile app-based eHealth interventions to improve older adults’ FV intake.

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Healthy Older Adults’ Motivation and Knowledge Related to Food and Meals

The Qualitative Report ◽

10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3414 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Kai Hansen

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Future Research ◽

Theory Approach ◽

Daily Lives ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Knowledge Community ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

Group Interviews ◽

Predominantly Female

The population over 60 years old is growing rapidly in Norway and in many other countries, and researchers often focus on elderly people and various diseases. This article examines the healthy elderly who are active in their daily lives to understand their motivation and knowledge about food and meals. The method used was CurroCus® group interviews, or fast focus groups. Nine CurroCus® groups were conducted, lasting for 37 to 56 minutes (average = 45 minutes). Altogether, 76 persons participated, ranging in age from 60 to 87 years; participants were predominantly female (>80%). The article discusses two areas: motivation and knowledge regarding food and meals. The collected empirical data were recorded, transcribed, and entered into NVivo 11.0. Interviews were analysed using a grounded theory approach. The results show that the respondents are concerned with six main areas: food intake, purchasing pattern, meal knowledge, community, service experience, and sensory triggers. The main contribution of this article is increased insights into healthy older adults’ interpretation of their motivation for healthy food and inspiring meals based on their extensive knowledge of the topics discussed. Future research will require more knowledge of various loneliness strategies and their effects. Government responsibility should focus on older people’s nutrient intake in the near future. Different sensory stimuli must be investigated in order for more people to help avoid malnutrition.

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Older Adults—Their Focus on Food and Future Living: A Grounded Theory Approach

The Qualitative Report ◽

10.46743/2160-3715/2020.3678 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kai Victor Hansen

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Nursing Homes ◽

User Interaction ◽

The Elderly ◽

Future Research ◽

Ageing Population ◽

Theory Approach ◽

Food And Drink ◽

Group Interviews ◽

Predominantly Female

Older adults, also known as the silver generation, are the new healthy generation. This generation has for many decades formed the basis for the prosperity found in Norway. The ageing population is growing rapidly in many countries around the world. The aim of this paper is to understand healthy active older adults’ interpretations of food and meals and their focus on food and future living. Nine CurroCus® group interviews, or fast focus groups, were conducted, lasting 37 to 56 minutes with an average of 45 minutes. Altogether, 76 persons from both genders participated, with an age span of 60 to 87 years, although participants were predominantly female (80%). The main findings indicated that older adults expect good overall experiences at nursing homes, including food and drink with good standards adapted to the individual’s needs and smaller apartments with common rooms for activities; they also actively use technology in their everyday lives. Future research should focus on areas such as user interaction strains around food in nursing homes and home residents, various measures for enabling the elderly to stay at home longer, and the mapping of combinations of food and medicines. In addition, different types of housing units should be better investigated.

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A Qualitative Study on Employees’ Experiences of a Support model for Systematic Work Environment Management

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16193551 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (19) ◽

pp. 3551 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Therese Hellman ◽

Fredrik Molin ◽

Magnus Svartengren

Keyword(s):

Focus Group ◽

Qualitative Study ◽

Work Environment ◽

Work Groups ◽

Comparative Method ◽

Focus Group Interviews ◽

Environment Management ◽

Group Interviews ◽

Over Time ◽

Support Model

Background: The aim is to explore how an organisational work environment support model, the Stamina model, influences employees’ work situations and the development of sustainable work systems. Methods: It was a qualitative study with semi-structured, focus-group interviews, including 45 employees from six work groups. Eighteen focus group interviews were conducted over a period of two years. Data were analysed with constant comparative method. Results: The core category, shifting focus from an individual to an organisational perspective of work, illustrated how communication and increased understanding of one’s work tasks changed over time and contributed to deeper focus on the actual operation. These insights were implemented at different time points among the work groups during the two-year process. Conclusions: Our results indicate that working with the model engages employees in the work environment management, puts emphasis on reflections and discussions about the meaning and purpose of the operations and enables a shared platform for communication. These are important features that need to continue over time in order to create a sustainable work system. The Stamina model, thus seems to have the potential to promote productive and healthy work places.

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Predicting Uptake of the COVID Coach App Among U.S. Military Veterans: A Funnel Analysis Using a Probability-Based Panel (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.36217 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Beth K Jaworski ◽

Katherine Taylor ◽

Kelly M Ramsey ◽

Adrienne J Heinz ◽

Sarah Steinmetz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Older Adults ◽

Mobile Apps ◽

Military Veterans ◽

Total Sample ◽

Mobile App ◽

Future Research ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Managing Stress ◽

Usage Data

BACKGROUND Although the pandemic has not led to a uniform increase of mental health concerns among older adults, there is evidence to suggest that some older veterans did experience an exacerbation of pre-existing mental health conditions, and that mental health difficulties were associated with a lack of social support and increasing numbers of pandemic-related stressors. Mobile mental health apps are scalable, may be a helpful resource for managing stress during the pandemic and beyond, and could potentially provide services that are not accessible due to the pandemic. However, overall comfort with mobile devices and factors influencing the uptake and usage of mobile apps during the pandemic among older veterans are not well known. COVID Coach is a free, evidence-informed mobile app designed for pandemic-related stress. Public usage data have been evaluated, but its uptake and usage among older veterans has not been explored. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the current study was to characterize smartphone ownership rates among U.S. veterans, identify veteran characteristics associated with downloading and use of COVID Coach, and characterize key content usage within the app. METHODS Data were analyzed from the 2019-2020 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (NHRVS), which surveyed a nationally representative, prospective cohort of 3,078 U.S. military veterans before and one year into the pandemic. The NHRVS sample was drawn from KnowledgePanel®, a research panel of more than 50,000 households maintained by Ipsos, Inc. Median time to complete the survey was nearly 32 minutes. The research version of COVID Coach was offered to all veterans who completed the peri-pandemic follow-up assessment on a mobile device (n = 814; weighted 34.2% of total sample). App usage data from all respondents who downloaded the app (n = 34; weighted 3.3% of the mobile completers sample) were collected between November 14, 2020 and November 7, 2021. RESULTS We found that most U.S. veterans own smartphones and veterans with higher education, greater number of adverse childhood experiences, higher extraversion, and greater severity of pandemic-related PTSD symptoms were more likely to download COVID Coach. Although uptake and usage of COVID Coach was relatively low (3.3% of eligible participants, n = 34), 50% of the participants returned to the app for more than one day of use. The interactive tools for managing stress were used most frequently. CONCLUSIONS Although the coronavirus pandemic has increased the need for and creation of digital mental health tools, these resources may require tailoring for older veteran populations. Future research is needed to better understand how to optimize digital mental health tools, such as apps, to ensure uptake and usage among older adults, particularly those who have experienced traumas across the lifespan.

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How accessible are grocery shops for people with dementia? A qualitative study using photo documentation and focus group interviews

Dementia ◽

10.1177/1471301218808591 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (6) ◽

pp. 1872-1888 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Anna Brorsson ◽

Annika Öhman ◽

Stefan Lundberg ◽

Malcolm P Cutchin ◽

Louise Nygård

Keyword(s):

Grounded Theory ◽

Focus Group ◽

Qualitative Study ◽

Grocery Shopping ◽

Theory Approach ◽

Focus Group Interviews ◽

People With Dementia ◽

Photo Documentation ◽

Group Interviews ◽

Grounded Theory Approach

Background People with dementia who live in ordinary housing need to perform activities outside the home such as visiting friends, talking walks and doing grocery shopping. This article identifies and examines characteristics that may influence accessibility in the space of a grocery shop as perceived by people with dementia. Methods This is a qualitative study with a grounded theory approach. The data collection was done with two different methods. It started with photo documentation and continued with focus group interviews in combination with photo elicitation. Data from both photo documentation and focus groups were analysed according to a grounded theory approach. Results The categories “illogical arrangement”, “overload of products, information and people”, “visual illusions” and “intrusive auditory stimuli” showed characteristics in the grocery shop that influenced how accessible and usable the informants experienced a shop to be. Furthermore, personal capacities in relation to the specific characteristics of the grocery shop space had an influence on how accessible and usable the informants experienced the grocery shop to be. Capacities to find, stay focused and concentrated, meet stress, remember, interpret and discriminate sensory impressions through hearing and sight came to the fore as important. Conclusions Characteristics of both the shop and the person need to be taken into account when supporting people with dementia in grocery shopping.

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«Det er fint å være hos rådgiver, hun skjønner oss skjønner du». En empirisk studie av tema som anses som kjennetegn på kvalitet i skolens karriereveiledning

Nordisk tidsskrift i veiledningspedagogikk ◽

10.15845/ntvp.v2i1.1161 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 16

Author(s):

Erik Hagaseth Haug

Keyword(s):

Focus Group ◽

Career Guidance ◽

School Context ◽

Theory Approach ◽

Focus Group Interviews ◽

Relational Competence ◽

Theoretical Assumptions ◽

Administrative Leaders ◽

Group Interviews ◽

Grounded Theory Approach

The aim of the study is to contribute to a more nuanced and differentiated understanding of the concept of quality in career guidance in schools, and to see how the local understandings interrelate with theoretical assumptions. The study focuses on patterns of understanding of the phenomenon quality in career guidance in a Norwegian school context, as the following four actors describe it: Pupils at intermediate and secondary levels, Counsellors from both levels, Administrative leaders from the sampled schools and the School-owners (municipality-representatives). Methodologically, the study uses a grounded theory approach, and the results are based on analysis of focus group interviews with representatives from the different actor groups. The result indicate that the understandings of quality are centered around three interrelated thematic areas; the importance of the practitioners’ relational competence, a focus on the next career choice, and a variety of actors and activities involved in the provision of the service.

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Rams Have Heart, a Mobile App Tracking Activity and Fruit and Vegetable Consumption to Support the Cardiovascular Health of College Students: Development and Usability Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.15156 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Michelle C Krzyzanowski ◽

Paul N Kizakevich ◽

Vanessa Duren-Winfield ◽

Randall Eckhoff ◽

Joel Hampton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Query Language ◽

Vegetable Intake ◽

Vegetable Consumption ◽

User Participation ◽

Mobile App ◽

Fruit And Vegetable Consumption ◽

Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽

Black College ◽

Fruit And Vegetable

BACKGROUND With the increasing use of mobile devices to access the internet and as the main computing system of apps, there is a growing market for mobile health apps to provide self-care advice. Their effectiveness with regard to diet and fitness tracking, for example, needs to be examined. The majority of American adults fail to meet daily recommendations for healthy behavior. Testing user engagement with an app in a controlled environment can provide insight into what is effective and not effective in an app focused on improving diet and exercise. OBJECTIVE We developed Rams Have Heart, a mobile app, to support a cardiovascular disease (CVD) intervention course. The app tracks healthy behaviors, including fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity, throughout the day. This paper aimed to present its functionality and evaluated adherence among the African American college student population. METHODS We developed the app using the Personal Health Informatics and Intervention Toolkit, a software framework. Rams Have Heart integrates self-reported health screening with health education, diary tracking, and user feedback modules to acquire data and assess progress. The parent study, conducted at a historically black college and university-designated institution in southeastern United States, consisted of a semester-long intervention administered as an academic course in the fall, for 3 consecutive years. Changes were made after the cohort 1 pilot study, so results only include cohorts 2 and 3, comprising a total of 115 students (n=55 intervention participants and n=54 control participants) aged from 17 to 24 years. Data collected over the study period were transferred using the secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure protocol and stored in a secure Structured Query Language server database accessible only to authorized persons. SAS software was used to analyze the overall app usage and the specific results collected. RESULTS Of the 55 students in the intervention group, 27 (49%) students in cohort 2 and 25 (45%) in cohort 3 used the Rams Have Heart app at least once. Over the course of the fall semester, app participation dropped off gradually until exam week when most students no longer participated. The average fruit and vegetable intake increased slightly, and activity levels decreased over the study period. CONCLUSIONS Rams Have Heart was developed to allow daily tracking of fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity to support a CVD risk intervention for a student demographic susceptible to obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. We conducted an analysis of app usage, function, and user results. Although a mobile app provides privacy and flexibility for user participation in a research study, Rams Have Heart did not improve compliance or user outcomes. Health-oriented research studies relying on apps in support of user goals need further evaluation.

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Preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia—a mixed-method study to find behavioral leverage for better protocol adherence

Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology ◽

10.1017/ice.2018.195 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (10) ◽

pp. 1222-1229 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Aline Wolfensberger ◽

Marie-Theres Meier ◽

Lauren Clack ◽

Peter W. Schreiber ◽

Hugo Sax

Keyword(s):

Focus Group ◽

Mixed Method ◽

University Hospital ◽

Mixed Method Study ◽

Ventilator Associated Pneumonia ◽

Theory Approach ◽

Prevention Measures ◽

Focus Group Interviews ◽

Protocol Adherence ◽

Group Interviews

AbstractObjectivePreventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is an important goal for intensive care units (ICUs). We aimed to identify the optimal behavior leverage to improve VAP prevention protocol adherence.DesignMixed-method study using adherence measurements to assess 4 VAP prevention measures and qualitative analysis of semi-structured focus group interviews with frontline healthcare practitioners (HCPs).SettingThe 6 ICUs in the 900-bed University Hospital Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland.Patients and participantsAdherence to VAP prevention measures were assessed in patients with a device for invasive ventilation (ie, endotracheal tube, tracheostomy tube). Participants in focus group interviews included a convenience samples of ICU nurses and physicians.ResultsBetween February 2015 and July 2017, we measured adherence to 4 protocols: bed elevation showed adherence at 27% (95% confidence intervals [CI], 23%–31%); oral care at 41% (95% CI, 36%–45%); sedation interruption at 81% (95% CI, 74%–85%); and subglottic suctioning at 88% (95% CI, 83%–92%). Interviews were analyzed first inductively according a grounded theory approach then deductively against the behavior change wheel (BCW) framework. Main behavioral facilitators belonged to the BCW component ‘reflective motivation’ (ie, perceived seriousness of VAP and self-efficacy to prevent VAP). The main barriers belonged to ‘physical capability’ (ie, lack of equipment and staffing and side-effects of prevention measures). Furthermore, 2 primarily technical approaches (ie, ‘restructuring environment’ and ‘enabling HCP’) emerged as means to overcome these barriers.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that technical, rather than education-based, solutions should be promoted to improve VAP prevention. This theory-informed mixed-method approach is an effective means of guiding infection prevention efforts.

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Service recovery as an organizational capability

Qualitative Market Research An International Journal ◽

10.1108/qmr-03-2016-0030 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 316-336 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Samiha Mjahed Hammami ◽

Nizar Souiden ◽

Abdelfattah Triki

Keyword(s):

Focus Group ◽

Service Recovery ◽

Recovery Process ◽

Future Research ◽

Organizational Capability ◽

Focus Group Interviews ◽

Content Type ◽

Domain Identification ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

Group Interviews

PurposeThis paper aims to explore and conceptualize service recovery as an organizational capability. It proposes a new construct labeled knowledge-enabled recovery effectiveness (KERE).Design/methodology/approachMeasures capturing the KERE construct were developed through domain identification, item pool generation using focus group interviews with managers involved in complaint management and content expert validation.FindingsA first pool of 73 items was generated and then reduced to 37 items. Focus group interviews confirm the theoretical relevance of the KERE construct. Recovery culture, recovery process and internal recovery resources are the different components of a firm’s knowledge that serve as inputs, or as a source of a firm’s service recovery capabilities.Research limitations/implicationsA quantitative study is needed in future research to assess the KERE’s construct structure and validity.Practical implicationsManagers may use the proposed scale to foster effective and relevant marketing strategies by setting clear policies that consider service recovery as a knowledge-based activity rather than a control targeted activity.Originality/valueThis research demonstrates the mutual dialogue between service recovery and knowledge-based capabilities. Also, it proposes a new concept labeled KERE and a raw scale to further understand firms’ aptitude in service recovery.

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