scholarly journals An Interactive Smartphone App, Nenne Navi, for Improving Children’s Sleep: Pilot Usability Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arika Yoshizaki ◽  
Ikuko Mohri ◽  
Tomoka Yamamoto ◽  
Ai Shirota ◽  
Shiho Okada ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Healthy sleep is important not only for physical health but also for brain development in children. Several reports have revealed that Japanese adults and children have later bedtimes and shorter sleep durations compared with those in other countries, possibly because of Japanese culture and lifestyles. Therefore, an intervention tool that is suitable to the Japanese sociocultural environment is urgently needed to improve children’s sleep problems in their early years. OBJECTIVE To provide appropriate sleep health literacy to caregivers and change their parenting behavior, we developed a smartphone app that allows reciprocal interaction between caregivers and pediatric sleep experts. This paper describes a preliminary study to examine the app’s basic design and functions and to establish its acceptability and usability in a small sample. METHODS A total of 10 caregivers and 10 infants (aged 18-28 months; 4/10, 40% boys) living in Japan participated in the study. At the start of the trial, the e-learning content regarding sleep health literacy was delivered via a smartphone. Thereafter, caregivers manually inputted recorded data about their own and their infant’s sleep habits for 8 consecutive days per month for 2 months. After pediatric sleep experts retrieved this information from the Osaka University server, they specified the problems and provided multiple sleep habit improvement suggestions to caregivers. Caregivers then selected one of the feasible pieces of advice to practice and reported their child’s sleep-related behaviors via the app. Actigraphy was used to monitor children’s sleep behaviors objectively. The concordance between the information provided by caregivers and the actigraphy data was assessed. The acceptability and usability of the app were evaluated using self-report questionnaires completed by caregivers; qualitative feedback was obtained via semistructured interviews after the intervention. RESULTS There was no significant difference between the information provided by the caregivers and the actigraphy data for bedtimes and wake-up times (<i>P</i>=.13 to <i>P</i>=.97). However, there was a difference between the actigraphy data and the caregivers’ reports of nighttime sleep duration and nighttime awakenings (<i>P</i>&lt;.001 each), similar to prior findings. User feedback showed that 6 and 5 of the 10 caregivers rated the app easy to understand and easy to continue to use, respectively. Additionally, 6 of the 10 caregivers rated the app’s operativity as satisfactory. Although this was a short-term trial, children’s sleep habits, caregivers’ sleep health consciousness, and parenting behaviors improved to some extent. CONCLUSIONS The present findings suggest that the app can easily be used and is acceptable by Japanese caregivers. Given the user feedback, the app has the potential to improve children’s sleep habits by sending individualized advice that fits families’ backgrounds and home lives. Further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of the app and facilitate social implementation.

10.2196/22102 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. e22102
Author(s):  
Arika Yoshizaki ◽  
Ikuko Mohri ◽  
Tomoka Yamamoto ◽  
Ai Shirota ◽  
Shiho Okada ◽  
...  

Background Healthy sleep is important not only for physical health but also for brain development in children. Several reports have revealed that Japanese adults and children have later bedtimes and shorter sleep durations compared with those in other countries, possibly because of Japanese culture and lifestyles. Therefore, an intervention tool that is suitable to the Japanese sociocultural environment is urgently needed to improve children’s sleep problems in their early years. Objective To provide appropriate sleep health literacy to caregivers and change their parenting behavior, we developed a smartphone app that allows reciprocal interaction between caregivers and pediatric sleep experts. This paper describes a preliminary study to examine the app’s basic design and functions and to establish its acceptability and usability in a small sample. Methods A total of 10 caregivers and 10 infants (aged 18-28 months; 4/10, 40% boys) living in Japan participated in the study. At the start of the trial, the e-learning content regarding sleep health literacy was delivered via a smartphone. Thereafter, caregivers manually inputted recorded data about their own and their infant’s sleep habits for 8 consecutive days per month for 2 months. After pediatric sleep experts retrieved this information from the Osaka University server, they specified the problems and provided multiple sleep habit improvement suggestions to caregivers. Caregivers then selected one of the feasible pieces of advice to practice and reported their child’s sleep-related behaviors via the app. Actigraphy was used to monitor children’s sleep behaviors objectively. The concordance between the information provided by caregivers and the actigraphy data was assessed. The acceptability and usability of the app were evaluated using self-report questionnaires completed by caregivers; qualitative feedback was obtained via semistructured interviews after the intervention. Results There was no significant difference between the information provided by the caregivers and the actigraphy data for bedtimes and wake-up times (P=.13 to P=.97). However, there was a difference between the actigraphy data and the caregivers’ reports of nighttime sleep duration and nighttime awakenings (P<.001 each), similar to prior findings. User feedback showed that 6 and 5 of the 10 caregivers rated the app easy to understand and easy to continue to use, respectively. Additionally, 6 of the 10 caregivers rated the app’s operativity as satisfactory. Although this was a short-term trial, children’s sleep habits, caregivers’ sleep health consciousness, and parenting behaviors improved to some extent. Conclusions The present findings suggest that the app can easily be used and is acceptable by Japanese caregivers. Given the user feedback, the app has the potential to improve children’s sleep habits by sending individualized advice that fits families’ backgrounds and home lives. Further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of the app and facilitate social implementation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sae Ono ◽  
Hiroto Ogi ◽  
Masato Ogawa ◽  
Daisuke Nakamura ◽  
Teruhiko Nakamura ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Sleep problems in preschool children can stunt their health and growth. However, the factors that cause sleep problems in children are not well understood. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between parents’ health literacy (HL) and children’s sleep problems. The study was conducted at two kindergartens, two nursery schools, and a center for early childhood education in Chitose-city, Hokkaido, Japan. Method This study used a multicenter cross-sectional design. The sample comprised 354 preschoolers (aged 3–6 years) and their parents. In families with two or more children attending the same facility, only the oldest child was asked to participate in the study. Exclusion criteria included participants whose completed questionnaires had missing values. Children’s sleep problems were assessed using the Japanese version of the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ-J). Parents’ HL was assessed using the 14-item Health Literacy Scale (HLS-14). The parents were classified into two groups (high HL group and low HL group). Multiple regression modelling was used to determine the association between HLS-14 and CSHQ-J scores. Results Of the 354 parents, 255 (72%) were in the high HL group and 99 (28%) in the low HL group. The mean CSHQ-J score was significantly lower in the high HL group than in the low HL group (45.3 ± 6.0 points vs. 46.8 ± 5.9 points, p = 0.043). In multiple regression analyses, parents’ HL was independently associated with their CSHQ-J score after adjusting for all confounding factors (adjusted R2 = 0.22, β = − 0.11; p = 0.043). Conclusions Parents’ HL appears to affect their children’s sleep problems. This finding suggests that parents’ HL may be a target for intervention to improve children’s sleep problems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. e39466
Author(s):  
Lilian Bertoletti ◽  
Fernanda Cristina Scarpa ◽  
Michelli Osanai da Costa ◽  
Eduarda Correa Freitas ◽  
Luana Goulart Marin ◽  
...  

Aims: identifying sleep disorders (SDs) in children who experienced child maltreatment.Methods: the study evaluated the sleep pattern of 123 children (from 2 to 10 years old), who received assistance with child maltreatment, based on the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) – applied in a medical consultation after confirmation of the veracity of the child’s report of a violation. The study applied the questionnaire to children seen by doctors in the sector for 11 months.Results: among the children evaluated, 66.7% had SDs. The sample profile was predominantly female (59.3%) and aged between 4 and 7 years old (48.8%). Physical violence was found in 40.7% of the children, in addition to sexual (35.8%), psychological (24.4%), negligence (14.6%) and other types of violence (OTV) (4.5%). SDs are significantly associated with sexual, psychological and OTV (p=0.016). Regarding the subscales, there was a significant difference between the age groups in the bedtime resistance (BR) factor score (p=0.033). The BR characteristic typifies sexual, psychological and OTV. Sleep anxiety (SA) typifies more psychological, sexual and OTV. Night awakenings (NAs) typify psychological, sexual and physical violence. According to the type of violence, significant differences were found in SA (p=0.039), NAs (p=0.026) and BR (p=0.004).Conclusions: the outcomes highlight the association between SDs and child maltreatment. Certain types of violence have a greater negative impact on children’s sleep and correlate with specific SD.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sae Ono ◽  
Hiroto Ogi ◽  
Masato Ogawa ◽  
Daisuke Nakamura ◽  
Teruhiko Nakamura ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Sleep disorder in preschool children can stunt their health and growth. However, the factors that cause sleep disorders in children are not well understood. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between parents’ health literacy (HL) and children's sleep problems. The study was conducted at two kindergartens, two nursery schools, and a center for early childhood education in Chitose-city, Hokkaido, Japan.Method: This study used a multicenter cross-sectional design. The sample comprised 354 preschoolers (aged 3–6 years) and their parents. In families with two or more children attending the same facility, only the oldest child was asked to participate in the study. Exclusion criteria included participants whose completed questionnaires had missing values. Children’s sleep disorder was assessed using the Japanese version of the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ-J). Parents’ HL was assessed using the 14-item Health Literacy Scale (HLS-14). The parents were classified into two groups (high HL group and low HL group). Multiple regression modelling was used to determine the association between HLS-14 and CSHQ-J scores.Results: Of the 354 parents, 255 (72%) were in the high HL group and 99 (28%) in the low HL group. The mean CSHQ-J score was significantly lower in the high HL group than in the low HL group (45.3 ± 6.0 points vs. 46.8 ± 5.9 points, p = 0.043). In multiple regression analyses, CSHQ-J was independently associated with parents’ HL after adjusting for all confounding factors (R² = 0.41, β = -0.11; p = 0.0043).  Conclusions: Parents’ HL appears to affect their children's sleep disorder. This finding suggests that parents’ HL may be a target for intervention to improve children’s sleep disorders.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. s266-s267
Author(s):  
M. Abouzed ◽  
S. Kinawy

Sleep problems frequently coexist in epileptic patient. The effect of them on each the other has been extensively evaluated. Little review exists on the reciprocal interaction of sleep problems and epilepsy in the children.Aim of studyTo evaluate prevalence, pattern and risk factors of sleep problems in epileptic children.MethodEighty-two epileptic children and 40 healthy controlled children were evaluated using children's sleep habits questionnaire – Arabic form and night polysomnography (2 consecutive nights).ResultPrevalence of sleep problem in epileptic children was 45% and 17% of normal control children with significant difference in sleep latency, total sleep time and number of awaking per night with significant prevalence with partial epilepsy, poly therapy and poor controlled epilepsy.ConclusionSleep problems are common in epileptic children with close relation to partial epilepsy, number of anti epileptic and poor controlled epilepsy. This is important to deal with it in order to better control of sleep problems in such patient.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eui Whan Moon ◽  
Ngiap Chuan Tan ◽  
John Carson Allen ◽  
Tazeen Hasan Jafar

BACKGROUND Reliable home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) is essential to effective hypertension management; however, manual recording is subject to underreporting and inaccuracies. Mobile health technologies hold great potential as HBPM tools, but the fidelity of a smartphone app in HBPM has not been adequately assessed. OBJECTIVE The primary aim of the trial was to compare the fidelity of a smartphone app to that of a handwritten logbook in making HBPM data available to clinicians at follow-up visits. Fidelity was defined as the percentage of scheduled blood pressure (BP) recordings over a 3-week period that were properly recorded and reported to the clinic. The secondary aims were to investigate patient factors associated with HBPM fidelity and to explore the effect of time on the fidelity. METHODS A 2-arm, parallel, unblinded, randomized controlled pilot trial was conducted in a government polyclinic in Singapore. Hypertensive adults, aged 40 to 70 years, who were on antihypertensive medication and owned a smartphone were recruited and randomized by a computer-generated randomization schedule to 3 weeks of either semiautomated HBPM utilizing a Bluetooth-enabled BP monitor and a smartphone app or a fully manual process utilizing a conventional handwritten logbook. The primary outcome was home BP recording fidelity. RESULTS Of the 80 patients randomized, 79 (smartphone app: 38 and logbook: 41) were included in the final analysis. Although fidelity was higher among the app users, it did not differ significantly between study arms (smartphone app: 66.7% and logbook: 52.4%; P=.21). Chinese and Indian ethnicities were associated with higher fidelity (absolute percent and 95% CI) by 35.6% (4.27 to 66.9) and 45.0% (8.69 to 81.3), respectively, in comparison with other ethnicities (P=.03); longer smartphone ownership increased fidelity on an average of 10.5% (0.83 to 20.2) per year (P=.03); the number of apps on the smartphone decreased fidelity at a rate of −0.32% (−0.58 to −0.05) per app (P=.02); years of hypertension morbidity increased fidelity at a rate of 1.56% (0.03 to 3.09) per year (P=.046); and the number of people working in the household decreased fidelity at a rate of −8.18% (−16.3 to −0.08) per additional working person (P=.048). The fidelity of the app was significantly higher in the first week (64.4%) than the second (55.1%, P=.001) and third (58.2%, P=.03) weeks of monitoring. CONCLUSIONS Amid the increasing integration of health technologies into clinical practice, our study demonstrates the feasibility of smartphone app–assisted HBPM in hypertensive adults of Singapore. Our pilot study found no statistically significant difference in mean BP recording fidelity between a smartphone app and conventional handwritten logbook. However, the small sample size precludes definitive conclusions and highlights the need for a larger, adequately powered trial. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03209024; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03209024 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/78EVWBg0T)


1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 1335-1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa A Sorensen ◽  
Roger A Powell

Capture-recapture, radiotelemetry (on a monthly and a yearly basis), and age-distribution methods were used to estimate annual survival rates for black bears (Ursus americanus) in the southern Appalachians from 1981 to 1996. Using capture-recapture data, the Jolly-Seber estimator calculated the annual survival rate for all bears over all years to be 0.64 ± 0.04 (mean ± SE). Because of small sample sizes, this method did not produce yearly estimates or allow separation of the data into age or sex classes. Both the Kaplan-Meier estimator (using monthly telemetry data) and the percent survival estimator (using yearly telemetry data) computed an overall annual survival rate of 0.76 ± 0.04. Survival rates for the early years of the study (1981-1987) were significantly lower than in the late years (1988-1996). No significant difference in survival rate was detected between the sexes or among age-classes. Because it is difficult to capture and recapture large numbers of animals, radiotelemetry methods are preferable for large mammals such as black bears. If bears wear their collars for at least a year, calculating survival from yearly telemetry data provides a good estimate of bear survival. Using monthly telemetry data, however, provided the most detailed understanding of bear survival. Survival estimates produced by the age-distribution method were unreliable.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1806
Author(s):  
Virginia Chan ◽  
Alyse Davies ◽  
Lyndal Wellard-Cole ◽  
Silvia Lu ◽  
Hoi Ng ◽  
...  

Technology-enhanced methods of dietary assessment may still face common limitations of self-report. This study aimed to assess foods and beverages omitted when both a 24 h recall and a smartphone app were used to assess dietary intake compared with camera images. For three consecutive days, young adults (18–30 years) wore an Autographer camera that took point-of-view images every 30 seconds. Over the same period, participants reported their diet in the app and completed daily 24 h recalls. Camera images were reviewed for food and beverages, then matched to the items reported in the 24 h recall and app. ANOVA (with post hoc analysis using Tukey Honest Significant Difference) and paired t-test were conducted. Discretionary snacks were frequently omitted by both methods (p < 0.001). Water was omitted more frequently in the app than in the camera images (p < 0.001) and 24 h recall (p < 0.001). Dairy and alternatives (p = 0.001), sugar-based products (p = 0.007), savoury sauces and condiments (p < 0.001), fats and oils (p < 0.001) and alcohol (p = 0.002) were more frequently omitted in the app than in the 24 h recall. The use of traditional self-report methods of assessing diet remains problematic even with the addition of technology and finding new objective methods that are not intrusive and are of low burden to participants remains a challenge.


2021 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 101425
Author(s):  
Lisa J. Meltzer ◽  
Ariel A. Williamson ◽  
Jodi A. Mindell

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