Use and effectiveness of mHealth technologies in tracking the spread of infectious disease outbreaks and their implications for the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review protocol (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madison Milne-Ives ◽  
Simon Rowland ◽  
Alison McGregor ◽  
J Edward Fitzgerald ◽  
Edward Meinert
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks

BACKGROUND The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines mHealth as medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices. A number of mHealth devices, primarily apps designed to support contact tracing, have been utilised as part of the public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The value of mHealth devices in augmenting public health practice is however yet to be defined. OBJECTIVE The study aims to address three research questions: (1) What digital technologies are being used to track the symptoms and spread of infectious disease outbreaks and what strategies do they use to do so? (2) How effective and cost-effective are digital technologies at tracking the spread of infectious disease outbreaks and what are their strengths and limitations? (3) What are the user perspectives on the usability and effectiveness of these technologies? METHODS The PICOS template and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA-P) will be followed for this systematic review. The review will be composed of a literature search, article selection, data extraction, quality appraisal, data analysis, and a discussion of the implications of the data for the current COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS N/A CONCLUSIONS This systematic review will summarise the available evidence for use of mHealth devices for tracking the spread of infectious disease outbreaks. These results are potentially valuable for informing public health policy during infectious disease outbreaks such as the current Covid-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Ethics of instantaneous contact tracing using mobile phone apps in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 427-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Parker ◽  
Christophe Fraser ◽  
Lucie Abeler-Dörner ◽  
David Bonsall
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Mobile Phone Data ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Ethical Implications

In this paper we discuss ethical implications of the use of mobile phone apps in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact tracing is a well-established feature of public health practice during infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics. However, the high proportion of pre-symptomatic transmission in COVID-19 means that standard contact tracing methods are too slow to stop the progression of infection through the population. To address this problem, many countries around the world have deployed or are developing mobile phone apps capable of supporting instantaneous contact tracing. Informed by the on-going mapping of ‘proximity events’ these apps are intended both to inform public health policy and to provide alerts to individuals who have been in contact with a person with the infection. The proposed use of mobile phone data for ‘intelligent physical distancing’ in such contexts raises a number of important ethical questions. In our paper, we outline some ethical considerations that need to be addressed in any deployment of this kind of approach as part of a multidimensional public health response. We also, briefly, explore the implications for its use in future infectious disease outbreaks.

scholarly journals What makes health systems resilient against infectious disease outbreaks and natural hazards? Results from a scoping review

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer B. Nuzzo ◽  
Diane Meyer ◽  
Michael Snyder ◽  
Sanjana J. Ravi ◽  
Ana Lapascu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Health System ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
World Health ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
System Resilience

Abstract Background The 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak was a wake-up call regarding the critical importance of resilient health systems. Fragile health systems can become overwhelmed during public health crises, further exacerbating the human, economic, and political toll. Important work has been done to describe the general attributes of a health system resilient to these crises, and the next step will be to identify the specific capacities that health systems need to develop and maintain to achieve resiliency. Methods We conducted a scoping review of the literature to identify recurring themes and capacities needed for health system resiliency to infectious disease outbreaks and natural hazards and any existing implementation frameworks that highlight these capacities. We also sought to identify the overlap of the identified themes and capacities with those highlighted in the World Health Organization’s Joint External Evaluation. Sources of evidence included PubMed, Web of Science, OAIster, and the websites of relevant major public health organizations. Results We identified 16 themes of health system resilience, including: the need to develop plans for altered standards of care during emergencies, the need to develop plans for post-event recovery, and a commitment to quality improvement. Most of the literature described the general attributes of a resilient health system; no implementation frameworks were identified that could translate these elements into specific capacities that health system actors can employ to improve resilience to outbreaks and natural hazards in a variety of settings. Conclusions An implementation-oriented health system resilience framework could help translate the important components of a health system identified in this review into specific capacities that actors in the health system could work to develop to improve resilience to public health crises. However, there remains a need to further refine the concept of resilience so that health systems can simultaneously achieve sustainable transformations in healthcare practice and health service delivery as well as improve their preparedness for emergencies.

scholarly journals Surveillance System Evaluations Provide Evidence to Improve Public Health Practice

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley J. Paterson ◽  
David N. Durrheim
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Outbreak Response ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Surveillance Practice

Surveillance evaluations of surveillance systems should provide evidence to improve public health practice. In response to surveillance evaluation findings amongst Pacific Island Countries and Territories that identified a critical need to better equip local public health officials with skills to rapidly appropriately respond to suspected infectious disease outbreaks across the Pacific, the RAPID (Response and Analysis for Pacific Infectious Diseases) project was implemented to strengthen capacity in surveillance, epidemiology and outbreak response. The RAPID project is a notable example of how evidence gathered through a surveillance evaluation can be used to improve public health surveillance practice.

Emotional determinants of public responses to the risk of epidemics and pandemics: a systematic review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonis A. Kousoulis ◽  
Mark R. Francis ◽  
Imogen Grant ◽  
Heidi J Larson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Public Health Interventions ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Intervention Uptake

Abstract Background Understanding how people’s emotions influence their health decisions and behaviours at a population level is fundamental to designing effective communication strategies and public health interventions for infectious disease outbreaks. This review identifies relevant research to assess the role of emotional determinants and their impact on public responses to the risk of infectious disease outbreaks, specifically in relation to the uptake of public health interventions. Methods A comprehensive systematic review was conducted exploring the differences in public responses by emotion, infection, outcome and region. A basic consensus approach was followed in which emotional stimuli were categorised as being either pleasant or unpleasant, and predisposing people to bivalent behaviour (i.e., approach or withdrawal). All primary research studies published in five global databases between 1988-2019 were eligible for inclusion. Binomial tests (against a test proportion of 0.5 or 50% for each study outcome) were performed using the direction of effect observed in each study, i.e., either favouring or not favouring intervention uptake. Results A total of 75 studies from 28 different nations were eligible for inclusion in the review. A total of 97 correlations were made between 12 emotions, 10 infectious diseases, and the uptake of seven types of public health interventions. Unpleasant emotions were evoked much more often than pleasant following public health risk communications, with fear and anxiety being the most common. Overall, moderate anxiety-related emotions (worry, anxiety, stress, concern) seemed to be much more significant motivators for public action compared to extreme unpleasant emotions (fear, panic, hopelessness, shame), which had a statistically significantly negative effect on the uptake of public health interventions in several cases. Pleasant emotions (empathy, hope) also showed promise as motivators for public health intervention uptake, but more research is needed to corroborate this. Conclusions The results of this review show that the public’s emotional responses to epidemics in the past 30 years have played a clear role in determining how successful the rollout of public health interventions has been. Emotions need to be considered in crisis communications, and these research findings can help inform communications strategies in the evolving context of the COVID-19 pandemic and future infectious disease outbreaks.

scholarly journals A New Model for Predicting Infectious Disease Outbreaks

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Demitry ◽  
Darren McKnight ◽  
Erin Dale ◽  
Elizabeth Bartlett
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Preventive Intervention ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
World Health ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
The World

This project integrated tools and hybrid methodologies historically used for early warning, intelligence, counter space, public health, informatics, and medical surveillance applications. A multidiscipline team assembled and explored non-medical prediction and analytical techniques that successfully predict critical events for low probability but high-regret national and global scenarios. The team then created novel approaches needed to fill nuanced and unique gaps for the infectious disease prediction challenge. The team adopted and applied those proven procedures to determine which would be efficacious in foretelling infectious disease outbreaks around the world. One outcome of that effort was a successful two-year development and validation project designated ‘RAID’ (Risk Awareness Framework for Infectious Diseases), which focused on malaria prediction. The project’s objective was to maximize the warning (prediction) window of impending malaria epidemic outbreaks with sufficient time to allow meaningful preventive intervention before widespread human infection. It is generally recognized the more protracted the prediction window extends before an event, the more time available for health authorities to muster and deploy resources, which lessen morbidity, mortality, and harmful economic effects. Also, the value of early warning for an imminent epidemic must have mitigation options, or the warning window would have no beneficial impact on health outcomes. Finally, early notice is preferable over surprise epidemics, as unexpected waves of patients seeking acute care can easily overwhelm most local medical systems, as history repeatedly teaches. This cliché keeps repeating, with recurring Ebola epidemics and the recent COVID-19 pandemic as prominent exemplars. Predictive lead times need to be adequate for an intervention to be relevant. RAID’s focus on malaria prediction met these criteria from a relevant clinical and humanitarian perspective. Subsequent papers will address successful external generalization of these methods in predicting other similar infectious diseases. The model presented in this manuscript supports the conclusion that an additional two weeks advance notice could be available to public health authorities utilizing these techniques. This foreknowledge would allow the deployment of limited health resources into areas where they would do the most good and just in time. The geographical specificity was examined down to 5 km x 5 km grid squares overlaid anywhere in the world. Most of the model’s input data were derived from remote sensing satellite sources that could combine with historical WHO (World Health Organization) or nation-reported existential pathogen loads to improve model accuracy; however, such data harmonization is not required. If ground sensors were integrated into the modeling, the confidence of the risk of infection would logically improve. The model provides a successful global risk assessment via commercially available remote space sensors, even without ground sensing. RAID provides a necessary and useful preliminary means to predictive situational awareness. This improved predictive awareness is sufficiently granular to identify last chance windows for public health interventions globally. This need will become even more pronounced as infectious diseases evolve biologically and migrate geographically at ever-increasing rates.

scholarly journals Genome sequencing and its use in public health responses to COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
John-Sebastian Eden
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
1918 Influenza

Human history has been shaped by the heavy burden of infectious disease pandemics. Yet, despite the bitter lessons learned from history, even those in living memory such as the 1918 influenza pandemic and HIV/AIDS epidemic, COVID-19 stands unique in the sudden, immense health and economic impacts to the global human population. While the costs have been great, and the long-term consequences are still being revealed, the urgent need for action has also brought forward rapid developments and innovations to combat COVID-19 and better prepare us for future infectious disease outbreaks. One such area has been the widespread adoption of whole genome sequencing to inform public health responses. Genome sequencing during the COVID-19 pandemic has become key to tracking the spread of SARS-CoV-2 at all scales, to such a degree that terms such as genomics, mutations, variants and clusters are now common vernacular to politicians, health officials and the general public. This article provides a commentary on the genesis and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing, and its critical on-going role in the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Infectious disease outbreaks in the African region: overview of events reported to the World Health Organization in 2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Mboussou ◽  
P. Ndumbi ◽  
R. Ngom ◽  
Z. Kassamali ◽  
O. Ogundiran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Onset ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
World Health ◽  
African Region ◽  
Regional Office ◽  
Member States ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The World

Abstract The WHO African region is characterised by the largest infectious disease burden in the world. We conducted a retrospective descriptive analysis using records of all infectious disease outbreaks formally reported to the WHO in 2018 by Member States of the African region. We analysed the spatio-temporal distribution, the notification delay as well as the morbidity and mortality associated with these outbreaks. In 2018, 96 new disease outbreaks were reported across 36 of the 47 Member States. The most commonly reported disease outbreak was cholera which accounted for 20.8% (n = 20) of all events, followed by measles (n = 11, 11.5%) and Yellow fever (n = 7, 7.3%). About a quarter of the outbreaks (n = 23) were reported following signals detected through media monitoring conducted at the WHO regional office for Africa. The median delay between the disease onset and WHO notification was 16 days (range: 0–184). A total of 107 167 people were directly affected including 1221 deaths (mean case fatality ratio (CFR): 1.14% (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07%–1.20%)). The highest CFR was observed for diseases targeted for eradication or elimination: 3.45% (95% CI 0.89%–10.45%). The African region remains prone to outbreaks of infectious diseases. It is therefore critical that Member States improve their capacities to rapidly detect, report and respond to public health events.

scholarly journals An evaluation of emergency guidelines issued by the World Health Organization in response to four infectious disease outbreaks

PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. e0198125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Norris ◽  
Veronica Ivey Sawin ◽  
Mauricio Ferri ◽  
Laura Raques Sastre ◽  
Teegwendé V. Porgo
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
World Health ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

scholarly journals The Impact of Organisational Characteristics of Staff and Facility on Infectious Disease Outbreaks in Care Homes: a Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Liljas ◽  
Lenke Morath ◽  
Bo Burström ◽  
Pär Schön ◽  
Janne Agerholm
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Older People ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Facility Design ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Facility Size ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Nurse Aides

Abstract Background: Infectious disease outbreaks are common in care homes, often with substantial impact on the rates of infection and mortality of the residents, who primarily are older people vulnerable to infections. There is growing evidence that organisational characteristics of staff and facility might play a role in infection outbreaks however such evidence have not previously been systematically reviewed. Therefore, this systematic review aims to examine the impact of facility and staff characteristics on the risk of infectious disease outbreaks in care homes.Methods: Five databases were searched. Studies considered for inclusion were of any design reporting on an outbreak of any infectious disease in one or more care homes providing care for primarily older people with original data on: facility size, facility location (urban/rural), facility design, use of temporary hired staff, staff compartmentalizing, residence of staff, and/or nursing aides hours per resident. Retrieved studies were screened, assessed for quality, and analysed employing a narrative synthesis.Results: Sixteen studies (8 cohort studies, 6 cross-sectional studies, 2 case-control) were included from the search which generated 10,424 unique records. COVID-19 was the most commonly reported cause of outbreak (n=11). The other studies focused on influenza, respiratory and gastrointestinal outbreaks. Most studies reported on the impact of facility size (n=11) followed by facility design (n=4), use of temporary hired staff (n=3), facility location (n=2), staff compartmentalizing (n=2), nurse aides hours (n=2) and residence of staff (n=1). Findings suggest that urban location and larger facility size may be associated with greater risks of an infectious outbreak. Additionally, the risk of a larger outbreak seems lower in larger facilities. Whilst staff compartmentalizing may be associated with lower risk of an outbreak, staff residing in highly infected areas may be associated with greater risk of outbreak. The influence of facility design, use of temporary staff, and nurse aides hours remains unclear.Conclusions: This systematic review suggests that larger facilities have greater risks of infectious outbreaks, yet the risk of a larger outbreak seems lower in larger facilities. Due to lack of robust findings the impact of facility and staff characteristics on infectious outbreaks remain largely unknown.PROSPERO: CRD42020213585

scholarly journals New global guidelines on sedentary behaviour and health for adults: broadening the behavioural targets

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paddy C. Dempsey ◽  
Stuart J. H. Biddle ◽  
Matthew P. Buman ◽  
Sebastien Chastin ◽  
Ulf Ekelund ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Sedentary Behaviour ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Cancer Mortality ◽  
Sedentary Time ◽  
Vigorous Physical Activity ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
World Health

Abstract Background In 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) commenced a program of work to update the 2010 Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health, for the first-time providing population-based guidelines on sedentary behaviour. This paper briefly summarizes and highlights the scientific evidence behind the new sedentary behaviour guidelines for all adults and discusses its strengths and limitations, including evidence gaps/research needs and potential implications for public health practice. Methods An overview of the scope and methods used to update the evidence is provided, along with quality assessment and grading methods for the eligible new systematic reviews. The literature search update was conducted for WHO by an external team and reviewers used the AMSTAR 2 (Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews) tool for critical appraisal of the systematic reviews under consideration for inclusion. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) method was used to rate the certainty (i.e. very low to high) of the evidence. Results The updated systematic review identified 22 new reviews published from 2017 up to August 2019, 14 of which were incorporated into the final evidence profiles. Overall, there was moderate certainty evidence that higher amounts of sedentary behaviour increase the risk for all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality, as well as incidence of CVD, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. However, evidence was deemed insufficient at present to set quantified (time-based) recommendations for sedentary time. Moderate certainty evidence also showed that associations between sedentary behaviour and all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality vary by level of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), which underpinned additional guidance around MVPA in the context of high sedentary time. Finally, there was insufficient or low-certainty systematic review evidence on the type or domain of sedentary behaviour, or the frequency and/or duration of bouts or breaks in sedentary behaviour, to make specific recommendations for the health outcomes examined. Conclusions The WHO 2020 guidelines are based on the latest evidence on sedentary behaviour and health, along with interactions between sedentary behaviour and MVPA, and support implementing public health programmes and policies aimed at increasing MVPA and limiting sedentary behaviour. Important evidence gaps and research opportunities are identified.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document