Gaming and digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Ottiglio ◽  
Robert Whalen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Online Games ◽  
Online Gaming ◽  
Google Scholar ◽  
World Health ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Health Messaging

UNSTRUCTURED The online gaming industry has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, which has only been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Advertising by the private sector is common in online games, but games can also present a new avenue for innovative messaging by other actors. Online gaming can be a controversial topic, with debate surrounding the health effects of prolonged gaming. Though the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes instances of gaming disorder, some research suggests that online gaming is not inherently dangerous and can, in some situations, be beneficial to mental health. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO has recently explored using gaming as an avenue for promoting public health messaging and has been involved in various projects that aimed to spread COVID mitigation guidelines through games. While the direct impact of in-game or advertising messaging on individuals’ behaviours is difficult to assess, the spread in popularity of these tactics and their estimated reach suggests a promising new approach for delivering public health information to certain groups. The goal of this paper is to objectively assess the potential of public health messaging through video games with a distinct focus on the impact of current initiatives being utilized to provide much-needed public health information on the COVID-19 pandemic, especially looking to initiatives in which WHO was involved or led. Whilst there is less literature and research in this field than other COVID-19 related topics, this paper has uncovered several meaningful insights and potential routes for future endeavors. To capture the sentiment of the academic community, an advanced Boolean search was conducted through Google Scholar. Google Scholar was used for this search as opposed to specific journals or databases given the cross-specialty nature of research on this topic (i.e., psychology to marketing). The search of ("gaming" OR "video games" OR "online games") AND ("covid-19" OR "coronavirus" OR "pandemic") AND ("public health messaging" OR "public health communication" OR "public health campaigns") was set over the time period 2019-2021.

scholarly journals Assessing Communicative Effectiveness of Public Health Information in Chinese: Developing Automatic Decision Aids for International Health Professionals

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (19) ◽  
pp. 10329
Author(s):  
Meng Ji ◽  
Adams Bodomo ◽  
Wenxiu Xie ◽  
Riliu Huang
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
World Health ◽  
Svm Classifier ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Automatic Assessment ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
Readability Formula

Effective multilingual communication of authoritative health information plays an important role in helping to reduce health disparities and inequalities in developed and developing countries. Health information communication from the World Health Organization is governed by key principles including health information relevance, credibility, understandability, actionability, accessibility. Multilingual health information developed under these principles provide valuable benchmarks to assess the quality of health resources developed by local health authorities. In this paper, we developed machine learning classifiers for health professionals with or without Chinese proficiency to assess public-oriented health information in Chinese based on the definition of effective health communication by the WHO. We compared our optimized classifier (SVM_F5) with the state-of-art Chinese readability classifier (Chinese Readability Index Explorer CRIE 3.0), and classifiers adapted from established English readability formula, Gunning Fog Index, Automated Readability Index. Our optimized classifier achieved statistically significant higher area under the receiver operator curve (AUC of ROC), accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity than those of SVM using CRIE 3.0 features and SVM using linguistic features of Gunning Fog Index and Automated Readability Index (ARI). The statistically improved performance of our optimized classifier compared to that of SVM classifiers adapted from popular readability formula suggests that evaluation of health communication effectiveness as defined by the principles of the WHO is more complex than information readability assessment. Our SVM classifier validated on health information covering diverse topics (environmental health, infectious diseases, pregnancy, maternity care, non-communicable diseases, tobacco control) can aid effectively in the automatic assessment of original, translated Chinese public health information of whether they satisfy or not the current international standard of effective health communication as set by the WHO.

scholarly journals Public health information on COVID-19 for international travellers: Lessons learned from a rapid mixed-method evaluation in the UK containment phase

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Zhang ◽  
Charlotte Robin ◽  
Shenghan Cai ◽  
Clare Sawyer ◽  
Wendy Rice ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Stage Ii ◽  
Protective Measure ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
The Impact

Introduction In the containment phase of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Public Health England (PHE) delivered advice to travellers arriving at major UK ports. We aimed to rapidly evaluate the impact and effectiveness of these communication materials for passengers in the early stages of the pandemic. Methods In stage I (Patient and Public Involvement, PPI) we interviewed seven travellers who had returned from China in January and February 2020. We used these results to develop a questionnaire and topic guides for stage II, a cross-sectional survey and follow-up interviews with passengers arriving at London Heathrow Airport on scheduled flights from China and Singapore. The survey assessed passengers' knowledge of symptoms, actions to take and attitudes towards PHE COVID-19 public health information; interviews explored their views of official public health information and self-isolation. Results In stage II, 121 passengers participated in the survey and 15 in follow-up interviews. 83% of surveyed passengers correctly identified all three COVID-19 associated symptoms listed in PHE information at that time. Most could identify the recommended actions and found the advice understandable and trustworthy. Interviews revealed that passengers shared concerns about the lack of wider official action, and that passengers' knowledge had been acquired elsewhere as much from PHE. Respondents also noted their own agency in choosing to self-isolate, partially as a self-protective measure. Conclusion PHE COVID-19 public health information was perceived as clear and acceptable, but we found that passengers acquired knowledge from various sources and they saw the provision of information alone on arrival as an insufficient official response. Our study provides fresh insights into the importance of taking greater account of diverse information sources and of the need for public assurance in creating public health information materials to address global health threats. Keywords COVID-19, public health advice, government, policy, airport, international travel

scholarly journals Flexible Investment Strategies for Cloud-Native Architecture of Public Health Information Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Ming Jiang ◽  
Ichiro Nakamoto ◽  
Weiqing Zhuang ◽  
Weiguo Zhang ◽  
Yin Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Information System ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Investment Strategy ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cloud Providers ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
The Impact

The randomness of public health events requires that the cloud-native architecture, as the mainstream architecture of the new generation of the public health information system, has the appropriate flexibility to meet the needs of environmental change. The flexible acquisition of cloud-native architecture requires organizations to invest additional resources. How to plan and formulate resource input is a topic of common concern for public health management and information systems. According to the commercial characteristics of the public health system based on cloud-native architecture, this paper systematically analyzes the external major impact factors and auxiliary factors that affect the flexible cost investment strategy of cloud providers and combines flexible investment strategies to build a cloud-native cost investment model. Finally, case data in practice is applied into the model, and cost planning is discussed according to different situations. The findings indicate that (1) the more cloud providers adopt the changed flexible strategy, the more conducive it is to reduce costs; (2) the larger the application load, the more cloud providers need to use flexible strategies to lower costs; (3) the less the impact of changing the flexible strategy on costs, the more conducive cloud providers use the flexible strategy to decrease costs; (4) the more uneven the distribution of diversity, the higher proportion of investment increases than the proportion of investment, and the more cloud providers consider the investment using flexible strategy. The results of the discussion provide a reference for public health organizations to use flexible strategies and change flexible strategies in a timely manner and expand the research scope of information system cost investment.

Japanese-language videos on YouTube as a source of public health information for COVID-19 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeo Yasu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The State ◽  
Video Content ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
Youtube Videos ◽  
Spread Of Infection

BACKGROUND Serious public health problems, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can cause an infodemic. Sources of information that may cause an infodemic include social networking services; YouTube, which consists of content created and uploaded by individuals, is one such source. OBJECTIVE To survey the content and changes in YouTube videos that present public health information about COVID-19 in Japan. METHODS We surveyed YouTube content regarding public health information pertaining to COVID-19 in Japan. YouTube searches were performed on March 6, 2020 (before the state of emergency), April 14 (during the state of emergency), and May 27 (after the state of emergency was lifted), with 136, 113, and 140 sample videos evaluated, respectively. The main outcome measures were: (1) The total number of views for each video, (2) video content, and (3) the usefulness of the video. RESULTS In the 100 most viewed YouTube videos during the three periods, the number of videos on public health information in March was significantly higher than in May (p = .02). Of the 331 unique videos, 9.1% (n = 30) were released by healthcare professionals. Useful videos providing public health information about the prevention of the spread of infection comprised only 13.0% of the sample but were viewed significantly more often than not useful videos (p = .006). CONCLUSIONS Individuals need to take care when obtaining information from YouTube before or early in a pandemic, during which time scientific evidence is scarce.

scholarly journals The impact of COVID-19 on the care of people living with noncommunicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries: an online survey of physicians and pharmacists in nine countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Bullen ◽  
Jessica McCormack ◽  
Amanda Calder ◽  
Varsha Parag ◽  
Kannan Subramaniam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
World Health ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Abstract Background: The global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare worldwide. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where people may have limited access to affordable quality care, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to have a particularly adverse impact on the health and healthcare of individuals with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). A World Health Organization survey found that disruption of delivery of healthcare for NCDs was more significant in LMICs than in high-income countries. However, the study did not elicit insights into the day-to-day impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare by front-line healthcare workers (FLHCWs). Aim: To gain insights directly from FLHCWs working in countries with a high NCD burden, and thereby identify opportunities to improve the provision of healthcare during the current pandemic and in future healthcare emergencies. Methods: We recruited selected frontline healthcare workers (general practitioners, pharmacists, and other medical specialists) from nine countries to complete an online survey (n = 1347). Survey questions focused on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on clinical practice and NCDs; barriers to clinical care during the pandemic; and innovative responses to the many challenges presented by the pandemic. Findings: The majority of FLHCWs responding to our survey reported that their care of patients had been impacted both adversely and positively by the public health measures imposed. Most FLHCs (95%) reported a deterioration in the mental health of their patients. Conclusions: Continuity of care for NCDs as part of pandemic preparedness is needed so that chronic conditions are not exacerbated by public health measures and the direct impacts of the pandemic.

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