Use of Mobile Phones to Help Prevent Child Maltreatment

Author(s):  
Katelyn M. Guastaferro ◽  
Matthew C. Jackson ◽  
Shannon Self-Brown ◽  
Julie J. Jabaley ◽  
John R. Lutzker

Child maltreatment prevention interventions have been proven to reduce risk and rates of recidivism, although only recently have these interventions incorporated mobile phone technology in implementation. This article first presents the public health problem of child maltreatment and discusses the use of technology in the at-risk population. Prior public health research that has evaluated the effect of mobile phone technology in implementation is reviewed followed by the few child maltreatment prevention research efforts that have incorporated mobile phones. Limitations of mobile phone technology in this field and future directions are suggested.

Author(s):  
Adriana Braga ◽  
Robert K. Logan

Recent statistics about the mobile phone market in Brazil state that for every 100 inhabitants there are 130 mobile phones. Despite the euphoria that those numbers bring to business, the social uses of mobile technology in Brazil tells a lot about Brazilian society and culture itself, and show a more complex picture than merely a marketing phenomenon. The authors examine subversive cell phone use in Brazil against the background of the cell phone use worldwide and the social implications of that cell phone use. As soon as a technology is implemented in a culture, it is possible to observe uses that were not intended by the inventors or producers of that technology. People create different strategies to take advantage of the new resource. Using social interaction theories and an ethnographic approach in the natural setting of cell phone use in Brazil, the authors observed how people use the mobile phone technology for interpersonal communication. This chapter addresses three subversive uses of mobile technology, namely, i.) strategies of mobile phone coding; ii) SIM card management; and iii) criminal uses of mobile phones.


Author(s):  
Renatus Michael Mushi

This chapter describes how the adoption and usage of technologies is influenced by a number of factors. Such factors tend to affect the perception of people to accept or reject a technology in their usage context. Mobile phone technology has gained popularity as a dependable tool in SMEs. In Tanzania, for example, it is used to accomplish activities such as marketing, communication and mobile money transactions. This chapter highlights the key factors which influence the acceptance of mobile phones as they are used by individual peoples in the SMEs. The conceptual model shows that TAM can be extended by factors such as perceived values in explaining the acceptance of mobile phone technology in Tanzanian SMEs.


Author(s):  
Renatus Mushi ◽  
Said Jafari

Voluntariness in technology adoption and use is vital in promoting technology diffusion and use in organisations. Various technology adoption models have been proposed to explain the adoption of technologies in different settings, such as organizational and individual, as well as in the voluntary and mandatory contexts. Recently, uptake of mobile phones in achieving organisational targets has been increased in developing countries and Tanzania in particular. This is due to the notable improvements in both hardware performance and sophistications. In organisation context, not all users are willing to use technology as required. In such circumstances, they are mandated to use it in order to fulfil their working duties. This leads to poor uptake of technology and results to unclear understanding regarding to their attitudes towards using it. While some studies have discussed the impact of voluntariness in using traditional desktop computer systems and thin client computing, mobile phone technology has not received the deserved attention. Discussing voluntariness in using mobile phone technology in organisations in relation to other technologies is essential especially due to its usage in both working and private purposes. This paper describes the voluntary aspects of using mobile phones in performing activities of the firms in Tanzania and compares it with desktop and thin client technologies. Also, it proposes possible ways of handling such situation in order to improve its use. Among others, the paper has analysed mandotoriness on usage of mobile technology. Further, it highlights key areas which should be addressed in order to improve the usage of mobiletechnology in organisations and eventually cover the gap caused by such mandatory situations.


Author(s):  
Jo Dugstad Wake ◽  
Rune Baggetun

Developments in mobile phone technology, together with an increased research interest in utilizing computer games to facilitate teaching and learning, are an important catalyst for the emergence of the area of mobile, location-based computer games in schools. This article describes both the design process and an evaluation of Premierløytnant Bielke, a mobile, location-based game for teaching and learning history using mobile phones. We argue that by using the surroundings and milieu that are local to the students in a playful context, we can support the construction of meaning related to the subject of history in a way that is both engaging and worthwhile.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jessica Scheurich

<p>Mobile phone technology is rapidly changing our world, how we interact with one another, and our built environment. This thesis investigates how we can integrate mobile phone technology more urbanistically.  There is a tendency for designs of this kind to be a short-term artistic gesture that do not interact with their surrounding environment in either a long term or meaningful way. This thesis argues that the ability of a design to outwardly impact its environment should be considered; rather than sustaining the common belief that design installations only act as a momentary or disposable implementation. It will examine how design can reinvigorate a space and be absorbed into a city’s everyday routine, in a way that it allows it to become permanent and valuable to the streetscape and the community.  This thesis focuses on our dependency on mobile phones by exploring how these devices can overlap with the urban environment through a streetscape intervention. Choosing to test the design of a recharge station across different sites will allow the investigation of the design’s ability to be adapted into different city environments. These stations will be developed with the intention of creating social hotspots that could have a positive outward effect which impacts their urban setting and surroundings. Ultimately these installations will allow us to become digitally and physically connected with society and our city.</p>


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Placide Nsabimana ◽  
Bernard Uzabakiriho ◽  
Daniel M Kagabo ◽  
Jerome Nduwayo ◽  
Qinyouen Fu ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Precise measurements of HIV incidences at community levels can help mount a more effective public health response, but the most reliable methods currently require labor-intensive population surveys. Novel mobile phone technologies are being tested for adherence to medical appointments and antiretroviral therapy, but using them to track HIV test results with automatically generated geospatial coordinates has not been widely tested. OBJECTIVE We customized a portable reader for interpreting the results of HIV lateral flow tests, and developed a mobile phone app to track HIV test results in urban and rural locations in Rwanda. The objective is to assess the feasibility of this technology to collect frontline HIV test results in real time and with geospatial context to help measure HIV incidences and improve epidemiological surveillance. METHODS 20 healthcare workers used the technology to track the test results of 2290 patients across three hospital sites (two urban sites in Kigali, and a rural site in the Western Province of Rwanda). Smartphones for less than $70 USD each were used. The mobile phone app to record HIV test results could take place without internet connectivity, with uploading of results to the cloud taking place later with internet. RESULTS 92% of HIV test results could be tracked in real time on an online dashboard with geographical resolution down to street resolution. Out of the 20 healthcare workers, 68% would recommend the lateral flow reader, and 100% would recommend the mobile phone app. CONCLUSIONS Mobile phones have the potential to simplify the input of HIV test results with geospatial context and in real time to improve public health surveillance of HIV.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Magnus Thørrisen ◽  
Tore Bonsaksen ◽  
Jens Christoffer Skogen ◽  
Lisebet Skeie Skarpaas ◽  
Aleksandra Sevic ◽  
...  

Background: The extent to which eligible individuals in a target population are willing to participate in interventions is important when evaluating the efficacy of public health interventions.Objectives: As part of a process evaluation of an ongoing randomized controlled trial, this study aimed to identify the proportion of risky drinkers who were willing to participate in an alcohol prevention intervention in an occupational health setting, and correlates for such willingness.Methods: Risky drinking employees from 22 companies in Norway were identified through an alcohol screening survey. Risky drinkers' (N = 779) willingness to complete a health examination and to be randomized into an alcohol prevention intervention (digital or face-to-face intervention, or control) was recorded by personnel from occupational health services. The proportion of employees who were willing to participate was assessed on 31 potential correlates (sociodemographic, alcohol-related, work-related, and lifestyle/daily activity). Adjusted (multiple logistic regression) analyses were utilized to explore associations between potential correlates and willingness to participate.Results: Altogether, 38.1% of employees were willing to participate in prevention interventions. In the adjusted analysis, only 5 out of 31 potential correlates were significantly associated with willingness to participate. Managers were more than twice as willing to participate than workers (OR = 2.17, p &lt; 0.01). Willing employees had less workplace decision latitude (perceived control over workplace decisions and less possibility of utilizing personal skills in the job) (OR = 0.62, p &lt; 0.05), and were more overcommitted with exorbitant work ambition and need for approval (OR = 1.49, p &lt; 0.05). Willing employees had to some extent less alcohol-related impaired work performance (presenteeism, OR = 0.78, p &lt; 0.05), and they spent less time on care activities (OR = 0.84, p &lt; 0.05).Conclusions: Reaching four out of ten with risky drinking habits for prevention interventions strengthens the rationale for targeting this public health problem in occupational health care settings. In particular, this study suggests the importance of ensuring secure commitment among workers, who were less willing til participate than managers. Nevertheless, tailoring recruitment and implementation strategies based on easily identifiable correlates may be onerous.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jessica Scheurich

<p>Mobile phone technology is rapidly changing our world, how we interact with one another, and our built environment. This thesis investigates how we can integrate mobile phone technology more urbanistically.  There is a tendency for designs of this kind to be a short-term artistic gesture that do not interact with their surrounding environment in either a long term or meaningful way. This thesis argues that the ability of a design to outwardly impact its environment should be considered; rather than sustaining the common belief that design installations only act as a momentary or disposable implementation. It will examine how design can reinvigorate a space and be absorbed into a city’s everyday routine, in a way that it allows it to become permanent and valuable to the streetscape and the community.  This thesis focuses on our dependency on mobile phones by exploring how these devices can overlap with the urban environment through a streetscape intervention. Choosing to test the design of a recharge station across different sites will allow the investigation of the design’s ability to be adapted into different city environments. These stations will be developed with the intention of creating social hotspots that could have a positive outward effect which impacts their urban setting and surroundings. Ultimately these installations will allow us to become digitally and physically connected with society and our city.</p>


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