scholarly journals Healthcare Applications of Smart Watches

2016 ◽  
Vol 07 (03) ◽  
pp. 850-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsung-Chien Lu ◽  
Chia-Ming Fu ◽  
Matthew Ma ◽  
Cheng-Chung Fang ◽  
Anne Turner

SummaryThe aim of this systematic review is to synthesize research studies involving the use of smart watch devices for healthcare.The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was chosen as the systematic review methodology. We searched PubMed, CINAHL Plus, EMBASE, ACM, and IEEE Xplore. In order to include ongoing clinical trials, we also searched ClinicalTrials.gov. Two investigators evaluated the retrieved articles for inclusion. Discrepancies between investigators regarding article inclusion and extracted data were resolved through team discussion.356 articles were screened and 24 were selected for review. The most common publication venue was in conference proceedings (13, 54%). The majority of studies were published or presented in 2015 (19, 79%). We identified two registered clinical trials underway. A large proportion of the identified studies focused on applications involving health monitoring for the elderly (6, 25%). Five studies focused on patients with Parkinson’s disease and one on cardiac arrest. There were no studies which reported use of usability testing before implementation.Most of the reviewed studies focused on the chronically ill elderly. There was a lack of detailed description of user-centered design or usability testing before implementation. Based on our review, the most commonly used platform in healthcare research was that of the Android Wear. The clinical application of smart watches as assistive devices deserves further attention.Smart watches are unobtrusive and easy to wear. While smart watch technology supplied with biosensors has potential to be useful in a variety of healthcare applications, rigorous research with their use in clinical settings is needed.Citation: Lu T-C, Fu C-M, Ma M H-M, Fang C-C, Turner AM. Healthcare applications of smart watches: A systematic review.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley Crankson ◽  
Subhash Pokhrel ◽  
Nana Kwame Anokye

Background: The current pandemic, COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has claimed over a million lives worldwide in a year, warranting the need for more research into the wider determinants of COVID-19 outcomes to support evidence-based policies. Objective: This study aimed to investigate what factors determined the mortality and length of hospitalisation in individuals with COVID-19. Data Source: This is a systematic review with data from four electronic databases: Scopus, Google Scholar, CINAHL and Web of Science. Eligibility Criteria: Studies were included in this review if they explored determinants of COVID-19 mortality or length of hospitalisation, were written in the English Language, and had available full-text. Study appraisal and data synthesis: The authors assessed the quality of the included studies with the Newcastle Ottawa Scale and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality checklist, depending on their study design. Risk of bias in the included studies was assessed with risk of bias assessment tool for non-randomised studies. A narrative synthesis of the evidence was carried out. Results: The review included 22 studies from nine countries, with participants totalling 239,830. The included studies quality was moderate to high. The identified determinants were categorised into demographic, biological, socioeconomic and lifestyle risk factors, based on the Dahlgren and Whitehead determinant of health model. Increasing age (ORs 1.04-20.6, 95%CIs 1.01-22.68) was the common demographic determinant of COVID-19 mortality while living with diabetes (ORs 0.50-3.2, 95%CIs -0.2-0.74) was one of the most common biological determinants of COVID-19 length of hospitalisation. Review limitation: Meta-analysis was not conducted because of included studies heterogeneity. Conclusion: COVID-19 outcomes are predicted by multiple determinants, with increasing age and living with diabetes being the most common risk factors. Population-level policies that prioritise interventions for the elderly population and the people living with diabetes may help mitigate the outbreak's impact.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Drummond ◽  
Clarissa Cardoso dos Santos Couto Paz ◽  
Ruth Losada de Menezes

Abstract Introduction: Proprioceptive activities are commonly described for control of the postural balance of the elderly in order to avoid falls. But, there is no consensus on which ones can significantly improve balance or on intervention and assessment protocols. Objective: To investigate which proprioceptive activities are specific to static and dynamic postural balance of the elderly through a systematic review. Method: This is a systematic review based on PRISMA recommendation, by surveying PubMed, Medline, LILACS, Scielo and EBSCO databases. The period considered for the search was from 2006 to 2016, using the following descriptors - aged, proprioception, exercise therapy, and postural balance for articles in English, Portuguese or Spanish. Randomized and non-randomized clinical trials were included using the PEDro scale to analyze the methodological quality of the studies. Results: Eight articles were included with different protocols, without standardization of evaluation and intervention, but, which demonstrated improvement of functional abilities. Different kinds of walk, muscular strengthening exercises, stretching, postural oscillations and Yoga patterns for the improvement of functional abilities. Conclusion: The association of static and dynamic activities can contribute to the improvement of functional abilities, but it cannot be affirmed that they are specific for postural control, given the lack of standardization of exercise protocols and evaluation tools.


Author(s):  
Bruna Francielle Toneti ◽  
Rafael Fernando Mendes Barbosa ◽  
Leandro Yukio Mano ◽  
Luana Okino Sawada ◽  
Igor Goulart de Oliveira ◽  
...  

Objective: to analyze, in the literature, evidence about the benefits of the integrative and complementary practice of Qigong with regard to the health of adults and the elderly. Method: a systematic review by searching for studies in the PubMed, CINAHL, LILACS, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases. Randomized and non-randomized clinical trials were included; in Portuguese, English and Spanish; from 2008 to 2018. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses strategy was adopted, as well as the recommendation of the Cochrane Collaboration for assessing the risk of bias in the clinical trials analyzed. Results: 28 studies were selected that indicated the benefit of the practice to the target audience, which can be used for numerous health conditions, such as: cancer; fibromyalgia; Parkinson’s disease; Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Burnout; stress; social isolation; chronic low back pain; cervical pain; buzz; osteoarthritis; fatigue; depression; and cardiovascular diseases. However, there was a great risk of bias in terms of the blinding of the research studies. Conclusion: the practice of Qigong produces positive results on health, mainly in the medium and long term. This study contributes to the advancement in the use of integrative and complementary practices in nursing, since it brings together the scientific production in the area from the best research results available.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Hemant Thacker ◽  
Rajeev Chawla ◽  
Navneet Agrawal ◽  
Rohit Kapoor ◽  
Noel Somasundaram ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Seyed Reza Mirhafez ◽  
Mitra Hariri

Abstract. L-arginine is an important factor in several physiological and biochemical processes. Recently, scientists studied L-arginine effect on inflammatory mediators such as C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). We conducted a systematic review on randomized controlled trials assessing L-arginine effect on inflammatory mediators. We searched data bases including Google scholar, ISI web of science, SCOPUS, and PubMed/Medline up to April 2019. Randomized clinical trials assessing the effect of L-arginine on inflammatory mediators in human adults were included. Our search retrieved eleven articles with 387 participants. Five articles were on patients with cancer and 6 articles were on adults without cancer. L-arginine was applied in enteral form in 5 articles and in oral form in 6 articles. Eight articles were on both genders, two articles were on women, and one article was on men. L-arginine could not reduce inflammatory mediators among patients with and without cancer except one article which indicated that taking L-arginine for 6 months decreased IL-6 among cardiopathic nondiabetic patients. Our results indicated that L-arginine might not be able to reduce selected inflammatory mediators, but for making a firm decision more studies are needed to be conducted with longer intervention duration, separately on male and female and with different doses of L-arginine.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Van Rooyen ◽  
Ruth Stewart ◽  
Thea De Wet

Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development and USAID have recently started using systematic review as a methodology to assess the effectiveness of various development interventions to help them decide what is the ‘best’ intervention to spend money on. Such an approach to evidence-based decision-making has long been practiced in the health sector in the US, UK, and elsewhere but it is relatively new in the development field. In this article we use the case of a systematic review of the impact of microfinance on the poor in sub-Saharan African to indicate how systematic review as a methodology can be used to assess the impact of specific development interventions.


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