scholarly journals Using practical search strategies to identify health apps: A case study with smoking cessation

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patric Gibbons ◽  
Edwin D. Boudreaux ◽  
Brianna L. Haskins
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Health Apps

OP128 Improving Literature Searching For Evidence On Health Apps: The National Institute For Health And Care Excellence (NICE) MEDLINE And Embase (Ovid) Health Apps Search Filters

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (S1) ◽  
pp. 2-2
Author(s):  
Lynda Ayiku ◽  
Sarah Glover
Keyword(s):  
Gold Standard ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
Literature Searching ◽  
Health Apps ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Search Filters ◽  
Standard Set ◽  
Validation Set

IntroductionLiterature searching for evidence on apps in bibliographic databases is challenging because they are often described with inconsistent terminology. Information Specialists from the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have developed validated search filters for retrieving evidence about apps from MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) reliably.MethodsMedical informatics journals were hand-searched to create a ‘gold standard’ set of app references. The gold standard set was divided into two sets. The development set provided the search terms for the filters. The filters were validated by calculating their recall against the validation set. Target recall was >90%.A case study was then conducted to compare the number-needed-to-read (NNR) of the filters with previous non-validated MEDLINE and Embase app search strategies used for the ‘MIB214 myCOPD app’ NICE topic. NNR is the number of references screened to find each relevant reference.ResultsThe MEDLINE and Embase filters achieved 98.6 percent and 98.5 percent recall against the validation set, respectively. In the case study they achieved 100 percent recall, reducing NNR from 348 to 147 in MEDLINE and from 456 to 271 in Embase.ConclusionsThe novel NICE health apps search filters retrieve evidence on apps from MEDLINE and Embase effectively and more efficiently than previous non-validated search strategies used at NICE.

scholarly journals Additional Search Strategies May Not Be Necessary for a Rapid Systematic Review

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Joanne L. Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Reference Lists ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
Chronic Depression ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Central Database

A Review of: Westphal, A., Kriston, L., Hölzel, L.P., Härter, M., & von Wolff, A. (2014). Efficiency and contribution of strategies for finding randomized controlled trials: a case study from a systematic review on therapeutic interventions of chronic depression. Journal of Public Health Research, 3(2), 177. doi: 10.4081/jphr.2014.177 Abstract Objective – To evaluate the efficiency and contribution of additional searching strategies for finding randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in a systematic review. Design – A methodological case study. Setting – Biomedical literature. Methods – A sensitive search (defined as “the ratio of the number of relevant reports identified to the total number of relevant reports in existence”) was conducted of electronic databases, Cochrane CENTRAL database, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, BIOSIS, and Web of Science databases (Science and Social Science Citation Indexes). The following additional searching strategies were conducted: hand-searching contents of relevant journals (Archives of General Psychiatry, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, and Journal of Affective Disorders), citation tracking (forwards tracking using Social Science and Science Citation Index and backwards tracking by looking through reference lists of included studies), screening reference lists of relevant systematic reviews, searching clinical trials registers (ClinicalTrials.gov and ICTRP registers), and contacting first authors of included studies to find any similar unpublished studies. The number of articles identified by each of these methods was recorded and screened for inclusion in the systematic review. The authors calculated what they labelled as the ‘efficiency’ of each searching strategy (the number of included studies identified by the search method as a proportion of the full text articles screened) and the ‘contribution’ of the search strategies (the ratio of included studies identified by that method to the final number of included studies in the systematic review). The methodological quality of each included study was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool, which is a critical appraisal checklist used to judge the study’s value in the systematic review. The meta-analysis in the systematic review was conducted with and without the studies identified by the additional searching strategies to assess their impact on the review’s findings. Main Results – In total 50 studies were identified, 42 from electronic database searches and 8 from additional search strategies. As illustrated by the results in Table 1, the most useful additional search strategy was screening reference lists of relevant systematic reviews. Journal hand-searching and contacting authors also contributed to the review. Of the eight studies identified by the additional search strategies none were judged to have a low risk of bias (four had high risk of bias and four were unclear). Of the 42 included studies from electronic searches only 11 were judged to have a low risk of bias, whereas 9 studies had a high risk of bias and 22 were unclear. Excluding the eight studies retrieved from additional search strategies in the systematic review meta-analysis did not influence the results on the effectiveness of the different interventions for chronic depression. These studies were found to be indexed correctly on the electronic databases, but were not identified in the initial search. Conclusion – Additional search strategies, especially screening reference lists of systematic reviews and hand-searching relevant journals, retrieved a substantial number of relevant studies for a systematic review of interventions for treating chronic depression. However, results of the review’s meta-analysis did not differ when these additional studies (rated as either high or unclear risk of bias) were not included and search methods were time consuming. It might be reasonable to rely on electronic searching strategies when resources for conducting a systematic review are limited or when doing a “rapid review.” The benefits and limitations of additional search strategies should be considered particularly when resources or time for conducting a systematic review are limited. If the electronic database search is sensitive and includes the Cochrane CENTRAL database additional search strategies may not be necessary, but these findings should be tested in other research areas.

scholarly journals Psychology and Surveillance Capitalism: The Risk of Pushing Mental Health Apps During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 611-625
Author(s):  
Lisa Cosgrove ◽  
Justin M. Karter ◽  
Zenobia Morrill ◽  
Mallaigh McGinley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Humanistic Psychology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Apps ◽  
Digital Phenotyping ◽  
The Rich

During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth technologies and mental health apps have been promoted to manage distress in the public and to augment existing mental health services. From a humanistic perspective, the promotion and use of mobile apps raises ethical concerns regarding the autonomy of the person using the app. However, there are other dangers that arise when technological fixes are embraced at a time of crisis. Naomi Klein and Shoshanna Zuboff have recently warned about disaster and surveillance capitalism—using crises to pass legislation that will benefit the rich and deepen inequality, and using anonymized behavioral data for commercial purposes. This analysis reveals that mental health apps may take individuals at their most vulnerable and make them part of a hidden supply chain for the marketplace. We provide a case study of a mental health app that uses digital phenotyping to predict negative mood states. We describe the logic of digital phenotyping and assess the efficacy data on which claims of its validity are based. Drawing from the frameworks of disaster and surveillance capitalism, we also use a humanistic psychology lens to identify the ethical entanglements and the unintended consequences of promoting and using this technology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nick Noguez and Michael Gonzalez Discuss their Research Project: Are Social Features in Mobile Health Apps Effective in Engaging Users? A Content Analysis of Smoking Cessation Mobile Apps

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Noguez And Michael Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Mobile Health ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Health Apps ◽  
Social Features ◽  
Mobile Health Apps

  Despite the ubiquity of smartphone ownership and the increasing integration of social engagement features in smoking cessation apps to engage users, thesocial engagement features that exist in current smoking cessation apps and how effective these social features are in engaging users remain unclear. To fill the gap in the literature, a content analysis of free and paid smoking cessation mobile apps isconducted to examine a) the presence of socialengagement features(e.g., social support, social announcement, social referencing) and non-social engagement features (e.g., personal environmental changes, goal setting), and b) their relationship with user ratingsand engagement scores (e.g., Mobile App rating scale [MARS]). The findings will not only extend the mobile health apps engagement typology,but also inform smoking cessation mobile apps design.

Promoting health: a smoking cessation case study

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
Maeve Keane ◽  
Gill Coverdale
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation

Smoking Cessation: Case Study of a Client with Probable Borderline Personality Disorder

2010 ◽  
Vol 106 (3) ◽  
pp. 918-926
Author(s):  
Elena Fernández del Río ◽  
Ana López ◽  
Elisardo Becoñta
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Tobacco Use ◽  
Psychological Treatment ◽  
Borderline Personality

This report concerns the case of a female client with a probable borderline personality disorder who requested psychological treatment for the cessation of smoking. After six sessions, this client gave up smoking and remained abstinent at follow-up after 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. The presence of a probable borderline personality disorder did not interfere in the cessation of tobacco use or in the maintenance of abstinence.

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