A Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol for Using an Accelerometer-Smartphone Application Intervention to Increase Physical Activity and Improve Health among Employees in a Military Workplace

Physical activity is beneficial for improving health and reducing sick leave absences. This article describes a protocol for an intervention using an interactive accelerometer smartphone application, telephone counselling, and physical activity recordings to increase the physical activity of workers in the military and improve their health. Under the protocol, employees from six military brigades in Finland will be randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group’s participants will use accelerometers to measure their daily physical activities and their quality of sleep for six months. They will receive feedback based on these measurements via a smartphone application. The intervention group’s participants will be encouraged to exercise for two hours per week during working hours, and to participate in telephone counselling. The control group’s participants will continue with their normal exercise routines, without the accelerometer or feedback. The participants of both groups will be measured at the baseline, after the intervention period, and six months after the end of the intervention. The measurements will include accelerometer recordings, biochemical laboratory tests, body composition measurements, physical fitness tests, and questionnaires on sociodemographic factors, physical activities, and health. The primary outcomes will indicate changes in physical activity, physical fitness, and sick leave absences. The findings will help to develop a straightforward and cost-effective model for supporting the health and working capabilities of employees in the military and other workplaces.

Effects of and Lessons Learned from an Internet-Based Physical Activity Support Program (with and without Physiotherapist Telephone Counselling) on Physical Activity Levels of Breast and Prostate Cancer Survivors: The PABLO Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: We developed an Internet-based physical activity (PA) support program (IPAS), which is embedded in a patient portal. We evaluated the effectiveness and costs of IPAS alone (online only) or IPAS combined with physiotherapist telephone counselling (blended care), compared to a control group. Methods: Breast or prostate cancer survivors, 3–36 months after completing primary treatment, were randomized to 6-months access to online only, blended care, or a control group. At baseline and 6-month post-baseline, minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) were measured by accelerometers. Secondary outcomes were self-reported PA, fatigue, mood, health-related quality of life, attitude toward PA, and costs. (Generalized) linear models were used to compare the outcomes between groups. Results: We recruited 137 survivors (participation rate 11%). We did not observe any significant between-group differences in MVPA or secondary outcomes. Adherence was rather low and satisfaction scores were low to moderate, with better scores for blended care. Costs for both interventions were low. Conclusions: Recruitment to the study was challenging and the interventions were less efficacious than anticipated, which led to lessons learned for future trials. Suggestions for future research are as follows: improved accessibility of the support program, increased frequency of support, and use of activity trackers.

Effect of telephone counselling on the knowledge, attitude and practices of contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Egypt

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging respiratory illness. The World Health Organization declared it a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020 and called for collaborative efforts, such as contact tracing and promoting the public awareness about COVID-19, and recommended prevention and control measures.Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of telephone counselling on the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAPs) of contacts of COVID-19 confirmed cases towards COVID-19 epidemiology and infection prevention and control measures.Setting: Ten areas in Sharkia Governorate, Egypt divided into six rural and four urban areas.Methods: A non-randomised controlled trial was conducted in Sharkia Governorate, Egypt, from 26 March 2020 to 12 April 2020 on 208 contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases, divided equally into two groups: an experiment group that was exposed to telephone counselling by the researchers and a control group that was exposed to routine surveillance by local health authority. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess the KAP of both groups towards COVID-19 before and after intervention.Results: After intervention the percent of contacts who achieved good knowledge, positive attitudes and better practice scores in the experimental group was 91.3%, 57.8% and 71.2%, respectively, compared with 13.5%, 7.8% and 16.3%, respectively, in the control group. Male gender and working group were significantly associated with bad practice score. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between differences in knowledge, attitudes and practices of the experimental group before and after the intervention.Conclusion: This study proved the effectiveness of telephone counselling in improving COVID-19-related KAP scores of contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Interest in telephone nightmare counselling in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders

Background and objective Nightmares are typically underdiagnosed and undertreated, even though frequent nightmares are quite common in patients with sleep-related breathing disorders. Based on a previous study, we investigated whether patients would respond if they were specifically asked whether they would be interested in telephone counselling about nightmares and nightmare treatment. Materials and methods The present study included 537 patients with sleep-related breathing disorders who completed a nightmare questionnaire and—if interested—provided their contact data for a telephone counselling session. Results Of the total patients, 5.40% were interested in the telephone counselling. Most of these patients had never sought help for their nightmare condition before. This percentage is much lower than in a previous study, possibly due to the higher time expenditure related to the new consent procedure. Conclusion The findings indicate that patients with nightmare problems can be reached with this approach even though they have never sought professional help before. In order to minimize the threshold, it would be desirable to have clinical in-house nightmare counselling, which would not require a detailed study information brochure and informed consent.

Heard but not seen: Exploring youth counsellors’ experiences of telephone counselling

INTRODUCTION: Human service practitioners who work over the telephone are physically invisible to their clients and this invisibility shapes their work. Existing literature suggests that physical invisibility, coupled with anonymity and the immediacy of service provision are defining features of telephone counselling. However, little research has explored how telephone counsellors experience these features in any real depth.METHODOLOGY: This article reports on a case study conducted at a youth helpline in Aotearoa New Zealand. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 practitioners on their experiences of telephone counselling work. One key finding from this case study is discussed: the impact of invisibility and anonymity.FINDINGS: Findings indicate that practitioners’ experiences of delivering telephone counselling are more divergent than those presented in extant literature. While telephone counsellors face challenges delivering non-face-to-face counselling support, the physical invisibility of this medium, coupled with a supportive work environment can also provide potential benefits to counsellors.CONCLUSIONS: Counsellors’ experiences of telephone counselling work appear to be more nuanced than traditionally understood. While practitioners may experience a range of possible challenges in delivering telephone counselling, such as responding to hoax and abusive callers, they also experience benefits such feeling relaxed, and supported by colleagues and supervisors. Management practices, such as flexible rules and accessible supervision, can help practitioners manage the impact working non-face-to-face with clients. Given the ongoing popularity of telephone counselling, further research is needed on the working conditions that promote practitioner wellbeing and job satisfaction.

No Mobile Phone Phobia dikalangan Mahasiswa Pascasarjana

This research was conducted with the aim to find out the symptoms of no mobile phone phobia (nomophobia) among graduate students UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta as well as knowing how the process of mentoring for students nomophobia sufferers by counselors. This research uses qualitative research methods with the phenomenology of approach. Research data obtained from observations and interviews and then data analyzed by the reduction of data, display data and tethering conclusion. The subject of this research is the 16 graduate students UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta. The research results obtained in this study show that graduate students using a smartphone or gedget ± 12 hours in a day so the use of a smartphone with a long duration will negatively affect for the body particularly the brain. Next mentoring can be done by a Counsellor for the client that is experiencing the symptoms of nomophobia is using telephone counselling. Phone counseling provides access and control to the client so that the client can request the assistance of a Counsellor anytime and anywhere and can disconnect a telephone in accordance with his wishes