Browsing by Author "Edwards, Philip"
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- ItemThe effectiveness of M-health technologies for improving health and health services: a systematic review protocol.(2010-11-10) Free, Caroline; Phillips, Gemma; Felix, Lambert; Galli, Leandro; Patel, Vikram; Edwards, PhilipBACKGROUND The application of mobile computing and communication technology is rapidly expanding in the fields of health care and public health This systematic review will summarise the evidence for the effectiveness of mobile technology interventions for improving health and health service outcomes M health around the world FINDINGS To be included in the review interventions must aim to improve or promote health or health service use and quality employing any mobile computing and communication technology This includes 1 interventions designed to improve diagnosis investigation treatment monitoring and management of disease 2 interventions to deliver treatment or disease management programmes to patients health promotion interventions and interventions designed to improve treatment compliance and 3 interventions to improve health care processes e g appointment attendance result notification vaccination reminders A comprehensive electronic search strategy will be used to identify controlled studies published since 1990 and indexed in MEDLINE EMBASE PsycINFO Global Health Web of Science the Cochrane Library or the UK NHS Health Technology Assessment database The search strategy will include terms and synonyms for the following mobile electronic devices MEDs and a range of compatible media mobile phone personal digital assistant PDA handheld computer e g tablet PC PDA phone e g BlackBerry Palm Pilot Smartphone enterprise digital assistant portable media player i e MP3 or MP4 player handheld video game console No terms for health or health service outcomes will be included to ensure that all applications of mobile technology in public health and health services are identified Bibliographies of primary studies and review articles meeting the inclusion criteria will be searched manually to identify further eligible studies Data on objective and self reported outcomes and study quality will be independently extracted by two review authors Where there are sufficient numbers of similar interventions we will calculate and report pooled risk ratios or standardised mean differences using meta analysis DISCUSSION This systematic review will provide recommendations on the use of mobile computing and communication technology in health care and public health and will guide future work on intervention development and primary research in this field
- ItemTwo controlled trials to increase participant retention in a randomized controlled trial of mobile phone-based smoking cessation support in the United Kingdom.(2011-10-20) Severi, Ettore; Free, Caroline; Knight, Rosemary; Robertson, Steven; Edwards, Philip; Hoile, ElizabethBACKGROUND Loss to follow up of trial participants represents a threat to research validity To date interventions designed to increase participants awareness of benefits to society of completing follow up and the impact of a telephone call from a senior female clinician and researcher requesting follow up have not been evaluated robustly PURPOSE Trial 1 aimed to evaluate the effect on trial follow up of written information regarding the benefits of participation to society Trial 2 aimed to evaluate the effect on trial follow up of a telephone call from a senior female clinician and researcher METHODS Two single blind randomized controlled trials were nested within a larger trial Txt2stop In Trial 1 participants were allocated using minimization to receive a refrigerator magnet and a text message emphasizing the benefits to society of completing follow up or to a control group receiving a simple reminder regarding follow up In Trial 2 participants were randomly allocated to receive a telephone call from a senior female clinician and researcher or to a control group receiving standard Txt2stop follow up procedures RESULTS Trial 1 33 5 327 of 976 of the intervention group and 33 8 329 of 974 of the control group returned the questionnaire within 26 weeks of randomization risk ratio RR 0 99 95 confidence interval CI 0 88 1 12 In all 83 3 813 of 976 of the intervention group and 82 2 801 of 974 of the control group sent back the questionnaire within 30 weeks of randomization RR 1 01 95 CI 0 97 1 05 Trial 2 31 20 of 65 of the intervention group and 32 20 of 62 of the control group completed trial follow up RR 0 93 95 CI 0 44 1 98 CONCLUSIONS In presence of other methods to increase follow up neither experimental method refrigerator magnet and text message emphasizing participation s benefits to society nor a telephone call from study s principal investigator increased participant follow up in the Txt2stop trial