JMIR Research Protocols

Renal fibrosis is the final common pathway of chronic kidney disease progression and a critical histological predictor of renal function decline and allograft failure. Routine clinical monitoring with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria is insensitive to fibrosis development. Renal biopsy is invasive and subject to sampling bias, which limits repeated assessment, thus necessitating noninvasive imaging biomarkers. Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) characterizes renal structure and function noninvasively. Individual MRI measures have been associated with fibrosis and with declining renal function. However, longitudinal validation against histology and measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR) remains limited.

Sedentary behavior (SB) is highly prevalent among adolescent and early young adult (eAYA) patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) during treatment and contributes to cardiometabolic complications and morbidity among long-term survivors. SB is distinct from physical inactivity and independently associated with adverse health outcomes, yet few interventions in pediatric oncology have directly targeted reducing SB.

Dysphagia is a common complication following stroke. While current management strategies for poststroke dysphagia (PSD) range from nutritional support to neurostimulation techniques, an optimal treatment regimen remains elusive. As a promising noninvasive neuromodulation approach, transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) requires further validation in rigorously designed trials to establish robust evidence of its efficacy and mechanisms of action.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed unprecedented demands on nurses and midwives worldwide, exacerbating existing workforce shortages and contributing to high rates of mental health issues and altered labor market dynamics. Nurses and midwives in low- and middle-income countries remain underrepresented in the literature.

Resveratrol is a naturally occurring polyphenol found primarily in grapes, berries, peanuts, and red wine. Experimental evidence suggests that resveratrol modulates multiple biological pathways involved in oxidative stress, inflammation, insulin signaling, endothelial function, and metabolic homeostasis. However, findings from randomized controlled trials remain inconsistent, and previous evidence syntheses have reported substantial clinical and methodological heterogeneity.

Alzheimer disease and related dementias can impact emotional distress and individual and relational health among persons living with dementia and their romantic partners. There are limited skill-based interventions that can help couples build resilience while navigating dementia-related challenges.

Target trial emulation (TTE) studies are increasingly important for regulatory decision‑making and health technology assessments (HTAs), but current risk-of-bias (RoB) tools are not specifically tailored to assess biases central to TTE studies—such as immortal time bias, misaligned eligibility criteria, and prevalent user bias. RoB assessment for TTE studies thus remains difficult, and it is unclear which tools and adaptations researchers currently use or how well they work.

Self-efficacy significantly influences medical students’ academic performance. Rooted in Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory, self-efficacy is defined as an individual’s subjective judgment of their capability to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances. Unlike general self-esteem, self-efficacy is task- and context-specific. In undergraduate medical education, self-efficacy operates across three interdependent subdomains: (1) academic self-efficacy, encompassing cognitive confidence to master biomedical curricula; (2) clinical skills self-efficacy, reflecting perceived competence in procedural tasks and clinical reasoning; and (3) interpersonal and communication self-efficacy, denoting confidence in empathetic history taking and interprofessional collaboration. These subdomains are presented as a provisional analytical heuristic informed by Bandura’s social cognitive theory and prior reviews of self-efficacy in medical education.

Older Chinese American adults with limited English proficiency frequently rely on culturally and linguistically tailored online media platforms for dementia education and health literacy. Existing digital health evaluation frameworks primarily assess the internal quality and accuracy of educational materials while overlooking the recommendation environments through which users encounter health information. Commercial recommendation systems may expose users to medically unverified or commercially motivated health content adjacent to evidence-based dementia education resources.

Safe vacuum-assisted vaginal birth depends on appropriate case selection, accurate cup placement, controlled traction, recognition of technical difficulty, and timely abandonment of an unsuccessful attempt. Simulation-based education can improve procedural performance, but evidence that vacuum-specific simulation changes patient-level clinical practice remains limited.

Young adult caregivers of a family member with major depressive disorder (MDD) constitute a vulnerable population. They have substantial support needs because they often experience psychological distress and daily burdens during a developmental period in which education, partnership formation, and parenting frequently overlap with caregiving responsibilities. Consequently, the burden associated with caring for a family member with MDD may adversely affect young adult caregivers’ mental health and life stability. Despite these needs, support programs and intervention studies specifically targeting young adult caregivers remain scarce. Videoconference-based family psychoeducation (vFPE) may help address this gap, improving access for individuals facing time and geographic barriers. However, the feasibility of conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of vFPE in this population has not yet been established.

Children with medical complexity (CMC) experience frequent acute health deteriorations, leading to recurrent hospitalizations. Home monitoring has been suggested to help reduce hospitalizations among CMC, yet the benefits have not been demonstrated. MyChildCMC is a novel app, co-designed with parents, that supports CMC home monitoring to identify early warning signs of acute health changes to promote timely intervention.