JMIR Research Protocols

Chinese students are extremely vulnerable to developing mental illness. The stigma associated with mental illness presents a barrier to seeking help for their mental health.

Over the last decade, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a cutting-edge technology in stroke rehabilitation. VR is defined as a type of computer-user interface that implements real-time simulation of an activity or environment allowing user interaction via multiple sensory modalities. In a stroke population, VR interventions have been shown to enhance motor, cognitive, and psychological recovery when utilized as a rehabilitation adjunct. VR has also demonstrated noninferiority to usual care therapies for stroke rehabilitation.

Treatment and monitoring decisions in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are based commonly on clinician-reported outcomes. These reflect physical and radiological disease activity and are the most relevant endpoints in clinical trials. Over the past few years, the number of studies evaluating so-called patient-reported outcomes (PROs) has been increasing. PROs are reports from patients concerning their own health perception. They are typically obtained by means of questionnaires and aim to quantify symptoms such as fatigue, depression, and sexual dysfunction. The emergence of PROs has made a tremendous contribution to understanding the individual impact of disease in people with MS and their health-related quality of life. However, the assessment of PROs consumes resources, including time and personnel. Thus, useful ways to conveniently introduce PROs into clinical practice are needed.

Hispanic/Latino sexual and gender minorities (SGM) are the fastest growing ethnic group of SGM in the United States. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among Hispanics/Latinos. SGM inequities in CVD risk have been identified as early as young adulthood, and minority stress has been identified as a potential mediator. Yet, the small number of ethnic or racial minority participants in SGM studies have precluded the examination of the intersections of sexual orientation, gender identity, and race and ethnicity.

Many health care facilities in low- and middle-income countries are inadequately resourced. COVID-19 has the potential to decimate surgical health care services unless health systems take stringent measures to protect health care workers from viral exposure and ensure the continuity of specialized care for patients. Among these measures, the timely diagnosis of COVID-19 is paramount to ensure the use of protective measures and isolation of patients to prevent transmission to health care personnel caring for patients with an unknown COVID-19 status or contact during the pandemic. Besides molecular and antibody tests, chest computed tomography (CT) has been assessed as a potential tool to aid in the screening or diagnosis of COVID-19 and could be valuable in the emergency care setting.

Lupus is a complex autoimmune disease that is difficult to diagnose and treat. It is estimated that at least 5 million Americans have lupus, with more than 16,000 new cases of lupus being reported annually in the United States. Social media provides a platform for patients to find rheumatologists and peers and build awareness of the condition. Researchers have suggested that the social network Twitter may serve as a rich avenue for exploring how patients communicate about their health issues. However, there is a lack of research about the characteristics of lupus patients on Twitter and their attitudes toward using Twitter for engaging them with their health care.

Orofacial cleft, one of the most common congenital deformities, presents with a plethora of defects, subjecting the patient to a multitude of treatments from a young age. Among the oral hard tissue problems, absence of a maxillary permanent tooth in the cleft region either due to congenital absence or extraction due to compromised prognosis is a common finding. Conventionally, the missing tooth is replaced using a removable or fixed partial denture; however, the treatment modality does not satisfactorily meet patient expectations. The most recent decade has seen increasing use of dental implants in the cleft region; however, the outcome of an immediately loaded dental implant is still elusive for orofacial cleft patients.

Late diagnoses of HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C are important public health problems that affect the population at large and migrants in particular. Missed opportunities of HIV and hepatitis screening are numerous, with language differences being a significant barrier to testing. Several studies have shown that migrants who do not speak the language of the health provider are less likely to get tested, due to health providers’ reluctance to offer a test and to migrants’ reluctance to accept testing.

Advancements in wearable sensors have caused a resurgence in their use, particularly because their miniaturization offers ambulatory advantages while performing continuous vital sign monitoring. Digital alerts can be generated following early recognition of clinical deterioration through breaches of set parameter thresholds, permitting earlier intervention. However, a systematic real-world evaluation of these alerting systems has yet to be conducted, and their efficacy remains unknown.

Thousands of Rohingya refugee mothers at the world’s largest refugee camp located in Bangladesh are at risk of poor mental health. Accordingly, their children are also vulnerable to delayed cognitive and physical development.

Perceptual congruence has been defined as the level of agreement between partners on various aspects of their shared lives, including perceived engagement in individual and jointly performed activities. While the level of adjustment made by partners to such activities is thought to contribute to a couple’s sense of mutuality, perceptions of time use concerning activity engagement has yet to be considered. As such, this study will determine the level of perceptual congruence between partners with respect to perceived time use in their respective and shared activities.

Inconsistent toilet usage is a continuing challenge in India. Despite the impact of social expectations on toilet usage, few programs and studies have developed theoretically grounded norm-centric behavior change interventions to increase toilet use in low-income settings.