JMIR Research Protocols

Childhood is a critical period for physical and cognitive development, in which nutrition plays a fundamental role. Dairy products, rich in calcium, vitamin D, and high-quality protein, are essential for bone health, body composition development, and cognitive performance. However, evidence on the long-term impact of dairy consumption on children’s growth and development, particularly in the Canadian context, is limited. Additionally, recent revisions to the Canadian Food Guide, which classify dairy as part of the protein group rather than as a separate food group, may influence caregiver perceptions and children’s dairy intake.

Interprofessional education (IPE) is essential for fostering collaboration and communication among health care professionals to improve patient outcomes. Early IPE training for prehealth undergraduate students has been shown to enhance teamwork, dismantle stereotypes, and build self-efficacy in health care settings. Self-efficacy is the belief that one can achieve their goals and succeed at tasks. These outcomes contribute to creating a cohesive and equitable health care environment focused on patient-centered care. Despite evidence supporting the benefits of IPE training, there is a lack of consistent implementation at the undergraduate level across institutions.

The rise of social media has drastically altered the landscape of health information dissemination. While these platforms can promote health literacy, they are also rife with skin care misinformation, often spread by nonexperts. This has led to harmful consequences, including improper product use and delayed treatment. Despite their potential to mitigate misinformation, dermatologists and health care professionals remain underrepresented on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

Bipolar disorder (BD) affects approximately 40 million people worldwide and is a chronic, potentially disabling mood disorder. Although effective treatments exist, access to evidence-informed psychosocial care remains limited, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse populations, contributing to persistent global treatment gaps. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs), such as smartphone apps, offer a promising means to improve access to self-management support and quality of life (QoL), an outcome prioritized by people with BD and in clinical guidelines. However, most apps for BD lack quality and are not culturally adapted or co-designed with people with BD, limiting relevance and engagement. PolarUs (mobile app) is an evidence-informed DMHI developed using co-design with people with BD. The app is structured on the core 14 domains from the Quality of Life in BD scale, the only BD-tailored scale, combined with psychoeducation on self-management strategies and QoL. A recent pilot study demonstrated promising QoL, clinical, and feasibility outcomes.

Stimulant use disorders (StimUDs), including cocaine and methamphetamine use disorders, remain a major public health concern in the United States with no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved pharmacological treatments. The early recovery period following stimulant use is marked by sleep disturbances, heightened stress reactivity, and dysregulated reward processing, contributing to high rates of resumption of use. Evidence from animal and human studies supports the orexin neuropeptide system as a promising therapeutic target for minimizing these disruptive mechanisms. Suvorexant, an FDA-approved dual orexin receptor antagonist for insomnia, has previously been shown to improve sleep, reduce stress, and attenuate craving in the first-in-human study with non–treatment-seeking individuals with cocaine use disorder.

Achilles tendinopathy (AT) is a common condition that limits activity participation in both active and sedentary populations. While exercise and education are well-established treatments for AT, information is lacking on the amount of intervention required and the prognostic factors associated with response to noninvasive treatments.

Approximately 60% of patients with advanced cancer experience the distress of cancer-related fatigue (CRF), which significantly worsens their daily function and quality of life. Baduanjin has been regarded as a promising nonpharmacological intervention for alleviating CRF, anxiety, and depression and improving quality of life. Owing to varying degrees of CRF in patients with advanced cancer, patients may have insufficient endurance, making it difficult to implement standing Baduanjin. However, relevant evidence on sitting Baduanjin for CRF in patients with advanced cancer is lacking.

Increased life expectancy is associated with increasing multimorbidity and polypharmacy, leading to a heightened risk of drug-drug interactions and adverse events, especially when multiple health care providers are involved. To address the urgent need for safer medication management in this population, tools such as medication plans (MP), electronic prescriptions (e-prescriptions), and clinical decision support systems (CDSS) offer valuable support. These instruments have the potential to enhance medication safety by providing physicians and pharmacists with a comprehensive overview of a patient’s overall medication regimen and by assisting health care professionals in making informed prescribing decisions.

Long-term intravitreal anti–vascular endothelial growth factor therapy is the gold standard for treating diabetic macular edema (DME). However, poor treatment adherence in real-world settings often leads to suboptimal visual outcomes. Evidence-based remote management strategies are required to bridge the gap between clinical protocols and patient self-management.

Approximately 1 in 5 children and adolescents live with chronic pain, with musculoskeletal (MSK) pain being one of the most prevalent subtypes. Unfortunately, some studies show that less than half of youth (<18 years) experience improvements with existing evidence-based treatments. Self-report measures—the current gold standard for monitoring the pain experience—are limited in their use as a single point-of-care assessment and their vulnerability to recall bias. The ubiquitous adoption of wearable technology presents a promising solution for improved monitoring of the pain experience via real-time tracking through a multisystemic lens.

India is set to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) from the country by 2025, 5 years ahead of the global target. Optimizing TB care pathways is challenged by the predominance of private sector care-seeking among symptomatic patients (60%-70%), a setting associated with significant under-notification. To improve the notification of TB among private providers and improve patient management in the private sector, the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP), India, has implemented the Patient-Provider Support Agency (PPSA). The PPSA model enables state and district TB units to engage third-party agencies to involve private providers in TB care, providing comprehensive services including diagnosis, notification, and treatment support.

Breathlessness is a distressing symptom for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), impacting independence and community participation, resulting in reduced quality of life. With optimized treatment, nonpharmaceutical interventions deployed in a home-based breathlessness intervention service may reduce breathlessness to a manageable level.