JMIR Research Protocols

Older adults living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs), particularly in regional and rural areas, experience a high burden of untreated dental caries, tooth sensitivity, and oral pain. Workforce shortages, limited access to dental services, and competing health priorities make the delivery of timely oral health care challenging in these settings. Poor oral health contributes to pain, impaired nutrition, reduced quality of life, and increased health service use. There is an urgent need for context-appropriate, accessible, and cost-effective interventions for RACF residents. Aqueous silver fluoride (AgF), a minimally invasive topical agent with caries-arresting and desensitizing properties, offers a pragmatic approach suitable for aged care settings.

In Burkina Faso, the Minimal Digital Ecosystem (MDE)—a suite of 9 integrated digital tools—was introduced to support key health system functions, including care delivery, financial management, medication oversight, governance, and data use. However, evidence regarding the maturity of its real-world implementation and the determinants influencing its adoption remains scarce.

Postpartum hypertension defined as elevated blood pressure after childbirth, affects approximately 20% of women after delivery. Digital health interventions that include remote monitoring therefore, present an important opportunity to facilitate regular blood pressure assessment in this high-risk population.

Among university students, the experience of academic stress is associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Single-session interventions (SSIs) are structured and accessible self-guided interventions, often delivered digitally, that integrate elements of empirically supported treatments. Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) has been shown to be beneficial in alleviating stress, anxiety, and depression. However, the effectiveness of CFT (1) in the academic context, and (2) when delivered in brief digital formats, has not yet been tested.

Hip and knee pain are leading contributors to disability, reduced quality of life, and health care burden in Canada. Primary care is often the first point of contact for patients with these conditions, yet timely and appropriate care is limited due to provider shortages and system pressures. Interest is growing in interprofessional primary care models that integrate physiotherapists to enhance care delivery for musculoskeletal conditions such as hip and knee pain.

Noncommunicable diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, and type 2 diabetes share common risk factors that can be addressed: physical activity, a healthy diet, and avoiding smoking and alcohol. The Watching the Risk Factors (WARIFA) mobile health app was created for general health awareness and to support users in adopting healthier behaviors, as well as to support type 1 diabetes (T1D) self-management.

Natural environments are associated with improved cognitive functioning and psychological well-being, potentially through attentional restoration and stress reduction. Virtual reality (VR) offers an accessible way to simulate natural settings; however, it remains unclear whether VR nature engages the brain and cognition in the same way as real nature, particularly in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who show atypical neural oscillations and heightened sensitivity to environmental demands.

Perinatal substance use is a growing global health concern with significant risks for maternal health, child development, and parenting. Despite these risks, the perinatal period offers a “window of opportunity” for behavioral change and recovery initiation. However, research exploring how vulnerability and transformation interact in the context of perinatal substance use remains scarce. Existing studies are predominantly cross-sectional, deficit-oriented, and focused on relapse or the medical effects of prenatal exposure, leaving critical gaps in understanding maternal trajectories and psychosocial factors shaping the transition to parenthood.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are significant global health concerns, particularly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In China, a significant number of international migrants from LMICs reside, many of whom are at high risk of HBV and HCV infection, while this group tends to engage in low HBV and HCV test use due to some adverse factors. Pay-it-forward (PIF) is a social innovation strategy that is based on the theories of upstream reciprocity and mutual aid. Previous studies have shown that the PIF strategy has proven effective in promoting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) testing in various populations.

Cardiovascular health (CVH), defined as a composite of 8 health factors and behaviors ranging from body composition to sleep duration, is strongly associated with the risk for future cardiovascular events in adults. However, there is little data on CVH among contemporary, diverse cohorts of children and adolescents.

Although technology usage is steadily increasing among older adults, adoption and confidence greatly lag behind their younger counterparts. Sociocultural and health disparities intersect with aging to present distinct structural and psychosocial barriers to the adoption of newer technologies. Digital health literacy interventions can improve task-specific skills, technological self-efficacy, and use frequency, but most do not systematically incorporate older adults’ values and goals, which are key drivers of sustained behavior change.

Metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease is highly prevalent in adults with type 2 diabetes, and advanced fibrosis is its strongest prognostic marker. However, existing noninvasive tools may underperform in diabetes care and are inconsistently used in practice.