JMIR Research Protocols

Low back pain (LBP) is a common and disabling condition that is costly for health systems and society. Interprofessional primary care models may improve care quality and reduce this burden.

Diabetes-related foot ulcers (DFUs) are common in people with diabetes and a major cause of poor quality of life and disability. If not treated in a timely and appropriate way, DFUs may result in prolonged hospitalization and amputation. Currently, methods to predict the healing trajectory of DFUs lack accuracy. Thermal imaging has been proposed to overcome these limitations but has been unable to accurately predict delayed healing of DFUs in the early stages of ulcer management. This project aims to ascertain whether textural analysis of a thermal image can predict the healing trajectory of DFUs.

Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent and disabling condition. In early stages, patients are asymptomatic or only experience activity-related pain. When pain intensifies, the disease has often progressed, with few treatment options besides knee arthroplasty. Recently, there has been a growing interest in acoustic emissions generated by poorly lubricated and/or damaged moving joint surfaces, as seen in osteoarthritis. Noninvasive analysis of knee sound could help identify patients with early-stage osteoarthritis at a low cost, without radiation exposure. Thus, preventive measures could be implemented earlier and delay the progression of osteoarthritis.

Despite increasing survival rates for childhood cancers, physical and psychological late effects are common. The end-of-treatment period is recognized as a complex transition period, and there are few evidence-based models of care to address patient and family needs during this early survivorship period. The EMERGE model of care has been developed to provide eHealth-delivered, multidisciplinary care to patients and families in the 12 months following treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common type of pediatric cancer.

Periodontitis causes progressive attachment loss, which in turn causes tooth mobility and, ultimately, tooth loss. Regenerating and rebuilding the lost periodontal tissue is the goal of periodontal regenerative surgery. Regeneration using AmnioGuard, advanced platelet-rich fibrin (A-PRF), and NovaBone Putty has been demonstrated to be successful in increasing clinical attachment level and decreasing probing pocket depth.

Leisure participation is an important rehabilitation goal for survivors of stroke. Following stroke, there is a reduction in leisure participation; however, the focus of rehabilitation is typically on remediation of personal care activities and mobility. Furthermore, previous systematic reviews and current clinical practice guidelines provide inconsistent recommendations for rehabilitation interventions to improve leisure participation. This highlights the need for a comprehensive and targeted review of the literature to help inform clinical practice.

Ocular massage has been reported to lower intraocular pressure (IOP) temporarily. This effect could be related to enhanced aqueous humor outflow; however, the mechanism is unclear.

Proactive end-of-life (EoL) conversations can help individuals, their significant others, and health care professionals be better prepared to confront dying and future EoL decision-making. Talking about EoL issues may be unfamiliar and difficult; tools are increasingly used to support such conversations. While using digital tools presents many advantages, the development processes of such are seldom robustly reported. The project outlined here has the overall aim of further developing and investigating promotion of early, proactive EoL conversations by cocreating and testing, together with potential community-based end users, a digital version of an existing tool, the DöBra cards.

Population aging poses challenges to health systems and costs, and evidence shows that older adults spend a long time in ill health. Improving healthspan, time spent in good health, allows older adults to contribute and improve in their quality of life. Active and healthy aging are crucial to improving healthspan. Urban care farming (UCF) is a behavioral intervention that is purported to enhance active and healthy aging.

Dementia is a growing public health concern, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries. Caregivers of people living with dementia often face significant physical, psychological, social, and financial burdens, with high prevalence rates of caregiver strain in Malaysia. Mobile health (mHealth) apps have demonstrated potential to enhance caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) and to reduce burden. However, few culturally tailored solutions exist for Malaysia. The app was developed to provide locally relevant information, support services, and stress management tools for dementia caregivers.

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) represents a transitional stage between normal aging and Alzheimer disease (AD), where early intervention is critical for preserving cognition and delaying or preventing progression to dementia. Due to the limited availability of curative pharmacological treatments, there is growing interest in traditional and indigenous medicinal interventions, such as (Linn.) or Brahmi, a widely used Ayurvedic nootropic herb. consumption is known to enhance cognitive performance in healthy individuals and is associated with alterations in pathways related to branched-chain and aromatic amino acid biosynthesis. These pathways have been implicated in MCI due to AD pathophysiology. Hence, the efficacy of in aMCI and the mediating metabolic changes need to be systematically evaluated through clinical trials.

There is a significant hidden burden of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in the UK community, which has increased over time. In the late 2000s, the Second Study of Infectious Intestinal Disease (IID2 study) estimated 17 million IID cases annually in the United Kingdom. However, only a small proportion of cases present to health care, and even those are often not tested for causative organisms.