JMIR Formative Research

Chronic pain (CP) is a complex and prevalent public health condition that significantly impacts physical functioning, psychological well-being, and quality of life. Traditional biomedical treatments often provide limited relief, highlighting the need for integrative approaches. Biopsychosocial interventions, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), have shown promise in improving pain-related outcomes by targeting cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes associated with CP.

Smoking prevalence is disproportionately high among individuals with mental disorders, who also show reduced cessation success, suggesting that current cessation interventions may not fully address their specific needs. A barrier to smoking cessation is the fear that quitting may worsen mental health, yet little is known about how individuals with mental disorders experience guideline-conform cessation treatments, which may address such concerns.

Smart home technologies (SHTs) encompass internet-connected interfaces, sensors, monitors, devices, and appliances, which are networked together to allow for automation. They can facilitate tasks, such as taking medication or issuing fall alerts, and can control the home environment, such as by automating lighting. Their widespread use comes with concerns about power imbalances between users, technology companies, marketers, and state actors regarding data collection, its use and disclosure, and security issues, such as the potential for data breaches. SHT acceptance and adoption are shaped by user attitudes and trust, so understanding these factors is critical. A scoping review conducted by several authors of this paper explored user perceptions of SHTs and identified 4 key themes related to user attitudes: privacy concerns, knowledge of data collection, perceived risks and benefits, and perceived safety. Of the included studies in the review, none explored Canadian SHT users’ attitudes. Thus, little is known about how Canadians perceive and understand the privacy, data collection, and safety elements of their SHTs. Given Canada’s unique demographic diversity and distinct context, examining Canadian perspectives is necessary for advancing this body of research.

Loneliness is recognized as a global health threat. Older adults are vulnerable to loneliness due to life changes common in old age. While individual risk factors for loneliness in old age are well-documented, contextual factors are scarcely explored, such as digitalization. Rapid digitalization underscores the need to explore the long-term association between the use of digital devices and loneliness.

Standards for the secondary use of health data remain under development and do not comprehensively address specific categories of health data. Existing health data and interoperability standards are primarily designed for the primary use of health care, leaving gaps in their applicability for research, regulatory and decision-making. This research is part of the Integration of Heterogeneous Data and Evidence Towards Regulatory and Health Technology Assessment Acceptance (IDERHA) project, which creates a federated processing environment for secondary health care use cases.

Diagnostic errors in primary care contribute substantially to avoidable morbidity. Real-time, voice-based artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic assistants may support diagnostic reasoning during clinical encounters, but formative evidence that can be used to assess both diagnostic benefit and overreliance risk before clinical deployment is needed from interactive settings.

Many adolescents experience elevated stress and anxiety; yet, access to effective psychological support is limited. Brief digital mental health interventions, such as slow breathing (SB) and detached mindfulness (DM), offer a potentially scalable approach to promoting emotion regulation in daily life.

Foodborne diseases remain a significant global public health concern, imposing substantial health and economic burdens. The COVID-19 pandemic altered health care–seeking behaviors, infection control practices, and infectious disease epidemiology; however, its association with microbial foodborne pathogens remains incompletely characterized.

Precision medical education (PME) is an emerging concept that aims to improve physician education by tailoring curricula specifically to each learner. The basic framework behind PME requires collecting data on each individual learner, identifying gaps in knowledge, and then applying direct educational interventions. However, logistical difficulties in the delivery of such interventions hinder the implementation of PME in existing academic programs.

Teletherapy is gaining increasing importance in physiotherapeutic care but has so far been only marginally established in Germany. The current state of use, attitudes, and perceived barriers among physiotherapists remains insufficiently described.

Occupation-based practice (OBP) has been demonstrated to enhance occupational performance and goal attainment in stroke rehabilitation. However, existing evidence is predominantly derived from hospital-based settings, with limited investigations into OBP implementation in community contexts. In Thailand, particularly in rural areas, there remains a need to establish effective OBP service delivery models and to evaluate their outcomes across diverse client populations receiving community-based rehabilitation services.

Measurement of life space characterizes people’s engagement with their environment. Several studies have used GPS devices to capture life space. A challenge with device-based measures is that participants may forget to bring the device with them. Life-space measures that leverage the GPS data from participants’ mobile phones may address this challenge, but few studies have leveraged this approach to date.