JMIR Formative Research

Suboptimal glycemic control remains a significant public health challenge among adults with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, with 47.4% of US adults with diagnosed diabetes having hemoglobin A (HbA) ≥7%. Remote glucose monitoring programs have shown promise for supporting self-management, but real-world evidence on the causal impact of varying patient engagement levels on glycemic outcomes remains limited.

Emergency department (ED) boarding exposes admitted older adults to a high-disruption environment. Sleep loss during acute hospitalization is associated with adverse outcomes and may contribute to delirium, yet objective sleep measurement in this setting is difficult. Consumer multisensor wearables may permit low-burden, longitudinal measurement, but the feasibility and acceptability of ring-based monitoring among acutely ill older adults is unknown.

Informal caregivers make up a large share of the care provided to people living with dementia, and experience an elevated risk for anxiety, depression, and caregiving burden. Technology-based interventions, such as mobile apps, aim to support informal caregivers by providing information, training, and mental or social support. Considering the diverse nature of the caregiver experience, AI is being incorporated into such interventions to create more tailored and specific support; however, AI hesitancy may serve as a significant barrier to usage.

Shift-work nurses experience substantial variability in work schedules, health behaviors, and recovery patterns, which traditional retrospective surveys fail to capture due to recall bias. Although mobile health (mHealth) tools offer ecological momentary data capture, existing off-the-shelf survey platforms lack shift-synchronized notification logic and impose excessive cognitive friction on fatigued clinicians, limiting their applicability in nursing research.

Breast cancer survivorship requires attention to treatment-related changes in body composition, nutritional status, and quality of life. Bioelectrical impedance phase angle is influenced by tissue electrical properties and fluid distribution and may provide complementary whole-body and segmental information.

Preventive interventions to delay substance use disorder (SUD) are ideally delivered during early adolescence, a critical period for exposure to substance use (SU) risk factors. Young teens (aged 12-14 years) engaging in occasional use of alcohol, cannabis, or tobacco use, or with a family history of SUD, are at increased risk for SUD. Although behavioral-ecological family therapy is effective for prevention, many families face access barriers. Single-session interventions (SSIs) may offer an accessible, low-intensity alternative.

Off-label drug prescribing is prevalent across medicine, including psychiatry, often due to unmet therapeutic needs and inadequate responses to standard treatments. The PSYHAMM (Psychotropes Hors Autorisation de Mise sur le Marché) project, funded by the French Research Agency, investigates these practices. To support this research, a clinical data warehouse (CDW) with advanced data analysis tools was developed and deployed. This system integrates both structured and unstructured data from electronic health records, facilitating comprehensive data analysis. The goal is to improve understanding, regulation, and safety of off-label drug use in psychiatry by providing insights into prescribing patterns and their impacts, ultimately contributing to better clinical guidelines and patient care.

Although social media is often viewed by residents and could be used to reinforce teaching points, there is little data on methods that improve engagement in learning medical topics while socially perusing this medium.

In Japan, the 2021 revision to the Medical Practitioners Act formally supported students’ participation in supervised clinical practice. However, monitoring day-to-day clinical experiences across community-based clerkship sites remains challenging. Student-reported digital daily logs and reflection sheets provide complementary descriptive information across such sites.

Multiple studies have highlighted the prevalence of suboptimal dietary patterns during pregnancy and the postpartum period, with some studies indicating factors that influence dietary behaviors.

Depression, anxiety, and stress-related difficulties represent a major global health burden. Online psychological therapy has emerged as a promising approach to increasing access to care, yet evidence from routine, real-world clinical settings, particularly for services delivered without standardized treatment protocols, remains limited.

Remote vital sign monitoring of acute hospital at home (aHAH) patients is recommended in policy without clear guidance on implementation. While such monitoring has the potential to improve patient care, there is limited evidence for its feasibility and acceptability.