In recent years, ready-to-eat cereal (RTEC) has become a common breakfast option in Canada and worldwide. This study used the nationally representative cross-sectional data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2015-Nutrition to determine patterns of RTEC consumption in Canada and the contribution to nutrient intake among Canadians who were ≥2 years, of whom 22 ± 0.6% consumed RTEC on any given day. The prevalence of RTEC consumption was highest in children aged two to 12 years (37.6 ± 1.2%), followed by adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (28.8 ± 1.4%), and then by adults ≥19 years (18.9 ± 0.6%). RTEC consumers had higher intakes of “nutrients to encourage” compared to the RTEC non-consumers. More than 15% of the daily intake of some nutrients, such as folic acid, iron, thiamin, and vitamin B6, were contributed by RTEC. It was noted that nearly 66% of milk consumption was co-consumed with RTEC among RTEC consumers. The nutrient density of the diet, as defined by Nutrient-Rich Food Index (NRF 9.3), was significantly higher among RTEC consumers compared to non-consumers. RTEC consumption was not associated with overweight/obesity. RTEC consumption considerably contributed to the intake of some key nutrients among all age groups in Canada.
Background This study aims to assess the health literacy of medical patients admitted to hospitals and examine its correlation with patients’ emergency department visits, hospital readmissions, and durations of hospital stay. Methods This prospective cohort study recruited patients admitted to the general internal medicine units at the two urban tertiary care hospitals. Health literacy was measured using the full-length Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the correlation between health literacy and the desired outcomes. The primary outcome of interest of this study was to determine the correlation between health literacy and emergency department revisit within 90 days of discharge. The secondary outcomes of interest were to assess the correlation between health literacy and length of stay and hospital readmission within 90 days of discharge. Results We found that 50% had adequate health literacy, 32% had inadequate, and 18% of patients had marginal health literacy. Patients with inadequate health literacy were more likely to revisit the emergency department as compared to patients with adequate health literacy (odds ratio: 3.0; 95% Confidence Interval: 1.3–6.9, p = 0.01). In patients with inadequate health literacy, the mean predicted probability of emergency department revisits was 0.22 ± 0.11 if their education level was some high school or less and 0.57 ± 0.18 if they had completed college. No significant correlation was noted between health literacy and duration of hospital stay or readmission. Conclusions Only half of the patients admitted to the general internal medicine unit had adequate health literacy. Patients with low health literacy, but high education, had a higher probability of emergency department revisits.
Time on screens (screen time) on multiple digital devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, television screens, etc.) due to varied motivations (work, leisure, entertainment, gaming, etc.) has become an integral part of population behaviour. However, a significant evidence gap exists in screen time accumulated over ubiquitous mobile devices such as smartphones. This study aimed to develop an accurate, reliable and replicable methodology to derive objective screen time (i.e., screen-state) from all types of citizen-owned smartphones. A convenience sample of 538 adults (≥18 years) from two largest urban centres in Saskatchewan, Canada (Regina and Saskatoon) was recruited in 2017 and 2018. Participants used a custom-built smartphone application to provide objective and subjective data. A novel methodology was developed to derive objective screen-state, and these data were compared with subjective measures. The findings showed that objective screen-state from smartphones can be derived and assessed across a range of cut-points that take into consideration varied measurement errors. When objective measures were compared with subjective reporting, the results indicated that participants consistently underreported screen time. This study not only provides a methodology to derive objective screen-state from ubiquitous mobile devices such as smartphones but also emphasises the need to capture context via subjective measures.
ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to develop a replicable methodology of mobile ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) to capture prospective physical activity (PA) within free-living social and physical contexts by leveraging citizen-owned smartphones running on both Android and iOS systems.DesignData were obtained from the cross-sectional pilots of the SMART Platform, a citizen science and mobile health initiative.SettingThe cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Canada.Participants538 citizen scientists (≥18 years) provided PA data during eight consecutive days using a custom-built smartphone application, and after applying a rigid inclusion criteria, 89 were included in the final analysis.Outcome measuresEMAs enabled reporting of light, moderate, and vigorous PA, as well as physical and social contexts of PA. Retrospective PA was reported using International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). For both measures, PA intensities were categorised into mean minutes of light and moderate-to-vigorous PA per day. Wilcoxon signed ranks tests and Spearman correlation procedures were conducted to compare PA intensities reported via EMAs and IPAQ.ResultsUsing EMAs, citizen scientists reported 140.91, 87.16 and 70.38 mean min/day of overall, light and moderate-to-vigorous PA, respectively, whereas using IPAQ they reported 194.39, 116.99 and 98.42 mean min/day of overall, light and moderate-to-vigorous PA, respectively. Overall (ρ=0.414, p<0.001), light (ρ=0.261, p=0.012) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (ρ=0.316, p=0.009) were fairly correlated between EMA and IPAQ. In comparison with EMAs, using IPAQ, citizen scientists reported significantly greater overall PA in active transportation (p=0.002) and recreation, sport and leisure-time domains (p=0.003).ConclusionsThis digital epidemiological and citizen science methodology adapted mobile EMAs to capture not only prospective PA, but also important physical and social contexts within which individuals accumulate PA. Ubiquitous tools can be leveraged via citizen science to capture accurate active living patterns of large populations in free-living conditions through innovative EMAs.
Background This study aims to understand how participants’ compliance and response rates to both traditional validated surveys and ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) vary across 4 cohorts who participated in the same mHealth study and received the same surveys and EMAs on their smartphones, however with cohort-specific time-triggers that differed across the 4 cohorts. Methods As part of the Smart Platform, adult citizen scientists residing in Regina and Saskatoon, Canada, were randomly assigned to 4 cohorts in 2018. Citizen Scientists provided a complex series of subjective and objective data during 8 consecutive days using a custom-built smartphone application. All citizen scientists responded to both validated surveys and EMAs that captured physical activity. However, using Smart Platform, we varied the burden of responding to validated surveys and EMAs across cohorts by using different time-triggered push notifications. Participants in Cohort 1 (n = 10) received the full baseline 209-item validated survey on day 1 of the study; whereas participants in cohorts 2 (n = 26), 3 (n = 10), and 4 (n = 25) received the same survey in varied multiple sections over a period of 4 days. We used weighted One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests and weighted, linear regression models to assess for differences in compliance rate across the cohort groups controlling for age, gender, and household income. Results Compliance to EMAs that captured prospective physical activity varied across cohorts 1 to 4: 50.0% (95% Confidence Interval [C.I.] = 31.4, 68.6), 63.0% (95% C.I. = 50.7, 75.2), 37.5% (95% C.I. = 18.9, 56.1), and 61.2% (95% C.I. = 47.4, 75.0), respectively. The highest completion rate of physical activity validated surveys was observed in Cohort 4 (mean = 97.9%, 95% C.I. = 95.5, 100.0). This was also true after controlling for age, gender, and household income. The regression analyses showed that citizen scientists in Cohorts 2, 3, and 4 had significantly higher compliance with completing the physical activity validated surveys relative to citizen scientists in cohort group 1 who completed the full survey on the first day. Conclusions & significances The findings show that maximizing the compliance rates of research participants for digital epidemiological and mHealth studies requires a balance between rigour of data collection, minimization of survey burden, and adjustment of time- and user-triggered notifications based on citizen or patient input.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.