Objectives To investigate the quality of diagnostic and triage advice provided by free website and mobile application symptom checkers (SCs) accessible in Australia. Design 36 SCs providing medical diagnosis or triage advice were tested with 48 medical condition vignettes (1170 diagnosis vignette tests, 688 triage vignette tests). Main outcome measures Correct diagnosis advice (provided in first, the top three or top ten diagnosis results); correct triage advice (appropriate triage category recommended). Results The 27 diagnostic SCs listed the correct diagnosis first in 421 of 1170 SC vignette tests (36%; 95% CI, 31–42%), among the top three results in 606 tests (52%; 95% CI, 47–59%), and among the top ten results in 681 tests (58%; 95% CI, 53–65%). SCs using artificial intelligence algorithms listed the correct diagnosis first in 46% of tests (95% CI, 40–57%), compared with 32% (95% CI, 26–38%) for other SCs. The mean rate of first correct results for individual SCs ranged between 12% and 61%. The 19 triage SCs provided correct advice for 338 of 688 vignette tests (49%; 95% CI, 44–54%). Appropriate triage advice was more frequent for emergency care (63%; 95% CI, 52–71%) and urgent care vignette tests (56%; 95% CI, 52–75%) than for non‐urgent care (30%; 95% CI, 11–39%) and self‐care tests (40%; 95% CI, 26–49%). Conclusion The quality of diagnostic advice varied between SCs, and triage advice was generally risk‐averse, often recommending more urgent care than appropriate.

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Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of a home-based exercise programme added to usual medical care for the treatment of depression. Design: Prospective, two group parallel, randomised controlled study. Setting: Community-based. Patients: 200 adults aged 50 years or older deemed to be currently suffering from a clinical depressive illness and under the care of a general practitioner. Interventions: Participants were randomly allocated to either usual medical care alone (control) or usual medical care plus physical activity (intervention). The intervention consisted of a 12-week home-based programme to promote physical activity at a level that meets recently published guidelines for exercise in people aged 65 years or over. Main outcome measurements: Severity of depression was measured with the structured interview guide for the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (SIGMA), and depression status was assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I). Results: Remission of depressive illness was similar in both the usual care (59%) and exercise groups (63%; OR = 1.18, 95% CI 0.61 to 2.30) at the end of the 12-week intervention, and again at the 52-week follow-up (67% vs 68%) (OR=1.07, 95% CI 0.56 to 2.02). There was no change in objective measures of fitness over the 12-week intervention among the exercise group. Conclusions: This home-based physical activity intervention failed to enhance fitness and did not ameliorate depressive symptoms in older adults, possibly due to a lack of ongoing supervision to ensure compliance and optimal engagement

BackgroundUnconscious bias and negative attitudes towards minority groups have detrimental effects on the way health care is, or is not, provided to these groups. Recognition of racist attitudes and behaviours as well as understanding clients’ experiences of health and health care are pivotal to developing better health care strategies to positively impact on the quality and safety of care provided to Indigenous people.Indigenous research demands inclusive research processes and the use of culturally appropriate methodologies. This paper presents a methodological account of collecting narratives which accurately and respectfully reflect Aboriginal Australians’ experiences with health care in Western Australia. The purpose of these narratives is to provide health students and professionals with an opportunity to ‘walk-in the shoes’ of Aboriginal people where face-to-face interaction is not feasible.MethodsWith the incorporation of Indigenous peoples’ voices being an important link in cultural safety, the project was led by an Indigenous Reference group, who encouraged active participation of Aboriginal people in all areas of the project. Using a phenomenological approach and guided by the Indigenous Reference group, yarning data collection was implemented to collect stories focusing on Aboriginal people’s experiences with health care services. An open-access, on-line website was established to host education resources developed from these “yarns”.ResultsYarning provided a rich source of information on personal experiences and encouraged the story provider to recognise their facilitative role in the research process. While the methodology used in this project was lengthy and labour-intensive it afforded a respectful manner for story collection and highlighted several innate flaws when Western methods are applied to an Indigenous context.ConclusionEngagement of an Indigenous Reference Group was pivotal to designing an appropriate methodology that incorporated the voices of Aboriginal people in a multimedia resource of Aboriginal narratives. However further research is warranted to understand how the resources are being used and integrated into curricula, and their impact on students and health care outcomes.