scholarly journals Metadata Correction: Mobile Phone Ownership Is Not a Serious Barrier to Participation in Studies: Descriptive Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily J Harvey ◽  
Leslie F Rubin ◽  
Sabrina L Smiley ◽  
Yitong Zhou ◽  
Hoda Elmasry ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Rather than providing participants with study-specific data collection devices, their personal mobile phones are increasingly being used as a means for collecting geolocation and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data in public health research. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to (1) describe the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents to an online survey screener assessing eligibility to participate in a mixed methods study collecting geolocation and EMA data via the participants’ personal mobile phones, and (2) examine how eligibility criteria requiring mobile phone ownership and an unlimited text messaging plan affected participant inclusion. METHODS Adult (≥18 years) daily smokers were recruited via public advertisements, free weekly newspapers, printed flyers, and word of mouth. An online survey screener was used as the initial method of determining eligibility for study participation. The survey screened for twenty-eight inclusion criteria grouped into three categories, which included (1) cell phone use, (2) tobacco use, and (3) additional criteria. RESULTS A total of 1003 individuals completed the online screener. Respondents were predominantly African American (605/1003, 60.3%) (60.4%), male (514/1003, 51.3%), and had a median age of 35 years (IQR 26-50). Nearly 50% (496/1003, 49.5%) were unemployed. Most smoked menthol cigarettes (699/1003, 69.7%), and had a median smoking history of 11 years (IQR 5-21). The majority owned a mobile phone (739/1003, 73.7%), could install apps (86.8%), used their mobile phone daily (89.5%), and had an unlimited text messaging plan (871/1003, 86.8%). Of those who completed the online screener, 302 were eligible to participate in the study; 163 were eligible after rescreening, and 117 were enrolled in the study. Compared to employed individuals, a significantly greater proportion of those who were unemployed were ineligible for the study based on mobile phone inclusion criteria (P<.001); yet, 46.4% (333/717) of the individuals who were unemployed met all mobile phone inclusion criteria. CONCLUSIONS Inclusion criteria requiring participants to use their personal mobile phones for data collection was not a major barrier to study participation for most respondents who completed the online screener, including those who were unemployed. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02261363; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02261363 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6wOmDluSt)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Keith McInnes ◽  
Gemmae M Fix ◽  
Jeffrey L Solomon ◽  
Beth Ann Petrakis ◽  
Leon Sawh ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Homeless veterans have complex healthcare needs, but experience many barriers to treatment engagement. While information technologies (IT), especially mobile phones, are used to engage patients in care, little is known about homeless veterans’ IT use. This study examines homeless veterans’ access to and use of IT, attitudes toward health-related IT use, and barriers to IT in the context of homelessness. METHODS: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 homeless veterans in different housing programs in Boston, MA. Inductive thematic analysis was used. RESULTS: Most participants (90%) had a mobile phone and were receptive to IT use for health-related communications. A common difficulty communicating with providers was the lack of a stable mailing address. Some participants were using mobile phones to stay in touch with providers. Participants felt mobile-phone calls or text messages could be used to remind patients of appointments, prescription refills, medication taking, and returning for laboratory results. Mobile phone text messaging was seen as convenient, helped participants stay organized because necessary information was saved in text messages. Some reported concerns about the costs associated with mobile phone use (calls and texting), the potential to be annoyed by too many text messages, and not knowing how to use text messaging. CONCLUSION: Homeless veterans use IT and welcome its use for health-related purposes. Technology-assisted outreach among this population may lead to improved engagement in care.


Author(s):  
Ane Johnson

In this article I explore how mobile phones may facilitate greater access to participants and higher participation rates in qualitative inquiry in Africa. Qualitative researchers face a number of ethical and procedural challenges when collecting data in the field. But with the explosion of mobile phone usage, many of these obstacles to data collection may be ameliorated, facilitating greater access to participants, to data, and to important findings. I use the example of a research study on the connection between development and higher education at two public universities in Kenya to illustrate how mobile phones played an unexpected role in data collection. Finally, I discuss preliminary recommendations for using the mobile phone to contend with the myriad challenges to rigorous qualitative research in Africa.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 994-1008
Author(s):  
Ștefan Andrei Neştian ◽  
Silviu Mihail Tiţă ◽  
Elena-Sabina Turnea

Abstract Mobile phone has become today a multi tasking tool, used in the work environment for both, personal and professional purposes. On the one hand, used for personal purposes, mobile phone can bring many benefits: it reduces stress, helps to schedule time after work, helps the employee to find useful information on the Internet, etc. On the other hand, mobile phone can also have negative effects when it is used at work for personal purposes: decreases productivity at work, distracts the attention, exposes to risks employees that are working in production, etc. In what concerns the professional purposes, the benefits depend of the nature of work: keeps constant connections with supervisors and clients, employees find quick information related to working tasks, and information can be shared at any time with colleagues, etc. Of course there are also negative effects of the mobile phone used at the workplace: disturbing the activity of colleagues, non-dissipation of information to others in a timely manner, etc. In this paper we present some preliminary results from a study that highlights both, professional and personal use of mobile phones in information processes at work. The research sample has 368 respondents from different fields of activity. Based on the frequency of their use, the results indicate that, for personal purposes, text messaging applications comes on the first place, search for useful information on the Internet comes on the second place and finally, the phone calls (voice only) are on the third position. For professional purposes, at work, most employees use phone calls (voice only), then they search for useful information on the Internet, and finally, they use messaging applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol Special Issue (2) ◽  
pp. 55-62
Author(s):  
Isah Mohammed Bello ◽  
Abubakar Sadiq Umar ◽  
Godwin Ubong Akpan ◽  
Joseph Okeibunor ◽  
Chukwudi Shibeshi ◽  
...  

Mobile phone data collection tools are increasingly becoming very usable collecting, collating and analysing data in the health sector. In this paper, we documented the experiences with mobile phone data collection, collation and analysis in 5 countries of the East and Southern African, using Open Data Kit (ODK), where questionnaires were designed and coded on an XML form, uploaded and data collected using Android-Based mobile phones, with a web-based system to monitor data in real-time during EPI comprehensive review. The ODK interface supports in real-time monitoring of the flow of data, detection of missing or incomplete data, coordinate location of all locations visited, embedded charts for basic analysis. It also minimized data quality errors at entry level with the use of validation codes and constraint developed into the checklist. These benefits, combined with the improvement that mobile phones offer over paper-based in terms of timeliness, data loss, collation, and real-time data collection, analysis and uploading difficulties, make mobile phone data collection a feasible method of data collection that needs to be further explored in the conduct of all surveys in the organization.


Author(s):  
Etimad Alattar ◽  
Khitam Elwasife ◽  
Eqbal Radwan ◽  
Hadeer Abu Warda ◽  
Mohammed Abujami

During the recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in use of mobile phones which resulted in an increase of the exposure to electromagnetic radiations in our life. Human saliva is considered as a potential source of biomarkers to monitor changes that occur under pathological conditions. The main objective of the current experiment was to determine the effect of mobile phone radiation on general health, electrolytes and salivary function among Islamic University students who use mobile phones. A questionnaire was designed and applied to 167 healthy and 36 deaf female students to select cases whose meeting the inclusion criteria. A total of 103 students who met the inclusion criteria were included to investigate the influence of mobile phone radiations on their general health. For assessment of salivary parameters, a total of 55 students were chosen and classified into three groups. Group I was the control group, which included 17 deaf students who did not use the mobile phone at all. Group II was healthy students who have mobile phone for less than 5 years. Group III was healthy students who have mobile phone for 5 years or more. Descriptive data that included mean, standard deviation, and percentages was calculated for each group. Multiple group comparisons were made by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey test for pairwise comparisons. Categorical data were analyzed by Chi square (&chi;2) test. For all the tests, a P value of 0.05 or less was considered for statistical significance. The results showed that the participants who use mobile phone had several problems in their health including dry mouth, bad odor from mouth, drooling of saliva, as well as ear and eye pain. The majority of the participants who use mobile phone complained of headache, anxiety, insomnia and forgetfulness as compared to deaf participants. Also, the study showed that there was no significant difference between salivary pH in all tested groups. Regarding to salivary flow rate, the differences were no significant in all tested groups. In addition, this study has also shown that there was significant difference between the salivary Na+ and K+ levels of the three groups. Salivary level of Na+ and K+ were significantly lower in mobile phone users when compared to non users of mobile phone.


Author(s):  
Yasuo Asakura ◽  
Eiji Hato ◽  
Takuya Maruyama

This chapter reviews the development of mobile phone-based travel survey instruments and systems over the last 15 years and discusses the issues and challenges that they will likely face in the future. The essential ideas were proposed in earlier mobile phone surveys in the 1990s but have since become more sophisticated. Probe Person (PP) survey systems were developed in the 2000s using GPS-assisted mobile phones connected to Internet Web diaries, and were implemented in several cities in Japan. This chapter presents the characteristics of PP systems and survey examples. Smartphone-based travel survey systems have recently been developed and implemented all over the world. This chapter includes a case study of a smartphone-based PP survey system in Kumamoto, Japan. Advantages and remaining issues are discussed with the goal of improving information use and enhancing communication technologies in the field of travel data collection and analysis.


First Monday ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devendra Dilip Potnis ◽  
Bhakti Gala ◽  
Kanchan Deosthali

In an online survey, 108 mobile phone users in the age bracket of 18 to 21 in India reported their emotional responses to six humorous, warning, and philosophical messages in real time. Using open coding, researchers coded respondents’ sentiments into positive, negative, and neutral categories and traced their effect on (a) the respondents’ intention to forward the messages, which was captured in real time; and, (b) potential recipients of the forwarded messages. Findings inform the research on electronic word-of-mouth on social media-based instant messaging platforms and mobile phones. Implications in terms of identifying and containing the spread of misinformation on social media are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-41
Author(s):  
Epiphanie Mukasano ◽  
Catherina J. Schenck ◽  
Hester M van der Merwe

While the rapid adoption of mobile technology became global, the rate at which young people adopted it was even bigger. Most studies focussed on the experiences of the teenagers. In this study the aim of the study was to explore parents’ experiences of their teenagers’ text messages. A qualitative exploratory research design was adopted. The population was parents/guardians (males and females) of teenagers (boys and girls) attending high schools in Cape Town South Africa. Available and snowball sampling were used. All participants were recruited in the Southern Suburbs and Cape Flats of the Cape Metropolitan Area. In total 11 parents were interviewed using an interview guideline. The interviews were transcribed, independently coded and thematically analysed. The results show that mobile phones are no ordinary gifts. They are given with strings attached. Once in teenagers’ hands, the devices serve both communication and monitoring purposes. It comes with a set of given or negotiated rules and new expectations. The study also emphasises the importance of a trusting relationship with teenagers, respecting their privacy, and the disengagement process from their parents. The importance of positive relationships and open communication as well as negotiated rules in the management of the mobile phone is recommended.


10.2196/14714 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. e14714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashish Joshi ◽  
Bhavya Malhotra ◽  
Chioma Amadi ◽  
Menka Loomba ◽  
Archa Misra ◽  
...  

Background Disparities in access to specific technologies within gender groups have not been investigated. Slum settings provide an ideal population to investigate the contributing factors to these disparities. Objective This study aimed to examine gender differences in mobile phone ownership, internet access, and knowledge of SMS text messaging among males and females living in urban slum settings. Methods A convenience sampling approach was used in sample selection from 675 unnotified slums. A total of 38 slum sites were then selected across four geographic zones. Of these, 10% of the households in each slum site was selected from each zone. One household member was interviewed based on their availability and fulfillment of the eligibility criteria. Eligible individuals included those aged 18 years and above, residing in these slums, and who provided voluntary consent to participate in the study. Individuals with mental or physical challenges were excluded from the study. Results Our results showed that females were half as likely to own mobile phones compared with males (odds ratio [OR] 0.53, 95% CI 0.37-0.76), less likely to have internet access (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.56-1.11), or know how to send text messages (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.66-1.31). The predictors of mobile phone ownership, internet access, and text messaging between males and females included age, individual education, housing type, and the number of earning members in a household in the adjusted analysis. Among males, the number of earning members was a predictor of both mobile phone ownership and text messaging, whereas household education was a predictor of both internet access and text messaging. Age and individual education only predicted internet access, whereas housing type only predicted text messaging. Among females, household education was a predictor of all the technology outcomes. Age and type of toilet facility only predicted mobile phone ownership; housing type only predicted internet access whereas television ownership with satellite service and smoking behavior only predicted text messaging. Conclusions Our study findings showing disparate access to technology within gender groups lend support for further research to examine the causal mechanisms promoting these differences to proffer significant solutions. Specifically, our study findings suggest that improving household education is crucial to address the disparate access and usage of mobile phones, the internet, and text messaging among women in slum settings. This suggestion is due to the consistency in household educational level as a predictor across all these technology indicators. In addition, the mechanisms by which the number of household earning members influences the disparate access to technology among men call for further exploration.


Author(s):  
Adams B. Bodomo

Mobile phone communication as an instance of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has not received as much attention as email and others. Indeed, it may be argued that it is not a typical instance of CMC as some people do not consider the mobile phone a computer and also because there is hardly any Internet Protocol (IP) address involved in sending SMS, one might claim. However, as has been mentioned by writers like Prensky (2004) the mobile phone has reached such sophistication that it is indeed more powerful than some computers in terms of processing power, and indeed internet facilities are easily incorporated into mobile phones. While many have studied email and its effects on writing and the school curriculum, among other issues (e.g. Abdullah 1998, 2003, Akers-Jordan 2002, Baron 2001, Crystal 2001, Healey 2007, etc), little has been done on the mobile phone until now (but see Bodomo 2003, 2007, Bodomo and Lee 2002, Thurlow 2003 and Prensky 2004). This chapter and the next focus particularly on the use of mobile phones through case studies based on reports of completed research projects. There are, at least, two aspects of mobile phone communication, voice mobile phone communication and text messaging. Chapter 6 focuses mainly on voice mobile phone communication aspects while chapter 7 dwells on mobile phone texting, especially its grammatical aspects.


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