A new feature on the JMIR website, open peer review articles, allows JMIR users to sign themselves up as peer reviewers for specific articles currently considered by the Journal (in addition to author- and editor-selected reviewers). The list below shows recently submitted articles where submitting authors have not opted-out of the open peer-review experiment and where the editor has not made a decision yet. (Note that this feature is for reviewing specific articles - if you just want to sign up as reviewer (and wait for the editor to contact you if articles match your interests), please sign up as reviewer using your profile).
To assign yourself to an article as reviewer, you must have a user account on this site (if you don't have one, register for a free account here) and be logged in (please verify that your email address in your profile is correct). Add yourself as a peer reviewer to any article by clicking the '+Peer-review Me!+' link under each article. Full instructions on how to complete your review will be sent to you via email shortly after. Do not sign up as peer-reviewer if you have any conflicts of interest (note that we will treat any attempts by authors to sign up as reviewer under a false identity as scientific misconduct and reserve the right to promptly reject the article and inform the host institution).
The standard turnaround time for reviews is currently 2 weeks, and the general aim is to give constructive feedback to the authors and/or to prevent publication of uninteresting or fatally flawed articles. Reviewers will be acknowledged by name if the article is published, but remain anonymous if the article is declined.
The abstracts on this page are unpublished studies - please do not cite them (yet). If you wish to cite them/wish to see them published, write your opinion in the form of a peer-review!
Tip: Include the RSS feed of the JMIR submissions on this page on your iGoogle homepage, blog, or desktop RSS reader to stay informed about current submissions!
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Titles/Abstracts of Articles Currently Open for Review
Evaluation of end-user satisfaction among employees participating in a web-based health risk assessment with tailored feedback |
| Background: Web technology is increasingly being used to provide individuals with health risk assessments (HRAs) with tailored feedback. End-user satisfaction is an important determinant of the potential impact of HRAs, as this influences programme attrition and adherence to the behavioural advice. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate end-user satisfaction with a web-based HRA with tailored feedback applied in worksite settings, using mixed (quantitative and qualitative) methods. Methods: Employees of seven companies in the Netherlands participated in a commercial, web-based, HRA with tailored feedback. The HRA consisted of four components: 1) a health and lifestyle assessment questionnaire, 2) a biometric evaluation, 3) a laboratory evaluation, and 4) tailored feedback consisting of a personal health risk profile and lifestyle behaviour advice communicated through a web portal. HRA respondents received an evaluation questionnaire after six weeks. Satisfaction with different parts of the HRA was measured on 5-point Likert scales. A free-text field provided the opportunity to make additional comments. Results: In total, 2289 employees participated in the HRA programme, of which 637 (27.8%) completed the evaluation questionnaire. Quantitative analysis showed that 85.6% of the respondents evaluated the overall HRA positively.
The free-text field was filled in by 29.7 % of the respondents (189 out of 637), who made 318 separate remarks. Qualitative evaluation of these data showed that these respondents made critical remarks. Respondents felt restricted by the answer categories of the health and lifestyle assessment questionnaire, which resulted in the feeling that the corresponding feedback could be inadequate. Some respondents perceived the personal risk profile as unnecessarily alarming, and suggested providing more explanations, reference values, and a justification of the behavioural advice given. Respondents also requested the opportunity to discuss the feedback with a health professional. Conclusions: Most people were satisfied with the web-based HRA with tailored feedback. Sources of dissatisfaction were limited opportunities for providing additional health information outside of the predefined health and lifestyle assessment questionnaire, and insufficient transparency on the generation of the feedback. Information regarding the aim and content of the HRA should be clear and accurate to prevent unrealistic expectations among end-users. Involving trusted health professionals in the implementation of web-based HRAs may enhance the use of and confidence in the HRA. |
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| Date Submitted: Jan 30, 2012 |
| Open Peer Review Period: Jan 31, 2012 - Mar 27, 2012 |
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What do web-use skill differences imply for online health searches? |
| Background: Online health information is of variable and often low scientific quality. In particular elderly, less educated populations are said to struggle accessing quality online information (digital divide). Little is known about (1) how their online behavior differs from younger, more educated, and more frequent web users and (2) how the older population may be supported in accessing quality online health information. Objective: To specify the digital divide between skilled versus less-skilled web users, we assessed qualitative differences in technical skills, cognitive strategies, and attitudes toward online health information. Based on these findings, we identified educational and technological interventions to help web users find and access quality online health information. Methods: We asked a total of 22 native German-speaking adults to search for health information online. A “skilled” cohort consisted of 10 participants who were younger than 30 years of age, had a higher level of education, and were more experienced using the web than 12 participants in a “less skilled” cohort who were at least 50 years of age. We observed online health searches to specify differences in technical skills and analyzed concurrent verbal protocols to identify health seekers’ cognitive strategies and attitudes. Results: Main findings relate to (1) attitudes: health seekers in both cohorts doubted the quality of information retrieved online; poorly skilled seekers mainly because they doubted their skills to navigate vast amounts of information; once a website was accessed quality concerns disappeared in both cohorts; (2) technical skills: skilled web users effectively filtered information according to search intentions and data sources; less skilled users were easily distracted by unrelated information; and (3) cognitive strategies: skilled web users searched to inform themselves; less skilled users searched to confirm health-related opinions such as “vaccinations are harmful.” Independent of web-use skills, most participants stopped search once they had found a first piece of evidence satisfying search intentions, rather than to quality criteria. Conclusions: Findings related to web-use skills differences suggest two classes of interventions to facilitate access to quality online health information: challenges related to findings (1) and (2) should be remedied by improving people’s basic web-use skills. In particular, web users should be taught how to avoid information overload by generating specific search terms and to avoid low quality information by requesting results from trusted websites only. Problems related to finding (3) may be remedied by ranking search engine results according to quality criteria instead of website popularity. |
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| Date Submitted: Jan 11, 2012 |
| Open Peer Review Period: Jan 12, 2012 - Mar 8, 2012 |
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Development and Testing of a Multi-Media Internet-based System for Fidelity and Monitoring of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care |
| Background: The fields of mental health, child welfare, and juvenile justice are jointly faced with the challenge of reducing the prevalence of antisocial behavior among adolescents. In the last 20 years, conduct disorders have moved from being considered intractable difficulties to having complex but available solutions. The treatments for even long-standing offending behavior among adolescents are now well-documented and supported by a growing and compelling body of evidence. These empirically validated interventions are being widely disseminated, but the replication of the results from clinical trials in community settings has yet to be documented. The treatments, which produced impressive effects in a research-context, are difficult to replicate without intensive monitoring of fidelity by the developers. Such monitoring is a barrier toward adoption, as the distance between the adopter and developer increases, so does cost. At the same time, states, communities, and agencies are under increasing pressure to implement those intervention services that have been shown to be most effective. The use of the Internet offers a potential solution in that existing reporting and data collection by clinicians can be subject to remote supervision. Such a system would have the potential to provide dissemination teams with more direct access to higher quality data and would make it more likely that adopters are able to implement services at the highest possible conformity to research protocols. Objective: This research created and tested such an innovative system for use with the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care program (MTFC[1]), which is an out-of-home treatment alternative for antisocial youths. This research could advance the knowledge base about developing innovative infrastructures in community settings to disseminate empirically validated treatments. Methods: The fidelity system was utilized and reviewed by parent and professional users: 20 foster parent PDR users, 9 professional MTFC program supervisors and 4 MTFC consultants. All participants rated the system’s ease of use, quality of the website and observational videos recorded from agency meetings. In addition, foster parents entered data on child behavior. Results: All professionals and foster parents rated the ease of use of the system and we found particularly high levels of utilization by parents. Professionals rated the computer-collected videos of clinical meeting as high quality and easily codable. Conclusions: The project developed a user-friendly and secure web-based system using state-of-art computer-based protocols for recording questionnaire and observational data with community-based MTFC staff and foster parents with the positive satisfaction and utilization results. |
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| Date Submitted: Dec 20, 2011 |
| Open Peer Review Period: Jan 8, 2012 - Mar 4, 2012 |
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Trust in the Internet health information source and predictable factors: A nationwide survey in Korea |
| Background: Internet user increasingly are making use of the availability of online health information and that, it is very important that accurate health information is provided. The most important factor is an information source that can be to make decisions about the assessment and application of information. Objective: The first objective of our study is to explore levels of trust in health information using interpersonal channels, traditional media, and Internet media sources. The second objective is to investigate factors associated with trust in Internet health information sources. Methods: A survey of 1300 Koreans, who were 20 years or older, was conducted by door-to-door personal interviews, using random sampling methods in a questionnaire that addressed the issue of trust in health information sources. Results: This study showed that the hospital physician channel(M = 4.2)as the most trusted source, and among other channel sources, the interpersonal channel sources(M = 3.63) had the highest level of trust. According to the multivariate logistic regression analysis, higher income and increased social support were the main factors associated with a higher level of trust in Internet information sources. Conclusions: Trust in Internet health information sources is strongly related to a high level of income and social support. In short, those with low incomes and little social support were less likely to trust most Internet media sources. A public health organization needs to consider predictable factors for each channel source so that it can be offered as a way to provide appropriate intervention and health-related messages strategies. |
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| Date Submitted: Dec 14, 2011 |
| Open Peer Review Period: Jan 8, 2012 - Mar 4, 2012 |
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