Mobile health approaches to disease surveillance in Africa; Wellvis COVID triage tool

Owoyemi, Ayomide; Ikpe, Ron; Toye, Mariam; Rewane, Ayesan; Abdullateef, Moshood; Obaseki, Etin; Mustafa, Segun; Adeosun, Wale

doi:10.1177/2055207621996876

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“… 65 There is a growing interest in Africa to implement participatory surveillance systems in response to COVID-19. For instance, digital platforms and mobile apps have been developed in Nigeria, 66 Ethiopia, 67 and Kenya 68 to facilitate case reporting, symptoms reporting, and risk communication.Data gotten through participatory surveillance can also clarify changes in health-seeking behaviour while interpreting facility-based surveillance data. 9…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…87,88 Many African countries are already implementing participatory digital apps for COVID-19 contact tracing, reporting of symptoms, and other surveillance parameters. [66][67][68] The meddlesome nature of this approach is concerning, especially for public health and legal ethics. 88 For instance, in Nigeria 89 and South Africa 90 concerns have been raised regarding the use of digital tools for surveillance.…”

Section: Burden Of Co-epidemic Surveillancementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

COVID-19 surveillance systems in 13 African countries

Adebisi

Rabe

Lucero‐Prisno

2021

Health Promot Perspect

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Surveillance forms the basis for response to disease outbreaks, including COVID-19. Herein, we identified the COVID-19 surveillance systems and the associated challenges in 13 African countries. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive narrative review of peer-reviewed literature published between January 2020 and April 2021 in PubMed, Medline, PubMed Central, and Google Scholar using predetermined search terms. Relevant studies from the search and other data sources on COVID-19 surveillance strategies and associated challenges in 13 African countries (Mauritius, Algeria, Nigeria, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, and Uganda) were identified and reviewed. Results: Our findings revealed that the selected African countries have ramped up COVID-19 surveillance ranging from immediate case notification, virological surveillance, hospital-based surveillance to mortality surveillance among others. Despite this, there exist variations in the level of implementation of the surveillance systems across countries. Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy is also being leveraged in some African countries, but the implementation across countries remains uneven. Our study also revealed various challenges facing surveillance which included shortage of skilled human resources resulting in poor data management, weak health systems, complexities of ethical considerations, diagnostic insufficiency, the burden of co-epidemic surveillance, and geographical barriers, among others. Conclusion: With the variations in the level of implementation of COVID-19 surveillance strategies seen across countries, it is pertinent to ensure proper coordination of the surveillance activities in the African countries and address all the challenges facing COVID-19 surveillance using tailored strategies.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Burden Of Co-epidemic Surveillancementioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 surveillance systems in 13 African countries

Adebisi

Rabe

Lucero‐Prisno

2021

Health Promot Perspect

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The post hoc analysis allowed us to identify the areas that need further exploration. Besides, the predictive analytics allowed us to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on the development of new H-F apps 8 . The availability of more than expected apps indicates the greater need for these apps during COVID-19.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Technology has played a pivotal role in maintaining H-F activities during the pandemic through mHealth (mobile health) and mobile apps. 6,7 Mobile apps and smart technologies have not just assisted in containing the pandemic [8][9][10][11][12] but also in motivating users to keep track of their H-F activities, as observed by Panicker and Chandrasekaran. 13 For instance, Sorkin et al 14 reported increased use of digital technologies, including mobile apps for stress management during COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Growth in the development of health and fitness mobile apps amid COVID-19 pandemic

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives Technology in the form of mobile apps has played an essential role in facilitating, tracking, and maintaining health and fitness activities during the pandemic. When countries opted for partial or complete lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 virus, it led to people working on their health and fitness-related activities from their homes, just as they continued working from home. This paper aims to quantify the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on the development of health and fitness mobile apps. Specifically, we compute the effect of coronavirus disease 2019 on the growth of different sub-categories of health and fitness apps. Methods We scraped data about a population of 78,890 health and fitness apps from the iOS App Store. First, categories of health and fitness apps are identified using text analysis on the descriptions of apps. Second, the rise in the development of new apps is analyzed. To quantify the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on the growth of the health and fitness apps, multiple time-series forecasting models are created for different categories of health and fitness apps. Results The text analysis identified twelve different types of health and fitness apps on the app market. Our models estimated that the number of health and fitness apps on the iOS app market exceeded the expected growth by 29.9% after the pandemic. The results of all categories of health and fitness are discussed in the paper. Conclusions Our analysis found significant growth in the development of new health and fitness apps after the pandemic outbreak. The post hoc study of the population of health and fitness apps presented the current state of this particular area of the app market. In addition, it provided potential growth areas in app markets where there are fewer apps.

show abstract

“…Tools studied were mostly located in the United States (6/22, 27%) [3,10,11,19,24,25]. A total of 12 studies were conducted in other countries, including France (3/12, 25%) [13,15,26], Iran (1/12, 8%) [27], Denmark (1/12, 8%) [28], China (1/12, 8%) [29], Nigeria (1/12, 8%) [30], Ireland (1/12, 8%) [31], Greece (1/12, 8%) [32], Finland (1/12, 8%) [33], Canada (1/12, 8%) [6], and Switzerland (1/12, 8%) [14]. Furthermore, 4 studies were conducted in >1 country, with 1 study conducted in the United States, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh [34]; 1 study conducted in the United States, Japan, Singapore, and the United Kingdom [12]; and 2 studies conducted worldwide [35,36].…”

Section: Location Of Included Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Digital-First Health Care Approach to Managing Pandemics: Scoping Review of Pandemic Self-triage Tools

Ziebart¹,

Kfrerer²,

Stanley³

et al. 2023

J Med Internet Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, many patient-facing digital self-triage tools were designed and deployed to alleviate the demand for pandemic virus triage in hospitals and physicians’ offices by providing a way for people to self-assess their health status and get advice on whether to seek care. These tools, provided via websites, apps, or patient portals, allow people to answer questions, for example, about symptoms and contact history, and receive guidance on appropriate care, which might be self-care. Objective This scoping review aimed to explore the state of literature on digital self-triage tools that direct or advise care for adults during a pandemic and to explore what has been learned about the intended purpose, use, and quality of guidance; tool usability; impact on providers; and ability to forecast health outcomes or care demand. Methods A literature search was conducted in July 2021 using MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Cochrane databases. A total of 1311 titles and abstracts were screened by 2 researchers using Covidence, and of these, 83 (6.76%) articles were reviewed via full-text screening. In total, 22 articles met the inclusion criteria; they allowed adults to self-assess for pandemic virus, and the adults were directed to care. Using Microsoft Excel, we extracted and charted the following data: authors, publication year and country, country the tool was used in, whether the tool was integrated into a health care system, number of users, research question and purpose, direction of care provided, and key findings. Results All but 2 studies reported on tools developed since early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies reported on tools that were developed in 17 countries. The direction of care advice included directing to an emergency room, seeking urgent care, contacting or seeing a physician, being tested, or staying at home and self-isolating. Only 2 studies evaluated tool usability. No study demonstrated that the tools reduce demand on the health care system, although at least one study suggested that data can predict demand for care and that data allow monitoring public health. Conclusions Although self-triage tools developed and used around the world have similarities in directing to care (emergency room, physician, and self-care), they differ in important ways. Some collect data to predict health care demand. Some are intended for use when concerned about health status; others are intended to be used repeatedly by users to monitor public health. The quality of triage may vary. The high use of such tools during the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that research is needed to assess and ensure the quality of advice given by self-triage tools and to assess intended or unintended consequences on public health and health care systems.

show abstract

Mobile health approaches to disease surveillance in Africa; Wellvis COVID triage tool

Cited by 9 publications

References 6 publications

COVID-19 surveillance systems in 13 African countries

COVID-19 surveillance systems in 13 African countries

Growth in the development of health and fitness mobile apps amid COVID-19 pandemic

A Digital-First Health Care Approach to Managing Pandemics: Scoping Review of Pandemic Self-triage Tools

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About