The Effects of Distancing Design Collaboration Necessitated by COVID-19 on Brain Synchrony in Teams Compared to Co-Located Design Collaboration: A Preliminary Study.

Due to the widespread involvement of distributed collaboration triggered by COVID-19, it has become a new trend that has continued into the post-pandemic era. This study investigated collective performance within two collaborative environments (co-located and distancing settings) by assessing inter-brain synchrony patterns (IBS) among design collaborators using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The preliminary study was conducted with three dyads who possessed 2-3 years of professional product design experience. Each dyad completed two designated design tasks in distinct settings. In the distributed condition, participants interacted through video conferencing in which they were allowed to communicate by verbalization and sketching using a shared digital whiteboard. To prevent the influences of different sketching tools on design outputs, we employed digital sketching for both environments. The interactions between collaborators were identified in three behaviors: verbal only, sketch only, and mixed communication (verbal and sketch). The consequences revealed a higher level of IBS when mixed communication took place in distributed conditions than in co-located conditions. Comparably, the occurrence of IBS increased when participants solely utilized sketching as the interaction approach within the co-located setting. A mixed communication method combining verbalization and sketching might lead to more coordinated cognitive processes when in physical isolation. Design collaborators are inclined to adjust their interaction behaviors in order to adapt to different design environments, strengthen the exchange of ideas, and construct design consensus. Overall, the present paper discussed the performance of virtual collaborative design based on a neurocognitive perspective, contributing valuable insights for the future intervention design that promotes effective virtual teamwork.

Strategies for Assessing Health Information Credibility Among Older Social Media Users in China: A Qualitative Study.

The fact that social media gives users easy access to online health information raises the question of what information evaluation strategies older adults use to distinguish trustworthy from unreliable health information. Identifying how older adults assess the credibility of health information that they acquire on social media is an important step toward understanding and reducing their susceptibility to health misinformation. In this study, we investigated the credibility assessment strategies used by older WeChat users in China. Following a qualitative approach, we conducted in-depth interviews with 40 WeChat users 65-85 years old (M = 71.75, SD = 6.65) in China who had acquired health information on WeChat. Results of theoretical thematic analysis revealed five source-based and content-based evaluative strategies: (1) determining the communicative orientation of the source, (2) assessing source reputation, (3) confirming content based on life experiences, (4) checking for exaggeration in claimed effects, and (5) assessing the consistency of content across sources. Older WeChat users' reliance on certain heuristic cues and their self-reliant approach to assessing information credibility provide contextual explanations for the link between heuristic processing and susceptibility to health misinformation. The findings have implications for anti-misinformation interventions targeting the older population in China and potentially beyond.

Tensions in support for family caregivers of people with dementia in Singapore: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Family members as informal caregivers are considered the first line of support for people with dementia across the world. In Singapore, caregiving expectations revolve around the cultural expectations of providing care in the home environment. However, studies in Singapore have identified a lack of family support for primary caregivers. Family support has been discussed in the literature as the provision of care for people with dementia, and rarely as a resource for family caregivers. METHOD: To understand family support among primary caregivers in Singapore, 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis found four themes: excuses for lack of physical support for the caregiver, tensions between cultural expectations of caregiving and the provision of support, unmet emotional support, and lack of awareness of dementia and caregiving needs. FINDINGS: Caregivers rationalized and forgave the absence of physical support but were frustrated when the lack of support impacted people with dementia. This was seen as a lack of fulfilling cultural obligations of caring for elderly parents. The caregivers also felt frustrated with the lack of emotional support provided to them, but these were unspoken between the caregiver and the family members. Insufficient and unhelpful support giving was exacerbated with the perception of family members' limited understanding of the demands of caregiving. CONCLUSION: The findings offer four practical suggestions to address unmet support needs. First, public education is needed to enhance general knowledge about the symptoms and progression of dementia. Second, help is needed to address miscommunication about support within the family. Third, the development of guidebooks is needed to help family caregivers communicate with family members about their various support needs. Fourth, the relationship between cultural expectation and caregiving must be understood within the context of modernity and urbanism.

Interplay of Support, Comparison, and Surveillance in Social Media Weight Management Interventions: Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: There has been a significant increase in the trend of using social media as a platform to deliver weight management interventions. This illustrates a need to develop a holistic understanding of doctor-patient communication and peer-to-peer communication in social media interventions and to determine their influences on weight management for people with overweight or obesity. Such studies will highlight how social media can be more effectively integrated into weight management programs to enhance individuals' short-term and long-term weight management behaviors. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine patients' experiences with doctor-patient communication and peer interactions in a social media-based (WeChat) weight management program, and to describe the interplay of three social influence factors-social support, social comparison, and surveillance-in their weight control practices. The program, designed and implemented by the research team located in a tertiary referral hospital in a southeastern province in China, included both diet and physical activity components that targeted people with overweight or obesity. METHODS: We conducted in-depth interviews with 32 program participants of different ages (mean 35.6, SD 7.7 years), gender (18 women), duration of program membership (mean 1.4 years), and weight loss outcomes (54% weight loss to 9% weight gain). All interview data were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated using the translation-backtranslation technique. Nvivo software was used to facilitate the coding process. RESULTS: Results of thematic analysis indicated the distinct functions of professionally led support and peer support. Professional support was presented in the form of knowledge infusion, efficacy enhancement, and provision of timely feedback. Peer support fostered empathy and sense of belonging, and had a mutually reinforcing relationship with peer comparison and peer-based surveillance. Peer comparison enhanced motivation and positive competition. However, it also reinforced negative group norms, and resulted in downturns in reference standards and collective inactivity. Social media surveillance prompted participants' reactions to the gaze from medical professionals and peers that could be encouraging or inhibiting. Surveillance enhanced vigilance with weight control norms; however, its influence weakened when participants chose to fake weight data and turn off notifications. Findings from this study illustrated the interrelated and fluctuating influences of support, comparison, and surveillance. CONCLUSIONS: The interactive traits of social media eased the practices of social support and social comparison, and created new forms of surveillance. This study contributes to an in-depth understanding of social media influences on individuals' weight control behaviors. Practical implications of the study concern improved strategies for maintaining the positive dynamics of social media interactions and preventing negative resistance to surveillance technology. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR1900025861; http://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojen.aspx?proj=42497.

A study of Singapore adolescent girls' selfie practices, peer appearance comparisons, and body esteem on Instagram.

Social media allow users to play multiple roles as receivers, exhibitors, and evaluators of idealized images through photo browsing, posting, and editing. In this study, we examined the associations between adolescent girls' various types of Instagram selfie practices and their body esteem. The mediating role of appearance comparisons and the moderating role of direction of comparisons were also tested. A survey was distributed to 303 adolescent girls from three secondary schools in Singapore. Results indicated that the negative associations between participants' photo browsing and editing behaviors and body esteem were fully mediated by peer appearance comparisons. Contrarily, selfie posting had a direct and positive association with body esteem that was not mediated by peer appearance comparisons. The findings suggested that objectifying standards of beauty may permeate adolescent girls' value systems through frequent appearance comparisons on social media. When peer influence was presented in the form of appearance comparisons, it had a strong negative association with body esteem, regardless of the direction of the comparisons involved. The positive relationship between selfie posting and body esteem suggested that peer interactions may benefit adolescent girls' body image development in specific ways that warrants further inquiry.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Physicians' Insights into Interprofessional Tensions between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Biomedicine: A Critical Perspective.

In Singapore, the institutional preference for biomedicine and the cultural importance of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have created tensions between the two medical systems and erected barriers to a more collaborative health-care system. This study foregrounds TCM physicians' voice to reveal ideological struggles and power imbalances that underlie the interprofessional tensions and accompanying marginalization of TCM. Through in-depth interviews with 22 TCM physicians in Singapore, this study reveals the incongruences in ideological underpinnings between biomedicine and TCM, reflected in their different worldviews and epistemological approaches to knowledge formation and evaluation. Power differentials between the two medical systems are manifest in TCM physicians' inferior position in relation to their biomedical peers, the patients' internalization of biomedical standards to question the TCM profession and their own interest in seeking TCM treatments, and the state's limited support for TCM research, subsidies, and service provision in hospital settings. The results suggest that more open dialogue about the dichotomous framings of biomedicine and TCM is key to disrupting the mutual reinforcement of ideology and power, as well as to creating increased mutual understanding between the two medical systems.

Exploring Family Support for Older Chinese Singaporean Women in a Confucian Society.

This study investigated the functions of family support in older Chinese Singaporean women's daily health management in a Confucian cultural context, wherein family solidarity and women's caregiving responsibilities are emphasized. Thirty-eight interviews were conducted with ethnic Chinese women above the age of 60 in Singapore. Our thematic analysis showed that older women played dual roles as support providers and recipients in the family. Their caregiver identity and intent to preserve tradition resulted in a downward transmission of informational and physical support and their hesitance to accept resources provided by younger family members. The asymmetrical flow of family support generated mixed impacts on the women's daily health management. In their transition between tradition and modernity, older women fulfilled their family responsibilities but did not require their children to do so. Our findings suggested an integration of familial and institutional resources to meet older women's support needs and help them enhance their health behavior.

Factors associated with mobile health information seeking among Singaporean women.

This study examined effects of age and social psychological factors on women's willingness to be mobile health information seekers. A national survey of 1,878 Singaporean women was conducted to obtain information on women's mobile phone usage, experiences of health information seeking, and appraisals of using mobile phones to seek health information. Results showed that young, middle-aged, and older women exhibited distinct mobile phone usage behaviors, health information-seeking patterns, and assessments of mobile health information seeking. Factors that accounted for their mobile information-seeking intention also varied. Data reported in this study provide insights into mobile health interventions in the future.

Examining Live-In Foreign Domestic Helpers as a Coping Resource for Family Caregivers of People With Dementia in Singapore.

In Singapore, the responsibility of caring for persons with dementia falls on family members who cope with a long-term caregiver burden, depending on available support resources. Hiring foreign domestic workers to alleviate caregiver burden becomes a prevalent coping strategy that caregivers adopt. This strategy allows caregivers to provide home care as part of fulfilling family obligations while managing the caregiver burden. This study aimed to investigate primary caregivers' relationship with hired support and its impact on coping with caregiver burden. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with primary caregivers who hired live-in domestic helpers to take care of their family members with dementia. The findings revealed that caregivers perceived the normative obligations to provide home care to family members with dementia. They sought support from domestic helpers to cope with physical and mental burnout, disruption of normal routines, and avoidance of financial strain. A mutual-support relationship was built between caregivers and domestic helpers through trust and interdependence. The presence of domestic helpers as a coping resource reveals the positive outcomes of problem-, emotional-, and diversion-focused coping. This study illustrates that coping strategies are employed in different ways depending on the needs of caregivers, access to infrastructure, cultural expectations, and available resources.

Negotiating biomedical and traditional Chinese medicine treatments among elderly Chinese Singaporean women.

In this article we examine how elderly Chinese Singaporean women navigated between biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine in their practices of maintaining well-being. We interviewed 36 elderly women to understand their negotiation of medical choices in the interplay of structure, culture, and personal agency. Our findings show that participants made situational decisions under structural and cultural influences, such as family members' changing expectations and interpretations of medical practices, institutional preferences for biomedicine, and the patients' negotiating position between biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine. Participants demonstrated their capacity to enact agency through their examination of the effects and side effects of each medical system and through their integrative use of different medical treatments, depending on the purpose. Through our findings, we unveil contextual meanings of health among elderly women and the unique coexistence of traditional and modern medical practices within the context of Singapore.

Seeking and processing information for health decisions among elderly Chinese Singaporean women.

Information behavior includes activities of active information seeking, passive acquisition of information, and information use. Guided by the Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study explored elderly Singaporean women's health information behavior to understand how they sought, evaluated, and used health information in everyday lives. Twenty-two in-depth interviews were conducted with elderly Chinese women aged 61 to 79. Qualitative analysis of the interview data yielded three meta-themes: information-seeking patterns, trustworthiness of health information, and peripheral route of decision making. Results revealed that elderly women took both systematic and heuristic approaches to processing information but relied on interpersonal networks to negotiate health choices.

An exploratory study of ageing women's perception on access to health informatics via a mobile phone-based intervention.

OBJECTIVE: This is an exploratory study examining the perceived attitudes and readiness of women aged 50 years or older on adopting a mobile phone-based intervention named as Infohealth in Singapore. METHOD: Infohealth is designed as a health informatics to tailor personalized healthcare advice for the well-being for women - very little is known about the acceptability level of self-care technology, especially the older among the female population. To explore participants' perceptions and acceptance, a telephone survey was developed from concepts identified from various user acceptance theories and models. Correlation was used to identify significant dependent variables while partial least square and boot-strapping procedures were used to estimate the significance of the path coefficients. RESULTS: Analysis supports the validity and reliability of the 27-item research model consisting of 8 constructs. 700 women aged 50years and older responded to the survey. Findings show the extent of ageing women's existing dependency on others for help, regard for close ones whom they care for, opinion from family and friends, and guarding the health of people who are important for them do not directly affect the intention of using Infohealth, but are rather mediated by perceived usefulness. This study validated some ageing-specific and female-posited variables to suggest as main constructs in future innovation adoption studies about older women. Technological anxiety and perceived physical condition both have no direct relationship with perceived ease of use and usefulness, lifestyle and intention to use. CONCLUSION: Findings reinforced the significant roles of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, compatibility, and subjective norm in predicting the adoption intention of Infohealth among ageing women. More extensive statistical analysis is needed to discover more interesting findings while qualitative analysis can help to detect humanistic design opportunities.

A study on Singaporean women's acceptance of using mobile phones to seek health information.

OBJECTIVE: This paper is an exploratory study that investigates Singaporean women's acceptance of using mobile phones to seek health information. METHOD: A mobile web containing health topics was developed to track Singaporean women's actual use of their mobile phones to seek health information. A survey questionnaire measured variables hypothesized to predict Behavioural Intention. The survey responses were then matched to the data collected on actual use. Correlation analysis and hierarchical regression were used to analyze the data collected. RESULTS: Findings revealed that Perceived Usefulness and Self-efficacy positively predicted the intention to use mobile phones to seek health information. The study also confirmed the presence of an intention-behaviour gap among participants. The conversion of intention to actual behaviour hinges on technical concerns and design factors. Prior experiences with health information seeking reinforced women's evaluations of the usefulness of the mobile web application and helped them to feel more self-efficacious about using their mobile phones to seek health information. Using mobile phones to seek health information was found to be complementary to online health information seeking and can be regarded as an alternative source to the internet for seeking health information. CONCLUSION: This study contributes to the existing literature by applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the context of mobile health information seeking, for which there has been a lack of studies, and demonstrated that the inclusion of additional variables can enhance TAM's predictive power. The empirical presence of an intention-behaviour gap calls for future research to investigate the reasons behind the gap. Finally, the findings from this study can serve as input to promote women's use of mobile phones for better self-management of health.