Health Information Technology Studies (HITS)

New article “Coaching older adults discharged home from the emergency department: The role of competence and emotion in following up with outpatient clinicians” in Patient Educ Couns. from the Health Information Technology Studies group aiming to answer whether psychological needs for motivation and discrete emotions observed by care transition coaches would predict older adults following up with an outpatient clinician after discharge from emergency departments. Abstract: Objective: Motivating older adults to follow up with an outpatient clinician after discharge from emergency departments (ED) is beneficial yet challenging. We aimed to answer whether psychological needs for motivation and discrete emotions observed by care transition … Continue reading →

At their 72nd Annual Conference in Paris France, the International Communication Association (ICA) awarded its B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award to SJMC Maier-Bascom Professor Dhavan Shah. Since 1988, the B. Aubrey Fisher Award has been given to honor outstanding scholars, teachers, and advisors who serve as role models in those capacities and who have had a major impact on the field of communication. Most importantly, recipients of this award have influenced the discipline through their former students, who themselves are important figures in the communication discipline. “Shah is praised for his fairness, willingness to collaborate, unconditional support, ability to help … Continue reading →

New article “The Relationship among COVID-19 Information Seeking, News Media Use, and Emotional Distress at the Onset of the Pandemic” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health from the Health Information Technology Studies group. Abstract Although several theories posit that information seeking is related to better psychological health, this logic may not apply to a pandemic like COVID-19. Given uncertainty inherent to the novel virus, we expect that information seeking about COVID-19 will be positively associated with emotional distress. Additionally, we consider the type of news media from which individuals receive information-television, newspapers, and social media-when examining … Continue reading →

At the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Annual Meeting, alum Yini Zhang (PhD’20) received the Thomas E. Patterson Best Dissertation Award from the Political Communication section for her dissertation “A Network Approach to Understanding Public Attention, Public Opinion and Communication Flows in the Digital Media System.” The Thomas E. Patterson Best Dissertation Award recognizes the best dissertation completed in the field of political communication in the previous year. Zhang centered her dissertation around the core question of how digital media impact the U.S. political communication landscape. “In my dissertation, I proposed a new theoretical and methodological framework to study the … Continue reading →

New article “Prospective Prediction of Lapses in Opioid Use Disorder: Protocol for a Personal Sensing Study” in JMIR Research Protocols from the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group. Continue reading →

According to projections from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the population in Wisconsin ages 65 and older is expected to increase by 72% between 2015 and 2040. The population is aging rapidly in rural areas, especially in the northern half of the state in counties with higher rates of health concerns. Responding to this demographic shift, the Center for Health Enhancement System Studies’ (CHESS) Active Aging Research Center (AARC) has been using technology to improve the overall quality of life for Wisconsin seniors through a web-based information and communication technology (ICT) platform called Elder Tree. This technology supports older … Continue reading →

In the new article “Effect of an eHealth Intervention on Older Adults’ Quality of Life, Independence, and Health-Related Outcomes: A Randomized Clinical Trial” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group studied the effectiveness of an eHealth intervention designed to improve quality of life for older adults. Continue reading →

In the new article “Effect of a Mobile-Health Intervention (A-CHESS) on Hepatitis C Testing Uptake Among People with Opioid Use Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial” in the journal JMIR mHealth and uHealth, the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group conducted an RCT to test the effectiveness of a mobile health intervention to increase hepatitis C virus awareness among people dealing with opioid use disorder. Abstract The growing epidemic of opioid use disorder (OUD) and associated injection drug use has resulted in a surge of new hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Approximately half of the people with HCV infection are unaware … Continue reading →

In the new article “A Web-based eHealth Intervention to Improve Quality of Life for Older Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial” in the journal JMIR Research Protocols, the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group studied the effectiveness of an eHealth intervention designed to improve quality of life for older adults with multiple chronic conditions. Continue reading →

In the new article “The Effects of Online Social Connectedness on Older Adults’ Depressive Symptoms: Evidence from a Two-Wave Cross-lagged Panel Study” in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group studied the effectiveness of a support website for enhancing social connectedness on improving depressive symptoms in older adults. Continue reading →

In the new article “News Attention and Social Distancing Behavior Amid COVID-19: How Media Trust and Social Norms Moderate a Mediated Relationship” in the journal Health Communication, the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal (CCCR) group examined the relationship between news media attention and social distancing behavior. Abstract Despite the fact that social distancing is an effective mean to slow the spread of COVID-19, individuals often fail to practice this behavior. Major US news media provided information to the public about social distancing after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, potentially spurring this preventative health practice. Using data from a representative … Continue reading →

In the new article “Online health information seeking, medical care beliefs and timeliness of medical check-ups among African Americans” in the journal Patient Education and Counseling, the Health Information and Technology Studies (HITS) group found links between technology use and positive health behaviors among African Americans. Continue reading →

A new journal article from the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) team, led by “Estelle” Ranran Mi, was published in Health Communication. The paper, “Intraindividual, Dyadic, and Network Communication in a Digital Health Intervention: Distinguishing Message Exposure from Message Production,” revealed nuanced intervention effects of a smartphone-based application for addiction recovery by examining message exposure and production at different levels of communication. Continue reading →

The Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group has a new article out in the Journal of Health Communication. The article, “Framing the Clinical Encounter: Shared Decision-Making, Mammography Screening, and Decision Satisfaction” was published in October 2020. Continue reading →

In the new article “Understanding How e-Health Intervention Meets Psychosocial Needs of Breast Cancer Patients: The Pathways of Influence on Quality of Life and Cancer Concerns” in the journal Psycho-Oncology, the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group found that using e-health interventions can help patients improve cancer information management skills and emotional functioning, contributing to better short-term health outcomes. Continue reading →

In the new article “Potential Influences of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Drug Use and HIV Care Among People Living with HIV and Substance Use Disorders: Experience from a Pilot mHealth Intervention” in the journal AIDS and Behavior, the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group examined the health and social consequences of the pandemic on people with HIV and substance use disorder. Continue reading →

In the new article “Exploring the Role of Social Support in Promoting Patient Participation in Health Care Among Women with Breast Cancer” in the journal Health Communication, the Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group studied how social factors influence a patient’s participation in health care. Abstract:Scholars have adopted Street’s (2003) ecological model of communication in medical encounters to investigate the factors promoting patient participation in health care. However, factors demonstrated in the ecological model were bounded in the context of medical care primarily focusing on health care providers and patients. Social factors, such as patients’ relationships and supportive communication with … Continue reading →

The Health Information Technology Studies (HITS) group has published the article “Giving and receiving social support in online substance use disorder forums: How self-efficacy moderates effects on relapse” in the journal Patient Education and Counseling. Continue reading →

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin—Madison have received a $3.42 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a mobile phone-based app to prevent opioid relapse among those trying to recover. The project builds on the prior work that Dhavan Shah, Louis A. & Mary E. Maier-Bascom Professor in UW-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and John Curtin, director of clinical training in Department of Psychology, have done detecting and predicting relapse. The broad goals of this project are to develop and deliver models to forecast the day-by-day probability of opioid and other drug use among people trying … Continue reading →

Two journal articles from the HITS (Health Information Technology Studies) team, one published in Health Communication and the other in Health Education Research, tackle the role of information technologies in health disparities. The Health Communication paper led by Juwon Hwang, “Health Information Sources, Perceived Vaccination Benefits, and Maintenance of Childhood Vaccination Schedules,” investigates the associations between evaluations of health information sources, parental perceptions of childhood vaccination benefits, and the maintenance of vaccination schedules for their children. Analyzing a sample of 4,174 parents who have at least one child under the age of 18, including 138 with a childhood autism diagnosis. The … Continue reading →

Two new studies published by HITS (Health Information Technologies Studies) researchers, both led by Rachel Kornfield, offer computational health communication solutions to substance abuse. The most recent study (available through Journal of Medical Internet Research) was based on an analysis of a mobile phone-based health intervention for individuals in recovery from alcohol use disorder. Human coders labeled discussion forum messages according to whether or not authors mentioned problems in their recovery process. Linguistic features of these messages were extracted via several computational techniques: (1) a Bag-of-Words approach, (2) the dictionary-based Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program, and (3) a hybrid approach combining … Continue reading →

The two-thirds of Medicare patients being treated for at least three chronic health problems account for a stunning 90 percent of Medicare spending. UW-Madison researchers received a $4.2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant through the UW–Madison’s Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS).  The team working on the grant includes David Gustafson, Jane Mahoney, Randy Brown, Louise Mares, and Dhavan Shah. They wil develop a new e-health intervention called Chronic Condition Health Enhancement Support System, or C-CHESS that builds upon the success of previous CHESS applications for conditions like cancer, asthma and alcoholism. They will recruit 330 older … Continue reading →