The Application of Wearable Technologies to Improve Healthcare in the World’s Poorest People — Oak Academic Publishing
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The Application of Wearable Technologies to Improve Healthcare in the World’s Poorest People
Obesity Solutions, Mayo Clinic, 13400 E Shea Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85259 and Arizona State University, Fulton School of Engineering, Tempe, Arizona, USA
1 Obesity Solutions, Mayo Clinic, 13400 E Shea Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85259 and Arizona State University, Fulton School of Engineering, Tempe, Arizona, USA
Wearable technologies could be influential for improving healthcare in underserved areas. Wearable sensors are straightforward to develop, have low production costs and the methods for processing high volumes of data are advanced. Here we examine the application of wearable technology for improving health in three poverty-related scenarios. The first is for diabetes prevention in Mexico City. The second is for medical care in the Kibera slum in Nairobi and the third is for the delivery of “health kits” to refugees. The analysis affirms that investment is worthwhile in mass scalable wearable technologies directed at the half of the world’s population who live in poverty.
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(2005) The State of the World’s Children. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2004. New York.
Dying for Change. Poor People’s Experience of Health and Ill-Health, 2001. World Health Organization, Switzerland.
Tollefson, J. (2015) Can Randomized Trials Eliminate Global Poverty? Nature, 524, 150-153. https://doi.org/10.1038/524150a
Arredondo, A. (2016) Universal Coverage and Economic Burden from Epidemiological Changes of Diabetes in Latin America. Journal of Global Health, 6, Article ID: 020309. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.06.020309
Eriksson, J., et al. (1999) Prevention of Type II Diabetes in Subjects with Impaired Glucose Tolerance: The Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) in Finland. Study Design and 1-year Interim Report on the Feasibility of the Lifestyle Intervention Programme. Diabetologia, 42, 793-801. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001250051229
Ackermann, R.T., et al. (2009) Changes in Health State Utilities with Changes in Body Mass in the Diabetes Prevention Program. Obesity (Silver Spring), 17, 2176-2181. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2009.114
Ramachandran, A., et al. (2007) Cost-Effectiveness of the Interventions in the Primary Prevention of Diabetes among Asian Indians: Within-Trial Results of the Indian Diabetes Prevention Programme (IDPP). Diabetes Care, 30, 2548-2552. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc07-0150
Sepah, S.C., Jiang, L. and Peters, A.L. (2014) Translating the Diabetes Prevention Program into an Online Social Network: Validation against CDC Standards. The Diabetes Educator, 40, 435-443. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145721714531339
Taradash, J., Kramer, M., Molenaar, D., Arena, V., Vanderwood, K. and Kriska, A.M. (2015) Recruitment for a Diabetes Prevention Program Translation Effort in a Worksite Setting. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 41, 204-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2015.01.010
Carroll, J., et al. (2015) Process Evaluation of Practice-Based Diabetes Prevention Programs: What Are the Implementation Challenges? The Diabetes Educator, 41, 271-279. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145721715572444
World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (2008) Social Injustice Is Killing People on a Grand Scale. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 36, 896-897.
Pratt, M., et al. (2012) The Implications of Megatrends in Information and Communication Technology and Transportation for Changes in Global Physical Activity. The Lancet, 380, 282-293. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60736-3
Sommer, I., et al. (2015) Socioeconomic Inequalities in Non-Communicable Diseases and Their Risk Factors: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. BMC Public Health, 15, 914. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2227-y
Chan, J.C., Zhang, Y. and Ning, G. (2014) Diabetes in China: A Societal Solution for a Personal Challenge. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 2, 969-979. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(14)70144-5
Peykari, N., et al. (2015) Diabetes Research in Middle East Countries: A Scientometrics Study from 1990 to 2012. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 20, 253-262.
Levin, C. and Chisholm, D. (2016) Cost-Effectiveness and Affordability of Interventions, Policies, and Platforms for the Prevention and Treatment of Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders, in Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders. In: Patel, V., et al., Ed., Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders: Disease Control Priorities, 3d Edition, Vol. 4, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, Washington DC.
Misra, A. and Khurana, L. (2008) Obesity and the Metabolic Syndrome in Developing Countries. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 93, S9-S30. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2008-1595
World Health Organization (2003) WHO Mortality Database.
Verani, J.R., et al. (2015) Burden of Invasive Nontyphoidal Salmonella Disease in a Rural and Urban Site in Kenya, 2009-2014. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 61, S302-S309. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/civ728
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Watts, J. (2003) Forum Debates Private Sector Role in Global Water Supply. The Lancet, 361, 1022-1023. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)12849-8
Judd, M.C., et al. (2015) The Role of HIV in the Household Introduction and Transmission of Influenza in an Urban Slum, Nairobi, Kenya, 2008-2011. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 212, 740-744. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiv106
Davis, S.M., et al. (2014) Soil-Transmitted Helminths in Pre-School-Aged and School-Aged Children in an Urban Slum: A Cross-Sectional Study of Prevalence, Distribution, and Associated Exposures. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 91, 1002-1010. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.14-0060
Furukawa, N.W., et al. (2016) Serologic Evidence for Hepatitis E Virus Infection among Patients with Undifferentiated Acute Febrile Illness in Kibera, Kenya. Journal of Clinical Virology, 77, 106-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2016.02.021
Wong, J.M., et al. (2015) Increased Rates of Respiratory and Diarrheal Illnesses in HIV-Negative Persons Living with HIV-Infected Individuals in a Densely Populated Urban Slum in Kenya. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 212, 745-753. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiv107
Katz, D.F., A. Yuan, and Y. Gao (2015) Vaginal Drug Distribution Modeling. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 92, 2-13.
Kiser, P.F., T.J. Johnson, and J.T. Clark (2012) State of the Art in Intravaginal Ring Technology for Topical Prophylaxis of HIV Infection. AIDS Reviews, 14, 62-77.
Jawhari, B., et al. (2016) Barriers and Facilitators to Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Use in an Urban Slum. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 94, 246-254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2016.07.015
Gopalan, A., et al. (2016) Health-Specific Information and Communication Technology Use and Its Relationship to Obesity in High-Poverty, Urban Communities: Analysis of a Population-Based Biosocial Survey. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18, e182. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.5741
De Smalen, A.W., Ghorab, H., Abd El Ghany, M. and Hill-Cawthorne, G.A. (2017) Refugees and Antimicrobial Resistance: A Systematic Review. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 15, 23-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2016.12.001
Sonne, C., Carlsson, J., Bech, P. and Mortensen, E.L. (2017) Pharmacological Treatment of Refugees with Trauma-Related Disorders: What Do We Know Today? Transcultural Psychiatry, 54, 260-280. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461516682180
Blauw, H., Keith-Hynes, P., Koops, R. and DeVries, J.H. (2016) A Review of Safety and Design Requirements of the Artificial Pancreas. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 44, 3158-3172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-016-1679-2
Thabit, H. and R. Hovorka (2016) Coming of Age: The Artificial Pancreas for Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetologia, 59, 1795-1805. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-016-4022-4
Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Sullivan, M. and McNeil, J. (2014) Social Determinants and lifestyle Risk Factors Only Partially Explain the Higher Prevalence of Food Insecurity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Australian State of Victoria: A Cross-Sectional Study. BMC Public Health, 14, 598. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-598
Zahran, H.S., et al. (2005) Health-Related Quality of Life Surveillance—United States, 1993-2002. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 54, 1-35.
(2007) Tackling Global Poverty. Nature Nanotechnology, 2, 661. https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.349
(2005) The State of the World’s Children. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2004. New York.
Dying for Change. Poor People’s Experience of Health and Ill-Health, 2001. World Health Organization, Switzerland.
Tollefson, J. (2015) Can Randomized Trials Eliminate Global Poverty? Nature, 524, 150-153. https://doi.org/10.1038/524150a
Arredondo, A. (2016) Universal Coverage and Economic Burden from Epidemiological Changes of Diabetes in Latin America. Journal of Global Health, 6, Article ID: 020309. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.06.020309
Eriksson, J., et al. (1999) Prevention of Type II Diabetes in Subjects with Impaired Glucose Tolerance: The Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) in Finland. Study Design and 1-year Interim Report on the Feasibility of the Lifestyle Intervention Programme. Diabetologia, 42, 793-801. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001250051229
Ackermann, R.T., et al. (2009) Changes in Health State Utilities with Changes in Body Mass in the Diabetes Prevention Program. Obesity (Silver Spring), 17, 2176-2181. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2009.114
Ramachandran, A., et al. (2007) Cost-Effectiveness of the Interventions in the Primary Prevention of Diabetes among Asian Indians: Within-Trial Results of the Indian Diabetes Prevention Programme (IDPP). Diabetes Care, 30, 2548-2552. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc07-0150
Sepah, S.C., Jiang, L. and Peters, A.L. (2014) Translating the Diabetes Prevention Program into an Online Social Network: Validation against CDC Standards. The Diabetes Educator, 40, 435-443. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145721714531339
Taradash, J., Kramer, M., Molenaar, D., Arena, V., Vanderwood, K. and Kriska, A.M. (2015) Recruitment for a Diabetes Prevention Program Translation Effort in a Worksite Setting. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 41, 204-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2015.01.010
Carroll, J., et al. (2015) Process Evaluation of Practice-Based Diabetes Prevention Programs: What Are the Implementation Challenges? The Diabetes Educator, 41, 271-279. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145721715572444
World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (2008) Social Injustice Is Killing People on a Grand Scale. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 36, 896-897.
Pratt, M., et al. (2012) The Implications of Megatrends in Information and Communication Technology and Transportation for Changes in Global Physical Activity. The Lancet, 380, 282-293. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60736-3
Sommer, I., et al. (2015) Socioeconomic Inequalities in Non-Communicable Diseases and Their Risk Factors: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. BMC Public Health, 15, 914. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2227-y
Chan, J.C., Zhang, Y. and Ning, G. (2014) Diabetes in China: A Societal Solution for a Personal Challenge. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 2, 969-979. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(14)70144-5
Peykari, N., et al. (2015) Diabetes Research in Middle East Countries: A Scientometrics Study from 1990 to 2012. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 20, 253-262.
Levin, C. and Chisholm, D. (2016) Cost-Effectiveness and Affordability of Interventions, Policies, and Platforms for the Prevention and Treatment of Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders, in Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders. In: Patel, V., et al., Ed., Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders: Disease Control Priorities, 3d Edition, Vol. 4, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, Washington DC.
Misra, A. and Khurana, L. (2008) Obesity and the Metabolic Syndrome in Developing Countries. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 93, S9-S30. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2008-1595
World Health Organization (2003) WHO Mortality Database.
Verani, J.R., et al. (2015) Burden of Invasive Nontyphoidal Salmonella Disease in a Rural and Urban Site in Kenya, 2009-2014. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 61, S302-S309. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/civ728
Rush, E.C. (2013) Water: Neglected, Unappreciated and under Researched. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 67, 492-495. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.11
Vorosmarty, C.J., Green, P., Salisbury, J. and Lammers, R.B. (2000) Global Water Resources: Vulnerability from Climate Change and Population Growth. Science, 289, 284-288. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5477.284
Watts, J. (2003) Forum Debates Private Sector Role in Global Water Supply. The Lancet, 361, 1022-1023. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)12849-8
Judd, M.C., et al. (2015) The Role of HIV in the Household Introduction and Transmission of Influenza in an Urban Slum, Nairobi, Kenya, 2008-2011. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 212, 740-744. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiv106
Davis, S.M., et al. (2014) Soil-Transmitted Helminths in Pre-School-Aged and School-Aged Children in an Urban Slum: A Cross-Sectional Study of Prevalence, Distribution, and Associated Exposures. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 91, 1002-1010. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.14-0060
Furukawa, N.W., et al. (2016) Serologic Evidence for Hepatitis E Virus Infection among Patients with Undifferentiated Acute Febrile Illness in Kibera, Kenya. Journal of Clinical Virology, 77, 106-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2016.02.021
Wong, J.M., et al. (2015) Increased Rates of Respiratory and Diarrheal Illnesses in HIV-Negative Persons Living with HIV-Infected Individuals in a Densely Populated Urban Slum in Kenya. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 212, 745-753. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiv107
Katz, D.F., A. Yuan, and Y. Gao (2015) Vaginal Drug Distribution Modeling. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 92, 2-13.
Kiser, P.F., T.J. Johnson, and J.T. Clark (2012) State of the Art in Intravaginal Ring Technology for Topical Prophylaxis of HIV Infection. AIDS Reviews, 14, 62-77.
Jawhari, B., et al. (2016) Barriers and Facilitators to Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Use in an Urban Slum. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 94, 246-254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2016.07.015
Gopalan, A., et al. (2016) Health-Specific Information and Communication Technology Use and Its Relationship to Obesity in High-Poverty, Urban Communities: Analysis of a Population-Based Biosocial Survey. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18, e182. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.5741
De Smalen, A.W., Ghorab, H., Abd El Ghany, M. and Hill-Cawthorne, G.A. (2017) Refugees and Antimicrobial Resistance: A Systematic Review. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 15, 23-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2016.12.001
Sonne, C., Carlsson, J., Bech, P. and Mortensen, E.L. (2017) Pharmacological Treatment of Refugees with Trauma-Related Disorders: What Do We Know Today? Transcultural Psychiatry, 54, 260-280. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461516682180
Blauw, H., Keith-Hynes, P., Koops, R. and DeVries, J.H. (2016) A Review of Safety and Design Requirements of the Artificial Pancreas. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 44, 3158-3172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-016-1679-2
Thabit, H. and R. Hovorka (2016) Coming of Age: The Artificial Pancreas for Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetologia, 59, 1795-1805. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-016-4022-4
Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Sullivan, M. and McNeil, J. (2014) Social Determinants and lifestyle Risk Factors Only Partially Explain the Higher Prevalence of Food Insecurity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Australian State of Victoria: A Cross-Sectional Study. BMC Public Health, 14, 598. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-598
Zahran, H.S., et al. (2005) Health-Related Quality of Life Surveillance—United States, 1993-2002. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 54, 1-35.