Use of a mobile app to capture supplemental health information during pregnancy: Implications for clinical research

Impact of a primary care pharmacist consultations on pregnant women's medication use: the SafeStart intervention study linked to a national prescription database

BACKGROUND

Prior studies show that pharmacist consultations are highly appreciated by pregnant women and feasible in community pharmacies. However, it is unknown whether such counseling has an impact on medication use during pregnancy.

AIM

This study aimed to assess whether a pharmacist consultation in early pregnancy was associated with pregnant women's medication use, with a focus on antiemetic medications.

METHOD

The SafeStart study recruited Norwegian pregnant women in the first trimester between February 2018 and February 2019. Women in the intervention group received a pharmacist consultation in a community pharmacy or by phone. A follow-up questionnaire was completed 13 weeks after enrollment. Data from the SafeStart study were linked to the Norwegian Prescription Database. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between the pharmacist intervention and medication use in the second trimester.

RESULTS

The study included 103 women in the intervention group and 126 in the control group. Overall prescription fills in the first and second trimesters were 55% and 45% (intervention group) and 49% and 52% (control group), respectively. In total, 16-20% of women in the first trimester and 21-27% of women in the second trimester had a prescription for antiemetics. The pharmacist intervention was not associated with women's medication use in the second trimester.

CONCLUSION

This study did not detect an impact of a pharmacist consultation on pregnant women's use of medications. In the future, pharmacist consultations should focus on other outcome factors, such as risk perception, knowledge level, and the use of other health care services. Trial registration The SafeStart study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT04182750, registration date: December 2, 2019).

Exploiting Mobile Gamification to Foster Physical Activity: A Remotely-Managed Field Study

Physical inactivity is a plague for public health, especially in Western Countries. Among the countermeasures, mobile applications promoting physical activity seem particularly promising, thanks to the spread and adoption of mobile devices. However, the dropout rates of users are high, thereby calling for strategies to increase retention rates. Moreover, user testing can be problematic, because it is typically conducted in a laboratory, leading to a limited ecological validity. In the present research, we developed a custom mobile app to promote physical activity. Three versions of the app were implemented, each featuring a different pattern of gamification elements. Moreover, the app was designed to work as a self-managed experimental platform. A remote field study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the different versions of the app. Behavioral log data of physical activity and interaction with the app were collected. Our results show the feasibility of using a mobile app running on personal devices as an independently managed experimental platform. Moreover, we found that gamification elements per se do not ensure higher retention rates, rather it emerged that the richer combination of gamified elements was effective.

The US Food and Drug Administration Sentinel System: a national resource for a learning health system

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created the Sentinel System in response to a requirement in the FDA Amendments Act of 2007 that the agency establish a system for monitoring risks associated with drug and biologic products using data from disparate sources. The Sentinel System has completed hundreds of analyses, including many that have directly informed regulatory decisions. The Sentinel System also was designed to support a national infrastructure for a learning health system. Sentinel governance and guiding principles were designed to facilitate Sentinel's role as a national resource. The Sentinel System infrastructure now supports multiple non-FDA projects for stakeholders ranging from regulated industry to other federal agencies, international regulators, and academics. The Sentinel System is a working example of a learning health system that is expanding with the potential to create a global learning health system that can support medical product safety assessments and other research.