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    Health claim effects on consumer acceptability, emotional responses, and purchase intent of protein bars
    (Elsevier B.V., 2022-03-11) Thakur M; Sharma C; Mehta A; Torrico DD
    Consumers are seeking product's claims to make their daily food purchase decisions more informed. In this context, health claims can communicate to consumers about nutrient-specific health benefits. The objective of this research was to study the effect of health claims, in textual form, on consumers' acceptability, emotional responses, and purchase decisions regarding protein bars. For this study, four protein bars were selected by a focus group (N = 6) based on acceptability. A total of N = 80 participants evaluated the pre-selected protein bars in two different tasting sessions [(1) Blind, where no information was provided, and (2) Informed, where health-related information of protein bars was provided]. Participants rated their liking for different sensory attributes (appearance, aroma, taste, texture, sweetness, bitterness, and aftertaste) and overall liking using a 9-point hedonic scale. Check-all-that-apply (CATA) was used to study emotions and 22 terms related to sensory attributes of the protein bar. There was a non-significant increase in the purchase intent for three out of four samples in session 2 but it was found to be high for the sample associated with positive emotions. Overall, this study showed that taste overpowered the health claims (expressed in textual form) on the acceptability. There were, however, slight effects of the health claims on the elicited emotions of consumers towards the protein bars.
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    A user-centred approach to the design and evaluation of a patient information manual : this thesis supports a practice-based research project for the fulfilment of a Master of Design Degree, College of Design, Fine Arts and Music, Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Duthie, Glenna
    In our current technological environment, designers are encouraged to identify, define and meet people's needs by undertaking user-centred research, working with experts in other fields, and by becoming 'producers' of their own designs. In this thesis the designer has taken on these roles to address information and communications issues in the health sector. This research study seeks to improve the heath care and healing processes of adolescent patients by a practical application of visual communications design. The research takes a holistic approach by considering the social, therapeutic, and creative needs of adolescent patients as they relate to the use of typography, illustration, colour, and packaging design. Information design, communications theory, and play therapy inform the approach taken. Educational and recreational resources designed for adolescent patients are virtually non-existent in New Zealand hospitals. Instead, most of the information relating to the hospital services and the patients' conditions and treatment is communicated verbally by the hospital staff. This can disadvantage adolescent patients who tend to dislike communicating with people in positions of authority. Because adolescents have been found to be highly visually literate, adolescent patients needs can best be addressed by innovative visual communications design solutions. The designer used both quantitative and qualitative research methods to investigate the complexity of adolescent patients' needs. Because the questionnaire survey of adolescent patients and the interviews with health professionals were conducted in hospitals in Auckland and Wellington, the designer was faced with the daunting task of getting approval from three separate ethics committees and from the related clinical boards before the research could be conducted. However the many administrators and hospital staff approached willingly gave their time to help ensure that the resulting design would be both appropriate and relevant. With the research findings, the designer succeeded in developing a comprehensive communications system involving informative pamphlets, games, and activities that addressed the needs identified in the research. The designer also developed a packaging system that contained and displayed its contents in an appealing and innovative way. This thesis must be read in conjunction with the practice-based component of the research study described in chapter 5 (page 65-91). Ongoing evaluations with health professionals and adolescent patients have suggested modifications to improve the design and have also confirmed that the resulting Patient Information Manual (PIM) is both highly appropriate and extremely helpful in addressing adolescent patients' needs. There has already been widespread interest and offers of support to help ensure that this design is available for use in public hospitals in New Zealand.
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    Knowledge construction in health support group online discussions : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management Information Systems, School of Management, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Ghazali, Achmad
    The ongoing transition to the patient-centred healthcare paradigm suggests that patients adopt an active role in managing their health conditions. As the result, the Internet is becoming an important source of health-related information. Internet-based health support groups allow patients to access diverse information relevant to their particular situation by participating in online discussions. The quality of such information may have effects on the patients’ outcomes. According to social constructivism, knowledge in online discussions is constructed in interactions between the individuals involved, as recommendations made over the discussion are clarified and scrutinized. Therefore, knowledge construction is likely to affect the quality of health-related information generated in health support group online discussions. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of knowledge construction in health support group online discussions on perceived information quality, information quality from the perspective of information consumers, and on information integrity, information validity from the point of view of the current state of scientific knowledge. It was hypothesized that knowledge construction results in better perceived information quality and in higher information integrity. A health support group online discussion site devoted to weight management was used as a source of data. Quantitative content analysis was used, with a discussion thread as a unit of analysis. Knowledge construction was operationalized as a two-dimensional construct with the dimensions of explicitation (lower level knowledge construction activities) and evaluation (higher level knowledge construction activities). The coding scheme was based on the prior studies of knowledge construction in the field of e-Learning. Perceived information quality was operationalized by adapting an existing measure from survey-based research. Information integrity was operationalized by using a simplified Delphi technique—health-related recommendations were extracted from the discussion content by coders and were assessed by domain experts. Explicitation was found to affect perceived information quality with a medium effect size. Evaluation did not affect perceived information quality, and information integrity was not affected by any of the dimensions of knowledge construction. Thus, low level knowledge construction contributed to perceived information quality, resulting in health-related information that is more relevant and useful from the perspective of its consumers. Nonetheless, knowledge construction activities were not found to result in higher prevalence of scientifically sound recommendations. Based on the findings, the study suggested that moderators of health support group online discussions should promote explicitation by encouraging clarifications and refinements of health-related recommendations. Moreover, participation of qualified health practitioners is desirable to promote health-related behaviours based on evidence-based knowledge and to expose recommendations that have uncertain or even dangerous effects.
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    Studies of EHR implementation and operation in different countries with particular reference to Saudi Arabia : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of degree of Master in Information Science at Massey University, Albany campus, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Alsahafi, Yaser Abdulaziz
    Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have led to a significant transformation in the healthcare sector. EHRs have improved the nature of healthcare delivery in the various healthcare organizations. While recognizing the changes in healthcare sector, this thesis studied the implementation and the use of EHRs in four developed countries, the United State (US), United Kingdom (UK), Australia and New Zealand and one developing country, Saudi Arabia. By employing primary and secondary literature, EHR’s benefits, challenges, success factors as well as lessons for developing countries were identified. The implementation of the EHRs in the ambulatory care was almost universal in the UK, Australia and New Zealand (each >90%), except the US which is lagging behind (46%). The low rate of EHR adoption in the US was attributed to factors such as lack of requirements imposing the use of computers in medical practises. Although, there is no good data for the use of EHRs in hospitals in the studied countries, EHR use remains uncommon in hospital settings. The use of EHRs in Saudi Arabia is uncommon; however several projects have been established by the government of Saudi Arabia to increase the awareness of such technologies as well as to develop strategies for implementing EHRs. Saudi Arabia and other developing countries should learn the best practices from developed countries and that it is important that they come up with initiatives and legislations to support the implementation of EHRs. Currently, all of the studied countries set the implementation of a national EHR as a priority in their healthcare system reform. Two approaches for the presentation of national EHR database were identified in the developed countries; centralised or distributed. While EHR provides various benefits to clinicians, patients and healthcare managers, its implementation poses many challenges such as confidentiality, privacy, security, lack of standards, start-up cost and content of discharge summary. To achieve successful implementation of EHRs, factors such as leadership, organization structure, goals, visions, communication, organization culture and workflow redesign should be considered.