Rocío Rodríguez-Rey

Background: The adoption of mobile health (mHealth) technologies among older adults remains significantly lower than in younger populations, despite their potential to promote healthier lifestyles and mitigate age-related health risks. Objective: This study aims to explore the perspectives of retirement-age adults on mHealth interventions, identifying factors that influence their adoption, such as persuasive elements in the app design and psychological techniques. Methods: A qualitative focus group study was conducted with 19 Spanish participants recruited from urban community settings in Madrid, Spain (mean age 61.5 years; 15/19, 79% women). Participants discussed their attitudes, barriers, and preferences for mHealth tools. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and coded using an iterative process to ensure rigorous data analysis. An abductive approach was followed, using the persuasive design principles framework and the behavior change techniques’ taxonomy, and representing any theme outside those frameworks. Results: Participants expressed generally positive attitudes toward mHealth tools, favoring intuitive, user-friendly designs that are minimally time-demanding. However, significant barriers also emerged, such as low digital literacy and concerns about technology dependence. Key design preferences (persuasive design principles) and psychological techniques (behavior change techniques) were deemed beneficial, with preferred features such as tailored and meaningful goal-setting, self-monitoring, positive feedback (eg, congratulating messages after achieving a goal; social rewards), and a moderated use of notifications and prompts. Participants also stressed the importance of age-appropriate recommendations (eg, suggested diets for their age and characteristics) and design (eg, accessible, easy-to-use interfaces and human-like communication). Additionally, some preferences appeared to be culturally grounded (eg, rejection of anglicisms and the desire for locally relevant content, such as suggested activities specific to Madrid). Social support mechanisms, such as group activities and peer interactions through mHealth, were seen as critical for fostering motivation and engagement. Conclusions: mHealth interventions for this population should offer accessible and easy-to-use interfaces along with initial tutorials, facilitating an easy onboarding to overcome low digital literacy, thereby enhancing both usability and initial adoption. Furthermore, by providing meaningful, tailored content (eg, personalized diets and goals) and social features that foster peer connection (eg, user chats or organized activities), these tools may better support sustained engagement over time.

BACKGROUND The adoption of mobile health (mHealth) technologies among older adults remains significantly lower than in younger populations, despite their potential to promote healthier lifestyles and mitigate age-related health risks. OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore the perspectives of retirement-age adults on mHealth interventions, identifying factors that influence their adoption, such as persuasive elements in the app design and psychological techniques. METHODS A qualitative focus group study was conducted with 19 Spanish participants recruited from urban community settings in Madrid, Spain (mean age 61.5 years; 15/19, 79% women). Participants discussed their attitudes, barriers, and preferences for mHealth tools. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and coded using an iterative process to ensure rigorous data analysis. An abductive approach was followed, using the persuasive design principles framework and the behavior change techniques’ taxonomy, and representing any theme outside those frameworks. RESULTS Participants expressed generally positive attitudes toward mHealth tools, favoring intuitive, user-friendly designs that are minimally time-demanding. However, significant barriers also emerged, such as low digital literacy and concerns about technology dependence. Key design preferences (persuasive design principles) and psychological techniques (behavior change techniques) were deemed beneficial, with preferred features such as tailored and meaningful goal-setting, self-monitoring, positive feedback (eg, congratulating messages after achieving a goal; social rewards), and a moderated use of notifications and prompts. Participants also stressed the importance of age-appropriate recommendations (eg, suggested diets for their age and characteristics) and design (eg, accessible, easy-to-use interfaces and human-like communication). Additionally, some preferences appeared to be culturally grounded (eg, rejection of anglicisms and the desire for locally relevant content, such as suggested activities specific to Madrid). Social support mechanisms, such as group activities and peer interactions through mHealth, were seen as critical for fostering motivation and engagement. CONCLUSIONS mHealth interventions for this population should offer accessible and easy-to-use interfaces along with initial tutorials, facilitating an easy onboarding to overcome low digital literacy, thereby enhancing both usability and initial adoption. Furthermore, by providing meaningful, tailored content (eg, personalized diets and goals) and social features that foster peer connection (eg, user chats or organized activities), these tools may better support sustained engagement over time.

Objective: To assess the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the police and armed forces. Methods: Participants (N = 242) completed an online survey that assessed posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), burnout, emotional suppression, and labor and sociodemographic variables. Mean difference, correlation, and stepwise linear regression tests were performed. Results: One-third of participants showed severe PTSS, linked to patrolling duties, very frequent contact with other people, fear of contagion, perceived pandemic severity, living with at-risk people, taking a COVID-19 test, working more than normal, suffering an assault, having little vacation, and having to distance from loved ones. PTSS also correlated with the burnout dimensions and emotional suppression. Three-quarters had not received any support from their workplace. Conclusions: Effective interventions to optimize these professionals’ personal, social, and working conditions are needed.

Aims: This study explores the mediational role of resilience, experiential avoidance and emotion regulation in the levels of anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of healthcare workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Additionally, we explored the association of such levels with personal and professional variables.Design: Cross‐sectional study.Methods: Healthcare professionals working in Spain (N = 786) were recruited following a snowball approach in November and December 2021. Resilience, emotion regulation, experiential avoidance, depression, anxiety, PTSD and work‐related variables were measured. Mean differences and correlations were computed, and a path analysis with latent variables (PALV) model was tested.Results: In total, 18.8% of the sample scored above the cut‐off score for depression, 24.6% for anxiety and 36.4% for PTSD. Higher resilience and lower experiential avoidance and expression suppression were correlated with better mental health. The PALV model explained 42%–53% of mental health outcomes. Experiential avoidance showed the greatest explanatory power and mediated the impact that stressors had on mental health. Some work‐related variables correlated with greater psychological impact. These factors encompassed being a nurse, feeling that their job remained stressful and had not yet returned to its pre‐pandemic state and having interacted with individuals facing economic difficulties due to the pandemic, and those who had lost their lives to COVID‐19.Conclusion: Healthcare workers showed high levels of psychological impact during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Such impact was predicted from some work‐stress variables and the reliance on maladaptive strategies such as experiential avoidance and expressive suppression.Impact: Training healthcare professionals to use coping strategies incompatible with experiential avoidance may improve their mental health. Additionally, better working conditions are fundamental for reducing the impact of critical situations on healthcare workers' mental health.Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution.

Background: The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) and its Short Form (PTGI-SF) are two instruments highly used in research on posttraumatic growth. They include a religious growth item that has been demonstrated to be problematic in cultures that are not very religious. Previous research has addressed this issue in other countries, but no attention has been paid to this critical problem in Spanish samples.