Annu Prabhakar

Postpartum Health Information Seeking Using Mobile Phones: Experiences of Low-Income Mothers.

Objectives To assess low-income mothers’ perceptions of their postpartum information needs; describe their information seeking behavior; explore their use of mobile technology to address those needs; and to contribute to the sparse literature on postpartum health and wellness. Methods Exploratory community-based qualitative approach. Interviewees were recruited among clients of community partners and had children aged 48 months and under. A survey assessing demographics was used to identify low-income mothers. 10 low-income mothers were recruited from survey participants to complete in-depth interviews regarding postpartum information needs, information seeking, and technology use. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded by three researchers independently. Narratives were analyzed along predetermined (etic) and emergent (emic) categories. Results Establishing breastfeeding and solving breastfeeding problems were central postpartum concerns leading to information seeking. Interviewees reported almost exclusive use of mobile phones to access the Internet. Mobile applications were widely used during pregnancy, but were not valuable postpartum. Face-to-face information from medical professionals was found to be repetitive. Online information seeking was mediated by default mobile phone search engines, and occurred over short, fragmented time periods. College graduates reported searching for authoritative knowledge sources; non-graduates preferred forums. Conclusions for Practice Low-income postpartum women rely on their smartphones to find online infant care and self-care health information. Websites replace pregnancy-related mobile applications and complement face-to-face information. Changes in searching behavior and multitasking mean information must be easily accessible and readily understood. Knowledge of page-rank systems and use of current and emergent social media will allow health-related organizations to better engage with low-income mothers online and promote evidence-based information.

An implementation of a core curriculum in an information technology degree program

This paper will layout the University of Cincinnatis efforts in creating the core curriculum for an information technology degree program to be started in the autumn quarter of 2004. By core, we are referring to coursework required by all information technology majors no matter their chosen area of specialization: networking, software development or web technologies. The work done creating this information technology groundwork for students is based on ACM SIGITEs initial implementation of IT curriculum guidelines. Input for the IT core was also obtained from faculty, students, and industry partners. Processes by which specific course offerings were chosen will be detailed: objectives of the core and courses, desired outcomes for students, content, and associated hands-on activities. In all, the paper will present a means by which the core curriculum can be successfully implemented in information technology programs at other universities that are interested in such an endeavor.

An implementation of secondary tracks in an information technology degree program

This paper will layout the University of Cincinnatis efforts in creating the secondary track curriculum for an information technology degree program to be started in the autumn quarter of 2004. By secondary track, we are referring to coursework required by all information technology majors in their secondary area of specialization. Five options are made available to students as their secondary area: database management, digital media, networking, software development or web technologies. The work done creating this secondary track for students is based on ACM SIGITEs initial implementation of IT curriculum guidelines. Input for the secondary track curriculum was also obtained from faculty, students, and industry partners. Processes by which specific course offerings were chosen will be detailed; objectives of the secondary track courses, desired outcomes for students, content, and associated hands-on activities. In all, the paper will present a means by which the secondary track curriculum can be successfully implemented in information technology programs at other universities that are interested in such an endeavor.

An implementation of a software development track in an information technology degree program

This paper will layout the University of Cincinnatis efforts in creating a software development track specialization for an information technology (IT) degree program to be started in the autumn quarter of 2004. The work done creating such an academic specialization for students is based on ACM SIGITEs initial implementation of IT curriculum guidelines. Input for the IT software development specialty was also obtained from faculty, students, and industry partners. Processes by which specific course offerings were chosen will be detailed; objectives of the track and courses, desired outcomes for students, content, and associated hands-on activities. In all, the paper will present a means by which a software development track can be successfully implemented in information technology programs at other universities that are interested in such an endeavor.

Investigating the Suitability of the Asynchronous, Remote, Community-based Method for Pregnant and New Mothers

Traditional qualitative research methods, such as, interviews and focus groups, may not be feasible for certain populations- who face time, mobility, and availability constraints. We adapted the Asynchronous, Remote, Community-based (ARC) method that used closed Facebook groups to study people with rare diseases, to study a different population - pregnant and new mothers. During the course of eight weeks, we engaged 48 participants in 19 study activities using three closed Facebook groups. We added new activities to the original ARC method, informed by past HCI research, to triangulate participant input. We carefully analyzed participation patterns and activity engagement, to assess the suitability of the ARC method for engaging pregnant and new mothers in remote, group-based, qualitative research. We provide an in-depth analysis of the ARC method, noting participation characteristics, activity preferences, and the suitability of the ARC method as an online focus group.

let me know if you need anything: support realities of new mothers

This paper presents findings from a study conducted with 48 pregnant and new mothers to understand their support needs and support sources. We engaged 10 first-time pregnant women, 20 pregnant mothers, and 18 new mothers in eight weeks of research activities using closed Facebook groups. The activities included surveys, open ended questions, creative tasks, and discussions. Our findings indicate that mothers most value instrumental support: physical help in tasks, such as laundry and cooking. Our findings also show that support needs and support sources of women evolve as they go through pregnancy, childbirth, and stages of motherhood. Informed by these findings, we propose a design framework - the Evolving Ecology of Support (EES) - and provide examples on how the Pervasive Health community can develop empowering and support enabling solutions.

Lessons Learned from Conducting Group-Based Research on Facebook

Existing research methods are largely intended to be conducted co-located and synchronously with a study population, but this approach is not feasible with remote or distributed populations. We describe a group-based study we conducted asynchronously on Facebook with a remote population. This study made use of adapted versions of a number of commonly used HCI research methods. We provide a thorough description of our research process, and a discussion of the lessons learned from this approach.

Boosting for postpartum depression prediction

Pregnancy and childbirth are important transitional life events for women. Like many other transitional life events, the effects of pregnancy and childbirth can have significant impact on a mothers physical and mental well-being. Sometimes they can even lead to Postpartum Depression (PPD). If left untreated, PPD can be debilitating for the mother and can adversely affect her ability to take care of herself and her infant. Since PPD is not clinically diagnosable, we consider the problem of predicting PPD from survey data about demographics, depression, and pregnancy etc. We adapt the successful functional-gradient boosting algorithm that can handle class imbalance in a principled manner. Our results demonstrate that the proposed machine learning approach can outperform the baseline classifiers and, consequently, demonstrate the potential of machine learning in predicting PPD.

Designing for Compassion Cultivation

My research focuses on designing impactful support interventions for new mothers. I have completed two needs assessment studies to understand the support needs and support network structures of new mothers. Findings from my studies identified a gap in the expected and received support for new mothers. This gap can lead to adverse outcomes for both mother and infant. Prior research shows that compassion motivates people to act upon their empathy for another persons suffering through helpful behaviors to alleviate that suffering. The main objective of the next phase of my research is to design interventions that cultivate compassion towards new mothers in order to narrow the support gap identified. This research can inspire HCI designers to integrate compassion cultivation into support interventions.

Real-world project experience for IT students through honors scholars program

The purpose of this poster presentation is to describe how the honors scholars program at the College of Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati helped Information Technology (IT) students to implement real-world projects, engaged in community service and thus enriched their student life. A team of students and faculty in the Honors program and the construction professionals at the Messer Construction Company developed a web based knowledge base to tap the experience o construction professionals in the company. Through the honors credits projects students developed web sites for community organizations.