354 results on '"Gruebner, Oliver'
Search Results
2. Mental health challenges and digital platform opportunities in patients and families affected by pediatric neuromuscular diseases - experiences from Switzerland
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Oliver Gruebner, Afua van Haasteren, Anna Hug, Suzanne Elayan, Martin Sykora, Emiliano Albanese, Georg M. Stettner, Veronika Waldboth, Sandra Messmer-Khosla, Cornelia Enzmann, Dominique Baumann, Viktor von Wyl, Marta Fadda, Markus Wolf, and Michael von Rhein
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Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics ,R858-859.7 - Abstract
Receiving the diagnosis of a severe disease may present a traumatic event for patients and their families. To cope with the related challenges, digital interventions can be combined with traditional psychological support to help meet respective needs. We aimed to 1) discuss the most common consequences and challenges for resilience in Neuro Muscular Disease patients and family members and 2) elicit practical needs, concerns, and opportunities for digital platform use. We draw from findings of a transdisciplinary workshop and conference with participants ranging from the fields of clinical practice to patient representatives. Reported consequences of the severe diseases were related to psychosocial challenges, living in the nexus between physical development and disease progression, social exclusion, care-related challenges, structural and financial challenges, and non-inclusive urban design. Practical needs and concerns regarding digital platform use included social and professional support through these platforms, credibility and trust in online information, and concerns about privacy and informed consent. Furthermore, the need for safe, reliable, and expert-guided information on digital platforms and psychosocial and relationship-based digital interventions was expressed. There is a need to focus on a family-centered approach in digital health and social care and a further need in researching the suitability of digital platforms to promote resilience in the affected population. Our results can also inform city councils regarding investments in inclusive urban design allowing for disability affected groups to enjoy a better quality of life.
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- 2023
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3. From pandemic to endemic: Spatial-temporal patterns of influenza-like illness incidence in a Swiss canton, 1918–1924
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Bernhard, Marco, Leuch, Corina, Kordi, Maryam, Gruebner, Oliver, Matthes, Katarina L., Floris, Joël, and Staub, Kaspar
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- 2023
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4. Challenges and best practices for digital unstructured data enrichment in health research: A systematic narrative review.
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Jana Sedlakova, Paola Daniore, Andrea Horn Wintsch, Markus Wolf, Mina Stanikic, Christina Haag, Chloé Sieber, Gerold Schneider, Kaspar Staub, Dominik Alois Ettlin, Oliver Grübner, Fabio Rinaldi, Viktor von Wyl, and University of Zurich Digital Society Initiative (UZH-DSI) Health Community
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Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics ,R858-859.7 - Abstract
Digital data play an increasingly important role in advancing health research and care. However, most digital data in healthcare are in an unstructured and often not readily accessible format for research. Unstructured data are often found in a format that lacks standardization and needs significant preprocessing and feature extraction efforts. This poses challenges when combining such data with other data sources to enhance the existing knowledge base, which we refer to as digital unstructured data enrichment. Overcoming these methodological challenges requires significant resources and may limit the ability to fully leverage their potential for advancing health research and, ultimately, prevention, and patient care delivery. While prevalent challenges associated with unstructured data use in health research are widely reported across literature, a comprehensive interdisciplinary summary of such challenges and possible solutions to facilitate their use in combination with structured data sources is missing. In this study, we report findings from a systematic narrative review on the seven most prevalent challenge areas connected with the digital unstructured data enrichment in the fields of cardiology, neurology and mental health, along with possible solutions to address these challenges. Based on these findings, we developed a checklist that follows the standard data flow in health research studies. This checklist aims to provide initial systematic guidance to inform early planning and feasibility assessments for health research studies aiming combining unstructured data with existing data sources. Overall, the generality of reported unstructured data enrichment methods in the studies included in this review call for more systematic reporting of such methods to achieve greater reproducibility in future studies.
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- 2023
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5. A global portrait of expressed mental health signals towards COVID-19 in social media space
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Wang, Siqin, Huang, Xiao, Hu, Tao, She, Bing, Zhang, Mengxi, Wang, Ruomei, Gruebner, Oliver, Imran, Muhammad, Corcoran, Jonathan, Liu, Yan, and Bao, Shuming
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- 2023
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6. Opportunities and challenges of using social media big data to assess mental health consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and future major events
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Martin Tušl, Anja Thelen, Kailing Marcus, Alexandra Peters, Evgeniya Shalaeva, Benjamin Scheckel, Martin Sykora, Suzanne Elayan, John A. Naslund, Ketan Shankardass, Stephen J. Mooney, Marta Fadda, and Oliver Gruebner
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Social media ,Big data ,Mental health ,COVID-19 ,Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,RC321-571 - Abstract
Abstract The present commentary discusses how social media big data could be used in mental health research to assess the impact of major global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We first provide a brief overview of the COVID-19 situation and the challenges associated with the assessment of its global impact on mental health using conventional methods. We then propose social media big data as a possible unconventional data source, provide illustrative examples of previous studies, and discuss the advantages and challenges associated with their use for mental health research. We conclude that social media big data represent a valuable resource for mental health research, however, several methodological limitations and ethical concerns need to be addressed to ensure safe use.
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- 2022
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7. Social media mining under the COVID-19 context: Progress, challenges, and opportunities
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Huang, Xiao, Wang, Siqin, Zhang, Mengxi, Hu, Tao, Hohl, Alexander, She, Bing, Gong, Xi, Li, Jianxin, Liu, Xiao, Gruebner, Oliver, Liu, Regina, Li, Xiao, Liu, Zhewei, Ye, Xinyue, and Li, Zhenlong
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- 2022
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8. A global portrait of expressed mental health signals towards COVID-19 in social media space
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Siqin Wang, Xiao Huang, Tao Hu, Bing She, Mengxi Zhang, Ruomei Wang, Oliver Gruebner, Muhammad Imran, Jonathan Corcoran, Yan Liu, and Shuming Bao
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Negative sentiments ,Multilingual tweets ,Sentiment analysis ,Social media ,Policy implementation ,COVID-19 ,Physical geography ,GB3-5030 ,Environmental sciences ,GE1-350 - Abstract
Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has induced a mental health crisis. Social media data offer a unique opportunity to track the mental health signals of a given population and quantify their negativity towards COVID-19. To date, however, we know little about how negative sentiments differ across countries and how these relate to the shifting policy landscape experienced through the pandemic. Using 2.1 billion individual-level geotagged tweets posted between 1 February 2020 and 31 March 2021, we track, monitor and map the shifts in negativity across 217 countries and unpack its relationship with COVID-19 policies. Findings reveal that there are important geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic disparities of negativity across continents, different levels of a nation’s income, population density, and the level of COVID-19 infection. Countries with more stringent policies were associated with lower levels of negativity, a relationship that weakened in later phases of the pandemic. This study provides the first global and multilingual evaluation of the public’s real-time mental health signals to COVID-19 at a large spatial and temporal scale. We offer an empirical framework to monitor mental health signals globally, helping international authorizations, including the United Nations and World Health Organization, to design smart country-specific mental health initiatives in response to the ongoing pandemic and future public emergencies.
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- 2023
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9. Opportunities and challenges of using social media big data to assess mental health consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and future major events
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Tušl, Martin, Thelen, Anja, Marcus, Kailing, Peters, Alexandra, Shalaeva, Evgeniya, Scheckel, Benjamin, Sykora, Martin, Elayan, Suzanne, Naslund, John A., Shankardass, Ketan, Mooney, Stephen J., Fadda, Marta, and Gruebner, Oliver
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- 2022
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10. Digital Platform Uses for Help and Support Seeking of Parents With Children Affected by Disabilities: Scoping Review
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Oliver Gruebner, Afua van Haasteren, Anna Hug, Suzanne Elayan, Martin Sykora, Emiliano Albanese, John Naslund, Markus Wolf, Marta Fadda, and Michael von Rhein
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Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics ,R858-859.7 ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
BackgroundReceiving a diagnosis that leads to severe disability in childhood can cause a traumatic experience with long-lasting emotional stress for patients and family members. In recent decades, emerging digital technologies have transformed how patients or caregivers of persons with disabilities manage their health conditions. As a result, information (eg, on treatment and resources) has become widely available to patients and their families. Parents and other caregivers can use digital platforms such as websites or social media to derive social support, usually from other patients and caregivers who share their lived experiences, challenges, and successes on these platforms. However, gaps remain in our understanding of platforms that are most frequently used or preferred among parents and caregivers of children with disabilities. In particular, it is not clear what factors primarily drive or discourage engagement with these digital tools and what the main ethical considerations are in relation to these tools. ObjectiveWe aimed to (1) identify prominent digital platforms used by parents or caregivers of children with disabilities; (2) explore the theoretical contexts and reasons for digital platform use, as well as the experiences made with using these platforms reported in the included studies; and (3) identify any privacy and ethical concerns emerging in the available literature in relation to the use of these platforms. MethodsWe conducted a scoping review of 5 academic databases of English-language articles published within the last 10 years for diseases with childhood onset disability and self-help or parent/caregiver-led digital platforms. ResultsWe identified 17 papers in which digital platforms used by parents of affected children predominantly included social media elements but also search engines, health-related apps, and medical websites. Information retrieval and social support were the main reasons for their utilization. Nearly all studies were exploratory and applied either quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. The main ethical concerns for digital platform users included hampered access due to language barriers, privacy issues, and perceived suboptimal advice (eg, due to missing empathy of medical professionals). Older and non–college-educated individuals and ethnic minorities appeared less likely to access information online. ConclusionsThis review showed that limited scientifically sound knowledge exists on digital platform use and needs in the context of disabling conditions in children, as the evidence consists mostly of exploratory studies. We could highlight that affected families seek information and support from digital platforms, as health care systems seem to be insufficient for satisfying knowledge and support needs through traditional channels.
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- 2022
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11. Surgical procedures in inpatient versus outpatient settings and its potential impact on follow-up costs
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Brüngger, Beat, Bähler, Caroline, Schwenkglenks, Matthias, Ulyte, Agne, Dressel, Holger, von Wyl, Viktor, Gruebner, Oliver, Wei, Wenjia, Serra-Burriel, Miquel, and Blozik, Eva
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- 2021
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12. Social media mining under the COVID-19 context: Progress, challenges, and opportunities
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Xiao Huang, Siqin Wang, Mengxi Zhang, Tao Hu, Alexander Hohl, Bing She, Xi Gong, Jianxin Li, Xiao Liu, Oliver Gruebner, Regina Liu, Xiao Li, Zhewei Liu, Xinyue Ye, and Zhenlong Li
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COVID-19 ,Pandemic ,Social media ,Big data ,Data mining ,Physical geography ,GB3-5030 ,Environmental sciences ,GE1-350 - Abstract
Social media platforms allow users worldwide to create and share information, forging vast sensing networks that allow information on certain topics to be collected, stored, mined, and analyzed in a rapid manner. During the COVID-19 pandemic, extensive social media mining efforts have been undertaken to tackle COVID-19 challenges from various perspectives. This review summarizes the progress of social media data mining studies in the COVID-19 contexts and categorizes them into six major domains, including early warning and detection, human mobility monitoring, communication and information conveying, public attitudes and emotions, infodemic and misinformation, and hatred and violence. We further document essential features of publicly available COVID-19 related social media data archives that will benefit research communities in conducting replicable and reproducible studies. In addition, we discuss seven challenges in social media analytics associated with their potential impacts on derived COVID-19 findings, followed by our visions for the possible paths forward in regard to social media-based COVID-19 investigations. This review serves as a valuable reference that recaps social media mining efforts in COVID-19 related studies and provides future directions along which the information harnessed from social media can be used to address public health emergencies.
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- 2022
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13. Mental Health and Treatment Considerations for Urban Populations
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Morese, Rosalba, primary, Naslund, John A., additional, Galea, Sandro, additional, and Gruebner, Oliver, additional
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- 2022
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14. Small Area Variation of Adherence to Clinical Recommendations: An Example from Switzerland
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Oliver Gruebner, Wenjia Wei, Agne Ulyte, Viktor von Wyl, Holger Dressel, Beat Brüngger, Caroline Bähler, Eva Blozik, and Matthias Schwenkglenks
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Medicine (General) ,R5-920 ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
Background Unwarranted variation in healthcare utilization can only partly be explained by variation in the health care needs of the population, yet it is frequently found globally. This is the first cross-sectional study that systematically assessed geographic variation in the adherence to clinical recommendations in Switzerland. Specifically, we explored 1) the geographic variation of adherence to clinical recommendations across 24 health services at the sub-cantonal level, 2) assessed and mapped statistically significant spatial clusters, and 3) explored possible influencing factors for the observed geographic variation. Methods Exploratory spatial analysis using the Moran’s I statistic on multivariable multilevel model residuals to systematically identify small area variation of adherence to clinical recommendations across 24 health services. Results Although there was no overall spatial pattern in adherence to clinical recommendations across all health care services, we identified health services that exhibited statistically significant spatial dependence in adherence. For these, we provided evidence about the locations of local clusters. Interpretation We identified regions in Switzerland in which specific recommended or discouraged health care services are utilized less or more than elsewhere. Future studies are needed to investigate the place-based social determinants of health responsible for the sub-cantonal variation in adherence to clinical recommendations in Switzerland and elsewhere over time.
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- 2022
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15. Temporal trends and regional disparities in cancer screening utilization: an observational Swiss claims-based study
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Caroline Bähler, Beat Brüngger, Agne Ulyte, Matthias Schwenkglenks, Viktor von Wyl, Holger Dressel, Oliver Gruebner, Wenjia Wei, and Eva Blozik
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Cancer screening ,Mammography ,Colonoscopy ,Prostate-specific antigen testing ,Temporal analysis ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
Abstract Background We examined colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer screening utilization in eligible populations within three data cross-sections, and identified factors potentially modifying cancer screening utilization in Swiss adults. Methods The study is based on health insurance claims data of the Helsana Group. The Helsana Group is one of the largest health insurers in Switzerland, insuring approximately 15% of the entire Swiss population across all regions and age groups. We assessed proportions of the eligible populations receiving colonoscopy/fecal occult blood testing (FOBT), mammography, or prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in the years 2014, 2016, and 2018, and calculated average marginal effects of individual, temporal, regional, insurance-, supply-, and system-related variables on testing utilization using logistic regression. Results Overall, 8.3% of the eligible population received colonoscopy/FOBT in 2014, 8.9% in 2016, and 9.2% in 2018. In these years, 20.9, 21.2, and 20.4% of the eligible female population received mammography, and 30.5, 31.1, and 31.8% of the eligible male population had PSA testing. Adjusted testing utilization varied little between 2014 and 2018; there was an increasing trend of 0.8% (0.6–1.0%) for colonoscopy/FOBT and of 0.5% (0.2–0.8%) for PSA testing, while mammography use decreased by 1.5% (1.2–1.7%). Generally, testing utilization was higher in French-speaking and Italian-speaking compared to German-speaking region for all screening types. Cantonal programs for breast cancer screening were associated with an increase of 7.1% in mammography utilization. In contrast, a high density of relevant specialist physicians showed null or even negative associations with screening utilization. Conclusions Variation in cancer screening utilization was modest over time, but considerable between regions. Regional variation was highest for mammography use where recommendations are debated most controversially, and the implementation of programs differed the most.
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- 2021
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16. Going beyond the mean: economic benefits of myocardial infarction secondary prevention
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Viktor von Wyl, Agne Ulyte, Wenjia Wei, Dragana Radovanovic, Oliver Grübner, Beat Brüngger, Caroline Bähler, Eva Blozik, Holger Dressel, and Matthias Schwenkglenks
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Health care costs ,Compliance ,Causality ,Costs and cost analysis ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
Abstract Background Using the example of secondary prophylaxis of myocardial infarction (MI), our aim was to establish a framework for assessing cost consequences of compliance with clinical guidelines; thereby taking cost trajectories and cost distributions into account. Methods Swiss mandatory health insurance claims from 1840 persons with hospitalization for MI in 2014 were analysed. Included persons were predominantly male (74%), had a median age of 73 years, and 71% were pre-exposed to drugs for secondary prophylaxis, prior to index hospitalization. Guideline compliance was defined as being prescribed recommended 4-class drug prophylaxis including drugs from the following four classes: beta-blockers, statins, aspirin or P2Y12 inhibitors, and angiotension-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers. Health care expenditures (HCE) accrued over 1 year after index hospitalization were compared by compliance status using two-part regression, trajectory analysis, and counterfactual decomposition analysis. Results Only 32% of persons received recommended 4-class prophylaxis. Compliant persons had lower HCE (− 4865 Swiss Francs [95% confidence interval − 8027; − 1703]) and were more likely to belong to the most favorable HCE trajectory (with 6245 Swiss Francs average annual HCE and comprising 78% of all studied persons). Distributional analyses showed that compliance-associated HCE reductions were more pronounced among persons with HCE above the median. Conclusions Compliance with recommended prophylaxis was robustly associated with lower HCE and more favorable cost trajectories, but mainly among persons with high health care expenditures. The analysis framework is easily transferrable to other diseases and provides more comprehensive information on HCE consequences of non-compliance than mean-based regressions alone.
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- 2020
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17. Degree of regional variation and effects of health insurance-related factors on the utilization of 24 diverse healthcare services - a cross-sectional study
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Wenjia Wei, Agne Ulyte, Oliver Gruebner, Viktor von Wyl, Holger Dressel, Beat Brüngger, Eva Blozik, Caroline Bähler, Julia Braun, and Matthias Schwenkglenks
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Regional variation ,Healthcare utilization ,Influencing factors ,Health insurance ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
Abstract Background Regional variation in healthcare utilization could reflect unequal access to care, which may lead to detrimental consequences to quality of care and costs. The aims of this study were to a) describe the degree of regional variation in utilization of 24 diverse healthcare services in eligible populations in Switzerland, and b) identify potential drivers, especially health insurance-related factors, and explore the consistency of their effects across the services. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study using health insurance claims data for the year of 2014. The studied 24 healthcare services were predominantly outpatient services, ranging from screening to secondary prevention. For each service, a target population was identified based on applicable clinical recommendations, and outcome variable was the use of the service. Possible influencing factors included patients’ socio-demographics, health insurance-related and clinical characteristics. For each service, we performed a comprehensive methodological approach including small area variation analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and multilevel multivariable modelling using 106 mobilité spaciale regions as the higher level. We further calculated the median odds ratio in model residuals to assess the unexplained regional variation. Results Unadjusted utilization rates varied considerably across the 24 healthcare services, ranging from 3.5% (osteoporosis screening) to 76.1% (recommended thyroid disease screening sequence). The effects of health insurance-related characteristics were mostly consistent. A higher annual deductible level was mostly associated with lower utilization. Supplementary insurance, supplementary hospital insurance and having chosen a managed care model were associated with higher utilization of most services. Managed care models showed a tendency towards more recommended care. After adjusting for multiple influencing factors, the unexplained regional variation was generally small across the 24 services, with all MORs below 1.5. Conclusions The observed utilization rates seemed suboptimal for many of the selected services. For all of them, the unexplained regional variation was relatively small. Our findings confirmed the importance and consistency of effects of health insurance-related factors, indicating that healthcare utilization might be further optimized through adjustment of insurance scheme designs. Our comprehensive approach aids in the identification of regional variation and influencing factors of healthcare services use in Switzerland as well as comparable settings worldwide.
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- 2020
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18. Detecting Suicide Ideation in the Era of Social Media: The Population Neuroscience Perspective
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Rosalba Morese, Oliver Gruebner, Martin Sykora, Suzanne Elayan, Marta Fadda, and Emiliano Albanese
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suicide ideation ,social media ,epidemiology ,neuroscience ,mental health ,Population Neuroscience ,Psychiatry ,RC435-571 - Abstract
Social media platforms are increasingly used across many population groups not only to communicate and consume information, but also to express symptoms of psychological distress and suicidal thoughts. The detection of suicidal ideation (SI) can contribute to suicide prevention. Twitter data suggesting SI have been associated with negative emotions (e.g., shame, sadness) and a number of geographical and ecological variables (e.g., geographic location, environmental stress). Other important research contributions on SI come from studies in neuroscience. To date, very few research studies have been conducted that combine different disciplines (epidemiology, health geography, neurosciences, psychology, and social media big data science), to build innovative research directions on this topic. This article aims to offer a new interdisciplinary perspective, that is, a Population Neuroscience perspective on SI in order to highlight new ways in which multiple scientific fields interact to successfully investigate emotions and stress in social media to detect SI in the population. We argue that a Population Neuroscience perspective may help to better understand the mechanisms underpinning SI and to promote more effective strategies to prevent suicide timely and at scale.
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- 2022
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19. Ethical issues of collecting, storing, and analyzing geo-referenced tweets for mental health research
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Marta Fadda, Martin Sykora, Suzanne Elayan, Milo A Puhan, John A Naslund, Stephen J Mooney, Emiliano Albanese, Rosalba Morese, and Oliver Gruebner
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Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics ,R858-859.7 - Abstract
Spatial approaches to epidemiological research with big social media data provide tremendous opportunities to study the relationship between the socio-ecological context where these data are generated and health indicators of interest. Such research poses a number of ethical challenges, particularly in relation to issues such as privacy, informed consent, data security, and storage. While these issues have received considerable attention by researchers in relation to research for physical health purposes in the past 10 years, there have been few efforts to consider the ethical challenges of conducting mental health research, particularly with geo-referenced social media data. The aim of this article is to identify strengths and limitations of current recommendations to address the specific ethical issues of geo-referenced tweets for mental health research. We contribute to the ongoing debate on the ethical implications of big data research and also provide recommendations to researchers and stakeholders alike on how to tackle them, with a specific focus on the use of geo-referenced data for mental health research purposes. With increasing awareness of data privacy and confidentiality issues (even for non-spatial social media data) it becomes crucial to establish professional standards of conduct so that compliance with ethical standards of conducting research with health-related social media data can be prioritized and easily assessed.
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- 2022
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20. Mapping concentrations of posttraumatic stress and depression trajectories following Hurricane Ike.
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Gruebner, Oliver, Lowe, Sarah R, Tracy, Melissa, Joshi, Spruha, Cerdá, Magdalena, Norris, Fran H, Subramanian, SV, and Galea, Sandro
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Humans ,Stress Disorders ,Post-Traumatic ,Disasters ,Adolescent ,Adult ,Aged ,Middle Aged ,Texas ,Female ,Male ,Cyclonic Storms ,Clinical Research ,Behavioral and Social Science ,Prevention ,Climate-Related Exposures and Conditions ,Depression ,Brain Disorders ,Mental Health ,Stress Disorders ,Post-Traumatic ,Biochemistry and Cell Biology ,Other Physical Sciences - Abstract
We investigated geographic concentration in elevated risk for a range of postdisaster trajectories of chronic posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) and depression symptoms in a longitudinal study (N = 561) of a Hurricane Ike affected population in Galveston and Chambers counties, TX. Using an unadjusted spatial scan statistic, we detected clusters of elevated risk of PTSS trajectories, but not depression trajectories, on Galveston Island. We then tested for predictors of membership in each trajectory of PTSS and depression (e.g., demographic variables, trauma exposure, social support), not taking the geographic nature of the data into account. After adjusting for significant predictors in the spatial scan statistic, we noted that spatial clusters of PTSS persisted and additional clusters of depression trajectories emerged. This is the first study to show that longitudinal trajectories of postdisaster mental health problems may vary depending on the geographic location and the individual- and community-level factors present at these locations. Such knowledge is crucial to identifying vulnerable regions and populations within them, to provide guidance for early responders, and to mitigate mental health consequences through early detection of mental health needs in the population. As human-made disasters increase, our approach may be useful also in other regions in comparable settings worldwide.
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- 2016
21. Temporal trends and regional disparities in cancer screening utilization: an observational Swiss claims-based study
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Bähler, Caroline, Brüngger, Beat, Ulyte, Agne, Schwenkglenks, Matthias, von Wyl, Viktor, Dressel, Holger, Gruebner, Oliver, Wei, Wenjia, and Blozik, Eva
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- 2021
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22. Digital Innovations for Global Mental Health: Opportunities for Data Science, Task Sharing, and Early Intervention
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Naslund, John A., Gonsalves, Pattie P., Gruebner, Oliver, Pendse, Sachin R., Smith, Stephanie L., Sharma, Amit, and Raviola, Giuseppe
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- 2019
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23. Are weak or negative clinical recommendations associated with higher geographical variation in utilisation than strong or positive recommendations? Cross-sectional study of 24 healthcare services
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Caroline Bähler, Viktor von Wyl, Oliver Gruebner, Wenjia Wei, Eva Blozik, Beat Brüngger, Holger Dressel, and M Schwenkglenks
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Medicine - Abstract
Objectives When research evidence is lacking, patient and provider preferences, expected to vary geographically, might have a stronger role in clinical decisions. We investigated whether the strength or the direction of recommendation is associated with the degree of geographic variation in utilisation.Design In this cross-sectional study, we selected 24 services following a comprehensive approach. The strength and direction of recommendations were assessed in duplicate. Multilevel models were used to adjust for demographic and clinical characteristics and estimate unwarranted variation.Setting Observational study of claims to mandatory health insurance in Switzerland in 2014.Participants Enrolees eligible for the 24 healthcare services.Primary outcome measures The variances of regional random effects, also expressed as median odds ratios (MOR). Services grouped by strength and direction of recommendations were compared with Welch’s t-test.Results The sizes of the eligible populations ranged from 1992 to 409 960 patients. MOR ranged between 1.13 for aspirin in secondary prevention of myocardial infarction to 1.68 for minor surgical procedures performed in inpatient instead of outpatient settings. Services with weak recommendations had a negligibly higher variance and MOR (difference in means (95% CI) 0.03 (−0.06 to 0.11) and 0.05 (−0.11 to 0.21), respectively) compared with strong recommendations. Services with negative recommendations had a slightly higher variance and MOR (difference in means (95% CI) 0.07 (−0.03 to 0.18) and 0.14 (−0.06 to 0.34), respectively) compared with positive recommendations.Conclusions In this exploratory study, the geographical variation in the utilisation of services associated with strong vs weak and negative vs positive recommendations was not substantially different, although the difference was somewhat larger for negative vs positive recommendations. The relationships between the strength or direction of recommendations and the variation may be indirect or modified by other characteristics of services. As initiatives discouraging low-value care are gaining attention worldwide, these findings may inform future research in this area.
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- 2021
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24. Can Big Data Be Used to Monitor the Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19?
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Nicola Julia Aebi, David De Ridder, Carlos Ochoa, Dusan Petrovic, Marta Fadda, Suzanne Elayan, Martin Sykora, Milo Puhan, John A. Naslund, Stephen J. Mooney, and Oliver Gruebner
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surveillance ,digital epidemiology ,spatial epidemiology ,digital health geography ,social media ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Published
- 2021
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25. Pediatric Neuromuscular Diseases and Psychosocial Wellbeing: Why We Also Need to Invest in Digital Platforms.
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Gruebner, Oliver, Elayan, Suzanne, Sykora, Martin, Wolf, Markus, von Rhein, Michael, and Fadda, Marta
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NEUROMUSCULAR diseases ,WELL-being ,DIGITAL technology ,CAREGIVERS ,SPINAL muscular atrophy ,HEALTH facilities ,CHILD patients - Abstract
This article discusses the challenges faced by individuals affected by pediatric neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) in Switzerland and the potential role of digital platforms in supporting them. It highlights the mental health challenges, burden of care, and lack of accessible psychological support for patients and families. The article suggests that digital platforms, such as chat bots and apps, could provide support in finding care, managing daily functioning, and promoting social inclusion. It also addresses the accessibility and mobility issues faced by individuals with NMDs and suggests that smart cities and IoT applications can provide more inclusive urban design and transit options. The conclusion emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach to address the barriers faced by individuals with NMDs and their families. [Extracted from the article]
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- 2024
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26. Degree of regional variation and effects of health insurance-related factors on the utilization of 24 diverse healthcare services - a cross-sectional study
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Wei, Wenjia, Ulyte, Agne, Gruebner, Oliver, von Wyl, Viktor, Dressel, Holger, Brüngger, Beat, Blozik, Eva, Bähler, Caroline, Braun, Julia, and Schwenkglenks, Matthias
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- 2020
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27. Going beyond the mean: economic benefits of myocardial infarction secondary prevention
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von Wyl, Viktor, Ulyte, Agne, Wei, Wenjia, Radovanovic, Dragana, Grübner, Oliver, Brüngger, Beat, Bähler, Caroline, Blozik, Eva, Dressel, Holger, and Schwenkglenks, Matthias
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- 2020
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28. Variation of colorectal, breast and prostate cancer screening activity in Switzerland: Influence of insurance, policy and guidelines.
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Agne Ulyte, Wenjia Wei, Holger Dressel, Oliver Gruebner, Viktor von Wyl, Caroline Bähler, Eva Blozik, Beat Brüngger, and Matthias Schwenkglenks
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Medicine ,Science - Abstract
Variation in utilization of healthcare services is influenced by patient, provider and healthcare system characteristics. It could also be related to the evidence supporting their use, as reflected in the availability and strength of recommendations in clinical guidelines. In this study, we analyzed the geographic variation of colorectal, breast and prostate cancer screening utilization in Switzerland and the influence of available guidelines and different modifiers of access. Colonoscopy, mammography and prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing use in eligible population in 2014 was assessed with administrative claims data. We ran a multilevel multivariable logistic regression model and calculated Moran's I and regional level median odds ratio (MOR) statistics to explore residual geographic variation. In total, an estimated 8.1% of eligible persons received colonoscopy, 22.3% mammography and 31.3% PSA testing. Low deductibles, supplementary health insurance and enrollment in a managed care plan were associated with higher screening utilization. Cantonal breast cancer screening programs were also associated with higher utilization. Spatial clustering was observed in the raw regional utilization of all services, but only for prostate cancer screening in regional residuals of the multilevel model. MOR was highest for prostate cancer screening (1.24) and lowest for colorectal cancer screening (1.16). The reasons for the variation of the prostate cancer screening utilization, not recommended routinely without explicit shared decision-making, could be further investigated by adding provider characteristics and patient preference information. This first cross-comparison of different cancer screening patterns indicates that the strength of recommendations, mediated by specific health policies facilitating screening, may indeed contribute to variation.
- Published
- 2020
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29. Developing and validating the self-transcendent emotion dictionary for text analysis
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Qihao Ji, Arthur A. Raney, and Oliver Gruebner
- Subjects
Medicine ,Science - Abstract
Recent years have seen a growing amount of research effort directed toward what positive media psychologists refer to as self-transcendent emotions, such as awe, admiration, elevation, gratitude, inspiration, and hope. While these emotions are invaluable to promote greater human connectedness, prosociality, and human flourishing, researchers are constrained in terms of analyzing self-transcendent emotions as expressed in spoken and written languages. Drawing upon the word-counting approach of the text analysis paradigm, this project aimed at constructing a dictionary tool—Self-Transcendent Emotion Dictionary (STED)—which can be uploaded into mainstream, text analytic software (e.g., LIWC) to identify and analyze self-transcendent emotions in large corpora. This dictionary tool was then refined and validated via three studies, where individual words were first rated with regard to their fitness into the proposed construct (Step 1), and then used to analyze essays written to reflect the corresponding construct (Step 2). Finally, the refined dictionary was applied to examine words used in nearly 4,000 human-coded New York Times articles (Step 3). Results indicated that the final dictionary, consisting of 351 lexicons and phrases, exhibits acceptable face and construct validity, and possesses a reasonable level of external validity and applicability. Despite its shortcoming in accounting for the rhetorical techniques ingrained in natural human language, the STED could be instrumental for social scientific inquiry of positive emotions in textual narratives.
- Published
- 2020
30. Spatial variations and determinants of infant and under-five mortality in Bangladesh
- Author
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Gruebner, Oliver, Khan, MMH, Burkart, Katrin, Lautenbach, Sven, Lakes, Tobia, Krämer, Alexander, Subramanian, S.V., and Galea, Sandro
- Published
- 2017
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31. Mental health challenges and digital platform opportunities in patients and families affected by pediatric neuromuscular diseases - experiences from Switzerland.
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Gruebner, Oliver, van Haasteren, Afua, Hug, Anna, Elayan, Suzanne, Sykora, Martin, Albanese, Emiliano, Stettner, Georg M., Waldboth, Veronika, Messmer-Khosla, Sandra, Enzmann, Cornelia, Baumann, Dominique, von Wyl, Viktor, Fadda, Marta, Wolf, Markus, and von Rhein, Michael
- Published
- 2023
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32. Urban Design
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Gruebner, Oliver, primary and McCay, Layla, additional
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- 2019
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33. Challenges and best practices for digital unstructured data enrichment in health research: A systematic narrative review
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Sarmiento, Raymond Francis, Sarmiento, R F ( Raymond Francis ), Sedlakova, Jana; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6887-5941, Daniore, Paola, Horn Wintsch, Andrea, Wolf, Markus, Stanikić, Mina; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6477-7164, Haag, Christina, Sieber, Chloé; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6642-5082, Schneider, Gerold, Staub, Kaspar, Alois Ettlin, Dominik, Grübner, Oliver, Rinaldi, Fabio, von Wyl, Viktor; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8754-9797, Sarmiento, Raymond Francis, Sarmiento, R F ( Raymond Francis ), Sedlakova, Jana; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6887-5941, Daniore, Paola, Horn Wintsch, Andrea, Wolf, Markus, Stanikić, Mina; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6477-7164, Haag, Christina, Sieber, Chloé; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6642-5082, Schneider, Gerold, Staub, Kaspar, Alois Ettlin, Dominik, Grübner, Oliver, Rinaldi, Fabio, and von Wyl, Viktor; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8754-9797
- Abstract
Digital data play an increasingly important role in advancing health research and care. However, most digital data in healthcare are in an unstructured and often not readily accessible format for research. Unstructured data are often found in a format that lacks standardization and needs significant preprocessing and feature extraction efforts. This poses challenges when combining such data with other data sources to enhance the existing knowledge base, which we refer to as digital unstructured data enrichment. Overcoming these methodological challenges requires significant resources and may limit the ability to fully leverage their potential for advancing health research and, ultimately, prevention, and patient care delivery. While prevalent challenges associated with unstructured data use in health research are widely reported across literature, a comprehensive interdisciplinary summary of such challenges and possible solutions to facilitate their use in combination with structured data sources is missing. In this study, we report findings from a systematic narrative review on the seven most prevalent challenge areas connected with the digital unstructured data enrichment in the fields of cardiology, neurology and mental health, along with possible solutions to address these challenges. Based on these findings, we developed a checklist that follows the standard data flow in health research studies. This checklist aims to provide initial systematic guidance to inform early planning and feasibility assessments for health research studies aiming combining unstructured data with existing data sources. Overall, the generality of reported unstructured data enrichment methods in the studies included in this review call for more systematic reporting of such methods to achieve greater reproducibility in future studies.
- Published
- 2023
34. Mental health challenges and digital platform opportunities in patients and families affected by pediatric neuromuscular diseases - experiences from Switzerland
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Gruebner, Oliver; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9783-4770, van Haasteren, Afua; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5258-6547, Hug, Anna; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8518-7040, Elayan, Suzanne, Sykora, Martin; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5363-5857, Albanese, Emiliano, Stettner, Georg M, Waldboth, Veronika, Messmer-Khosla, Sandra, Enzmann, Cornelia, Baumann, Dominique, von Wyl, Viktor, Fadda, Marta; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3537-0346, Wolf, Markus; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5660-6824, von Rhein, Michael; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4967-8651, Gruebner, Oliver; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9783-4770, van Haasteren, Afua; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5258-6547, Hug, Anna; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8518-7040, Elayan, Suzanne, Sykora, Martin; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5363-5857, Albanese, Emiliano, Stettner, Georg M, Waldboth, Veronika, Messmer-Khosla, Sandra, Enzmann, Cornelia, Baumann, Dominique, von Wyl, Viktor, Fadda, Marta; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3537-0346, Wolf, Markus; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5660-6824, and von Rhein, Michael; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4967-8651
- Abstract
Receiving the diagnosis of a severe disease may present a traumatic event for patients and their families. To cope with the related challenges, digital interventions can be combined with traditional psychological support to help meet respective needs. We aimed to 1) discuss the most common consequences and challenges for resilience in Neuro Muscular Disease patients and family members and 2) elicit practical needs, concerns, and opportunities for digital platform use. We draw from findings of a transdisciplinary workshop and conference with participants ranging from the fields of clinical practice to patient representatives. Reported consequences of the severe diseases were related to psychosocial challenges, living in the nexus between physical development and disease progression, social exclusion, care-related challenges, structural and financial challenges, and non-inclusive urban design. Practical needs and concerns regarding digital platform use included social and professional support through these platforms, credibility and trust in online information, and concerns about privacy and informed consent. Furthermore, the need for safe, reliable, and expert-guided information on digital platforms and psychosocial and relationship-based digital interventions was expressed. There is a need to focus on a family-centered approach in digital health and social care and a further need in researching the suitability of digital platforms to promote resilience in the affected population. Our results can also inform city councils regarding investments in inclusive urban design allowing for disability affected groups to enjoy a better quality of life.
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- 2023
35. Reproducibility and scientific integrity of big data research in urban public health and digital epidemiology: a call to action
- Author
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Quiroga Gutierrez, Ana Cecilia, Lindegger, Daniel J, Taji Heravi, Ala, Stojanov, Thomas; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8172-5326, Sykora, Martin; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5363-5857, Elayan, Suzanne, Mooney, Stephen J, Naslund, John A; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6777-0104, Fadda, Marta; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3537-0346, Gruebner, Oliver; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9783-4770, Quiroga Gutierrez, Ana Cecilia, Lindegger, Daniel J, Taji Heravi, Ala, Stojanov, Thomas; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8172-5326, Sykora, Martin; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5363-5857, Elayan, Suzanne, Mooney, Stephen J, Naslund, John A; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6777-0104, Fadda, Marta; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3537-0346, and Gruebner, Oliver; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9783-4770
- Abstract
The emergence of big data science presents a unique opportunity to improve public-health research practices. Because working with big data is inherently complex, big data research must be clear and transparent to avoid reproducibility issues and positively impact population health. Timely implementation of solution-focused approaches is critical as new data sources and methods take root in public-health research, including urban public health and digital epidemiology. This commentary highlights methodological and analytic approaches that can reduce research waste and improve the reproducibility and replicability of big data research in public health. The recommendations described in this commentary, including a focus on practices, publication norms, and education, are neither exhaustive nor unique to big data, but, nonetheless, implementing them can broadly improve public-health research. Clearly defined and openly shared guidelines will not only improve the quality of current research practices but also initiate change at multiple levels: the individual level, the institutional level, and the international level.
- Published
- 2023
36. Challenges and best practices for digital unstructured data enrichment in health research: A systematic narrative review.
- Author
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Sedlakova, Jana, Daniore, Paola, Horn Wintsch, Andrea, Wolf, Markus, Stanikic, Mina, Haag, Christina, Sieber, Chloé, Schneider, Gerold, Staub, Kaspar, Alois Ettlin, Dominik, Grübner, Oliver, Rinaldi, Fabio, and von Wyl, Viktor
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
37. Reproducibility and Scientific Integrity of Big Data Research in Urban Public Health and Digital Epidemiology: A Call to Action
- Author
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Quiroga Gutierrez, Ana Cecilia, primary, Lindegger, Daniel J., additional, Taji Heravi, Ala, additional, Stojanov, Thomas, additional, Sykora, Martin, additional, Elayan, Suzanne, additional, Mooney, Stephen J., additional, Naslund, John A., additional, Fadda, Marta, additional, and Gruebner, Oliver, additional
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
38. Variation of preoperative chest radiography utilization in Switzerland and its influencing factors: a multilevel study with claims data
- Author
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Wei, Wenjia, Gruebner, Oliver, von Wyl, Viktor, Brüngger, Beat, Dressel, Holger, Ulyte, Agne, Blozik, Eva, Bähler, Caroline, and Schwenkglenks, Matthias
- Published
- 2018
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39. Estimating the spatial distribution of acute undifferentiated fever (AUF) and associated risk factors using emergency call data in India. A symptom-based approach for public health surveillance
- Author
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Kauhl, Boris, Pilot, Eva, Rao, Ramana, Gruebner, Oliver, Schweikart, Jürgen, and Krafft, Thomas
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
40. Digital Platform Uses for Help and Support Seeking of Parents With Children Affected by Disabilities: Scoping Review
- Author
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Gruebner, Oliver, primary, van Haasteren, Afua, additional, Hug, Anna, additional, Elayan, Suzanne, additional, Sykora, Martin, additional, Albanese, Emiliano, additional, Naslund, John, additional, Wolf, Markus, additional, Fadda, Marta, additional, and von Rhein, Michael, additional
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
41. Reproducibility and scientific integrity of big data research in urban public health and digital epidemiology: a call to action
- Author
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Ana Cecilia Quiroga Gutierrez, Daniel J. Lindegger, Ala Taji Heravi, Thomas Stojanov, Martin Sykora, Suzanne Elayan, Stephen J. Mooney, John A. Naslund, Marta Fadda, Oliver Gruebner, and University of Zurich
- Subjects
10122 Institute of Geography ,Health ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,Environmental and Occupational Health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,Public Health ,910 Geography & travel - Abstract
The emergence of big data science presents a unique opportunity to improve public-health research practices. Because working with big data is inherently complex, big data research must be clear and transparent to avoid reproducibility issues and positively impact population health. Timely implementation of solution-focused approaches is critical as new data sources and methods take root in public-health research, including urban public health and digital epidemiology. This commentary highlights methodological and analytic approaches that can reduce research waste and improve the reproducibility and replicability of big data research in public health. The recommendations described in this commentary, including a focus on practices, publication norms, and education, are neither exhaustive nor unique to big data, but, nonetheless, implementing them can broadly improve public-health research. Clearly defined and openly shared guidelines will not only improve the quality of current research practices but also initiate change at multiple levels: the individual level, the institutional level, and the international level.
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
42. Surgical procedures in inpatient versus outpatient settings and its potential impact on follow-up costs
- Author
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Agne Ulyte, Matthias Schwenkglenks, Wenjia Wei, Holger Dressel, Oliver Gruebner, Caroline Bähler, Eva Blozik, Beat Brüngger, Viktor von Wyl, Miquel Serra-Burriel, University of Zurich, and Bähler, Caroline
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Outpatient surgery ,11549 Institute of Implementation Science in Health Care ,610 Medicine & health ,Legislation ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Outpatients ,Health care ,Humans ,Medicine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Retrospective Studies ,Inpatients ,Potential impact ,business.industry ,Health Policy ,10060 Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI) ,Health Care Costs ,Inpatient setting ,Surgical procedures ,medicine.disease ,2719 Health Policy ,3. Good health ,Hospitalization ,Inguinal hernia ,Ambulatory Surgical Procedures ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Emergency medicine ,Population study ,Female ,business ,Follow-Up Studies - Abstract
OBJECTIVE We examined real-world effects of cantonal legislations to direct surgery patients from the inpatient to the outpatient setting in Switzerland. METHODS Analyses were based on claims data of the Helsana Group, a leading Swiss health insurance. The study population consisted of 13'145 (in 2014), 12'455 (in 2016), and 12'875 (in 2018) insured persons aged >18 years who had haemorrhoidectomy, inguinal hernia repair, varicose vein surgery, knee arthroscopy/meniscectomy or surgery of the cervix/uterus. We assessed the proportion of inpatient procedures, index costs, length of hospital stays, outpatient costs and hospitalizations during follow-up, stratified by procedure, in-/outpatient setting, and the presence (enacted/effective in 2018) of a cantonal legislation. We used difference-in-differences methods to study the impact of cantonal legislations. RESULTS Overall, the proportion of procedures performed in the inpatient setting decreased between 2014 and 2018 (p
- Published
- 2021
43. Spatial Epidemiological Applications in Public Health Research: Examples from the Megacity of Dhaka
- Author
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Gruebner, Oliver, Khan, Md. Mobarak Hossain, Hostert, Patrick, Krämer, Alexander, editor, Khan, Mobarak Hossain, editor, and Kraas, Frauke, editor
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
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44. A global portrait of expressed mental health signals towards COVID-19 in social media space
- Author
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Siqin Wang, Xiao Huang, Tao Hu, Bing She, Mengxi Zhang, Ruomei Wang, Oliver Gruebner, Muhammad Imran, Jonathan Corcoran, Yan Liu, Shuming Bao, and University of Zurich
- Subjects
Global and Planetary Change ,10122 Institute of Geography ,Monitoring ,Policy and Law ,Surface Processes ,Earth ,910 Geography & travel ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law ,Computers in Earth Sciences ,Management ,Earth-Surface Processes - Abstract
Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has induced a mental health crisis. Social media data offer a unique opportunity to track the mental health signals of a given population and quantify their negativity towards COVID-19. To date, however, we know little about how negative sentiments differ across countries and how these relate to the shifting policy landscape experienced through the pandemic. Using 2.1 billion individual-level geotagged tweets posted between 1 February 2020 and 31 March 2021, we track, monitor and map the shifts in negativity across 217 countries and unpack its relationship with COVID-19 policies. Findings reveal that there are important geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic disparities of negativity across continents, different levels of a nation's income, population density, and the level of COVID-19 infection. Countries with more stringent policies were associated with lower levels of negativity, a relationship that weakened in later phases of the pandemic. This study provides the first global and multilingual evaluation of the public's real-time mental health signals to COVID-19 at a large spatial and temporal scale. We offer an empirical framework to monitor mental health signals globally, helping international authorizations, including the United Nations and World Health Organization, to design smart country-specific mental health initiatives in response to the ongoing pandemic and future public emergencies.
- Published
- 2022
45. Geographic Information Systems
- Author
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Hostert, Patrick, Gruebner, Oliver, Krämer, Alexander, editor, Kretzschmar, Mirjam, editor, and Krickeberg, Klaus, editor
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
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46. Spatio-temporal patterns of dengue in Malaysia: combining address and sub-district level
- Author
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Cheong Y. Ling, Oliver Gruebner, Alexander Krämer, and Tobia Lakes
- Subjects
dengue, spatial and space-time scan statistics, relative risk, address and aggregation level, Malaysia. ,Geography (General) ,G1-922 - Abstract
Spatio-temporal patterns of dengue risk in Malaysia were studied both at the address and the sub-district level in the province of Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. We geocoded laboratory-confirmed dengue cases from the years 2008 to 2010 at the address level and further aggregated the cases in proportion to the population at risk at the sub-district level. Kulldorff’s spatial scan statistic was applied for the investigation that identified changing spatial patterns of dengue cases at both levels. At the address level, spatio-temporal clusters of dengue cases were concentrated at the central and south-eastern part of the study area in the early part of the years studied. Analyses at the sub-district level revealed a consistent spatial clustering of a high number of cases proportional to the population at risk. Linking both levels assisted in the identification of differences and confirmed the presence of areas at high risk for dengue infection. Our results suggest that the observed dengue cases had both a spatial and a temporal epidemiological component, which needs to be acknowl- edged and addressed to develop efficient control measures, including spatially explicit vector control. Our findings highlight the importance of detailed geographical analysis of disease cases in heterogeneous environments with a focus on clustered populations at different spatial and temporal scales. We conclude that bringing together information on the spatio-temporal distribution of dengue cases with a deeper insight of linkages between dengue risk, climate factors and land use constitutes an important step towards the development of an effective risk management strategy.
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
47. Item Ordering and Computerized Classification Tests With Cluster-Based Scoring: An Investigation of the Countdown Method
- Author
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Finkelman, Matthew D., Lowe, Sarah R., Kim, Wonsuk, Gruebner, Oliver, Smits, Niels, and Galea, Sandro
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
48. Modeling and mapping the burden of disease in Kenya
- Author
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Frings, Michael, Lakes, Tobia, Müller, Daniel, Khan, M. M. H., Epprecht, Michael, Kipruto, Samuel, Galea, Sandro, and Gruebner, Oliver
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
49. A novel surveillance approach for disaster mental health.
- Author
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Oliver Gruebner, Sarah R Lowe, Martin Sykora, Ketan Shankardass, S V Subramanian, and Sandro Galea
- Subjects
Medicine ,Science - Abstract
Disasters have substantial consequences for population mental health. Social media data present an opportunity for mental health surveillance after disasters to help identify areas of mental health needs. We aimed to 1) identify specific basic emotions from Twitter for the greater New York City area during Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, and to 2) detect and map spatial temporal clusters representing excess risk of these emotions.We applied an advanced sentiment analysis on 344,957 Twitter tweets in the study area over eleven days, from October 22 to November 1, 2012, to extract basic emotions, a space-time scan statistic (SaTScan) and a geographic information system (QGIS) to detect and map excess risk of these emotions.Sadness and disgust were among the most prominent emotions identified. Furthermore, we noted 24 spatial clusters of excess risk of basic emotions over time: Four for anger, one for confusion, three for disgust, five for fear, five for sadness, and six for surprise. Of these, anger, confusion, disgust and fear clusters appeared pre disaster, a cluster of surprise was found peri disaster, and a cluster of sadness emerged post disaster.We proposed a novel syndromic surveillance approach for mental health based on social media data that may support conventional approaches by providing useful additional information in the context of disaster. We showed that excess risk of multiple basic emotions could be mapped in space and time as a step towards anticipating acute stress in the population and identifying community mental health need rapidly and efficiently in the aftermath of disaster. More studies are needed to better control for bias, identify associations with reliable and valid instruments measuring mental health, and to explore computational methods for continued model-fitting, causal relationships, and ongoing evaluation. Our study may be a starting point also for more fully elaborated models that can either prospectively detect mental health risk using real-time social media data or detect excess risk of emotional reactions in areas that lack efficient infrastructure during and after disasters. As such, social media data may be used for mental health surveillance after large scale disasters to help identify areas of mental health needs and to guide us in our knowledge where we may most effectively intervene to reduce the mental health consequences of disasters.
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
50. Mental Health Service Need and Use in the Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy: Findings in a Population-Based Sample of New York City Residents
- Author
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Lowe, Sarah R., Sampson, Laura, Gruebner, Oliver, and Galea, Sandro
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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