Behavioral Health Informatics Capacity-Building in China

描述(申请者提供)：本方案的目标是在中国建立行为信息学研究实验室和研究能力。长期目标是在中国和其他发展中国家推广行为信息学研究能力。这一过程的第一步将是在香港建立一个行为信息学研究实验室，该实验室将设在香港中文大学(中大)流行病学及生物统计中心，由刘约瑟博士指导。第二步是在中大开展一个协作性的行为信息学研究项目，该项目将在深圳进行，中国博士与深圳市慢性病预防控制中心慢性病防控科主任纪鹏博士中国合作。对于这个项目，将开发一个有效的由美国国立卫生研究院资助的自动化的、基于电话的体力活动(PA)促进计划的中国版本。这将需要刘博士和彭博士以及他们的工作人员对美国的计划进行审查，并在深圳进行一项小型的人种学研究，以更好地了解久坐不动的成年人目标人群中电话使用、身体活动行为和健康行为改变计划的背景和文化。美国的这项计划随后将在刘博士的实验室进行修改，在深圳进行预先测试，并在彭博士和刘博士的指导下，在深圳大都市区对120名久坐不动的成年人进行双臂随机临床试验。受试者将被随机分配到每周自动电话咨询或控制条件下。我们假设，在6个月的干预期结束时，与对照组相比，自动咨询组将(1)增加参与者的PA水平，(2)达到推荐的PA水平，(3)增加他们参与常规PA的准备。我们将探索干预的结果效应是否通过提高PA的自我效能感来调节。从研究和公共卫生的角度来看，拟议的项目都具有重要意义。目前，中国还没有行为信息学的研究实验室，行为信息学是应用计算机和电信技术来解决与疾病发展和最佳患者自我护理相关的人类行为因素的学科。该计划的长期目标是在大陆中国的主要中心发展自给自足的行为信息学研究实验室。FIRCA的这项提案将支持这一进程的第一步。该项目的最终公共卫生目标是将中国行为信息学实验室的研究成果应用于医疗系统，以有效和节约成本的方式降低慢性病的患病率并改善其控制。鉴于中国和其他发展中世界国家对医疗保健的巨大需求，这样一个实际成果可能具有重要意义。该项目将建立中国的研究能力，以开发、评估和传播一个自动化、低成本、文化敏感、易于访问和有效的计划，以促进人群中的健康行为(例如，积极的生活方式、健康的饮食和戒烟)。如果这些项目在中国部署，它们将有能力降低许多常见慢性病的患病率，并改善对人口的控制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This FIRCA proposal has the goal of establishing behavioral informatics research laboratories and research capacity in China. The long range goal is to spread behavioral informatics research capacity throughout China and in other developing countries. The first step in this process will be to establish a behavioral informatics research laboratory in Hong Kong which will be located in the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), directed by Dr. Joseph Lau. The second step is to develop a collaborative behavioral informatics research project at CUHK which will be conducted in Shenzhen, China in collaboration with Dr. Ji Peng, Chief of the Department of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control in the Shenzhen Municipal Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control in Shenzhen, China. For this project, a Chinese version of an effective NIH-funded automated, telephone-based physical activity (PA) promotion program will be developed. This will entail review of the U.S. program by Drs. Lau and Peng, and their staffs and the conduct of a small ethnographic study in Shenzhen, to better understand the context and culture of telephone use, physical activity behavior, and health behavior change programs among the target population of sedentary adults. The U.S. program will then be modified in Dr. Lau's laboratory, pretested in Shenzhen, and evaluated in a two-arm randomized clinical trial of 120 sedentary adults in the Shenzhen metropolitan area under the direction of Drs. Peng and Lau. Subjects will be randomly assigned to weekly automated telephone counseling or to a control condition. We hypothesize that at the end of a 6 month intervention period, the automated counseling group compared to the control group will (1) increase the participants' level of PA, (2) achieve recommended levels of PA, and (3) increase their readiness to engage in regular PA. We will explore whether outcome effects of the intervention are mediated through improvement in self-efficacy for PA. The proposed project is significant from both research and public health perspective. At present, there is no research laboratory in China in the discipline of behavioral informatics which is the application of computer and telecommunications technologies to address human behavioral factors that are associated with the development of disease and optimal patient self-care. The long-term objective of this FIRCA program is to develop self-sustaining research laboratories in behavioral informatics in major centers in mainland China. This FIRCA proposal will support the first steps in this process. The ultimate public health goal of the project is to apply the results of research performed in the behavioral informatics laboratories in China to the healthcare system to decrease the prevalence of chronic disease and improve its control in both an effective and cost savings manner. Given the enormous healthcare needs of China and other countries in the developing world, such a practical outcome would be of potentially great significance. This project will result in the establishment of research capacity in China to develop, evaluate and disseminate an automated, low cost, culturally sensitive, easily accessible and effective program to promote healthy behavior in the population (e.g., active lifestyle, healthy eating, and smoking cessation). Should these programs be deployed in China, they would have the capacity to decrease the prevalence of many common chronic diseases and improve their control in the population.