Behavioral Health Informatics Capacity-Building in China

描述（由申请人提供）：本FIRCA提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。这项工作的第一步是在香港中文大学（中大）流行病学及生物统计中心设立一个行为资讯研究实验室，由刘銮雄博士担任主任。第二步是在香港中文大学开展一个行为信息学合作研究项目，该项目将与深圳市慢性病预防控制中心慢性病预防与控制科主任纪鹏博士合作，在中国深圳进行。对于这个项目，将开发一个有效的美国国立卫生研究院资助的、基于电话的自动化体育活动（PA）促进计划的中国版本。这将需要美国博士对美国项目进行审查。Lau和Peng以及他们的工作人员在深圳进行了一项小型人种学研究，以更好地了解久坐成年人目标人群的电话使用背景和文化、身体活动行为和健康行为改变计划。美国的项目随后将在刘博士的实验室进行修改，在深圳进行预测试，并在刘博士的指导下，在深圳市区120名久坐不动的成年人的两组随机临床试验中进行评估。彭和刘。受试者将被随机分配到每周自动电话咨询或控制条件。我们假设，在6个月的干预期结束时，与对照组相比，自动咨询小组将(1)提高参与者的PA水平，(2)达到推荐的PA水平，(3)增加他们参加常规PA的准备程度。我们将探讨干预的结果效果是否通过改善自我效能感来调节。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。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患者最佳自我保健相关的人类行为因素的学科，目前在中国尚无研究实验室。FIRCA项目的长期目标是在中国大陆的主要研究中心建立自我维持的行为信息学研究实验室。FIRCA的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保健系统，以有效和节省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国家巨大的医疗需求，这一实际成果将具有潜在的重大意义。该项目将在中国建立研究能力，以开发、评估和传播自动化、低成本、文化敏感、易于获取和有效的项目，以促进人群的健康行为（如积极的生活方式、健康饮食和戒烟）。如果这些项目在中国实施，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.