Online Journal of Public Health Informatics

Situational awareness is the accurate and timely perception of factors in the environment, comprehension of their meanings, and projection of their future states.

Prior studies have identified key factors contributing to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, including concerns over vaccine safety, potential side effects, and mistrust in the health care system. According to the World Health Organization, vaccine hesitancy is among the top 10 threats to global public health. Previous research has suggested that vaccine hesitancy is a significant barrier within the Hispanic population, particularly in Texas.

Biological and health research is increasingly data-driven, with commercial and academic institutions generating data at unprecedented rates. The rapid pace of data generation, together with lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, underscores the need for nimble, transparent, and dependable data infrastructures that enable rapid study execution and timely insights to inform public health policy and practice.

Despite a growing number of systematic reviews on digital health interventions, many do not sufficiently support the recognition of conclusive evidence. Methodological shortcomings may impede the identification and communication of robust findings. Abstracts are the basis for study selection in systematic reviews and are increasingly used in automated screening processes and rapid assessments.

Mobile health (mHealth) represents a modality of teledentistry that has the potential to improve access to dental care. Given that patient reactions to dental procedures can influence both clinician experience and care delivery, assessing patient discomfort when smartphones are used to capture dental images for teledentistry examinations is crucial.

Public opinion, which may be influenced by personal experiences, news, and social media, can impact compliance with public health measures (PHMs) during health emergencies. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools offer opportunities to analyze public opinion in real time during health emergencies. However, their performance in accurately identifying sentiment and themes in health-related online content remains unclear.

Despite widespread COVID-19 vaccination, breakthrough infections remain a public health concern, with transmission risks potentially linked to community behaviors and age-specific preventive practices. While mask-wearing and social distancing are well-established mitigation strategies, their adoption patterns across age groups, particularly among vaccinated individuals, are poorly understood.

Personas, fictional profiles representing user segments, play an important role in human-centered design, ensuring tools are tailored to the needs of users. Although public health organizations often develop information systems to promote population health, human-centered design methods and personas are generally underused in public health informatics projects.

Oral nicotine pouches (ONPs), such as Zyn, have gained popularity among young people; however, their portrayal on social media remains under-studied. Instagram memes, a widely shared form of digital communication, may shape young people’s perceptions about ONPs and contribute to the widespread acceptance of ONP use.

Older adults often access traditional media, such as newspapers, magazines, television, and radio, for health information. However, compared with older adults without frailty, older adults with frailty experience greater declines in physical functions and mental health (including depressive symptoms), as well as social functioning, due to reduced interaction with others, which limits their access to these sources of information.

Mini implants, or temporary anchorage devices, have transformed modern orthodontic practice by offering stable, minimally invasive anchorage for complex tooth movements. Despite their proven effectiveness, their use varies widely across regions, often influenced by clinicians’ knowledge, confidence, and training.

User experience has a significant impact on pharmaceutical drug effectiveness. Social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) have become prominent spaces where individuals share their medication-related experiences, especially with widely marketed drugs such as semaglutide. Despite the large volume of conversation, a comprehensive understanding of how various user subpopulations engage with semaglutide-related discussions remains underdeveloped.