FHT Year 2 PhD Seminars: From risk to rehab

This series of PhD seminars brings together FHT's community and interested parties to listen to research updates from fellow researchers working towards their PhDs. This seminar series features four researchers in their second year at FHT. The seminars will be chaired by Dr Karolina Minta and Dr Simone Kager, respectively.

Recent studies have shown that Singapore is challenged with one of the most rapidly ageing populations due to increasing life expectancy and reducing birth rates. One of the major challenges associated with ageing societies is a higher prevalence of chronic diseases and concomitant healthcare costs. There are also socioeconomic costs incurred, which in turn leads to a reduction in economic growth. Osteoporosis is one of the chronic diseases that significantly impact the elderly population. It is characterized by reduced bone mass, resulting in increased bone fragility and fracture risk with age. The current clinical standard for the diagnosis of osteoporosis involves a T-score based on areal bone mineral density (aBMD) obtained from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), which has only moderate sensitivity. The successful execution of this work will provide clinicians with a tool to predict fracture risk with higher accuracy than achievable with DXA scans alone. At the same time, it can also help them assess the effectiveness of different preventive methods for reducing hip fracture risk. This will create a sustainable cost-effective healthcare model to manage hip fracture risk in the elderly Singaporean population.

Recent advancements in sensor-rich mobile and wearable devices have enabled new opportunities for the design of mHealth interventions, such as just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs). JITAIs aim to deliver the right amount of support at the right time. One crucial mechanism for developing efficacious JITAIs is to ideally time the delivery of support to ensure that users are receptive, i.e., willing and able to receive, process, and use the support provided. While prior research has primarily explored receptivity in the context of generic phone notifications, little is known about the behavioural component of receptivity and whether users are willing and able to engage with delivered content. My PhD, therefore, has three key aims: (1) to identify the degree to which current state-of-the-art digital behavioural change interventions are employing JITAI mechanisms; (2) to evaluate the relation between users’ contextual factors and their ability to receive, process, and use the support provided in a holistic health intervention; (3) to investigate the personal, contextual, and temporal predictors of receptivity to and compliance with ecological momentary assessment (EMA) prompts.

Dementia is an escalating global health issue, and the early identification of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is critical in mitigating its effects. MCI is the transitional stage between healthy aging and dementia and is often overlooked due to its subtle symptoms and gradual onset. Currently, the diagnosis of MCI is a complex process that relies on invasive and expensive procedures, such as blood biomarkers and PET scans, or less sensitive paper and pencil tests. However, the emergence of Virtual Reality (VR) technology has shown promise as a digital marker for capturing early signs of cognitive impairment. In particular, individual differences in spatial ability have been identified as a sensitive marker that can assist in differentiating between healthy individuals and those affected by MCI. In this presentation, I will deliver an update on the progress made in developing the Spatial Performance Assessment for Cognitive Evaluation (SPACE). I'll discuss the challenges we faced during the pilot testing phase, and the various new features we introduced to address them. The presentation will also share preliminary data from a usability study currently being conducted at the Singapore-ETH Centre. Specifically, it will focus on the correlations observed within each task in SPACE and their relationship with MoCA and age.