JMIR Public Health and Surveillance

Revealing the full potential of digital public health (DiPH) systems requires a wide-ranging tool to assess their maturity and readiness for emerging technologies. Although a variety of indices exist to assess digital health systems, questions arise about the inclusion of indicators of information and communications technology maturity and readiness, digital (health) literacy, and interest in DiPH tools by the society and workforce, as well as the maturity of the legal framework and the readiness of digitalized health systems. Existing tools frequently target one of these domains while overlooking the others. In addition, no review has yet holistically investigated the available national DiPH system maturity and readiness indicators using a multidisciplinary lens.

Heart failure is a challenging clinical and public health problem characterized by high prevalence and mortality among US adults in old age, along with recent decline in heart failure prevalence and increase in mortality. The changes of prevalence can be decomposed into pre-existing disease prevalence, disease incidence, and respective survival, while the changes of mortality could be decomposed into mortality in general population independent from heart failure, pre-existing heart failure prevalence, incidence, and respective survival. These epidemiological components may contribute differently to the changes in prevalence and mortality.

Sex differences in blood pressure (BP) levels and hypertension are important and the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in sex differences of hypertension remains unclear.

Since its introduction, telemedicine for patients with chronic diseases has been studied in various clinical settings. However, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness and medical safety of the nationwide adoption of telemedicine.

The unbalanced temporal and spatial trends of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) risk at a fine level in Fujian Province remain unclear.

In recent years, the frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases and insufficient emergency response capabilities, particularly issues exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, have underscored the critical role of nurses in addressing public health crises. It is currently necessary to investigate the emergency preparedness of nursing personnel following the COVID-19 pandemic completely liberalized, aiming to identify weaknesses and optimize response strategies.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed major gaps in public health agencies’ (PHAs) data and reporting infrastructure which limited public health officials’ ability to conduct disease surveillance, particularly among racial/ethnic minorities disproportionally affected by the pandemic. Leveraging existing Health Information Exchange Organizations (HIOs) is one possible mechanism to close these technical gaps as HIOs facilitate health information sharing across organizational boundaries.

Several important vaccines, such as the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine, rotavirus vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and influenza vaccine, have not been included in China’s National Immunization Program (NIP) due to a prolonged absence of updates and limited resources. Public engagement could identify concerns that require attention and foster trust to ensure continuous support for immunization.

Dengue fever, transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes, poses a significant public health challenge in tropical and subtropical regions. Dengue surveillance involves monitoring the incidence, distribution, and trends of infections through systematic data collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination. It supports public health decision-making, guiding interventions like vector control, vaccination campaigns, and public education.

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), one of the leading causes of hearing loss in young adults, is a major health care problem that has negative social and economic consequences. It is commonly recognized that individual susceptibility largely varies among individuals who are exposed to similar noise. An objective method is therefore designable to pick up and remove those who are extremely sensitive from the noise-exposed jobs to prevent them from getting severe NIHL.

Understanding the impact of asthma on public health is crucial for evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies.

Cataract is a leading cause of vision impairment. Obesity-related risk factors, including insulin resistance, increase the risk of cataract. Fatty liver index (FLI) is a biomarker for non-invasive fat layer prediction of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). FLI has been used to evaluate the metabolic contribution in other organs besides the eye. However, no study exists on FLI and eye disease.