Digital inclusion is considered a pivotal social determinant of health, particularly for older adults who may face significant barriers to digital access due to physical, sensory, and social limitations. Avatar for Global Access to Technology for Healthy Aging (AGATHA) is a virtual healthy aging coach developed by the World Health Organization to address these challenges. Designed as a comprehensive virtual coach, AGATHA comprises a gamified platform that covers multiple health-related topics and modules aimed at fostering user engagement and promoting healthy aging.
The aim of this study was to explore the perception and user experience of Malaysian older adults in their interactions with the AGATHA app and its avatar. The focus of this study was to examine the engagement, usability, and educational impact of the app on health literacy and digital skills.
We performed a qualitative study among adults 60 years and older from suburban and rural communities across six states in Malaysia. Participants were purposefully recruited to ensure representation across various socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Each participant attended a 1-hour training session to familiarize themselves with the interface and functionalities of AGATHA. Subsequently, all participants were required to engage with the AGATHA app two to three times per week for up to 2 weeks. Upon completion of this trial phase, an in-depth interview session was conducted to gather detailed feedback on their experiences.
Overall, the participants found AGATHA to be highly accessible and engaging. The content was reported to have a comprehensive structure and was delivered in an easily understandable and informative manner. Moreover, the participants found the app to be beneficial in enhancing their understanding pertaining to health-related issues in aging. Some key feedback gathered highlighted the need for increased interactive features that would allow for interaction with peers, better personalization of content tailored to the individual\'s health condition, and improvement in the user-experience design to accommodate older users\' specific needs. Furthermore, enhancements in decision-support features within the app were suggested to better assist users in making health decisions.
The prototype digital health coaching program AGATHA was well received as a user-friendly tool suitable for beginners, and was also perceived to be useful to enhance older adults\' digital literacy and confidence. The findings of this study offer important insights for designing other digital health tools and interventions targeting older adults, highlighting the importance of a user-centered design and personalization to improve the adoption of digital health solutions among older adults. This study also serves as a useful starting point for further development and refinement of digital health programs aimed at fostering an inclusive, supportive digital environment for older adults.

BACKGROUND: The cervix, a cylindrical structure made of stroma and epithelium, is the lowest point of the uterus. A tissue-proven biopsy of the cervix with histological confirmation is necessary for aberrant cytologic results of Papanicolaou (Pap) smears to rule out cervical cancer. This study investigates barriers to cervical cancer screening among women.
METHODS:  A cross-sectional study including 665 Saudi Arabian women residing in Jeddah between the ages of 21 and 65 years was carried out from May to November 2023. A four-part online survey was used to gather the data, which included questions about demographics, cervical cancer screening status, screening barriers, and predictors of cervical cancer screening.
RESULTS: The most common barrier to Pap test screening was \"have not been to a doctor/no regular provider\" (39.7%, N = 251), followed by \"lack of provider recommendation/or limited or no information in the community\" (30.4%, N = 192) and \"low priority/did not perceive need/being healthy\" (27.7%, N = 175).
CONCLUSIONS: The study provides valuable insights into the factors influencing cervical cancer screening in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The low prevalence of screening indicates a need for increased awareness and targeted interventions to improve uptake.

This commentary looks at the social stigma as a barrier to Covid-19 responses to community well-being in Bangladesh. The Covid-19 in Bangladesh particular the way the people respond this has many dimensions to view from sociological perspective. The main objective of this commentary is to analysis how this response is related to social stigma. Gathering information from the recent literature, results showed that there are number of causes around such stigma that include misinformation, feeling of insecurity, fear of responsibility, administrative malfunction, and lack of trust on treatment. These causes of stigma have number of forms such as humor-prone stigma, residential stigma, organizational stigma, community-stigma, and apathetical stigma. Results also show that there are many effects of stigma such as health-risks, harassment, discrimination, life-insecurity, psychological disorder, loss of social capital and emotional capital, shattering family bond and social solidarity that work as barrier to community well-being. This commentary recommends to overcome the barriers through strengthening and decentralization of the COVID-19 medical facilities including testing, tracing, formal quarantining, and special treatment for coronavirus in coronavirus hospitals by allocating a large figure of the state budget and also by taking initiatives of public-private partnership for health management.