Background: There is growing attention to the use of mHealth technologies to promote glycemic control for women with GDM around the world, but research on promoting a change in health behaviors is lacking. This study aimed to document the process of designing, developing, and testing the feasibility and acceptability of the SEESPA. Methods: This single-arm pilot clinical trial study included 15 pregnant women with GDM. Following SEESPA development (e.g., goal setting and action plan, role modeling, motivational messages, mastery of experiences, and tracking healthy behaviors), all participants were provided access to use the SEESPA for 4 weeks. Feasibility outcomes assessed were rates of recruitment, retention rate, success rate of transmitting motivational text messages, rate of participants acknowledging receipt of text messages, and success rate of recording healthy behaviors. Acceptability outcomes were determined by asking open-ended questions through telephone interview at 4-week post-intervention. Results: Fifteen randomly selected women consented to participate in the study, with a 60.0% (n = 9) retention rate at post-trial intervention and 40.0% (n = 6) trial dropout. Two motivational text messages per week were sent to all participants. Of these, 68.1% were acknowledged by the participants. Study participants reported that SEESPA is useful, effective, and they felt satisfied about it. In addition, they brought few suggestions that will be integrated on the final version of the app. Conclusions: and Clinical Relevance. The developed innovative SEESPA is a feasible and acceptable intervention for behavioral modifications among women with GDM, and is ready to be tested in a larger RCT study which is expected to inform the health policymakers to integrate SEESPA with the antenatal health care practice of women with GDM, specifically in developing countries where there is a greater risk of developing GDM complications among mothers and their infants. Trial registration. The study is registered on September 16, 2019 (ACTRN12619001278123p) by the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry.

Background: The rising incidence of COVID-19 cases is undeniably having a profound impact on the physiological and psychological welfare of individuals. The incident had the potential to significantly affect an individual’s quality of life, social interactions, and occupational performance. The study explored the experiences of individuals who recovered from COVID-19 and the impact of their illness on their psychological and overall well-being. Methods: A qualitative, phenomenological study was conducted in Oman among 15 patients aged 20 to 60 years, who had been hospitalized at Royal Hospital with moderate to severe symptoms and signs of COVID-19. An in-depth interview was used to collect data. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze the data using the Braun and Clarke model framework for the analysis. Results: Three themes emerged from the study: (1) The impact of COVID-19 on the survivors; (2) factors that improved patients’ recovery; (3) lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study found important intrinsic and extrinsic factors that helped COVID-19 patients recover quickly. Conclusions: COVID-19 impacted the individuals’ physiological and psychological health. The findings can inform Oman’s psychological support services and raise awareness of the virus’s psychological impact on mental health. The study may help to design a tailored psychological intervention to improve the mental well-being of COVID-19 survivors for better experience and quality of life.

Hydroxyurea is been recommended for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) as it reduces the complications from the disease by increasing the production of fetal hemoglobin. In Oman, hydroxyurea is not consistently prescribed to children with SCD, and limited research has compared the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among children prescribed hydroxyurea. Thus, this study evaluated HRQOL differences between children with SCD who received hydroxyurea and those who did not. A cross-sectional study was conducted on children from a hematology clinic at a tertiary hospital in Oman. We collected the data using two questionnaires: HRQOL-SCD and HRQOL-Generic. A one-way analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis. A total of 74 children (47.3% male and 52.7% female) completed the questionnaire; 33 children were on hydroxyurea and 41 were not. A significant difference in HRQOL scores was found between children receiving hydroxyurea and those not taking the drug [F (1,68) = 419.4; p-value = 0.001]. Regression analysis revealed that hydroxyurea was a significant predictor of improved HRQOL among children with SCD. An R2 of 0.87 indicated that 87.0% of the variability in the child-reported HRQOL-Generic was explained by parental familiarity, self-efficacy, child age, sex, and receiving hydroxyurea [R2 = 0.87, F (8,69) = 52.4; p-value < 0.001]. Hydroxyurea improved the children’s HRQOL compared to those who did not receive the drug. These findings support the use of hydroxyurea in children to improve HRQOL and reduce vaso-occlusive episodes. We recommend increasing parents’ understanding of hydroxyurea’s significance and devising strategies to promote children’s medication adherence. It is essential to modify the SCD management protocol to optimize the HRQOL among children with SCD.