Positive psychology is the study of what is "right" about people-their positive attributes, psychological assets, and strengths. Its aim is to understand and foster the factors that allow ...individuals, communities, and societies to thrive. Cross-sectional, experimental, and longitudinal research demonstrates that positive emotions are associated with numerous benefits related to health, work, family, and economic status. Growing biomedical research supports the view that positive emotions are not merely the opposite of negative emotions but may be independent dimensions of mental affect. The asset-based paradigms of positive psychology offer new approaches for bolstering psychological resilience and promoting mental health. Ultimately, greater synergy between positive psychology and public health might help promote mental health in innovative ways.
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Around one-third of Americans reported they were unwilling to get a COVID-19 vaccine in April 2021. This focus group study aimed to provide insights on the factors contributing to unvaccinated ...adults' hesitancy or refusal to get vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines.
Ipsos recruited 59 unvaccinated US adults who were vaccine hesitant (i.e., conflicted about or opposed to receiving a COVID-19 vaccination) using the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. Trained facilitators led a total of 10 focus groups via video-conference in March and April 2021. Two coders manually coded the data from each group using a coding frame based on the focus group discussion guide. The coding team collaborated in analyzing the data for key themes.
Data analysis of transcripts from the focus groups illuminated four main themes associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: lack of trust in experts and institutions; concern about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines; resistance towards prescriptive guidance and restrictions; and, despite personal reluctance or unwillingness to get vaccinated, acceptance of others getting vaccinated.
Vaccine confidence communication strategies should address individual concerns, describe the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination, and highlight evolving science using factural and neutral presentations of information to foster trust.
Summary
Worldwide, about 65 million people are estimated to have epilepsy. Epidemiologic studies are necessary to define the full public health burden of epilepsy; to set public health and health ...care priorities; to provide information needed for prevention, early detection, and treatment; to identify education and service needs; and to promote effective health care and support programs for people with epilepsy. However, different definitions and epidemiologic methods complicate the tasks of these studies and their interpretations and comparisons. The purpose of this document is to promote consistency in definitions and methods in an effort to enhance future population‐based epidemiologic studies, facilitate comparison between populations, and encourage the collection of data useful for the promotion of public health. We discuss: (1) conceptual and operational definitions of epilepsy, (2) data resources and recommended data elements, and (3) methods and analyses appropriate for epidemiologic studies or the surveillance of epilepsy. Variations in these are considered, taking into account differing resource availability and needs among countries and differing purposes among studies.
Objective:
Public health agencies have a critical role in providing effective messaging about mitigation strategies during a public health emergency. The objectives of this study were (1) to ...understand perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines, including concerns about side effects, safety, and effectiveness and how these perceptions influence vaccine decision-making among US adults and (2) to learn what messages might motivate vaccine uptake.
Methods:
In April and May 2021, we conducted 14 online focus groups with non-Hispanic English-speaking and English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanic adults (N = 99) not vaccinated against COVID-19. We oversampled adults aged 18-39 years and rural residents and systematically assessed 10 test messages. Researchers used a standardized guide and an a priori codebook for focus group discussions, coding transcripts, and thematic analysis.
Results:
Vaccine hesitancy factors included fear of the unknown; long-term side effects, including infertility; and beliefs that the vaccines were developed too quickly and were not sufficiently effective. Motivating factors for receiving vaccination included the ability to safely socialize and travel. Health care providers were considered important trusted messengers. Participants were critical of most messages tested. Messages that came across as “honest” about what is not yet known about COVID-19 vaccines were perceived more positively than other messages tested. Messages were seen as ineffective if perceived as vague or lacking in data and specificity.
Conclusions:
Messages that were simple and transparent about what is unknown about vaccines relative to emerging science were viewed most favorably. Health care providers, friends, and family were considered influential in vaccination decision-making. Findings underscore the benefits of research-informed strategies for developing and disseminating effective messages addressing critical issues in a public health emergency.
Engaging communities is a key strategy to increase COVID-19 vaccination. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Rapid Community Assessment Guide was ...developed for community partners to obtain insights about barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake and to engage community partners in designing interventions to build vaccine confidence. In spring 2021, 3 CDC teams were deployed to Alabama and Georgia to conduct a rapid community assessment in selected jurisdictions. Data collection included interviews, listening sessions, observations, and street intercept surveys. We identified 3 facilitators and barriers to vaccine uptake: (1) planning and coordination, (2) capacity and implementation, and (3) attitudes and beliefs. We found that the use of the rapid community assessment in Alabama and Georgia was feasible to implement, useful in eliciting unique community concerns and dispelling assumptions, and useful in informing intervention strategies. Our results underscore the importance of community engagement in COVID-19 mitigation strategies.
To promote the health and quality of life of United States residents, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - with 54 state and ...territorial health agencies - has supported population surveillance of health-related quality of life (HRQOL). HRQOL was defined as "perceived physical and mental health over time." Commonly-used measures of health status and activity limitation were identified and a set of "Healthy Days" HRQOL measures was developed and validated. A core set of these measures (the CDC HRQOL-4) asks about self-rated general health and the number of recent days when a person was physically unhealthy, mentally unhealthy, or limited in usual activities. A summary measure combines physically and mentally unhealthy days. From 1993 to 2001, more than 1.2 million adults responded to the CDC HRQOL-4 in each state-based Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) telephone interview. More than one fifth of all BRFSS respondents also responded to a set of related questions - including five items that assess the presence, main cause and duration of a current activity limitation, and the need for activity-related personal and routine care; as well as five items that ask about recent days of pain, depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, and vitality. The Healthy Days surveillance data are particularly useful for finding unmet health needs, identifying disparities among demographic and socioeconomic subpopulations, characterizing the symptom burden of disabilities and chronic diseases, and tracking population patterns and trends. The full set of 14 Healthy Days Measures (the CDC HRQOL-14) has shown good measurement properties in several populations, languages, and settings. The brief standard CDC HRQOL-4 is now often used in surveys, surveillance systems, prevention research, and population health report cards.
Purpose: To examine the association of seizures with health‐related quality of life (HRQOL), physical and psychiatric comorbidities, and health behaviors.
Methods: We analyzed data obtained from ...adults aged 18 years or older (n = 30,445) who participated in the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, an ongoing, computer‐assisted personal interview of the noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
Results: An estimated 1.4% of adults 18 years or older reported being told by a health care professional that they had seizures. Persons with seizures were significantly more likely than those without seizures to report lower levels of education, higher levels of unemployment, pain, hypersomnia and insomnia, and psychological distress (e.g., feelings of sadness, nervousness, hopelessness, and worthlessness). In addition, they were significantly more likely to report insufficient leisure‐time physical activity as well as physical comorbidities such as cancer, arthritis, heart disease, stroke, asthma, severe headaches, lower back pain, and neck pain.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that it is advisable for health care professionals to assess psychiatric and physical comorbidities among patients with a history of seizures potentially to improve patient health outcomes. Furthermore, public health surveillance systems should include questions on seizures, epilepsy, and mental health to better examine associations among these disorders and to better identify populations meriting further assessment and intervention.
The purpose of this study was to test a brief instrument to monitor the U.S. public’s attitudes about mental illness. A SAMHSA and CDC-led panel reached consensus through an iterative process to ...identify generic, multidimensional measures to test using a representative sample of 5,251 adults. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two subscales (Negative Stereotypes α = 0.66; Recovery and Outcomes α = 0.69). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the convergent validity of the two subscales. Subscale scores differed by sex, race/ethnicity, and experience with mental illness. Inclusion of these brief subscales on existing population-based surveys can help states and others track attitudes about mental illness.
In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supported testing of a number of well‐being scales for potential use on public health surveillance systems. The purpose of this study was ...to examine the descriptive and psychometric properties of the scales (i.e. Satisfaction with Life, Meaning in Life, Positive and Negative Affect, Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness, and global and domain‐specific life satisfaction) and to examine the distribution of well‐being levels in a representative sample of community‐dwelling US adults (N = 5,399) using a stratified analysis. The scales demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties. Responses were negatively skewed, with most respondents reporting mildly positive levels of subjective well‐being. With the exception of autonomy, competence, and relatedness scales, all scales demonstrated good variability across socio‐demographic subgroups. Older age and higher levels of education, and income, were associated with higher levels of subjective well‐being. Most of the examined scales and related items merit consideration for continued testing in telephone surveys used in public health surveillance.
Approximately 3 million American adults reported active epilepsy* in 2015 (1). Active epilepsy, especially when seizures are uncontrolled, poses substantial burdens because of somatic, neurologic, ...and mental health comorbidity; cognitive and physical dysfunction; side effects of antiseizure medications; higher injury and mortality rates; poorer quality of life; and increased financial cost (2). Thus, prompt diagnosis and seizure control (i.e., seizure-free in the 12 months preceding the survey) confers numerous clinical and social advantages to persons with active epilepsy. To obtain recent and reliable estimates of active epilepsy and seizure control status in the U.S. population, CDC analyzed aggregated data from the 2013 and the 2015 National Health Interview Surveys (NHISs). Overall, an annual estimated 2.6 million (1.1%) U.S. adults self-reported having active epilepsy, 67% of whom had seen a neurologist or an epilepsy specialist in the past year, and 90% of whom reported taking epilepsy medication. Among those taking epilepsy medication, only 44% reported having their seizures controlled. A higher prevalence of active epilepsy and poorer seizure control were associated with low family income, unemployment, and being divorced, separated, or widowed. Use of epilepsy medication was higher among adults who saw an epilepsy specialist in the past year than among those who did not. Health care and public health should ensure that adults with uncontrolled seizures have appropriate care and self-management support in order to promote seizure control, improve health and social outcomes, and reduce health care costs.
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