Background
Anti-vaccination attitudes are important predictors of vaccination behavior. Existing measures of vaccination attitudes focus on specific age groups and/or particular vaccines; a more ...comprehensive measure would facilitate comparisons across studies.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to develop a short measure of general vaccination attitudes and establish its reliability and validity.
Methods
Two studies were conducted using the
VAX
scale. For Study 1, participants were 409 individuals (53% female), with a mean age of 34.5 years. For Study 2, participants were 92 individuals (67% female) with a mean age of 28.6. Participants answered paper-and-pencil questions about their attitudes toward vaccines, prior and expected-future vaccination behaviors, perceived sensitivity to medicines, online behavior, and basic demographic information. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted with correlations and
t
tests then used to assess the scale’s reliability and validity.
Results
Four distinct but correlated vaccine attitudes were identified: (1) mistrust of vaccine benefit, (2) worries about unforeseen future effects, (3) concerns about commercial profiteering, and (4) preference for natural immunity. These factors were significantly related to prior vaccination behavior, future intentions to obtain recommended vaccinations, perceived sensitivity to medicines, and the tendency to obtain health information online.
Conclusions
The
VAX
scale provides an efficient method for identifying those with vaccination resistance, and the four subscales enable a more nuanced understanding of the nature of those views. It should be noted, however, that the strong correlations amongst the four subscales suggest that interventions should target all four attitude areas, and it remains to be seen whether differential emphasis across the four areas is warranted.
An ongoing debate in employment policy is whether promoting small and medium enterprises creates jobs. We use the elimination of small-scale industry (SSI) promotion in India to address this ...question. For 60 years, SSI promotion in India focused on reserving certain products for manufacture by small and medium enterprises. We identify the consequences for employment growth, investment, output, productivity, and wages of dismantling India's SSI reservations. We exploit variation in the timing of de-reservation across products and also measure the long-run impact of national SSI policy changes using variation in pretreatment exposure at the district level. Districts more exposed to de-reservation experienced higher employment and output growth. Entrants into the de-reserved product spaces and incumbents that were previously constrained by the size restrictions drove the increase in growth. The results suggest that dismantling India's SSI policies encouraged overall employment growth.
Highlights • Language use can offer insights into concerns about vaccination. • Comments favouring vaccination show evidence of greater anxiety than those against. • Vaccination concerns are ...discussed in more analytical rather than emotional fashion. • Concerns about family appear more prevalent in pro-vaccination comments. • Ecologically valid real-world concerns may help inform future interventions.
TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T ALREADY KNOW Byrne, David P.; La Nauze, Andrea; Martin, Leslie A.
The review of economics and statistics,
07/2018, Letnik:
100, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We document how imperfect information generates heterogeneous effects in information treatments with personalized high-frequency feedback and peer comparisons. In our field experiment in retail ...electricity, we find that high- and low-energy users symmetrically underestimate and overestimate their relative energy use pretreatment. Responses to personalized feedback, however, are asymmetric. Households that overestimate their relative use and low users both respond by consuming more. These boomerang effects provide evidence that peer-comparison information programs, even those coupled with normative comparisons, are not guaranteed to lead to increases in prosocial behavior.
•Higher news coverage contributed to subsequent adverse event reporting.•News coverage had part of its effect through increased Google search volumes.•Google searches may index public anxiety about a ...public health initiative.•News coverage should balance accurate health information with risk of increasing AEs.
Human papilloma virus vaccines are a safe and effective tool for reducing HPV infections that can cause cervical cancer. However, uptake of these vaccines has been suboptimal, with many people holding negative beliefs and misconceptions. Such beliefs have been linked with the experience of unpleasant side effects following medical treatment, and media coverage may heighten such concerns.
The present study sought to assess the influence of news coverage (number of news articles per month) on adverse event reporting in response to Gardasil vaccination in New Zealand over a 7.5-year period, and whether the influence of news coverage was mediated by internet search activity (Google search volumes). Multiple linear regression analyses and simple mediation analyses were used, controlling for year and number of vaccinations delivered.
News coverage in the previous month, and Google search volumes in the same month, were significant predictors of adverse event reporting, after accounting for vaccination rates and year. Concurrent Google search volumes partially mediated the effect of prior news coverage.
The results suggest that some of the adverse events reported were not related to the vaccination itself, but to news coverage and internet search volumes, which may have contributed to public concerns about potentially unpleasant or harmful outcomes. These findings have implications for the importance of psychological and social factors in adverse event reporting, and the role of the news media in disseminating health information.
Abstract
Perceived stress among university students is a prevalent health issue directly correlated with poor academic performance, poor sleep quality, hopelessness, compromised physical and mental ...health, high risk of substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. Tamarkoz, a Sufi meditation, may reduce the impact of stressors to prevent illness among students. Tamarkoz is the art of self-knowledge through concentration and meditation. It is a method of concentration that can be applied to any task. The method is said to discipline the mind, body, and emotions to avoid unintended distractions. Therefore, it can be used in daily life activities, such as studying, eating, driving, de-stressing or in Sufism, seeking self-knowledge. This study was an 18-week quasi-experimental design with pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up assessments in the experimental group, a wait-list control, and a third group that utilized the campus health center’s stress management resources. Participants, university students, had no prior exposure to Tamarkoz, and there were no statistically significant differences among groups on baseline measurements. Using a generalized linear mixed model, significant increases in positive emotions and daily spiritual experiences, and reductions in perceived stress and heart rate were found in the experimental group compared to the other two groups. Tamarkoz seems to show some advantages over the usual stress management resources offered by a student health center.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration Date: (03/04/2018); ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03489148.
PURPOSEBenign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a histologic diagnosis describing proliferation of smooth muscle and epithelial cells within the prostatic transition zone. The prevalence and severity of ...lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in aging men are progressive and impact the health and welfare of society. This revised Guideline provides a useful reference on effective evidence-based management of male LUTS/BPH. See the accompanying algorithm for a summary of the procedures detailed in the Guideline (figures 1 and 2Figure: see textFigure: see text). MATERIALS AND METHODSThe Minnesota Evidence Review Team searched Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, and AHRQ databases to identify eligible English language studies published between January 2008 and April 2019, then updated through December 2020. Search terms included Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and keywords for pharmacological therapies, drug classes, and terms related to LUTS or BPH. When sufficient evidence existed, the body of evidence was assigned a strength rating of A (high), B (moderate), or C (low) for support of Strong, Moderate, or Conditional Recommendations. In the absence of sufficient evidence, information is provided as Clinical Principles and Expert Opinions (table 1Table: see text). RESULTSNineteen guideline statements pertinent to evaluation, work-up, and medical management were developed. Appropriate levels of evidence and supporting text were created to direct both primary care and urologic providers towards streamlined and suitable practices. CONCLUSIONSThe work up and medical management of BPH requires attention to individual patient characteristics, while also respecting common principles. Clinicians should adhere to recommendations and familiarize themselves with standards of BPH management.
I discuss how electric vehicles (EVs) link transportation externalities to the regulations that govern our electricity markets. Specifically, I contrast the consequences of the incentives faced by ...joint EV and residential PV adopters under a system of monthly net metering to those under a system of instantaneous metering with feed‐in tariffs and behind‐the‐meter own consumption. I also discuss how, even within Australia, households under new solar PV contracts and early adopters under legacy contracts face very different private costs of operating EVs, which have environmental and congestion implications. I briefly discuss how these incentives interact with the profitability and environmental benefit of household battery systems. Finally, I comment on how these short‐term incentives are likely to evolve in the longer run transition to a much cleaner grid and warn about the potential negative distributional impacts of using purchase subsidies to accelerate the adoption of these technologies.
The psychosocial impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on human life is well-known. Although vaccine protection represents an effective way to control the spread of the virus, vaccination ...hesitancy may decrease individuals’ willingness to get vaccinated, including among cancer patients. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to examine the predictors of cancer patients’ intentions to receive COVID-19 vaccinations and vaccine uptake, using and integrating the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the health belief model (HBM). A sample of 276 Italian cancer patients (54% female and 46% male) ranging from 19 to 85 years (
M
= 49.64,
SD
= 11.53) was recruited by administering an online questionnaire. The current study results showed that cancer patients with higher trust in health authorities tended to have vaccine-positive subjective norms, perceived that vaccination was under their control, and viewed COVID-19 vaccines positively. On the other hand, the perceived risk of COVID-19 was related to subjective norms but not to perceived behavioural control or attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. The current study reveals that TPB variables can function effectively as mediators between perceived risk, trust, and intention to vaccinate but at different levels. Together, these findings suggest that effective interventions (both public health messaging and personal medical communications) should focus on enhancing trust in health authorities, while at the same time endeavouring to highlight subjective norms that are vaccine-positive.
In January 2021, Israel started vaccinating healthcare workers (HCWs) and individuals older than 65 years with COVID-19 vaccines. Scientific literature points to vaccine hesitancy as being a major ...health concern. During time of pandemics, increased consciousness of health behaviors may be encountered. The current study aimed to assess attitudes to general vaccines and to COVID-19 vaccines in particular among adult (>18) Israeli general public, and among Israeli dentists and dental hygienists. Cross-sectional surveys were filled out by a total of 501 participants (361 Israeli adults >18 years, 73 dental hygienists, and 67 dentists). Along with basic demographics, participants responded to the Hebrew VAX, COVID-VAX and HCS scales. Group comparisons were analyzed using
tests and ANOVAs with Scheffe's test used for post hoc comparisons. Dental hygienists demonstrated significantly higher anti-vaccinations approaches than both dentists (
< 0.01) and the general public (
< 0.05). In all groups, attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccines were more negative compared to attitudes towards general vaccines, with hygienists demonstrating significant negative attitudes compared to dentists (
< 0.05). The general public (
= 0.56) and hygienists demonstrated increased health awareness compared to dentists (
< 0.05). As health awareness has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic primary strategies to combat vaccine hesitancy should be implemented in the general public, and in particular, an dental teams.
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