scholarly journals Public parks and the pandemic: How park usage has been affected by COVID-19 policies

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0251799
Author(s):  
Zoe M. Volenec ◽  
Joel O. Abraham ◽  
Alexander D. Becker ◽  
Andy P. Dobson
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Public Parks ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Financial Uncertainty ◽  
Park Visitation ◽  
Mental Health Benefits ◽  
Media Data

Public parks serve an important societal function as recreational spaces for diverse communities of people, with well documented physical and mental health benefits. As such, parks may be crucial for how people have handled effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the increasingly limited recreational opportunities, widespread financial uncertainty, and consequent heightened anxiety. Despite the documented benefits of parks, however, many states have instituted park shutdown orders due to fears that public parks could facilitate SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Here we use geotagged social media data from state, county, and local parks throughout New Jersey to examine whether park visitation increased when the COVID-19 pandemic began and whether park shutdown orders were effective at deterring park usage. We compare park usage during four discrete stages of spring 2020: (1) before the pandemic began, (2) during the beginning of the pandemic, (3) during the New Jersey governor’s state-wide park shutdown order, and (4) following the lifting of the shutdown. We find that park visitation increased by 63.4% with the onset of the pandemic. The subsequent park shutdown order caused visitation in closed parks to decline by 76.1% while parks that remained open continued to experience elevated visitation levels. Visitation then returned to elevated pre-shutdown levels when closed parks were allowed to reopen. Altogether, our results indicate that parks continue to provide crucial services to society, particularly in stressful times when opportunities for recreation are limited. Furthermore, our results suggest that policies targeting human behavior can be effective and are largely reversible. As such, we should continue to invest in public parks and to explore the role of parks in managing public health and psychological well-being.

Social Media-Based Data Collection and Analysis in Educational Research

2020 ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Liuli Huang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Media In Education ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Educational Processes ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Media Data ◽  
Social Media In Education

The past decades have brought many changes to education, including the role of social media in education. Social media data offer educational researchers first-hand insights into educational processes. This is different from most traditional and often obtrusive data collection methods (e.g., interviews and surveys). Many researchers have explored the role of social media in education, such as the value of social media in the classroom, the relationship between academic achievement and social media. However, the role of social media in educational research, including data collection and analysis from social media, has been examined to a far lesser degree. This study seeks to discuss the potential of social media for educational research. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the process of collecting and analyzing social media data through a pilot study of current math educational conditions.

A Sentiment Analysis and Role of Twitter for Health Communications

2022 ◽  
pp. 188-205
Author(s):  
Erkan Çiçek ◽  
Uğur Gündüz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Textual Content ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Media Data

Social media has been in our lives so much lately that it is an undeniable fact that global pandemics, which constitute an important part of our lives, are also affected by these networks and that they exist in these networks and share the users. The purpose of making this hashtag analysis is to reveal the difference in discourse and language while analyzing Twitter data and to evaluate the effects of a global pandemic crisis on language, message, and crisis management with social media data. This form of analysis is typically completed through amassing textual content data then investigating the “sentiment” conveyed. Within the scope of the study, 11,300 Twitter messages posted with the #stayhome hashtag between 30 May 2020 and 6 June 2020 were examined. The impact and reliability of social media in disaster management could be questioned by carrying out a content analysis based totally on the semantic analysis of the messages given on the Twitter posts with the phrases and frequencies used.

Medicine and Health in the Graeco-Roman World

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip van der Eijk
Keyword(s):  
History Of Medicine ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Health Characteristic ◽  
Science And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Time Frames ◽  
Roman Medicine

This article focuses on a number of developments that have made the place of Graeco-Roman medicine in surveys of the history of medicine. A further development discussed is that medical history now also prominently includes the topic of health, both physical and mental health and related topics such as lifestyle, quality of life, well-being, fitness, and ‘flourishing’. It identifies a number of different mental states or conditions on a scale from an optimum to a pessimum, and thus presents a good example of the scalar, gradualist view of health characteristic of Greek medicine. This article shows philosophy competing with medicine for the role of authoritative guide to health, mental as well as physical, and diagnostic as well as therapeutic. The study of Graeco-Roman medicine has profited significantly from connections and comparisons with the study of the history of medicine, science, and culture from other time frames and other parts of the world.

The Use of Yoga for Physical and Mental Health Among Older Adults: A Review of the Literature

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Wang
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Benefits ◽  
Improve Sleep Quality ◽  
Older Adult Population

The older adult population may greatly benefit from the practice of Yoga. This article reviews the scientific evidence supporting the use of Yoga with older adults. Nine studies were identified that examined either physical or mental health outcomes in older adults following a Yoga intervention. There is growing evidence that Yoga can improve physical well-being, including balance, range of motion, blood pressure, pain, fatigue, and general health. There is less evidence available that examines the cognitive and mental health benefits of Yoga for older adults. However, there is preliminary evidence that Yoga can improve sleep quality and depression. Only three of the reviewed studies were randomized controlled trials, and more studies of high methodological quality are needed. Implications for further research and practice are offered.

Using Social Media Data and Park Characteristics to Understand Park Visitation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Kuehn ◽  
James Gibbs ◽  
Harrison Goldspiel ◽  
Brannon Barr ◽  
Alden Sampson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Park Visitation ◽  
Media Data

scholarly journals Designing Online Interventions in Consideration of Young People’s Concepts of Well-Being: Exploratory Qualitative Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Winsall ◽  
Simone Orlowski ◽  
Gillian Vogl ◽  
Victoria Blake ◽  
Mariesa Nicholas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Image Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Online Interventions ◽  
And Control

BACKGROUND A key challenge in developing online well-being interventions for young people is to ensure that they are based on theory and reflect adolescent concepts of well-being. OBJECTIVE This exploratory qualitative study aimed to understand young people’s concepts of well-being in Australia. METHODS Data were collected via workshops at five sites across rural and metropolitan sites with 37 young people from 15 to 21 years of age, inclusive. Inductive, data-driven coding was then used to analyze transcripts and artifacts (ie, written or image data). RESULTS Young adults’ conceptions of well-being were diverse, personally contextualized, and shaped by ongoing individual experiences related to physical and mental health, along with ecological accounts acknowledging the role of family, community, and social factors. Key emerging themes were (1) positive emotions and enjoyable activities, (2) physical wellness, (3) relationships and social connectedness, (4) autonomy and control, (5) goals and purpose, (6) being engaged and challenged, and (7) self-esteem and confidence. Participants had no difficulty describing actions that led to positive well-being; however, they only considered their own well-being at times of stress. CONCLUSIONS In this study, young people appeared to think mostly about their well-being at times of stress. The challenge for online interventions is to encourage young people to monitor well-being prior to it becoming compromised. A more proactive focus that links the overall concept of well-being to everyday, concrete actions and activities young people engage in, and that encourages the creation of routine good habits, may lead to better outcomes from online well-being interventions.

scholarly journals Caregiver Stress: Biomarkers Linked to Disease Risk and the Psychobiology of Stress Reduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 179-179
Author(s):  
Janelle Beadle ◽  
Felipe Jain
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Disease ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Adult Day Services ◽  
Experience Of Stress ◽  
Day Services ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Caregivers to older adults with chronic diseases frequently experience chronic stress which can negatively affect caregivers’ physical and mental health, and increase disease risk. This interdisciplinary symposium will highlight critical factors influencing caregiver stress, and the role of biomarkers in detecting caregiver disease risk. First, we will discuss the effects of stress and emotional experiences on risk for cardiovascular disease in caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD). In the first talk, Dr. Mausbach will examine relationships among perceived stress, blood glucose and risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in caregivers of PWD. Next, Dr. Losada-Baltar will discuss the degree to which caregivers’ ambivalent feelings towards providing care are associated with inflammatory markers of cardiovascular risk. Following this, two talks will investigate critical links between stress and caregiver emotional well-being. Dr. Liu will report relationships among the stress-related hormone cortisol, sleep, and anxiety in the context of adult day services. Dr. Beadle will examine the degree to which caregivers’ affiliative, empathetic interactions with others relate to their experience of stress through cortisol assessments and neuroimaging. The final talk by Dr. Jain will investigate the effects of a Mentalizing Imagery Therapy intervention for family PWD caregivers on stress, evidence for mindfulness as a causal mediator of stress reduction, and the relationship to brain networks associated with emotion regulation. Taken together, this symposium will identify relevant psychosocial and biological factors that contribute to caregiver stress, as well as discuss the psychobiology of amelioration of caregiver stress.

scholarly journals Success in an Online Giving Day: The Role of Social Media in Fundraising

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhishek Bhati ◽  
Diarmuid McDonnell
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Network Size ◽  
Audience Engagement ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Size Number ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Media Data

Social media platforms offer nonprofits considerable potential for crafting, supporting, and executing successful fundraising campaigns. How impactful are attempts by these organizations to utilize social media to support fundraising activities associated with online Giving Days? We address this question by testing a number of hypotheses of the effectiveness of using Facebook for fundraising purposes by all 704 nonprofits participating in Omaha Gives 2015. Using linked administrative and social media data, we find that fundraising success—as measured by the number of donors and value of donations—is positively associated with a nonprofit’s Facebook network size (number of likes), activity (number of posts), and audience engagement (number of shares), as well as net effects of organizational factors including budget size, age, and program service area. These results provide important new empirical insights into the relationship between social media utilization and fundraising success of nonprofits.

Information Visualizations as a Tool to Study Users’ Social Media Privacy Concerns

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatoliy Gruzd ◽  
Jenna Jacobson ◽  
Elizabeth Dubois
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Job Applicants ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Comfort Levels ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
Media Data ◽  
Information Visualizations

The amount and complexity of data that can be accessed from social media has been increasing exponentially. We examine the value of using information visualizations as a tool to study people’s attitudes and perceptions regarding their social media data being used by third parties. In the context of using social media to screen job applicants, we investigate the role of visualizations in studying users’ social media privacy concerns. Utilizing an online survey of 454 participants, we compare participants’ comfort levels in relation to different types of publicly accessible social media data. The results partially support the supposition that analytical information based on some form of data analysis will receive a stronger reaction when accompanied by representative visualizations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document