scholarly journals Spring 2020 COVID-19 Surge: Prospective Relations between Psychosocial Factors and Guideline Adherence, Mask Wearing, and Symptoms in a U.S. Sample

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Milad ◽  
Tim Bogg

Background: To date, much of the research on psychosocial correlates of coronavirus guideline adherence is cross-sectional, leaving prospective associations between these factors unaddressed. Additionally, investigations of prospective predictors of mask-wearing, COVID-19 symptoms, and viral testing remain wanting.Purpose: The present study examined prospective relations between psychosocial factors and guideline adherence, mask-wearing, symptoms, and viral testing in a U.S. sample (N = 500) during the initial surge of COVID deaths in the U.S. between late March and early May, 2020.Methods: Guided by a disposition-belief-motivation framework, correlational analyses and path models tested associations among baseline personality traits, guideline adherence social cognitions, health beliefs, guideline adherence and follow-up guideline adherence, mask-wearing, symptom counts, and 30-day viral testing. Results: Modeling results showed greater baseline agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion were associated with more frequent baseline guideline adherence. More liberal political beliefs, greater guideline adherence intentions, and more frequent guideline adherence at baseline predicted more frequent mask-wearing at follow-up. Sex (female), lower perceived health, and greater neuroticism at baseline predicted greater symptom counts at follow-up. Reports of viral testing were quite low (1.80 %) yet were consistent with concurrent national reporting and limited availability of testing.Conclusions: Results show how inconsistencies and politization of health policy communication were concomitant with effects of individual-level political beliefs on mask-wearing during the initial surge. The results further clarify how personality traits related to social responsibility (i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness) are associated with following new norms for prescribed behaviors and how symptom reporting can be as much a marker of perceived health as emotional stability.

Author(s):  
Elizabeth Milad ◽  
Tim Bogg

Abstract Background To date, much of the research on individual difference correlates of coronavirus guideline adherence is cross-sectional, leaving prospective associations between these factors unaddressed. Additionally, investigations of prospective predictors of mask-wearing, COVID-19 symptoms, and viral testing remain wanting. Purpose The present study examined prospective relations between demographic factors, personality traits, social cognitions and guideline adherence, mask-wearing, symptoms, and viral testing in a U.S. sample (N = 500) during the initial surge of COVID-19 deaths in the United State between late March and early May 2020. Methods Guided by a disposition-belief-motivation framework, correlational analyses, and path models tested associations among baseline personality traits, guideline adherence social cognitions, health beliefs, guideline adherence and follow-up guideline adherence, mask-wearing, symptom counts, and 30-day viral testing. Results Modeling results showed greater baseline agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion were associated with more frequent baseline guideline adherence. More liberal political beliefs, greater guideline adherence intentions, and more frequent guideline adherence at baseline predicted more frequent mask-wearing at follow-up. Sex (female), lower perceived health, and greater neuroticism at baseline predicted greater symptom counts at follow-up. Reports of viral testing were quite low (1.80%), yet were consistent with concurrent national reporting and limited availability of testing. Conclusions Results show how inconsistencies and politicization of health policy communication were concomitant with the effects of individual-level political beliefs on mask-wearing during the initial surge. The results further clarify how personality traits related to social responsibility (i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness) are associated with following new norms for prescribed behaviors and how symptom reporting can be as much a marker of perceived health as emotional stability.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2199416
Author(s):  
Sara Trujillo-Alemán ◽  
Åsa Tjulin ◽  
Glòria Pérez ◽  
Emma Hagqvist

This study aimed to explore the distribution of social capital and its relation to self-perceived health in lone mothers across Europe. Data were drawn from the European Social Survey Round 5. The sample was restricted to women (15–64 years), not cohabiting with a partner, and with children (≤ 18 years) living in the household. Social capital was measured using variables, representing both structural (political engagement, social support, and social activity) and cognitive (generalized trust, institutionalized trust, reciprocity, and a feeling of safety) components. Individual-level measurements: age, educational attainment, employment status, income level, and household economy. Country-level measurements: family policy model and collective social capital. A multilevel analysis was conducted. The results revealed cross-country variance in the level of lone mothers’ social capital. After adjustment for individual-level and country-level measurements, only reciprocity and a feeling of safety were related to good self-perceived health among lone mothers in Europe.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Meryem Grabski ◽  
Jon Waldron ◽  
Tom P. Freeman ◽  
Claire Mokrysz ◽  
Ruben J.J. van Beek ◽  
...  

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Monitoring emerging trends in the increasingly dynamic European drug market is vital; however, information on change at the individual level is scarce. In the current study, we investigated changes in drug use over 12 months in European nightlife attendees. <b><i>Method:</i></b> In this longitudinal online survey, changes in substances used, use frequency in continued users, and relative initiation of use at follow-up were assessed for 20 different substances. To take part, participants had to be aged 18–34 years; be from Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, or the UK; and have attended at least 6 electronic music events in the past 12 months at baseline. Of 8,045 volunteers at baseline, 2,897 completed the survey at both time points (36% follow-up rate), in 2017 and 2018. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The number of people using ketamine increased by 21% (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001), and logarithmized frequency of use in those continuing use increased by 15% (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001; 95% CI: 0.07–0.23). 4-Fluoroamphetamine use decreased by 27% (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001), and logarithmized frequency of use in continuing users decreased by 15% (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.001, 95% CI: −0.48 to −0.23). The drugs with the greatest proportion of relative initiation at follow-up were synthetic cannabinoids (73%, <i>N</i> = 30), mephedrone (44%, <i>N</i> = 18), alkyl nitrites (42%, <i>N</i> = 147), synthetic dissociatives (41%, <i>N</i> = 15), and prescription opioids (40%, <i>N</i> = 48). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> In this European nightlife sample, ketamine was found to have the biggest increase in the past 12 months, which occurred alongside an increase in frequency of use in continuing users. The patterns of uptake and discontinuation of alkyl nitrates, novel psychoactive substances, and prescription opioids provide new information that has not been captured by existing cross-sectional surveys. These findings demonstrate the importance of longitudinal assessments of drug use and highlight the dynamic nature of the European drug landscape.


GeroPsych ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasminka Despot Lucanin ◽  
Damir Lucanin

This research investigates the associations of psychological and biological factors with the self-perceived health of old persons. Participants were 411 residents of 11 retirement homes in Zagreb, Croatia: 104 men, 307 women, aged 56–96 years (average 79) at baseline, mobile, and not diagnosed with dementia. The variables measured, at baseline and at 2-year follow-up, were sociodemographics, self-perceived health, functional ability, cognitive function, depression, and social participation. Biochemical variables were measured from vein blood sample at baseline. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses explained 33%–38% of self-perceived health variance. Functional ability, depressive symptoms, and age were significant predictors of self-perceived health in all analyses. Two biological cardiovascular risk factors variables – glucose and urea – were significantly associated with self-perceived health.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1500-1507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ane Kristiansen Solbraa ◽  
Ulf Ekelund ◽  
Ingar M. Holme ◽  
Sidsel Graff-Iversen ◽  
Jostein Steene-Johannessen ◽  
...  

Background:Sex, age, body mass index (BMI), perceived health and health behavior are correlates known to affect physical activity and sedentary time. However, studies have often been cross-sectional, and less is known about long-term correlates. Thus, the aims were to investigate 1) the associations between a set of characteristics (demographic, biological, psychological, and behavioral) and objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time at 13-year follow-up, and 2) the association between changes in these characteristics over time and physical activity and sedentary time.Methods:Baseline characteristics were collected in 40-year-olds in 1996, and follow-up data on objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time were obtained in 2009 (n = 240). Data were analyzed by multiple linear regressions.Results:Self-reported physical activity (P < .001) and improved perceived health (P = .046) were positively associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) whereas BMI (P = .034) and increased BMI (P = .014) were negatively associated with MVPA at follow-up. Women spent less time being sedentary than men (P = .019). Education (P < .001) was positively associated and improved perceived health (P = .010) was negatively associated with sedentary time at follow-up.Conclusions:MVPA and sedentary time at follow-up were associated with behavioral, biological and demographic correlates. However, the nature of our analyses prevents us from inferring causality.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark John Brandt ◽  
G. Scott Morgan

Ideology and political beliefs are individual-level phenomena that are intended to describe the political thoughts of a person. However, the modal study of the structure of political ideologies and beliefs uses cross-sectional survey data to estimate what is central to the belief system or the dimensionality of the belief system. Cross-sectional data are ill-suited to the task of studying individual-level phenomena because they contain an unobservable mixture of within-person and between-person variation. In this project, we use longitudinal datasets from the Netherlands and the United States, spanning between 6 months and 10 years, to we ask whether the modal study helps us understand the ideologies in people’s heads? First, using Bayesian STARTS models (Lüdtke, Robitzsch, &amp; Wagner, 2018), we find that variability in measures of ideology and political beliefs is primarily due to stable between-person differences, with relatively smaller amounts variation due to within-person change. Second, we estimate between-person, within-person, and cross-sectional correlations between all items in our study and find that between-person correlations are substantially different from within-person correlations. Between-person correlations are larger and in some cases differ in their direction from within-person correlations. Cross-sectional correlations are most similar to between-person correlations, suggesting that the modal study may help describe divisions between people but is ill-suited to tell us about the structure of individual’s ideologies and political beliefs. New methods are necessary for a complete understanding of political attitudes that can focus on both between- and within-person processes.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodica I. Damian ◽  
Marion Spengler ◽  
Andreea Sutu ◽  
Brent Roberts

How much do people’s personalities change or remain stable from high-school to retirement? To address these questions, we used a large US sample (N = 1,795) that assessed people’s personality traits in adolescence and 50 years later. We also used two independent samples, one cross-sectional and one short-term longitudinal (N = 3,934 and N = 38, respectively), to validate the personality scales and estimate measurement error. This was the first study to test personality stability/change over a 50-year time span in which the same data source was tapped (i.e., self-report). This allowed us to use four different methods (rank-order stability, mean-level change, individual-level change, and profile stability) answering different developmental questions. We also systematically tested gender differences. We found that the average rank-order stability was .31 (corrected for measurement error) and .23 (uncorrected). The average mean-level change was half of a standard deviation across personality traits, and the pattern of change showed maturation. Individual-level change also supported maturation, with 20-60% of the people showing reliable change within each trait. We tested three aspects of personality profile stability, and found that overall personality profile stability was .37, distinctive profile stability was .17, and profile normativeness was .51 at baseline and .62 at the follow-up. Gender played little role in personality development across the lifespan. Our findings suggest that personality has a stable component across the lifespan, both at the trait level and at the profile level, and that personality is also malleable and people mature as they age.


VASA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Rengier ◽  
Philipp Geisbüsch ◽  
Paul Schoenhagen ◽  
Matthias Müller-Eschner ◽  
Rolf Vosshenrich ◽  
...  

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) as well as thoracic and abdominal endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR and EVAR) rely on accurate pre- and postprocedural imaging. This review article discusses the application of imaging, including preprocedural assessment and measurements as well as postprocedural imaging of complications. Furthermore, the exciting perspective of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based on cross-sectional imaging is presented. TAVR is a minimally invasive alternative for treatment of aortic valve stenosis in patients with high age and multiple comorbidities who cannot undergo traditional open surgical repair. Given the lack of direct visualization during the procedure, pre- and peri-procedural imaging forms an essential part of the intervention. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is the imaging modality of choice for preprocedural planning. Routine postprocedural follow-up is performed by echocardiography to confirm treatment success and detect complications. EVAR and TEVAR are minimally invasive alternatives to open surgical repair of aortic pathologies. CTA constitutes the preferred imaging modality for both preoperative planning and postoperative follow-up including detection of endoleaks. Magnetic resonance imaging is an excellent alternative to CT for postoperative follow-up, and is especially beneficial for younger patients given the lack of radiation. Ultrasound is applied in screening and postoperative follow-up of abdominal aortic aneurysms, but cross-sectional imaging is required once abnormalities are detected. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound may be as sensitive as CTA in detecting endoleaks.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danica W. Y. Liu ◽  
A. Kate Fairweather-Schmidt ◽  
Richard Burns ◽  
Rachel M. Roberts ◽  
Kaarin J. Anstey

Abstract. Background: Little is known about the role of resilience in the likelihood of suicidal ideation (SI) over time. Aims: We examined the association between resilience and SI in a young-adult cohort over 4 years. Our objectives were to determine whether resilience was associated with SI at follow-up or, conversely, whether SI was associated with lowered resilience at follow-up. Method: Participants were selected from the Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project from Canberra and Queanbeyan, Australia, aged 28–32 years at the first time point and 32–36 at the second. Multinomial, linear, and binary regression analyses explored the association between resilience and SI over two time points. Models were adjusted for suicidality risk factors. Results: While unadjusted analyses identified associations between resilience and SI, these effects were fully explained by the inclusion of other suicidality risk factors. Conclusion: Despite strong cross-sectional associations, resilience and SI appear to be unrelated in a longitudinal context, once risk/resilience factors are controlled for. As independent indicators of psychological well-being, suicidality and resilience are essential if current status is to be captured. However, the addition of other factors (e.g., support, mastery) makes this association tenuous. Consequently, resilience per se may not be protective of SI.


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