Environmental Health Perceptions in University Classrooms: Results From an Online Survey During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States and Colombia

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple institutions mobilized to create recommendations that maximize indoor environmental quality to keep building occupants as safe as possible. Many of those recommendations were implemented in buildings across the world even before the presence of field data validated their effectiveness. However, as the pandemic raised awareness of the risks present in the air quality of everyday built environments, little is known about how occupants perceive these interventions or how they will perceive buildings when activities resume with an in-person requirement. This paper presents results from an online survey, conducted from April 23rd to May 8th, 2021, and offers a window into the perceptions of university students on a variety of physical intervention strategies that have been promoted for the return to classrooms. Our analysis explores differences in these perceptions between students from Colombia and the United States, where the vaccination rates of the population as of May 2021 differed substantially. An anonymous online survey was disseminated to students of higher academic institutions using images portraying 3D models of classrooms and written prompts to assess perceptions. Health risk and health promotion perceptions were evaluated using four categories: visual connection to the outdoors, occupant density, additional furnishings, ventilation system type, and number of operable windows. While the effectiveness of these strategies from an epidemiological standpoint was not considered, this survey aimed to measure the perceived effectiveness of these strategies as students prepare to return to in-person education in the classroom. Our analysis found a significant effect of different degrees of “connection to the outdoors” and “occupant density” on both perceived health risk and health promotion in both countries. Respondents ranked strategies like mask-wearing and natural ventilation as important interventions when considering a return to the classroom. Perceptions of health risk and health promotion between students taking classes in the United States and Colombia were significantly different regarding the presence of additional furnishings, and ventilation systems and number of windows in a classroom. The results presented here may shed light on how aspects of the built environment help shape perceptions of healthy environments during the pandemic.

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An Assessment of the Cues College Students Interpret From a Sexual Partner to Determine They Are Refusing

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/0886260521997930 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 088626052199793

Author(s):

Tiffany L. Marcantonio ◽

Danny Valdez ◽

Kristen N. Jozkowski

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

College Students ◽

Sexual Partner ◽

Online Survey ◽

The United States ◽

Sexual Partners ◽

Sexual Scripts ◽

Nonverbal Cues ◽

Sexual Experiences ◽

Verbal Cues

The purpose of this study was to assess the cues college students use to determine a sexual partner is refusing vaginal-penile sex (i.e., refusal interpretations). As a secondary aim, we explored the influence of item wording ( not willing/non-consent vs refusal) on college students’ self-reported refusal interpretations. A sample of 175 college students from Canada and the United States completed an open-ended online survey where they were randomly assigned to one of two wording conditions ( not willing/non-consent vs refusal); students were then prompted to write about the cues they used to interpret their partner was refusing. An inductive coding procedure was used to analyze open-ended data. Themes included explicit and implicit verbal and nonverbal cues. The refusal condition elicited more explicit and implicit nonverbal cues than the not willing/non-consent condition. Frequency results suggested men reported interpreting more explicit and implicit verbal cues. Women reported interpreting more implicit nonverbal cues from their partner. Our findings reflect prior research and appear in line with traditional gender and sexual scripts. We recommend researchers consider using the word refusal when assessing the cues students interpret from their sexual partners as this wording choice may reflect college students’ sexual experiences more accurately.

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Toward a Culture of Health in the United States: Introducing the HPP Arts in Public Health Supplement

Health Promotion Practice ◽

10.1177/15248399211002512 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽

pp. 5S-7S

Author(s):

Jill Sonke ◽

Lourdes Rodríguez ◽

Melissa A. Valerio-Shewmaker

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Health Promotion ◽

Public Health Education ◽

The United States ◽

The Arts ◽

Agents Of Change ◽

The University ◽

Critical Public Health ◽

Health Promotion Practice

The arts—and the arts and culture sector—offer fertile ground for achieving a culture of health in the United States. The arts and artists are agents of change and can help enable this vision and also address the most critical public health issues we are contending with, including COVID-19 and racism. The arts provide means for engaging dialogue, influencing behaviors, disrupting paradigms and fueling social movements. The arts uncover and illuminate issues. They engage us emotionally and intellectually. They challenge assumptions. They call out injustice. They drive collective action. They heal—making arts + public health collaboration very relevant in this historic moment. In this special Health Promotion Practice supplement on arts in public health, you’ll find powerful examples and evidence of how cross-sector collaboration between public health and the arts can advance health promotion goals and impacts, and make health promotion programs not only more accessible to diverse populations but also more equitable and effective in addressing the upstream systems, policies, and structures that create health disparities. You will see how the arts can empower health communication, support health literacy, provide direct and measurable health benefits to individuals and communities, and support coping and resilience in response to COVID-19. This issue itself exemplifies cross-sector collaboration, as it was created through partnership between Health Promotion Practice, the Society for Public Health Education, ArtPlace America, and the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, and presents voices from across the public health, arts, and community development sectors.

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Household COVID-19 risk and in-person schooling

Science ◽

10.1126/science.abh2939 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. eabh2939

Author(s):

Justin Lessler ◽

M. Kate Grabowski ◽

Kyra H. Grantz ◽

Elena Badillo-Goicoechea ◽

C. Jessica E. Metcalf ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Online Survey ◽

Positive Association ◽

The United States ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Office Work ◽

School Based ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Extra Curricular Activities ◽

Low Levels

In-person schooling has proved contentious and difficult to study throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Data from a massive online survey in the United States indicates an increased risk of COVID-19-related outcomes among respondents living with a child attending school in-person. School-based mitigation measures are associated with significant reductions in risk, particularly daily symptoms screens, teacher masking, and closure of extra-curricular activities. A positive association between in-person schooling and COVID-19 outcomes persists at low levels of mitigation, but when seven or more mitigation measures are reported, a significant relationship is no longer observed. Among teachers, working outside the home was associated with an increase in COVID-19-related outcomes, but this association is similar to other occupations (e.g., healthcare, office work). While in-person schooling is associated with household COVID-19 risk, this risk can likely be controlled with properly implemented school-based mitigation measures.

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Abortion attempts without clinical supervision among transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive people in the United States

BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health ◽

10.1136/bmjsrh-2020-200966 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. bmjsrh-2020-200966

Author(s):

Heidi Moseson ◽

Laura Fix ◽

Caitlin Gerdts ◽

Sachiko Ragosta ◽

Jen Hastings ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Clinical Supervision ◽

Online Survey ◽

Clinical Care ◽

Insurance Coverage ◽

Health Insurance Coverage ◽

The United States ◽

Physical Trauma ◽

Abortion Care ◽

And Gender

BackgroundTransgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive (TGE) people face barriers to abortion care and may consider abortion without clinical supervision.MethodsIn 2019, we recruited participants for an online survey about sexual and reproductive health. Eligible participants were TGE people assigned female or intersex at birth, 18 years and older, from across the United States, and recruited through The PRIDE Study or via online and in-person postings.ResultsOf 1694 TGE participants, 76 people (36% of those ever pregnant) reported considering trying to end a pregnancy on their own without clinical supervision, and a subset of these (n=40; 19% of those ever pregnant) reported attempting to do so. Methods fell into four broad categories: herbs (n=15, 38%), physical trauma (n=10, 25%), vitamin C (n=8, 20%) and substance use (n=7, 18%). Reasons given for abortion without clinical supervision ranged from perceived efficiency and desire for privacy, to structural issues including a lack of health insurance coverage, legal restrictions, denials of or mistreatment within clinical care, and cost.ConclusionsThese data highlight a high proportion of sampled TGE people who have attempted abortion without clinical supervision. This could reflect formidable barriers to facility-based abortion care as well as a strong desire for privacy and autonomy in the abortion process. Efforts are needed to connect TGE people with information on safe and effective methods of self-managed abortion and to dismantle barriers to clinical abortion care so that TGE people may freely choose a safe, effective abortion in either setting.

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Measurement of Perceived Interpersonal and Societal Anti-Muslim Discrimination in the United States

Assessment ◽

10.1177/1073191120973388 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 107319112097338

Author(s):

Naheed Ahmed

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Online Survey ◽

Qualitative Data ◽

High Reliability ◽

The United States ◽

Discrimination Index ◽

Muslim Americans ◽

Study Results ◽

Development And Validation ◽

Component Models

Background: Hate crimes against Muslim Americans have increased exponentially in the past 20 years, but there is currently no scale for measuring perceived anti-Muslim discrimination in the United States. To fill this gap, this study used a mixed-method approach to develop scales for measuring perceived anti-Muslim discrimination. Method: Qualitative data informed the development and validation of the 19-item Societal Anti-Muslim Discrimination Index and the 9-item Interpersonal Anti-Muslim Discrimination Index. Quantitative data ( N = 347) were collected from Muslim Americans using an online survey and used to assess the anti-Muslim indexes. Results: Qualitative data contributed to the refinement scale items. Quantitative results indicated one-component models and modest to high reliability of the Interpersonal Anti-Muslim Discrimination Index (.77) and Societal Anti-Muslim Discrimination Index (.88) scales. Discussion: Study results established the validity of these novel scales for measuring the distinct facets of anti-Muslim discrimination not captured by the Everyday Discrimination Index. These scales will facilitate research on anti-Muslim discrimination and the health implications of this form of religious-based discrimination.

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