The stages and processes of exercise adoption and maintenance in a worksite sample.

We applied the model of the stages and processes of change to exercise adoption and maintenance. This model has shown promise in advancing theory and treatment of the addictions and other negative health behaviors, but there have been few systematic attempts to apply the model to positive health behaviors, such as exercise adoption. Questionnaires dealing with the stages and processes of exercise change were developed and administered to a sample of 1,172 participants in a worksite health promotion project. The sample was split randomly into halves for (a) initial model development and testing and (b) confirmatory measurement model testing. Additional model confirmation was obtained by examining the hierarchical structure of the processes of change and by conducting Stage x Process analyses. Results suggest that the underlying constructs derived from smoking cessation and other addictive behaviors can be generalized to exercise behavior. Understanding the stages and processes of exercise behavior change may yield important information for enhancing exercise adoption, adherence, and relapse prevention at both individual and public health levels.     

Ambient Sexual Harassment: An Integrated Model of Antecedents and Consequences

Research on sexual harassment as a prevalent job stressor has focused primarily on outcomes for the direct targets of harassment; the antecedents and consequences ofindirectexposure to sexual harassment have not been explored. Ambient Sexual Harassment is proposed as an assessment of indirect exposure to sexual harassment. Ambient Sexual Harassment is defined as the general or ambient level of sexual harassment in a work group as measured by the frequency of sexually harassing behaviors experienced by others in a woman's work group. The integration of Ambient Sexual Harassment into the model of sexual harassment developed by Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, and Magley (1997) proposes that indirect exposure to sexual harassment will have similar antecedents and job-related, psychological, and health outcomes as direct exposure. An empirical test of the model, using samples of female employees from a public utility company (N= 455) and a food processing plant (N= 194), generally supports predictions.     

Peer influence and adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury: A theoretical review of mechanisms and moderators

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is an increasingly prevalent health risk behavior among adolescents and represents a significant public health concern. Although researchers have identified numerous antecedents or risk factors that precede engagement in NSSI behaviors, few studies have examined the role of peer influence processes. Yet, recent research suggests that adolescents may be more likely to engage in NSSI when close friends or other peers engage in similar behaviors. The following paper reviews past research on peer influence effects, including potential mechanisms and moderating variables. Methodological considerations for future research on peer influence and NSSI are discussed.     

Discovering Specific Conditions for Compliance with Soft Regulation Related to Work with Nanomaterials

At workplaces where nanomaterials are produced or used, risk assessment and risk management are extremely difficult tasks since there is still limited evidence about the risks of nanomaterials. Measurement methods for nanoparticles are contested and safety standards have not yet been developed properly. To support compliance with the legal obligation of the employer to care for safe workplaces a large number of ‘soft’ regulatory tools have been proposed (e.g. codes of conduct, benchmarks, standards). However, it is not clear whether and under which conditions soft regulation is complied with. This article discusses the potential advantages and drawbacks of soft regulation. It explores compliance issues when exposure measurement devices and other technology-related factors are involved. The exploration of three examples of soft regulation on occupational health and safety (a ministerial recommendation on preliminary exposure benchmarks, a nano-specific guidance of a chemical company and a public–private OHS guideline) shows that the capacity of the regulated parties to comply depends on the availability of appropriate technological devices and methods, technical expertise and other resources. When technological prerequisites are met, compliance is likely to increase.     

Hispanic versus African American girls: body image, nutrition, and puberty

Public health research has been dominated by the biomedical model, which does not appear to be appropriate for studying public health variables across different populations. For example, when comparing the Hispanic American (HA) and African American (AA) population in the U.S., there are similarities on several demographic and public health variables. Despite these similarities, there is a public health paradox. HA with strong cultural ties engage in fewer high-risk behaviors and therefore have favorable health outcomes. The primary focus of this study however, is the health disparities between AA and HA girls in particular. Pediatric research indicates that HA girls are developing secondary sexual characteristics at a later age than AA girls. Researchers have acknowledged that growth trends are sensitive to life changes such as catastrophes, prosperity, and those which affect diet and lifestyle. Thus, this study investigated whether there are differences in food intake between HA and AA girls as a function of early sexual maturation and body image perceptions in the context of culture. Participating were 23 HA and 44 AA girls, aged 7 to 10 years, and 1 of their parent/guardians.     

Predictors of champion behaviors in an evidence-based parenting program: A structural equation modeling approach

The importance of champions in the implementation of evidence-based public health programs has been well established. Champions perform a range of behaviors which can have significant influence on the adoption and sustainability of interventions. This study investigates champion behaviors in parenting practitioners with the aim to provide insight into the range and extent that practitioners engage in champion behaviors and to examine predictors of practitioners' champion behaviors using structural equation modeling. Data were collected during a large international implementation survey of 1606 practitioners trained to deliver an evidence-based parenting program, the triple P—Positive Parenting Program. We developed a 13-item Champion Behaviors Scale which was administered alongside other measures of predictors of implementation outcomes. Perceived usefulness of the program was the most important facilitator of both public and personal champion behaviors. Certain desirable features of the program tended to not only be positively associated with the perceived usefulness of the program, but also had a unique impact on practitioners' personal champion behaviors. Higher positions within organizations were linked with more public champion behaviors. Although organizational support was found to be unrelated to champion behaviors in the structural model, it facilitated other predictors of champion behaviors.     

论公共卫生决策的伦理模式

公共卫生决策的伦理问题是公共卫生伦理研究的一个核心问题。近年来我国公共卫生领域出现了大量严重的伦理问题,其主要根源在于公共卫生决策的伦理缺失。强调指出公共卫生伦理决策应当树立科学健康观,并以此为基础,从转变政府职能、强化公共卫生信息系统和加大政府投入等方面详细论述了公共卫生伦理决策的一种新模式。     

Children's use of frequency information for trait categorization and behavioral prediction

Two experiments examined young children's use of behavioral frequency information to make behavioral predictions and global personality attributions. In Experiment 1, participants heard about an actor who behaved positively or negatively toward 1 or several recipients. Generally, children did not differentiate their judgments of the actor on the basis of the amount of information provided. In Experiment 2, the actor behaved positively or negatively toward a single recipient once or repeatedly. Participants were more likely to make appropriate predictions and attributions after exposure to multiple target behaviors and with increasing age. Overall, children's performance was influenced by age-related positivity and negativity biases. These findings indicate that frequency information is important for personality judgments but that its use is affected by contextual complexity and information-processing biases.     

Predicting Environmental Behaviors: The Influence of Self-Determined Motivation and Information About Perceived Environmental Health Risks1

The purpose of the present study is to examine the combined contribution of 2 predictors of environmental behaviors, self-determined motivation and information about a particular environmental issue (viz., perceived environmental health risks). The hypothesized model was tested with 761 participants from the general population using structural equation modeling. Self-determined motivation was found to predict both environmental behaviors and the tendency to seek information on health risks coming from 2 main sources (federal government agencies and public groups), which led to more confidence in those sources of information. In turn, confidence in the different sources of information was found to be significantly associated with perceptions of environmental health risks. Finally these perceptions were also found to be predictors of environmental behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of 2 possible processes that could facilitate environmental behaviors.     

The future of genetics in public health

During the 1980s, we have witnessed an erosion in federal and state funding for the coordination of genetic services in state health departments. As this decade begins, the federal budget for the support of the national genetics program is less than half of the total available in 1980. In addition, priorities in state maternal and child health programs have changed, and genetic services have often received lower rankings aside of programs to improve prenatal care and to address problems such as teenage pregnancy. Clearly we are at a critical point for the future of genetics programs in the public health arena. Fortunately, despite the problems with funding and priority setting, important coalitions have been built during the past decade and continued advances in medical genetics have made it difficult for public health officials to ignore the potential impact of genetic services. Council of Regional Networks for Genetic Services (CORN) and the regional genetic services networks have provided opportunities for interaction and coordination between genetic services providers and public health officials that had not been available to any significant extent. The full potential of these coalitions has yet to be realized, but efforts in data collection, development of national guidelines and standards, and information sharing and networking have already had an influence on state genetic services programs. Continuing research on the genetics of chronic diseases and the influence of discoveries in molecular genetics will undoubtedly broaden the current scope of state public health programs in genetics, which all too often have been limited to newborn screening and administration of grants for genetic services. The regional and national genetic services programs should be strengthened and appropriate training programs should be developed in Schools of Public Health to provide the expertise and leadership that will be needed to guide the future of genetics in public health.     

Cognitive Shocks: Scientific Discovery and Mobilization

Science, through the generation of new knowledge, has the ability to transform commonly held beliefs. Occasionally scientific discoveries produce “cognitive shocks”, which refer to new information that can restructure an individual's beliefs or understandings about the world in a way that affects attitudes toward, and support for, social change. Social movements can play a key role in deploying, framing, and in some cases, producing, cognitive shocks that affect public opinion and political advocacy. Three case studies of scientific cognitive shocks illuminate the interplay between social movements and science and the resulting effects on attitudes and activism: studies finding that smoking cigarettes and exposure to secondhand smoke have harmful health effects, studies suggesting that sexual orientation has a biological basis, and scientific evidence for cetacean intelligence. Cognitive shocks emphasize how compelling shifts in conceptual and logical perceptions can act as powerful motivators of activism and, by doing so, complement existing work done in social movement literature on the role of emotions in mobilization. It is likely that a combination of emotional and rational motivators sustain activism, and a more thorough understanding of how both of these processes affect mobilization can serve to better elucidate the mechanisms underlying opinions toward, and action taken for, social change.     

传染病情境下的社交媒介健康传播探析

以新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情为代表的传染病大流行给全球公共卫生系统带来巨大挑战,严重威胁人类生命健康安全。促使个体积极主动采取健康行为是阻止病毒传播最经济、最有效的方式之一。社交媒介具有的传播高效和互动灵活等属性使其成为健康传播的重要载体。组织机构利用社交媒介开展健康运动,教育、引导公众改变对预防行为的态度,最终促使健康行为的发生,但这一过程也遭遇信息疫情等带来的巨大挑战。基于社交媒介开展的健康传播,有赖于信息内容、发布形态、媒介渠道、公众参与等因素的交互影响以及网络主体的多元共治。

     

突发公共卫生事件中舆论性信息弱势群体的伦理问题

突发公共卫生事件发生后,为了避免疾病扩散,通过流行病学调查得到的患者信息需进行公布,其中与私行私德有关之处在公众围观中可能被放大评判,话语权不足的患者成为舆论中信息弱势群体。这一状况会导致公私边界不明晰,患者私行入公域;道德评价成为情绪宣泄,负面后果无人负责;以道德为名造成撕裂,消解舆论的监督作用等负面后果。要解决这些伦理问题,需要把握适宜的伦理距离,树立距离伦理意识;依照分布式道德行为措施追责,发挥网络平台道德促进者作用;同时增强公共卫生沟通机制中的伦理因素,推进规范化管理。

     

Exposure to Parental Cigarette Smoking and Child Problem Behaviors: A Longitudinal Study

This study examined exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), a major public health problem. ETS has been found to be associated with an increased risk of adverse health effects in children. This study utilizes data from a community-based, longitudinal investigation examining the relation between children’s exposure to ETS and later internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors. Interviews were administered to a representative community sample of participants from two New York State counties in 1983, with subsequent interviews in 1985–1986, 1992, 1997, and 2002–2003 (when the participants’ mean age was 32). Data was collected on various personality and behavioral characteristics of the participants, and on internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors demonstrated by their children. Results indicated that children’s exposure to ETS was associated with an increased risk for both internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors. This relationship was maintained despite control on a number of parental psychosocial risk factors (e.g., demographic variables, personality and behavioral attributes) that have been found to be associated with both parental cigarette smoking and behavior problems among children. These data, which indicate an association between exposure to ETS and internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors among children, support public health policies to further restrict children’s exposure to ETS.     

On the relation between conceptual priming, neural priming, and novelty assessment

A consistently reported finding in functional neuroimaging studies which compare processing of new information to processing of old information is a reduction in blood flow, and hence neural activity, associated with the old condition. This deactivation has been labeled neural priming. Some investigators have hypothesized that neural priming is the physiological mechanism underlying conceptual priming—a facilitation in the semantic processing of repeated information. Others, however, have hypothesized that neural priming reflects novelty assessment—a mechanism which minimizes the probability that redundant information will be stored in long‐term memory. In this paper, the conceptual priming and novelty assessment hypotheses are compared and contrasted in order to ask, and tentatively answer, the question: Are conceptual priming and novelty assessment cognitively and neurophysiologically distinct? Based on a review of the literature, it is suggested that whereas novelty assessment and conceptual priming are distinct cognitive entities, they cannot be presently separated neurophysiologically. That is, some novelty assessment deactivations may in fact reflect priming, and some priming deactivations may in fact reflect novelty assessment.     

Coping with the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome: Role of threat appraisals and coping responses in health behaviors

The present study examines the psychological impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) by exploring the coping strategies and health behaviors enacted in response to the SARS epidemic. Hierarchical linear regression indicated that the use of wishful thinking in response to the threat of SARS was related to both avoiding public places and avoiding people perceived to be possible carriers of the SARS virus, but was not associated with the use of more adaptive health behaviors, such as using disinfectants and hand washing. Conversely, those who reported engaging in empathic responding in response to the threat of SARS were both less likely to report avoiding people perceived as being at a high risk for SARS and more likely to report engaging in effective health behaviors. Support seeking was not a significant predictor of the health behaviors examined in the present study. Results are discussed in terms of coping with health threats and health promotion.     

The ethics of distress: Toward a framework for determining the ethical acceptability of distressing health promotion advertising

Distressing health promotion advertising involves the elicitation of negative emotion to increase the likelihood that health messages will stimulate audience members to adopt healthier behaviors. Irrespective of its effectiveness, distressing advertising risks harming audience members who do not consent to the intervention and are unable to withdraw from it. Further, the use of these approaches may increase the potential for unfairness or stigmatization toward those targeted, or be considered unacceptable by some sections of the public. We acknowledge and discuss these concerns, but, using the public health ethics literature as a guide, argue that distressing advertising can be ethically defensible if conditions of effectiveness, proportionality necessity, least infringement, and public accountability are satisfied. We do not take a broad view as to whether distressing advertising is ethical or unethical, because we see the evidence for both the effectiveness of distressing approaches and their potential to generate iatrogenic effects to be inconclusive. However, we believe it possible to use the current evidence base to make informed estimates of the likely consequences of specific message presentations. Messages can be pre‐tested and monitored to identify and deal with potential problems. We discuss how advertisers can approach the problems of deciding on the appropriate intensity of ethical review, and evaluating prospective distressing advertising campaigns against the conditions outlined.     

Spiritual Assessment in African-Americans: A Review of Measures of Spirituality Used in Health Research

Background A number of instruments have been developed for investigating relationships between spirituality and health, and have been used to assess spirituality in African-Americans. Yet, the cultural appropriateness for African-Americans of these instruments has not been investigated to date. Objectives To evaluate the construct validity and reliability of spirituality measures used in health research from 1982 to 2005. Method Systematic review of the literature. Results Thirty five studies and five measures of spirituality met the inclusion criteria. Most of the spirituality measures were developed in primarily Caucasian-American samples. African-Americans were represented in 71% of the studies (n = 25) using spirituality measures in health research. Distinct cultural attributes of African-American spirituality were omitted in most of the spirituality measures. Two studies were retrieved in which psychometric evaluation was conducted in entirely African-American samples. Discussion Spirituality is a significant cultural experience and belief that influences the health behaviors of African-Americans. The lack of a culturally appropriate measure of African-American spirituality is a major limitation of studies investigating spirituality and health in this population. Development of a culturally appropriate and sensitive measure of spirituality in African-Americans is suggested to strengthen the quality of research in this area.     

Effects of Case History versus Abstract Information on Health Attitudes and Behaviors1

Social psychological theory suggests that information presented in the form of a vivid case history is often more persuasive than information presented in abstract form, yet this idea has rarely been tested in the health promotion area. Three studies compared the effectiveness of health information presented in case history form with equivalent information presented in abstract form. The case history version had a greater impact on subjects' health attitudes and behavioral intentions in Studies 1 and 2. Study 3 investigated subjects at high risk for a serious health threat and found that the case history version was more persuasive than the abstract version among those who minimized the health threat. A six-weeks follow-up in Study 3 indicated that the case history version modestly enhanced long-term recall of the information but did not differentially affect subjects' actual health behaviors. The three studies provided partial support for the prediction that the case history version would arouse greater affect than the abstract version. Implications for health promotion programs are discussed.