Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Nov 2020
Observational StudyCOVID-19 pandemic, government responses, and public mental health: Investigating consequences through crisis hotline calls in two countries.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is an immense global health threat that has invoked unheard-of containment measures in numerous countries to reduce the number of new infections. ⋯ The present study supports the notion that the implementation of severe measures affects public mental health. However, the negative mental health effects of COVID-19 may be reduced if severe governmental restrictions are kept in place as briefly as possible.
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Social science & medicine · Nov 2020
Randomized Controlled TrialMotivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: An online experiment.
Maintaining social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic can save lives. We therefore set out to test communication strategies to promote social distancing. ⋯ Messages that invoke thoughts of infecting vulnerable people or large numbers of people can motivate social distancing and, hence, help to limit the spread of COVID-19. Stated public evaluations (obtained via focus groups or surveys) may underestimate the actual effectiveness of such emotional messages.
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Social science & medicine · Oct 2020
Psychological resilience, depression, anxiety, and somatization symptoms in response to COVID-19: A study of the general population in China at the peak of its epidemic.
Psychological resilience is characterized as the ability to respond to extreme stress or trauma or adverse experience successfully. While the relation between public emergencies and psychological distress is well known, research on therelationship between psychological resilience and mental health is very limited during the outbreak of public health emergencies. ⋯ Our results suggest that there is a high prevalence of psychological distresses among the general population at the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic in China, which is negatively correlated with resilience. Psychological resilience represents an essential target for psychological intervention in a public health emergency.
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Social science & medicine · Oct 2020
Conspiracy theories as barriers to controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses extraordinary challenges to public health. ⋯ Because belief in COVID-related conspiracy theories predicts resistance to both preventive behaviors and future vaccination for the virus, it will be critical to confront both conspiracy theories and vaccination misinformation to prevent further spread of the virus in the US. Reducing those barriers will require continued messaging by public health authorities on mainstream media and in particular on politically conservative outlets that have supported COVID-related conspiracy theories.
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Social science & medicine · Sep 2020
Spatial epidemiology: An empirical framework for syndemics research.
Syndemics framework describes two or more co-occurring epidemics that synergistically interact with each other and the complex structural social forces that sustain them leading to excess disease burden. The term syndemic was first used to describe the interaction between substance abuse, violence, and AIDS by Merrill Singer. A broader range of syndemic studies has since emerged describing the framework's applicability to other public health scenarios. ⋯ In this paper, we present a background on syndemics and spatial epidemiological theory and practice. We then present a case study focused on the HIV and HCV syndemic in West Virginia to provide an example of the use of GIS and spatial analytical methods. The concepts described in this paper can be considered to enhance understanding and analysis of other syndemics for which space-time data are available.