Individual costs and community benefits: Collectivism and individuals' compliance with public health interventions.

Differences in national responses to COVID-19 have been associated with the cultural value of collectivism. The present research builds on these findings by examining the relationship between collectivism at the individual level and adherence to public health recommendations to combat COVID-19 during the pre-vaccination stage of the pandemic, and examines different characteristics of collectivism (i.e., concern for community, trust in institutions, perceived social norms) as potential psychological mechanisms that could explain greater compliance. A study with a cross-section of American participants (N = 530) examined the relationship between collectivism and opting-in to digital contact tracing (DCT) and wearing face coverings in the general population. More collectivistic individuals were more likely to comply with public health interventions than less collectivistic individuals. While collectivism was positively associated with the three potential psychological mechanisms, only perceived social norms about the proportion of people performing the public health interventions explained the relationship between collectivism and compliance with both public health interventions. This research identifies specific pathways by which collectivism can lead to compliance with community-benefiting public health behaviors to combat contagious diseases and highlights the role of cultural orientation in shaping individuals' decisions that involve a tension between individual cost and community benefit.

Analysis of thyroid function in Japanese patients with coronavirus disease 2019.

Thyroid dysfunction that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is becoming increasingly recognized. However, only a few reports in Japan have addressed this issue to date. In this study, we sought to clarify whether infection with SARS-CoV-2 affected thyroid hormone levels and whether these hormones could be better predictors of prognosis in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Accordingly, we retrospectively examined 147 cases wherein thyroid hormones were measured at the time of admission among 848 Japanese patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Hyogo Prefectural Kakogawa Medical Center. All patients underwent thyroid function testing upon hospital admission. More than half (59.1%) of the patients were euthyroid. Twenty-four percent of patients had serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels lower than the reference range with normal serum free thyroxine (fT4) levels, and 3.4% of the patients had low TSH with high fT4 levels. Over 70% of the patients with moderate and severe COVID-19 had low serum free triiodothyronine (fT3) levels. Serum TSH and fT3 levels were inversely correlated with disease severity. The mortality rate in patients with low serum fT3 levels was significantly higher than that in those with normal serum fT3 levels.

Editorial: Culture and Health

As this special issue demonstrates, evidence on culture and health is emerging in a variety of new frameworks, including international comparisons, national analyses, individual health, and population health. In the opening invited article, Miyamoto and Ryff (2022), two leading researchers in the field of culture and health, showed the theoretical and empirical relationships between culture and health. With a growing body of evidence for cultural influences on health, the pandemic will hasten progress toward health research taking insights from a cultural psychological approach. The ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which presents a worldwide threat to humans, has focused people's attention on health and prompted the adoption of new behaviors to decrease infection risks. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Japanese Psychological Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Relationship between human exhalation diffusion and posture in face-to-face scenario with utterance.

Because of the COVID-19, the world has been affected significantly. Not only health and medical problems but also the decline in life quality and economic activity due to the suspension of social activities cannot be disregarded. It is assumed that the virus is transmitted through coughing and sneezing; however, the possibility of airborne infection by aerosols containing viruses scattered in the air has become a popular topic recently. In airborne infections, the risk of infection increases when the mucous membrane is exposed to exhaled aerosols for a significant amount of time. Therefore, in this study, we visualize human breath using the smoke of electronic cigarettes as tracer particles. Exhalation when speaking was visualized for four human posture patterns. The result shows that the exhaled breath is affected by the body wall temperature; it rises when it remains in the boundary layer by wearing a mask. On the other hand, without a mask, it initially flows downward due to the structure of the nose and mouth, so it flows downward due to inertia and diffuses randomly. This finding is effective in reducing the risk of infection during face-to-face customer service.