Intellectual Humility and Responsiveness to Public Health Recommendations.

We examined the association between intellectual humility (IH)-a willingness to consider credible new information and alternative views and revise one's own views if warranted-and adherence to experts' health behavior recommendations in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1 (N = 541) results showed that people higher in IH are more likely to engage in recommended health behaviors (e.g., mask-wearing, social distancing)-even when controlling for political affiliation. Additional analyses focused specifically on mask-wearing produced initial evidence consistent with mediation of the IH-mask-wearing relationship by the beliefs that mask-wearing 1) is an effective way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and 2) protects others. Based on the pathway from IH to mask-wearing through a concern for others found in Study 1, Study 2 further examined the relationship between IH and prosocial tendencies. The results from Study 2 (Ns for correlation coefficients ranged from 265 to 702) showed an association between IH and several values and traits that reflect a concern for others (e.g., agreeableness, benevolence). These findings suggest that IH may influence behavior through both intra- and interpersonal mechanisms. Implications of these findings for the health-behavior domain are discussed.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Usage of Blood for Transfusions: A 2-Year Experience from a Tertiary Center in Korea.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak affected the utilization and management of blood products in hospitals. Blood shortages occurred owing to social distancing policies and reduction in blood donors. However, only a few studies examined whether these changes affected blood usage and transfusion patterns. We retrospectively reviewed blood component usage according to hospital departments and phases of surgery in transfused patients admitted between 1 March 2019 and 28 February 2021, in a single center in Anyang, Korea. We also analyzed the length of hospital stay and mortality to determine prognosis. In 2020, 32,050 blood components were transfused to 2877 patients, corresponding to 15.8% and 11.8% less than the rates in 2019, respectively. Postoperative usage of blood products significantly decreased in 2020 (3.87 ± 6.50) compared to 2019 (7.12 ± 21.71) (p = 0.047). The length of hospital stay of the patients who underwent postoperative transfusion in 2019 (n = 197) was 13.97 ± 11.95 days, which was not significantly different from that in 2020 (n = 167), i.e., 16.44 ± 17.90 days (p = 0.118). Further, 9 of 197 postoperative transfusion patients died in 2019, while 8 of 167 patients died in 2020 (p = 0.920). The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in limited blood supply and reduced postoperative transfusions; however, patient prognosis was not affected.

Promoting Adherence to Joint Exercise Using the Donation Model: Proof via a Motion-Detecting Mobile Exercise Coaching Application.

PURPOSE: Maintaining or increasing user adherence to digital healthcare services is of great concern to service providers. This study aims to verify whether the donation model is an effective strategy to increase adherence to physical exercise using a mobile application. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 5618 users of a motion-detecting mobile exercise coaching application participated in a donation or self-reward exercise challenge with the same exercise protocol. The workout consisted of 50 squats daily for 14 days. The user's exercise was monitored through a smartphone camera, providing real-time visual and audio feedback. In the donation group, 6 USD was donated to the economically disadvantaged if a participant completed their workout each day. In the self-reward group, three people who completed the program and 20 people who completed ≥12 days of exercise were randomly selected and provided with goods worth 60 USD and 4.3 USD of online currency, respectively. RESULTS: The average daily exercise completion rate (% of participants who completed daily exercise) in the donation group was 1.8 times higher than that of the self-reward group (donation, 41.7%; self-reward, 22.7%; p<0.0001). The donation group completed more days of the program (donation, 5.8; self-reward, 3.2; p<0.0001). The completion rate of both groups decreased with time and decreased most on day two (donation, -9.9%; self-reward, -14.5%). CONCLUSION: The donation model effectively promoted adherence to mobile app-based exercise. This donation model is expected to effectively enhance user adherence to digital healthcare services.

Evaluation of Three Automated Extraction Systems for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 from Clinical Respiratory Specimens.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is highly contagious and causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is the most accurate and reliable molecular assay to detect active SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, a rapid increase in test subjects has created a global bottleneck in testing capacity. Given that efficient nucleic acid extraction greatly affects reliable and accurate testing results, we compared three extraction platforms: MagNA Pure 96 DNA and Viral NA Small Volume kit on MagNA Pure 96 (Roche, Basel, Switzerland), careGENETM Viral/Pathogen HiFi Nucleic Acid Isolation kit (WELLS BIO Inc., Seoul, Korea) on KingFisher Flex (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Rocklin, CA, USA), and SGRespiTM Pure kit (Seegene Inc., Seoul, Korea) on Maelstrom 9600 (Taiwan Advanced Nanotech Inc., Taoyuan, Taiwan). RNA was extracted from 245 residual respiratory specimens from the different types of samples (i.e., NPS, sputum, and saliva) using three different kits. The 95% limits of detection of median tissue culture infectious dose per milliliter (TCID50/mL) for the MagNA Pure 96, KingFisher Flex, and Maelstrom 9600 were 0.37-3.15 × 101, 0.41-3.62 × 101, and 0.33-1.98 × 101, respectively. The KingFisher Flex platform exhibited 99.2% sensitivity and 100% specificity, whereas Maelstrom 9600 exhibited 98.3-100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Bland-Altman analysis revealed a 95.2% concordance between MagNA Pure 96 and KingFisher Flex and 95.4% concordance between MagNA Pure 96 and Maelstrom 9600, indicating that all three platforms provided statistically reliable results. This suggests that two modifying platforms, KingFisher Flex and Maelstrom 9600, are accurate and scalable extraction platforms for large-scale SARS-CoV-2 clinical detection and could help the management of COVID-19 patients.