Trust in COVID-19 public health information.

Understanding the factors that influence trust in public health information is critical for designing successful public health campaigns during pandemics such as COVID-19. We present findings from a cross-sectional survey of 454 US adults-243 older (65+) and 211 younger (18-64) adults-who responded to questionnaires on human values, trust in COVID-19 information sources, attention to information quality, self-efficacy, and factual knowledge about COVID-19. Path analysis showed that trust in direct personal contacts (B = 0.071, p = .04) and attention to information quality (B = 0.251, p < .001) were positively related to self-efficacy for coping with COVID-19. The human value of self-transcendence, which emphasizes valuing others as equals and being concerned with their welfare, had significant positive indirect effects on self-efficacy in coping with COVID-19 (mediated by attention to information quality; effect = 0.049, 95% CI 0.001-0.104) and factual knowledge about COVID-19 (also mediated by attention to information quality; effect = 0.037, 95% CI 0.003-0.089). Our path model offers guidance for fine-tuning strategies for effective public health messaging and serves as a basis for further research to better understand the societal impact of COVID-19 and other public health crises.

The Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine as an Auxiliary Treatment for COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic with no specific and widely accepted effective drug or vaccine. However, studies have shown that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) may play a significant role as an auxiliary treatment for COVID-19. Objective: This study aimed to assess the effects of TCM as an auxiliary treatment for COVID-19 through a systematic review of randomized-controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: Four English and three Chinese language databases were searched from December 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. RCTs comparing TCM in combination with Western medicine (WM) with the same WM therapies alone for confirmed COVID-19 patients were included. The outcome measures were cure rate, lowering of body temperature, cough relief, improvement in chest computed tomography (CT) images, deterioration of condition, and adverse effects. Methodological quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. A series of meta-analyses were conducted for selected outcomes using RevMan 5.3 software. The quality of evidence was appraised using the grading of recommendation, assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) recommendations. Results: Ten RCTs with a total of 1,285 patients were included. Compared with WM alone in treating COVID-19, WM with auxiliary treatment by TCM appears to have increased the cure rate (risk ratio [RR] 1.15 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-1.26]), relieved cough (RR 1.32 [95% CI 1.15-1.52]), improved chest CT images (RR 1.23 [95% CI 1.11-1.37]), and reduced the number of cases transitioning from a moderate to severe condition (RR 0.58 [95% CI 0.43-0.77]). The authors are uncertain whether TCM combined WM has effects on fever normalization (RR 1.10 [95% CI 0.94-1.29]) or adverse effects (RR 0.81 (95% CI 0.42-1.57]). Although they evaluated the certainty of evidence for lowering body temperature and adverse effects as very low, and low for cure rate, certainty was evaluated as moderate for improvement in chest CT images, cough relief, and deterioration of condition. Conclusion: TCM may be an effective auxiliary treatment for COVID-19 patients, which is likely to help improve the main symptoms and reduce disease progression. However, due to the limited number of studies and apparent heterogeneity among them, a more definitive conclusion on the effect of TCM on lowering body temperature and adverse effects cannot be drawn at this time.

Socioeconomic status and well-being during COVID-19: A resource-based examination.

The authors assess levels and within-person changes in psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms and life satisfaction) from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic for individuals in the United States, in general and by socioeconomic status (SES). The data is from 2 surveys of 1,143 adults from RAND Corporation's nationally representative American Life Panel, the first administered between April-June, 2019 and the second during the initial peak of the pandemic in the United States in April, 2020. Depressive symptoms during the pandemic were higher than population norms before the pandemic. Depressive symptoms increased from before to during COVID-19 and life satisfaction decreased. Individuals with higher education experienced a greater increase in depressive symptoms and a greater decrease in life satisfaction from before to during COVID-19 in comparison to those with lower education. Supplemental analysis illustrates that income had a curvilinear relationship with changes in well-being, such that individuals at the highest levels of income experienced a greater decrease in life satisfaction from before to during COVID-19 than individuals with lower levels of income. We draw on conservation of resources theory and the theory of fundamental social causes to examine four key mechanisms (perceived financial resources, perceived control, interpersonal resources, and COVID-19-related knowledge/news consumption) underlying the relationship between SES and well-being during COVID-19. These resources explained changes in well-being for the sample as a whole but did not provide insight into why individuals of higher education experienced a greater decline in well-being from before to during COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).