Could Intern Health Care Students Control Their Emotions and Make a Career Plan During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The negative effects of the pandemic caused students to make changes in their career plans and their ability to manage their emotional states. Not only health students in our country, but also students in other countries of the world experienced fear, anxiety, and unwillingness to participate in professional practices and the provision of care for patients with COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted to determine factors influencing intern healthcare students' career adaptability and their ability to manage emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample of this cross-sectional study consisted of 219 intern healthcare students studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences Undergraduate Program of a University in the fall semester of the 2020 to 2021 academic year. The study data were collected online using the Personal Information Form, Career Adapt-Ability Scale (CAAS), and Courtauld Emotional Control Scale (CECS). The data obtained were analyzed by using the independent samples t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), correlation tests, and the regression model to distinguish variables significantly. Two models explained more than 50% of the variance of CAAS and CECS regarding COVID-19, and 5.1% of the career planning regarding the period during the COVID-19 pandemic (P < .05). As the students' control over their careers decreased during the COVID-19, their feelings of anxiety and unhappiness increased (P < .05). Of the variables, sex, department, future expectations, the position dreamed of being in after graduation, and attitudes toward patient care with COVID-19 affected their CAAS and CECS scores.

Pandemic elevates sensitivity to moral disgust but not pathogen disgust.

The behavioral immune system, with disgust as its motivational part, serves as the first line of defense in organisms' protection against pathogens. Laboratory studies indicate that disgust sensitivity adaptively adjusts to simulated environmental threat, but whether disgust levels similarly change in response to real-life threats, such as a pandemic, remains largely unknown. In a preregistered within-subject study, we tested whether the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic would lead to increased perceived disgust. The perception of threat was induced by testing during two phases of the Covid-19 pandemic (periods of high vs. low pathogen threat). We found heightened levels of moral disgust during a "wave" of the pandemic, but the effect was not observed in the domain of pathogen or sexual disgust. Moreover, the age of respondents and levels of trait anxiety were positively associated with pathogen and moral disgust, suggesting that variation in disgust sensitivity may be based chiefly on stable characteristics.

[Emotional Problems of Children and Adolescents in the COVID-19-Pandemic: Patterns of Change and Predictors]. / Emotionale Probleme von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der COVID-19-Pandemie: Veränderungsmuster und Prädiktoren.

The COVID-19-pandemic showed largely negative, but heterogeneous effects on the psychological well-being of children and adolescents.The present study aimed to (1) identify differential trajectories of emotional problems as young people entered the pandemic, (2) compare pre-pandemic trends to changes one year after its onset, and (3) analyze sociodemographic and social predictors of trajectories. 555 children and adolescents, aged 7 - 14 years at T1 (M = 10.53 years, 46.5 % female), were interviewed in three waves of the German family panel pairfam. Latent class growth analysis (LCGA) revealed four distinct trajectories of emotional problems: an increase after the onset of COVID-19 ("Mean increasing"), a decrease ("Mean decreasing"), no change at low level ("Low stable") or at high level ("Chronic high"), each after a stable trajectory before the pandemic.Multinomial logistic regressions showed that females and youth experiencing an increase in financial deprivation were at higher risk of increasing or chronically high level of emotional problems, while sociability proved protective. Migration background and rejection by peers showed mixed effects. The results emphasize the importance of a differential perspective on how the COVID-19-pandemic affected children's and adolescents' well-being. Besides negative consequences for vulnerable groups, also beneficial aspects of the pandemic should be considered.

The perception of COVID-19, the Light Triad, harmony and ethical sensitivity in late adolescents: The role of meaning-making and stress.

The experiences of inner harmony and ethical sensitivity among late adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic depend on the interplay of perceptive factors, personal resources and cognitive and stress mechanisms. Using a sample from Poland, the present study examined the relationships between the perceptions of COVID-19 and the Light Triad and the characteristics of inner harmony and ethical sensitivity from the mediational perspective of meaning-making and perceived stress. Three hundred and sixteen late adolescents were recruited in the cross-sectional study. They filled in questionnaires measuring the perception of COVID-19, the Light Triad, meaning-making, stress, inner harmony and ethical sensitivity, from April to September 2020. The perception of COVID-19 was negatively related to ethical sensitivity, whereas the Light Triad was positively related to inner harmony and ethical sensitivity. Perceived stress and meaning-making mediated the relationships between the perceptions of COVID-19, the Light Triad and the characteristic of inner harmony. Perception processes and the Light Triad dimensions directly influence ethical sensitivity, as well as indirectly affect inner harmony through meaning-making processes and perceived stress. This noticeably highlights the vital role played by meaning structures and emotional reactions in the experience of inner peace and calmness.

Tolerating bad health research: the continuing scandal.

BACKGROUND: At the 2015 REWARD/EQUATOR conference on research waste, the late Doug Altman revealed that his only regret about his 1994 BMJ paper 'The scandal of poor medical research' was that he used the word 'poor' rather than 'bad'. But how much research is bad? And what would improve things? MAIN TEXT: We focus on randomised trials and look at scale, participants and cost. We randomly selected up to two quantitative intervention reviews published by all clinical Cochrane Review Groups between May 2020 and April 2021. Data including the risk of bias, number of participants, intervention type and country were extracted for all trials included in selected reviews. High risk of bias trials was classed as bad. The cost of high risk of bias trials was estimated using published estimates of trial cost per participant. We identified 96 reviews authored by 546 reviewers from 49 clinical Cochrane Review Groups that included 1659 trials done in 84 countries. Of the 1640 trials providing risk of bias information, 1013 (62%) were high risk of bias (bad), 494 (30%) unclear and 133 (8%) low risk of bias. Bad trials were spread across all clinical areas and all countries. Well over 220,000 participants (or 56% of all participants) were in bad trials. The low estimate of the cost of bad trials was £726 million; our high estimate was over £8 billion. We have five recommendations: trials should be neither funded (1) nor given ethical approval (2) unless they have a statistician and methodologist; trialists should use a risk of bias tool at design (3); more statisticians and methodologists should be trained and supported (4); there should be more funding into applied methodology research and infrastructure (5). CONCLUSIONS: Most randomised trials are bad and most trial participants will be in one. The research community has tolerated this for decades. This has to stop: we need to put rigour and methodology where it belongs - at the centre of our science.

Refraining from interaction can decrease fear of physical closeness during COVID-19.

Perception of peripersonal space (PPS) and interpersonal distance (IPD) has been shown to be modified by external factors such as perceived danger, the use of tools, and social factors. Especially in times of social distancing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital to study factors that modify PPS and IPD. The present work addresses the question of whether wearing a face mask as a protection tool and social interaction impact the perception of IPD. We tested estimated IPD in pictures at three distances: 50 cm, 90 cm, and 150 cm in both social interaction (shaking hands) and without interaction and when the two people in the pictures wore a face mask or not. Data from 60 subjects were analyzed in a linear mixed model (on both difference in distance estimation to the depicted distance and in absolute distance estimation) and in a 3 (distance: 50, 90, 150) × 2 (interaction: no interaction, shake hands), × 2 face mask (no mask, mask) rmANOVA on distance estimation difference. All analyses showed that at a distance of 50 and 90 cm, participants generally underestimated the IPD while at an IPD of 150 cm, participants overestimated the distance. This could be grounded in perceived danger and avoidance behavior at closer distances, while the wider distance between persons was not perceived as dangerous. Our findings at an IPD of 90 cm show that social interaction has the largest effect at the border of our PPS, while the face mask did not affect social interaction at either distance. In addition, the ANOVA results indicate that when no social interaction was displayed, participants felt less unsafe when depicted persons wore a face mask at distances of 90 and 150 cm. This shows that participants are on the one hand aware of the given safety measures and internalized them; on the other hand, that refraining from physical social interaction helps to get close to other persons.

Goals and goal perceptions in patients with advanced stage lung cancer: a mixed methods study.

PURPOSE: Goals provide insight into what is important to an individual. We describe the development and application of a mixed methods approach to elicit goals and perceptions about goals in patients with advanced cancer. METHODS: Patients receiving first-line treatment for advanced lung cancer participated in semi-structured interviews about their goals. Participants self-generated goals, then selected and ranked their three most important goals and provided Likert scale ratings of goal-related perceptions (e.g., attainability, locus of control). Independent raters coded goals into content domains. One month later, participants reported perceived progress toward goals and facilitators of and barriers to progress. RESULTS: Participants (N = 75, Mage = 64.5 years, 59% female) identified goals across eight domains: social/role/relationship, everyday/practical, leisure/pleasure, psychological/existential/spiritual, major life changes or achievements, cancer treatment response/disease outcomes, palliative outcomes, and behavioral health improvement. Of all goals identified (N = 352), 72% of patients had at least one social/role/relationship goal, 68% had a leisure/pleasure goal, and 29% had a cancer treatment response goal. On average, participants considered their goals to be attainable, perceived a high degree of control over reaching goals, anticipated making "some" progress in the short term, and perceived a high likelihood of reaching goals in the future. Facilitators of progress included mental fortitude, feeling physically well, and social support. Barriers included cancer-related side effects, practical challenges, and COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of participant goals focused on meaningful engagement and living well. Goals were largely viewed as attainable and under participants' control. Cancer clinicians may consider how to support patients in working toward valued goals in conjunction with oncology care.

Pleasure and suffering of nursing in COVID-19 hospital units: between disenchantment and formation of meanings.

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the experiences of pleasure and suffering of nursing workers in COVID-19 hospital units. METHODS: a multicenter, qualitative study, developed with 35 nursing workers from COVID-19 units in seven hospitals in southern Brazil. Data were produced through semi-structured interviews, submitted to thematic content analysis with the help of NVivo. RESULTS: experiences of pleasure were linked to gratification, identification with work content, positive results in care, recognition, integration with the team and personal overcoming. Suffering was revealed in daily life of deaths and losses, feelings of helplessness, team conflicts, institutional demands, professional devaluation. Workers reported disenchantment, but also strengthening the meaning of their work, highlighting frontline impacts on their mental health. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: in the dynamics between pleasure and suffering in nursing work in COVID-19 hospital units, elements point to the risk of psychological illness.

Implicit IAT Measures and Neurophysiological fNIRS Markers in Response to High-Engagement Advertising.

Self-report measures partially explain consumers' purchasing choices, which are inextricably linked to cognitive, affective processes and implicit drives. These aspects, which occur outside of awareness and tacitly affect the way consumers make decisions, could be explored by exploiting neuroscientific technology. The study investigates implicit behavioural and neurovascular responses to emotionally arousing and high-engagement advertisements (COVID-19 content). High-engagement advertisements and control stimuli were shown in two experimental sessions that were counterbalanced across participants. During each session, hemodynamic variations were recorded with functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a neurophysiological marker for emotional processing. The implicit association task (IAT) was administered to investigate the implicit attitude. An increase in the concentration of oxygenated haemoglobin (O2Hb) was found for the high-engagement advertising when this category of stimuli was seen first. Specular results were found for deoxygenated haemoglobin (HHb) data. The IAT reported higher values for highly engaging stimuli. Increased activity within the PFC suggests that highly engaging content may be effective in generating emotional arousal and increasing attention when presented before other stimuli, which is consistent with the higher IAT scores, indicating more favourable implicit attitudes. This evidence suggests that the effectiveness of highly engaging advertising-related messages may be constrained by the order of advertisement administration.

Illness perceptions of occupational hand eczema in German patients based on the common-sense model of self-regulation: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Occupational skin diseases (OSD) in the form of hand eczema (HE) are a common work-related disease. Illness perceptions as presented in Leventhal's Common-Sense Model (CSM) are important for patients' self-management of diseases. Understanding these illness perceptions is essential for patient communicating. No quantitative or qualitative studies which investigated subjective illness perceptions in patients with occupational HE utilized the CSM as theoretical framework. The Objective of this study is to investigate illness perceptions of patients with occupational hand eczema (HE) using the CSM. METHODS: We applied an exploratory qualitative approach and conducted purposive sampling. Thirty-six patients with occupational HE were interviewed using an interview guide based on the dimensions of the CSM, including coherence and emotional representation. All participants participated in a three-week inpatient program at a clinic specialized on occupational dermatology. One interview had to be excluded before analysis, since one participant's diagnosis was retrospectively changed from ICD to tinea and hence did not match the inclusion criteria. Thirty-five interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed. Data was analyzed deductively and inductively using qualitative text analysis. MAXQDA 2018 (Verbi, Berlin, Germany), a software for qualitative data analysis, was applied for coding and summarizing of results. All dimensions of the CSM were explored for occupational HE. RESULTS: Several sub-categories could be identified. Participants named a variety of causes in different areas (e. g. external irritants and other hazardous factors, psycho-social factors, allergies, having a 'bad immune system' or lifestyle). The great impact of the disease on the participants' life is shown by the wide range of consequences reported, affecting all areas of life (i. e. psychological, physical, occupational, private). Considering coherence, an ambivalence between comprehensibility and non-comprehensibility of the disease is apparent. DISCUSSION: The complexity of illness perceptions presented in this paper is relevant for those involved in HE patient education and counseling, e. g, health educators, dermatologists, and, occupational physicians. Future research might further investigate specific aspects of illness perceptions in patients with occupational HE, especially considering the complexity of coherence and overlapping dimensions (i. e. emotional representation and psychological consequences).

Interventions to Reduce Stress and Burnout among Teachers: A Scoping Review.

Background: Teaching is recognized as a highly challenging profession. Experience of chronic stress is a risk factor for poor mental and physical well-being, and burnout. There is limited knowledge regarding optimal interventions to address stress and burnout among teachers. Objective: To undertake a scoping review of the literature in the last five years to determine various psychological interventions to address stress and burnout among teachers. Method: The PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews was followed. Relevant search terms were used to determine different interventions adopted to reduce teachers' stress and burnout. Articles published between 2018 and 2022 were identified using five bibliographic databases. Relevant articles were extracted, reviewed, collated, and thematically analyzed, and findings s were summarized. Results: Forty studies conducted in Asia, North America, Oceania, Europe, and Africa, met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen kinds of burnout and stress-reduction interventions were identified. The most popularly studied intervention were Mindfulness-Based Interventions alone or in combination with yoga or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), followed by Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). Mindfulness-Based Interventions led to decreased overall Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) and emotional exhaustion subscale scores. REBT, primarily used with special education teachers, especially in Africa, has also shown positive results. Other interventions reporting positive outcomes include Inquiry-Based Stress Reduction (IBSR), the Stress Management and Resiliency Training Program (SMART), Cyclic Meditation, Group Sandplay, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Autogenic Training, Sport-Based Physical Activity, Emotional Intelligence Ability Models and Christian Prayer and Prayer-Reflection. Conclusions: Stress and burnout can have a negative impact on teachers and, very often, on the students they teach. Implementing suitable school-based interventions is necessary to improve teachers' stress-coping ability, reduce the likelihood of burnout and improve general well-being. Policymakers, governments, school boards and administrators should prioritize the implementation of school-based awareness and intervention programs.

Investigating Social Media to Evaluate Emergency Medicine Physicians' Emotional Well-being During COVID-19.

Importance: Emergency medicine (EM) physicians experience tremendous emotional health strain, which has been exacerbated during COVID-19, and many have taken to social media to express themselves. Objective: To analyze social media content from academic EM physicians and resident physicians to investigate changes in content and language as indicators of their emotional well-being. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study used machine learning and natural language processing of Twitter posts from self-described academic EM physicians and resident physicians between March 2018 and March 2022. Participants included academic EM physicians and resident physicians with publicly accessible posts (at least 300 total words across the posts) from the US counties with the top 10 COVID-19 case burdens. Data analysis was performed from June to September 2022. Exposure: Being an EM physician or resident physician who posted on Twitter. Main Outcomes and Measures: Social media content themes during the prepandemic period, during the pandemic, and across the phases of the pandemic were analyzed. Psychological constructs evaluated included anxiety, anger, depression, and loneliness. Positive and negative language sentiment within posts was measured. Results: This study identified 471 physicians with a total of 198 867 posts (mean [SD], 11 403 [18 998] words across posts; median [IQR], 3445 [1100-11 591] words across posts). The top 5 prepandemic themes included free open-access medical education (Cohen d, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.38-0.50), residency education (Cohen d, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.37-0.49), gun violence (Cohen d, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.32-0.44), quality improvement in health care (Cohen d, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.27-0.39), and professional resident associations (Cohen d, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.27-0.39). During the pandemic, themes were significantly related to healthy behaviors during COVID-19 (Cohen d, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.77-0.90), pandemic response (Cohen d, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.65-0.77), vaccines and vaccination (Cohen d, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.53-0.66), unstable housing and homelessness (Cohen d, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.34-0.47), and emotional support for others (Cohen d, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.34-0.46). Across the phases of the pandemic, thematic content within social media posts changed significantly. Compared with the prepandemic period, there was significantly less positive, and concordantly more negative, language used during COVID-19. Estimates of loneliness, anxiety, anger, and depression also increased significantly during COVID-19. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cross-sectional study, key thematic shifts and increases in language related to anxiety, anger, depression, and loneliness were identified in the content posted on social media by academic EM physicians and resident physicians during the pandemic. Social media may provide a real-time and evolving landscape to evaluate thematic content and linguistics related to emotions and sentiment for health care workers.

Psychological intervention for negative emotions aroused by COVID-19 pandemic in university students: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been suggested to cause psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, panic, and insomnia. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to assess the efficacy of psychological interventions (including CBT, DBT, and mindfulness based interventions) in reducing distressing feelings in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on psychological interventions for reducing negative emotions among college students during the COVID-19 epidemic were searched in databases Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Scopus, PsychInfo, CNKI, WanFang, and VIP. We utilized Cochrane risk of bias assessment technique to assess the quality of included RCTs. The data were analyzed using RevMan 5.4. Eight RCTs were finally included involving 1,496 participants. According to the meta-analysis results, psychotherapies could significantly alleviate anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms among university students, [MD = -0.98, 95%CI (-1.53, -0.43), p<0.001] [SMD = -0.47, 95%CI (-0.77, -0.16), p = 0.003] [MD = -1.53, 95%CI (-2.23, -0.83), p <0.001]. The difference in attenuation of somatization symptoms between the two groups was not statistically significant [SMD = -0.42, 95%CI (-1.41, 0.56), p = 0.40]. Psychotherapy might effectively alleviate anxiety, depression, and stress in university students caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It could be considered the preferred strategy for reducing negative emotions and improving the quality of life of university students.

Dual-role nurse interpreter perceptions of language barriers and Spanish-speaking patients: A qualitative study.

AIM: As the United States population is ever changing and is growing in diverse population patterns, the health care system is called to initiate responsive health care practices that are based on the public's changing and diverse cultural patterns. This study sought to explore the perceptions of certified medical interpreter dual-role nurses and their experiences with Spanish-speaking patients from admission to discharge in hospital stays. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive case study was applied in this study. METHODS: Data was collected from nurses working at a United States Southwest Borderland hospital using purposive sampling and semi-structured in-depth interviews. A total of four dual-role nurses participated, and thematic narrative analysis was applied. RESULTS: Four major themes emerged. The main themes were "being a dual-role nurse interpreter," "patient experience," "culture and competence, "and "nursing and caring," With each major theme multiple sub themes emerged. Two sub themes emerged with "being a dual-role nurse interpreter," and two sub themes emerged with "patient experiences." The major themes that emerged from the interviews indicated that the language barrier greatly affects Spanish-speaking patients in their hospital stay. Participants reported having at least one encounter with a Spanish-speaking patient that was not afforded interpretation services or had interpretation from someone other than a qualified interpreter. Patients experienced confusion, apprehension and anger associated with not being able to communicate their needs to the healthcare system. CONCLUSIONS: According to the experiences of the certified dual-role nurse interpreters, having a language barrier makes a tremendous impact on the care of Spanish-speaking patients. Nurse participants describe how patients and their family members experience dissatisfaction, anger and confusion when there is a language barrier and most importantly how language barriers have detrimental effects on patients with wrong medication prescriptions and wrong diagnosis. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: When hospital administration recognize and support nurses as certified medical interpreters as a key component for patient care when assisting persons with limited English proficiency, patients are empowered to become active members of their healthcare regimen. The role of dual-role nurses enables brokering between the healthcare system and serves as a tool to bridge health disparities based on linguistic inequities existing in healthcare. Recruitment and retention of certified medical interpreter trained Spanish-speaking nurses deter errors in healthcare and makes a positive impact on the healthcare regimen of Spanish-speaking patients enabling patient empowerment through education and advocacy.

Positive and negative experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic among lonely and non-lonely populations in Germany.

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing an epidemic of loneliness. Previous studies have shown the differences in positive and negative experiences of lonely and non-lonely people in a non-pandemic setting. However, it is unclear how the drastic alteration of the COVID-19 pandemic may influence peoples' reactions and beliefs, especially among those who feel lonely. Our study aims to examine the positive and negative experiences among lonely and non-lonely people. We undertook a cross-sectional online survey of the general population in Germany (N = 1,758) from May 2020 to May 2022. We assessed their feelings of loneliness with the short eight-item UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-8), their positive and negative experience of living in the COVID-19 pandemic as well as their psychological distress regarding the pandemic with the COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI). We found lonely individuals (ULS-8 score ≥ 16) reported fewer positive experiences of living in the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, less time with loved ones [z (1, 756) = -2.5, p = 0.012] and less sense of togetherness [z (1, 756) = -2.39, p = 0.017] as compared to non-lonely individuals. Meanwhile, they experienced more negative experiences, for example, worry and fear [z (1, 756) = 6.31, p < 0.001] compared with non-lonely individuals. Interestingly, lonely people were less likely to view the pandemic as a conspiracy than non-lonely people were [z (1, 756) = -3.35, p < 0.001]. Our results may give insight into attribution bias and the negative affect of lonely people during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as highlight the experience of non-lonely people and raise the question of differences in conspiracy beliefs. For pandemic preparedness and response, decision-makers may focus on interventions to foster social cohesion, empower people, build resilience, and most importantly provide timely social care.

Relationship between adolescent lifestyle and emotional and behavioral problems.

This study aimed at verifying the relationship between lifestyle and emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents. This is an observational and cross-sectional study developed with adolescents from a capital city in the Brazilian Amazon. Data collection was performed using an electronic form containing items from the Fantastic Lifestyle and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire instruments. For data analysis, the bootstrap t-Test and calculation of Cohen's d statistic value were performed to assess the effect size of the difference between means. A total of 479 adolescents participated in the study. There was a high relationship between emotional and behavioral problems and lifestyle (p < 0.01; d = 1.36), especially regarding emotional problems (p < 0.01; d = 1.09), hyperactivity (p < 0.01; d = 0.92) and peer problems (p < 0.01; d = 0.78). The lifestyle attributes that were highly related to emotional and behavioral problems were insight (p < 0.01; d = 1.30), sleep, seatbelt, stress and safe sex (p < 0.01; d = 0.93), type of behavior (p < 0.01; d = 0.86) and career (p < 0.01; d = 0.85). It is therefore concluded that there was a high relationship between lifestyle and emotional and behavioral problems among the adolescents surveyed. Thus, it becomes necessary to promote socio-emotional skills and restorative and health-protective lifestyles in this population.

The emotion bias of health product consumers in the context of COVID-19.

The ongoing COVID-19 has led to an increase in negative emotions and health awareness among consumers. This paper discusses the emotion bias of Chinese consumers during the three periods: the pre-COVID-19 period, the COVID-19 lockdown period, and the COVID-19 normalization period. This study takes health products as the research object and crawls relevant reviews on the JD platform to classify products. The data were classified into emotion, the intensity of emotion was calculated, and the logistic regression model and variance analysis were used to analyze the difference in emotion expression. The study reveals that consumers are willing to express fear and sadness during the COVID-19 lockdown era and are willing to express like emotions before the pandemic compared to the three periods. There are also differences in the emotional intensity of different product reviews. The intensity of emotional expression is more vigorous for consumers who purchase nutritional products, while for those who purchase healthcare equipment, the intensity of emotional expression is lower. This study offers the emotion bias of consumers in response to COVID-19 to provide a theoretical basis and reference solution for implementing marketing strategies for health product companies.

Breastfeeding in times of COVID-19: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: to identify how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced postpartum women in breastfeeding. METHOD: a scoping review, with a search in seven databases. Studies available in full, in English, Portuguese or Spanish, published from December/2019-April/2021 were included. The analysis was carried out by categorizing common themes. RESULTS: 25 studies were included, grouped into five categories, presenting the influence of the pandemic: in the routine of breastfeeding care, evidencing preventive measures against COVID-19; in breastfeeding rates, highlighting changes in dietary practices; in the support network for breastfeeding, indicating a lack of service care; in the postpartum women's emotions, with predominance of concern and stress; in the use of technology to support breastfeeding, with teleservice facilitating care. CONCLUSION: the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced new forms of care, in the offer and duration of breastfeeding, in emotional health and in the support network fragility. It is expected to contribute so that health professionals provide care with greater assertiveness in the face of this new situation.

The Eyes Have It: Psychotherapy in the Era of Masks.

Nonverbal communication is integral to the success of psychotherapy and facial expression is an important component of nonverbal communication. The SARS CoV-2 pandemic has caused alterations in how psychotherapy services are provided. In this paper, potential issues that may arise from conducting psychotherapy when both the patient and therapist are wearing masks are explored. These include higher likelihood of misidentifying facial expression, especially when expression is incongruent with body language, and when the lower face is more important for correct identification of emotion. These issues may be particularly problematic for patient populations for whom emotion recognition may be a problem at baseline, or for those more prone to biases in emotional recognition. Suggestions are made for therapists to consider when seeing patients in-person when masks are necessary.

When less is not more: the effect of transparent masks on facial attractiveness judgment.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have been widely used in daily life. Previous studies have suggested that faces wearing typical masks that occlude the lower half of the face are perceived as more attractive than face without masks. However, relatively little work has been done on how transparent masks that reveal the lower half of the face affect the judgment of facial attractiveness. To investigate the effect of transparent masks on the perceived attractiveness, in the current study, we asked participants to rate the attractiveness of faces without masks and with a typical opaque mask and a transparent mask. The results showed that faces wearing opaque masks were evaluated as more attractive than those wearing transparent masks or no masks. The benefit of opaque masks was more pronounced in faces that were initially evaluated as unattractive. Interestingly, wearing transparent masks decreased the perceived attractiveness of faces but only for the faces initially rated as attractive, possibly because of the visual distortion of the lower half of the face by transparent masks. In summary, we found that opaque and transparent masks have different effects on perceived attractiveness, depending on the attractiveness of faces. Given benefits of transparent masks in socio-emotional and cognitive processing, it would be important to further understand the effect of transparent masks on face information processing.