Science on the mind: Examining question ordering effects when asking about science on large-scale surveys.

Previous research has examined people's attitudes toward science and scientists, highlighting how religious identities, beliefs, or behavior shapes these attitudes. However, survey design choices have been previously shown to influence individuals' attitudes toward religion and science. We investigated the extent to which question ordering (i.e. presenting questions about science before questions about religion or the paranormal) in a large-scale survey would influence respondents' attitudes toward science and religion. Utilizing an experimental design, we found that responding to science questions first led to (1) more interest in science, (2) more confidence in the scientific community, (3) increased agreement that science is a way of knowing truth, (4) more confidence in responding to science knowledge items, (5) more agreement to scientific statements, and (6) more trust in scientists. We discuss the implications of question ordering when analyzing attitudes toward science and religion within the same surveys and future directions for research.

Pathways to Immunity: Patterns of Excess Death Across the United States and Within Closed Religious Communities.

Public health officials promoted COVID-19 vaccines to limit burdens placed on the U.S. healthcare system and end the pandemic. People in some closed religious communities refused to vaccinate and likely acquired temporary immunity through infection. This paper compares the death rates in Amish, Old Order Mennonites, and conservative Mennonite groups to a rate estimated for the U.S. population. Approximately two-thirds of the U.S. population was immunized against COVID-19, while few in the Amish/Mennonite community were. We find divergent patterns. Once vaccines became available, excess deaths declined in the general population and remained elevated among Amish and Mennonites. Vaccination campaigns must consider and value the cultural beliefs of closed religious communities to be effective.

IMPOWER: a national patient-generated registry for intestinal malrotation exploring diagnosis, treatment, and surgical outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Intestinal malrotation is a rare congenital condition with potentially devastating consequences due to potential volvulus and massive intestinal necrosis. Diagnosis is often delayed and long-term symptoms following surgical correction are poorly characterized. We developed the Intestinal Malrotation Patient Outcomes and WEllness Registry (IMPOWER), a national patient-generated registry (PGR), to capture data related to presenting symptoms, testing, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of individuals diagnosed with malrotation. IMPOWER captures patient-reported information from adult patients and parents/caregivers of children diagnosed with malrotation at the time of enrollment and at ongoing 6-month intervals. We present baseline characteristics of patients enrolled during the first two months of the registry. RESULTS: Within the first two months, 354 patients with malrotation enrolled in IMPOWER, and 191 (53.9%) completed all baseline assessments. Nearly 90% of the 119 pediatric participants and 37.7% of the 72 adult participants experienced symptoms prior to diagnosis. Vomiting was the predominant symptom for pediatric participants compared to abdominal pain in adults. Yellow bilious emesis was more commonly reported than green, and volvulus at diagnosis occurred in 70% of pediatric and 27% of adult participants. One-third of pediatric participants had a bowel resection as part of their initial surgical procedure, resulting in 23.4% with diagnosed short bowel syndrome. More than 60% of pediatric and 80% of adult registrants reported gastrointestinal symptoms that persisted throughout the first year following their initial operation. Approximately 25% of registrants reported visiting four or more gastroenterologists for management of ongoing symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Fewer than half of pediatric patients presented with the "classic" presentation of green bilious colored emesis. Yellow bilious emesis was more commonly reported, and chronic gastrointestinal symptoms (i.e., abdominal pain, reflux, constipation, diarrhea) and feeding intolerance were common following surgical procedures for malrotation. This novel PGR highlights the need for a multicenter prospective registry to characterize the natural history and develop consistent standards of care related to the diagnosis, treatment, and long-term care for patients with malrotation.

Eating Your Cake and Having it Too: US Megachurches and Factors Associated with Attending Multiple Congregations.

Background: It is typically assumed in the social scientific study of religion that individuals attend one congregation or none. As such, there is scarce research on individuals who attend more than one congregation yet doing so may affect congregational participation. Purpose: This study theorizes factors affecting whether someone attends multiple congregations and how this might influence congregational volunteering and giving in the context of megachurches. It hypothesizes that parents, those who are single, those of lower socioeconomic status, those who are racially and ethnically minoritized, and those who are not socially embedded in a congregation will be more likely to attend a megachurch and other congregations. It also theorizes competing hypotheses regarding the association between attending multiple congregations and congregational volunteering and giving. Methods: This study draws on survey data from 12 representative megachurches to test the proposed hypotheses using logistic and ordinal logistic regression models. Results: Those who are single, those of lower socioeconomic status, those who are racially and ethnically minoritized, and those who are not socially embedded in the megachurch are more likely to attend multiple congregations simultaneously. Attending multiple congregations is negatively associated with congregational volunteering and giving. Conclusions and Implications: The results demonstrate the need to reconceptualize congregational attendance to recognize that individuals may attend more than one congregation. Accordingly, future surveys should allow respondents to identify attending multiple congregations. The results also highlight how congregations may be negatively impacted by non-exclusive attendees who are less likely to volunteer and give money.

Rituals of Contagion in Closed Religious Communities: A Case Study of Amish and Mennonite Communities in the USA During the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, government and medical guidelines emphasized social distancing to limit exposure. These guidelines significantly impacted closed religious communities, particularly those opposed to modern technologies, such as Amish and Mennonite communities. How did these religious communities respond to COVID-19 policies in the USA? We draw data from Ohio and Pennsylvania scribe entries published in an Amish/Mennonite correspondence newspaper. While some of these communities altered church rituals to comply with government directives, others maintained communal worship without disruption. Mennonite communities were more likely to conform to guidelines.

'God will protect us': Belief in God/Higher Power's ability to intervene and COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Background: Vaccines represent one of the best ways to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. However, vaccine hesitancy among the population limits the effectiveness of vaccines. Recent research has explored the role of religion in vaccine hesitancy, but in doing so has encountered a "black box" problem. There is a relationship between religion and vaccine hesitancy, but the explanation for why remains unclear. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between religion and vaccine hesitancy. We propose that how an individual conceptualizes God/a higher power is associated with getting vaccinated for COVID-19. Methods: We use data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults, collected using the Amerispeak® probability-based panel via the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. We examine the association between individuals' views of God/a higher power as both a supervisory and an intervening figure on vaccine uptake and likelihood of getting vaccinated through logistic regressions. Results: We find that belief in God's/a higher power's supervision is not significantly associated with the odds of COVID-19 vaccine uptake or vaccination intent. However, belief in God's/a higher power's ability to intervene in the world is significantly and negatively associated with the odds of COVID-19 vaccine uptake and the odds of having received or planning to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, in models where belief in the ability of God/a higher power to intervene are included, Christian nationalism ceases to have a statistically significant association with intent to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusions and implications: These findings suggest that how individuals conceptualize God/a higher power is associated with their willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Given this, those who see God/a higher power as more involved in the world may contribute to delays in achieving herd immunity. This information benefits those working on vaccination campaigns in understanding the beliefs of some of those who are most hesitant to get vaccinated. In addition, this intervention mechanism could also mediate other negative relationships between religion and other science and health-related concerns.

Individuals' Use of Religion in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic as Complementary to Their Use of Medically Recommended Responses.

Many individuals have engaged in behaviors to cope with and mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, including mask wearing and physical distancing. This study considers the extent to which individuals have also engaged in religious behaviors in response to the pandemic and how those responses are associated with behaviors like mask wearing. Using data from a probability survey of U.S. adults, our analysis finds that over half of the respondents have engaged in pandemic-related prayer and about one-fifth have taken other religious steps in response to the pandemic, such as reading religious texts or carrying religious items for protection. All else being equal, Republicans are significantly less likely to have undertaken religious steps in response to the pandemic relative to Democrats, suggesting that the politicized nature of the pandemic influences religious responses as well. The analysis also finds that religious responses to the pandemic-especially prayer-are positively associated with mask wearing and physical distancing. These findings suggest that religious responses to the pandemic are not inherently opposed to undertaking responses recommended by scientific and medical authorities.

Christian nationalism and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake.

Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake is vital for informing public health interventions. Prior U.S. research has found that religious conservatism is positively associated with anti-vaccine attitudes. One of the strongest predictors of anti-vaccine attitudes in the U.S. is Christian nationalism-a U.S. cultural ideology that wants civic life to be permeated by their particular form of nationalist Christianity. However, there are no studies examining the relationship between Christian nationalism and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake. Using a new nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, we find that Christian nationalism is one of the strongest predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and is negatively associated with having received or planning to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Since Christian nationalists make up approximately 20 percent of the population, these findings could have important implications for achieving herd immunity.

Closed but Not Protected: Excess Deaths Among the Amish and Mennonites During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

"Excess deaths" is a means to estimate the lethality of COVID-19 (directly and indirectly). Assessing "excess death" in closed religious communities provides information on how COVID-19 impacted these communities. We use obituary information published in an Amish/Mennonite newspaper to examine excess death among the Amish/Mennonites in 2020. Our results indicate the Amish/Mennonite excess death rates are similar to the national trends in the USA. The excess death rate for Amish/Mennonites spiked with a 125% increase in November 2020. The impact of COVID-19 on this closed religious community highlights the need to consider religion to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Predicting postoperative day 1 hematocrit levels after hysterectomy.

BACKGROUND: The Swenson model was developed as a linear regression model to estimate postoperative day 1 hematocrit levels after benign hysterectomy. Predictive variables included preoperative hematocrit level, patient weight, estimated blood loss, intraoperative crystalloid volume, preoperative platelet count, and hysterectomy route that predicted postoperative day 1 hematocrit level at ±5% for 100% of patients who used an internal validation set. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to validate externally the Swenson model using our hysterectomy population and to further validate the model in a cohort that included robotic-assisted cases. STUDY DESIGN: In a retrospective cohort, data were collected from benign hysterectomies from April 2014 through May 2016. Predicted postoperative day 1 hematocrit level was calculated with the use of the Swenson equation and compared with measured hematocrit values. We compared our results to the Swenson model results using chi-square or Fisher's exact test. We then restricted our analysis to those with actual postoperative day 1 hematocrit level of ≤30%, to determine whether the model performed accurately in this subgroup that may need intervention. We generated a receiver-operating characteristic curve with Louden Index to determine the best cut-point from the Swenson hematocrit level projections for the prediction of an actual hematocrit level of ≤30%. Furthermore, we stratified the Swenson model predicted hematocrit level into 4 ranges: <32%, 32-35%, 35-38%, and >38%. This stratification allowed us to assess the differential accuracy of the Swenson model across hematocrit level ranges. RESULTS: Of 602 hysterectomies, 478 patients had all the variables that were needed for the Swenson model and postoperative day 1 hematocrit level for comparison. The Swenson model was significantly less accurate in our data compared with their validation set with fewer patients whose predicted hematocrit level was accurate at different thresholds from ±1% through ±5% of actual hematocrit level (all P<.001). Only 76.8% of the predicted hematocrits were accurate within ±5%. Analysis of variance showed accuracy that was similar among different surgical routes (P=.193). A quadratic best-fit curve showed accuracy was maximized when hematocrit level of 36.2%. Projected hematocrit level was ±2.5% of actual but deteriorated at higher and lower hematocrit level values. When the analysis was restricted to those patients with postoperative day 1 hematocrit levels of ≤30%, accuracy was worse, with only 55.3% of predicted hematocrit level values within ±5%. In this subset, the Swenson equation was more likely to overestimate hematocrit level and give false reassurance. A receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the best Swenson cut-point for the prediction of an actual hematocrit level of ≤30% was 31.9% (sensitivity, 75.5%; specificity, 64.0%). Finally, predicted hematocrit level was divided into 4 groups: <32%, 32-35%, 35-38%, and >38%. When predicted hematocrit level was <32% (n=164), the model was more likely to under-predict hematocrit level and was least accurate in the subset of patients who were most likely to need intervention. When predicted hematocrit level was 32-35% (n=192), 17.2% of the patients (approximately 1 in 6) had an actual postoperative day 1 hematocrit level of ≤30%. When a predicted hematocrit level of ≥35% was used as a cut-off point, the percentage of patients who had an actual postoperative day 1 hematocrit level of ≤30% dropped to 8.2%. No patients had an actual hematocrit level of <24%, which makes this a reasonable choice for screening for anemia. CONCLUSION: Although the Swenson model was reliable for the prediction of postoperative day 1 hematocrit level in their internal validation set, it did not perform as well in our hysterectomy population. It may have utility as a screening tool if the projected hematocrit level was ≥35%. Further research is needed to create a model for the prediction of postoperative day 1 hematocrit level that can be incorporated into standard practice.

Thinkers and feelers: Emotion and giving.

Voluntary organizations, such as religious congregations, ask their members to contribute money as a part of membership and rely on these contributions for their survival. Yet often only a small cadre of members provides the majority of the contributions. Past research on congregational giving focuses on cognitive rational processes, generally neglecting the role of emotion. Extending Collins' (2004) interaction ritual theory, I predict that individuals who experience positive emotions during religious services will be more likely to give a higher proportion of their income to their congregation than those who do not. Moreover, I argue that this effect will be amplified in congregational contexts characterized by high aggregate levels of positive emotion, strictness, dense congregational networks, and expressive rituals. Using data from the 2001 U.S. Congregational Life Survey and multilevel modeling, I find support for several of these hypotheses. The findings suggest that both cognitive and emotional processes underlie congregational giving.

The context of control: a cross-national investigation of the link between political institutions, efficacy, and collective action.

Most research on efficacy and participation in collective action has focused on single country samples with little attention paid to the relationship between efficacy and country-level structural factors. Drawing on value expectancy theory, we theorize a link between macro-level political institutions and micro-level efficacy. To address the previous limitations in the efficacy and collective action literature, we use multi-level, cross-national data, and present results from a series of hierarchical models testing whether efficacy increases collective action cross-nationally, whether political institutions affect efficacy, and whether the effect of efficacy on collective action is conditional on political institutions. We find that efficacy increases collective action, that certain political institutions increase efficacy, and that the effect of efficacy on collective action is partly conditional on the inclusiveness of a country's political institutions. These findings suggest the insufficiency of purely structural as well as social psychological explanations of collective action.

Increased intraocular pressure in mice treated with dexamethasone.

PURPOSE: Glucocorticoids are potent modulators of the immune system and are useful in treating systemic and ocular diseases, but they can increase intraocular pressure (IOP) in susceptible persons. Steroid-induced ocular hypertension resembles several characteristics observed in primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). Elucidating genetic and environmental mechanisms impacting steroid-induced ocular hypertension may provide important insight into pathophysiological drivers of POAG. The purpose of this study was to create a mouse model of steroid-induced ocular hypertension. METHODS: Osmotic mini-pumps delivering dexamethasone or PBS were implanted into C57BL/6J-Tyr(c-Brd) × 129S5/SvEvBrd (B6.129) mice. Repeated IOP measurements were obtained over a 4-week study using a tonometer before and after pump implantation. Body weights, complete blood counts (CBCs), and blood pressure were obtained to further characterize the model. Pharmacologic effects of timolol, latanoprost, and Y-39983 were studied in hypertensive mice. RESULTS: Administration of dexamethasone to B6.129 hybrid mice resulted in significant increases in IOP in most animals compared with baseline or mice treated with PBS. No significant change in IOP was observed in PBS-treated mice. Interestingly, dexamethasone failed to increase IOP in a subset of mice, though steroid delivery was successful as measured using CBC analysis. Moreover, topical agents that lower IOP in normotensive mice also produced significant decreases in mice exhibiting elevated IOP in response to dexamethasone. CONCLUSIONS: Systemic treatment with dexamethasone significantly increased IOP in most genetically heterogeneous mice used in this study. This mouse model should facilitate studies aimed at understanding mechanisms affecting steroid-induced ocular hypertension in humans.