The Effect of Science-Related Populism on Vaccination Attitudes and Decisions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has sadly shown, the decision against vaccination is often linked to political ideologies and populist messages among specific segments of the population: People do not only have concerns about a potential health risk associated with vaccination but seem to have also adopted more populist attitudes towards science. In this study, the relationship between science-related populism and individuals' attitudes towards vaccination was examined, presuming that scientific-related populism also influences individual responses towards different vaccinations. As different types of diseases and their vaccines might be perceived rather distinctively by the public, different vaccinations were considered. The survey is based on responses from 870 people from Germany and Austria. Results indicate that science-related populism influences responses towards some vaccination types, especially for those that receive extensive media coverage such as COVID-19 and measles (MMR). There was no significant impact of science-related populism on individuals' vaccination intentions for other vaccines like seasonal influenza, human papillomavirus, or tick-borne encephalitis. In conclusion, limitations and directions for future research are addressed.

Multidisciplinary expert group: communication measures to increase vaccine compliance in adults.

The WHO categorized vaccine hesitancy as one of the greatest threats to global health worldwide. Vaccination of elderly persons is of increasing relevance, given that they represent a growing segment in the population and considering the burden diseases pose to them. Many factors leading to vaccine hesitancy are related to inadequate communication. In the present report, experts from various academic fields present recommendations to support communication strategies that may help to initiate targeted communication measures to enhance vaccination compliance in adults.

"Where There Is Light, There Is Also Darkness": Discussing Young Adults' Willingness to Disclose Data to Use Wearables and Health Applications-Results from a Focus Group Study.

In recent years, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has gained momentum. This development has only been intensified by the current COVID-19 crisis, which promotes the development of applications that can help stop the virus from spreading by monitoring people's movements and their social contacts. At the same time, it has become increasingly difficult for individuals to control the use of their private data by commercial companies. While Internet users claim to be highly interested in protecting their privacy, their behaviors indicate otherwise. This phenomenon is discussed in literature as the so-called privacy paradox. The existence of the privacy paradox has also been confirmed by previous studies, which found individuals' claims and actions to contradict one another. The present study investigates the following research questions: (1) What significance do individuals attribute to protecting their privacy, with a special focus on the health sector? (2) To what extent are they willing to grant commercial parties access to their data in order to use applications in general and health applications in particular? Results from seven focus groups with 40 respondents aged 20-30 years were conducted in an urban setting in Austria in late 2019. The respondents' inputs are meant to provide answers to these questions. The results indicate that, overall, the young generation is well-informed about the growing data collection and is quite critical of it. As such, their willingness to share information in the health context is only moderately pronounced. Thus, only a moderately pronounced privacy paradox can be detected for the health sector when compared to other sectors. In conclusion, implications and directions for further research are addressed.

Picturing Mental Health on Instagram: Insights from a Quantitative Study Using Different Content Formats.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has changed individual lives to the core. Through national curfews and social distancing, individuals' social lives changed and led to increased levels of stress and mental health problems. As another consequence, communication, especially among young people, has shifted to social networking sites, where particularly young adults sought help for their mental health problems. In recent years, Instagram has received recognition for its health-enhancing potentials. On this social networking site, more than 1 billion users worldwide post 500 million stories and images per day. METHODS: During COVID-19, increasing mental health incidences were reported throughout the world, and have led mental health influencers to gain in relevance. The proposed study is based on a quantitative survey. In order to test how different content formats utilized by mental health influencers -motivational quotes, comics, or influencer posts-are evaluated by Instagram users, a cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted in April 2021. Data collection was based on convenience sampling. In total, 532 Austrian respondents between 16 and 34 years of age participated in the survey. RESULTS: Overall, the content that received the most favorable evaluations were both the motivational quote (M = 4.23) and the influencer post (M = 4.12), while the comics scored lower in terms of evaluations (M = 3.72). CONCLUSIONS: Respondents' preference of content suggests that individuals seek out content that boosts their esteem or content with a "human touch". Explanations as to why the selected content formats were preferred over the other formats are offered alongside a future research outlook.

On the Influence of Message/Audience Specifics and Message Appeal Type on Message Empowerment: The Austrian Case of COVID-19 Health Risk Messages.

A pandemic is a unique form of health crisis that requires intensive communicative efforts. In order to achieve positive health outcomes, messages need to be carefully designed. In this context, both message specifics and audience specifics receive consideration. This research tries to scrutinize (1) which message appeal (emotional vs. informative) is perceived more favorable by the Austrian public, (2) which message appeal (emotional vs. informative) leads to a higher degree of message empowerment, and (3) the degree to which message empowerment can be enhanced by (a) message specifics and (b) a combination of message and audience specifics. A quantitative survey with 337 Austrians revealed that the emotional appeal message led to a higher degree of message empowerment than the informative appeal message. Moreover, only message specifics were found to enhance message empowerment. Implications for message design are derived, before limitations and directions for future research are addressed.

Healthy Leadership and Workplace Health Promotion as a Pre-Requisite for Organizational Health.

(1) Background: Increasing stress levels at the workplace constitute a concerning organizational trend, challenging not only employees but also organizations alike, as it is in most instances associated with increasing workloads. In consequence, employees have started to demand that organizations begin to accept responsibility for their health and well-being. The present contribution seeks to investigate, to which extent individuals are able to deal with stress and whether their employers and respective supervisors (leaders) accept responsibility for their health, for instance, by leading by example. In addition, the existence and support generated by the organization in form of Workplace Health Promotion (WPHP) is inquired. (2) Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 40 (full and part-time) employees from two European countries were conducted. (3) Results: The study with employees from Austria and Germany (n = 40) confirmed that employees have started to recognize the potential of the workplace as an environment, where individual health can be enhanced. Yet, the results showed that only a few companies have already put some WPHP measures into practice. Likewise, the implementation of healthy leadership is rather limited to date. (4) Conclusions: At present, companies are still more likely to delegate responsibility for employee health and well-being to their staff, having not fully realized the potential of healthy leadership and organizational health promotion. There is great potential to increase WPHP measures on the employer side, through both healthy leadership and supporting WPHP measures.