Predictive factors of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students: a study in six Ibero-American countries / Factores predictivos del impacto psicológico de la pandemia de COVID-19 en estudiantes universitarios: un estudio en seis países iberoamericanos

Background/Objective: During Covid-19, high prevalences of anxiety and depression were reported among university students, suggesting that they may be at higher risk than the general population of developing psychological disorders in lockdown situations. This study aimed to analyze how sociocultural factors and individual differences contributed to explaining the psychological impact of the pandemic among Ibero-American university students from Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, and Uruguay. Method: The study was carried out on 7601 university students (72% women). Data were collected through an online questionnaire that measured anxiety (GAD-2), depression (PHQ-2), somatic symptoms (SSQ-5), post-traumatic growth (PTGI), loneliness (UCLS), personality (NEO-FFI), Resilience (CD-RISC-2), Perceived Competences (PCS) and sociodemographic data. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression model were performed. Results: Analysis indicated a high prevalence (46.15%) of distress among university students, regardless of country and significantly higher than in the general population (28.27%). Greater feelings of loneliness and greater neuroticism were significantly associated with anxiety, depression, and somatization. Likewise, male gender and higher levels of resilience were found to be protective factors, while post-traumatic growth was also higher in men and was associated with higher levels of resilience, perceived competence, and responsibility. Conclusions: The results suggest the need to consider individual risk factors such as being a woman, presenting higher levels of neuroticism and loneliness in understanding the psychological impact of the pandemic on university students. It is concluded that universities should offer specific interventions to address mental health problems and manage the added complications of crisis events on the health of students.(AU)

Antecedentes/Objetivo: Durante el Covid-19, se informaron altas prevalencias de ansiedad y depresión entre estudiantes universitarios, lo que sugiere que pueden tener un mayor riesgo que la población general de desarrollar trastornos psicológicos en situaciones de encierro. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar cómo los factores socioculturales y las diferencias individuales contribuyeron a explicar el impacto psicológico de la pandemia entre estudiantes universitarios iberoamericanos de Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, España, México y Uruguay. Método: El estudio se realizó en 7601 estudiantes universitarios (72% mujeres). Los datos fueron recolectados a través de un cuestionario en línea que midió ansiedad (GAD-2), depresión (PHQ-2), síntomas somáticos (SSQ-5), crecimiento postraumático (PTGI), soledad (UCLS), personalidad (NEO-FFI), Resiliencia (CD-RISC-2), Competencia Percibida (PCS) y datos sociodemográficos. Se realizó estadística descriptiva y modelo de regresión lineal múltiple. Resultados: Los análisis indicaron una alta prevalencia (46,15%) de angustia entre los estudiantes universitarios, independientemente del país y significativamente mayor que en la población general (28,27%). Mayores sentimientos de soledad y mayor neuroticismo se asociaron significativamente con ansiedad, depresión y somatización. Asimismo, el género masculino y mayores niveles de resiliencia resultaron ser factores protectores, mientras que el crecimiento postraumático también fue mayor en los hombres y se asoció con mayores niveles de resiliencia, competencia percibida y responsabilidad. Conclusiones: Los resultados sugieren la necesidad de considerar factores de riesgo individuales como ser mujer, presentar mayores niveles de neuroticismo y soledad en la comprensión del impacto psicológico de la pandemia en estudiantes universitarios. Se concluye que las universidades deben ofrecer intervenciones específicas para abordar los problemas de salud mental y manejar las complicaciones añadidas de los eventos de crisis sobre la salud de los estudiantes.(AU)

Predictive factors of hesitancy to vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 virus in young adults in Spain: Results from the PSY-COVID study.

Widespread population vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a matter of great interest to public health as it is the main pharmacological measure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Hesitancy/reluctance to vaccination has become a main barrier to containing the pandemic. Young adults are the age group with the greatest resistance to vaccination, even in countries with the highest vaccination rates during this pandemic. The objective of this study was to identify the main predictive factors of vaccination intention and profile people with hesitancy/reluctance to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2 virus in young adults living in Spain during the pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on the administration of an online survey (PSY-COVID-2) that evaluated the intention of vaccination together with a wide range of sociodemographic, social, cognitive, behavioral and affective variables in a sample of 2210 young adults. 14% of the sample showed hesitancy/reluctance to vaccination at the beginning of their vaccination campaign. A total of 35 factors were associated (small to medium effect sizes) with the intention to get vaccinated. A reduced set of 4 attitudinal and social variables explained 41% of the variability in vaccination intention: attitude to the vaccination, trust in health staff/scientists, conspiracy beliefs about SARS-CoV-2 and time spent being informed about COVID-19. These variables showed good sensitivity/specificity for classifying people as reluctant/not reluctant to vaccination, properly classifying 86% of people. Psychosocial processes related to attitudes, trust and information are the main predictors of vaccination intention in a highly reluctant group such as the young adult population.

MOTEMO-OUTDOOR: ensuring learning and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic through outdoor and online environments in higher education.

The restriction measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic posed notable challenges for formal teaching-learning processes because they had to be adapted to ensure health security. An active learning programme applied to three environments (indoors, outdoors, and online) was tested with 273 undergraduate university students in a within-subjects experimental study. Each student was assigned to two indoor and two outdoor seminars, with a subsample (n = 30) also participating in online seminars implemented in response to the university's lockdown protocols. The learning experience and learning conditions were evaluated through six dimensions: learning, evaluative impact, hedonic experience, technical conditions, environmental conditions, and health security. Outdoor seminars were more effective than indoor seminars in terms of the learning experience, with greater differences in hedonic experience, while the indoor seminars were rated more highly than the outdoor seminars in terms of learning conditions, with a larger difference in the environmental conditions. No differences were found between online and face-to-face environments in terms of the learning experience, even though the online environment yielded better scores in the learning conditions. Apparently, this adaptation to both outdoor and online contexts through active methodologies allows overcoming of technical, environmental, and teaching limitations and improves health security, while ensuring a good learning experience and added flexibility to teaching-learning processes. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10984-023-09456-y.

Efficacy of a Multicomponent Intervention for Fibromyalgia Based on Pain Neuroscience Education, Exercise Therapy, Psychological Support, and Nature Exposure (NAT-FM): Study Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

The study protocol of a prospective and randomized controlled trial for the assessment of the efficacy of nature activity therapy for people with Fibromyalgia (NAT-FM) is described. The primary outcome is the mean change from baseline in the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR) score at post-treatment (12 weeks) and at 9 months of follow-up, and secondary outcomes are changes in the positive affect, negative affect, pain, fatigue, self-efficacy, catastrophising, and emotional regulation. A total of 160 patients with fibromyalgia will be divided into two arms: treatment-as-usual (TAU) and NAT-FM+TAU. Pre, during, post, +6, and +9 months assessments will be carried out, as well as an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of intrasession and intersessions. Results will be subjected to a mixed group (NAT-FM+TAU vs. TAU) × phase (pre, post, +6 months, +9 months) general linear model. EMA intrasession measurements will be subjected to a 2 (pre vs. post) × 5 (type of activity) mixed-effects ANOVA. EMA between-session measurements obtained from both arms of the study will be analysed on both a time-domain and frequency-domain basis. Effect sizes and number needed to treat (NNT) will be computed. A mediation/moderation analysis will be conducted.

Jump and free fall! Memory, attention, and decision-making processes in an extreme sport.

In the present study, we explored the effects of high arousal on cognitive performance when facing a situation of risk. We also investigated how these effects are moderated by either positive or negative emotional states (valence). An ecological methodology was employed, and a field study was carried out in a real-life situation with 39 volunteer participants performing a bungee jumping activity and a control group of 39 participants. Arousal and valence were assessed with the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Working memory capacity (reverse digit span), selective attention (Go/No-Go task) and decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task) were assessed at 3 time points: 30 min before the jump, immediately after the jump, and approximately 8 min after the onset of the previous phase. The results indicate that high arousal accompanied by high positive valence scores after jumping either improved performance or led to a lack of impairment in certain cognitive tasks. The Processing-Efficiency and the Broaden-and-Build theories are put forward to explain emotional moderation of cognitive performance in potentially life-threatening situations.

Could White Coat Ocular Hypertension Affect to the Accuracy of the Diagnosis of Glaucoma? Relationships Between Anxiety and Intraocular Pressure in a Simulated Clinical Setting.

Sixty-one healthy subjects participated in a laboratory study carried out in a simulated clinical setting. Anticipatory anxiety-state was assessed at the arrival and immediately after, with no brief phase of adaptation, measurements of intraocular pressure, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were collected. At the end of the procedure, anxiety-trait was also assessed. Results suggest that high levels of both anxiety-state and anxiety-trait significantly predicted a clinically relevant increase of intraocular pressure. Anxiety-state mediated the relationship between anxiety-trait and intraocular pressure, which also was found to be related with heart rate but not related to both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. These results suggest a common mechanism of regulation underlying anxiogenic variability found on both intraocular pressure and heart rate. A reduction in parasympathetic activity appears as a possible mechanism underlying to this phenomenon. This anxiety-enhanced intraocular pressure could be considered a phenomenon analogous to white coat hypertension found in the measurement of blood pressure; therefore, it probably should be taken into account in the clinical context to prevent errors in the diagnosis of glaucoma. Further research on cognitive and emotional regulation of intraocular pressure is needed to best characterize this hypothetical phenomenon.

Psycho-ophthalmology: Contributions of Health psychology to the assessment and treatment of glaucoma.

BACKGROUND: Asymptomatic in its early stages, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. While psychosocial factors are taken into consideration for a host of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and autoimmune conditions, to date, psychological issues have been ignored in the clinical management of glaucoma. OBJECTIVE: This work reviews the most relevant contributions from a health psychology perspective for the assessment and treatment of glaucoma, which is emerging in the field of psycho-ophthalmology. METHOD: To provide scientific evidence regarding contributions of psychology to the comprehension of glaucoma, a bibliographic review of three databases (Psicodoc, PsycInfo and Medline) was conducted, spanning the period between 1940 and 2016. RESULTS: This review yielded a total of 66 studies published in the period analysed and identified three areas where health psychology has made substantive contributions to glaucoma screening, monitoring and treatment: the emotional impact on patients suffering from glaucoma, the adherence to treatment and the effects of stress on intraocular pressure. CONCLUSIONS: A health psychology approach for research and therapy of glaucoma must focus on the management of the negative affect associated with the diagnosis, the optimisation of treatment adherence and the stress management of the intraocular pressure measurements.

Percepción de control, afrontamiento y ajuste psicológico a la discapacidad visual / Perceived control, coping and psychological adjustment to visual disability

Un grupo de 35 personas con discapacidad visual participaron en un estudio transversal y correlacional, con el fin de evaluar el papel de las creencias de control sobre el afrontamiento, la calidad de vida percibida y el ajuste psicológico a la discapacidad. Los participantes contestaron una batería de pruebas psicométricas adaptada al formato de presentación oral en el contexto de una entrevista estructurada. Los resultados sugieren que el afrontamiento resiliente, la calidad de vida y el ajuste psicológico se relacionan con la competencia percibida, pero no con el tipo de discapacidad, su origen (congénito o sobrevenido) o el género. Asimismo, una mayor competencia percibida supone menor presencia de sintomatología ansiosa y depresiva, menor afectividad negativa y mayor afectividad positiva. Se discuten las posibles aplicaciones de estos hallazgos en la práctica clínica psicológica orientada a mejorar el ajuste psicológico y la optimización del proceso de adaptación a la discapacidad visual

A group of 35 visually impaired people participated in a cross-sectional, correlational study in order to assess the role of control beliefs on coping, perceived quality of life and psychological adjustment to disability. Participants completed a battery of psychometric tests that were adapted to an oral presentation format in the context of a structured interview. Results suggest that resilient coping, quality of life and psychological adjustment are related to perceived competence, but not to disability severity, the cause of disability (congenital or supervening) or gender. Moreover, increased perceived competence leads to a decrease in anxiety and depression symptoms, a reduction of negative affectivity and greater positive affectivity. The possible applications of these findings in clinical psychology practice aimed at improving psychological adjustment and optimising the process of adaptation to visual impairment are discussed