"We literally worked in parking lots, cars, garages, and separately set up party tents": qualitative study on the experiences of GPs in the frame of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Austria.

BACKGROUND: Primary care is internationally recognised as one of the cornerstones of health care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care physicians were assigned a variety of tasks and thus made a significant contribution to a country's pandemic response. They were expected to perform a variety of tasks, such as diagnosing and treating people with COVID-19, maintaining health care for all other patients, as well as several public health tasks, such as diagnostic testing and vaccination, protecting patients and staff from infection, and serving as community trusted persons. In Austria, there are no structured levels of care, no definition of the role of the general practitioner during a pandemic is given, and no specific support structures are present. The aim of this study was to assess the views and experiences of primary care physicians regarding supportive and hindering factors for pandemic preparedness in Austria. METHODS: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. A total of 30 general practitioners were interviewed, with particular attention to an equitable distribution in small, medium and large primary care facilities. Qualitative content analysis was performed. RESULTS: Interviewees described a wide range of infection control, organisational and communication measures that they had implemented. They made changes to practise equipment, found makeshift solutions when supplies were scarce, and established communication and information pathways when official communication lines were inadequate. CONCLUSION: General practitioners took on essential tasks and showed a high level of understanding of their role in the pandemic response. This was achieved mainly at an informal level and with high personal commitment. Their functioning in the absence of structural regulations and support shows that they had a clear intrinsic understanding of their responsibilities. To ensure reliability and sustainability and to reduce their burden, it will be necessary to clarify the role and tasks of a general practitioner and to provide the necessary support. This concerns both infrastructural support and communication and information strategies. As part of the reform to strengthen primary care, primary care needs to be seen, valued and involved in decision-making processes.

Observational learning of the televised consequences of drinking alcohol: Exploring the role of perceived similarity.

Aim: The depiction of alcohol on television is an important explanatory variable for drinking behaviour. Even though alcohol consumption is frequently shown on popular TV shows, research on the impact of TV characters as models of drinking behaviour remains scarce. We theorise that the perceived similarity to a TV character is a key mechanism to explain recipients' expectancies about alcohol consumption. Methods: We conducted two experiments in which we manipulated the drinking behaviour of a TV character and the consequences of drinking. We measured perceived similarity to the character as amediating variable and treated participants' alcohol consumption as a moderator. Results: In both studies, perceived similarity to models predicted positive expectancies about alcohol consumption, and perceived similarity decreased with the portrayal of an alcoholic character. In Study 1, participants who reported drinking rarely perceived themselves to be more similar to a rare drinker, which suggests that viewers' own alcohol consumption affects similarity judgments. In Study 2, portrayals of consequences of drinking directly affected expectancies about alcohol, moderated by participants' alcohol consumption. Conclusion: Overall, our findings suggest that perceived similarity is a key variable to understand how alcohol on television affects viewers' expectancies toward alcohol.

Shaping children's healthy eating habits with food placements? Food placements of high and low nutritional value in cartoons, Children's BMI, food-related parental mediation strategies, and food choice.

Research on media induced food choices of children has not sufficiently investigated whether food placements of snacks high in nutritional value can strengthen children's healthy eating behavior. Furthermore, we lack knowledge about the moderating role of children's individual characteristics such as parental food-related mediation or BMI. The current study combines data from an experiment involving children with a survey of their parents. We exposed children to a cartoon either containing no food placements, placements of mandarins (i.e., snack high in nutritional value), or placements of fruit gums (i.e., snack low in nutritional value). Afterwards, food consumption was measured by giving children the option to choose between fruit gums or mandarins. Children in both snack placement conditions showed stronger preference for the snack low in nutritional value (i.e., fruit gum) compared to the control group. Interestingly, neither restrictive nor active food-related mediation prevented the effects of the placements on children's choice of snacks low in nutritional value. Compared to children with a low BMI, children with high BMI levels had a stronger disposition to choose the fruit gums if a snack high in nutritional value (i.e., mandarin) was presented. Thus, making snacks high in nutritional attractive for children through media presentation might need stronger persuasive cues.