Impact of technology on human behavior during COVID-19

Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Pediatric Primary Care Practice in Europe

The formation of a healthy lifestyle of youth is one of the main objectives of Ukraine's youth policy. The strategy of forming the population's attitude to a healthy way of life is an important aspect of social prevention. The use of social marketing as an approach to the formation and implementation of social prevention strategies significantly increases the effectiveness of preventive measures. Social marketing focuses on the social context of decision-making and the use of theoretical methods to analyse the mechanisms of interaction in the public space. Current theoretical approaches to the explanation of human behaviour are the basis for the development of strategies aimed at the formation of a healthy way of life. These strategies are based on theories that explain changes in human behaviour, such as theories of deliberate action, planned behaviour, the theory of social learning, and others. Applying social marketing strategies involves the social environment and consumers' orientations analysis, the audience analysis and audience segmentation strategy, etc. Relevant theoretical concepts provide interpretation on behavioural decisions and behavioural patterns changes. Correspondingly social marketing utilizes variety of research approaches into the programs’ efficiency and their advanced testing, analysis of channels for developing distribution systems and advertising campaigns. Some commercial marketing techniques are applicable for the social marketing purpose. Among others are analysis of the target audience, identifying goals of desired behavioural changes, adaptation of messages and adaptation of strategies such as branding to facilitate the adoption and maintenance of safe behaviour in the health sector. The basic principles of social marketing can be seen as the messages targeted on the behaviour relevant to a healthy lifestyle should be different at different stages of program’ planning and implementation. Social marketing is used for the development and implementation of programs that contribute to a change in behaviour to socially beneficial, especially in the area of public health.

We use mathematical models to assess the impact of behavioral changes in response to an emerging epidemic. Evaluating the quantitative and qualitative impact of public health interventions on the spread of infectious diseases is a crucial public health objective. The recent avian influenza (H5N1) outbreaks and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic have raised significant global concerns about the emergence of a deadly influenza virus causing a pandemic of catastrophic proportions. Mitigation strategies based on behavior changes are some of the only options available in the early stages of an emerging epidemic when vaccines are unlikely to be available and there are only limited stockpiles of antiviral medications. Mathematical models that capture these behavior changes can quantify the relative impact of different mitigation strategies, such as closing schools, in slowing the spread of an infectious disease. Including behavior changes in mathematical models increases complexity and is often left out of the analysis. We present a simple differential equation model which allows for people changing their behavior to decrease their probability of infection. We also describe a large-scale agent-based model that can be used to analyze the impact of isolation scenarios such as school closures and fear-based home isolation during a pandemic. The agent-based model captures realistic individual-level mixing patterns and coordinated reactive changes in human behavior in order to better predict the transmission dynamics of an epidemic. Both models confirm that changes in behavior can be effective in reducing the spread of disease. For example, our model predicts that if school closures are implemented for the duration of the pandemic, the clinical attack rate could be reduced by more than 50%. We also verify that when interventions are stopped too soon, a second wave of infection can occur.

Lung cancer management challenges amidst COVID-19 pandemic: hope lives here.

This thesis deals with persuasive design. The result of this research was motivated by the quest for understanding the different dimensions or categories of analysis that influence or even determines changes in human behavior through the use of product designs. A transdisciplinary vision was the departure research posture in order to understand the full human behavioral dimensions playing a role in human behavioral changes. This stance recognizes the human behavior as a result of internal forces that shapes the individuals intentionality and external forces that constrain and determines the final behavior. This thesis intent to answer the main question about, which are the conceptual dimensions involved in behavioral change through the use of a product design that persuades people into the new behavior? The hypothesis thus defines the existence of external forces to the product that influence and determines the result of an intended change in human behavior through the use of product design. These external forces are defined as conceptual dimensions that must be taken into account when designing products with the intent of provoking a human behavioral change. The use of the Grounded Theory approach allowed studying a singular phenomenon and generating categories of analysis through theoretical sampling.

A cursory glance at human history makes it very clear that civilizations are born as human beings, reach maturity and growth, and collapse and die due to more internal causes. The death of civilizations is something that history has talked about a lot and it is called forgotten civilizations. In the science of history and more in the philosophy of history, the issue of how the causes and factors of the emergence, flourishing and destruction of civilizations are mentioned and history analysts study these causes and factors. According to them, the mentioned causes and factors are natural and in the field of events related to natural and human laws. But in intra-religious analysis, looking at causes and factors is done from another angle; The Qur'an, with the aim of guiding human beings, looks at events from an educational point of view. On this basis, each of the events is closely related to the issues of punishment and encouragement of human beings and finds meaning and meaning with monotheism and its belongings. Although it is necessary to look at the events and their causes from the perspective of philosophy of history and natural traditions and laws, but these traditions are closely related to human actions and behavior. In a comprehensive analysis, although earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters are related to natural laws, but human actions are effective in its creation and emergence, and these actions can have a positive and negative impact on natural laws and nature. Hence, human behavior and actions can cause the rise and fall of civilizations in a serious way. In intra-religious analysis, God has a permanent presence as the source of all events, and human behavior causes changes in natural causes and factors. Therefore, the issue of the emergence, flourishing and destruction of civilizations from this perspective needs to be analyzed, which will be addressed in this article.

Smart cities and behavioural change: (Un)sustainable mobilities in the neo-liberal city

In 1970, Flanders stressed that “teaching behavior is the most potent, single, controllable factor that can alter learning opportunities in the classroom” (Flanders, 1970, p. 13). Since that time a growing number of educational studies have shown that teaching behavior is indeed an important variable in classroom research. However, these studies have also shown that the distinction between teaching behaviors and the attitudes and perceptions of teachers is not a clear one. For example, many of the labels associated with behavioral characteristics such as honest, aggressive, authoritarian, destructive, democratic, are the same labels used to describe teachers’ attitudes and personalities. There appears to be no general agreement as to whether changes in behavior lead to attitudinal changes or if changes in attitudes lead to behavioral change. It is generally agreed, however, that attitudinal or behavioral change is most often evident among those individuals who sense some reason for change. If the attitudes and behaviors of teachers stem from the role they have defined for themselves as teachers (Brophy & Good, 1974, p. 130), it seems plausible that clarification or redefinition of that role might lead to particular attitudinal or behavioral changes.

BackgroundThe initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic placed a tremendous strain on health care systems worldwide. To mitigate the spread of the virus, many countries implemented stringent nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), which significantly altered human behavior both before and after their enactment. Despite these efforts, a precise assessment of the impact and efficacy of these NPIs, as well as the extent of human behavioral changes, remained elusive.ObjectiveIn this study, we conducted a retrospective analysis of the initial wave of COVID-19 in Spain to better comprehend the influence of NPIs and their interaction with human behavior. Such investigations are vital for devising future mitigation strategies to combat COVID-19 and enhance epidemic preparedness more broadly.MethodsWe used a combination of national and regional retrospective analyses of pandemic incidence alongside large-scale mobility data to assess the impact and timing of government-implemented NPIs in combating COVID-19. Additionally, we compared these findings with a model-based inference of hospitalizations and fatalities. This model-based approach enabled us to construct counterfactual scenarios that gauged the consequences of delayed initiation of epidemic response measures.ResultsOur analysis demonstrated that the pre–national lockdown epidemic response, encompassing regional measures and heightened individual awareness, significantly contributed to reducing the disease burden in Spain. The mobility data indicated that people adjusted their behavior in response to the regional epidemiological situation before the nationwide lockdown was implemented. Counterfactual scenarios suggested that without this early epidemic response, there would have been an estimated 45,400 (95% CI 37,400-58,000) fatalities and 182,600 (95% CI 150,400-233,800) hospitalizations compared to the reported figures of 27,800 fatalities and 107,600 hospitalizations, respectively.ConclusionsOur findings underscore the significance of self-implemented prevention measures by the population and regional NPIs before the national lockdown in Spain. The study also emphasizes the necessity for prompt and precise data quantification prior to enacting enforced measures. This highlights the critical interplay between NPIs, epidemic progression, and human behavior. This interdependence presents a challenge in predicting the impact of NPIs before they are implemented.

Cancer Screening during COVID-19 Pandemic

IntroductionThe novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has quickly become a worldwide threat to human health and has significantly impacted people’s lives and changed their lifestyles and health behaviors. This study aims to assess lifestyle and health-related behaviors (LHBs) and associated factors among the general population in Lebanon during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsAn online cross-sectional study was conducted among 403 Lebanese adults. The study questionnaire was developed on Google Forms in English and Arabic. It included self-reported questions about sociodemographic characteristics, COVID-19, and perceived behavioral changes (smoking, alcohol consumption, sexual and hygiene behaviors, and intake of nutritional supplements and immunity-boosting foods). It also comprised three scales, i.e., the Lifestyle and Health Behaviors questionnaire (LHB-17), the WHO-5 Well-being Index, and the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S).ResultsThe mean age of participants was 29.74 ± 10.81 years, with 51.2% females. Most participants reported that COVID-19 negatively affected their LHBs, mainly diet, sleep, and psychological well-being, while physical activity aspects remained unaffected. Female gender (Unstandardized Beta (ß) = − 2.336), living in Lebanon (ß = − 7.502), nargileh smoking (ß = − 3.433), high BMI (ß = − 0.263), and increased daily usage of electronic devices during the COVID-19 lockdown (ß = − 0.853) were significantly associated with lower LHB-17 scores, indicating worsened LHB. However, living in urban areas (ß = 2.464), employment status (ß = 1.920), good overall health (ß = 3.543), a higher quality of life (ß = 0.204), and unaffected physical (ß = 2.101) and mental (ß = 1.586) health during the COVID-19 lockdown were all significantly associated with higher LHB-17 scores, reflecting positive LHB.ConclusionLebanese adults reported several unfavorable lifestyle changes and psychological problems during the lockdown due to COVID-19, particularly affecting women, non-workers, waterpipe smokers, electronic device heavy users, people of lower socioeconomic status, and those with chronic diseases. Health promotion strategies are needed to assess negative changes both in physical and mental health and maintain as many positive health-related behaviors as possible among the Lebanese population.

IntroductionPassive data from smartphone sensors may be useful for health‐care research. Our aim was to use the coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic as a positive control to assess the ability to quantify behavioral changes in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from smartphone data.MethodsEight participants used the Beiwe smartphone application, which passively measured their location during the COVID‐19 outbreak. We used an interrupted time series to quantify the effect of the US state of emergency declaration on daily home time and daily distance traveled.ResultsAfter the state of emergency declaration, median daily home time increased from 19.4 (interquartile range [IQR], 15.4‐22.0) hours to 23.7 (IQR, 22.2‐24.0) hours and median distance traveled decreased from 42 (IQR, 13‐83) km to 3.7 (IQR, 1.5‐10.3) km. The participant with the lowest functional ability changed behavior earlier. This participant stayed at home more and traveled less than the participant with highest functional ability, both before and after the state of emergency.DiscussionWe provide evidence that smartphone‐based digital phenotyping can quantify the behavior of people with ALS. Although participants spent large amounts of time at home at baseline, the COVID‐19 state of emergency declaration reduced their mobility further. Given participants' high level of daily home time, it is possible that their exposure to COVID‐19 could be less than that of the general population.

The effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are not only limited to health, they also impinge on the social life and economy of communities around the globe. Challenges faced by developing countries such as Bangladesh were multi-factorial and its rural population was highly vulnerable in this situation due to their cultural and sociodemographic context. Preventive behavioral changes were considered the best way to fight against the virus in absence of specific treatment and vaccines. This study has tried to explain preventive health practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, and aimed to explore the causal relationships of its major determinants through structural equation modeling (SEM) based on reasoned action approach (RAA). This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020 among 810 rural Bangladeshi respondents aged 18-55 years. Around half of the respondents showed poor knowledge, motivation and practice regarding COVID-19 and its prevention. Along with socio-demographic factors, information, attitude, motivation, and intention of the people were found to be associated with the adoption of preventive health practices. The causal model of the COVID-19 prevention behaviors was assessed and justified through SEM. The model fits well with the empirical data (GFI=0.94, CFI=0.97, NFI=0.97, RMSEA=0.05, SRMR=0.04). Intention significantly influenced COVID-19 prevention behavior directly, showing the highest effect (β=0.89, p<0.001). Attitude (β=0.83, p<0.001) and motivation (β=0.15, p<0.001) also showed significant direct effects on intention. All the predictors together explained 79.6% of the variance for COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Adequate knowledge, a positive attitude, proper motivation, and positive intention can encourage rural adults to adopt healthy behaviors against COVID-19. The theoretical model of the study effectively explained COVID-19 preventive behaviors rationally and provided a roadmap for policy-makers to formulate strategies to combat COVID-19 and any future similar pandemic.

Long COVID guidelines need to reflect lived experience

Patients with mental illness are vulnerable to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection because of behavioural changes associated with cognitive deterioration, especially without their caregivers. While studies have reported that SARS-CoV-2 infection risk and severe clinical outcomes are high among patients with mental illness, there is a lack of quantitative research supporting this claim. This study investigates if SARS-CoV-2 infection and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related death are higher in patients with mental illness than among those without a mental disorder. A cohort study was conducted using the COVID-19 database of the National Health Insurance Service in South Korea. A total of 123 480 patients aged ⩾20 years who visited a hospital between 1 January 2020 and 30 May 2020 were analysed. Mental disorder diagnoses and types were determined based on 2019 medical records, and a multivariate logistic regression model was used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) for SARS-CoV-2 infection and deaths. The ORs for SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR 1.58; 95% CI 1.45-1.71) and COVID-19-related death (OR 2.18; 95% CI 1.57-3.04) were high among patients with mental illness. The OR of SARS-CoV-2 infection was higher among patients with severe mental illness (OR 2.60; 95% CI 2.21-3.06), dementia (OR 1.90; 95% CI 1.62-2.22) and substance use disorder (OR 4.98, 95% CI 3.60-6.88). The OR for COVID-19-related death was high among patients with severe mental illness (OR 3.53; 95% CI 1.82-6.83) and dementia (OR 2.12; 95% CI 1.39-3.22). Patients with mental illness are at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19-related death. Behavioural changes associated with cognitive deterioration and long-term care facility residence increase SARS-CoV-2 infection risk, and severe medical conditions and delayed treatment increase the COVID-19-related mortality risk in patients with mental illness. Patients with mental illness are a priority target population for COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and it is important to plan prevention measures that address their needs.