Wastewater Monitoring: Improving Public Awareness and Understanding in the United States, May 2024.

Objectives: Although wastewater monitoring for virus detection has increased in communities worldwide, public awareness, understanding, questions, and concerns about wastewater monitoring are largely unknown. We assessed awareness, knowledge, and support for wastewater monitoring for detection of viruses and bacteria among US residents and elicited questions and concerns from residents about its use.

Methods: We conducted a survey among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of residents in Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas to assess awareness, knowledge, and support of wastewater monitoring.

Antimicrobial stewardship strategy implementation and impact in acute care spinal cord injury and disorder units.

Context: Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs (ASPs) are crucial to optimizing antibiotic use. ASPs are implemented in the Veterans Health Administration (VAs), but they do not target the needs of populations at high risk for resistant infections, such as spinal cord injury and disorder (SCI/D).

Objective: The goal of this study was to assess key ASP leader and SCI/D clinicians' perceived level of implementation and impact of 33 Antimicrobial Stewardship (AS) strategies.

iHeard STL: Development and first year findings from a local surveillance and rapid response system for addressing COVID-19 and other health misinformation.

Background: The U.S. Surgeon General and others have emphasized a critical need to address COVID-19 misinformation to protect public health.

The effectiveness of a religiously framed HPV vaccination message among Christian parents of unvaccinated adolescents in the United States.

Background: The uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines has been controversial among religious parents due to beliefs that their children are expected to practice sexual purity and so do not need protection from a sex-related infection. Also, if at all they get infected in the future, God can protect them from sickness without a vaccine. Yet, most HPV vaccination messages are secular, lacking spiritual themes.

When do people increase COVID-19 protective behaviors? A longitudinal analysis of the impact of infections among close contacts and in the community.

Studies examining individual-level changes in protective behaviors over time in association with community-level infection and self or close-contact infection with SARS-CoV-2 are limited. We analyzed overall and demographic specific week-to-week changes in COVID-19 protective behaviors and their association with COVID-19 infections (regional case counts and self or close contacts). Data were collected through 37 consecutive weekly surveys from 10/17/2021 - 6/26/2022.

The Content of COVID-19 Information Searches and Vaccination Intention: An Implication for Risk Communication.

Objective: The main objective of this study was to examine the association between COVID-19 information search activities and vaccination intention.

Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected using online surveys. Independent variables included COVID-19 information search on the (1) science of viral effects of COVID-19 on the body, (2) origin of COVID-19, (3) symptoms and outcomes, (4) transmission and prevention, (5) future outbreak, and (6) policies/procedures to follow.

Intentional Storytelling to Sustain Low-cost/Free Breast Cancer Services: A Latina Example of Community-driven Advocacy.

Background: Community-based public health advocacy efforts are crucial to sustaining the low-cost/free breast cancer services that support underserved populations.

Objectives: We introduce two ways in which narrative theory may be a useful tool for developing advocacy materials and provide an example, using a community-academic partnership to promote Latina breast health in Chicago, Illinois.

Methods: Community and academic partners 1) engaged 25 Spanish-speaking Latinas in an advocacy workshop, 2) leveraged narrative theory to develop multi-media advocacy materials, and 3) disseminated materials to policymakers.

The moderating role of partners' education on early antenatal care in northern Ghana.

Background: Early antenatal care (ANC) is essential for improving maternal and child health outcomes. The primary aims of this study were to 1) estimate the association between partners' education attainment and early ANC, and 2) determine whether partners' level of education modified the relationship between mothers' education, mothers' age, planned pregnancy, employment status and early ANC.

Methods: Data were obtained from a cross-sectional study conducted from April to May 2021 among 519 mothers with a live birth in the past year in the Nabdam district in the Upper East Region in northern Ghana.

Disentangling the Role of Religiosity in Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic.

Religion is a complex and sociocultural driver of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination decisions, but its exact role has been mixed/unclear. We used a cross-sectional study of 342 Christian parents to examine the associations between the three domains of religiosity (organizational, non-organizational, and intrinsic) and the intention to (i) seek HPV information and (ii) receive the HPV vaccine. Organizational religiosity was the only domain that was positively associated with information-seeking intention regardless of the type of covariates included.

The interdependent roles of the psychosocial predictors of human papillomavirus vaccination among Christian parents of unvaccinated adolescents.

Despite the availability of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, uptake has been sub-optimal among certain religious groups. Psychosocial factors (threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and attitudes) have been identified as independent determinants of HPV vaccination. However, their interdependent effects have not been tested.

Shared Determinants for Human Papillomavirus and COVID-19 Vaccination Intention: An Opportunity for Resource Consolidation.

Purpose: This study aimed at targeting shared factors that influence the prevention of multiple diseases, which can help address various health problems simultaneously. We identified correlates of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination that overlap with COVID-19 vaccination.

Design: Cross-sectional survey data.

Psychological Pathways Linking Public Trust During the Coronavirus Pandemic to Mental and Physical Well-being.

The well-being of the public during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is deeply rooted in institutional trust in the government's risk communication effort. The objective of this study was to examine the psychological pathway through which public trust in the government is associated with mental and physical well-being. We collected cross-sectional data from 501 participants aged ≥18 years using an online panel.

Intention to Vaccinate Against the Novel 2019 Coronavirus Disease: The Role of Health Locus of Control and Religiosity.

The urgency to develop a vaccine against the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) has waxed stronger in speed, scale, and scope. However, wisdom dictates that we take a vantage position and start to examine the demographic predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The objective of this study was to examine the role of health locus of control (HLOC) in the relationship between religiosity and COVID-19 vaccination intention.

Exposure to coronavirus news on mainstream media: The role of risk perceptions and depression.

Objective: The mainstream media tend to rely on news content that will increase risk perceptions of pandemic outbreaks to stimulate public response and persuade people to comply with preventive behaviours. The objective of this study was to examine associations between exposure to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news, risk perceptions, and depressive symptoms.

Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected from 501 participants who were ≥18 years.