Health behavior during periods of stressful uncertainty: associations with emotions, cognitions, and expectation management

More is not always better: revealing the impact of cumulative risk on health-promoting behaviors among miners and the mediating role of health beliefs

OBJECTIVE

Health-promoting behaviors carry substantial significance for miners' overall health and well-being. This study aimed to examine the association between cumulative risk (CR) and miners' health-promoting behaviors and test the mediating role of health beliefs in this relationship.

METHODS

Data were collected from a sequential survey conducted among 712 frontline miners (Mage=41.7 ± 10.1 years) in China. The survey entailed online questionnaire measurements at three distinct time points, each spaced two weeks apart. This study utilized the conceptual model of health-promoting behaviors, the CR model, and structural equation modeling in the analysis of relationships.

RESULTS

CR was negatively related to health-promoting behaviors, with a negative acceleration effect. CR was positively associated with perceived threat in a gradient effect, while negatively associated with perceived benefits in a gradient effect. Furthermore, CR was negatively related to self-efficacy, following a negative acceleration effect. Perceived threat, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy emerged as significant mediators in the relationship between CR and health-promoting behaviors.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the critical role of considering both CR and health beliefs in shaping miners' health-promoting behaviors. Understanding these dynamics is pivotal for developing interventions to enhance miners' health and well-being.

Emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being during the wait for breast biopsy results

OBJECTIVE

This study is a replication and extension of previous work examining the well-being of patients at a breast biopsy appointment. Expanding on a previous study, we aim to identify predictors of well-being following the appointment (i.e. waiting for results).

DESIGN

In this longitudinal study, female patients (N = 197) were surveyed at their breast biopsy appointments and then completed daily surveys assessing distress and coping during the week-long wait for results.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Surveys asked about patient characteristics, subjective health, cancer history, support availability, outcome expectations, and distress.

RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS

Consistent with the previous study, health history and demographic factors were largely unassociated with distress, this time while waiting for biopsy results. Latina ethnicity emerged one of the few predictors of coping, pointing to opportunities for differential clinical interventions that take cultural factors into account. Finally, anxiety was highest at the beginning and end of the wait for biopsy results, suggesting that interventions may be most effective following a breast biopsy and the days prior to learning one's result.

Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Dietary Consumption among Chinese Residents: Evidence from Provincial-Level Panel Data

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected people’s daily lives, including their dietary behaviors. Using a panel data set of 31 provinces from 2015 to 2020, this study employed two-way fixed effects (FE) models to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on dietary consumption among Chinese residents. The results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic positively affected residents’ consumption of grain, eggs, dairy, and white meat (poultry and aquatic products), while it had a negative effect on individuals’ red meat consumption in both urban and rural areas. These results were robust to different measures of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the number of confirmed cases, suspect cases, and dead cases. Comparatively, the changes in food consumption induced by the COVID-19 pandemic were more prominent for Chinese residents who lived in rural areas than urban areas. In addition, compared to their counterparts, the dietary consequences of the pandemic were more pronounced for residents living in the eastern region and regions with a high old-age dependency ratio and low illiteracy rate. Furthermore, the estimation results of the quantile regression model for panel data suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic had relatively larger impacts on the dietary consumption of Chinese residents at lower quantiles of food consumption compared with those at higher quantiles. Overall, the results of this study suggested that Chinese residents had a healthier diet after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We discussed possible mechanisms, including health awareness, income, food supply and prices, and other behavioral changes during COVID-19 (e.g., physical activity and cooking). To further improve residents’ dietary behaviors and health, our study proposed relevant measures, such as increasing residents’ dietary knowledge, ensuring employment and income, and strengthening the food supply chain resilience during the pandemic.

Sweating the big stuff: Arousal and stress as functions of self-uncertainty and identification

Groups serve a variety of crucial functions, one of which is the provision of an identity and belief system that impart self-referent information, thereby reducing self-uncertainty. Entitative groups are more attractive for highly uncertain participants seeking groups for identification and self-uncertainty reduction than less entitative groups. The purpose of the current study was to explore how self-uncertainty impacts physiological arousal and stress responses. Using a mixed-methods design (N = 123), we found that self-uncertainty increased physiological arousal (measured via skin-conductance level) and stress responses (measured via heart rate). Furthermore, we found that uncertainty-activated physiological arousal and stress responses were decreased through identification with a high entitativity group. Our findings expand upon uncertainty identity theory by identifying physiological mechanisms that motivate uncertainty reduction.