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The ‘Teddy Bear Hospital’ is a medical students’ project, which has been increasingly established in many countries. To evaluate this concept, we examined the effects of a German Teddy Bear Hospital on children’s knowledge relating to their body, health and disease. Using a quasi-experimental pre/post design, we examined 131 preschool children from 14 German kindergartens with pictorial interview-based scales. The analysis of covariance revealed that the children who visited the Teddy Bear Hospital had a significantly better knowledge concerning their body, health and disease than the children from the control group. This German Teddy Bear Hospital is a good health education vehicle for preschool children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compensatory health beliefs, a self-defence strategy, were examined in a theory-guided intervention promoting influenza vaccination at the workplace. In total, 851 employees were randomised to one group aimed at enhancing intention formation (standard group) or to another one assisting self-regulation (intervention group). Assessments took place after the intervention and 5 months later, investigating whether the intervention would interfere with compensatory health beliefs. The intervention generated an indirect effect via planning on vaccination. Compensatory health beliefs mediated between intention and behaviour. An interaction between intervention group and compensatory health beliefs on behaviour transpired. At low compensatory health belief levels, the intervention group resulted in more vaccinations than the standard group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]