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RIVM rapport:Statements such as ‘natural’, ‘organic’ or ‘vegan’ are becoming increasingly common on consumer products. These are referred to as health, environmental and/or sustainability claims. Consumers often think that products with such a claim are healthier and/or safer. The question is whether that assumption is correct, or whether these products can still be harmful to health. For the human body, it makes no difference whether a chemical substance is manmade (synthetic) or natural. Due to the wide range of consumer products on the market, RIVM has focused on personal care products with words such as ‘natural’, ‘organic’ or ‘vegan’ on the packaging. It identified which chemicals (ingredients) are present in these products. The 35 most common ingredients were investigated further. For most of these ingredients, it is not expected that normal use of the product containing them will have adverse health effects. However, RIVM does have concerns about ‘botanical ingredients’ in personal care products. These ingredients come from plants and may contain substances such as linalool and limonene. Linalool and limonene can cause an allergic reaction. Furthermore, there are concerns that botanical ingredients may contain pesticide residues and heavy metals. For many botanical ingredients, there is very limited hazard information available. More research should clarify whether these concerns are justified. RIVM has also listed which labels are often found on consumer products with health, environmental and/or sustainability claims and what they mean. For personal care products, these are mainly COSMetic Organic and Natural Standard (COSMOS), NATRUE and Vegan. In the case of claims such as ‘non-toxic’, ‘free from...’ or ‘hypoallergenic’, it is often not clear to consumers what they mean. Moreover, some claims appear not to comply with the applicable regulations and legislation. Further research could focus on whether the claims investigated in this study comply with regulations. RIVM, Op steeds meer producten staan woorden als ‘natuurlijk’, ‘biologisch’ of ‘vegan’. Dit zijn zogenoemde gezondheids-, milieu- en/of duurzaamheidsclaims. Consumenten denken vaak dat producten met zo’n claim gezonder en/of veiliger zijn. De vraag is of dat klopt, of dat ze toch schadelijk kunnen zijn voor de gezondheid. Voor het menselijk lichaam maakt het namelijk niet uit of een chemische stof door de mens (synthetisch) of de natuur gemaakt is. Vanwege het grote aanbod aan producten heeft het RIVM zich gericht op persoonlijke verzorgingsproducten waarop woorden als ‘natuurlijk’, ‘biologisch’ of ‘vegan’ staan. Denk aan shampoo en zeep. Het heeft in kaart gebracht welke chemische stoffen (ingrediënten) erin zitten. De 35 ingrediënten die het meeste voorkomen, zijn verder onderzocht. Voor de meeste van deze ingrediënten geldt dat normaal gebruik van de producten waar ze in zitten geen schadelijke gezondheidseffecten heeft. Wel heeft het RIVM zorgen over ‘plantaardige ingrediënten’ in persoonlijke verzorgingsproducten. Deze ingrediënten komen uit planten en kunnen stoffen zoals linalool en limoneen bevatten. Linalool en limoneen kunnen een allergische reactie veroorzaken. Ook zijn er zorgen omdat botanische ingrediënten resten van bestrijdingsmiddelen en zware metalen kunnen bevatten. En van veel botanische ingrediënten is weinig bekend over hun gevaarseigenschappen. Meer onderzoek moet duidelijk maken of deze zorgen terecht zijn. Het RIVM heeft ook op een rij gezet welke keurmerken vaak staan op consumentenproducten met gezondheids-, milieu- en/of duurzaamheidsclaims en wat ze betekenen. Voor persoonlijke verzorgingsproducten zijn dat vooral COSMetic Organica and Natural Standard (COSMOS), NATRUE en Vegan. Van claims als ‘non toxic’, ‘vrij van…’ of ‘hypoallergeen’ is vaak niet duidelijk wat ze betekenen of wat de fabrikant ermee bedoelt. Bovendien lijken de claims soms niet te voldoen aan de regels en wetten die hiervoor gelden. Meer onderzoek is nodig om te kijken of de

RIVM rapport:Piloten en cabinepersoneel in vliegtuigen kunnen gezondheidsklachten hebben, zoals duizeligheid, misselijkheid, desoriëntatie en trillende ledematen. Ondanks veel onderzoek is de oorzaak van de klachten nog steeds niet duidelijk. Naar aanleiding van de internationale discussie hierover heeft het ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat (IenW) in 2015 de Nationale Adviesgroep Cabinelucht (NAC) opgericht. De adviesgroep adviseert de minister van IenW over dit onderwerp. Ook informeert de NAC alle betrokken partijen over internationale onderzoeken naar de kwaliteit van cabinelucht in vliegtuigen. De NAC rapporteert elk jaar de voortgang en resultaten van bijeenkomsten en onderzoeken. In augustus 2023 heeft de NAC zijn eerste adviesnotitie aan de minister aangeboden. Hierin staan concrete adviezen om cabine-, cockpit- en technisch personeel te trainen om vreemde geuren te kunnen herkennen en waar ze dat kunnen melden. Naar aanleiding van de notitie heeft IenW actie ondernomen. Zo werkt het ministerie aan de eisen voor deze training en de inhoud. Ook wordt gezocht naar een manier om fume events beter te registreren om meer zicht te krijgen in de aard en omvang ervan. Bij een fume event lekken chemische stoffen uit motorolie de cabine in. Verder onderzoekt een werkgroep de mogelijkheden om een medisch protocol op te zetten voor vliegend personeel dat klachten blijft houden. Als eerste stap is onder andere verkend hoe zo'n protocol kan worden opgezet en wie daarvoor nodig is. Er blijken criteria nodig te zijn om een diagnose te kunnen stellen, wat medisch gezien moeilijk is. In 2024 wordt hier verder aan gewerkt. Voor een kennissessie voor NAC-leden hebben twee onderzoekers hun publicaties toegelicht. Dit leverde concrete punten op waar de NAC mee aan de slag is gegaan. Onder andere wordt uitgezocht of erfelijke factoren of persoonlijke omstandigheden invloed hebben op het ontstaan van aanhoudende klachten. In de NAC zitten vertegenwoordigers van werkgevers: KLM en Core, Pilots and personnel on airplanes may have health complaints such as dizziness, nausea, disorientation and limb tremors. The cause of the complaints is still not clear. In response to international discussions on cabin air quality, the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (IenW) established the National Advisory Group (NAC) in 2015. The advisory group advises the Minister of IenW on the subject. The NAC also informs stakeholders on the progress of international research projects on cabin air quality in airplanes. The NAC reports on the progress and results of meetings and investigations every year. The NAC presented its first advisory note to the minister in August 2023. Concrete advice was given to train cabin, cockpit and technical staff to recognise strange odours and where to report them. The Ministry of IenW has taken action in response to the advisory note. Currently, the Ministry is working on the requirements for this training and its content. Better registration of 'fume events' is also being sought to gain more insight into their nature and extent. A fume event is when chemicals from engine oil leak into the cabin. A working group is investigating the possibilities of setting up a medical protocol for flying staff with continuous health problems. As a first step, it was explored how such a protocol can be set up and who is needed for it. It appears that criteria are needed to make a diagnosis, which is difficult from a medical point of view. Work on this will continue in 2024. At a knowledge session for NAC members, two researchers explained their publications. The knowledge session revealed concrete points that the NAC has started working on. For instance, it is investigating whether genetic factors or personal circumstances influence the development of continuous health problems. The NAC includes representatives from airlines KLM and Corendon, employee representatives VNV, NVLT, VNC and FNV Cabin and research institutes, including the

RIVM rapport:De Europese Unie wil de schadelijke effecten van plastic zwerfafval voor het milieu stap voor stap tegengaan. Zo zijn sinds 2021 verschillende soorten plastic producten verboden die één keer worden gebruikt en daarna weggegooid - de zogeheten Single Use Plastics (SUP). In plaats van deze producten zijn er nu veel herbruikbare producten op de Nederlandse markt, zoals rietjes, drinkflessen en koffiebekers van siliconen, roestvrijstaal (RVS) of herbruikbaar plastic. Het RIVM heeft geïnventariseerd welke herbruikbare voedselcontactmaterialen in Nederland op de markt zijn en van welke materialen ze zijn gemaakt. Daarna is op een rij gezet welke stoffen uit deze materialen zouden kunnen vrijkomen. Ook is gekeken hoe hygiënisch het is om bijvoorbeeld een koffiebeker verschillende keren te gebruiken. Verder is gekeken of het type materiaal het lichaam kan beschadigen. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat plastic, RVS en siliconen de meest gebruikte materialen zijn. Literatuuronderzoek lat zien dat uit deze materialen onder bepaalde omstandigheden verschillende stoffen kunnen vrijkomen. Het RIVM adviseert om gerichter onderzoek te doen naar mogelijke schadelijke effecten van 20 stoffen, zoals melamine en dibutylftalaat. Deze stoffen zijn geselecteerd op basis van hun schadelijke eigenschappen en de kans dat ze ook echt uit het materiaal vrijkomen. Het RIVM heeft daarbij aangegeven welke materialen en stoffen het eerst moeten worden onderzocht. Als je een herbruikbaar product regelmatig schoonmaakt, is de kans klein om bijvoorbeeld ziek te worden van bacteriën. Als mensen een drinkfles delen met anderen, is dat wel mogelijk. Goede hygiëne is dan belangrijk. Lopen of rennen met een herbruikbaar product als metalen rietjes kan, vooral bij jonge kinderen, letsel veroorzaken. Het RIVM heeft dit onderzoek in opdracht van de Nederlandse Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit (NVWA) gedaan., The European Union aims to reduce the presence of plastic waste in the environment. Therefore, since 2021, various types of plastic products that are only used once - so-called single-use plastics (SUP) - have been banned. Instead of these products, there are now many reusable products on the market. These include straws, coffee cups, drinking bottles and festival cups made of reusable plastics, stainless steel or silicone. The RIVM has inventoried which materials are used in reusable products available on the Dutch market as alternatives to SUP. Following this, substances which can be released from these materials were listed and the associated potential toxicological issues were investigated. In addition, potential microbiological safety issues of reusing for example a coffee cup were investigated. Furthermore, it was examined whether reusable products can cause physical damage to the body. This reports shows that plastics, stainless steel and silicone are the most commonly used materials in reusable products. The literature search revealed that various substances can be released from these materials. The RIVM recommends more targeted research into the possible release of 20 substances into food. These 20 substances have been prioritised based on their toxicological potential and their potential to be released into food. The RIVM has indicated which materials and substances should be examined first in future research. If you regularly clean a reusable product, the chance of becoming ill from bacteria, for example, is small. If people share a drinking bottle with others, this chance may increase. Good hygiene is then important. In addition, walking or running with a reusable product like metal straws can cause injury, especially in young children. The RIVM conducted this research on behalf of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).

Contains fulltext : 306229.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Dataveillance refers to the automated, continuous, and unspecific collection, storage, and processing of digital traces. This study explores individuals' perspectives on dataveillance in media technologies by investigating their folk theories, thoughts, and feelings. Through in-depth interviews with participants aged 18 to 86 years, we identified 3 prominent folk theories, which illustrated how individuals make sense of corporate, technology, and state dataveillance. Thoughts and feelings about dataveillance were mixed: Participants perceived a power imbalance, had concerns over unethical practices and their privacy, and found dataveillance violating and creepy; meanwhile, they recognized that dataveillance improved user experiences, brought benefits beyond the realm of technology, and was "smart." More importantly, we identified 4 cognitive coping strategies people used to rationalize their technology use under dataveillance: Resigning, self-empowering, downplaying, and sympathizing. These findings offer insights into individuals' beliefs about and responses to dataveillance, providing important implications for policy makers and media literacy programs., 21 p.

Contains fulltext : 246807.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access), Although previous studies have examined alcohol-related posts on social media, the variety in studied platforms and features has been limited. Therefore, by conducting 26 go-along interviews (age 14-18, M = 16.31, SD = .84), this study investigated (1) whether alcohol-related posts differ across SNS features (i.e., chat, feed, story, snap) and (2) whether privacy management strategies play a role in adolescents' decisions to disclose these different alcohol posts across different SNS features. The findings of this study underline the important role of features' affordances. Particularly, based on the public visibility of a feature, adolescents reported eliminating certain audiences (e.g., peers, parents) by adapting privacy settings or by strategically selecting more private features before sharing transgressive alcohol posts on these features. In all, this paper broadens the current knowledge about the depiction of alcohol posts in the heterogeneous media landscape. Implications for interventions are proposed.

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Item does not contain fulltext, In today's digital world, people leave countless digital traces online. Companies, governments, and other parties can use such data for different purposes. Personalized advertisements or content that are clearly based on their previous behavior can make consumers feel that they are being followed or monitored, and might describe it as "creepy" and that they feel "watched". Drawing upon a nationally representative sample of the Netherlands (N = 1,994), this study aims to shed light on individuals' perceptions of surveillance by identifying the perceived sources, purposes, and how it might differ in different media technologies among Dutch adults. Such knowledge can inform us which practices and contexts tend to trigger perceived surveillance. Moreover, we investigate the extent to which certain individual traits, including privacy concerns, technology trust, conspiracy mentality, and socio-demographic characteristics, relate to perceived surveillance. Our findings show that advertisers are the most commonly perceived source of surveillance and advertising is also the most commonly perceived purpose of surveillance. Perceived surveillance is the highest when people are using social media and web browsers comparing to other digital devices and services. Furthermore, privacy concerns and conspiracy mentality are positively related to perceived surveillance of all types of technologies. Finally, people who are younger and more highly educated perceive more surveillance when using social media, and younger people also feel more surveilled when using web browser.

Contains fulltext : 293115.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Young individuals frequently share and encounter alcohol-related content (i.e., alcohol posts) on social networking sites. The prevalence of these posts is problematic because both the sharing of and exposure to these posts can increase young individuals’ alcohol (mis)use. Consequently, it is essential to develop effective intervention strategies that hinder young individuals from sharing these posts. This study aimed to develop such intervention strategies by following four steps: (1) assessing young individuals' problem awareness of alcohol posts, (2) unraveling individuals’ own intervention ideas to tackle the problem of alcohol posts, (3) examining their evaluations of theory/empirical-based intervention ideas, and (4) exploring individual differences in both problem awareness and intervention evaluations. To reach these aims, a mixed-method study (i.e., focus-group interviews and surveys) among Dutch high-school and college students (Ntotal = 292, Agerange = 16-28 years) was conducted. According to the results, most youth did not consider alcohol posts to be a problem and were, therefore, in favor of using automated warning messages to raise awareness. However, these messages might not work for every individual, as group differences in problem awareness and intervention evaluations exist. Overall, this study puts forward potential intervention ideas to reduce alcohol posts in digital spheres and can therefore serve as a steppingstone to test the actual effects of the ideas.

Item does not contain fulltext, An increasing number of parents refrain from vaccinating their children. This causes lower immunisation coverage, resulting in disease outbreaks. Online misinformation about early-childhood vaccination is a potential cause of this problem. This study tests whether a warning tool, with the appearance of a traffic light, can influence parents’ information choices. An online experiment was conducted with parents and expecting parents (N = 179) with varying pre-existing attitudes and in different decision stages. Participants were asked to select three vaccine-related web links on a Google search result page either with or without the warning tool present. Results showed that participants in the warning tool condition (i.e., who saw reliability labels) selected a higher number of links marked as reliable compared to participants in the control group. No significant moderating effect of decision stage and pre-existing attitude were found. As our findings suggest that a warning tool can lead to better-informed vaccination decisions, the implementation of such a warning tool may prove worthwhile., 20 p.

Item does not contain fulltext, School-based health interventions often have limited and inconsistent effects. Although interpersonal communication likely is important, hardly any studies have investigated interpersonal communication of students with their friends, classmates, and parents about the health programs and health behaviors in school-based health interventions. In a two-wave prospective study of 389 adolescents focusing on three health behaviors (i.e., alcohol use, snack intake, and exercise), we addressed two aims. Our first aim was to investigate how student evaluations of a school-based health intervention influenced interpersonal communication about health behaviors (i.e., valence and frequency of conversations). Findings showed that positively evaluating a school-based health intervention increased how often students talked about the intervention with friends, classmates, and parents, as well as how they discussed the three health behaviors. Our second aim was to investigate the influence of interpersonal communication with friends, classmates, and parents on predictors of health behaviors. We found for conversational frequency that frequently discussing health behaviors resulted in healthier (more positive) predictors of exercise, but also in unhealthier (more positive) predictors of snacking and drinking. Furthermore, findings showed that positively discussing exercising, and negatively discussing snacking and drinking, resulted in healthier predictors of these behaviors. Our findings show that it is important to understand the impact of post-intervention communication and that post-intervention communication with peers and parents about health behaviors are predictors of health behavior.

Item does not contain fulltext, Alcohol posts on social media frequently receive likes that are often perceived by emerging adults as peer approval of alcohol consumption and have been linked to their drinking intentions in previous research. This research, however, has generally not considered the fact that liking is a reciprocal behavior that differs from day to day. By conducting an app-integrated daily diary study and employing a network analytic approach, the current study contributes to this line of research by providing a better understanding of the dynamics of likes for alcohol posts and how these likes, in turn, affect emerging adults' actual alcohol use. In total, 265 college students (Mage = 20.49, SDage = 1.89, 74% female) participated in the daily diary study. They answered daily questionnaires about their alcohol use, and we monitored their online activities (posting and liking) via an app. We used exponential random graph models to predict the probability of receiving a like on a post and generalized linear mixed effect models to estimate the likelihood of participants drinking alcohol. First, the results showed that participants received, on average, more likes for alcohol posts than for non-alcohol posts (30 vs. 15 likes). Second, likes were given more often if they were reciprocal. Last, liking alcohol posts significantly predicted participants' alcohol consumption on the same day. The fact that liking alcohol posts relates to daily drinking behavior is disconcerting because one click or ‘like’ might reinforce a young person's drinking behavior on that day; hence, future research and interventions should focus more thoroughly on this worrying form of online approval.

Item does not contain fulltext, Go-along interviews among adolescents (N = 26, Mage = 16.31, SD = .83) were conducted to examine how adolescents interpret alcohol posts in terms of appropriateness and how this, in turn, plays a role in adolescents’ reactions toward alcohol posts on public and private social media entries. The findings of this study, first, indicate that alcohol posts were classified as appropriate or inappropriate based on the amount of alcohol and the displayed behavior in the post. Second, most posts, including inappropriate ones, received positive or no feedback. Moreover, adolescents deliberately seemed to withhold negative feedback out of fear of being misjudged by peers. Still, negative reactions were expressed more quickly in safer off- and online environments (i.e., face-to-face conversation and online chat messages) because they were visible to close friends only. This is important in view of prevention as it unravels the interesting role of private environments in stimulating negative interpersonal communication.

02 februari 2022, Item does not contain fulltext, Although previous studies have examined alcohol-related posts on social media, the variety in studied platforms and features has been limited. Therefore, by conducting 26 go-along interviews (age 14-18, M = 16.31, SD = .84), this study investigated (1) whether alcohol-related posts differ across SNS features (i.e., chat, feed, story, snap) and (2) whether privacy management strategies play a role in adolescents' decisions to disclose these different alcohol posts across different SNS features. The findings of this study underline the important role of features' affordances. Particularly, based on the public visibility of a feature, adolescents reported eliminating certain audiences (e.g., peers, parents) by adapting privacy settings or by strategically selecting more private features before sharing transgressive alcohol posts on these features. In all, this paper broadens the current knowledge about the depiction of alcohol posts in the heterogeneous media landscape. Implications for interventions are proposed.

Item does not contain fulltext, Alcohol advertising is widespread and has increased over the past years. The exposure to and effects of alcohol marketing have been the focus of much research. Based on several systematic reviews and meta-analyses, there is consensus that alcohol marketing has a causal effect on increased drinking behavior. Some issues, however, still deserve more scientific attention. First, although some studies suggest that certain risk groups may be especially vulnerable to alcohol marketing, the number of studies focusing on risk groups other than young people (e.g., adults with alcohol dependence or in recovery, pregnant women) is still limited. Therefore, we advise future researchers to provide further insight into the effects of alcohol marketing among these vulnerable groups. Second, although research has shown an association between social media alcohol marketing and drinking behavior as well as affective and cognitive responses, there are still several areas that need to be explored more in this context (e.g., the role of social media influencers). Furthermore, the effect of marketing for new products (e.g., nonalcoholic drinks or hard seltzers) on drinking behavior is still unknown. It is essential that these new forms of alcohol marketing are researched thoroughly.

Contains fulltext : 284967.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Many studies have looked at the relationship between social media and alcohol consumption. There is a need for a comprehensive review that synthesizes the results of past research to systematically understand the relationship between social media use and alcohol consumption. The present systematic literature review synthesizes the findings from global social media and alcohol use studies (n = 206, 204 retained for analysis) between 2009 and 2019. Codes included type of study, methods, use of theory, and whether and how the relationship between social media and alcohol use was tested, among others. In addition to providing descriptive findings, the current study compared the findings across studies that primarily focused on advertising and marketing, self-generated user-generated content (UGC), other-generated UGC, social media uses and affordances, and a mixture of more than one type of content/focus. Most articles used quantitative methods (77.94%), which is followed by qualitative methods (15.20%), mixed methods (6.37%), and 0.49% that did not fit in any of the methods categories. Of the studies that tested the relationship between social media use and alcohol consumption, an overwhelming majority found that relationship to be positive (93.10%). The results of the present study provide a comprehensive understanding of past findings regarding social media and alcohol consumption and provide important future research suggestions.

Contains fulltext : 252630.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Sharing alcohol-related content on social media has been linked to young adults’ alcohol use. Therefore, it is important to understand why these references are shared in the first place. As such, the first aim of this study was to identify the motives (social, entertainment, information/identification) that predict the sharing of alcohol references through an online survey of young Dutch adults (N = 339, Mage = 22.67 years, SDage = 3.04 years, 69.4% women). The second aim was to investigate individual differences in motives by examining whether motives mediate the relationship between personality traits (agreeableness, neuroticism, extroversion) and internal states (need for popularity) and sharing alcohol-related content. Our findings showed that identification/information (and not social or entertainment) motives and extroversion directly predicted the sharing of alcohol-related content. Moreover, respondents with a great need for popularity scored higher on all sharing motives, but only identification/information motives mediated the relationship between the need for popularity and sharing alcohol-related content. Thus, extroverted and popularity-oriented individuals are highly likely to post alcohol-related content. Overall, our findings show that certain motives predict the sharing of alcohol references on social media and that certain groups of individuals may be particularly prone to sharing such content, which makes them potential targets for interventions.

Item does not contain fulltext, School-based health interventions are potentially an effective method to communicate health messages to adolescents. Unfortunately, effectiveness of such interventions is limited. Research in other contexts has shown that interpersonal communication can influence the effectiveness of health programs, but this has not been thoroughly tested for school-based health interventions. Therefore, our study investigated interpersonal communication (i.e., conversational valence and frequency) in a school-based intervention context. We used a three-wave randomized-controlled trial with 1056 students to study three aims. The first aim was to investigate the influence of a health intervention on conversational frequency and valence about drinking, snacking, and exercising. Our second aim was to investigate the influence of conversational frequency and valence on (predictors of) drinking, snacking, and exercising. Our third aim was to investigate whether the health intervention indirectly influenced the program outcomes through conversational frequency and valence. Findings showed that conversational frequency and valence were related to (predictors of) the three behaviors. Additionally, findings showed that the intervention did not influence conversational frequency and valence. Accordingly, findings showed no indirect influence of the intervention on program outcomes through conversational frequency and valence. Our findings show the potential of interpersonal communication for health behaviors and predictors; however, they also stress the importance of a health intervention to properly influence interpersonal communication. If health interventions can successfully influence interpersonal communication, intervention effectiveness can be improved.

Item does not contain fulltext, Purpose: The past decade has seen tremendous growth in research focused on understanding college students' alcohol-related social media displays. However, longitudinal studies remain rare. The purpose of this 5-year study was to describe alcohol and abstinence display patterns on Facebook. Methods: This prospective longitudinal cohort study recruited incoming 17- to 19-year-old college students from two universities upon entering college. Trained coders evaluated Facebook profiles monthly over five years to identify alcohol and abstinence displays. Alcohol displays were further categorized as general alcohol use or intoxication/problem drinking references. Analyses included multivariate negative binomial regression. Results: Among 338 participants recruited (mean age = 18.4, SD = .6), 56.1% were female, 74.8% were Caucasian, and 58.8% were from the Midwest college. General alcohol use references were most common in the spring semester of the third year (mean = 3.9 displays; 95% CI: 3.21-4.73), these often included references to a "21 run." Intoxication/problem drinking references were most common in spring semester of the first year (mean = .79 displays, 95% confidence interval: .56–1.10) and second year of college (mean = .77 displays, 95% confidence interval: .54-1.11). There were no gender differences associated with alcohol displays at any time point. Abstinence displays were rare and declined in frequency to a low of four total displays in year 5. Conclusions: This 5-year study is the first to document patterns of alcohol and abstinence displays throughout the undergraduate experience. Findings may inform planning targeted interventions by time point, or longitudinal studies of other substances or on different platforms.

Contains fulltext : 240027.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Emotional expressions in online reviews affect reviews' informative value. By comparing high and low arousal emotions with a negative and positive valence, the current research demonstrates that the effects of emotional expressions in online reviews are determined not by the level of arousal, but by the perceived rationality of the reviewer and the perceived appropriateness of the emotional expression. In a lab experiment (N = 242) among university students, and an online experiment (N = 252) on Prolific Academic involving native English speakers, participants read an online restaurant review with the negative emotions anger, disappointment, or disgust, or with the positive emotions happiness, excitement, or contentment. Results showed that readers of online reviews considered expressions of anger more inappropriate than expressions of disappointment or disgust; this led them to judge the reviewer as more irrational, which decreased the informative value of the review. As a consequence, angry reviews led to less negative restaurant evaluations and stronger intentions to visit the restaurant than reviews expressing disappointment or disgust. We found no differences between contentment and happiness (Study 1), or between contentment and excitement (Study 2). Our findings underscore the importance of studying the effects of discrete emotions in online reviews.

Contains fulltext : 240024.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Objective: To investigate the applicability of supervised machine learning (SML) to classify health-related webpages as 'reliable' or 'unreliable' in an automated way. Methods: We collected the textual content of 468 different Dutch webpages about early childhood vaccination. Webpages were manually coded as 'reliable' or 'unreliable' based on their alignment with evidence-based vaccination guidelines. Four SML models were trained on part of the data, whereas the remaining data was used for model testing. Results: All models appeared to be successful in the automated identification of unreliable (F1 scores: 0.54–0.86) and reliable information (F1 scores: 0.82–0.91). Typical words for unreliable information are 'dr', 'immune system', and 'vaccine damage', whereas 'measles', 'child', and 'immunization rate', were frequent in reliable information. Our best performing model was also successful in terms of out-of-sample prediction, tested on a dataset about HPV vaccination. Conclusion: Automated classification of online content in terms of reliability, using basic classifiers, performs well and is particularly useful to identify reliable information. Practice implications The classifiers can be used as a starting point to develop more complex classifiers, but also warning tools which can help people evaluate the content they encounter online.

Contains fulltext : 240021.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), A promising avenue for health behavior change is to influence conversational valence, that is, the extent to which people talk negatively or positively about health behaviors. However, no research to date has experimentally manipulated conversational valence, thereby inhibiting conclusions about causal inferences. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the influence of conversational valence instructions on perceived conversational valence and subsequent binge drinking determinants. College students (N = 138) read either negative or positive conversational valence instructions. Subsequently, dyads engaged in a 5-min conversation about drinking, before self-reporting perceived conversational valence and binge drinking determinants (i.e., attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions). Results revealed that valence instructions influenced binge drinking determinants via perceived conversational valence. Those instructed to talk negatively about binge drinking reported healthier binge drinking determinants than those instructed to talk positively. Furthermore, this effect on binge drinking determinants was mediated by perceived conversational valence. These findings demonstrate that conversational valence about health can be manipulated through simple instructions and confirm the idea that conversational valence is causally linked to binge drinking determinants. Thereby, these findings show the potential that interpersonal communication in general, and conversational valence instructions, in particular, have when integrated in health interventions.

31 maart 2021, Item does not contain fulltext, School-based health interventions are potentially an effective method to communicate health messages to adolescents. Unfortunately, effectiveness of such interventions is limited. Research in other contexts has shown that interpersonal communication can influence the effectiveness of health programs, but this has not been thoroughly tested for school-based health interventions. Therefore, our study investigated interpersonal communication (i.e., conversational valence and frequency) in a school-based intervention context. We used a three-wave randomized-controlled trial with 1056 students to study three aims. The first aim was to investigate the influence of a health intervention on conversational frequency and valence about drinking, snacking, and exercising. Our second aim was to investigate the influence of conversational frequency and valence on (predictors of) drinking, snacking, and exercising. Our third aim was to investigate whether the health intervention indirectly influenced the program outcomes through conversational frequency and valence. Findings showed that conversational frequency and valence were related to (predictors of) the three behaviors. Additionally, findings showed that the intervention did not influence conversational frequency and valence. Accordingly, findings showed no indirect influence of the intervention on program outcomes through conversational frequency and valence. Our findings show the potential of interpersonal communication for health behaviors and predictors; however, they also stress the importance of a health intervention to properly influence interpersonal communication. If health interventions can successfully influence interpersonal communication, intervention effectiveness can be improved.

Contains fulltext : 240007.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Background: Adolescents and young adults frequently post alcohol-related content (ie, alcoholposts) on social media. This is problematic because both social norms theory and social learning theory suggest that viewing alcoholposts of peers could increase drinking behavior. It is therefore paramount to understand the effects of exposure to alcoholposts on viewers. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the causal effects of exposure to alcoholposts on alcohol consumption by using a rigorous design. Methods: We conducted a 6-week longitudinal study during which alcoholposts were measured by a newly developed app that copied Facebook posts shared by participants (n=281) to a new social media environment. In addition, daily questionnaires assessed alcohol use. Effects of natural alcoholposts (ie, posted by the participants) were assessed in phase 1, and effects of experimental posts (ie, posted by fake participants) were explored in phase 2. Results: Results showed that natural alcoholposts increased the occurrence and quantity of drinking the following day. That is, exposure to a single additional alcoholpost increased the log odds of drinking the next day by 0.27 (b=.27, credible interval [CI] .18 to .35). Furthermore, the number of natural alcoholposts had a positive (predictive) effect on the number of glasses drunk the next day (b=.21, CI .14 to .29). In phase 2 when experimental posts were also present, these effects decreased. Experimental posts themselves had hardly any effects. Conclusions: This study illustrates clear and direct effects of exposure to alcoholposts on next-day alcohol consumption and suggests that alcoholposts represent an important societal problem that interventions need to address.