Search

Summary: Low-carbon technology adoption is an essential element of energy transitions toward net-zero emissions around the world. To exploit the full potential of low-carbon technologies, households should ideally co-adopt multiple low-carbon technologies. Whereas previous research primarily investigated predictors of single-technology adoption in isolation, here we focus on the co-adoption of multiple low-carbon technologies, including solar photovoltaics, stationary batteries, heat pumps, and electric vehicles, to examine the interconnections between adoption decisions and the potential of certain technologies to serve as “entry points” for the co-adoption of multiple low-carbon technologies. Based on a sample of 1967 homeowners, we identified unique demographic and psychological variables associated with co-adoption. We moreover observed specific co-adoption patterns across time in that the adoption of one technology increased the likelihood of adopting another technology. This effect, however, was primarily driven by co-adoption in close temporal proximity, pointing to opportunities for targeted policies that support technology bundles.

Abstract Background Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity are among the most serious health challenges today. Structured weight reduction programs can be helpful to reduce severe health consequences but evidence is partly scarce. The STARKIDS program aims to improve on some of these limitations and is designed to be a structured, stepwise, digitally supported intervention program for the whole family. It is divided into two intervention steps spanning over 1.5 years and aims at promoting a healthy weight development of children/adolescents with overweight/obesity and an increase in quality of life. Methods The STARKIDS intervention is evaluated in a cluster-randomized study design by comparing it with a control group receiving a one-time structured counselling in the pediatric practice. The study aims to include 1000 families with children/adolescents with overweight/obesity from 100 pediatric practices. The main outcomes are reduction in body mass index percentiles and improvements in children’s/adolescent’s quality of life, secondary outcomes refer to the contents of the intervention such as diet, physical activity, stress, and media habits. All outcomes are measured on three measurement time points: (T0) at baseline/inclusion in the study, (T1) baseline + 12 months which is the end of step 1 of the STARKIDS intervention, and (T2) baseline + 18 months which is the end of step 2 of the STARKIDS intervention. Discussion The stepwise, e-health-supported STARKIDS program is a low-threshold intervention program for families with children/adolescents with overweight/obesity. With the proof of concept, STARKIDS provides the potential to be implemented as a standard care tool for the prevention and intervention of childhood/adolescence obesity in the German health system. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS) DRKS00022813 (acknowledged primary register of the World Health Organization). Registered on 27 November 2020 (Universal Trial Number U1111-1254-9536).

Objective Strokes are among the most destructive health problems. They can especially have detrimental effects on the occupational performance of sufferers. The experiences of patients suffering from stroke regarding the impact of the disease on their occupational performance, especially the barriers and facilitators of this performance, can help understand this phenomenon better and design client-centered interventions in this field. Nevertheless, a limited body of literature has investigated the encounters of these individuals and their familial caretakers within this domain. Therefore, the objective of this research is to synthesize the available research evidence regarding the experiences of stroke survivors and their family caregivers regarding barriers and facilitators of occupational performance after stroke. Materials & Methods All published articles were searched from 4 databases without a time limit according to the determined keywords. Among the 70 articles found, only 22 were included in the study and analyzed based on the quality indicators. Results The analysis of extractive studies led to the emergence of two categories of barriers to occupational performance with subcategories of individual obstacles, contextual barriers, and rehabilitation barriers and facilitators of occupational performance with subcategories of educational strategies, development of environmental support, and strengthening of individual strategy. Conclusion Clients with stroke have many barriers in their occupational performance, and the barriers that are related to the context of rehabilitation are significant. In addition to these important barriers, the existence of supportive and educational facilitators can help improve the client's occupational performance. A better understanding of the factors related to the occupational performance of patients suffering from stroke requires more studies, especially in the relationship between the context and professional issues of occupational therapy and clients' occupational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the high prevalence of mental illness in forcibly displaced people, their utilization of mental health services is low. Major barriers to seeking mental health services include mental health self-stigma. To address this issue, the psychoeducational short film ‘Coping with Flight and Trauma’ was developed as a brief online intervention. Objective: The present study aims to evaluate the feasibility and acceptance of the newly developed 10 min film, and to assess changes in self-stigma and help seeking. Method: The evaluation of the film was conducted using a mixed-methods design with an online survey including the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale, help seeking, and mental health variables at baseline, postintervention, and 3 month follow-up, in addition to telephone interviews postintervention with a randomly selected volunteer subsample. Results: A total of 134 participants with a forced displacement history within the past 8 years took part in the study, of whom 66% scored as having probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and/or anxiety. The results revealed emotional, cognitive, and behavioural changes postintervention. Directly after watching the film, participants reported reduced self-stigma and increased openness towards accessing mental health services. At follow-up, precisely 3.8 months later, these changes were no longer significant, yet 11% of participants reported having started psychotherapy since watching the film. Probable PTSD was associated with higher self-stigma at all three time-points. The majority (90%) would recommend watching the film to other forcibly displaced people. Conclusions: Self-stigma was shown to be a robust and persistent issue, which tends to be underestimated by individuals not affected by mental illness. Low-threshold psychoeducational online interventions may be a promising tool to reduce barriers to accessing mental health services for forcibly displaced people, e.g. by being implemented in stepped-care models. HIGHLIGHTS Mental health self-stigma was shown to be a persistent and underestimated burden in forcibly displaced people. Psychoeducational online interventions are promising for addressing the burden of self-stigma and reducing barriers to seeking mental health services.

Abstract Background Leaders in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are exposed to increased stress as a result of a range of challenges. Moreover, they rarely have the opportunity to participate in stress management trainings. Therefore, KMU-GO (ger: Kleine und mittlere Unternehmen – Gesundheitsoffensive; en: small and medium-sized enterprises – health campaign) aims at conducting and evaluating such a stress management training. The focus of evaluation does not only lie on the effects on leaders participating but also on their employees. Methods The study is planned as a 2 × 3 mixed design with two groups (intervention and waiting control group) as a between factor and point in time (at baseline, 6 and 12 months later) as a within factor. We aim at collecting data from N = 200 leaders. Based on the results of a preceding assessment, an already successfully implemented stress management training was adapted to SME needs and now serves as the framework of this intervention. The stress management training comprises one and a half days and is followed by two booster sessions (each 180 min) about 3 and 6 months after the training. The main focus of this intervention lies on specifying leaders stress reactivity while at the same time investigating its effects on employees’ mental health. Further dependent variables are leaders´ depression and anxiety scores, effort-reward imbalance, sick days and psychophysiological measures of heart rate variability, hair cortisol, and salivary alpha-amylase. Cost-effectiveness analyses will be conducted from a societal and employers’ point of view. Discussion Stress management is a highly relevant issue for leaders in SMEs. By providing an adequate occupational stress management training, we expect to improve leaders´ and also employees` mental health, thereby preventing economic losses for SMEs and the national economy. However, collecting data from employees about the success of a stress management training of their leader is a highly sensitive topic. It requires a carefully planned proceeding ensuring for example a high degree of transparency, anonymity, and providing team incentives. Trial registration The KMU-GO trial is registered at the German Clinical Trial Register (DRKS): DRKS00023457 (05.11.2020)

INTRODUCTION: Several stress factors are experienced by emergency medical technicians (EMTs), the identification and management of which may be a major challenge due to the lack of valid and reliable instruments. This study aimed to develop a relevant and easy-to-use occupational stress scale (OSS) for EMTs with adequate psychometric properties. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A mixed method with an exploratory sequential design was used in this research. Items were generated based on the existing literature and a qualitative study, followed by testing the content and face validity of the items. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was done with a random sample of 247 EMTs. Also, internal consistency and stability reliability were investigated. RESULTS: From the initial 74 items, 20 with content validity ratio and content validity index were removed. In EFA, the item set resolved to a 50-item scale in the six dimensions include: Patient and family conditions, Environmental and occupational conditions, Traumatic consequences, Supportive management problems, Lack of support, and Interpersonal and individual tension. Cronbach's alpha and Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) showed excellent reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The OSS-EMT represents a psychometrically derived instrument that identified important stressors for EMTs., and is probably among the first studies in Iran. While explaining the methodology precisely, this study evaluated the validity and reliability of the OSS in EMTs based on principles of survey instrument development and validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research showing that people can predict the patterns of their implicit evaluations toward social groups has raised questions concerning how widely these findings extend to other domains, such as semantic implicit stereotyping. In a preregistered laboratory study, participants were asked to predict their scores on five implicit gender stereotyping Implicit Associations Tests (IATs). Within-subjects correlations between IAT score predictions and IAT scores showed high levels of accuracy. Although part of the IAT score patterns could be predicted from shared knowledge, own predictions significantly outperformed predictions of random others and normative patterns, suggesting self-awareness beyond reliance on shared knowledge. In line with dual-process models emphasizing that different information is captured by implicit as opposed to explicit measures, predictions explained correlations between implicit and traditional explicit stereotyping measures, and led to acknowledgment of bias. Discussion focuses on understanding conscious awareness of semantic automatic processes and conceptualizations of the cognitions underlying implicit measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective One of the important factors in choosing purposeful activities and defining the occupational performance of people is the cultural context in the society, which may have different effects in the lives of clients in Islamic countries. This cultural structure in Islamic countries is largely influenced by the religious beliefs that govern the society. The effect of Islamic culture on the occupational performance of clients has been studied less. This study deals with the review of articles related to the relationship between the context of Islamic culture and the occupational performance of clients in Islamic countries using the explicit content analysis method. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explain the effects of Islamic culture on the occupational performance of occupational therapy clients in Islamic countries. Materials & Methods The number of 46 studies using the keywords occupational therapy, Muslims and Islamic culture were initially selected until 2022 and the articles that were unrelated to occupational therapy and were not about Islam and Islamic culture were removed which finally reduced to 20 studies and then, they were subjected to qualitative analysis. Results The analysis of extractive studies has led to the emergence of different themes and categories, the theme of positive points has categories (importance of united family structure), (importance of religion in helping clients), (importance of pray as a purposeful activity) and theme challenges have categories (traditional treatments without clinical evidence), (importance of respecting the principle of Mahram in interpersonal communication), (specific beliefs in the cause of illness), (restrictions on praying), (cultural and local challenges), (hesitation in accepting occupational therapy philosophy). Conclusion In fact, Islam, with its influence on the family structure and the creation of positive beliefs and beliefs among the society, has been able to facilitate the process of occupational therapy and rehabilitation of clients to a great extent, but in the context of Islamic culture, there are many obstacles that unfortunately cause limitations. They are in interpersonal communication and acceptance of occupational therapy philosophy. Occupational therapists can use the opportunities to improve the client's performance, and in order to solve the challenges, it is necessary to do a lot of research to provide the necessary solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Self-efficacy and learning motivation are two important variables for professional learning, leading to academic success. Nursing students’ learning motivation and self-efficacy have been considered in different studies separately, therefore this study aimed to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy and learning motivation among nursing students. Methods: This is a descriptive-correlational study, carried out at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 2013-14. Data was gathered with questionnaires about science motivation and self-efficacy for professional nursing competence and analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics through SPSS software (version 13). Results: The learning motivation and self-efficacy of the nursing students was 67.89±14.12 and 68.10±14.50, respectively. There was a significant correlation between learning motivation and self-efficacy (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Due to the significant relationship between learning motivation and self-efficacy in professional nursing competency, it is suggested that an increase in learning motivation could be associated with the promotion of self-efficacy in professional nursing competency in nursing students.