Search

Purpose With the increasing dependence on market-based distribution of health-care resources in the USA, spending on health-care service advertisements directly targeting consumers has also increased. Previous research has shown that the ads fail to deliver information deemed essential by regulators. Nevertheless, the attitude of consumers toward health-care service advertising has been more positive than negative. The purpose of this study is to create a taxonomy of advertising information features to better describe the relationships between information features in the advertisements and consumer attitudes toward them. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 128 health-care consumers in a western state in the USA. Findings Factor analysis generated seven groups of information features. Among them, information features about access, cost and quality of care were rated as most helpful, whereas providers’ clinical qualifications and communication were rated least helpful. The advertising attitude measure was validated to contain two subscales, one regarding health-care service advertising and the other regarding physicians who advertise. People who highly rated the consumerism features had more positive attitudes toward health-care service advertising and people who highly rated provider clinical qualification features had more negative attitudes toward advertising physicians. Originality/value This study made methodological improvements in health-care service advertising research that would be crucial for its theoretical development. It also shed light on consumer characteristics and perceptions about information features that could influence their attitudes toward health-care service advertising.

Direct-to-consumer advertisements for healthcare services constitute a rare channel of public communication where consumers see and hear directly from their local providers and healthcare organizations. Although spending on these advertisements has increased drastically during the past decades, research on their content and effects remains rare. To fill this gap, we analyzed primetime television advertisements for healthcare services directly targeting consumers. The advertisements were collected from the two largest media markets in Nevada for one month. In total, 795 advertisements were identified, and 106 of them were non-duplicates. Analysis revealed that the advertisements focused on patients' good health outcomes by showing them smiling, going out and about, having fun with others, and enjoying rigorous physical activities. On the other hand, the advertisements focused less on the providers. Although the advertisements often showed providers in clinical settings, basic information about their professional degrees was often missing. Mentions of providers' other qualifications and professional experiences were even scarcer. Also, a substantial number of advertisements failed to show providers interacting with patients. Additional analysis of patient and provider characteristics revealed under-representation of racial or ethnic minority and older adult patients. Representation of women and minorities as providers was even more uncommon. We discussed the implications of these findings from the perspective of patient expectation and made suggestions to help providers improve their direct-to-consumer advertisements.

For more than two decades, health communication educators and practitioners have been working toward establishing a competency model to guide health communication education. This article reports the results of a survey to identify competencies for health communication specialists with master's degrees. To prepare the survey, a working group drafted a competency list through reviewing the literature and soliciting feedback from attendees at a professional society meeting, resulting in lists of items reflecting 18 knowledge domains, 11 skill sets, and 14 application bundles labeled "abilities." The survey asked participants to rate the 43 items in terms of their importance and provide their opinions about the preparation of health communication specialists. The survey was disseminated online through professional associations and completed by 142 participants (74 educators and 68 practitioners). Nearly all of the 43 items were rated "somewhat important" or higher. The lists were reduced to 10 knowledge domains, three skill sets, and five abilities through factor analyses. Replication of the findings and triangulation with studies employing different research methods will help advance this line of inquiry.

PurposeThere is an increasing need for a better understanding of healthcare service marketing in social media. This paper aims to examine Under the framework of positioning theory, popular Instagram posts related to #plasticsurgery and their accounts were analyzed and the relationships between the posts’ attributes and the number of user comments and likes were examined.Design/methodology/approachA total of 272 posts associated with #plasticsurgery and their account profiles were analyzed.FindingsPlastic surgery procedures were positioned on Instagram primarily by doctors and celebrity patients who were motivated by self-promotion. Doctors often omitted their medical credential information from their account profile and posts while featuring their vanity photos, emojis and consultation solicitations. They showed patients as the objects of surgery. On the other hand, patients positioned themselves as individuals with the agency by showing their faces rather than focusing on their body parts. Instagram users responded better to the doctors who positioned themselves more as business owners than medical professionals by soliciting consultations, offering discounts, displaying surgery photos and using emojis. In responding to patient posts, Instagram users liked under-dressed images more than fully clothed images and commented more on before-and-after photos than others.Social implicationsIn Instagram, doctors positioned themselves as self-interested providers of plastic surgery services, whereas patients positioned themselves as active consumers. Medical professionals’ social media activities should be more closely monitored to protect patient safety and the trust between patients and doctors.Originality/valueThis study shed light on how doctors and patients position themselves on social media and how they are received by social media users in the context of #plasticsurgery on Instagram.

Objectives: This study explored the relationships between marijuana knowledge, confidence in knowledge, and information efficacy and marijuana use. Furthermore, the effects of the knowledge-related...

This study examined the relationship between smartphones and ego integrity of older adults in South Korea. Retiree and older adult smartphone users were recruited from senior centres and community ...

Gender differences in the risk and protective factors of marijuana use among college students were explored by analyzing online survey responses from 464 undergraduates. Women perceived higher risk and used marijuana less than men, with no gender difference in peer disapproval. In addition, women had higher objective knowledge regarding the health effects of marijuana, although they exhibited lower confidence in their knowledge. In subsequent regression analyses, health knowledge, confidence in knowledge, perceived risk, and peer disapproval predicted women’s marijuana use, whereas only confidence in knowledge and perceived risk predicted men’s use. These findings can help devise effective intervention strategies.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-2-hpq-10.1177_13591053211002248 for Gender differences in the risk and protective factors of marijuana use among U.S. College students by Sung-Yeon Park, Gi Woong Yun, Nora Constantino and So Young Ryu in Journal of Health Psychology

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-hpq-10.1177_13591053211002248 for Gender differences in the risk and protective factors of marijuana use among U.S. College students by Sung-Yeon Park, Gi Woong Yun, Nora Constantino and So Young Ryu in Journal of Health Psychology

In recent years, marijuana use on U.S. college campuses reached the highest point while the perceptions of risk and social disapproval registered the lowest since the early 1980s. However, little attention has been paid to the sources of the marijuana-related messages and their relationships with marijuana knowledge and confidence in knowledge, proximate protective/risk factors. To fill this gap, a convenience sample of students (

This review presents a comprehensive picture of research studies about marijuana-related content in news, social media, and advertisements. Studies that examined the extent of people's exposure to the messages and its effects were also included. A total of 27 peer-reviewed journal articles and one thesis were located, of which 16 analyzed the content, four contained information about people's exposure to the messages, and ten examined the effects. Over time, news coverage shifted from negative to slightly positive toward marijuana use. Social media and advertisements were overwhelmingly favorable toward marijuana use and legalization by claiming social, romantic, and health benefits of marijuana use while completely downplaying risks. A majority of social media accounts were also run by advocacy groups and industry interests, rather than individuals who were simply sharing opinions or experiences. Furthermore, absence of health authorities among the highly popular social media accounts about marijuana was notable. The news, social media, and advertising messages about marijuana were widely used by the members of public, which in turn generated some demonstrable effects on the audience's marijuana-related perceptions and behaviors. The public and policymakers need to become aware of this information environment for potential marijuana users and take more proactive measures to protect vulnerable populations.

Neddylation is a cellular process that covalently conjugates substrate proteins with the small ubiquitin-like molecule NEDD8. As neddylation is required for fast turnover of proteins in proliferating cancer cells, the neddylation process is currently regarded as a potential target for cancer therapy. However, little is known about the role of neddylation in cancer invasion and metastasis. Unexpectedly, we here found that the neddylation blockade stimulates migration of lung cancer and glioblastoma cells. Mechanistically, C-CBL acts as the E3 ligase for neddylation of the proto-oncogene c-Src. After neddylation, c-Src is poly-ubiquitinated and degraded through the proteasome, which inhibits the PI3K-AKT pathway responsible for cell migration. In human lung cancer tissues, the downregulation of C-CBL was associated with c-Src/AKT, cancer metastasis, and poor survival in patients. Therefore, C-CBL is likely to play a tumor suppressive role by antagonizing a robust oncogenic signaling driven by c-Src. This study provides new insight about the role of neddylation in cancer metastasis. It also implies that the metastasis risk should be carefully evaluated before the clinical application of neddylation inhibitors as anticancer regimens.

Introduction: Empirical research on cosmetic surgery advertisements is scarce, in spite of their increasing visibility and ensuing ethical controversies. In the current study, the effects of cosmet...

An experiment was conducted with college students to examine the effects of source and user comments on the perceptions of a shared news story embedded in a blog post. When the shared news was credited to a news organization source incongruent with the participants’ political orientation, it was perceived to be biased against the participants’ issue position. When credited to a congruent source, the same news was perceived to be biased in favor of the participants’ position. In addition, the shared news from an incongruent source was perceived to have greater influence on others’ issue position than the same news from a congruent source, although perceived reach of the shared news was not different between the two conditions. A subsequent regression analysis identified source and perceived influence, but not perceived reach, as predictors of news bias perception. On the other hand, the second factor, user comments either agreeable or disagreeable to the participants’ issue position, did not influence how the shared news was perceived. In the discussion, theoretical implications of these findings are elaborated, and suggestions are made to refine the methods of shared news research.

Background Tauopathies, a class of neurodegenerative diseases that includes Alzheimer's disease (AD), are characterized by the deposition of neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in the human brain. As abnormal alterations in histone acetylation and methylation show a cause and effect relationship with AD, we investigated the role of several Jumonji domain-containing histone demethylase (JHDM) genes, which have yet to be studied in AD pathology. Methods To examine alterations of several JHDM genes in AD pathology, we performed bioinformatics analyses of JHDM gene expression profiles in brain tissue samples from deceased AD patients. Furthermore, to investigate the possible relationship between alterations in JHDM gene expression profiles and AD pathology in vivo, we examined whether tissue-specific downregulation of JHDM Drosophila homologs (kdm) can affect tauR406W-induced neurotoxicity using transgenic flies containing the UAS-Gal4 binary system. Results The expression levels of JHDM1A, JHDM2A/2B, and JHDM3A/3B were significantly higher in postmortem brain tissue from patients with AD than from non-demented controls, whereas JHDM1B mRNA levels were downregulated in the brains of patients with AD. Using transgenic flies, we revealed that knockdown of kdm2 (homolog to human JHDM1), kdm3 (homolog to human JHDM2), kdm4a (homolog to human JHDM3A), or kdm4b (homolog to human JHDM3B) genes in the eye ameliorated the tauR406W-engendered defects, resulting in less severe phenotypes. However, kdm4a knockdown in the central nervous system uniquely ameliorated tauR406W-induced locomotion defects by restoring heterochromatin. Conclusion Our results suggest that downregulation of kdm4a expression may be a potential therapeutic target in AD., Graphical Abstract

Background Tauopathies, a class of neurodegenerative diseases that includes Alzheimer's disease (AD), are characterized by the deposition of neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in the human brain. As abnormal alterations in histone acetylation and methylation show a cause and effect relationship with AD, we investigated the role of several Jumonji domain-containing histone demethylase (JHDM) genes, which have yet to be studied in AD pathology. Methods To examine alterations of several JHDM genes in AD pathology, we performed bioinformatics analyses of JHDM gene expression profiles in brain tissue samples from deceased AD patients. Furthermore, to investigate the possible relationship between alterations in JHDM gene expression profiles and AD pathology in vivo, we examined whether tissue-specific downregulation of JHDM Drosophila homologs (kdm) can affect tauR406W-induced neurotoxicity using transgenic flies containing the UAS-Gal4 binary system. Results The expression levels of JHDM1A, JHDM2A/2B, and JHDM3A/3B were significantly higher in postmortem brain tissue from patients with AD than from non-demented controls, whereas JHDM1B mRNA levels were downregulated in the brains of patients with AD. Using transgenic flies, we revealed that knockdown of kdm2 (homolog to human JHDM1), kdm3 (homolog to human JHDM2), kdm4a (homolog to human JHDM3A), or kdm4b (homolog to human JHDM3B) genes in the eye ameliorated the tauR406W-engendered defects, resulting in less severe phenotypes. However, kdm4a knockdown in the central nervous system uniquely ameliorated tauR406W-induced locomotion defects by restoring heterochromatin. Conclusion Our results suggest that downregulation of kdm4a expression may be a potential therapeutic target in AD.

This study took a snapshot at the psychological process of spiral of silence in an online environment with South Korean college students as the study participants. In an experiment, a Weblog-embedded news article from a media source incongruent with one's political orientation, as opposed to the same article from a congruent media source, triggered hostile media perception, which in turn led to presumed influence of the online news article on others. The presumed influence on others became a basis for assessing the online climate of opinion and led people to view themselves as a minority against the online climate of opinion. The media source factor, in conjunction with user comments factor, also generated different levels of minority perception both online and in the general society. In contrast to the notion of spiral of silence, minority perception against the general society's climate of opinion increased rather than decreased willingness to speak out. Spiral of silence theory was delineated under media perception and presumed media influence.The presumed media influence on others became a basis for assessing the online climate of opinion.Disagreeable user comments with hostile media source generated high minority perception online.Agreeable user comments with hostile media source generated low minority perception in society.Minority perception against the climate of opinion increased willingness to speak out online.

The methylation status of lysine residues in histones determines the transcription of surrounding genes by modulating the chromatin architecture. Jumonji domain-containing histone-lysine demethylases (Jmj-KDMs) remove the methyl moiety from lysine residues in histones by utilizing Fe(2+) and α-ketoglutarate. Since genetic alterations in Jmj-KDMs occur in various human cancers, the roles of Jmj-KDMs in cancer development and progression have been investigated, but still controversial. The KDM7 subfamily, which belongs to the Jmj-KDM family, is an emerging class of transcriptional coactivators because its members erase the repressive marks H3K9me2/1, H3K27me2/1, and H4K20 me1. Recently, KDM7C (alternatively named PHF2) was discovered as a new KDM7 member and identified to play a tumor-suppressive role through the reinforcement of p53-driven growth arrest and apoptosis. In this article, we generally reviewed the roles of Jmj-KDMs in human cancers and more discussed the molecular functions and the clinical significances of KDM7C.

BackgroundIn the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission declared that allowing medical providers to advertise directly to consumers would be “providing the public with truthful information about the price, quality or other aspects of their service.” However, our understanding of the advertising content is highly limited.ObjectiveTo assess whether direct-to-consumer medical service advertisements provide relevant information on access, quality and cost of care, a content analysis was conducted.MethodTelevision and online advertisements for medical services directly targeting consumers were collected in two major urban centres in Nevada, USA, identifying 313 television advertisements and 200 non-duplicate online advertisements.ResultsBoth television and online advertisements reliably conveyed information about the services provided and how to make an appointment. At the same time, less than half of the advertisements featured insurance information and hours of operation and less than a quarter of them contained information regarding the quality and price of care. The claims of quality were substantiated in even fewer advertisements. The scarcity of quality and cost information was more severe in television advertisements.ConclusionThere is little evidence that medical service advertising, in its current form, would contribute to lower prices or improved quality of care by providing valuable information to consumers.

Background Protein neddylation is a post-translational modification by a covalent conjugation with the neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally downregulated 8 (NEDD8). Although this process has been reported to participate in diverse cellular signaling, little is known about its role in cancer cell migration. Given a recent proteomics report showing that NEDD8 is downregulated in prostate cancer tissues versus normal prostate tissues, we tested the possibility that neddylation plays a role in cancer evolution, and then tried to identify target proteins of the neddylation. Methods The neddylation process was inhibited by transfecting cancer cells with NEDD8-targeting siRNAs or by treating the cells with a NAE1 inhibitor MLN4924. Cell migration was evaluated by an in vitro wound-healing assay and a Transwell migration assay. His/NEDD8-conjugated proteins were pulled down with nickel-affinity beads under a denaturing condition, and identified by Western blotting. All data were processed using the Microsoft Excel program and analyzed statistically by two-sided, unpaired Student’s t-test. Results Caveolin-1, which plays a critical role in cell migration, was identified to be conjugated with NEDD8. When the neddylation was inhibited, the phosphorylation of caveolin-1 at Tyr14 was augmented in PC3 and U373MG cells, thereby leading to increased cell migration. Such consequences by neddylation inhibition were abolished in the presence of a Src family kinase inhibitor PP2. Conclusions NEDD8 seems to inhibit the Src-mediated phosphorylation of caveolin-1 by modifying the structure of caveolin-1 protein, which blocks the migration of cancer cells. Although the neddylation process is currently regarded as an emerging target for cancer therapy, our results suggest the possibility that the inhibition of neddylation could facilitate cancer invasion or metastasis at least in some types of cancers. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi: 10.1186/s12885-017-3942-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Oxidative stress is considered a major factor in various neuronal diseases including ischemia-reperfusion injury. Proviral Integration Moloney 2 (PIM2) proteins, one of the families of PIM kinases, play crucial roles in cell survival. However, the functions of PIM2 protein against ischemia are not understood. Therefore, the protective effects of PIM2 against oxidative stress-induced hippocampal HT22 cell death and brain ischemic injury were evaluated using Tat-PIM2, a cell permeable fusion protein. Tat-PIM2 protein transduced into hippocampal HT22 cells. Low doses of transduced Tat-PIM2 protein protected against oxidative stress-induced cell death including DNA damage and markedly inhibited the activation of mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPKs), NF-κB and the expression levels of Bax protein. Furthermore, Tat-PIM2 protein transduced into the CA1 region of the hippocampus and significantly prevented neuronal cell death in an ischemic insult animal model. These results indicated that low doses of Tat-PIM2 protein protects against oxidative stress-induced neuronal cell death, suggesting low doses of Tat-PIM2 protein provides a potential therapeutic agent against oxidative stress-induced neuronal diseases including ischemia.

Based on the notion that reality television is used by the youth to learn about various social identity groups, the portrayal of minority in MTV “docusoap” was analyzed. Whereas Whites were overrepresented, Asians were completely absent. Although a few of them were shown, Latinos were virtually invisible as central characters as well as in social and romantic relationships. Blacks were also severely underrepresented and the problem was more pronounced for women than men. Among the minority groups, only mixed-raced women were shown as normalized as White women and men. Implications and suggestions for future studies were discussed.

Purpose To propose a new Extended Monopole antenna Array with individual Shields (EMAS) coil that improves the B1 field coverage and uniformity along the z-direction. Methods To increase the spatial coverage of Monopole antenna Array (MA) coil, each monopole antenna was shielded and extended in length. Performance of this new coil, which is referred to as EMAS coil, was compared with the original MA coil and an Extended Monopole antenna Array coil with no shield (EMA). For comparison, flip angle, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and receive sensitivity maps were measured at multiple regions of interest (ROIs) in the brain. Results The EMAS coil demonstrated substantially larger flip angle and receive sensitivity than the MA and EMA coils in the inferior aspect of the brain. In the brainstem ROI, for example, the flip angle in the EMAS coil was increased by 45.5% (or 60.0%) and the receive sensitivity was increased by 26.9% (or 14.9%), resulting in an SNR gain of 84.8% (or 76.3%) when compared with the MA coil (or EMA). Conclusion The EMAS coil provided 25.7% (or 24.4%) more uniform B1+ field distribution compared with the MA (or EMA) coil in sagittal. The EMAS coil successfully extended the imaging volume in lower part of the brain. Magn Reson Med 75:2566–2572, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Women and men featured in U.S. based MTV docusoaps were analyzed to explore body ideal and body exposure norms in a television genre highly popular among young people. Results from a quantitative content analysis of five popular docusoaps from 2004 to 2011 demonstrated that, although these shows were labeled as reality-based, the bodies displayed in them were highly idealized. Close to half of women’s bodies were coded as curvaceously thin and more than half of men’s bodies were coded as muscularly lean. Over two-thirds of women’s bodies and close to three-quarters of men’s bodies were coded as low fat, demonstrating that thinness was the most common body characteristic. In addition, cast members on the programs commonly exposed their bodies, including widespread partial nudity and some full nudity. Women, compared to men, exhibited a higher level of body exposure. However, men tended to expose their bodies to a higher degree than women. Close to half of all men were shown partially nude, compared to one-quarter of women. Characters with the idealized body types also exhibited a higher level of body exposure than others. These findings support previous research that investigated cultural expectations and media representations of women and men’s appearance in the U.S. The findings also demonstrate a growing focus on male body image and objectification. The potential psychological implications of self-objectification and modeling among adolescent audiences are discussed.

The purpose of this study aimed to investigate the clinicopathologic characteristics of breast cancer according to its cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) phenotype. Immunohistochemistry staining of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2), Ki-67, podoplanin, prolyl 4-hydroxylase, fibroblast activation protein alpha (FAPα), S100A4, platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRα), PDGFRβ, and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (NG2) was performed on tissue microarray consisting of 642 breast cancer cases. Samples were categorized into luminal A, luminal B, HER-2, or triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) according to immunohistochemical results, whereas tumor stroma was classified into desmoplastic, sclerotic, normal-like, or inflammatory type based on histological findings. Expression of CAF-related proteins in the stroma differed depending on breast cancer molecular subtypes. All CAF-related protein expression was high (p < 0.05) in HER-2 type, whereas in luminal A, the expression of FAPα, PDGFα, PDGFβ, and NG2 was low, and in TNBC, the expression of podoplanin, prolyl 4-hydroxylase, and S100A4 was low. In the stromal component, CAF-related protein expression differed according to stromal phenotype (p < 0.001). The desmoplastic type showed high expression of podoplanin, prolyl 4-hydroxylase, S100A4, PDGFRα, and PDGFRβ, whereas the sclerotic type exhibited low expression of FAPα, PDGFα, PDGFβ, and NG2. The inflammatory type had high expression of FAPα and NG2 with low podoplanin, while normal-like type showed low expression of prolyl 4-hydroxylase and S100A4. Our results suggested that differential CAF-related protein expression depended on the molecular subtypes and stromal histologic features of breast cancer, indicating that in the future, this system could potentially use these markers for prognosis prediction and targeted therapy of breast cancer.

This study examined how Korean dramas portray the relationship between women's life and work. Men were shown as more affluent, more educationally privileged, older, and yet less likely to be married than women. Far more men than women were employed outside the home and holding a professional occupation or managerial position. Among young adult characters, marriage increased men's employment but decreased women's. Married men were also the most likely to be professionals or managers whereas it was highly unlikely for women, whether married or single. The negative effects of being a parent on employment and on holding a professional or managerial position were consistent for women and men. Examination of women and men's employment and professional empowerment for the past 10 years in television dramas and South Korean social statistics revealed a parallel between television reality and the observed reality, except for a gross overrepresentation of men as professionals or managers in the dramas.