Reporting Bias Inflates the Reputation of Medical Treatments : A Comparison of Outcomes in Clinical Trials and Online Product Reviews

This research was supported in part by the Prof Roy Weir Career Development Fellowship. Kimmo Eriksson and Pontus Strimling encouraged me develop the ideas in this manuscript. Turu Stadler advised on some of the statistical analyses and Marie Johnston made many useful suggestions.Peer reviewedPostprin

Sensor recorded changes in rates of hand washing with soap in response to the media reports of the H1N1 pandemic in Britain

Objectives To examine how the frequency of information regarding a real disease threat influences hand washing with soap. Design and setting The authors installed wireless devices in highway service station lavatories in England to record the proportion of individuals washing hands with soap from May 2009 to January 2010. Participants Participants were users of men's and women's toilets. Combined there was an average of 6800 participant entrances into the lavatories daily. Primary outcome measure The primary outcome measure is the proportion of soap usage to the number of entries into the lavatories. Results Hand-washing rates were positively related to both H1NI coverage in blogs and the news; however, these relationships were stronger for men than for women. Conclusions Hand washing with soap increases proportionally to the frequency of media key words related to H1N1. Women's hand washing was more strongly associated with incidence of media keywords than men's

Disgust sensitivity is not associated with health in a rural Bangladeshi sample.

Disgust can be considered a psychological arm of the immune system that acts to prevent exposure to infectious agents. High disgust sensitivity is associated with greater behavioral avoidance of disease vectors and thus may reduce infection risk. A cross-sectional survey in rural Bangladesh provided no strong support for this hypothesis. In many species, the expression of pathogen- and predator-avoidance mechanisms is contingent on early life exposure to predators and pathogens. Using childhood health data collected in the 1990s, we examined if adults with more infectious diseases in childhood showed greater adult disgust sensitivity: no support for this association was found. Explanations for these null finding and possible directions for future research are discussed

Hands washing, glove use, and avoiding recontamination before aseptic procedures at birth: A multicenter time-and-motion study conducted in Zanzibar.

BACKGROUND: Our primary objective was to assess hand hygiene (HH) compliance before aseptic procedures among birth attendants in the 10 highest-volume facilities in Zanzibar. We also examined the extent to which recontamination contributes to poor HH. Recording exact recontamination occurrences is not possible using the existing World Health Organization HH audit tool. METHODS: In this time-and-motion study, 3 trained coders used WOMBATv2 software to record the hand actions of all birth attendants present in the study sites. The percentage compliance and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for individual behaviors (hand washing/rubbing, avoiding recontamination and glove use) and for behavioral sequences during labor and delivery were calculated. RESULTS: We observed 104 birth attendants and 781 HH opportunities before aseptic procedures. Compliance with hand rubbing/washing was 24.6% (95% CI, 21.6-27.8). Only 9.6% (95% CI, 7.6-11.9) of birth attendants also donned gloves and avoided recontamination. Half of the time when rubbing/washing or glove donning was performed, hands were recontaminated prior to the aseptic procedure. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, HH compliance by birth attendants before aseptic procedures was poor. To our knowledge, this is the first study in a low- to middle-income country to show the large contribution to poor HH compliance from hand and glove recontamination before the procedure. Recontamination is an important driver of infection risk from poor HH. It should be understood for the purposes of improvement and therefore included in HH monitoring and interventions

A Practical Guide to Using Time-and-Motion Methods to Monitor Compliance With Hand Hygiene Guidelines: Experience From Tanzanian Labor Wards.

BACKGROUND: Good-quality evidence on hand hygiene compliance among birth attendants in low-resource labor wards is limited. The World Health Organization Hand Hygiene Observation Form is widely used for directly observing behaviors, but it does not support capturing complex patterns of behavior. We developed the HANDS at Birth tool for direct observational studies of complex patterns of hand rubbing/washing, glove use, recontamination, and their determinants among birth attendants. Understanding these behaviors is particularly critical in wards with variable patient volumes or unpredictable patient complications, such as emergency departments, operating wards, or triage and isolation wards during epidemics. Here we provide detailed information on the design and implementation of the HANDS at Birth tool, with a particular focus on low-resource settings. We developed the HANDS at Birth tool from available guidelines, unstructured observation, and iterative refinement based on consultation with collaborators and pilot results. We designed the tool with WOMBAT software, which supports collecting multidimensional time-and-motion data. Our analysis of the tool's performance centered on interobserver agreement and convergent validity and the implications of the data structure for data analysis. The HANDS at Birth tool encompasses various hand actions and context-relevant information. Hand actions include procedures relevant during labor and delivery; hand hygiene or glove actions; and other types of touch. During field implementation, we used the tool for continuous observation of the birth attendant. Interobserver agreement was good (kappa range: 0.7-0.9), and the tool showed convergent validity. Using the HANDS at Birth tool is a feasible way to obtain useful information about compliance with hand hygiene procedures. The tool could be used after simple training and allows for collection of reliable information about the complex pattern of hygiene behaviors. Future studies should explore using this tool to observe behavior in labor wards in other settings and in other types of wards

Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations

Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathogen-avoidance motivations) and measures of antigay attitudes. Analyses also showed that pathogen disgust sensitivity relates not only to antipathy toward gay men and lesbians, but also to negativity toward other groups, in particular those associated with violations of traditional sexual norms (e.g., prostitutes). These results suggest that the association between pathogen-avoidance motivations and antigay attitudes is relatively stable across cultures and is a manifestation of a more general relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice towards groups associated with sexual norm violations

Perceptions of the appropriate response to norm violation in 57 societies

An Author Correction to this article: DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22955-x.Norm enforcement may be important for resolving conflicts and promoting cooperation. However, little is known about how preferred responses to norm violations vary across cultures and across domains. In a preregistered study of 57 countries (using convenience samples of 22,863 students and non-students), we measured perceptions of the appropriateness of various responses to a violation of a cooperative norm and to atypical social behaviors. Our findings highlight both cultural universals and cultural variation. We find a universal negative relation between appropriateness ratings of norm violations and appropriateness ratings of responses in the form of confrontation, social ostracism and gossip. Moreover, we find the country variation in the appropriateness of sanctions to be consistent across different norm violations but not across different sanctions. Specifically, in those countries where use of physical confrontation and social ostracism is rated as less appropriate, gossip is rated as more appropriate.Peer reviewe

Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations

Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals (N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathogen-avoidance motivations) and measures of antigay attitudes. Analyses also showed that pathogen disgust sensitivity relates not only to antipathy toward gay men and lesbians, but also to negativity toward other groups, in particular those associated with violations of traditional sexual norms (e.g., prostitutes). These results suggest that the association between pathogen-avoidance motivations and antigay attitudes is relatively stable across cultures and is a manifestation of a more general relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice towards groups associated with sexual norm violations