A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

The Psychological Science Accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

The Psychological Science Accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

Potential impact of benzodiazepine use on the rate of hip fractures in Denmark (DK), the Netherlands (NL) and Norway (NO)

Background: Benzodiazepines can increase the risk of falls and have therefore often been associated with an increased risk of hip fractures. However, estimations of the potential impact of benzodiazepine use on the population rate of hip fractures are missing. Objectives: To estimate the possible population impact of the use of benzodiazepines on the rate of hip fractures in DK, NL and NO. The study is part of the IMI PROTECT study and is also conducted to test the suitability of publicly available databases for drug utilization research. Methods: We conducted a literature review to estimate the pooled relative risk (RR) for hip fractures and current use of benzodiazepines. Prevalence year rates (Pe) were calculated by dividing number of ever-users of benzodiazepines in one year by the total population. The numbers of users were obtained from publicly available databases of three countries: the Register of Medicinal of Product Statistics of the Danish Medicines Agency (2007), the Dutch GIP databank (2008) and the Norwegian Prescription Database (2008). Both the RR and Pe were used for calculation of population attributable risks (PAR) of hip fractures associated with benzodiazepine use. Results: An increased risk of hip fractures was found in benzodiazepine users (RR 1.4; 95% CI 1.2-1.6). Prevalence rates of benzodiazepine use showed small differences between countries; 10.7% (DK), 13.2% (NL) and 14.5% (NO). This is reflected in results of the PARs; estimated attribution of benzodiazepines to the risk of hip fractures was 4.1% (95% CI 2.5-5.9) in DK, 5.0% (95% CI 3.1- 7.1) in NL and 5.5% (95% CI 3.4-7.8) in NO. Conclusions: This study shows that it is possible to estimate Pes and PARs using data from the three public databases. The PAR estimates suggest that the potential attribution of benzodiazepine use on the population rate of hip fractures in the three EU countries varies between 4.1% and 5.5%