Reading academic quit lit – how and why precarious scholars leave academia

Academic ‘quit lit’ is an emerging genre of academic writing focused on authors’ reasons for leaving academia. Drawing on an analysis of this literature and interviews with precarious academics in Australia, Lara McKenzie discusses what this genre says about the current state of academia, those who leave it, and how not all acts of quitting are the same

Presidential Note

Letter from the American Academy of Health Behavior President, Dr. Lara McKenzie

Transitions to tertiary education: Measuring and minimising inequality between private and public school students in a university outreach program

Much of the literature concerned with evaluating public and private schooling focuses upon year 12 examination results. Investigating the transition to university, some studies have compared these results with first-year university marks. Very few researchers, however, have looked beyond students’ marks. This paper examines how “school type” affects student performance, participation, and experience in a university outreach program – SmARTS. SmARTS is run through The University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (FAHSS). It engages year 11 students in a six-month research project, facilitated by the use of both e-learning and more traditional face-to-face methods. This paper is based on research that evaluated the 2009, 2010, and 2011 programs. The methods employed include analyses of student completion rates and results, as well as 198 student surveys, ten school coordinator surveys, and three group interviews with tutors. Based on schools’ socio-economic backgrounds, fees, and examination results, we have divided schools into four types: top-tier private, second-tier private, top-tier public, and second-tier public. Our findings suggest that top-tier private and top-tier public school students have the highest levels of participation, the lowest drop-out rates, and gain the highest results in SmARTS, while the opposite is evident for second-tier public school students. We also found, however, that second-tier public school students reported to have gained more generic skills from the program than did other groups. Our findings suggest that analysing examination results provides only a limited picture of how students experience the transition to university. We argue that through research and practice such as ours, inequalities can be more accurately measured, and thus minimised, before students enter university

Online Health Information Seeking Behaviors and Infant Feeding Practices: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

Breastfeeding benefits infants, but support is often needed to meet breastfeeding goals. Social media may help disseminate infant feeding information to caregivers. The relationship between parents’ health information-seeking behaviors (HISB) on social media and infant feeding practices remains understudied. Based on social cognitive theory (SCT), parents’ self-efficacy and outcome expectations are two potential factors for improving online HISB. We aimed to use SCT to describe associations between outcome expectations, self-efficacy (eHealth literacy), and online HISB across infant feeding groups among a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents. Eligible participants (N = 580) completed a cross-sectional online survey assessing infant feeding practices (never breastfed, only pumped, only fed-at-the-breast, and both pumped and fed-at-the-breast), self-efficacy (using eHealth literacy as a proxy), outcome expectations in online HISB, parents’ online HISB on social media, and demographic information. Survey weighted linear and logistic regression models were constructed. No online activities differed by infant feeding practices. Parents who pumped only had significantly lower eHealth literacy than parents who never breastfed (adjusted β = -2.63, 95% CI: -4.73, -0.53). Parents who used both methods had 1.78 times greater odds of considering online tools useful for making health-related decisions (95% CI: 0.96, 3.28) and 1.49 times greater odds of considering online tools important for accessing health information (95% Cl: 0.70, 3.15) than parents who never breastfed, though neither association was statistically significant. Understanding these associations between infant feeding practices and online HISB, as well as the two potential factors of parents’ self-efficacy and outcome expectations, may offer implications for tailoring online social media resources to promote breastfeeding outcomes

Using social media to disseminate injury prevention content: Is a picture worth a thousand words?

Social media (SM) offers an opportunity for injury professionals to disseminate reliable safety recommendations to parents, yet little is known about the reach and impact of SM messages on parental safety knowledge and safety behavior adoption. It is also unclear whether electronic health (eHealth) literacy level is associated with understanding of messages. Parents of children (\u3c 7 years) were recruited from a nationally representative consumer panel to complete an online survey assessing their Internet and SM usage and eHealth literacy level using the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS). Participants were shown three safety SM posts where images and text matched or did not match. A post-exposure survey captured participant understanding of SM post message. Five-hundred eighty parents completed the survey. A majority of participants were female (58.6%) with high eHealth literacy (84.5%). Compared to low eHealth literate parents, a larger proportion of high eHealth literate parents correctly identified the message in mismatched posts (safe sleep: p = .0081; poison prevention: p = .0052), while similar proportions of parents with high and low eHealth literacy correctly identified a matched post for bike safety (p = .7022). Within each eHealth literacy level, high eHealth literate parents were more often able to correctly identify SM post messaging when the photo and text matched. Parents are using SM to acquire safety, health, and parenting information; therefore, it is incumbent upon disseminators to create content with clear messages. SM posts should utilize matching text with imagery that illustrates the recommended safety behavior to facilitate parental understanding of safety recommendations, regardless of audience eHealth literacy level

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccination and Assisted Reproduction Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination and female assisted reproduction outcomes through a systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: We searched Medline (OVID), EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov on January 11, 2023, for original articles on assisted reproduction outcomes after COVID-19 vaccination. The primary outcome was rates of clinical pregnancy; secondary outcomes included number of oocytes retrieved, number of mature oocytes retrieved, fertilization rate, implantation rate, ongoing pregnancy rate, and live-birth rate. METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION: Two reviewers independently screened citations for relevance, extracted pertinent data, and rated study quality. Only peer-reviewed published studies were included. TABULATION, INTEGRATION, AND RESULTS: Our query retrieved 216 citations, of which 25 were studies with original, relevant data. Nineteen studies reported embryo transfer outcomes, with a total of 4,899 vaccinated and 13,491 unvaccinated patients. Eighteen studies reported data on ovarian stimulation outcomes, with a total of 1,878 vaccinated and 3,174 unvaccinated patients. There were no statistically significant results among our pooled data for any of the primary or secondary outcomes: clinical pregnancy rate (odds ratio [OR] 0.94, 95% CI 0.88-1.01, P=.10), number of oocytes retrieved (mean difference -0.26, 95% CI -0.68 to 0.15, P=.21), number of mature oocytes retrieved (mean difference 0.31, 95% CI -0.14 to 0.75, P=.18), fertilization rate (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.87-1.11, P=.83), implantation rate (OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.84-1.00, P=.06), ongoing pregnancy rate (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.86-1.06, P=.40), or live-birth rate (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.78-1.17, P=.63). A subanalysis based on country of origin and vaccine type was also performed for the primary and secondary outcomes and did not change the study results. CONCLUSION: Vaccination against COVID-19 is not associated with different fertility outcomes in patients undergoing assisted reproductive technologies. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO, CRD42023400023

Coronavax : preparing community and government for COVID-19 vaccination:: a research protocol for a mixed methods social research project

Introduction Ahead of the implementation of a COVID-19 vaccination programme, the interdisciplinary Coronavax research team developed a multicomponent mixed methods project to support successful roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in Western Australia. This project seeks to analyse community attitudes about COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine access and information needs. We also study how government incorporates research findings into the vaccination programme. Methods and analysis The Coronavax protocol employs an analytical social media study, and a qualitative study using in-depth interviews with purposively selected community groups. Participant groups currently include healthcare workers, aged care workers, first responders, adults aged 65+ years, adults aged 30-64 years, young adults aged 18-29 years, education workers, parents/guardians of infants and young children (&lt;5 years), parents/guardians of children aged 5-18 years with comorbidities and parents/guardians who are hesitant about routine childhood vaccines. The project also includes two studies that track how Australian state and Commonwealth (federal) governments use the study findings. These are functional dialogues (translation and discussion exercises that are recorded and analysed) and evidence mapping of networks within government (which track how study findings are used). Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval has been granted by the Child and Adolescent Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) and the University of Western Australia HREC. Study findings will be disseminated by a series of journal articles, reports to funders and stakeholders, and invited and peer-reviewed presentations.</p

Parents\u27 Stigmatizing Beliefs About the HPV Vaccine and Their Association With Information Seeking Behavior and Vaccination Communication Behaviors

Parents\u27 stigmatizing beliefs about the HPV vaccine, such as beliefs that it promotes adolescent sexual activity, constitute a notable barrier to vaccine uptake. The purpose of this study is to describe the associations between parents\u27 stigmatizing beliefs about the HPV vaccine, psychosocial antecedents to vaccination, and parents\u27 intentions to vaccinate their children. Parents of vaccine-eligible children

Efficacy of D-cycloserine augmented brief intensive cognitive-behavioural therapy for paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder: A randomised clinical trial

Objective: To examine the efficacy of weight-adjusted D-cycloserine (DCS) (35 or 70 mg) relative to placebo augmentation of intensive exposure therapy for youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a double-blind, randomised controlled trial, and examine whether antidepressant medication or patient age moderated outcomes. Methods: Youth (n = 100, 7–17 years) with OCD were randomised in a 1:1 ratio to either DCS + exposure (n = 49) or placebo + exposure (n = 51). Assessments occurred posttreatment, 1 month later, and at 3 and 6 months. Pills were ingested immediately before sessions. Results: Significant improvements on all outcomes were observed at posttreatment, and to 6-month follow-up. Treatment arms did not differ across time, with no significant time-by-medication interactions on symptom severity (T1 to T2 estimate: 9.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −11.2 to −7.4, and estimate −10.7, 95% CI: −12.6 to −8.7), diagnostic severity (T1 to T2 estimate: −2.0, 95% CI: −2.4 to −1.5 and estimate −2.5, 95% CI: −3.0 to −2.0) or global functioning (T1 to T2 estimate: 13.8, 95% CI: 10.6 to 17.0, and estimate 16.6, 95% CI: 13.2 to 19.9). Neither antidepressants at baseline nor age moderated primary outcomes. There were significantly fewer responders/remitters at 1- and 6-month follow-up among youth in the DCS condition stabilised on SSRIs, relative to youth not taking SSRIs. Conclusions: DCS augmented intensive exposure therapy did not result in overall additional benefits relative to placebo. Intensive exposure proved effective in reducing symptoms for the overall sample