Purpose: The current study investigated how risk exposures, risk perceptions of COVID-19, and negative attitudes toward general vaccination were related to COVID vaccine acceptance among college students. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Data was collected by online survey using RedCap among college students in South Carolina between September 2020 and October 2020. Sample: 1062 college students in South Carolina. Measures: risk exposures to COVID-19, perceived severity of COVID-19, perceived susceptibility of COVID-19, negative attitude toward general vaccination, vaccine acceptance of COVID-19. Analysis: Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine the association of these factors with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance controlling for key demographics. Results: Perceived severity of COVID-19 was positively associated with vaccine acceptance (ß = 0.19, p < 0.001). Higher level of risk exposures (ß = −0.08, p = 0.007) and negative attitude toward general vaccination (ß = −0.38, p < 0.001) were associated with low vaccine acceptance. Conclusion: We need tailored education messages for college students to emphasize the severity of COVID-19, address the concerns of side effects of general vaccines by dispelling the misconception, and target the most vulnerable subgroups who reported high level of risk exposures while showed low intention to take the vaccine.

BackgroundTo control the COVID-19 pandemic, governments need to ensure a successful large-scale administration of COVID-19 vaccines when safe and efficacious vaccines become available. Vaccine acceptance could be a critical factor influencing vaccine uptake. Health information has been associated with vaccine acceptance. For college students who are embracing a digital era and being exposed to multimedia, the sources of COVID-19 vaccine information and their trust in these sources may play an important role in shaping their acceptance of vaccine uptake.MethodsIn September 2020, we conducted an online survey among 1062 college students in South Carolina to understand their perceptions and attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination. Descriptive analysis and linear regression analysis were used to investigate vaccine information sources among college students and examine how COVID-19 vaccine acceptance was associated with information source and trust level in each source.ResultsThe top three sources of COVID-19 vaccine information were health agencies (57.7%), mass media (49.5%), and personal social networks (40.5%). About 83.1% of the participants largely or always trusted scientists, 73.9% trusted healthcare providers, and 70.2% trusted health agencies. After controlling for key demographics, vaccine acceptance was positively associated with scientists as information sources but negatively associated with pharmaceutical companies as sources. Higher trust levels in mass media, health agencies, scientists, and pharmaceutical companies was significantly associated with higher COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. However, trust in social media was negatively associated with vaccine acceptance.DiscussionCollege students use multiple sources to learn about upcoming COVID-19 vaccines including health agencies, personal networks, and social media. The level of trust in these information sources play a critical role in predicting vaccine acceptance. Trust in health authorities and scientists rather than social media is related to higher level vaccine acceptance. Our findings echo the call for restoring trust in government, healthcare system, scientists, and pharmaceutical industries in the COVID-19 era and highlight the urgency to dispel misinformation in social media. Effective strategies are needed to disseminate accurate information about COVID-19 vaccine from health authorities and scientific research to improve vaccine communication to the public and promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Background Artificial intelligence (AI)–based chatbots can offer personalized, engaging, and on-demand health promotion interventions. Objective The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the feasibility, efficacy, and intervention characteristics of AI chatbots for promoting health behavior change. Methods A comprehensive search was conducted in 7 bibliographic databases (PubMed, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Embase, and JMIR publications) for empirical articles published from 1980 to 2022 that evaluated the feasibility or efficacy of AI chatbots for behavior change. The screening, extraction, and analysis of the identified articles were performed by following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Results Of the 15 included studies, several demonstrated the high efficacy of AI chatbots in promoting healthy lifestyles (n=6, 40%), smoking cessation (n=4, 27%), treatment or medication adherence (n=2, 13%), and reduction in substance misuse (n=1, 7%). However, there were mixed results regarding feasibility, acceptability, and usability. Selected behavior change theories and expert consultation were used to develop the behavior change strategies of AI chatbots, including goal setting, monitoring, real-time reinforcement or feedback, and on-demand support. Real-time user-chatbot interaction data, such as user preferences and behavioral performance, were collected on the chatbot platform to identify ways of providing personalized services. The AI chatbots demonstrated potential for scalability by deployment through accessible devices and platforms (eg, smartphones and Facebook Messenger). The participants also reported that AI chatbots offered a nonjudgmental space for communicating sensitive information. However, the reported results need to be interpreted with caution because of the moderate to high risk of internal validity, insufficient description of AI techniques, and limitation for generalizability. Conclusions AI chatbots have demonstrated the efficacy of health behavior change interventions among large and diverse populations; however, future studies need to adopt robust randomized control trials to establish definitive conclusions.

Growing attention has been paid to vaccination in control of the COVID-19 pandemic and young adults is one of the key populations for vaccination. Advanced understanding of young adults’ willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine and the potential factors influencing their vaccine intention will contribute to the development and implementation of effective strategies to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake among this group. The current study investigated how risk exposures and risk perceptions of COVID-19 (e.g., perceived susceptibility, severity, and fear of COVID-19) as well as negative attitudes toward general vaccination were related to COVID vaccine acceptance among college students based on online survey data from 1062 college students in South Carolina. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine the association of these factors with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance controlling for key demographics. Results suggested that perceived severity and fear of COVID-19 were positively associated with vaccine acceptance, while higher level of risk exposures (work/study place exposure) and negative attitude toward general vaccination were associated with low vaccine acceptance. Our findings suggested that we need tailored education messages for college students to emphasize the severity of COVID-19, particularly potential long-term negative consequences on health, address the concerns of side effects of general vaccines by dispelling the misconception, and target the most vulnerable subgroups who reported high level of risk exposures while showed low intention to take the vaccine. Efforts are warranted to increase college students’ perceived susceptibility and severity and promote their self-efficacy in health management and encourage them to take protective behaviors including vaccine uptake.

Background Individuals’ stress in responding to the current COVID-19 pandemic may be exacerbated by information uncertainty driven by inconsistent, unverified, and conflicting news from various sources. The current study aims to test if information uncertainty during the COVID-19 outbreak was related to acute stress disorder (ASD) over and above other psychosocial stressors. Methods An anonymous online survey was conducted with 7800 college students throughout China from January 31 through February 11, 2020. Existing scales were modified to measure ASD and six potential stressors including information uncertainty during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to assess the unique association of information uncertainty with ASD. To minimize the effect of large sample size and also to get a sense of whether the effects of information uncertainty were similar to people at the center of the epidemic, we repeated the hierarchical regression among 10% of the students who were randomly selected from the entire sample (“10% random sample”; n = 780) and 226 students from Hubei Province where the outbreak started. Results Information uncertainty was highly prevalent among the respondents (64%). It was significantly associated with ASD beyond other key variables and potential stressors across three samples. In the hierarchical regression among the entire sample, demographic variables accounted for 9.4% of the variance in ASD. The other five stressors added 5.1% of the variance. The information uncertainty (β = .159; p < .001) explained an additional 2.1% of the variance. Likewise, the information uncertainty explained an additional 2.1 and 3.4% of the variance in ASD beyond all other variables among the 10% random sample (β = .165; p < .001) and the Hubei sample (β = .196; p < .01), respectively. Conclusion Information uncertainty is a unique correlate of psychological stress during the COVID-19 outbreak. Reducing information uncertainty is essential not only for halting virus transmission but also for mitigating negative impacts of the pandemic on people’s psychosocial wellbeing. Transparent, timely, and accurate communication can reduce public confusion, fear, and stress. Capacity building in governments, communities, and media outlets to prevent, reduce and manage information uncertainty should be a critical part of the response to an emerging global health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background The current study evaluated the preliminary efficacy of a pilot trial of a resilience‐based intervention programme designed to decrease depression symptoms and improve protective factors (e.g. personal assets, social resources, cultural adaptation self‐efficacy, interpreting adversity, and self‐esteem) among rural‐to‐urban migrant children in China. Methods Participants were 285 fourth and fifth graders from two migrant children schools in Beijing. One school was cluster‐randomly assigned as the intervention group (n = 127) and the other was assigned as the wait‐list control group (n = 158). Data were collected at baseline and post‐intervention with a follow‐up rate of 96.8 per cent. Results Multivariate analyses found significantly greater increases in social resources, cultural adaptation self‐efficacy, and making positive sense of adversity in the intervention group than in the control group. In the intervention group, migrant children who had moved more often reported a higher increase in personal assets than those who had fewer mobility experience. Conclusion The findings suggest that the resilience‐based intervention can be efficacious in improving resilience among migrant children in China.

Psychological distress among healthcare providers is concerning during COVID-19 pandemic due to extreme stress at healthcare facilities, including HIV clinics in China. The socioecological model suggests that psychological distress could be influenced by multi-level factors. However, limited COVID-19 research examined the mechanisms of psychological distress among HIV healthcare providers. This study examined organizational and intrapersonal factors contributing to psychological health during COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected via online anonymous surveys from 1029 HIV healthcare providers in Guangxi, China during April–May 2020. Path analysis was utilized to test a mediation model among COVID-19 stressors, institutional support, resilience, and psychological distress (PHQ-4). Thirty-eight percent of the providers experienced psychological distress (PHQ-4 score > 3). Institutional support and resilience mediated the relationship between COVID-19 stressors and psychological distress. Psychological distress was common among Chinese HIV healthcare providers during COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological health intervention should attend to institutional support and resilience.

The current study examined the longitudinal relationship of collectivistic orientation and depression and the mediating effects of acculturative stress and cultural self-efficacy between collectivistic orientation and depression. We expect that collectivistic orientation would decrease acculturative stress and increase cultural self-efficacy, and in turn, improve depression. Using data from 641 Chinese internal migrants during a one-year period, the results supported the hypothesis that collectivistic orientation predicted decreased depression. Moreover, collectivistic orientation alleviated depression through reducing acculturative stress. Although cultural self-efficacy was also a significant mediator, collectivistic orientation relieved depression through decreasing cultural self-efficacy. Implications for future research directions and counseling are discussed.