Most college students have never been tested for HIV, even though they regularly have unprotected sex and multiple sex partners. Theory-based research addressing factors influencing HIV testing among college students is limited. This study explored this topic via a conceptual framework that integrates the health belief model with emotion and communication factors. Data was collected with a sample of four focus group panels, including two male and two female groups (N = 52). Transcripts for the seven discussion questions were produced based on the audio recordings of group sessions. Two research assistants reviewed, summarized and cross-validated the discussion content to address each of the four research questions under study. Students believe HIV to be a severe health threat, but feel ‘invincible’ about contracting the virus. Their low emotional self-efficacy is a barrier for adopting HIV testing. Gaining social approval and emotional support for making a testing decision can help them overcome the perceived fear, stigma and lack of response efficacy associated with taking the test. Students are open to receiving cues to action via confidential HIV-testing related communication from health professionals or important others as well as media messaging from various sources. Bridging the perceptual-emotional gap between perceived invulnerability and fear can help increase emotional self-efficacy in coping with HIV testing. Normalizing HIV testing as a primary care routine for harm avoidance/reduction will increase perceived benefits of testing. Communicating cues to action will help reinforce HIV testing as a societally approved and socially supported protective behavioral norm.
A major function of the municipal authorities in a city is ensuring a clean water supply for its inhabitants, which is achieved through a technological network, that is, the network of pipelines conveying water to various parts of the city. To understand urban technological networks such as the city water supply, the intermixing of wider social and economic realities with the transformation of such networks needs to be explored. A socio-technical approach gaining popularity with urban geographers for an understanding of social and technological development in concert is the Actor Network Theory (ANT), which focuses on the relationships between the human and the non-human. By taking the example of Delhi, the capital of India, this article explores how ANT provides a way to include material entities such as standpipes, water treatment plants, tube wells, and so on, into analyses of societal water governance networks and institutions.
<p>The decline of urban water bodies in India needs to be arrested for sustainable water management in rapidly expanding Indian cities. Reuse of water after partial recycling can reduce environmental stress. Delhi, the Indian capital, has a number of surviving water storage structures built by successive rulers over centuries to tackle water shortage in the summer. In modern Delhi, a fourteen million plus city, water is supplied through technological networks, hastening the decline of the old water storage structures. The old lakes are choked with filth and the step-wells are heaps of rubble. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) have undertaken a project to revive a 700 year-old water body, lying dry for decades, the Hauz Khas Lake, with treated sewage water. The idea was to raise the groundwater table and restore the natural environment of the lake, a past habitat for water birds. This paper attempts to evaluate the immediate impact and the long-term sustainability of the effort through discussions with technical personnel, field observations and interviews with local residents. Manuals and progress reports of the concerned organizations are used as secondary sources. The paper also examines the views of government officials and NGOs regarding the role of other similar projects in alleviating Delhi’s water shortage.</p>
Obesity among children is a rising concern throughout the world. In the U.S., rates of childhood obesity are the highest among children from diverse and economically disadvantaged households. Obesity in adolescence increases the risk of negative physical and psychological health consequences. Mobile-app-based health interventions have been found to be an effective tool to encourage children to adopt a healthier living style. A novel mobile app prototype was developed for early adolescents to communicate with and engage them interactively about healthy eating and active living. To test the app’s usability, students from a U.S. middle school, with a majority of children from low-income families, were recruited to use the app and report their feedback. The usability testing results confirmed that the app was equally well received by participants of different genders, normal weight versus overweight/obesity, and amounts of screen time. Study participants also provided overwhelming positive feedback for the embedded and tailored motivational messages that encourage healthy eating and active living. The conceptualization of the app prototype was guided by the self-determination theory, social cognitive theory, and priming theory, in addition to incorporating evidence-based obesity prevention principles. This prototype, hence, provides a valid platform for building theory-based behavioral interventions.
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