As the reach of science content in traditional media declines, many institutions and scientists are turning to YouTube as a powerful tool for communicating directly with non-expert publics. They do so with little empirical social science research guiding their efforts. This study explores how video characteristics and social endorsement cues provided by audience members might influence user engagement with online science videos. Shorter videos are more likely to be viewed. Social endorsement cues significantly relate to variations in user engagement, with likes having a consistent positive association with all types of engagement. Implications for science communication through YouTube are discussed.
As research on human applications of CRISPR advances, researchers, advisory bodies, and other stakeholder organizations continue calling for global public discourses and engagement to shape the development of human gene editing (HGE). Research that captures public views and tests ways for engaging across viewpoints is vital for facilitating these discourses. Unfortunately, such research lags behind advances in HGE research and applications. Here, we provide the first review of nationally representative public-opinion surveys focused on HGE to discuss limitations and remaining gaps, illustrating how these gaps hinder interpretation of existing studies. Rigorous research with proper methods for capturing representative public opinion of HGE is limited, especially in countries outside of the United States and on a global scale. The result is severely restricted understanding of even the surface level of public views concerning HGE. We identify broad areas where we need more and better research capturing public views, and describe how future surveys can help collect insights necessary for discourse and decision making on HGE.
Chemistry is essential to individual and societal well-being, yet publics tend to express less interest in chemistry compared to other science fields, and many scholars have highlighted the need for more research on effective chemistry communication and informal learning outcomes. Here, we describe one strand of a collaborative, multiyear study, working with science museums to test what kinds of content can improve interest in, perceived relevance of, and self-efficacy concerning chemistry among publics. Building on the results of our museum collaborators' findings from their tests of hands-on chemistry activities, we designed experiments testing the effects of four types of chemistry content: (1) chemistry concepts in general without mention of an application, (2) chemistry applications in everyday life, (3) chemistry applications in societal issues, and (4) each of these types of content but with connections to other science f ields beyond just chemistry. To test the effects of these different content areas, we designed three survey-embedded experiments. One experiment we designed to replicate the content of the museums' hands-on activities more directly. The other two then expanded on the museums' findings across different focus areas (e.g., chemistry in food or health applications), one with chemistry-only information and one with chemistry alongside other science fields, to try to extend the results of the museum findings to new content. In all experiments, respondents who were randomly assigned information focused on applications in everyday life tended to be significantly more likely to report positive outcomes in interest, relevance, and selfefficacy in chemistry more broadly, relative to the other conditions. Information focused on broader societal applications was consistently less successful in comparison. We discuss the implications of these findings for furthering chemistry communication and education across publics and formats.
Summary Background As an important means through which to promote Chinese health care reform, the family doctor policy has attracted attention from various fields. This study aimed to explore the factors influencing residents' decision to sign with family doctors, with a view to informing the changes necessary to encourage additional residents to do so, thereby enhancing the efficacy of primary health care system reform. Methods The residents of five communities in Xianning, Hubei Province, were selected, by convenience sampling, to participate in the study. We developed and administered a questionnaire to collect data, from which we obtained 725 valid response sets. Socio‐demographic characteristics were summarized using descriptive statistics; and Pearson chi‐squared test and binary logistic regression were performed to identify the factors influencing residents' decision to sign with family doctors. Results We found that the factors influencing residents' decision to sign include their education level, medical insurance, chronic diseases, medical treatment habits, awareness of the family doctor policy, perception of the medical skills of family doctors, and attitudes towards family doctors' signing services (P < .05). Conclusion To encourage more residents to sign with family doctors, we recommend the implementation of the following: increasing publicity for the family doctor policy, promoting the reasonable distribution of high‐quality resources, augmenting the standard of general medical education, and improving the skills and competencies of family doctors.
Introduction Influenza has been linked to the crowding in emergency departments (ED) across the world. The impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on China EDs has been quite different from those during past influenza outbreaks. Our objective was to determine if COVID-19 changed ED visit disease severity during the pandemic. Methods This was a retrospective cross sectional study conducted in Nanjing, China. We captured ED visit data from 28 hospitals. We then compared visit numbers from October 2019 to February 2020 for a month-to-month analysis and every February from 2017 to 2020 for a year-to-year analysis. Inter-group chi-square test and time series trend tests were performed to compare visit numbers. The primary outcome was the proportion of severe disease visits in the EDs. Results Through February 29 th 2020, there were 93 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients in Nanjing, of which 40 cases (43.01%) were first seen in the ED. The total number of ED visits in Nanjing in February 2020, were dramatically decreased ( n = 99,949) in compared to January 2020 ( n = 313,125) and February 2019 ( n = 262,503). Except for poisoning, the severe diseases in EDs all decreased in absolute number, but increased in proportion both in year-to-year and month-to-month analyses. This increase in proportional ED disease severity was greater in higher-level referral hospitals when compared year by year. Conclusion The COVID-19 outbreak has been associated with decreases in ED visits in Nanjing, China, but increases in the proportion of severe ED visits.
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