Perceived Effectiveness of COVID-19 Preventive Practices and Behavioral Intention: Survey of a Representative Adult Sample in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Using existing models of behavioral health promotion, specifically the Extended Parallel Process Model, previous research has identified factors that may impact engagement in preventive health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic such as perceived threat, perceived susceptibility to the threat, perceived severity, and perceived efficacy. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the role of perceived effectiveness of COVID-19 preventive behaviors, perceived susceptibility, perceived threat, and perceived severity of COVID-19 in participants' intentions to engage in Centers for Disease Control (CDC)-recommended individual health behaviors in the first year of the pandemic. METHODS: In October 2020, a representative sample of 506 US adults completed a web-based survey through the RAND American Life Panel. RESULTS: The study primarily found that participants who perceived that CDC-recommended health practices were effective had stronger intentions to engage in those practices. The second strongest correlate was participants' perceived severity of COVID-19 across the United States. Perceived effectiveness of recommended practices accounted for the largest variance in behavioral intention. However, analysis of individual behaviors indicated a mismatch in the behaviors perceived to be the most effective (avoiding sick people and mask-wearing) and those participants indicated intention to engage in (throwing away used tissues, avoiding sick people, and coughing into their elbows) in the next 30 days. CONCLUSIONS: The authors recommend tailoring public health messaging to address the perceived threat of COVID-19 and self-efficacy. Thus, health promotion efforts should emphasize the effectiveness of CDC-recommended practices while highlighting the pandemic's severity. Additionally, rebuilding trust in public health messaging and messengers is necessary to increase perceived self-efficacy. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, health messaging must continue to promote and build trust in CDC-recommended health practices and educate regarding the efficacy of vaccination and other preventive behaviors.

Racial differences in institutional trust and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has indicated that demographic differences affect COVID-19 vaccination rates. Trust, in both the vaccine itself and institutional trust, is one possible factor. The present study examines racial differences in institutional trust and vaccine status among a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States. METHODS: Data for the current study was collected as part of Wave 8 Omnibus 2000 survey conducted by RAND ALP and consisted of 2080 participants. Responses were collected through the online RAND ALP survey in March 2021. RESULTS: Trust in the scientific community was the strongest predictor for already receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the time of study. Asians had a significantly higher trust in the scientific community compared to all other groups. Results also showed a significant difference in level of trust of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic with Indian/Alaskan Natives reporting lower trust compared to Whites, Blacks and Asians. Asians also had a significantly higher level of trust when compared to those who identified as racial Other. Those who identify as American Indian/Alaskan Natives had the lowest levels of institutional trust. Trust in the government's response was not indicative of vaccination within the sample. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies to increase trust of the scientific community can be employed to address vaccine hesitancy through community-based initiatives and building of partnerships between the scientific community and local community stakeholders.

Neuron Activity Dependent Redox Compartmentation Revealed with a Second Generation Red-Shifted Ratiometric Sensor.

Oxidative stress is a hallmark of several aging and trauma related neurological disorders, but the precise details of how altered neuronal activity elicits subcellular redox changes have remained difficult to resolve. Current redox sensitive dyes and fluorescent proteins can quantify spatially distinct changes in reactive oxygen species levels, but multicolor probes are needed to accurately analyze compartment-specific redox dynamics in single cells that can be masked by population averaging. We previously engineered genetically encoded red-shifted redox-sensitive fluorescent protein sensors using a Förster resonance energy transfer relay strategy. Here, we developed a second-generation excitation ratiometric sensor called rogRFP2 with improved red emission for quantitative live-cell imaging. Using this sensor to measure activity-dependent redox changes in individual cultured neurons, we observed an anticorrelation in which mitochondrial oxidation was accompanied by a concurrent reduction in the cytosol. This behavior was dependent on the activity of Complex I of the mitochondrial electron transport chain and could be modulated by the presence of cocultured astrocytes. We also demonstrated that the red fluorescent rogRFP2 facilitates ratiometric one- and two-photon redox imaging in rat brain slices and Drosophila retinas. Overall, the proof-of-concept studies reported here demonstrate that this new rogRFP2 redox sensor can be a powerful tool for understanding redox biology both in vitro and in vivo across model organisms.

Extending roGFP Emission via Förster-Type Resonance Energy Transfer Relay Enables Simultaneous Dual Compartment Ratiometric Redox Imaging in Live Cells.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediate both intercellular and intraorganellar signaling, and ROS propagate oxidative stress between cellular compartments such as mitochondria and the cytosol. Each cellular compartment contains its own sources of ROS as well as antioxidant mechanisms, which contribute to dynamic fluctuations in ROS levels that occur during signaling, metabolism, and stress. However, the coupling of redox dynamics between cellular compartments has not been well studied because of the lack of available sensors to simultaneously measure more than one subcellular compartment in the same cell. Currently, the redox-sensitive green fluorescent protein, roGFP, has been used extensively to study compartment-specific redox dynamics because it provides a quantitative ratiometric readout and it is amenable to subcellular targeting as a genetically encoded sensor. Here, we report a new family of genetically encoded fluorescent protein sensors that extend the fluorescence emission of roGFP via Förster-type resonance energy transfer to an acceptor red fluorescent protein for dual-color live-cell microscopy. We characterize the redox and optical properties of the sensor proteins, and we demonstrate that they can be used to simultaneously measure cytosolic and mitochondrial ROS in living cells. Furthermore, we use these sensors to reveal cell-to-cell heterogeneity in redox coupling between the cytosol and mitochondria when neuroblastoma cells are exposed to reductive and metabolic stresses.