A psychometric assessment of a novel scale for evaluating vaccination attitudes amidst a major public health crisis.

Despite abundant scientific evidence supporting immunization benefits, vaccine hesitancy remains a significant global health concern, particularly during public health crises. Exploring public attitudes towards vaccination is crucial. This study aimed to develop and validate a tailored Public Vaccination Attitudes Scale specifically under the unique circumstances of a public health crisis. A psychometric evaluation was conducted using a cross-sectional study during the peak of a major public health crisis. The scale was developed and its psychometric properties validated using three approaches: (1) generating the item pool through literature research and focus group discussions; (2) assessing the items through expert consultation; and (3) evaluating construct validity, content validity, and internal consistency reliability through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Data from a total of 3921 respondents were randomly divided into two subsets, one for EFA (n = 1935) and the other for CFA (n = 1986). A 22-item draft scale with five factors was created after literature research and focus group discussion. The content validity of this scale ranged between 0.88 and 1.00. EFA showed a 17-item scale with four factors (Cronbach's α > 0.7) accounting for 68.044% of the total variance. CFA showed that the values of the fit indices, including convergent validity and discriminant validity, were excellent or acceptable. The overall Cronbach's α was 0.874, and each factor ranged from 0.726 to 0.885. This study introduces a valuable tool for assessing vaccination attitudes during public health crises, aiding researchers, policymakers, and nurses in combating vaccine hesitancy. Emphasizing the importance of fostering vaccine acceptance, it enhances disease control during emergencies, contributing to the knowledge needed for more effective public health strategies and crisis responses.

Parents' acceptance attitudes towards the vaccination of children based on M-LSGDM approach in China: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: Ensuring that children receive timely vaccinations is paramount for preventing infectious diseases, and parental attitude plays a pivotal role in this process. This study addresses this gap in the existing literature by examining parental attitudes towards vaccinating their children. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: An online survey including parents' sociodemographic characteristics, risk perception and attitudes towards child vaccination towards COVID-19 was conducted. The modified large-scale group decision-making approach for practicality and binary logistic regression was used to identify the predictors influencing parents' decision-making. RESULTS: Of the 1292 parents participated, 957 (74.1%) were willing to vaccinate their children, while 335 (25.9%) refused the vaccination. The study indicated that age, parental anxiety regarding child vaccination, concerns about the child's susceptibility to the disease, opinions towards vaccination benefits versus disadvantages, place of residence, average family income and children's health were significant predictors (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: While most parents supported childhood vaccination, some opposed it. Addressing persistent barriers is crucial to ensure widespread vaccination and child well-being.

The Stressing State Features of a Bottom Frame Structure Revealed from the Shaking Table Strain Data.

As a classic issue, structural seismic bearing capacity could not be accurately predicted since it was based on a structural ultimate state with inherent uncertainty. This result led to rare research efforts to discover structures' general and definite working laws from their experimental data. This study is to reveal the seismic working law of a bottom frame structure from its shaking table strain data by applying structural stressing state theory: (1) The tested strains are transformed into generalized strain energy density (GSED) values. (2) The method is proposed to express the stressing state mode and the corresponding characteristic parameter. (3) According to the natural law of quantitative and qualitative change, the Mann-Kendall criterion detects the mutation feature in the evolution of characteristic parameters versus seismic intensity. Moreover, it is verified that the stressing state mode also presents the corresponding mutation feature, which reveals the starting point in the seismic failure process of the bottom frame structure. (4) The Mann-Kendall criterion distinguishes the elastic-plastic branch (EPB) feature in the bottom frame structure's normal working process, which could be taken as the design reference. This study presents a new theoretical basis to determine the bottom frame structure's seismic working law and update the design code. Meanwhile, this study opens up the application of seismic strain data in structural analysis.

Correction: Zhang et al. The Stressing State Features of a Bottom Frame Structure Revealed from the Shaking Table Strain Data. Materials 2023, 16, 1809.

In the original publication [...].