RESUMO
The online world is flooded with misinformation that puts older adults at risk, especially the misinformation about health and wellness. To understand older adults' vulnerability to online misinformation, this study examines how eye-catching headlines and emotional images impact their credibility judgments and spreading of health misinformation. Fifty-nine older adults aged between 58 and 83 years participated in this experiment. Firstly, participants intuitively chose an article for further reading among a bunch of headlines. Then they viewed the emotional images. Finally, they judged the credibility of health articles and decided whether to share these articles. On average, participants only successfully judged 41.38% of health articles. Attractive headlines not only attracted participants' clicks at first glance but also increased their credibility judgments on the content of health misinformation. Although participants were more willing to share an article they believed than not, 62.5% of the articles they want to share were falsehoods. Older adults in this study were notified of possible falsehoods in advance and were given enough time to discern misinformation before sharing. However, these efforts neither lead to a high judgment accuracy nor a high quality of information that they wanted to share. That may be on account of eye-catching headlines which misled participants into believing health misinformation. Besides, the most older adults in this study may follow the "better safe than sorry" principle when confronted with health misinformation, that is to say they would rather trust the misinformation to avoid health risks than doubt it.
RESUMO
This study aims to investigate older adults' psychological reactions when facing changes in daily life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-epidemic measures. Specifically, this study investigated the impacts of communication types (i.e., electronic and face-to-face communication) and frequency during the pandemic and the kinds of proactive coping actions taken by older adults on their anxiety. A total of 43,019 respondents were included in this study by merging two longitudinal databases. One is the seventh wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) conducted in 2017, and the other is the COVID-19 Survey of SHARE, which was conducted between June and August 2020. This study found that one third of older adults reported anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic and one fifth reported increased anxiety than before the pandemic. Anxiety symptoms seem somewhat prevalent among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the more kinds of proactive coping actions taken by older adults, the more likely they felt anxious. As the pandemic continues and develops, taking proactive coping actions might no longer alleviate anxiety in older adults, showing a diminishing utility. In addition, face to face communication was found to decrease the likelihood of anxiety symptoms in older adults, whereas the opposite impact of electronic communication was found. For older adults, contacting others by electronic means may increase their anxiety feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence, mortality, and disease burden of cancer in China to provide a reference for cancer prevention and control. METHODS: Cancer registry data (2006-2010) were collected from the Chinese Cancer Registry Annual Report by the National Center for Cancer Registries. Cancer incidence and mortality, potential years of life lost (PYLL), and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were calculated. RESULTS: The cancer incidence rate was 267.13/100,000 overall, 299.13/100,000 in men, and 234.06/100,000 in women (1.2 times higher in men than in women). The cancer mortality rate was 176.32/100,000 overall, 220.54/100,000 in men, and 130.60/100,000 in women (1.6 times higher in men than in women). The incidence rate was higher in urban areas (285.97/100,000) than in rural areas (250.91/100,000), whereas the mortality rate was higher in rural areas (179.25/100,000) than in urban areas (172.91/100,000). The rural: urban incidence ratio decreased from 0.89 in 2006 to 0.69 in 2010, and the rural: urban mortality ratio decreased from 1.10 to 0.91 in the same years. PYLL rates and DALY rates were higher in men (16.45 and 22.19, respectively) than in women (11.22 and 13.87, respectively) and in rural areas (17.6 and 22.17, respectively) than in urban areas (12.6 and 17.09, respectively). The male: female ratios for PYLL and DALY rates were 1.46 and 1.6, respectively. The rural: urban ratios for PYLL and DALY rates decreased from 1.63 in 2006 to 1.22 in 2010 and from 1.51 in 2006 to 1.08 in 2010, respectively. CONCLUSION: The disease burden of cancer in China in 2006-2010 was substantial, particularly for men and residents of rural districts.