Participants' Experiences of a Workplace-Oriented Problem Gambling Prevention Program for Managers and HR Officers: A Qualitative Study.

Workplace health promotion programs (WHPPs) refer to a set of health promotion and protection strategies implemented at a worksite and designed to meet the health and safety needs of employees. One important question for WHPPs is how middle management experience their participation in a WHPP. This study aims to explore this question further by applying a qualitative content analysis to interviews with thirteen managers and ten human resource officers participating in a WHPP focusing on problem gambling. The WHPP consisted of two components: policy implementation and skills-development training. The participants were interviewed about their experiences of these two components and the implementation process. The qualitative content analysis resulted in six themes: (1) Expectations of the skills-development training, (2) Experiences of and prior beliefs about problem gambling, (3) A good foundation, (4) The difficult conversation, (5) Appreciated aspects of the training sessions, and (6) Remaining obstacles. The results suggest that the presentation of cases, facts, and general knowledge was appreciated by most participants. However, participants also expressed that they would benefit from tailored interventions, more support in the policy implementation process, and following up on the results.

What did you do yesterday? A meta-analysis of sex differences in episodic memory.

To remember what one did yesterday is an example of an everyday episodic memory task, in which a female advantage has sometimes been reported. Here, we quantify the impact of sex on episodic memory performance and investigate whether the magnitude of the sex difference is modified by study-, task-, and sample-specific moderators. Analyses were based on 617 studies conducted between 1973 and 2013 with 1,233,921 participants. A 5-level random-effects meta-analysis showed an overall female advantage in episodic memory (g = 0.19, 95% CI [0.17, 0.21]). The material to be remembered affected the magnitude of this advantage, with a female advantage for more verbal tasks, such as words, sentences, and prose (g = 0.28, 95% CI [0.25, 0.30]), nameable images (g = 0.16, 95% CI [0.11, 0.22]), and locations (g = 0.16, 95% CI [0.11, 0.21]), and a male advantage in more spatial tasks, such as abstract images (g = -0.20, 95% CI [-0.35, -0.05]) and routes (g = -0.24, 95% CI [-0.35, -0.12]). Furthermore, there was a female advantage for materials that cannot easily be placed along the verbal-spatial continuum, such as faces (g = 0.26, 95% CI [0.20, 0.33]), and odor, taste, and color (g = 0.37, 95% CI [0.18, 0.55]). These differences have remained stable since 1973. For verbal episodic memory tasks, differences were larger in Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America than in Asia, and smaller in childhood and old age than for other ages. Taken together, results suggest that men may use their spatial advantage in spatially demanding episodic memory tasks, whereas women do well in episodic memory tasks that are verbalizable and tasks that are neither verbal nor spatial, such as remembering faces and odors/tastes/colors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Experiences of responsible gambling tools among non-problem gamblers: A survey of active customers of an online gambling platform.

INTRODUCTION: Responsible gambling (RG) tools, aiming at helping gamblers to avoid gambling-related harms, are common in online gambling platforms. Gambling industry, policy makers, and researchers have warned that RG tools can potentially disturb recreational gamblers, channeling them to less protective operators. No evidence exists to support these concerns, and they can hinder the development of effective RG tools. The current study aimed to investigate the recreational gamblers' experiences of RG tools. METHODS: A total of 10,200 active customers of an online gambling service were invited to complete an online survey and rate their overall reactions, attitudes, disturbance and irritation towards RG tools, as well as their inclination to abandon a gambling service due to overexposure to RG tools. N = 1223 surveys were completed. RESULTS: Non-problem gamblers had positive experiences of RG tools. Moderate-risk gamblers had more positive overall reaction and less irritation to previous experiences of RG tools compared to non-problem gamblers. Problem gamblers had least positive attitudes, most disturbance and most irritation towards RG pictures. Non-problem gamblers had lowest rates of having abandoned a service because of perceived overexposure to RG tools (5.2% compared to 25.9% of problem gamblers), with a significant between-group difference (OR [95% CI] = 7.17 [3.61-14.23], p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Non-problem gamblers were not particularly disturbed by RG tools and were not at risk of abandoning online gambling services because of overexposure to RG tools. The study found no grounds for limiting the design and implementation of RG tools due to fears of disturbing recreational gamblers.

Automated virtual reality exposure therapy for spider phobia vs. in-vivo one-session treatment: A randomized non-inferiority trial.

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the efficacy of a technician-assisted single-session virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) for the treatment of spider phobia featuring low-cost consumer-available hardware and novel automated software to gold-standard in-vivo one-session treatment (OST), using a parallel group randomized non-inferiority design. Method Participants (N = 100) were randomized to VRET and OST arms. Assessors blinded to treatment allocation evaluated participants at pre- and post-treatment as well follow-up (3 and 12 months) using a behavioral approach test (BAT) and self-rated fear of spider, anxiety, depression and quality-of-life scales. A maximum post-treatment difference of 2-points on the BAT qualified as non-inferiority margin. Results Linear mixed models noted large, significant reductions in behavioral avoidance and self-reported fear in both groups at post-treatment, with VRET approaching the strong treatment benefits of OST over time. Non-inferiority was identified at 3- and 12- months follow-up but was significantly worse until 12-months. There was no significant difference on a questionnaire measuring negative effects. Conclusions Automated VRET efficaciously reduced spider phobia symptoms in the short-term and was non-inferior to in-vivo exposure therapy in the long-term. VRET effectiveness trials are warranted to evaluate real-world benefits and non-specific therapeutic factors accruing from the presence of a technician during treatment. ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02533310).

Effects of a workplace prevention programme for problem gambling: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Despite being considered a public health problem, no prevention programme for problem gambling in workplace settings has been scientifically evaluated. This study aims to fill a critical gap in the field of problem gambling by implementing and evaluating a large-scale prevention programme in organisations. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Ten organisations, with a total of n=549 managers and n=8572 employees, will be randomised to either receiving a prevention programme or to a waitlist control condition. Measurements will be collected at the baseline and 3, 12 and 24 months after intervention. The primary outcome of interest is the managers' inclination to act when worried or suspicious about an employee's problem gambling or other harmful use. Additional outcomes of interest include the Problem Gambling Severity Index and gambling habits in both managers and employees. Furthermore, qualitative analyses of the responses from semistructured interviews with managers will be performed. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has been approved by the regional ethics board of Stockholm, Sweden, and it will contribute to the body of knowledge concerning prevention of problem gambling. The findings will be published in peer-reviewed, open-access journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02925286; Pre-results.