The PICOTS-ComTeC Framework for Defining Digital Health Interventions: An ISPOR Special Interest Group Report.

OBJECTIVES: Digital health definitions are abundant, but often lack clarity and precision. We aimed to develop a minimum information framework to define patient-facing digital health interventions (DHIs) for outcomes research. METHODS: Definitions of digital-health-related terms (DHTs) were systematically reviewed, followed by a content analysis using frameworks, including PICOTS (population, intervention, comparator, outcome, timing, and setting), Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Measures, and the World Health Organization's Classification of Digital Health Interventions. Subsequently, we conducted an online Delphi study to establish a minimum information framework, which was pilot tested by 5 experts using hypothetical examples. RESULTS: After screening 2610 records and 545 full-text articles, we identified 101 unique definitions of 67 secondary DHTs in 76 articles, resulting in 95 different patterns of concepts among the definitions. World Health Organization system (84.5%), message (75.7%), intervention (58.3%), and technology (52.4%) were the most frequently covered concepts. For the Delphi survey, we invited 47 members of the ISPOR Digital Health Special Interest Group, 18 of whom became the Delphi panel. The first, second, and third survey rounds were completed by 18, 11, and 10 respondents, respectively. After consolidating results, the PICOTS-ComTeC acronym emerged, involving 9 domains (population, intervention, comparator, outcome, timing, setting, communication, technology, and context) and 32 optional subcategories. CONCLUSIONS: Patient-facing DHIs can be specified using PICOTS-ComTeC that facilitates identification of appropriate interventions and comparators for a given decision. PICOTS-ComTeC is a flexible and versatile tool, intended to assist authors in designing and reporting primary studies and evidence syntheses, yielding actionable results for clinicians and other decision makers.

Towards a better psychological satisfaction: developing a mixed multi-criteria evaluation system to urban 'Not in my back yard' facilities siting.

'Not in My Back Yard (NIMBY)' facilities are psychologically sensitive to urban and regional development. Multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) method has been widely used for the decision-making of optimum siting of urban NIMBY facilities which aim to improve residents' psychological satisfaction. However, the evaluation of qualitative criteria in siting analysis remains under researched, such as the insufficient focus on urban and regional spatial development, social public opinion, and psychological factors. Thus, the effective improvement of MCE method through an interdisciplinary view can optimise the decision process and advance the factor assessment system of siting, which helps to supplement qualitative criteria evaluation. The specific improvement steps are as follows. The first step is to introduce the mixed MCE method to improve the qualitative criteria evaluation method by pre-processing qualitative criteria with min-max standardisation and normalization. This process transfers all negative factors to positive ones and transforms the F function to linear functions. The second step is to optimise the existing two-phase siting decision-making including the feasibility evaluation phase and the MCE phase. The third step is to propose a modular criteria system composed of urban and regional spatial planning, social psychological factors and the corresponding improvement strategy of this system from three perspectives of composition, measure, and weight. We argue that the improved method could be broadly applied to optimum siting decision of urban NIMBY facilities and enhance the psychological satisfaction of residents.

Public perceptions on carbon removal from focus groups in 22 countries.

Carbon removal is emerging as a pillar of governmental and industry commitments toward achieving Net Zero targets. Drawing from 44 focus groups in 22 countries, we map technical and societal issues that a representative sample of publics raise on five major types of carbon removal (forests, soils, direct air capture, enhanced weathering, and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), and how these translate to preferences for governance actors, mechanisms, and rationales. We assess gaps and overlaps between a global range of public perceptions and how carbon removal is currently emerging in assessment, innovation, and decision-making. In conclusion, we outline key societal expectations for informing assessment and policy: prioritize public engagement as more than acceptance research; scrutiny and regulation of industry beyond incentivizing innovation; systemic coordination across sectors, levels, and borders; and prioritize underlying causes of climate change and interrelated governance issues.

Public Opinions on Removing Disincentives and Introducing Incentives for Organ Donation: Proposing a European Research Agenda.

The shortage of organs for transplantations is increasing in Europe as well as globally. Many initiatives to the organ shortage, such as opt-out systems for deceased donation and expanding living donation, have been insufficient to meet the rising demand for organs. In recurrent discussions on how to reduce organ shortage, financial incentives and removal of disincentives, have been proposed to stimulate living organ donation and increase the pool of available donor organs. It is important to understand not only the ethical acceptability of (dis)incentives for organ donation, but also its societal acceptance. In this review, we propose a research agenda to help guide future empirical studies on public preferences in Europe towards the removal of disincentives and introduction of incentives for organ donation. We first present a systematic literature review on public opinions concerning (financial) (dis)incentives for organ donation in European countries. Next, we describe the results of a randomized survey experiment conducted in the United States. This experiment is crucial because it suggests that societal support for incentivizing organ donation depends on the specific features and institutional design of the proposed incentive scheme. We conclude by proposing this experiment's framework as a blueprint for European research on this topic.

The impact and management of internet-based public opinion dissemination during emergencies: A case study of Baidu News during the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency has had a huge impact worldwide. We analyzed news headlines and keywords from the initial period of COVID-19, and explored the dissemination timeline of news related to the epidemic, and the impact of Internet-based media on the public using lifecycle theory and agenda-setting theory. We aimed to explore the impact of Baidu news headlines on public attention during the first wave of COVID-19, as well as the management mechanism of regulatory departments for social public opinion. METHODS: We searched Baidu News using the keywords "Novel Coronavirus" and "COVID-19" from 8 January to 21 February 2020, a total of 45 days, and used Python V3.6 to extract news samples during the first wave of the epidemic. We used text analysis software to structurally process captured news topics and content summaries, applied VOSviewer V6.19 and Ucinet V6.0 to examine key aspects of the data. RESULTS: We analyzed the impact of Baidu News headlines on social opinion during the first wave of COVID-19 in the budding, spread, and outbreak stage of the information lifecycle. From clustering visualization and social network analysis perspectives, we explored the characteristics of Baidu News during the initial stage of the COVID-19. The results indicated that agenda-setting coverage through online media helped to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19. The findings revealed that news reporting generated a high level of public attention toward a specific emergency event. CONCLUSIONS: The public requires accurate and objective information on the progress of COVID-19 through Baidu News headlines to inform their planning for the epidemic. Meanwhile, government can enhance the management mechanism of news dissemination, correct false and inaccurate news, and guide public opinion in a positive direction. In addition, timely official announcements on the progress of the COVID-19 outbreak and responses to matters of public concern can help calm tensions and maintain social stability.

Enhanced Arabic disaster data classification using domain adaptation.

Natural disasters, like pandemics and earthquakes, are some of the main causes of distress and casualties. Governmental crisis management processes are crucial when dealing with these types of problems. Social media platforms are among the main sources of information regarding current events and public opinion. So, they have been used extensively to aid disaster detection and prevention efforts. Therefore, there is always a need for better automatic systems that can detect and classify disaster data of social media. In this work, we propose enhanced Arabic disaster data classification models. The suggested models utilize domain adaptation to provide state-of-the-art accuracy. We used a standard dataset of Arabic disaster data collected from Twitter for testing the proposed models. Experimental results show that the provided models significantly outperform the previous state-of-the-art results.

Impact of Faculty Mentorship in the Orthopedic Surgery Interest Group at a New Medical School: A Blueprint for Future Initiatives.

OBJECTIVES: Orthopedic surgery is a highly competitive field. The residency applicant pool is expected to grow with the increasing number of new medical schools in the United States, posing significant challenges for applicants. This study explored the impact of an engaged faculty mentor in an orthopedic surgery interest group (OSIG) at a new medical school and the impact it has on students. The study aimed to uncover the most valuable features of an OSIG at a new medical school to create a blueprint for other student-leaders and/or faculty in future initiatives. METHODS: An observational study was conducted via survey responses from active OSIG members at a new medical school in Texas. Questions were mostly in a "before and after" format asking about students' perspectives of the group before and after the addition of an engaged faculty advisor. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Twenty of 21 (95.2%) eligible OSIG members participated in the study. The survey results revealed that faculty engagement significantly enhanced the OSIG and its members' medical school experience. Following faculty involvement, average OSIG event attendance more than tripled, there was a statistically significant increase in medical student well-being, and confidence in their ability to be a competitive orthopedic surgery applicant nearly doubled. OSIG participation influenced their career interests significantly more after faculty engagement. A total of 93.3% of participants voted that they felt having an engaged faculty advisor is critical for the OSIG. CONCLUSIONS: Mentorship was identified as the most crucial activity for career development, followed by clinical exposure and research. The study provides valuable insights for new medical schools in establishing and optimizing OSIGs and potentially other interest groups, particularly in competitive specialties.

Public Perception Toward the Malaysian National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) in the State of Sabah, Malaysia: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

The Malaysian Government has initiated the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme, known as PICK, to be a national strategy for addressing the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic across the country. Although the government intensified public awareness to increase program registration, the total number that registered in the state of Sabah, located in East Malaysia, was relatively low during August 2021, accounting for only 42.9% as compared to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Therefore, this paper examines the public perception toward the PICK program in Sabah based on 4 main components: safety, communication, psychology, and milieu. This study is based on the empirical findings drawn from 1024 respondents across Sabah using online Google Form surveys. This study adopts 5 methodologies for data analysis by using K-means clustering, mean score, Mann-Whitney U test, spatial analysis, and frequency analysis. It has been revealed that the percentage of respondents (categorized as Cluster 1) who have a negative perception toward the vaccination program is higher (55.9%) than those who have a positive perception (44.1%). This study further discovered that Cluster 1 has shown high skepticism regarding the vaccination program, which can be explained through the communication component (M = 3.33, SD = 0.588), especially Co2, Co3, Co1, and Co4. Following the communication factor, a chain of negative perceptions also affects other components such as safety, psychology, and milieu among Cluster 1, all of which contribute to poor participation in the PICK program. The study outcomes are extremely useful for informing local authorities to establish policies related to public interests, primarily in the areas of public health. Understanding the community's perspectives and their obstacles in participating in such programs may assist local authorities in developing or implementing public policies and campaigns that ensure such related public programs can be conducted more effectively in the future.

Evaluating public opinions: informing public health policy adaptations in China amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public concern regarding safety policies serious consequences is anticipated to persist over an extended duration. A study examining a case of rapid public health policy adaptation in China during the COVID-19 epidemic was conducted by gathering public opinion data from major social media platforms. A systematic approach to comprehend public opinion was developed. Five fundamental elements and four dimensions were delineated. An indicator system was established utilizing the K-means text clustering model. Public prediction, expectation, and their evolution underlying public concern were elucidated employing TF-IDF text mining models. The HMM elucidated the way public opinion influences policy adjustments. The findings underscore that public concern regarding enduring events undergoes temporal shifts, mirroring the evolution of public opinion towards policy. Public opinion aroused by both the original event and derived events collaboratively influence policy adjustments. In China, public opinion serves as a mechanism for policy feedback and oversight; notably, negative public sentiment plays a pivotal role in expediting policy transitions. These findings aid in refining policies to mitigate emergencies through a feedback loop, thereby averting the emergence of safety risks such as social unrest prompted by public opinion.

"Okay, I respect this publicity stunt." A snapshot of public perceptions of an online game-based blood donation campaign.

BACKGROUND: With a decrease in young and first-time donors, applying gaming elements to blood donation may provide a novel means of encouraging young donors. In August 2023, the online game DiabloIV launched the Blood Harvest in which players were encouraged to donate blood products in the United States to receive virtual in-game rewards. Given the novelty of this independent initiative, our aim was to capture Diablov IV players opinions of the Blood Harvest through thematically analyzing their online discourse related to this blood donation campaign. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We captured publicly available Twitter/X posts (n = 78) and engagement (n = 390) relevant to the Blood Harvest posted during and immediately after the campaign (October 13, 2023-November 27, 2023). RESULTS: Using thematic analysis, we identified 5 themes relating to the Blood Harvest campaign: (1) Positive perceptions and community motivations to donate, (2) Negative perceptions of the initiative and online game, (3) Players' inability to donate and participate in the initiative, (4) Incentives and incentive comparisons, and (5) Benefiting from positive associations focusing on the reputational gain that may be accessed through promoting blood donation. DISCUSSION: Situating a donation campaign in an established video game provides a novel opportunity to engage young donors. Through capturing public data, we provide a unique snapshot of how an online gaming community perceives and reacts to an independently initiated game-integrated blood donation campaign. This highlights key strengths of the approach as well as identifying potential risks for blood collection agencies.

Public perceptions of synthetic cooling agents in electronic cigarettes on Twitter.

Amid a potential menthol ban, electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) companies are incorporating synthetic cooling agents like WS-3 and WS-23 to replicate menthol/mint sensations. This study examines public views on synthetic cooling agents in e-cigarettes via Twitter data. From May 2021 to March 2023, we used Twitter Streaming Application Programming Interface (API), to collect tweets related to synthetic cooling agents with keywords such as 'WS-23,' 'ice,' and 'frozen.' The deep learning RoBERTa (Robustly Optimized BERT-Pretraining Approach) model that can be optimized for contextual language understanding was used to classify attitudes expressed in tweets about synthetic cooling agents and identify e-cigarette users. The BERTopic (a topic modeling technique that leverages Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) deep-learning model, specializing in extracting and clustering topics from large texts, identified major topics of positive and negative tweets. Two proportion Z-tests were used to compare the proportions of positive and negative attitudes between e-cigarette users (vapers) and non-e-cigarette-users (non-vapers). Of 6,940,065 e-cigarettes-related tweets, 5,788 were non-commercial tweets related to synthetic cooling agents. The longitudinal trend analysis showed a clear upward trend in discussions. Vapers posted most of the tweets (73.05%, 4,228/5,788). Nearly half (47.87%, 2,771/5,788) held a positive attitude toward synthetic cooling agents, which is significantly higher than those with a negative attitude (19.92%,1,153/5,788) with a P-value < 0.0001. The likelihood of vapers expressing positive attitudes (60.17%, 2,544/4,228) was significantly higher (P < 0.0001) than that of non-vapers (14.55%, 227/1,560). Conversely, negative attitudes from non-vapers (30%, 468/1,560) were significantly (P < 0.0001) higher than vapers (16.2%, 685/4,228). Prevalent topics from positive tweets included "enjoyment of specific vape flavors," "preference for lush ice vapes," and "liking of minty/icy feelings." Major topics from negative tweets included "disliking certain vape flavors" and "dislike of others vaping around them." On Twitter, vapers are more likely to have a positive attitude toward synthetic cooling agents than non-vapers. Our study provides important insights into how the public perceives synthetic cooling agents in e-cigarettes. These insights are crucial for shaping future U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations aimed at safeguarding public health.

Understanding the consumer-citizen gap in Chinese public attitudes toward farm animal welfare.

Individuals of the general public can perform both consumer and citizen roles in farm animal welfare, and attitudes toward farm animal welfare may differ between these roles. However, scant research is available regarding this distinction, especially in developing countries such as China. The present study aimed to explore consumer-citizen gaps in Chinese public attitudes toward farm animal welfare across three dimensions and across demographic characteristics. A 36-item scale was designed, and completed by 5284 Chinese participants in a large-scale cross-sectional survey. Consumer-citizen gaps in attitudes toward farm animal welfare across three dimensions and demographic characteristics were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and effects of demographic characteristics on attitudes were further explored by linear regression analysis. A significant consumer-citizen gap was found in overall attitudes, although the consumer role was only slightly more positive than the citizen role. The consumer-citizen gap is driven by differences in both cognitive attitudes and behavioral attitudes. The gap is most pronounced in cognitive attitudes, where the consumer role is significantly more positive, and smaller in behavioral attitudes, where the citizen role is significantly more positive. The consumer-citizen gap varies significantly among different demographic groups, including gender, age, education, monthly household income, area of residence, and occupation. Additionally, education, monthly household income, and area of residence have significant effects on attitudes in the dual role, whereas gender only affect consumer-role attitudes significantly. The findings provide evidence that consumer-citizen gaps in Chinese public attitudes toward farm animal welfare exist, and this distinction is mainly determined by demographic characteristics.

Public perception on active aging after COVID-19: an unsupervised machine learning analysis of 44,343 posts.

Introduction: To analyze public perceptions of active aging in China on mainstream social media platforms to determine whether the "14th Five Year Plan for the Development of the Aging Career and Older Adult Care System" issued by the CPC in 2022 has fully addressed public needs. Methods: The original tweets posted on Weibo between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022, containing the words "aging" or "old age" were extracted. A bidirectional encoder representation from transformers (BERT)-based model was used to generate themes related to this perception. A qualitative thematic analysis and an independent review of the theme labels were conducted by the researchers. Results: The findings indicate that public perceptions revolved around four themes: (1) health prevention and protection, (2) convenient living environments, (3) cognitive health and social integration, and (4) protecting the rights and interests of the older adult. Discussion: Our study found that although the Plan aligns with most of these themes, it lacks clear planning for financial security and marital life.

Climate change belief systems across political groups in the United States.

Beliefs and attitudes form the core of public opinion about climate change. Network analysis can reveal the structural configuration of these beliefs and attitudes. In this research, we utilize a belief system framework to identify key psychological elements, track change in the density of these belief systems over time and across political groups, and analyze the structural heterogeneity of belief systems within and between political groups in the United States. Drawing on fifteen waves of nationally representative survey data from 2010 to 2021 (N = 16,742), our findings indicate that worry about climate change is the most central psychological element. Interestingly, we find that among politically unaffiliated individuals, the connections between psychological elements have strengthened over time, implying an increase in the consistency of belief systems within this group. Despite the political polarization in beliefs about climate change between Republicans and Democrats, our findings reveal that the ways these two groups organize and structure climate change beliefs systems are not markedly different compared to those of other groups. These findings provide theoretical and practical insights for climate change experts and communicators.

Has the Supreme Court become just another political branch? Public perceptions of court approval and legitimacy in a post-Dobbs world.

Have perceptions of the U.S. Supreme Court polarized, much like the rest of American politics? Because of the Court's unique role, for many years, it remained one of the few institutions respected by both Democrats and Republicans alike. But the Court's dramatic shift to the right in recent years-highlighted by its Dobbs decision in 2022-potentially upends that logic. Using both eight waves of panel data and 18 nationally representative surveys spanning two decades, we show that while there was little evidence of partisan polarization in earlier years, in 2022 and 2023, such patterns are clear in favorability, trust, legitimacy, and support for reform. Factors that used to protect the Court-like knowledge about it and support for key democratic values-no longer do so. The Court has also become more important to voters, and will likely remain a political flashpoint, with disquieting implications for the Court's place in our polity.

Attitudes toward stuttering of college students in the USA and China: A cross-cultural comparison using the POSHA-S.

PURPOSE: This study compared the attitudes toward stuttering among college students in China and the USA using the POSHA-S survey, which assesses knowledge about stuttering and attitudes toward it. We investigated how cultural and social differences between the two groups influenced these attitudes. METHODS: We collected 199 responses to the POSHA-S survey from various universities in China and the USA. We conducted a statistical analysis of 15 summary scores generated from the POSHA-S to determine if there were significant differences in attitudes toward stuttering between the two groups. Additionally, we retrieved percentile ranks relative to the global POSHA-S database to compare attitudes in both groups with global median scores. RESULTS: The study revealed that Chinese college students hold more negative attitudes toward stuttering compared to their American counterparts and the global median scores. We discussed the social and cultural factors that may contribute to these attitudes. Furthermore, our findings emphasized the importance of addressing the lack of accurate information about stuttering in China, which could be a key factor driving these negative attitudes. CONCLUSION: These results underscore the urgent need to raise awareness about stuttering and promote a shift in public attitudes, especially among college students in China, who play influential roles in society's future.

Japanese public perceptions on smart bin potential to support PAYT systems.

Smart bins can increase transparency and accuracy in monitoring waste characteristics such as weight, volume, and disposal times. This information can aid in enforcing waste reduction policies, including the pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) system. However, the public's response to this technology remains uncertain. Despite Japan's reputation for high waste separation compliance and collection rates, it has one of the world's highest per capita rates of plastic and packaging waste generation. This study surveyed 1000 Japanese individuals regarding their perception of smart bin features and their potential to encourage waste reductions. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was used to explore the relationships between respondents' social attributes and their responses. The findings indicate a slightly higher responses from younger respondents (above 85 % of those age 10-29 compared to around 75 % of those aged 60 and older) who were in favour of smart bin technology functions such as unscheduled waste pick up and automatized waste separation. On the other hand, there was a strong unwillingness (0.57 count ratio) to reduce plastic waste even if a smart bin assisted PAYT is introduced from those who did not engage in waste separation and cleaning in the first place. Finally, an open-ended question about strategies to reduce plastic waste resulted in a large portion of mindset change ideas (24.8 % of the female respondents) and technology innovations proposals (24 % of male respondents). Although development of a smart-bin prototype is taking place, behavioral change strategies to foster a willingness to reduce waste must take place along with technological interventions.

How denialist amplification spread COVID misinformation and undermined the credibility of public health science.

Denialist scientists played an outsized role in shaping public opinion and determining public health policy during the recent COVID pandemic. From early on, amplification of researchers who denied the threat of COVID shaped public opinion and undermined public health policy. The forces that amplify denialists include (1) Motivated amplifiers seeking to protect their own interests by supporting denialist scientists, (2) Conventional media outlets giving disproportionate time to denialist opinions, (3) Promoters of controversy seeking to gain traction in an 'attention economy,' and (4) Social media creating information silos in which denialists can become the dominant voice. Denialist amplification poses an existential threat to science relevant to public policy. It is incumbent on the scientific community to create a forum to accurately capture the collective perspective of the scientific community related to public health policy that is open to dissenting voices but prevents artificial amplification of denialists.

Public opinion on the expenditure of adult-use cannabis tax revenue: Evidence from New Jersey.

OBJECTIVES: To describe New Jersey residents' relative priorities for the allocation of tax revenue generated by recreational cannabis sales. We aim to assess preferences for public health initiatives, including drug treatment, compared to a range of alternatives, including traditional policing, especially within the social and demographic groupings of people generally most impacted by punitive drug enforcement policies. METHODS: We collected population-representative survey data four months post-implementation of recreational cannabis sales in New Jersey (N = 1,006). We gauge respondents' top preferences for the allocation of new revenue generated by the legal cannabis market. Using multinomial logistic regression, we assess how various demographic and political factors shape public support for devoting revenue toward public health initiatives. RESULTS: While priorities are mixed within the sample, we find more general support for funding community-based initiatives in public health, housing, and education than for funding police, courts, and prisons. Among Black residents, the largest proportion chose investments in affordable housing. Regression analysis reveals political orientation as having the most consistent association with expressed preferences, with Republicans favoring investments in traditional law enforcement priorities over other potential funding domains. CONCLUSIONS: Recreational cannabis legalization is occurring at a rapid pace, yet important context, including how the tax revenue could be invested in communities, remains unclear. Insight into current public opinion on funding priorities suggests a desire for investment in fundamental societal institutions, including education and public health, rather than the punitive enforcement mechanisms that have defined cannabis policy for many decades.