Effective Communication Supported by an App for Pregnant Women: Quantitative Longitudinal Study.

Background: In the medical field of obstetrics, communication plays a crucial role, and pregnant women, in particular, can benefit from interventions improving their self-reported communication behavior. Effective communication behavior can be understood as the correct transmission of information without misunderstanding, confusion, or losses. Although effective communication can be trained by patient education, there is limited research testing this systematically with an app-based digital intervention.

Hepatitis D infection induces IFN-β-mediated NK cell activation and TRAIL-dependent cytotoxicity.

Background And Aims: The co-infection of hepatitis B (HBV) patients with the hepatitis D virus (HDV) causes the most severe form of viral hepatitis and thus drastically worsens the course of the disease. Therapy options for HBV/HDV patients are still limited. Here, we investigated the potential of natural killer (NK) cells that are crucial drivers of the innate immune response against viruses to target HDV-infected hepatocytes.

Predictors of Dropout Among Psychosomatic Rehabilitation Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Secondary Analysis of a Longitudinal Study of Digital Training.

Background: High dropout rates are a common problem reported in web-based studies. Understanding which risk factors interrelate with dropping out from the studies provides the option to prevent dropout by tailoring effective strategies.

Objective: This study aims to contribute an understanding of the predictors of web-based study dropout among psychosomatic rehabilitation patients.

Comparing the Effectiveness of a Web-Based Application With a Digital Live Seminar to Improve Safe Communication for Pregnant Women: 3-Group Partially Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Medical internet interventions such as asynchronous apps and synchronous digital live seminars can be effective behavior change interventions. The research question of this study was whether digital interventions based on the Health Action Process Approach can improve pregnant women's safe communication and patient safety in obstetric care.

Objective: This study aims to compare a digital live seminar with a web-based application intervention and a passive control group and to identify which social cognitive variables determine safe communication behavior and patient safety.

Interdisciplinary and interprofessional communication intervention: How psychological safety fosters communication and increases patient safety.

Background: Effective teamwork and communication are imperative for patient safety and quality care. Communication errors and human failures are considered the main source of patient harm. Thus, team trainings focusing on communication and creating psychologically safe environments are required.

Psychosocial Processes in Healthcare Workers: How Individuals' Perceptions of Interpersonal Communication Is Related to Patient Safety Threats and Higher-Quality Care.

Interpersonal communication, as a central form of social resource derived from social relations, is crucial for individuals coping with threats in the workplace, especially for hospitals that provide high-quality care and patient safety. Using social system mentalization as a theoretical background, we applied psychosocial processes and a psychodynamic system approach to get insights on how healthcare workers interact with team members and patients. The goal was to test the following hypotheses: H1: Better communication is associated with fewer patient safety threats (H1a) and higher-quality care (H1b).

[Curriculum Hannover - Web-based vs. Analogue Psychotherapeutic aftercare after Psychosomatic Rehabilitation and vs. Care as Usual].

Purpose: In order to maintain the effect achieved in the psychosomatic rehabilitation measure, psychosomatic rehabilitation aftercare is indicated for most rehabilitation patients. Due to the low availability of aftercare therapists close to home, the use of digital offers is a possibility to enable access independent of location. The aim of the study was to evaluate the therapeutic effects of web-based aftercare in comparison to face-to-face (F2F) therapy (both on the conceptual basis of the Curriculum Hannover) in the equivalence study and to no standardized aftercare (care as usual, CAU) in the superiority study.

Screening and assessment for post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS), guidance by personal pilots and support with individual digital trainings within intersectoral care: a study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Because the clinical patterns and symptoms that persist after a COVID-19 infection are diverse, a diagnosis of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) is difficult to implement. The current research project therefore aims to evaluate the feasibility and the practicability of a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral treatment program consisting of a low-threshold online screening and holistic assessment for PACS. Furthermore, it aims to evaluate digital interventions and the use of so-called personal guides that may help to facilitate the recovery of PACS.

Mitigating Feelings of Loneliness and Depression by Means of Web-Based or Print-Based Physical Activity Interventions: Pooled Analysis of 2 Community-Based Intervention Trials.

Background: Physical activity (PA) is associated with benefits, such as fewer depressive symptoms and loneliness. Web- and print-based PA interventions can help older individuals accordingly.

Objective: We aimed to test the following research questions: Do PA interventions delivered in a web- or print-based mode improve self-reported PA stage of change, social-cognitive determinants of PA, loneliness, and symptoms of depression? Is subjective age a mediator and stage of change a moderator of this effect?

Methods: Overall, 831 adults aged ≥60 years were recruited and either allocated to a print-based or web-based intervention group or assigned to a wait-list control group (WLCG) in 2 community-based PA intervention trials over 10 weeks.

Association of Social-Cognitive Factors with Individual Preventive Behaviors of COVID-19 among a Mixed-Sample of Older Adults from China and Germany.

Identifying modifiable correlates of older adults' preventive behaviors is contributable to the prevention of the COVID-19 and future pandemics. This study aimed to examine the associations of social-cognitive factors (motivational and volitional factors) with three preventive behaviors (hand washing, facemask wearing, and physical distancing) in a mixed sample of older adults from China and Germany and to evaluate the moderating effects of countries. A total of 578 older adults (356 Chinese and 222 German) completed the online cross-sectional study.

[Occupational and Health Strains of Pensioners with Reduced Earning Capacity Due to Mental or Physical Illnesses - Implications for the Health Care System].

Objective: Demographic changes with an increasing number of people receiving pensions and a decreasing number of working people paying into the pension system represent major challenges for the German social security system. In particular, it is important to support people to continue working so that there is no (premature) reduction in their earning capacity and pensioners with reduced earning capacity (disability pensioners) should be helped to return to gainful employment. The aim of this study was to investigate the differing needs of two kinds of disability pensioners, namely those with mental illness and those who were physically ill.

Coordination patterns reveal online political astroturfing across the world.

Online political astroturfing-hidden information campaigns in which a political actor mimics genuine citizen behavior by incentivizing agents to spread information online-has become prevalent on social media. Such inauthentic information campaigns threaten to undermine the Internet's promise to more equitable participation in public debates. We argue that the logic of social behavior within the campaign bureaucracy and principal-agent problems lead to detectable activity patterns among the campaign's social media accounts.

Distress, loneliness, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Test of the extension of the Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness.

COVID-19 restrictions such as lockdowns or quarantines may increase the risk for social isolation and perceived loneliness. The mechanisms can be modeled by Cacioppo's Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness (ETL), which predicts that a lack of perceived social connectedness may lead, in the long-term, to mental and physical health consequences. However, the association between COVID-19 pandemic distress, mental health, and loneliness is not sufficiently understood.

Psychological Intervention to Improve Communication and Patient Safety in Obstetrics: Examination of the Health Action Process Approach.

Background: Human failure and a lack of effective communication are the main reasons for preventable adverse events, compromising patient safety in obstetrics. In order to improve safety, team and communication interventions have been implemented but lack feasibility in obstetric care. Psychological models such as the health action process approach might help to improve interventions.

[For Which Patients is Web-Based Psychotherapeutic Aftercare after Psychosomatic Rehabilitation Most Suitable?].

Objective: In order to maintain the effects achieved during the psychosomatic rehabilitation, according aftercare is indicated for most rehabilitation patients. Due to the current low supply of aftercare psychotherapists (so-called aftercare therapists) licensed by the German Pension Insurance web-based aftercare provides an equivalent alternative to analogue (in person) offers. This study clarifies which characteristics indicate that web-based aftercare is particularly recommended and how web-based formats are evaluated by participants, especially with regard to the therapeutic relationship.

Adherence With Online Therapy vs Face-to-Face Therapy and With Online Therapy vs Care as Usual: Secondary Analysis of Two Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: Adherence to internet-delivered interventions targeting mental health such as online psychotherapeutic aftercare is important for the intervention's impact. High dropout rates limit the impact and generalizability of findings. Baseline differences may be putting patients at risk for dropping out, making comparisons between online with face-to-face (F2F) therapy and care as usual (CAU) necessary to examine.

The Mediation Effect of Phobic Anxiety on the Treatment Outcome of Activity and Participation across Age: Comparison between Online and Face-to-Face Rehabilitation Aftercare of an RCT.

The efficacy of internet and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) has been demonstrated with different mental health disorders, but little is known about the mediating effect of phobic anxiety on activity and participation and the differential effect of age. The current study tested a moderated mediation model with short-term change in phobic anxiety mediating between treatment (IMI vs. face-to-face, F2F) and long-term change in activity and participation, and age of patients moderating this mediation.

[Which Digital Services do Psychosomatic Rehabilitation Patients Use During the Corona Pandemic and do Interrelations with Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms Exist?].

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic requires numerous measures to protect against infection, such as contact reduction and adherence to hygiene and social distancing rules. The former leads to mental disorders (possibly requiring treatment) due to social isolation, the latter require adaptation in the implementation of medical therapies. With overall limited therapy capacities, the use of digital (health) applications can be of particular importance in the therapy of chronic and psychological diseases in particular.

Implementing Digital Trainings within Medical Rehabilitations: Improvement of Mental Health and Synergetic Outcomes with Healthcare Service.

The need for new technologies in healthcare services has been stressed. However, little is known about the effectiveness of digital interventions integrated in psychosomatic rehabilitation processes. Data from 724 patients from psychosomatic rehabilitation clinics were analyzed with regard to the effectiveness of digital trainings indicated by a change in symptoms related to depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness from pre- to post-rehabilitation.

Psychosomatic Rehabilitation Patients and the General Population During COVID-19: Online Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Study of Digital Trainings and Rehabilitation Effects.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has largely affected people's mental health and psychological well-being. Specifically, individuals with a pre-existing mental health disorder seem more impaired by lockdown measures posing as major stress factors. Medical rehabilitation treatment can help people cope with these stressors.

[Fear of Coronavirus, Intention to Follow the AHA Rules and Risk Perception Regarding Visits to the Doctor: Cross-sectional Study with Patients suffering from Pre-existing Mental Illness].

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic requires containment measures such as contact restrictions and hygiene requirements. It is accompanied by psychological problems and the fear of infection or of a severe course of the disease. This paper examines the relationship between fear of infection and adherence to rules of hygiene as well as the utilization of medical services.

Development of the perceptions of preventable adverse events assessment tool (PPAEAT): measurement properties and patients' mental health status.

Background: Patient-centered care and patient involvement have been increasingly recognized as crucial elements of patient safety. However, patient safety has rarely been evaluated from the patient perspective with a quantitative approach aiming at making patient safety and preventable adverse events measurable.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a questionnaire assessing patient safety by perceived triggers of preventable adverse events among patients in primary health-care settings while considering mental health.

Effectiveness of Communication Interventions in Obstetrics-A Systematic Review.

(1) Background: Obstetric work requires good communication, which can be trained through interventions targeting healthcare providers and pregnant women/patients. This systematic review aims to aggregate the current state of research on communication interventions in obstetrics. (2) Methods: Using the PICOS scheme, we searched for studies published in peer-reviewed journals in English or German between 2000 and 2020.

Barriers and Facilitators of Safe Communication in Obstetrics: Results from Qualitative Interviews with Physicians, Midwives and Nurses.

Patient safety is an important objective in health care. Preventable adverse events (pAEs) as the counterpart to patient safety are harmful incidents that fell behind health care standards and have led to temporary or permanent harm or death. As safe communication and mutual understanding are of crucial importance for providing a high quality of care under everyday conditions, we aimed to identify barriers and facilitators that impact safe communication in obstetrics from the subjective perspective of health care workers.

Obstetric Healthcare Workers' Adherence to Hand Hygiene Recommendations during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Observations and Social-Cognitive Determinants.

Background: Hand hygiene is crucial to avoid healthcare-associated infections and the transmission of COVID-19. Although the WHO has issued global hand hygiene recommendations for healthcare, adherence remains challenging. Considering social-cognitive theories such as the health action process approach (HAPA) can help to improve healthcare workers' adherence.