Examining psychological correlates of vaccine hesitancy: a comparative study between the US and Israel.

It is important to identify psychological correlates of vaccine hesitancy, including among people not from the United States (U.S.).

Vaccine communication strategies among healthcare workers as a reflection of the Israeli Ministry of Health's communication strategies before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Healthcare workers play a central role in communicating information to the public regarding vaccines. Most of the literature has focused on healthcare workers' hesitancy and doubts about getting the flu vaccine themselves. However, few studies have dealt with how they perceive their role in communicating information regarding vaccines, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Advanced theoretical-applied model based on the PD approach in the light of healthcare-associated infections: what have we achieved so far?

Healthcare-associated infections remain a persistent concern despite decades of research and intervention efforts. Adherence to infection prevention and control guidelines by health professionals remains a challenge, necessitating innovative strategies. The Positive Deviance (PD) approach, rooted in harnessing localized solutions, holds promise but lacks comprehensive frameworks and empirical validation to bolster its theoretical underpinnings.

Meaning reconstruction 70 years later: Processing older adults' unfinished business in a drama therapy group.

Unfinished business (UB), when individuals appraise their relationship with others or themselves as incomplete or unresolved, entails difficult emotions such as regret, remorse, and guilt. UB is often associated with bereavement and is considered to be a predictor of complicated grief. Here we report two case studies describing the processing of the sudden death of a significant other in the context of a randomized controlled study of 12-week drama therapy groups for older adults.

The Common Way in Which the Ministry of Health Conveys Information to the Public: A Simulation Among Israeli Parents with Different Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Vaccination During a Measles Outbreak in Israel.

Background: Despite several empirical studies that have emphasized the problematic and ineffective way in which health organizations 'correct' information which does not come from them, they have not yet found ways to properly address vaccine hesitancy.

Objectives: (1) Examining the responses of groups with different attitudes/ behaviors regarding vaccination; (2) Examining the effect of the common methods of correcting information regarding the response of subgroups, while examining issues of reliability, satisfaction, and information seeking, as well as how health organization tools aid the decision-making process regarding vaccines.

Methods: A simulation study that included 150 parents of kindergarten children was carried out.

Children in the Anthroposophical Education System Have Lower Rates of Obesity, and Higher Rates of Health Promoting Behaviors.

Background: The anthroposophical philosophy is a holistic educational and lifestyle approach. Limited information exists on the health-promoting behavioral norms and obesity rates among children living anthroposophical vs. conventional lifestyles.

The impact of Muslim and Christian religious leaders responding to COVID-19 in Israel.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most significant public health emergencies in decades and has affected all countries worldwide. Religious leaders have been recognized as playing a pivotal role in health promotion during times of crisis. This study explored the role that Muslim and Christian religious leaders played in Israel during the pandemic, and the impact that their activities had on the community.

Hesitant and anti-vaccination groups: A qualitative study on their perceptions and attitudes regarding vaccinations and their reluctance to participate in academic research- an example during a measles outbreak among a group of Jewish parents in Israel.

Background: Vaccination is widespread in Western countries and, overall, there is a high vaccination rate. However, immunization is still an enduring challenge. In recent years, the number of parents who choose to delay or refuse vaccines has risen.

Translating a theory-based positive deviance approach into an applied tool: Mitigating barriers among health professionals (HPs) regarding infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines.

Background: Although a wide range of intervention programs and methods have been implemented to increase health professionals' (HPs) adherence with infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines and decrease the incidence of healthcare associated infections (HAIs), a significant discrepancy remains between the guidelines and their implementation in practice.

Objectives: This study proposes an applied tool based on the integrated theoretical framework of the positive deviance (PD) approach for developing more effective interventions to mitigate this discrepancy.

Methods: A qualitative study guided by the PD approach based on data from two sources: (1) in-depth archival analysis of systematic review articles, and (2) integration and synthesis of findings based on an extensive empirical study we conducted, involving 250 HPs (nurses, physicians, support staff and cleaning staff) from three governmental hospitals in Israel, over 35 months (January 2017 to November 2020).

Pro-vaccination Groups Expressing Hesitant Attitudes: A Cross-Sectional Study About the Difference Between Attitudes and Actual Behavior in Israel.

Background: Vaccines have contributed to the decline in mortality, morbidity, and even the eradication of various infectious diseases. Over time, the availability of information to the public and the request for public involvement in the health decision-making process have risen, and the confidence in vaccines has dropped. An increasing number of parents and individuals are choosing to delay or refuse vaccines.

It Takes Two to Tango: How the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign in Israel Was Framed by the Health Ministry vs. the Television News.

Background: The internet has become a major resource in information transfer during COVID-19, and traditional means of communication are digitized and accessible online to the public at large.

Objectives: This study seeks to examine how Israel's two main television news channels (Channel 12 and Channel 13) covered the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, compared to how the Ministry of Health ran the campaign.

Methods: A qualitative study based on triangulation of online content analyses from three different sources: advertising campaigns, social media posts and reports on television news channels.

Risk perceptions regarding inclusion of seasonal influenza vaccinations in the school immunization program in Israel: Arab vs. Jewish mothers.

Background: The issue of whether to include seasonal influenza vaccinations in school-located vaccination programs (SLIV) has been examined in many countries, mainly in the context of economic effectiveness and morbidity prevention. Yet not enough studies have examined the impact of parental risk perceptions, health literacy and SLIV on parental vaccination uptake.

Objectives: The most recent statistics in Israel point to a higher rate of seasonal influenza vaccination among Arab children (aged 7-9 years) than among Jewish children in the same age group.

Physicians' Perspective on Vaccine-Hesitancy at the Beginning of Israel's COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign and Public's Perceptions of Physicians' Knowledge When Recommending the Vaccine to Their Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Because public healthcare workers (HCWs) are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, they must be able to provide vaccination information to their patients and respond to their anxieties and concerns. This research objectives were to (1) examine physicians' perceptions of how they received information about the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, their attitudes toward hesitant colleagues, and their own knowledge and self-efficacy in communicating information to their patients, and (2) to examine the public's perceptions of physicians' knowledge when recommending the COVID-19 vaccine to their patients. At the beginning of the vaccination campaign, a survey examined the attitudes of physicians in the Israeli public healthcare system ( = 295) regarding the Pfizer vaccine.

Application and implementation of telehealth services designed for the elderly population during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review.

Background: Telehealth has many benefits, in routine care and especially during times of epidemics in which restrictions to direct patient/healthcare-provider interaction exist.

Objective: To explore the availability, application, and implementation of telehealth services during the Covid-19 era, designed for the aged population (age 65 and more).

Methods: This systematic review/analysis was conducted by searching the most popular databases including PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science.

Creating safe spaces to prevent unintentional childhood injuries among the Bedouins in southern Israel: A hybrid model comprising positive deviance, community-based participatory research, and entertainment-education.

Background: Despite several intervention programs, the Bedouin population living in the Southern District of Israel has the highest mortality rate among children and adolescents from unintentional injuries. Our research questions asked: (1) How does increasing the involvement and participation of Bedouin community members influence the issue of unintentional injuries among children? (2) How does reframing of the technical issue of safety into security influence community involvement and cooperation?

Objectives: 1) To identify effective and efficacious positive deviance practices through community-based participatory research with adults, children, and professionals in the Bedouin community. 2) To create wider and deeper connections and cohesion between and among diverse Bedouin communities by seeding and sparking opportunities for social networking and cross-learning.

Factors associated with seasonal influenza and HPV vaccination uptake among different ethnic groups in Arab and Jewish society in Israel.

Background: Parents in the Arab population of Israel are known to be "pro-vaccination" and vaccinate their children at higher rates than the Jewish population, specifically against human papilloma virus (HPV) and seasonal influenza.

Objectives: This study seeks to identify and compare variables associated with mothers' uptake of two vaccinations, influenza and HPV, among different subgroups in Arab and Jewish society in Israel.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of the entire spectrum of the Israeli population was conducted using a stratified sample of Jewish mothers (n = 159) and Arab mothers (n = 534) from different subgroups: Muslim, Christian, Druse and Northern Bedouins.

How to Make Health and Risk Communication on Social Media More "Social" During COVID-19.

Social media have changed the way citizens participate in and express opinions about government policy. Social media serve organizations in achieving four main goals: interacting with citizens; fostering citizen participation; furthering open government; and analyzing/monitoring public opinion and activities. We contend that despite the importance of social media, international and local health organizations have been slow to adopt to them, primarily due to the discrepancy between intraorganizational discourse modes and the type of discourse suitable for dialogue with the public.

Shopping online for children: Is safety a consideration?

Introduction: There has been a significant increase in online purchasing and product safety problems have been identified in e-commerce. This study examines consumer behavior and safety perceptions among parents purchasing child products online.

Method: A mixed methods approach, including focus groups and a survey with parents, identified key characteristics and behaviors.

Who are the "Real" Experts? The Debate Surrounding COVID-19 Health Risk Management: An Israeli Case Study.

Background: The uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 crisis and the different approaches taken to manage it have triggered scientific controversies among experts. This study seeks to examine how the fragile nature of Israeli democracy accommodated differences of opinion between experts during the COVID-19 crisis.

Objective: To map and analyze the discourse between experts surrounding issues that were the topic of scientific controversy.

Motivating healthcare professionals (nurses, nurse assistants, physicians) to integrate new practices for preventing healthcare-associated infections into the care continuum: turning Positive Deviance into positive norms.

Background: The literature examining healthcare-associated infections (HAI) points to two main problems in conforming to infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines among healthcare professionals (HP). One is the discrepancy between HPs' behavioral intentions and their implementation in practice. The other refers to how HPs maintain these practices after the intervention stage ends.

The influence of new information that contradicts common knowledge about earthquake preparedness in Israel: A mixed methods experiment study.

Background: A major earthquake in Israel is inevitable. Individual risk perceptions and preparedness can mitigate harm and save lives. The gap between the public's concerns and those of experts is reflected in their differential perceptions regarding the components that influence the occurrence of an earthquake in Israel.

Using Narrative Evidence to Convey Health Information on Social Media: The Case of COVID-19.

During disease outbreaks or pandemics, policy makers must convey information to the public for informative purposes (eg, morbidity or mortality rates). They must also motivate members of the public to cooperate with the guidelines, specifically by changing their usual behavior. Policy makers have traditionally adopted a didactic and formalistic stance by conveying dry, statistics-based health information to the public.

Young Children's Food-Related Knowledge: Kindergartners' Free Categorization of Food Items.

Objective: Studies concerning young children's food-related knowledge have dealt mostly with specific types of knowledge or with researchers' predetermined categories. This approach may neglect certain aspects of children's knowledge and may limit the understanding of its general structure. The present study aimed to examine and analyze a wide scope of young children's constructed food-related knowledge.

When Politics Meets Pandemic: How Prime Minister Netanyahu and a Small Team Communicated Health and Risk Information to the Israeli Public During the Early Stages of COVID-19.

Background: The coronavirus brought the world's leaders to the center of the media stage, where they not only managed the COVID-19 pandemic but also communicated it to the public. The means they used to communicate the global pandemic reveal their strategies and the narratives they chose to create in their nation's social consciousness. In Israel, the crisis broke out after three election cycles, such that the government in charge of the crisis was an interim government under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was operating under three criminal indictments.

The Structure of Tweets About Vaccine Safety Between Health Organizations, Experts, and the Public: Analyzing Risk Communication Conversations.

Objective: This article considers how health education organizations in the World Health Organization's 9 Vaccine Safety Network (VSN) use Twitter to communicate about vaccines with the public, and whether they answer questions and engage in conversations. Almost no research in public health, to our knowledge, has explored conversational structure on social media among posts sent by different accounts.

Methods: Starting with 1,017,176 tweets by relevant users, we constructed 2 corpuses of multi-tweet conversations.