Couples' Coping Strategies with Left Ventricular Assist Device Implantation: A Qualitative Dyadic Study.

A left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is a mechanical device that treats advanced heart failure. Patients coping with an LVAD need extensive instrumental and medical support, which is usually provided by the spouse. Therefore, it seems that dyadic coping strategies play a crucial role as either mitigators or hinderers of couples' illness management in the context of LVADs.

Handwashing adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study based on protection motivation theory.

Rationale: The associations between the number of COVID-19 cases/deaths and subsequent uptake of protective behaviors may reflect cognitive and behavioral responses to threat-relevant information.

Objective: Applying protection motivation theory (PMT), this study explored whether the number of total COVID-19 cases/deaths and general anxiety were associated with cross-situational handwashing adherence and whether these associations were mediated by PMT-specific self-regulatory cognitions (threat appraisal: perceived vulnerability, perceived illness severity; coping appraisal: self-efficacy, response efficacy, response costs).

Method: The study (#NCT04367337) was conducted in March-September 2020 among 1256 adults residing in 14 countries.

The Interplay Between Strictness of Policies and Individuals' Self-Regulatory Efforts: Associations with Handwashing During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Patterns of protective health behaviors, such as handwashing and sanitizing during the COVID-19 pandemic, may be predicted by macro-level variables, such as regulations specified by public health policies. Health behavior patterns may also be predicted by micro-level variables, such as self-regulatory cognitions specified by health behavior models, including the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA).

Purpose: This study explored whether strictness of containment and health policies was related to handwashing adherence and whether such associations were mediated by HAPA-specified self-regulatory cognitions.

The trajectory of COVID-19 pandemic and handwashing adherence: findings from 14 countries.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people's engagement in health behaviors, especially those that protect individuals from SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as handwashing/sanitizing. This study investigated whether adherence to the World Health Organization's (WHO) handwashing guidelines (the outcome variable) was associated with the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, as measured by the following 6 indicators: (i) the number of new cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality (a country-level mean calculated for the 14 days prior to data collection), (ii) total cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality accumulated since the onset of the pandemic, and (iii) changes in recent cases of COVID-19 morbidity/mortality (a difference between country-level COVID-19 morbidity/mortality in the previous 14 days compared to cases recorded 14-28 days earlier).

Methods: The observational study (#NCT04367337) enrolled 6064 adults residing in Australia, Canada, China, France, Gambia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, and Switzerland.