Reassessing the winner-loser gap in satisfaction with democracy.

Citizens who support a party which enters government are systematically more satisfied with democracy compared to voters who supported a party which ends up in the opposition. This relationship is labelled as the "winner-loser gap," but we lack firm causal evidence of this gap. We provide a causal estimate of the effects of voting for a winning or losing party by leveraging data from surveys fielded before and after new government formations in three well established democracies (Netherlands, Norway and Iceland) were announced in contexts of very high uncertainty.

Community-Based Pharmacists' Perspectives on Prescribing Authority for the Minor Ailments and Contraception Service in British Columbia.

Recent changes to legislation in British Columbia (BC) have expanded the scope of pharmacist-provided services to include pharmacist prescribing for minor ailments and contraception (PPMAC). The purpose of this study was to gather community-based pharmacists' perspectives on these changes to practice. This was a cross-sectional online survey study.

Association Between Oral Anticoagulant Adherence and Serious Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: A Long-Term Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Patients with atrial fibrillation are frequently nonadherent to oral anticoagulants (OACs) prescribed for stroke and systemic embolism (SSE) prevention. We quantified the relationship between OAC adherence and atrial fibrillation clinical outcomes using methods not previously applied to this problem.

Methods And Results: Retrospective observational cohort study of incident cases of atrial fibrillation from population-based administrative data over 23 years.

Effect of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers After Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background: The effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (ACEI/ARBs) on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients who undergo coronary artery bypass graft surgery is equivocal. This retrospective, population-based cohort study evaluated effect of exposure to an ACEI/ARB on MACE using linked administrative databases that included all cardiac revascularization procedures, hospitalizations, and prescriptions for the population of British Columbia, Canada.

Methods And Results: All adults who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery between 2002 and 2020 were eligible.

Assessing the impact of atrial fibrillation self-care interventions: A systematic review.

This systematic review evaluates the efficacy of self-care interventions for atrial fibrillation (AF), focusing on strategies for maintenance, monitoring, and management applied individually or in combination. Adhering to the 2020 PRISMA guidelines, the search strategy spanned literature from 2005 to 2023, utilizing keywords and subject headings for "atrial fibrillation" and "self-care" combined with the Boolean operator AND. The databases searched included Medline, Embase, and CINAHL.

Development and Application of an Attribute-Based Taxonomy on the Benefits of Oral Anticoagulant Switching in Atrial Fibrillation: A Delphi Study.

Introduction: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) often switch between oral anticoagulants (OACs). It can be hard to know why a patient has switched outside of a clinical setting. Medication attribute comparisons can suggest benefits.

Thinking about default enrollment lowers vaccination intentions and public support in G7 countries.

Policymakers often face a conundrum between being transparent about policies and ensuring that those policies are effective. This challenge is particularly relevant for behavioral nudges, which are not usually disclosed. Rather than avoiding transparency, we suggest that policymakers encourage citizens to reflect on nudges to help them understand their own views and align those views with their behaviors.

Public support for more stringent vaccine policies increases with vaccine effectiveness.

Under what conditions do citizens support coercive public policies? Although recent research suggests that people prefer policies that preserve freedom of choice, such as behavioural nudges, many citizens accepted stringent policy interventions like fines and mandates to promote vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic-a pattern that may be linked to the unusually high effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. We conducted a large online survey experiment (N = 42,417) in the Group of Seven (G-7) countries investigating the relationship between a policy's effectiveness and public support for stringent policies. Our results indicate that public support for stringent vaccination policies increases as vaccine effectiveness increases, but at a modest scale.

Adherence to direct or vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants in patients with atrial fibrillation: a long-term observational study.

Our objectives were to measure long-term adherence to oral anticoagulants (OACs) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and to identify patient factors associated with adherence. Using linked, population-based administrative data from British Columbia, Canada, an incident cohort of adults prescribed OACs for AF was identified. We calculated the proportion of days covered (PDC) as a time-dependent covariate for each 90-day window from OAC initiation until the end of follow-up.

Managing With Atrial Fibrillation: An Exploratory Model-Based Cluster Analysis of Clinical and Personal Patient Characteristics.

Background: Examining characteristics of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) has the potential to help in identifying groups of patients who might benefit from different management approaches.

Methods: Secondary analysis of online survey data was combined with clinic referral data abstraction from 196 patients with AF attending an AF specialty clinic. Cluster analyses were performed to identify distinct, homogeneous clusters of AF patients defined by 11 relevant variables: CHADS-VASc score, age, AF symptoms, overall health, mental health, AF knowledge, perceived stress, household and recreation activity, overall AF quality of life, and AF symptom treatment satisfaction.

Quality of life among patients with atrial fibrillation: A theoretically-guided cross-sectional study.

Background: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) have significantly lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL) compared to the general population and patients with other heart diseases. The research emphasis on the influence of AF symptoms on HRQoL overshadows the role of individual characteristics. To address this gap, this study's purpose was to test an incremental predictive model for AF-related HRQoL following an adapted HRQoL conceptual model that incorporates both symptoms and individual characteristics.

Usability and Feasibility Testing of an Atrial Fibrillation Educational Website with Patients Referred to an Atrial Fibrillation Specialty Clinic.

Background: The purpose of this study was to design, usability test, and explore the feasibility of a web-based educational platform/intervention for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) as part of their virtual AF care.

Methods: Participants were patients attending a specialized AF clinic. The multiple mixed-methods design included website design, think-aloud usability test, 1-month unstructured pre-testing analysis using Google Analytics, follow-up interviews, and a non-randomized one-group feasibility test using pre/post online surveys and Google Analytics.

Telehealth Satisfaction in Patients Receiving Virtual Atrial Fibrillation Care: Quantitative Exploratory Study.

Background: Telehealth can optimize access to specialty care for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Virtual AF care, however, may not fit with the complex needs of patients with AF.

Objective: This study aims to explore the correlation among attitudes toward health care technologies, self-efficacy, and telehealth satisfaction as part of the future planning of virtual AF clinic care.

Artificial intelligence and the work-health interface: A research agenda for a technologically transforming world of work.

The labor market is undergoing a rapid artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. There is currently limited empirical scholarship that focuses on how AI adoption affects employment opportunities and work environments in ways that shape worker health, safety, well-being and equity. In this article, we present an agenda to guide research examining the implications of AI on the intersection between work and health.

Patients' Experiences With the Fit of Virtual Atrial Fibrillation Care During the Pandemic: Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Background: In-person health care has been the standard model of care delivery for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Despite the growing use of remote technology, virtual health care has received limited formal study in populations with AF. Understanding the virtual care experiences of patients in specialized AF clinics is essential to inform future planning of AF clinic care.

Minimal effects from injunctive norm and contentiousness treatments on COVID-19 vaccine intentions: evidence from 3 countries.

Does information about how other people feel about COVID-19 vaccination affect immunization intentions? We conducted preregistered survey experiments in Great Britain (5,456 respondents across 3 survey waves from September 2020 to February 2021), Canada (1,315 respondents in February 2021), and the state of New Hampshire in the United States (1,315 respondents in January 2021). The experiments examine the effects of providing accurate public opinion information to people about either public support for COVID-19 vaccination (an injunctive norm) or public beliefs that the issue is contentious. Across all 3 countries, exposure to this information had minimal effects on vaccination intentions even among people who previously held inaccurate beliefs about support for COVID-19 vaccination or its perceived contentiousness.

Pandemic fatigue or enduring precautionary behaviours? Canadians' long-term response to COVID-19 public health measures.

The long-term dynamics of COVID-19 disease incidence and public health measures may impact individuals' precautionary behaviours as well as support for measures. The objectives of this study were to assess longitudinal changes in precautionary behaviours and support for public health measures. Survey data were collected online from 1030 Canadians in each of 5 cycles in 2020: June 15-July 13; July 22-Aug 8; Sept 7-15; Oct 14-21; and Nov 12-17.

Oral anticoagulant adherence and switching in patients with atrial fibrillation: A prospective observational study.

Background: Adherence to oral anticoagulants (OACs) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) is important in preventing stroke. The dominance of retrospective studies using administrative data has led to a lack of data on psychosocial determinants of adherence and prevented comparison of adherence between OAC drug classes. OAC switching is another aspect of adherence that is unexplored.

The correlates and dynamics of COVID-19 vaccine-specific hesitancy.

Most work on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has focused on its attitudinal and demographic correlates among individuals, but the characteristics of vaccines themselves also appear to be important. People are more willing to take vaccines with higher reported levels of efficacy and safety. Has this dynamic sparked comparative hesitancy towards specific COVID-19 vaccines? We conduct a series of cross-sectional survey experiments to test for brand-based differences in perceived effectiveness, perceived safety, and vaccination intention.

Communicating safety precautions can help maintain in-person voter turnout during a pandemic.

Scholars have linked cost and life stress to lower voter turnout with clear implications for voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask whether COVID-19 reduces turnout intention and how election agencies can mitigate this effect. We use a series of six survey and conjoint experiments implemented in samples totalling over 28,000 Canadian respondents collected between July and November of 2020 to show that: 1) priming people to think about COVID-19 reduces turnout intention, especially among those who feel most threatened by the disease; 2) safety measures for in-person voting, such as mandatory masks and physical distancing, can improve safety perceptions and willingness to vote in-person, and 3) providing people information about safety precautions for in-person voting mitigates the negative effect of priming COVID-19.

The ephemeral effects of fact-checks on COVID-19 misperceptions in the United States, Great Britain and Canada.

Widespread misperceptions about COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus threaten to exacerbate the severity of the pandemic. We conducted preregistered survey experiments in the United States, Great Britain and Canada examining the effectiveness of fact-checks that seek to correct these false or unsupported beliefs. Across three countries with differing levels of political conflict over the pandemic response, we demonstrate that fact-checks reduce targeted misperceptions, especially among the groups who are most vulnerable to these claims, and have minimal spillover effects on the accuracy of related beliefs.

The Random Effects Warfarin Days' Supply (REWarDS) Model: Development and Validation of a Novel Method for Estimating Exposure to Warfarin Using Administrative Data.

Warfarin's complex dosing is a significant barrier to measurement of its exposure in observational studies using population databases. Using population-based administrative data (1996-2019) from British Columbia, Canada, we developed a method based on statistical modeling (Random Effects Warfarin Days' Supply (REWarDS)) that involves fitting a random-effects linear regression model to patients' cumulative dosage over time for estimation of warfarin exposure. Model parameters included a minimal universally available set of variables from prescription records for estimation of patients' individualized average daily doses of warfarin.

Satisfaction With Oral Anticoagulants Among Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: A Prospective Observational Study.

Background: Satisfaction with treatment has been identified as an important contributing factor to adherence with oral anticoagulant (OAC) therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). We aimed to evaluate the satisfaction level of patients with AF regarding OAC use over time, using validated patient-reported outcome instruments, and to identify associated patient characteristics.

Methods: Participants were recruited from specialized AF clinics in Canada.