The impact of generative artificial intelligence on socioeconomic inequalities and policy making.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to both exacerbate and ameliorate existing socioeconomic inequalities. In this article, we provide a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary overview of the potential impacts of generative AI on (mis)information and three information-intensive domains: work, education, and healthcare. Our goal is to highlight how generative AI could worsen existing inequalities while illuminating how AI may help mitigate pervasive social problems.

Trust in cervical screening and attributions of blame for interval cancers following a national controversy.

Objectives: This study investigated levels of trust and attributions of blame in connection with a cervical screening programme following a controversy related to the programme's audit, incorporating an experimental test of the effectiveness of new information materials.

Design: We compared responses in Ireland (N = 872) to equivalent responses in Scotland (N = 400). Participants in Ireland were randomly assigned to either a treatment group that received the information materials or a control group that did not.

Behavioural evidence on COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Objectives: The World Health Organization has declared that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency of international concern. Nevertheless, it remains a public health issue, and seasonal vaccinations, at the same time of year as influenza vaccinations, will be necessary. When the first vaccines were administered in 2020, decision-makers had to make assumptions about the best methods to communicate and administer vaccines to increase uptake.

Behaviourally-informed household communications increase uptake of radon tests in a randomised controlled trial.

Exposure to radon gas is a leading cause of lung cancer. Testing homes for the gas is straightforward, yet most people do not undertake tests even when offered freely. We report a pre-registered randomised controlled trial of communications to encourage test uptake.

A scoping review and behavioural analysis of factors underlying overuse of antimicrobials.

Background: Overuse of antimicrobials is a challenging global issue that contributes to antimicrobial resistance. Despite widespread awareness of the problem among members of the medical community and various attempts to improve prescription practices, existing antimicrobial stewardship programmes are not always effective. In our view, this may reflect limited understanding of factors that influence prescription of antimicrobials as empirical therapy, implying a need to address the psychological mechanisms behind some of the specific behaviours involved.

Public misperceptions of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and waning: experimental evidence from Ireland.

Objectives: The study set out to measure public understanding of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) and how effectiveness wanes with time since vaccination. Because perceived VE is a strong predictor of vaccine uptake, measuring perceptions can inform public health policy and communications.

Study Design: Online randomised experiment.

Interventions to increase physical activity: An analysis of candidate behavioural mechanisms.

Physical inactivity is a significant driver of health and social inequalities, particularly affecting socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. This poses a major challenge to policymakers worldwide. Despite the large volume of original research and reviews that focus on the design and evaluation of interventions to increase physical activity, there remains little consensus on which interventions are likely to work.

Experimental pre-tests of public health communications on the COVID-19 vaccine: A null finding for medical endorsement, risk and altruism.

Objective: Vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 will only be successful if enough people want to take the vaccine. We tested a government communications intervention to encourage uptake.

Design: A pre-registered randomised controlled trial.

Is it riskier to meet 100 people outdoors or 14 people indoors? Comparing public and expert perceptions of COVID-19 risk.

People have limited capacity to process and integrate multiple sources of information, so how do they integrate multiple contextual risk factors for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection? In June 2020, we elicited risk perceptions from a nationally representative sample of the public ( = 800) using three psychologically-distinct tasks. Responses were compared to a sample of medical experts who completed the same tasks. Relative to experts, the public perceived lower risk associated with environmental factors (such as whether a gathering takes place indoors or outdoors) and were less inclined to treat risk factors as multiplicative.

Development of a risk assessment profile tool to determine appropriate use of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen detection tests for different activities and events in Ireland, since October 2021.

We describe the development of a risk assessment profile tool that incorporates data from multiple domains to help determine activities and events where rapid antigen detection tests (Ag-RDT) could be used to screen asymptomatic individuals to identify infectious cases as an additional mitigation measure to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The tool aims to stratify, in real time, the overall risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission associated with common activities and events, and this can be matched to an appropriate Ag-RDT testing protocol.

Using decision aids to support self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: Self-isolation is a vital element of efforts to contain COVID-19. We set out to test whether decision aids can support self-isolation.

Design: We conducted a pre-registered online experiment with a nationally representative sample (n = 500).

Can Visual Cues to Portion Size Reduce the Number of Portions of Consumed? Two Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: Since 1950, the portion size of many snack foods has more than doubled and obesity rates have tripled. Portion size determines energy intake, often unwittingly.

Purpose: This paper tests whether salient visual cues to portion size on the packaging of high fat, sugar, or salty (HFSS) snacks can reduce consumption.

Motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: An online experiment.

Rationale: Maintaining social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic can save lives. We therefore set out to test communication strategies to promote social distancing.

Objective: We aimed to test two novel public health messages against a control message.

It depends on how you ask: measuring bias in population surveys of compliance with COVID-19 public health guidance.

Objective: Accurate measurement of compliance with COVID-19 guidance is important for public health policy and communications. Responses to surveys, however, are susceptible to psychological biases, including framing effects and social desirability. Our aim was to measure the effects of these biases on estimates of compliance with public health guidance (eg, hand-washing, social distancing).

Demographic variation in active consumer behaviour: On-line search for retail broadband services.

Consumers who actively search for better broadband deals may benefit from lower prices or improved service quality compared to those who do not. If, however, consumers differ in their propensity to engage with the market and actively search, these potential benefits may not accrue equally. This paper investigates differences in consumer search activity for telecommunications services across small geographic areas.

The surplus identification task and limits to multiattribute consumer choice.

We introduce and demonstrate a novel experimental method for investigating the accuracy of consumer decision making. The Surplus Identification (S-ID) task exploits techniques from detection theory. Experimental control over surpluses is established by incentivizing participants to adopt a predetermined, objectively defined preference function.

The effect of spatial location of calorie information on choice, consumption and eye movements.

We manipulated the presence and spatial location of calorie labels on menus while tracking eye movements. A novel "lab-in-the-field" experimental design allowed eye movements to be recorded while participants chose lunch from a menu, unaware that their choice was part of a study. Participants exposed to calorie information ordered 93 fewer calories (11%) relative to a control group who saw no calorie labels.

A prospective clinical, cost and environmental analysis of a clinician-led virtual urology clinic.

Introduction: A virtual clinic is a form of telemedicine where contact between clinical teams and patients occur without face-to-face consultation. Our study aims to quantify the clinical, financial and environmental benefits of our virtual urology clinic.

Material And Methods: We collected data prospectively from our weekly follow-up virtual clinic over a continuous four-month period between July and September 2017.

Consumer switching intentions for telecoms services: evidence from Ireland.

Despite long-standing market liberalisation and efforts to reduce switching costs, many consumers have never switched telecoms provider. This paper investigates how consumer and service characteristics relate to switching intentions, using a sample of fixed-line broadband, mobile telephony and landline telephony customers from a 2015 survey conducted by ComReg, Ireland's National Regulatory Authority. We add to previous work by examining a rich array of personal and service characteristics while controlling for both bill shock and expected gains from switching.

The effect of an attachment-oriented couple intervention for breast cancer patients and partners in the early treatment phase: A randomised controlled trial.

Objective: Patients and partners both cope individually and as a dyad with challenges related to a breast cancer diagnosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a psychological attachment-oriented couple intervention for breast cancer patients and partners in the early treatment phase.

Methods: A randomised controlled trial including 198 recently diagnosed breast cancer patients and their partners.

Mothers' perceptions of Melbourne InFANT Program: informing future practice.

Intervention programs to prevent childhood obesity are more likely to be successful when mothers are involved and engaged. Yet programs that involve mothers do not often employ process evaluation to identify aspects of the intervention that participants enjoyed or viewed as useful. The aims of this study were to describe how participants of the Melbourne InFANT Program-an early childhood obesity prevention intervention-engaged in the program and perceived its usefulness.

Sixty-year follow-up in an untreated patient with Kienböck disease.

Kienböck disease can be treated either conservatively or by various operations. We describe the findings of the progression of Kienböck disease over 60 years in an 84-year-old man who had had no surgical treatment. This is the longest follow-up ever reported to our knowledge of a patient with avascular necrosis of the lunate.

Hand-washing, subclinical infections, and growth: a longitudinal evaluation of an intervention in Nepali slums.

Objective: We conducted a longitudinal study to assess the impact of a hand-washing intervention on growth and biomarkers of child health in Nepali slums. This is the first study to evaluate the impact of hand-washing on markers of subclinical, asymptomatic infections associated with childhood growth faltering.

Methods: We recruited a total sample of infants in the target age-range (3-12 months) living in the eight largest Kathmandu slums, allocating them to intervention (n = 45) and control (n = 43) groups.