The greater power of bad events over good ones is found in everyday events, major life events (e.g., trauma), close relationship outcomes, social network patterns, interpersonal interactions, and learning processes. Bad emotions, bad parents, and bad feedback have more impact than good ones, and bad information is processed more thoroughly than good. The self is more motivated to avoid bad self-definitions than to pursue good ones. Bad impressions and bad stereotypes are quicker to form and more resistant to disconfirmation than good ones. Various explanations such as diagnosticity and salience help explain some findings, but the greater power of bad events is still found when such variables are controlled. Hardly any exceptions (indicating greater power of good) can be found. Taken together, these findings suggest that bad is stronger than good, as a general principle across a broad range of psychological phenomena.

/pdf/bad-is-stronger-than-good-42gd5eyc1l.pdf

Bad is Stronger than Good

Bad is stronger than good

Harmon S. Jordan, ScD, Karima A. Kendall, PhD, Linda J. Lux, Roycelynn Mentor-Marcel, PhD, MPH, Laura C. Morgan, MA, Michael G. Trisolini, PhD, MBA, Janusz Wnek, PhD

Jeffrey L. Anderson, MD, FACC, FAHA, Chair , Jonathan L. Halperin, MD, FACC, FAHA, Chair-Elect , Nancy M. Albert, PhD, CCNS, CCRN,

2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines and The Obesity Society

Recording of presentation introducing narrative analysis, outlining what it is, why it can be a useful approach, how to do it and where to find out more. Presentation given at methods@manchester seminar at University of Manchester on 4 March 2010.

What is Narrative Analysis

2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Guideline for the Management of Overweight

Transportation barriers are often cited as barriers to healthcare access. Transportation barriers lead to rescheduled or missed appointments, delayed care, and missed or delayed medication use. These consequences may lead to poorer management of chronic illness and thus poorer health outcomes. However, the significance of these barriers is uncertain based on existing literature due to wide variability in both study populations and transportation barrier measures. The authors sought to synthesize the literature on the prevalence of transportation barriers to health care access. A systematic literature search of peer-reviewed studies on transportation barriers to healthcare access was performed. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) study addressed access barriers for ongoing primary care or chronic disease care; (2) study included assessment of transportation barriers; and (3) study was completed in the United States. In total, 61 studies were reviewed. Overall, the evidence supports that transportation barriers are an important barrier to healthcare access, particularly for those with lower incomes or the under/uninsured. Additional research needs to (1) clarify which aspects of transportation limit health care access (2) measure the impact of transportation barriers on clinically meaningful outcomes and (3) measure the impact of transportation barrier interventions and transportation policy changes.

/pdf/traveling-towards-disease-transportation-barriers-to-health-2jfktgxy3s.pdf

Traveling Towards Disease: Transportation Barriers to Health Care Access

On the basis of previous work, freshmen should evidence improved health after writing about their thoughts and feelings associated with entering college. One hundred thirty subjects were assigned to write either about coming to college or about superficial topics for 20 min on 3 days. One fourth of the subjects in each group wrote during the 1st, 5th, 9th, or 14th week of classes. Physician visits for illness in the months after writing were lower for the experimental than for the control subjects. Self-reports of homesickness and anxiety were higher in the experimental group 2-3 months after writing. By year's end, experimental subjects were either superior or similar to control subjects in grade average and in positive moods. No effects emerged as a function of when people wrote, suggesting that the coping process can be accelerated. Implications for comparing insight treatments with catharsis and for distinguishing between objective and self-report indicators of distress are discussed.

Accelerating the coping process.

Depression is a common psychiatric disorder in children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. Primary care physicians, not mental health professionals, treat the majority of patients with symptoms of depression. Persons who are depressed have feelings of sadness, loneliness, irritability, worthlessness, hopelessness, agitation, and guilt that may be accompanied by an array of physical symptoms. A diagnosis of major depression requires that symptoms be present for two weeks or longer. Identifying patients with depression can be difficult in busy primary care settings where time is limited, but certain depression screening measures may help physicians diagnose the disorder. Patients who score above the predetermined cut-off levels on the screening measures should be interviewed more specifically for a diagnosis of a depressive disorder and treated within the primary care physician's scope of practice or referred to a mental health subspecialist as clinically indicated. Targeted screening in high-risk patients such as those with chronic diseases, pain, unexplained symptoms, stressful home environments, or social isolation, and those who are postnatal or elderly may provide an alternative approach to identifying patients with depression.

Screening for Depression Across the Lifespan: A Review of Measures for Use in Primary Care Settings

The British Vaccination Act of 1840 was the first incursion of the state, in the name of public health, into traditional civil liberties. The activities of today9s propagandists against immunisations are directly descended from, indeed little changed from, those of the anti-vaccinationists of the late nineteenth century, say Robert Wolfe and Lisa Sharp

Anti-vaccinationists past and present

ContextIndividuals searching the Internet for vaccine information may find
antivaccination Web sites. Few published studies have systematically evaluated
these sites.ObjectivesTo examine antivaccination Web site attributes and to delineate the
specific claims and concerns expressed by antivaccination groups.Design and SettingIn late 2000, using a metasearch program that incorporates 10 other
search engines, we reviewed and analyzed 772 links to find 12 Web sites that
promulgated antivaccination information. Analyzing links from these 12 sites
yielded another 10 sites, producing a total of 22 sites for study. Using a
standardized form, 2 authors (R.M.W., L.K.S.) systematically evaluated these
sites based on specific content and design attributes.Main Outcome MeasuresPresence or absence of 11 Web site content attributes (antivaccination
claims) and 10 Web site design attributes.ResultsThe most commonly found content claims were that vaccines cause idiopathic
illness (100% of sites), vaccines erode immunity (95%), adverse vaccine reactions
are underreported (95%), and vaccination policy is motivated by profit (91%).
The most common design attributes were the presence of links to other antivaccination
sites (100%of sites), information for legally avoiding immunizations (64%),
and the use of emotionally charged stories of children who had allegedly been
killed or harmed by vaccines (55%).ConclusionAntivaccination Web sites express a range of concerns related to vaccine
safety and varying levels of distrust in medicine. The sites rely heavily
on emotional appeal to convey their message.

/pdf/content-and-design-attributes-of-antivaccination-web-sites-17h9zab6xq.pdf

Lisa K. Sharp

Papers

Traveling Towards Disease: Transportation Barriers to Health Care Access

Accelerating the coping process.

Screening for Depression Across the Lifespan: A Review of Measures for Use in Primary Care Settings

Anti-vaccinationists past and present

Content and design attributes of antivaccination web sites.