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BackgroundCOVID-19 mitigation measures intend to protect public health, but their adverse psychological, social, and economic effects weaken public support. Less favorable trade-offs may especially weaken support for more restrictive measures. Support for mitigation measures may also differ between population subgroups who experience different benefits and costs, and decrease over time, a phenomenon termed “pandemic fatigue.”MethodsWe examined self-reported support for COVID-19 mitigation measures in the Netherlands over 12 consecutives waves of data collection between April 2020 and May 2021 in an open population cohort study. Participants were recruited through community panels of the 25 regional public health services, and through links to the online surveys advertised on social media. The 54,010 unique participants in the cohort study on average participated in 4 waves of data collection. Most participants were female (65%), middle-aged [57% (40–69 years)], highly educated (57%), not living alone (84%), residing in an urban area (60%), and born in the Netherlands (95%).ResultsCOVID-19 mitigation measures implemented in the Netherlands remained generally well-supported over time [all scores >3 on 5-point scale ranging 1 (low)−5 (high)]. During the whole period studied, support was highest for personal hygiene measures, quarantine and wearing face masks, high but somewhat lower for not shaking hands, testing and self-isolation, and restricting social contacts, and lowest for limiting visitors at home, and not traveling abroad. Women and higher educated people were more supportive of some mitigation measures than men and lower educated people. Older people were more supportive of more restrictive measures than younger people, and support for more socially restrictive measures decreased most over time in higher educated people or in younger people.ConclusionsThis study found no support for pandemic fatigue in terms of a gradual decline in support for all mitigation measures in the first year of the pandemic. Rather, findings suggest that support for mitigation measures reflects a balancing of benefits and cost, which may change over time, and differ between measures and population subgroups.

The aim of this scoping review is to highlight what is known about the relationship between exposure to certain characteristics of persuasive messages and mental well-being of their receivers. Keeping mental well-being of the recipients in mind is especially important in the context of health communication (take for instance the recent Covid-19 crisis) or risk communication which plays a critical role in prevention, adherence to the guidelines, and reduction of anxiety and fear. But what happens when precisely the way we communicate becomes a source or further anxiety and fear? And how can we communicate better with vulnerable populations? This scoping review aims to synthesize what is known about the relationship between exposure to certain characteristics of persuasive messages (defined as persuasive and informational messages) and mental well-being of message receivers. Furthermore, it aims to summarize what is known about the role of prior mental well-being or mental health state in processing of persuasive messages across different literature pockets. The findings from this scoping review will guide further interview and experimental studies on the topic. More information about the project can be found in the attached document.

This project investigates physical distancing in (emerging) adults, the role of (social) media, and the effect on mental well-being.

Additional file 5. Smoking status and evaluation of progress.

Additional file 1. Descriptive statistics app users and app usage.

Additional file 3. Interview protocols.

Additional file 4. Background information interview participants.

Additional file 2. Intervention “De StopCoach”.

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. BACKGROUND: Many European schools implement smoke-free school policies (SFSPs). SFSPs may decrease adolescent smoking by causing adolescents to perceive stronger anti-smoking norms, yet there exists no quantitative evidence that indicates for which norms and for whom such effects may occur. This study therefore assessed to what extent adolescents' perceived anti-smoking norms among best friends, teachers, and society at large were associated with SFSPs, and whether these associations were moderated by adolescents' level of school connectedness. METHODS: Survey data were collected in 2016/2017 on 10,653 14-16-year-old adolescents and 315 staff members in 55 schools from seven European cities. Associations of adolescent-perceived SFSPs and staff-reported SFSPs with best friend, teacher and societal anti-smoking norms were estimated in multilevel logistic regression models, adjusted for demographics and school-level smoking prevalence. We tested for interaction between school connectedness and SFSPs. RESULTS: Adolescent-perceived SFSPs were positively associated with anti-smoking norms by teachers (OR:1.46, 95%CI:1.15-1.85), were negatively associated with anti-smoking norms by best friends (OR:0.81, 95%CI:0.67-0.99), but were not significantly associated with anti-smoking norms by society at large (OR:0.87, 95%CI:0.74-1.02). All interaction tests between adolescent-perceived SFSPs and school connectedness were non-significant. Staff-reported SFSPs were not associated with any norm and showed no significant interaction with school connectedness. CONCLUSIONS: We found that SFSPs are associated with adolescents' perception of more anti-smoking norms by teachers, but less anti-smoking norms by best friends, irrespective of adolescents' level of school connectedness. IMPLICATIONS: Smoke-free school policies, just as many other tobacco control policies, are assumed to foster adolescents' perception of anti-smoking norms. Still, current evidence does not demonstrate which anti-smoking norms may be influenced by SFSPs and whether this influence is equal for adolescents with different levels of school connectedness. This study suggests that SFSPs foster adolescents' perception of anti-smoking norms by teachers, but may concurrently lead to the perception of less anti-smoking norms by best friends, irrespective of adolescents' school connectedness. SFSPs may therefore need to be complemented with interventions that target anti-smoking norms in adolescent peer groups. authorsversion published

Much attention has been directed towards the possible effects of e-cigarette advertisements on adolescent never smokers. However, e-cigarette advertising may also influence perceptions and behaviours of adult smokers. The aim of our study was to examine whether noticing e-cigarette advertisements is associated with current use of e-cigarettes, disapproval of smoking, quit smoking attempts, and quit smoking success.We used longitudinal data from two survey waves of the ITC Netherlands Survey among smokers aged 16 years and older (n=1198). Respondents were asked whether they noticed e-cigarettes being advertised on television, on the radio, and in newspapers or magazines in the previous 6 months.There was a significant increase in noticing e-cigarette advertisements between 2013 (13.3%) and 2014 (36.0%), across all media. The largest increase was for television advertisements. There was also a substantial increase in current use of e-cigarettes (from 3.1% to 13.3%), but this was not related to noticing advertisements in traditional media (OR=0.99, p=0.937). Noticing advertisements was bivariately associated with more disapproval of smoking (Beta=0.05, p=0.019) and with a higher likelihood of attempting to quit smoking (OR=1.37, p=0.038), but these associations did not reach significance in multivariate analyses. There was no significant association between noticing advertisements and quit smoking success in either the bivariate or multivariate regression analysis (OR=0.92, p=0.807).Noticing e-cigarette advertisements increased sharply in the Netherlands between 2013 and 2014 along with increased e-cigarette use, but the two appear unrelated. The advertisements did not seem to have adverse effects on disapproval of smoking and smoking cessation.

Smoking is in the Netherlands more prevalent among lower and moderate educated than among higher educated people. The entertainment-education television show 'I bet I can do it!' was specifically designed to stimulate smoking cessation among low and moderate educated smokers.The effect of the television show was evaluated with longitudinal data of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project. Dutch smokers (n = 1,743) aged 15 years and older filled in a survey before and after the seven episodes of 'I bet I can do it!' in 2008.Low educated (OR = 1,55, p = 0,048) and moderate educated respondents (OR = 1,99, p0,001) had seen the television show significantly more often than high educated respondents. The show was not significantly associated with self efficacy, quit intention, and quit success, but it was significantly associated with more quit attempts among moderate educated respondents (OR = 2,36, p0,001).The reach of 'I bet I can do it!' and the effect on quit attempts was larger among moderate educated smokers. The entertainment-education strategy for smoking cessation television programs should be further refined. This can possible lead to a program that has positive effects on the quit intention, self efficacy, quit attempts and the quit success of low and moderate educated smokers.

Mixed mode surveys are becoming increasingly common. This has led to calls for tests of the differences in response patterns between survey modes. In this article, we present an analysis of mode effects, using data from Wave 1 of the ITC Netherlands Survey, conducted by web (CAM) and telephone (CATI). For many of the questions, the web and telephone samples differed in the distribution of response options. This was found to be partly attributable to selection effects, since the web and telephone respondents were recruited in different ways, and the web and telephone samples differed on demographic characteristics. Another source of difference in the response option distribution was "administrative" in origin, having to do with the tendency of respondents to process the options differently depending on survey mode. This article illustrates an approach to modelling in a mixed mode survey that takes into account both selection and administration mode effects. The model is also embedded in an analysis of reactions to labels on cigarette packages using ITC data from the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.