Background: While wearing masks during the pandemic poses communication and social challenges for people in everyday life, those with social anxiety might find them plausible, aligning with contemporary cognitive theories. Social anxiety involves fearing negative assessments and holding a negative self-image. Concealing anxiety symptoms during…

Objective: To examine the associations of dimensions of masculinity--respect/toughness and anti-femininity/hypersexuality--with sexual risk behaviors and protective behavioral intentions and the effects of awareness of anti-Blackness. Participants: 127 Black heterosexual men were recruited from four Historically Black Colleges and Universities and…

Across the globe signage which conveys directives regarding appropriate behavior in public, such as 'Do Not Enter' signs, is made multilingual in ways that other signage is not. This paper examines two examples of multilingualism in directive signs within Seoul, South Korea in order to theorize what gives rise to multilingualism in directive…

Background: Universal masking, with additional layered prevention strategies, was an essential tool for limiting the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and ensuring a safe return to in-person learning for kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) students and staff. Few studies have examined mask adherence in this setting and none have described types of…

Objective: To identify facilitators and barriers to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among college students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with college students (N = 306) between the ages of 18 and 26 was conducted using a computer-delivered survey "via" iPad. A survey was designed to assess HPV/HPV vaccine-related knowledge,…

Background: School-based human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) education can reach most adolescents, but inconsistencies exist in state-level content policies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the associations between state-level high school HIV education policies and adolescent HIV risk behaviors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional…

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, face coverings were introduced as a safety measure in certain environments in England and some research suggests that they can affect emotion recognition. Factors such as own-ethnicity bias (e.g. whether people perceiving and expressing emotions are of the same ethnicity) and social biases are also known to…

Purpose: The paper aims to show the impact of insider/outsider researcher positionality and the lessons from researching the social construction of HIV stigma and sexual health-seeking behaviour within black sub-Sahara African communities (BSSA). Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a reflection on the impact of researcher positionality based…

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effects of wearing a face mask on speech acoustics and intelligibility, using an acoustic-phonetic analysis of speech. In addition, the effects of speakers' behavioral modification while wearing a mask were examined. Method: Fourteen female adults were asked to read a set of words and sentences under three…

Objective: Each year, humanitarian groups provide health education programmes and interventions to underserved communities in Nicaragua. The purpose of this study was to identify the health education needs of a small community in rural Nicaragua to inform health education programming. Design: Mixed methods approach that used a quantitative survey…

Background: Dengue is a viral infection that spreads from mosquitoes to people. It is especially prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. To address the challenges posed by dengue in countries such as Thailand, effective prevention and control to strengthen health literacy at the community level is needed. One way of achieving…

Objective: To assess the frequency of preventative COVID-19 behaviors and vaccination willingness among United States (US) college and university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants: Participants (N = 653) were [greater than or equal to]18 years old and students at institutions for higher education in the US in March 2020. Methods:…

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is an epidemiologic surveillance system that was established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help monitor the prevalence of behaviors that not only influence youth health but also put youth at risk for the most significant health and social problems that can occur during…

Background: Test-to-stay (TTS) is a strategy to limit school exclusion following an exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We evaluated the use of TTS within universally masked kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) school settings following household SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Methods: Three hundred twenty-two…

Background: Adolescent girls in Uganda have four-fold HIV infections than adolescent boys. Several barriers to accessing comprehensive sexual health education exist for adolescent girls in Uganda, including unequal, social, and economic statuses, limited access to education and health care services, discrimination, and violence. Objective: This…