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This study aims to evaluate the effect of Alpha-Stim Anxiety, Insomnia and Depression (AID) cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) on anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life for primary care social prescribing service patients with anxiety symptoms.

Open-label patient cohort design with no control group. A total of 33 adult patients (average age 42 years) completed six weeks of Alpha-Stim AID use. Pre- and post-intervention assessment with participant self-report measures: Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and European Quality of Life Five Dimension (EQ-5D-5L).

Reliable improvement and remission rates, respectively, were 53.39% and 33.3% for GAD-7; 46.7% and 29.5% for PHQ-9. There was a significant improvement in GAD-7 and PHQ-9 with large effect sizes. EQ-5D-5L results showed significant improvements in health-related quality of life. Perceived quality of life increased by 0.17 on the health index score, with the intervention adding 1.68 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).

Alpha-Stim AID can be delivered through a primary health-care social prescribing service and most patients will use as prescribed and complete treatment course. Alpha-Stim AID CES may be an effective anxiety and depression treatment for people with anxiety symptoms. The widespread roll-out of Alpha-Stim AID in health-care systems should be considered.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to respond to the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care (NICE) request for the collection of real-world data to understand better Alpha-Stim AID in relation to people’s treatment uptake, response rates and treatment completion rates (NICE, 2021).

Many refugees around the world are forced to leave their counties seeking safety and security. Millions of Syrian refugees fled their country since the conflict started in Syria. Jordan is one of the host countries for refugees from different countries including Syria. Health-related quality of life of individuals influences both the individual and the community, and how these two interact with one another. This study aims to explore the four domains – physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environment domains – of health-related quality of life of adults residing in Za’atari camp in the North of Jordan.

A constructivist grounded theory approach was used. Data were collected using semi-structured, face-to-face, audio-recorded interviews. Data were analysed using different levels of coding, constant comparative analysis and writing reflective memos.

Pursuing safety and security emerged as a core theme in this study. Participants were pursuing safety and security since the conflict started in Syria. Lack of safety and security led them to flee Syria. For participants, safety and security were among the most important aspects of their lives. The meaning of safety and security for Syrian refugees is presented in this paper.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study exploring the health-related quality of life of Syrian refugees residing in Za’atari camp using a qualitative approach.

This research aims to test the simultaneous effects of the perceived threat of COVID-19, e-health literacy, e-health access barrier, loyalty toward healthy foods in general, loyalty toward functional foods, the affordability of healthy foods in general and the affordability of functional foods on health-related quality of life (HrQoL) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey with 400 respondents in Banten, Indonesia, was performed. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis.

The results of the research showed that HrQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic was positively affected by e-health literacy and the affordability of healthy foods in general while negatively affected by the e-health access barrier, the perceived threat of COVID-19 and loyalty toward healthy foods in general. Furthermore, HrQoL was not influenced by loyalty toward and affordability of functional foods.

This research was conducted in Banten. Due to the operational limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research used a purposive sampling technique. Therefore, the next research should retest the model in different contexts and locations.

To improve HrQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens need to be educated on finding and utilizing credible online health information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments and health service providers should also strive to offer ease of access to credible online health information. Furthermore, the affordability of healthy foods, in general, should be managed well.

A few studies on HrQoL during COVID-19 pandemic were performed. However, there is a lack of paper that examines the role of food customer loyalty and affordability in a model of HrQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first that involved and tested the role of food customer loyalty and affordability in a model of HrQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effective cognitive functioning elucidates the orchestrated interplay of diverse mental faculties in addressing daily tasks, potentially indicative of an improved state of an individual’s health. Linked to this is the potential role of life satisfaction, which may aid individuals in better managing their health-related challenges. The purpose this study is to examine whether the cognitive functioning and life satisfaction levels of elderly individuals serve as predictors of their subjective health complaints.

The research involved a cohort of 126 elderly community residents. The assessment tools used encompassed a socio-demographic questionnaire, the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), the scale of subjective health complaints and a life satisfaction scale.

The findings reveal that both cognitive functioning and life satisfaction are predictive variables for subjective health complaints, validated in both the original sample and simulated samples.

This study’s innovation lies in highlighting the importance of cognitive functioning and life satisfaction among the elderly population as explanatory factors for subjective health complaints. Consequently, these dimensions warrant consideration in specialized intervention programs aimed at promoting the health and quality of life among the elderly.

This study aims to examine the recent literature on health-promoting behavior, health needs and associated factors among older adults.

An massive search of five databases involving documents in the past decade was commenced.

This review showed a significant relationship between older adults’ demographic characteristics (marital status, income, chronic disease, education level and smoking status) and health-promoting behaviors. This review showed that older adults with a high level of education, high income, chronic diseases and smoker and married older adults are associated with better health-promoting behaviors.

The result of the current review supports the Pender Health Promotion Model that individual personal characteristics can affect the level of engagement in health-promoting behaviors. Assessing the health-promoting behaviors of older adults can help in identifying their health needs.

This study aims to measure the impact of loneliness, physical activity (PA) and self-esteem on the health of retired people and also checks the moderating role of living arrangements and gender of the elderly people on this relationship.

Four standardized scales were used in the study to measure four different constructs: Self-Worth Questionnaire, UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3, General Health Questionnaire-28 and Physical Activity Scale for Elders. Structural equation modelling was applied to the four constructs.

The study concluded that loneliness has a negative and significant impact on the health of retired people, while self-esteem and PA have a positive and significant impact on their health.

The study is among the few to include multiple instruments to measure abstract parameters in the field of health care. The paper brings out implications not just for academicians but also for policymakers, considering the complex situation prevailing in the emerging economy.

The process of chronic pain (CP) and strategies is to improve the patient’s health and well-being. CP is a frequent medical problem that presents a major challenge to healthcare providers because of its complex natural history, imprecise aetiology, and inadequate response to pharmacological treatment. Although different definitions exist it is widely accepted that CP is an ongoing pain that lasts more than 3 months or that persists longer than the reasonably expected healing time for the involved tissues. Also, it is acknowledged that its treatment is much different than the treatment for acute pain. When addressing a person with CP, one should always keep in mind that pain is much more about the individual than the underlying medical condition. Every person is different, and healthcare providers should take a tailor-made approach to managing their pain. This is the only way to ensure good results in pain treatment. Treatment goals should be discussed and adapted to the patient profile. It is fundamental to have clear goals from the beginning and to ensure these are realistic, individualized, and measurable. Effective treatment for CP is only achieved through a holistic framework in which the patient’s well-being is the first concern and an interdisciplinary and societal approach is implemented from the first day.

This study explores whether and how Internet usage improves the subjective health of middle-aged and older adults by analyzing the mediating role of social engagement and heterogeneity of different living arrangements.

Based on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, the ordinary least squares (OLS) method is adopted to explore the relationship between Internet usage and the subjective health of middle-aged and older adults. Propensity score matching method (PSM) is used to alleviate self-selection bias in the samples. The bootstrap method is adopted to test the mediating role of social engagement, and generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) is employed to resolve endogeneity. A permutation test is adopted to examine the heterogeneous effects of Internet usage on different living arrangements.

Internet access can help relieve depression among middle-aged and older adults and enhance their self-rated health, leading to perceived changes in health status. However, Internet usage is not directly associated with health satisfaction among middle-aged and older adults. Nevertheless, Internet usage can enhance middle-aged and older adults' subjective health by facilitating social engagement and significantly influences middle-aged and older adults living with their children.

This study reveals the underlying role of Internet usage among older adults and provides insights for governments and families to help middle-aged and older adults actively adapt to a digital society and improve their health.

The study aims to have adults discuss experiences, practices needs and feelings related to health management, diet and food security.

A total of 22 immigrants were recruited from the Open School of Immigrants in Piraeus, Attica, Greece, to participate in focus group discussions. The discussions were audio recorded and thematically analyzed. Three major themes were developed: pathways to health care, nutrition management and experiences related to food shortages.

Most of the participants identified internet as the most commonly used way to obtain health advice; they also stated that unexpected ill-health is usually accompanied by feelings of fear, anxiety and loneliness. Immigrants, who had visited a public hospital in Greece, identified the language barrier as the most challenging issue, followed by the long waiting lists. Fear and anxiety of hospital visits was an important factor in their decision to vaccinate against COVID-19. Lack of time, high cost of healthy food and lack of knowledge were the most common obstacles to a healthy diet. One in two immigrants reported that they have faced food insecurity issues in the past. Stress, psychological distress and irritation were reported, due to food shortages, especially during the first few years of arriving in Greece. The exclusion of some foods, reduced portion sizes and buying cheaper foods were among the coping strategies to address food shortages.

The study offers an insight into immigrant’s experiences, practices and feelings about managing health issues and could be useful for health-care practitioners, researchers and policymakers.

In light of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theoretical paradigm, this paper explores how information relevance and media richness affect social network exhaustion and, moreover, how social network exhaustion ultimately leads to health anxiety and COVID-19-related stress.

The conceptual model is explicitly analyzed and estimated by using data from 309 individuals of different ages in mainland China. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were utilized to validate the proposed hypotheses through the use of online data.

The findings suggest that information relevance is negatively associated with social network exhaustion. In addition, social network exhaustion is a significant predictor of health anxiety and stress. Furthermore, information relevance and media richness can indirectly influence health anxiety and stress through the mediating effect of social network exhaustion.

Theoretically, this paper verifies the causes and consequences of social network exhaustion during COVID-19, thus making a significant contribution to the theoretical construction and refinement of this emerging research area. Practically, the conceptual research model in this paper may provide inspiration for more investigators and scholars who are inclined to further explore the different dimensions of social network exhaustion by utilizing other variables.

Although social network exhaustion and its adverse consequences have become prevalent, relatively few empirical studies have addressed the deleterious effects of social network exhaustion on mobile social media users’ psychosocial well-being and mental health during the prolonged COVID-19. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the rational development and construction of mobile social technologies to cultivate proper health awareness and mindset during the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 epidemic.