Xiao Li

Driver emotion is a critical factor influencing driving performance and safety. In-vehicle assistants serve as an effective communication bridge between the user and the vehicle's system. To clarify how in-vehicle assistants influence drivers' performance and emotion, this study employed a 2 (driver's emotional state: happy vs. angry) × 2 (assistant type: voice-only assistant vs. embodied virtual assistant) between-subjects design to investigate the effects of different in-vehicle assistant types and driver emotional state on driving performance and emotional changes. Forty licensed drivers participated in a series of simulated driving tasks. Task performance was measured by task completion time, and emotional changes were assessed through facial expression analysis. The results revealed that: (i) Drivers in an angry state completed tasks faster than those in a happy state with the assistants; (ii) When driving in and out of the tunnel, drivers using the embodied virtual assistant performed better than those using the voice-only assistant. (iii) In the turning task, drivers in a happy state were faster with the embodied virtual assistant, whereas those in an angry state spent similar driving time with both assistants; (iv) The embodied virtual assistant significantly reduced participants' anger levels. This study provides several design suggestions for current in-vehicle assistants based on its findings.

Objectives: Patient medication safety can affect their clinical outcomes and plays an important role in patient safety management. However, few tools have been developed to assess patient medication safety. This study aimed to develop and validate the self-reported patient medication safety scale (SR-PMSS). Methods: We developed SR-PMSS guided by the Donabedian Structure-Process-Outcome framework and used psychometric methods to test its validity and reliability. Results: A total of 501 patients with an average age of 56.81 ± 14.47 were enrolled in this study. The SR-PMSS consisted of 21 items and 5 factors. The content validity was good with item-level content validity index (CVI) > 0.78, average scale-level CVI (S-CVI) > 0.9, and universal agreement S-CVI > 0.8. Exploratory factor analysis extracted a five-factor solution with eigenvalues > 0.1, explaining 67.766% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis showed good model fit, acceptable convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The Cronbach’s α coefficient for SR-PMSS was 0.929, the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.855, and the test–retest reliability coefficient was 0.978. Conclusions: The SR-PMSS was a valid and reliable instrument with good reliability and validity to evaluate the level of patient medication safety. The target users of the SR-PMSS are all people who are taking or have used prescription medications. The SR-PMSS can be used by healthcare providers in clinical practice and research to identify patients at risk for medication use and intervene with them to reduce adverse medication events and provide support for patient safety management. Plain Language Summary: SR-PMSS – a self-reported tool to assess patient medication safety Medication therapy was the most common and frequent treatment method to prevent and cure diseases. Medication safety issues may occur in the process of medication use. Patient medication safety can affect their clinical outcomes and plays an important role in patient safety management. However, there are few tools to assess patient medication safety currently, and most of them focused on medication safety related to hospitals or healthcare workers. We developed the self-reported patient medication safety scale (SR-PMSS) guided by the Donabedian Structure-Process-Outcome framework. Then, we conducted a two-round expert consultation, clarity verification, and item simplification to determine the final version of the scale. The SR-PMSS consisted of 21 items and 5 factors and it had good validity and reliability. The target users of the SR-PMSS are all people who are taking or have used prescription medications. Healthcare providers can use the SR-PMSS in clinical practice and research to identify patients at risk for medication use and intervene with them to reduce adverse medication events and provide support for patient safety management.

Background: In spite of strict regulation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) preventive measures and containment in China, there are still confirmed cases sporadically occurring in many cities. College students live in groups and have active social activities so that it will trigger a serious public health event once an infection event occurs. Thus, identifying the status and related factors of protective behaviors among them after receiving vaccination will be crucial for epidemic control. This study aimed to gather information on the protective behaviors and to identify the associations of COVID-19 risk perception, eHealth literacy, and protective behaviors for Chinese college students following vaccination.Methods: A cross-sectional survey of college students engaged in protective behaviors post vaccination was conducted using the COVID-19 risk perception scale, eHealth literacy scale, and protective behaviors following vaccination questionnaire in one of the groups. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to confirm the correlation among the COVID-19 risk perception, eHealth literacy, and protective behaviors for Chinese college students.Results: A total of 5,641 Chinese college students were included. Male students comprised 59.01% with an average age of (21.39 ± 2.75) years and most students rating their health as very good (44.85%) or pretty good (46.98%). A smaller percentage (13.76%) believed that they would likely or most likely be infected with COVID-19 after getting vaccinated. In addition, more than 1 in 10 (10.35%) college students had ever suspected to suffer from post-vaccination reactions following the COVID-19 vaccination. The mean score of protective behaviors was 26.06 ± 3.97. Approximately one-third (30.42%) of the students always or often did not wear a mask when going out. Some college students (29.25%) did not maintain distance of at least 1 m from others in social situations. Older female college students who were in good health and perceived as being at a low risk of getting infected with COVID-19, and those never suspected to suffer from post-vaccination reactions expected to engage in post-vaccination protective measures. Those with a higher level of perceived risk, severe risk perception and eHealth literacy, and a lower level of unknown risk perception were more likely to engage in further protective behaviors after getting vaccinated.Conclusions: Overall, the level of protective behaviors among the Chinese college students following vaccination could be improved, especially for male, younger college students in poor health. This study revealed the predictive effects of risk perception and eHealth literacy on protective behaviors, recommending that the negative and positive effects of risk perception should be balanced in epidemic risk management, and eHealth literacy promotion should also be emphasized for public health and social measures.

There is an increasing use of mobile devices to view maps for wayfinding purposes. However, viewing maps on a small screen often creates difficulties for users. Two possible solutions to this problem are dynamic peephole interfaces and visual cues to off-screen targets. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of visual cue design and response time on users’ wayfinding performance with a dynamic peephole interface on a mobile device. Both 1 s and 3 s response times were examined. Three different visual cue designs, i.e., the dot, short-line, and border-line, were adopted. The experiment was a 2 × 3 between-subjects design. Sixty participants were invited to complete four wayfinding tasks and subjective preference questionnaires. The NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) questionnaire was also adopted. The results revealed that: (i) Visual cues with different response times can affect users’ wayfinding performance; (ii) When planning a route, the border-line visual cues exhibited better outcomes with the 1-s response time; (iii) When users distinguished the order of the targets, the 3-s response time had better user performance than 1 s; and (iv) Participants perceived lower physical demand with the border-line visual cue design.

Restricted by the small screen size, it is challenging for users to obtain all the wayfinding content they need when utilizing mobile devices. This study investigated the effects of map size and interactive interface on users’ wayfinding performance and preference when using mobile devices. Two types of interactive interfaces (i.e., panning and peephole interfaces) and three different map sizes (i.e., small, medium, and large) were examined. The experiment was a 2 × 3 between-subjects design. Sixty participants were invited to complete five wayfinding tasks (i.e., Euclidean distance judgment, route distance judgment, landmark recognition, map section rotation, and route recognition), a system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire, and the subjective preference questionnaire. The results showed that: (1) The participants’ wayfinding performance was affected by the map size and interactive interface; (2) the peephole interface was superior for the Euclidean distance judgment and the route recognition tasks; (3) it does not always take a significantly longer time to complete the task with the larger map when performing the map section rotation task with the panning interface; and (4) the usability scores of the peephole interface were considered above average, and it had a positive impact on the participants’ preferences.