Anat Gesser-Edelsburg

University of Haifa | haifa · School of Public Health

The burgeoning role of artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) in academia signifies a transformative shift in educational methodologies and research practices. This mixed-methods cross-sectional study investigates the differential familiarity, usage and attitudes towards AI and GenAI among 704 students and lecturers, supplemented by...

BACKGROUND Protests serve as a powerful catalyst for transformations, where collective influence can lead to significant personal changes. Collective action can strengthen empowerment and collective self-efficacy in facing threats. This aligns with WHO's definition of health promotion as “enabling people to increase control over and improve their h...

Background Healthcare workers play a central role in communicating information to the public regarding vaccines. Most of the literature has focused on healthcare workers’ hesitancy and doubts about getting the flu vaccine themselves. However, few studies have dealt with how they perceive their role in communicating information regarding vaccines, e...

Within the Arab community of Israel, the influence of masculine perceptions, violence, the carrying of weapons, and their subsequent use are growing concerns that significantly impact public safety. The omnipresence of social media further complicates this narrative, potentially reshaping traditional notions and behaviors associated with masculinit...

Healthcare-associated infections remain a persistent concern despite decades of research and intervention efforts. Adherence to infection prevention and control guidelines by health professionals remains a challenge, necessitating innovative strategies. The Positive Deviance (PD) approach, rooted in harnessing localized solutions, holds promise but...

Background: Since the 1990s and up to the present day, a growing trend has been observed in Israel‫׳‬s health promotion intervention programs. As a natural continuation in 2015, Israel joined the United Nations and adopted the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)", which prominently featured the implementation of goals in the field...

Unfinished business (UB), when individuals appraise their relationship with others or themselves as incomplete or unresolved, entails difficult emotions such as regret, remorse, and guilt. UB is often associated with bereavement and is considered to be a predictor of complicated grief. Here we report two case studies describing the processing of th...

Public Perspectives on Health and Wellbeing Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic it has become increasingly clear that public opinion around health and the public perception of it is vitally important to health improvement of the population. For example, there has been an increased reluctance to vaccinate according to the WHO, despite the wide...

Background: Despite several empirical studies that have emphasized the problematic and ineffective way in which health organizations 'correct' information which does not come from them, they have not yet found ways to properly address vaccine hesitancy. Objectives: (1) Examining the responses of groups with different attitudes/ behaviors regardi...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound global impact. Indeed, the economic, social, educational, and sociological implications of the pandemic are so overwhelming that it will take the world many years to recover from them. In addition, both national and international organizations will need to seriously reconsider how they handled the crisis and...

Background: The anthroposophical philosophy is a holistic educational and lifestyle approach. Limited information exists on the health-promoting behavioral norms and obesity rates among children living anthroposophical vs. conventional lifestyles. Aims: This study aims to compare the prevalence of childhood obesity, and parents' perceptions of t...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most significant public health emergencies in decades and has affected all countries worldwide. Religious leaders have been recognized as playing a pivotal role in health promotion during times of crisis. This study explored the role that Muslim and Christian religious leaders played in Israel during t...

Background Vaccination is widespread in Western countries and, overall, there is a high vaccination rate. However, immunization is still an enduring challenge. In recent years, the number of parents who choose to delay or refuse vaccines has risen. Objectives (1) to identify the perceptions and attitudes of hesitant and anti-vaccination parents re...

https://www.routledge.com/The-Nature-of-Pandemics/Lubitz-Gibson/p/book/9781032340609

Background Although a wide range of intervention programs and methods have been implemented to increase health professionals’ (HPs) adherence with infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines and decrease the incidence of healthcare associated infections (HAIs), a significant discrepancy remains between the guidelines and their implementation...

Background Vaccines have contributed to the decline in mortality, morbidity, and even the eradication of various infectious diseases. Over time, the availability of information to the public and the request for public involvement in the health decision-making process have risen, and the confidence in vaccines has dropped. An increasing number of pa...

Background The issue of whether to include seasonal influenza vaccinations in school-located vaccination programs (SLIV) has been examined in many countries, mainly in the context of economic effectiveness and morbidity prevention. Yet not enough studies have examined the impact of parental risk perceptions, health literacy and SLIV on parental vac...

Background The internet has become a major resource in information transfer during COVID-19, and traditional means of communication are digitized and accessible online to the public at large. Objectives This study seeks to examine how Israel's two main television news channels (Channel 12 and Channel 13) covered the Covid-19 vaccination campaign,...

Because public healthcare workers (HCWs) are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, they must be able to provide vaccination information to their patients and respond to their anxieties and concerns. This research objectives were to (1) examine physicians' perceptions of how they received information about the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the...

Background Telehealth has many benefits, in routine care and especially during times of epidemics in which restrictions to direct patient/healthcare-provider interaction exist. Objective To explore the availability, application, and implementation of telehealth services during the Covid-19 era, designed for the aged population (age 65 and more)....

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to be a pandemic. In decision-making during health crises, individuals must trust the information they receive from the government. Because Israel was in the midst of a deep constitutional crisis, the challenges it faced in man...

Background Despite several intervention programs, the Bedouin population living in the Southern District of Israel has the highest mortality rate among children and adolescents from unintentional injuries. Our research questions asked: (1) How does increasing the involvement and participation of Bedouin community members influence the issue of unin...

Abstract Background Parents in the Arab population of Israel are known to be “pro-vaccination” and vaccinate their children at higher rates than the Jewish population, specifically against human papilloma virus (HPV) and seasonal influenza. Objectives This study seeks to identify and compare variables associated with mothers’ uptake of two vaccinat...

Social media have changed the way citizens participate in and express opinions about government policy. Social media serve organizations in achieving four main goals: interacting with citizens; fostering citizen participation; furthering open government; and analyzing/monitoring public opinion and activities. We contend that despite the importance...

Introduction: There has been a significant increase in online purchasing and product safety problems have been identified in e-commerce. This study examines consumer behavior and safety perceptions among parents purchasing child products online. Method: A mixed methods approach, including focus groups and a survey with parents, identified key ch...

Background: The uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 crisis and the different approaches taken to manage it have triggered scientific controversies among experts. This study seeks to examine how the fragile nature of Israeli democracy accommodated differences of opinion between experts during the COVID-19 crisis. Objective: To map and analyze the d...

Background The literature examining healthcare-associated infections (HAI) points to two main problems in conforming to infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines among healthcare professionals (HP). One is the discrepancy between HPs’ behavioral intentions and their implementation in practice. The other refers to how HPs maintain these prac...

Background A major earthquake in Israel is inevitable. Individual risk perceptions and preparedness can mitigate harm and save lives. The gap between the public’s concerns and those of experts is reflected in their differential perceptions regarding the components that influence the occurrence of an earthquake in Israel. Whereas the public believes...

Unstructured: During disease outbreaks or pandemics, policymakers must convey information to the public for informative purposes (e.g., morbidity or mortality rates). They must also motivate the public to cooperate with the guidelines, specifically by changing its usual behavior. Policymakers have traditionally adopted a didactic and formalistic s...

Objective: Studies concerning young children's food-related knowledge have dealt mostly with specific types of knowledge or with researchers’ predetermined categories. This approach may neglect certain aspects of children's knowledge and may limit the understanding of its general structure. The present study aimed to examine and analyze a wide scop...

Background: The coronavirus brought the world's leaders to the center of the media stage, where they not only managed the COVID-19 pandemic but also communicated it to the public. The means they used to communicate the global pandemic reveal their strategies and the narratives they chose to create in their nation's social consciousness. In Israel,...

This paper considers how health education organizations in the World Health Organization's Vaccine Safety Network (VSN) use Twitter to communicate about vaccines with the public, and whether they answer questions and engage in conversations. Almost no research in public health, to our knowledge, has explored conversational structure on social media...

Past studies using the Positive Deviance (PD) approach in the field of infection prevention and control (IPC) have primarily focused on impacts on healthcare associated infection (HAI) rates. This research aimed to determine if health professionals who exhibit PD behaviours have distinctive socio-cognitive profiles compared to non-PD professionals,...

UNSTRUCTURED During disease outbreaks or pandemics, policy makers must convey information to the public for informative purposes (eg, morbidity or mortality rates). They must also motivate members of the public to cooperate with the guidelines, specifically by changing their usual behavior. Policy makers have traditionally adopted a didactic and fo...

The literature indicates that theatre and drama-based interventions have the potential to improve older adults’ well-being and health. The goal of the current study was to characterize the process of a creative group intervention in adult day centers (ADCs), which integrates playback theatre and life-review principles. Our objective was to provide...

Playback theater is a form of improvisational theater that combines artistic expression with an exploration of life stories in a group creative process. The goal of the current study was to examine an integrative intervention for older adults, which includes participation in playback theater in accordance with the life-review method. We examined th...

Background: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to be a pandemic. This posed challenges to many countries, prominent among which is communication with the public to gain their cooperation. Israel faces different challenges from other countries in its management of the COVID-19 cr...

Background Healthcare workers (HCWs) are on the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak, and their constant exposure to infected patients and contaminated surfaces puts them at risk of acquiring and transmitting the infection. Therefore, they must employ protective measures. In practice, HCWs in Israel were not fully prepared for this sudden COVID-19 o...

Objective Studies have shown that synchronized motion between people positively affects a range of emotional and social functions. The mirror-game is a synchrony-based paradigm, common to theater, performance arts, and therapy, which includes dyadic synchronized motion, playfulness, and spontaneity. The goal of the current study is to examine the e...

Background: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to be a pandemic. This posed challenges to many countries, prominent among which is communication with the public to gain their cooperation. Israel faces different challenges from other countries in its management of the COVID-19 cr...

BACKGROUND On March 11, 2020, the WHO officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The declaration of a pandemic posed challenges to many countries, prominent among them communication with the public to gain its cooperation. What singles out Israel's management of the COVID-19 crisis from other countries is that Israel is in the midst of a deep constit...

Background On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to be a pandemic. This posed challenges to many countries, prominent among which is communication with the public to gain their cooperation. Israel faces different challenges from other countries in its management of the COVID-19 cri...

Background Despite the significant improvement in all components of preparedness in the past decade, there are still gaps between the guidelines and the reality on the ground. The purpose of this study is to explore how Israeli public health and emergency medicine experts perceive the demands for health organization emergency preparedness and the a...

The literature indicates that trust plays an important role in people’s decision-making with respect to vaccinations. This research seeks to examine the impact of trust on the high response rate to vaccinations among the minority Arab population living in Israel. The research employs the qualitative phenomenological research method, using personal...

Background Despite a proven association between the implementation of prevention guidelines for central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSI) and reduction in CLABSI rates, in practice there is poor adherence. Furthermore, current guidelines fail to address the multiple process on the care continuum. This research is based on the bottom-...

Background: In the new media age, the public searches for information both online and offline. Many studies have examined how the public reads and understands this information but very few investigate how people assess the quality of journalistic articles as opposed to information generated by health professionals.

Background: Despite World Health Organization recommendations that patients should play a role in encouraging hand hygiene (HH) as a means of preventing infection, patient engagement remains an underused method. From the perspectives of hospitalized patients (HPs) and health care workers (HCWs) at 2 major public hospitals in Haifa, Israel, this re...

Background: Designing web-based informational materials regarding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has become a challenge for designers and decision makers in the health authorities because of the scientific and public controversy regarding the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness and the sexual and moral concerns related to its use. Objective:...

Background There has been a steady rise in the use of medication by Israeli school children to treat ADHD, partly due to what seems like school teachers’ and counselors’ tendency to express positive attitudes towards its use. Therfore it is important to examine the involvement of the school teachers and counselors in the parents’ decision-making ab...

Background: Designing online informational materials regarding the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine has become a challenge for designers and decision-makers in the health authorities due to the scientific and public controversy regarding the vaccine's safety and effectiveness as well as the sexual and moral concerns related to the vaccine. Obje...

Background: In the new media age, the public searches for information both online and offline. Many studies have examined how the public reads and understands this information but very few investigate how people assess the quality of journalistic articles as opposed to information generated by health professionals. Objective: The aim of this stu...

BACKGROUND In the new media age, the public searches for information both online and offline. Many studies have examined how the public reads and understands this information but very few investigate how people assess the quality of journalistic articles as opposed to information generated by health professionals. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study w...

BACKGROUND Designing online informational materials regarding the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine has become a challenge for designers and decision-makers in the health authorities due to the scientific controversy in the literature regarding the vaccine's safety and effectiveness as well as the sexual and moral concerns related to the vaccine....

Background During epidemic crises, some of the information the public receives on social media is misinformation. Health organizations are required to respond and correct the information to gain the public’s trust and influence it to follow the recommended instructions. Objectives (1) To examine ways for health organizations to correct misinformat...

Background The literature is replete with attempts to design and promote customized guidelines to reduce infections during the care continuum. Paradoxically, these efforts sometimes result in gray areas where many staff members are unaware of what is required of them, which then leads to confusion, frustration, and uncertainty. We coined the phrase...

Background: The internet revolution of the 21st century has made sexual content available and accessible on a scale that has never existed before. Many studies have indicated that the use of pornography was associated with more permissive sexual attitudes and tended to be linked with stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs. It also seemed to b...

Playback Theatre (PT) is a form of improvisational theatre that centers on the personal story. Therapists conduct PT with older adults (PT-O) in a therapeutic setting. However, there are only a handful of studies to support its use. This report presents the experiences of therapists who conduct PT-O in a group therapeutic setting. Eight therapists...

BACKGROUND Due to the religious proscription, it was found that Arab youths acquire information and view pornography secretly. The internet exposes them to contents that contradict religious and cultural taboos. There are few studies about viewing habits of sexual contents among Arab adolescents and about the way they discuss sexuality. OBJECTIVE...

Background: Most of the studies on hospital infections have focused on the perceptions and reported behavior of the medical personnel. This research explore the practices undertaken both by Israeli patients and visitors, in order to maintain a hygienic hospital environment, and to locate the variables that are associated with them. Methods: An o...

Background One of the main limitations of traditional surveillance systems for disease detection is their inability to detect epidemics in real-time. In addition to syndromic surveillance, a number of informal digital resources have been developed. These systems are based on data collected through media sources such as news reports on the Internet,...

Product placement can be presented through edutainment. A drug such as Viagra is introduced or impotence is branded in movies and TV series in different ways to raise awareness of impotence disorder and Viagra as a solution. This study aims to analyze strategies of framing and branding Viagra and impotence disorder, based on a qualitative method an...

Background: The developing fetus is susceptible to environmental insults. Studying the effects of environmental exposures on fetal growth is essential for understanding the causal pathway between prenatal exposures and pregnancy outcomes. Here we describe the Haifa Pregnancy Cohort Study (HPCS) and discuss challenges and opportunities in applying...

Background Sports dietary supplements are available for sale in public places including sports clubs. Although there is uncertainty regarding their safety, many gym members who regularly work out consume them. The present study aimed to identify the approaches and perspectives of the public who work out in gyms and take dietary supplements. It exam...

The present study examines reported pre-license driving among youth from the population of Arab citizens of Israel. The purpose of the present study is to examine which sociodemographic variables, attitudes and perceptions about safe driving and individual and societal behavioral norms are associated with pre-license driving. The research distingui...

Objectives We aimed to describe the online search trends of Zika and examine their association with Zika incidence, assess the content of Zika-related press releases issued by leading health authorities and examine the association between online trends and press release timing. Design Using Google Trends, the 1 May 2015 to 30 May 2016 online trend...

Background: Lifestyle change can be influenced through effective interaction between care receiver and care provider. The physical environment where the interaction occurs can affect the dynamics of long-term therapeutic treatment. There have been no studies on the perception of the physical environment in nutritional treatment. Objective: Our a...

This study focuses on the process of the integration of Arab Muslim Israelis suffering from mental disorders into the normative community, addressing perspectives of both people with mental disorders and the community. This qualitative-constructivist study seeks to understand the dynamics of face-to-face meetings by highlighting the participants' p...

Edutainment is a communication strategy to influence attitudes and behaviors through the use of the media. Through the children's play " Yael Learns to Take Care of Her Body, " designed for joint viewing by children aged 5–8 and their parents, sexual abuse is raised. This qualitative study findings indicate that parents from low socioeconomic subgr...

Background The availability of public transportation has been studied mainly regarding promoting an active lifestyle and encouraging physical activity. Accessible public transportation near entertainment areas including pubs and restaurants may prevent alcohol-impaired driving (AID) by offering a safe alternative to get back home, as alcohol-impair...

Background and aim: Little evidence is available on whether respondents from divergent sociocultural populations report alcohol consumption in systematically similar ways. Therefore, this study examined whether the validity of self-reported alcohol use differed between Arab and Jewish Israeli pub patrons. Methods: The analytical sample consisted...

Background: This study focused on decision-making on terminating pregnancy for Arab Muslim women in Israel who were pregnant with fetuses diagnosed with congenital anomalies. It examined the impact of the doctor-patient interaction on the women's decision, especially in light of social and religious pressures not to terminate under any circumstance...

Background This study focused on decision-making on terminating pregnancy for Arab Muslim women in Israel who were pregnant with fetuses diagnosed with congenital anomalies. It examined the impact of the doctor-patient interaction on the women’s decision, especially in light of social and religious pressures not to terminate under any circumstances...

Background: This study focused on decision-making on terminating pregnancy for Arab Muslim women in Israel who were pregnant with fetuses diagnosed with congenital anomalies. It examined the impact of the doctor-patient interaction on the women's decision, especially in light of social and religious pressures not to terminate under any circumstance...

Introduction and aims: Subjective drunkenness measures may be useful screening tools for alcohol-related problems. However, if self-reported drunkenness is influenced by social and cultural understandings, the measure may not predict drinking patterns equally across different sociocultural groups. The current study aims to determine whether the tw...

Background The Internet is considered to be an effective source of health information and consultation for immigrants. Nutritional interventions for immigrants have become increasingly common over the past few decades. However, each population of immigrants has specific needs. Understanding the factors influencing the success of nutrition programs...

Studies indicate uncertainty surrounding vaccination safety and efficacy for pregnant women, causing a central problem for health authorities. In this study, approximately 26% of participants do not recommend the tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis and influenza vaccines to their patients, although being aware of the health ministry recomm...

Background: Vaccine compliance has long been a cause for concern for health authorities throughout the world. However very little effort has been made to examine parental discourse during the decision-making process. Methods: An online survey was conducted (N = 437) to examine predictors of parents' attitudes regarding childhood vaccination. Re...