BACKGROUND During the SARS pandemic in Hong Kong, panic and worry were prevalent in the community and the general public avoided staying in public areas. Such avoidance behaviors could greatly impact daily routines of the community and the local economy. This study examined the prevalence of the avoidance behaviors (i.e. avoiding going out, visiting crowded places and visiting hospitals) and ne...

OBJECTIVES Resistance exercise results in health benefits in fibromyalgia. The aim of this study was to determine the factors that mediate change in muscle strength in women with fibromyalgia as a result of resistance exercise. METHODS Sixty-seven women with fibromyalgia (age range 25-64 years) were included. Tests of muscle strength and questionnaires related to pain, fear avoidance and phys...

Disclosing personal information to a crowd, with all its risks and benefits, is almost ubiquitous in Web 2.0. Drawing on privacy calculus (PC) theory, we investigate whether cultural differences moderate the effect of risk and benefit assessment on online self-disclosure (OSD) in person-to-crowd settings. Empirically, our study relies on a (statistical) meta-analysis of 38 studies. Our findings...

OBJECTIVES The number of people in Western countries on long-term sick-leave and disability pension due to musculoskeletal complaints and psychological health problems is increasing. The main objective of this study was to examine whether fear-avoidance beliefs, illness perceptions, subjective health complaints, and coping are prognostic factors for return to work after multidisciplinary vocati...

BACKGROUND Catastrophizing plays an important role in models of pain chronicity, showing a consistent correlation with both pain intensity and disability. It is conceivable that these associations are mediated or confounded by other psychological attributes. OBJECTIVE To examine the relative influence of catastrophizing and other psychological variables on pain and disability in patients with...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to integrate the approacheavoidance model of achievement goals with self-determination theory in the context of structured exercise. More specifically, we analysed how perceived motivational climate, implicit ability beliefs, perceived competence, and achievement goals contributed to exercisers’ self-determined motivation. Design: A cross-sectional desig...

PURPOSE The primary aim of this study was to analyse the predictive value of cognitive and behavioural factors, in relation to pain, disability and quality of life (QoL) one year after lumbar disc surgery. METHOD The study design was prospective. Fifty-nine patients scheduled for first time lumbar disc surgery were included. Pain, disability, QoL, coping, fear avoidance beliefs, expected outc...

Japanese Irrational Belief Test (JIBT), a self-report type measure was developed as a means to aid the controlled clinical research on rational-emotive therapy. A five point scale questionnaire consisting of 107 items was administered to 211 Japanese university students, analyzed by factor analysis and item analysis, and seven scales of 10 items each were finally constructed. Seven scales measu...