Recurring Issues, New Questions, Promising Innovations

Dear Readers of the European Journal of Health Psychology,

Originally this was supposed to be a short Editorial introducing to you some innovations regarding the journal. But in these extraordinary times of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic you literally just cannot go on as usual.

So, apparently these days’ motto is “back to the communicable diseases” – a future we did not envision exactly in health psychology.

Introductions into health psychology use to build on the fact that during the last decades the disease spectrum and the causes of death have changed dramatically, emphasizing the so-called lifestyle diseases as the predominant health threats in the 21st century. The non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and obesity have become the major topic of health promotion and prevention. We are still researching ways to promote the necessary health behavior changes, highlighting the benefits of being physically active, having sufficient social contacts and social support, enjoying healthy meals, regulating negative emotional states, and adhering to medical regimens and medications.

But now with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic hitting, people all over the world have to stay at home and self-isolate with restricted options to be physically active; vegetables and fruit are starting to become more expensive, alcohol consumption increases along with anxiety levels, and there is not even a medication taking regimen we could adhere to.

Even without considering additional challenges posed by economic hardships due the lockdowns, health psychology has to face new challenges and to address new questions. How can we maintain and promote “traditional” health behaviors in times of a pandemic, that requires persons of all age groups to stay at home? What could be appropriate ways to deliver social support and to keep up social integration for elderly persons and patients in quarantine? How can individuals and societies cope effectively with the uncertainties posed by spreading viruses? What are the risks for patients with non-communicable diseases who avoid physician and clinic visits for fear of catching COVID-19? It will be interesting to see whether future lists of protective health behavior will incorporate items such as wearing face masks, using disinfectants (outwardly!), and social distancing. Empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of such measures is clearly needed and ought to inform individual and political decision making. Health psychology as a discipline surely will take on these challenges and contribute evidence and promising innovations to promote health in the face of communicable and non-communicable diseases intertwined.

The European Journal of Health Psychology (EJHP) welcomes all types of empirical studies – regardless whether they cover research questions related to the new Coronavirus and COVID-19 infection or more conventional but nonetheless relevant areas of health psychology. Importantly, EJHP also welcomes sound practice-oriented articles and reports of implementation of health psychology interventions into routine health care.

Publishing your work could not be done without colleagues investing a substantial amount of time and effort into reviewing newly submitted manuscripts and their revisions. The editorial team of the European Journal of Health Psychology is very grateful to all reviewers who participated and currently are participating in this process. The 4th issue of EJHP mentioned all reviewers in 2019 by name to appreciate their work (List of Reviewers, 2019). Starting with the current issue and continuing once per year in the future, the journal will also highlight those colleagues whose thorough, constructive, and timely reviews were exceptionally helpful during the editing process. Please see the first voting in our new section “Distinguished Reviewers” on page 43 of this issue (Spaderna, 2020).

Another innovation will be of particular interest to authors. The journal announces to bring out selected manuscripts in the new section “Editors’ Choice”. Articles with strong rigor, clear and concise writing and a particularly relevant message will be published as “Editors’ Choice” and will be accompanied with an invited editorial. Editors are now looking out for candidate manuscripts and we hope to introduce the first selected paper in one of the journal’s next issues.

Until then, stay calm and stick to the evidence!