1,313 results
Search Results
2. Twitter as research data Tools, costs, skill sets, and lessons learned .
- Author
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Chen K, Duan Z, and Yang S
- Subjects
- Humans, Archives, COVID-19, Social Media, Biological Science Disciplines
- Abstract
Scholars increasingly use Twitter data to study the life sciences and politics. However, Twitter data collection tools often pose challenges for scholars who are unfamiliar with their operation. Equally important, although many tools indicate that they offer representative samples of the full Twitter archive, little is known about whether the samples are indeed representative of the targeted population of tweets. This article evaluates such tools in terms of costs, training, and data quality as a means to introduce Twitter data as a research tool. Further, using an analysis of COVID-19 and moral foundations theory as an example, we compared the distributions of moral discussions from two commonly used tools for accessing Twitter data (Twitter's standard APIs and third-party access) to the ground truth, the Twitter full archive. Our results highlight the importance of assessing the comparability of data sources to improve confidence in findings based on Twitter data. We also review the major new features of Twitter's API version 2.
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- 2023
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3. A preregistered vignette experiment on determinants of health data sharing behavior Willingness to donate sensor data, medical records, and biomarkers .
- Author
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Silber H, Gerdon F, Bach R, Kern C, Keusch F, and Kreuter F
- Subjects
- Humans, Medical Records, Biomarkers, Information Dissemination, Pandemics, COVID-19
- Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted the importance of high-quality data for empirical health research and evidence-based political decision-making. To leverage the full potential of these data, a better understanding of the determinants and conditions under which people are willing to share their health data is critical. Building on the privacy theory of contextual integrity, the privacy calculus, and previous findings regarding different data types and recipients, we argue that established social norms shape the acceptance of novel practices of data collection and use. To investigate the willingness to share health data, we conducted a preregistered vignette experiment. The scenarios experimentally varied the vignette dimensions by data type, recipient, and research purpose. While some findings contradict our hypotheses, the results indicate that all three dimensions affected respondents' data sharing decisions. Additional analyses suggest that institutional and social trust, privacy concerns, technical affinity, altruism, age, and device ownership influence the willingness to share health data.
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- 2023
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4. Perceived vulnerability to infectious disease and perceived harmfulness are as predictive of citizen response to COVID-19 as partisanship.
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Cassario A
- Subjects
- Humans, Pandemics, Cross-Sectional Studies, Politics, COVID-19, Communicable Diseases
- Abstract
Partisans have biased perceptions of objective conditions. At first glance, the COVID-19 pandemic would appear to be an example of this phenomenon. Noting that most citizens have consistently agreed about the pandemic, I argue that we have overlooked pre-political factors that are as influential as partisanship in shaping citizens' responses to the pandemic. I identify one such construct in perceived vulnerability to infectious disease (PVD). In one cross-sectional study and one panel study, I find that the influence of PVD on citizens' perceptions of COVID-19 equals that of partisanship. I also find that PVD can moderate the influence of partisanship on perceptions of harmfulness, nearly erasing the impact of being a Republican on perceiving COVID-19 as a threat. When led by PVD as well as partisanship to accurately perceive harm, citizens, including Republicans, attribute more responsibility to former president Donald Trump for his failed handling of the crisis.
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- 2023
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5. Politics, preparedness, or resources Examining state responsiveness to the COVID-19 pandemic .
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Lucero L, Diaz-Kope L, and Galadima H
- Subjects
- Humans, Animals, Pandemics, Analysis of Variance, Correlation of Data, Politics, COVID-19 epidemiology, Mustelidae
- Abstract
U.S. states are often the primary decision makers during a public health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic led to several different reopening processes across states based on their unique characteristics. We analyze whether states' reopening policy decisions were driven by their public health preparedness, resources, COVID-19 impact, or state politics and political culture. To do so, we summarized state characteristics and compared them across three categories of reopening scores in a bivariate analysis using the chi-square or Fisher exact test for the categorical variables and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the continuous variables. A cumulative logit model was used to assess the primary research question. A significant factor in a state's reopening decision was the party of the governor, regardless of the party in control of the legislature, state political culture, public health preparedness, cumulative number of deaths per 100,000, and Opportunity Index score.
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- 2023
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6. Environmental Factors in Nursing Workplaces that Promote Resilience during Pandemics: Scoping Review.
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Witt, Regina Rigatto, Jung, Walnice, Paixão, Miguel Lucas da Silva, and Cusack, Lynette
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PANDEMICS ,PSYCHOLOGICAL resilience ,WORK environment ,CINAHL database ,NURSES - Abstract
Aim: This scoping review explored the main environmental factors in the workplace that contribute to nursing resilience in respiratory infectious pandemic events. Background: There is strong evidence in the literature about the influence of individual factors on nurses' resilience and a growing interest on the impact of the workplace environment on these factors. Therefore, a review that synthesizes environmental factors that support nurses' resilience in pandemic events is timely. Method: A scoping review of publications written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese of registered publications until December 2020 in MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, Scopus, SciELO, CINAHL, WoS, BVS, and APA identified 10,767 potential papers. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines were used during the literature review process. The Health Services Workplace Environmental Resilience Model (HSWERM) was used to guide exploration and synthesis. Results: Thirty-two (32) publications met inclusion criteria. Most of the HSWERM workplace factors were mentioned in the literature. The main workplace environmental factors that were identified included communication, inter-professional collaboration, access to equipment, targeted training, and supporting well-being. Conclusions: Recognition of these key environmental factors in the workplace will help to implement more effective actions to promote resiliency prior to and during emergency situations. It will also enable managers to include, in any preparation planning, contingencies to protect these factors with the view of sustainable resilience of nursing staff throughout the emergency event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2023
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7. Extended High-Utility Pattern Mining: An Answer Set Programming-Based Framework and Applications.
- Author
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CAUTERUCCIO, FRANCESCO and TERRACINA, GIORGIO
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COVID-19 ,DATA mining ,HOSPITAL admission & discharge ,UTILITY functions - Abstract
Detecting sets of relevant patterns from a given dataset is an important challenge in data mining. The relevance of a pattern, also called utility in the literature, is a subjective measure and can be actually assessed from very different points of view. Rule-based languages like Answer Set Programming (ASP) seem well suited for specifying user-provided criteria to assess pattern utility in a form of constraints; moreover, declarativity of ASP allows for a very easy switch between several criteria in order to analyze the dataset from different points of view. In this paper, we make steps toward extending the notion of High-Utility Pattern Mining; in particular, we introduce a new framework that allows for new classes of utility criteria not considered in the previous literature. We also show how recent extensions of ASP with external functions can support a fast and effective encoding and testing of the new framework. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed framework, we exploit it as a building block for the definition of an innovative method for predicting ICU admission for COVID-19 patients. Finally, an extensive experimental activity demonstrates both from a quantitative and a qualitative point of view the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2024
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8. Politics & Gender short paper series on Gender, Politics, and the Global Pandemic.
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PANDEMICS ,COVID-19 pandemic ,GENDER ,PRACTICAL politics ,COVID-19 - Abstract
We are delighted to introduce the I Politics & Gender i short paper series on Gender, Politics, and the Global Pandemic. The press has made all of the Covid-19 series articles gold standard open access forever, ensuring that scholars, press, and public can have access to this vital research. [Extracted from the article]
- Published
- 2020
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9. Medical exemptions to mandatory vaccinations: The state of play in Australia and a pressure point to watch.
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Yap, William Kouji and Attwell, Katie
- Abstract
Australia's mandatory vaccination policies have historically allowed for non-medical exemptions (NMEs), but this changed in 2016 when the Federal Government discontinued NMEs for childhood vaccination requirements. Australian states introduced further mandatory vaccination policies during the COVID-19 pandemic for a range of occupations including healthcare workers (HCWs). There is global evidence to suggest that medical exemptions (MEs) increase following the discontinuation of NMEs; the new swathe of COVID-19 mandatory vaccination policies likely also placed further pressure on ME systems in many jurisdictions. This paper examines the state of play of mandatory vaccination and ME policies in Australia by outlining the structure and operation of these policies for childhood vaccines, then for COVID-19, with a case study of HCW mandates. Next, the paper explores HCWs' experiences in providing vaccine exemptions to patients (and MEs in particular). Finally, the paper synthesizes existing literature and reflects on the challenges of MEs as a pressure point for people who do not want to vaccinate and for the clinicians who care for them, proposing areas for future research and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2024
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10. Important roles of amino acids in immune responses.
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Li, Peng and Wu, Guoyao
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AMINO acid metabolism ,GLUTATHIONE ,CYTOKINES ,IMMUNOGLOBULINS ,COVID-19 ,NUTRITION disorders ,GUT microbiome ,IMMUNE system ,ARGININE ,DIETARY supplements ,AMINO acids ,NITRIC oxide ,GLUTAMINE - Abstract
This commentary highlighted the background, take-home messages, and impacts of our 2007 British Journal of Nutrition paper entitled "Amino acids and immune function". In 2003–2004, there was an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by SARS coronavirus-1 (CoV-1) in Asian countries. By the mid-2000's, clinical and experimental evidence indicated important roles for amino acids (AA) in improving innate and adaptive immunities in humans and animals. Based on our long-standing interest in AA metabolism and nutritional immunology, we decided to critically analyze advances in this nutritional field. Furthermore, we proposed a unified mechanism responsible for beneficial effects of AA and their products (including nitric oxide, glutathione, antibodies, and cytokines) on immune responses. We hoped that such integrated knowledge would be helpful for designing AA-based nutritional methods (e.g., supplementation with glutathione, arginine and glutamine) to prevent and treat SARS-like infectious diseases in the future. Our paper laid a framework for subsequent studies to quantify AA metabolism in intestinal bacteria, determine the effects of functional AA on cell-mediated and humoral immunities, and establish a much-needed database of AA composition in foodstuffs. Unexpectedly, COVID-19 (caused by SARS-CoV-2) emerged in December 2019 and has become one of the deadliest pandemics in history. Notably, glutathione, arginine and glutamine have now been exploited to effectively relieve severe respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 in affected patients. Functional AA (e.g., arginine, cysteine, glutamate, glutamine, glycine, taurine and tryptophan) and glutathione, which are all abundant in animal-sourced foodstuffs, are crucial for optimum immunity and health in humans and animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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11. Patients' and professionals' experiences with remote care during COVID-19: a qualitative study in general practices in low-income neighborhoods.
- Author
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Kollmann J, Sana S, Magnée T, Boer S, Merkelbach I, Kocken PL, and Denktaș S
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- Humans, Female, Male, Middle Aged, Adult, Netherlands, Aged, Telemedicine, Patient Satisfaction statistics & numerical data, Attitude of Health Personnel, SARS-CoV-2, Remote Consultation, Health Services Accessibility, COVID-19 psychology, COVID-19 therapy, Qualitative Research, Poverty, General Practice
- Abstract
Aim: To explore how patients and general practice professionals in low-income neighborhoods experienced the increase of remote care during COVID-19., Background: As the GP (general practitioner) is the first point of contact in Dutch health care, there are concerns about access to remote care for patients from low-income neighborhoods. Now that general practice professionals have returned to the pre-pandemic ways of healthcare delivery, this paper looks back at experiences with remote care during COVID-19. It investigates experiences of both patients and general practice professionals with the approachability and appropriateness of remote care and their satisfaction., Methods: In this qualitative study, 78 patients and 18 GPs, 7 nurse practitioners and 6 mental health professionals were interviewed. Interviews were held on the phone and face-to-face in the native language of the participants., Findings: Remote care, especially telephone consultation, was generally well-approachable for patients from low-income neighborhoods. Contrarily, video calling was rarely used. This was partly because patients did not know how to use it. The majority of patients thought remote care was possible for minor ailments but would also still like to see the doctor face-to-face regularly. Patients were generally satisfied with remote care at the time, but this did not necessarily reflect their willingness to continue using it in the future. Moreover, there was lack in consensus among general practice professionals on the appropriateness of remote care for certain physical and mental complaints. Nurse practitioners and mental health professionals had a negative attitude toward remote care. In conclusion, it is important to take the opinions and barriers of patients and care providers into account and to increase patient-centered care elements and care provider satisfaction in remote care. Integrating remote care is not only important in times of crisis but also for future care that is becoming increasingly digitalized.
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- 2024
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12. Population and contact tracer uptake of New Zealand's QR-code-based digital contact tracing app for COVID-19.
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Chambers T, Anglemyer A, Chen A, Atkinson J, and Baker MG
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- Humans, New Zealand epidemiology, Retrospective Studies, SARS-CoV-2, Male, Female, Adult, Middle Aged, Aged, Contact Tracing methods, COVID-19 epidemiology, Mobile Applications
- Abstract
This study aimed to understand the population and contact tracer uptake of the quick response (QR)-code-based function of the New Zealand COVID Tracer App (NZCTA) used for digital contact tracing (DCT). We used a retrospective cohort of all COVID-19 cases between August 2020 and February 2022. Cases of Asian and other ethnicities were 2.6 times (adjusted relative risk (aRR) 2.58, 99 per cent confidence interval (95% CI) 2.18, 3.05) and 1.8 times (aRR 1.81, 95% CI 1.58, 2.06) more likely than Māori cases to generate a token during the Delta period, and this persisted during the Omicron period. Contact tracing organization also influenced location token generation with cases handled by National Case Investigation Service (NCIS) staff being 2.03 (95% CI 1.79, 2.30) times more likely to generate a token than cases managed by clinical staff at local Public Health Units (PHUs). Public uptake and participation in the location-based system independent of contact tracer uptake were estimated at 45%. The positive predictive value (PPV) of the QR code system was estimated to be close to nil for detecting close contacts but close to 100% for detecting casual contacts. Our paper shows that the QR-code-based function of the NZCTA likely made a negligible impact on the COVID-19 response in New Zealand (NZ) in relation to isolating potential close contacts of cases but likely was effective at identifying and notifying casual contacts.
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- 2024
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13. Management research contributions to the COVID-19: a bibliometric literature review and analysis of the contributions from the Journal of Management & Organization.
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Ayoko, Oluremi B., Caputo, Andrea, and Mendy, John
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COVID-19 pandemic ,SOCIAL responsibility of business ,FAMILY-owned business enterprises - Abstract
The COVID-19 health crisis triggered changes in the workplace. This paper explores the insights from scholarly work published in the Journal of Management and Organization (JMO) and systematizes this body of knowledge to build a scientific overview that looks at how the COVID-19 health crisis and its repercussions may be managed by organizations. We conducted a bibliometric investigation of JMO's most influential papers published from 1995 to June 2020 that offers insights into the management of the COVID-19 crisis. Our bibliometric investigation reveals six clusters: (1) conservation of resources theory, entrepreneurs, gender and work–family conflict; (2) corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and stakeholder salience; (3) family firms, innovation and research methods; (4) creativity, leadership and organizational change; (5) job satisfaction and psychological empowerment; and (6) team performance. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2021
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14. Novel Respiratory Viruses in the Context of Mass-Gathering Events: A Systematic Review to Inform Event Planning from a Health Perspective.
- Author
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Ranse, Jamie, Beckwith, Deborah, Khan, Anas, Yezli, Saber, Hertelendy, Attila J., Hutton, Alison, and Zimmerman, Peta-Anne
- Abstract
Background: Mass-gathering events (MGEs) occur regularly throughout the world. As people congregate at MGEs, there is an increased risk of transmission of communicable diseases. Novel respiratory viruses, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-1 (SARS-CoV-1), Influenza A Virus Subtype H1N1 Strain 2009 (H1N1pdm09), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), or Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), may require specific infection prevention and control strategies to minimize the risk of transmission when planning MGEs. This literature review aimed to identify and analyze papers relating to novel respiratory viruses with pandemic potential and to inform MGE planning.Method: This paper used a systematic literature review method. Various health care databases were searched using keywords relating to MGEs and novel respiratory viruses. Information was extracted from identified papers into various tables for analysis. The analysis identified infection prevention and control strategies used at MGEs to inform planning before, during, and following events.Results: In total, 27 papers met the criteria for inclusion. No papers were identified regarding SARS-CoV-1, while the remainder reported on H1N1pdm09 (n = 9), MERS-CoV (n = 15), and SARS-CoV-2 (n = 3). Various before, during, and after event mitigation strategies were identified that can be implemented for future events.Conclusions: This literature review provided an overview of the novel respiratory virus epidemiology at MGEs alongside related public health mitigation strategies that have been implemented at these events. This paper also discusses the health security of event participants and host communities in the context of cancelling, postponing, and modifying events due to a novel respiratory virus. In particular, ways to recommence events incorporating various mitigation strategies are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2021
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15. Antiviral and immunological activity of zinc and possible role in COVID-19
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Betânia de Jesus e Silva de Almendra Freitas, Bruna Emanuele Pereira Cardoso, Thaline Milany da Silva Dias, Kyria Jayanne Clímaco Cruz, Ana Raquel Soares de Oliveira, Dilina do Nascimento Marreiro, Loanne Rocha dos Santos, Jennifer Beatriz Silva Morais, and Stéfany Rodrigues de Sousa Melo
- Subjects
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Immunologic Factors ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,medicine.disease_cause ,Antiviral Agents ,Communicable Diseases ,Immune system ,medicine ,Humans ,In patient ,Antiviral ,Coronavirus ,Nutrition and Dietetics ,Respiratory tract infections ,business.industry ,COVID-19 ,Nutritional Immunology ,Full Papers ,COVID-19 Drug Treatment ,Clinical trial ,Zinc ,Virus Diseases ,Immunology ,Narrative review ,Immunomodulator ,business - Abstract
Zn deficiency compromises its biological functions, its effect on the immune system and its antiviral activity, increasing vulnerability to infectious diseases. This narrative review aims at presenting and discussing functional aspects and possible mechanisms involved in the potential role of Zn in the immune response and antiviral activity for coronavirus infectious disease-19 (COVID-19) prevention and control. The searches were conducted in PubMed and Science Direct databases, using clinical trials, experimental studies in animals and humans, case–control studies, case series, letters to the editor, and review articles published in English, without restrictions on year of publication. Search approach was based on using the terms: ‘zinc’, ‘COVID-19’, ‘antiviral agents’, ‘immunologic factors’ and ‘respiratory tract infections’. Literature shows the importance of Zn as an essential mineral immunomodulator with relevant antiviral activity in the body. Thus, although there is still a scarcity of studies evaluating Zn supplementation in patients with COVID-19, the results on the topic show the necessity of controlling Zn mineral deficiency, as well as maintaining its homoeostasis in the body in order to strengthen the immune system and improve the prevention of highly complex viral infections, such as that of the COVID-19.
- Published
- 2021
16. Women’s perceptions about changes in food-related behaviours at home during COVID-19 pandemic in Chile
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Carla Cuevas, María-Fernanda Jara, Patricia Gálvez Espinoza, and Bárbara Leyton
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Adult ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Psychological intervention ,Exploratory research ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Minor (academic) ,Likert scale ,Perception ,Environmental health ,Pandemic ,Humans ,Women ,Chile ,Pandemics ,media_common ,Food-related behaviours ,Aged ,Nutrition and Dietetics ,SARS-CoV-2 ,digestive, oral, and skin physiology ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,Single mothers ,Middle Aged ,Home food environment ,Food systems ,Female ,sense organs ,Psychology ,Research Paper - Abstract
Objective:To explore women’s perceptions of changes in specific food habits at home, specifically the food budget and shopping, and food preparation, during the COVID-19 period.Design:Non-probabilistic, exploratory study. Participants completed an online self-administered questionnaire. Perceptions of food habit changes were measured on a five-point Likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree). Data analysis was conducted in STATA v16.0.Setting:Chile.Participants:Adult women between 25 and 65 years old (n2047).Results:Of the participants, 72 % were responsible for cooking, 69 % for buying food and 85 % for child care. Difficulties in organising and doing food budget works were observed in groups with a lower educational level, lower income and single mothers with children. Younger participants, dependent workers, women from biparental families with children and those in mandatory quarantine perceived more changes in their food shopping and budget management tasks. Participants more educated, with higher income and non-mandatory quarantine perceived to cook and eat healthier. Older participants perceived minor changes in their food preparation tasks at home; in contrast, more educated women and women from biparental families with children perceived more changes. If women were in charge of the kids or grocery shopping, more food environment changes were noticed.Conclusions:Women perceived changes in their food environments. Some of these changes are perceived worse in the more vulnerable population. COVID-19 presents a challenge for the food system and gender perspectives. This information should be considered in the design of food-related interventions.
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- 2021
17. Lifestyle and eating habits before and during COVID-19 quarantine in Brazil
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Tamires Cm Souza, Ceres Mattos Della Lucia, Lucilene Rezende Anastácio, Marina M Daniel, Lívia Geraldi Ferreira, Lívya Alves Oliveira, and Juliana Costa Liboredo
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Adult ,Evening ,Adolescent ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,030209 endocrinology & metabolism ,law.invention ,Food choices ,03 medical and health sciences ,Screen time ,0302 clinical medicine ,McNemar's test ,law ,Environmental health ,Statistical significance ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Quarantine ,Food choice ,Lockdown ,Medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Life Style ,Pandemics ,Morning ,Meal ,Nutrition and Dietetics ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,digestive, oral, and skin physiology ,Smoking ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,Feeding Behavior ,Coronavirus ,business ,Alcohol use ,Brazil ,Research Paper - Abstract
Objective:To assess changes in daily habits, food choices and lifestyle of adult Brazilians before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design:This observational study was carried out with Brazilian adults through an online questionnaire 5 months after the social distance measures implementation. The McNemar, McNemar–Bowker and Wilcoxon tests were used to investigate differences before and during the COVID pandemic period, adopting the statistical significance of P < 0·05.Setting:Brazil.Participants:Totally, 1368 volunteers aged 18+ years.Results:The volunteers reported a lower frequency of breakfast, morning and lunch snacks (P < 0·05) and a higher frequency of evening snacks and other meal categories during the pandemic period (P < 0·05). The results showed an increase in the consumption of bakery products, instant meals and fast food, while the consumption of vegetables and fruits decreased (P < 0·005). There was a significant increase in the frequency of consumption of alcoholic beverages (P < 0·001), but a reduction in the dose (P < 0·001), increased frequency of smoking (P = 0·007), an increase in sleep and screen time in hours and decrease in physical activity (P < 0·001).Conclusions:It was possible to observe an increase in screen time, hours of sleep, smoking and drinking frequency. On the other hand, there was a reduction in the dose of alcoholic beverages but also in the practice of physical activity. Eating habits also changed, reducing the performance of daytime meals and increasing the performance of nighttime meals. The frequency of consumption of instant meals and fast food has increased, while consumption of fruits and vegetables has decreased.
- Published
- 2021
18. Impacts of lockdown on dietary patterns among youths in China: the COVID-19 Impact on Lifestyle Change Survey
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Wanqi Yu, Miyang Luo, Dong Zhang, Peng Jia, Bin Yu, and Shujuan Yang
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0301 basic medicine ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,China ,Youth ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Adolescent ,Rice intake ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,030209 endocrinology & metabolism ,Food group ,03 medical and health sciences ,Eating ,Young Adult ,0302 clinical medicine ,Retrospective survey ,Environmental health ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Lockdown ,medicine ,Humans ,Life Style ,Retrospective Studies ,Consumption (economics) ,030109 nutrition & dietetics ,Nutrition and Dietetics ,Public health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,Feeding Behavior ,Diet ,Geography ,Lifestyle change ,Quarantine ,Female ,Research Paper - Abstract
Objective:To assess changes in dietary patterns among youths in China after COVID-19 lockdown.Design:This study was based on the COVID-19 Impact on Lifestyle Change Survey (COINLICS), a national retrospective survey established in early May 2020. The questionnaire was distributed through social media platforms. The sociodemographic information and routine dietary patterns before and after lockdown of participants were investigated. t tests and χ2 tests were used to compare the differences in consumption patterns of twelve major food groups and beverages between sex and across educational levels before and after lockdown. Factor analysis was employed to obtain the main dietary patterns.Settings:China.Participants:A total of 10 082 youths.Results:A significant decrease was observed in the average weekly frequency of rice intake, while significant increases were observed in the frequency of intake of wheat products, other staple foods, fish, eggs, fresh vegetables, preserved vegetables, fresh fruit and dairy products (all P values < 0·01). Heterogeneities of average weekly frequency existed between sex and across educational levels to different extents. The three main dietary patterns derived were loaded most heavily on dairy products, rice and wheat products, separately; the rice pattern became more dominant than the wheat products pattern after lockdown. The frequency of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption had decreased, while the frequency of other beverages had increased.Conclusions:Our timely survey would inform policymakers and health professionals of these significant changes in youths’ dietary patterns after lockdown, with heterogeneities observed to different extents between sex and across educational levels, for better policy-making and public health practice.
- Published
- 2021
19. COVID-19 pandemic and the great impulse to telemedicine: the basis of the WONCA Europe Statement on Telemedicine at the WHO Europe 70th Regional Meeting September 2020
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Ferdinando Petrazzuoli, Donata Kurpas, Shlomo Vinker, Valentina Sarkisova, Androulla Eleftheriou, Anna Żakowicz, Diederik Aarendonk, and Mehmet Ungan
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access to care ,Physician-Patient Relations ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,Humans ,EFPC Position Papers ,rural health ,telemedicine ,World Health Organization ,Care Planning ,Pandemics - Abstract
Summary Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies to support the delivery of healthcare at a distance, guaranteeing patients healthcare by facilitating access where barriers exist; the COVID-19 pandemic has attracted worldwide interest in this field. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main pros and cons of telemedicine, which serve as the basis of the WONCA Europe Statement at the WHO Europe 70th Regional Meeting on 14 September 2020. Pros of telemedicine include virtual healthcare at home, where patients receive support in certain conditions without leaving their houses. During a pandemic, it can be adopted to limit physical human interaction. Unfortunately, it can negatively affect the quality of the doctor–patient relationship, the quality of the physical examination, and the quality of care. Telemedicine requires effective infrastructure and robust investments to be feasible and effective.
- Published
- 2021
20. The great lockdown: information, noise, and macroeconomic fluctuations.
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Brzoza-Brzezina, Michał and Wesołowski, Grzegorz
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STAY-at-home orders ,INFORMATION modeling ,NOISE ,PRIVATE sector - Abstract
This paper argues that not only actual lockdowns can affect economies but also noisy information about them. We construct a New Keynesian model with imperfect information about how long the lockdown would last. On the one hand, a false signal about the lockdown lowers consumption, investment, employment, and output, and this effect can be quantitatively sizable. On the other hand, a true information about a lockdown being introduced can also be misinterpreted and hence cause an impact on agents' decisions being quantitatively different from the one desired by the authorities. To the extent that the latter have less noisy information about future lockdowns than the private sector, they can reduce these undesired fluctuations by precisely communicating the lockdown policy. Importantly, under some circumstances only radical improvements in information precision are successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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21. Determinants of household food security and dietary diversity during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh
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Mst Sadia Sultana, Hasan Al Banna, Ishrat Jahan, Moumita Mandal, Keith Brazendale, Mohammad Tazrian Abid, Satyajit Kundu, Shafiqul Islam Khan, Abu Sayeed, and Jody Harris
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Adult ,Male ,Rural Population ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Cross-sectional study ,Dietary diversity ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Diet Surveys ,Environmental health ,Pandemic ,Humans ,Poverty ,Bangladesh ,Family Characteristics ,Food security ,Nutrition and Dietetics ,integumentary system ,Community Nutrition ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,Household dietary diversity ,Middle Aged ,Geography ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Food Security ,Scale (social sciences) ,Quarantine ,Household income ,Household food security ,Female ,Diet, Healthy ,Research Paper - Abstract
Objectives:The study aimed to determine the associated factors of household food security (HFS) and household dietary diversity (HDD) during the COVID−19 pandemic in Bangladesh.Design:Both online survey and face-to-face interviews were employed in this cross-sectional study. The Household Food Security Scale and Household Dietary Diversity Score were used to access HFS and HDD, respectively. The HDD scores were derived from a 24-h recall of food intake from 12 groups.Setting:Bangladesh.Participants:A total sample of 1876 households were recruited.Results:The overall mean scores of HFS and HDD were 31·86 (sd 2·52) and 6·22 (sd 5·49), respectively. Being a rural resident, having no formal education, occupation of household head other than government job and low monthly income were potential determinants of lower HFS and HDD. Approximately 45 % and 61 % of Bangladeshi households did not get the same quantity and same type of food, respectively, as they got before the pandemic. Over 10 % of respondents reported that they lost their job or had to close their businesses, and income reduction was reported by over 70 % of household income earners during the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn was negatively associated with HFS and HDD.Conclusion:Household socio-economic variables and COVID-19 effects on occupation and income are potential predictors of lower HFS and HDD scores. HFS and HDD deserve more attention during this pandemic particularly with reference to low-earning households and the households whose earning persons’ occupation has been negatively impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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- 2020
22. Emerging adults’ intersecting experiences of food insecurity, unsafe neighbourhoods and discrimination during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak
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Jaime C. Slaughter-Acey, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Jerica M. Berge, Nicole Larson, Lisa J. Harnack, and Tricia Alexander
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Emerging adult ,Adult ,Male ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Home food availability ,Minnesota ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Text message ,Disease Outbreaks ,Food Supply ,Young Adult ,Residence Characteristics ,Environmental health ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Discrimination ,Vegetables ,Prevalence ,Humans ,Longitudinal Studies ,Eating behaviour ,Neighbourhood (mathematics) ,Food security ,Nutrition and Dietetics ,Food insecurity ,SARS-CoV-2 ,digestive, oral, and skin physiology ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Outbreak ,COVID-19 ,Neighbourhood safety ,Feeding Behavior ,Social Discrimination ,Purchasing ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Fruit ,Fast Foods ,Female ,Safety ,Psychology ,Research Paper - Abstract
Objective:To examine how food insecurity is related to emerging adults’ food behaviours and experiences of neighbourhood safety and discrimination and to identify resources needed to support their health during the COVID-19 outbreak.Design:Rapid response online survey. Participants completed the six-item US Household Food Security Survey Module, a brief measure of food insufficiency, and measures of food behaviours, neighbourhood safety and discrimination. Open-ended questions were used to assess changes in eating behaviours during COVID-19 and needed resources.Setting:C-EAT (COVID-19 Eating and Activity over Time) study invitations were sent by email and text message to a longitudinal cohort.Participants:A total of 218 emerging adults (mean age = 24·6 (sd 2·0) years, 70·2 % female) completed a survey in April–May 2020 during a stay-at-home order in Minnesota.Results:The past year prevalence of food insecurity was 28·4 %. Among food-insecure respondents, 41·0 % reported both eating less and experiencing hunger due to lack of money in the past month. Food-insecure respondents were less likely than those who were food secure to have fruits/vegetables at home and more likely to have frequent fast-food restaurant meals, feel unsafe in their neighbourhood and experience discrimination during the stay-at-home order. Food-insecure adults reported changes including eating more food prepared at home, eating more take-out restaurant meals and purchasing more energy-dense snacks as a result of events related to COVID-19. Resources most needed to support their health included eligibility for more food assistance and relief funds.Conclusions:Food-insecure emerging adults experience many barriers to maintaining healthful eating patterns during COVID-19.
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- 2020
23. Food insecurity measurement and prevalence estimates during the COVID-19 pandemic in a repeated cross-sectional survey in Mexico
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Graciela Teruel, Mireya Vilar-Compte, Pablo Gaitán-Rossi, and Rafael Pérez-Escamilla
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Adult ,Adolescent ,Cross-sectional study ,Population ,Concurrent validity ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Anxiety ,Validity ,Young Adult ,Environmental health ,Prevalence ,Humans ,Internal validity ,education ,Mexico ,Pandemics ,Poverty ,Aged ,Aged, 80 and over ,education.field_of_study ,Family Characteristics ,Nutrition and Dietetics ,Rasch model ,Food security ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,Reproducibility of Results ,Middle Aged ,Nutrition Surveys ,Food Insecurity ,Geography ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Scale (social sciences) ,Cell Phone ,Research Paper ,ELCSA - Abstract
Objective:To validate the telephone modality of the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) included in three waves of a phone survey to estimate the monthly household food insecurity prevalence during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico.Design:We examined the reliability and internal validity of the ELCSA scale in three repeated waves of cross-sectional surveys with Rasch models. We estimated the monthly prevalence of food insecurity in the general population and in households with and without children and compared them with a national 2018 survey. We tested concurrent validity by testing associations of food insecurity with socio-economic status and anxiety.Setting:ENCOVID-19 is a monthly telephone cross-sectional survey collecting information on the well-being of Mexican households during the pandemic lockdown. Surveys used probabilistic samples, and we used data from April (n 833), May (n 850) and June 2020 (n 1674).Participants:Mexicans 18 years or older who had a mobile telephone.Results:ELCSA had an adequate model fit and food insecurity was associated, within each wave, with more poverty and anxiety. The COVID-19 lockdown was associated with an important reduction in food security, decreasing stepwise from 38·9 % in 2018 to 24·9 % in June 2020 in households with children.Conclusions:Telephone surveys were a feasible strategy to monitor reductions in food security during the COVID-19 lockdown.
- Published
- 2020
24. The mental health of NHS staff during the COVID-19 pandemic: two-wave Scottish cohort study
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Johannes H. De Kock, Helen Ann Latham, Richard G. Cowden, Breda Cullen, Katia Narzisi, Shaun Jerdan, Sarah-Anne Muñoz, Stephen J. Leslie, Neil McNamara, Adam Boggon, and Roger W. Humphry
- Subjects
Mental Health Services ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,National Health Service ,Papers ,COVID-19 ,risk factors ,Mental health ,staff - Abstract
Background Health and social care workers (HSCWs) are at risk of experiencing adverse mental health outcomes (e.g. higher levels of anxiety and depression) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This can have a detrimental effect on quality of care, the national response to the pandemic and its aftermath. Aims A longitudinal design provided follow-up evidence on the mental health (changes in prevalence of disease over time) of NHS staff working at a remote health board in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic, and investigated the determinants of mental health outcomes over time. Method A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted from July to September 2020. Participants self-reported levels of depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), anxiety (Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7) and mental well-being (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale) at baseline and 1.5 months later. Results The analytic sample of 169 participants, working in community (43%) and hospital (44%) settings, reported substantial levels of depression and anxiety, and low mental well-being at baseline (depression, 30.8%; anxiety, 20.1%; well-being, 31.9%). Although mental health remained mostly constant over time, the proportion of participants meeting the threshold for anxiety increased to 27.2% at follow-up. Multivariable modelling indicated that working with, and disruption because of, COVID-19 were associated with adverse mental health changes over time. Conclusions HSCWs working in a remote area with low COVID-19 prevalence reported substantial levels of anxiety and depression, similar to those working in areas with high COVID-19 prevalence. Efforts to support HSCW mental health must remain a priority, and should minimise the adverse effects of working with, and disruption caused by, the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Published
- 2022
25. Application of records theory on the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon: prediction and prevention
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Marwan Kobeissi, Alya Atoui, Jinane Khraibani, and Zaher Khraibani
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0301 basic medicine ,Waiting time ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,Computer science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,030106 microbiology ,Pneumonia, Viral ,Early detection ,emerging infectious diseases ,03 medical and health sciences ,records theory ,Betacoronavirus ,Originality ,Pandemic ,Humans ,Quality (business) ,Lebanon ,non-parametric test ,Pandemics ,media_common ,Original Paper ,Models, Statistical ,Mathematical model ,SARS-CoV-2 ,pandemic ,Nonparametric statistics ,COVID-19 ,prediction ,Data science ,030104 developmental biology ,Infectious Diseases ,Data Interpretation, Statistical ,sporadic ,Coronavirus Infections - Abstract
Given the fast spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide and its classification by the World Health Organization (WHO) as being one of the worst pandemics in history, several scientific studies are carried out using various statistical and mathematical models to predict and study the likely evolution of this pandemic in the world. In the present research paper, we present a brief study aiming to predict the probability of reaching a new record number of COVID-19 cases in Lebanon, based on the record theory, giving more insights about the rate of its quick spread in Lebanon. The main advantage of the records theory resides in avoiding several statistical constraints concerning the choice of the underlying distribution and the quality of the residuals. In addition, this theory could be used, in cases where the number of available observations is somehow small. Moreover, this theory offers an alternative solution in case where machine learning techniques and long-term memory models are inapplicable because they need a considerable amount of data to be performant. The originality of this paper lies in presenting a new statistical approach allowing the early detection of unexpected phenomena such as the new pandemic COVID-19. For this purpose, we used epidemiological data from Johns Hopkins University to predict the trend of COVID-2019 in Lebanon. Our method is useful in calculating the probability of reaching a new record as well as studying the propagation of the disease. It also computes the probabilities of the waiting time to observe the future COVID-19 record. Our results obviously confirm the quick spread of the disease in Lebanon over a short time.
- Published
- 2020
26. Identifying COVID-19 cases in outpatient settings
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Jue Tao Lim, Fong Seng Lim, Yi Ann Louis Chai, Yii Jen Lew, Meena Sundaram, Yinan Mao, Yinxiaohe Sun, Borame L Dickens, Mark I-Cheng Chen, Desmond Luan Seng Ong, Alexius S. E. Soh, Barnaby Edward Young, Yi-Roe Tan, Alex R. Cook, Glorijoy Shi En Tan, Kangwei Zeng, Tun-Linn Thein, and Franco Wong
- Subjects
Male ,Pediatrics ,Abdominal pain ,Multivariate analysis ,Epidemiology ,Rhinorrhea ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Logistic regression ,Severity of Illness Index ,0302 clinical medicine ,COVID-19 Testing ,Sore throat ,Ambulatory Care ,Odds Ratio ,030212 general & internal medicine ,respiratory symptoms ,Headache ,Pharyngitis ,Middle Aged ,Classification ,Infectious Diseases ,online tool ,Disease Progression ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,diagnosis model ,Adult ,Diarrhea ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Fever ,Sensitivity and Specificity ,03 medical and health sciences ,Young Adult ,Ambulatory care ,Clinical Decision Rules ,Severity of illness ,medicine ,Humans ,Original Paper ,Receiver operating characteristic ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Patient Selection ,COVID-19 ,Odds ratio ,Myalgia ,Abdominal Pain ,Dyspnea ,Logistic Models ,Cough ,Case-Control Studies ,Multivariate Analysis ,business - Abstract
Case identification is an ongoing issue for the COVID-19 epidemic, in particular for outpatient care where physicians must decide which patients to prioritise for further testing. This paper reports tools to classify patients based on symptom profiles based on 236 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 positive cases and 564 controls, accounting for the time course of illness using generalised multivariate logistic regression. Significant symptoms included abdominal pain, cough, diarrhoea, fever, headache, muscle ache, runny nose, sore throat, temperature between 37.5 and 37.9 °C and temperature above 38 °C, but their importance varied by day of illness at assessment. With a high percentile threshold for specificity at 0.95, the baseline model had reasonable sensitivity at 0.67. To further evaluate accuracy of model predictions, leave-one-out cross-validation confirmed high classification accuracy with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.92. For the baseline model, sensitivity decreased to 0.56. External validation datasets reported similar result. Our study provides a tool to discern COVID-19 patients from controls using symptoms and day from illness onset with good predictive performance. It could be considered as a framework to complement laboratory testing in order to differentiate COVID-19 from other patients presenting with acute symptoms in outpatient care.
- Published
- 2021
27. Frailty as a Priority-Setting Criterion for Potentially Lifesaving Treatment—Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, Circularity, and Indirect Discrimination?
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Holm, Søren and Warrington, Daniel Joseph
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FRAIL elderly ,COVID-19 ,MEDICAL triage ,AGE distribution ,DISCRIMINATION (Sociology) ,MORTALITY ,RISK assessment ,HEALTH equity ,COMORBIDITY ,ELDER care - Abstract
Frailty is a state of increased vulnerability to poor resolution of homeostasis after a stressor event. Frailty is most frequently assessed in the old using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CSF) which ranks frailty from 1 to 9. This assessment typically takes less than one minute and is not validated in patients with learning difficulties or those under 65 years old. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) developed guidelines that use "frailty" as one of the priority-setting criteria for how scarce, but potentially lifesaving, health care resources should be allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar guidelines have been developed elsewhere. This paper discusses the ethical implications of such rationing and argues that this is an unproven and ethically problematic form of health care rationing. It specifically discusses: (1) how the frailty ascription becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, (2) the problematic use of "frailty" in COVID-19 "triage," (3) the circularity of the link between age and frailty, (4) indirect discrimination because of the use of a seemingly neutral criterion in health care rationing, and (5) the difficult link between comorbidities and frailty. It is found that there was no research into the use of global frailty scores as a criterion for access to acute treatment before January 2020 and so it is concerning how readily frailty scoring has been adopted to ration access to potentially lifesaving treatments. Existing gerontological frailty scoring systems have not been developed for this purpose, and repurposing them creates significant ethical issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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28. Why does the spread of COVID-19 vary greatly in different countries? Revealing the efficacy of face masks in epidemic prevention
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Lei Guo, Shurui Guo, Jincheng Wei, Bizhen Shu, Enshen Long, and Li Zhang
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0301 basic medicine ,2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,Isolation (health care) ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,030106 microbiology ,Oropharynx ,spread risk ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Environmental health ,Nasopharynx ,Pandemic ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,filtration efficiency ,Particle Size ,Virus load ,Aerosols ,Original Paper ,public health ,Masks ,COVID-19 ,Viral Load ,Face masks ,mask ,Infectious Diseases ,Business - Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is highly contagious, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by it has forced many countries to adopt ‘lockdown’ measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic through social isolation of citizens. Some countries proposed universal mask wearing as a protection measure of public health to strengthen national prevention efforts and to limit the wider spread of the epidemic. In order to reveal the epidemic prevention efficacy of masks, this paper systematically evaluates the experimental studies of various masks and filter materials, summarises the general characteristics of the filtration efficiency of isolation masks with particle size, and reveals the actual efficacy of masks by combining the volume distribution characteristics of human exhaled droplets with different particle sizes and the SARS-CoV-2 virus load of nasopharynx and throat swabs from patients. The existing measured data show that the filtration efficiency of all kinds of masks for large particles and extra-large droplets is close to 100%. From the perspective of filtering the total number of pathogens discharged in the environment and protecting vulnerable individuals from breathing live viruses, the mask has a higher protective effect. If considering the weighted average filtration efficiency with different particle sizes, the filtration efficiencies of the N95 mask and the ordinary mask are 99.4% and 98.5%, respectively. The mask can avoid releasing active viruses to the environment from the source of infection, thus maximising the protection of vulnerable individuals by reducing the probability of inhaling a virus. Therefore, if the whole society strictly implements the policy of publicly wearing masks, the risk of large-scale spread of the epidemic can be greatly reduced. Compared with the overall cost of social isolation, limited personal freedoms and forced suspension of economic activities, the inconvenience for citizens caused by wearing masks is perfectly acceptable.
- Published
- 2021
29. Rapid assessment of data systems for COVID-19 vaccination in the WHO African Region.
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Mboussou F, Nkamedjie P, Oyaole D, Farham B, Atagbaza A, Nsasiirwe S, Costache A, Brooks D, Wiysonge CS, and Impouma B
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- Humans, Data Systems, Immunization Programs, Vaccination, Surveys and Questionnaires, World Health Organization, COVID-19 Vaccines, COVID-19 epidemiology, COVID-19 prevention & control
- Abstract
Most countries in Africa deployed digital solutions to monitor progress in rolling out COVID-19 vaccines. A rapid assessment of existing data systems for COVID-19 vaccines in the African region was conducted between May and July 2022, in 23 countries. Data were collected through interviews with key informants, identified among senior staff within Ministries of Health, using a semi-structured electronic questionnaire. At vaccination sites, individual data were collected in paper-based registers in five countries (21.7%), in an electronic registry in two countries (8.7%), and in the remaining 16 countries (69.6%) using a combination of paper-based and electronic registries. Of the 18 countries using client-based digital registries, 11 (61%) deployed the District Health Information System 2 Tracker, and seven (39%), a locally developed platform. The mean percentage of individual data transcribed in the electronic registries was 61% ± 36% standard deviation. Unreliable Internet coverage (100% of countries), non-payment of data clerks' incentives (89%), and lack of electronic devices (89%) were the main reasons for the suboptimal functioning of digital systems quoted by key informants. It is critical for investments made and experience acquired in deploying electronic platforms for COVID-19 vaccines to be leveraged to strengthen routine immunization data management.
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- 2024
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30. Public Perception Toward the Malaysian National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) in the State of Sabah, Malaysia: A Cross-Sectional Survey.
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Jafar A, Dollah R, Sakke N, Mapa MT, Atang C, Joko EP, Sarjono F, Zakaria NS, George F, and Vun Hung C
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- Humans, Malaysia, Cross-Sectional Studies, Immunization Programs, Public Opinion, COVID-19 epidemiology, COVID-19 prevention & control
- Abstract
The Malaysian Government has initiated the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme , known as PICK , to be a national strategy for addressing the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic across the country. Although the government intensified public awareness to increase program registration, the total number that registered in the state of Sabah, located in East Malaysia, was relatively low during August 2021, accounting for only 42.9% as compared to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Therefore, this paper examines the public perception toward the PICK program in Sabah based on 4 main components: safety, communication, psychology, and milieu. This study is based on the empirical findings drawn from 1024 respondents across Sabah using online Google Form surveys. This study adopts 5 methodologies for data analysis by using K-means clustering, mean score, Mann-Whitney U test, spatial analysis, and frequency analysis. It has been revealed that the percentage of respondents (categorized as Cluster 1) who have a negative perception toward the vaccination program is higher (55.9%) than those who have a positive perception (44.1%). This study further discovered that Cluster 1 has shown high skepticism regarding the vaccination program, which can be explained through the communication component (M = 3.33, SD = 0.588), especially Co2, Co3, Co1, and Co4. Following the communication factor, a chain of negative perceptions also affects other components such as safety, psychology, and milieu among Cluster 1, all of which contribute to poor participation in the PICK program. The study outcomes are extremely useful for informing local authorities to establish policies related to public interests, primarily in the areas of public health. Understanding the community's perspectives and their obstacles in participating in such programs may assist local authorities in developing or implementing public policies and campaigns that ensure such related public programs can be conducted more effectively in the future.
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- 2024
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31. Diagnostic stewardship and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: Lessons learned for prevention of emerging infectious diseases in acute-care settings.
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Epstein L, Diekema DJ, Morgan DJ, Fakih MG, Lee F, Gottlieb L, Leung E, Yen C, Sullivan KV, and Hayden MK
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- Humans, Pandemics prevention & control, SARS-CoV-2, Contact Tracing, COVID-19 Testing, COVID-19 diagnosis, COVID-19 prevention & control, COVID-19 epidemiology, Communicable Diseases, Emerging diagnosis, Communicable Diseases, Emerging epidemiology, Communicable Diseases, Emerging prevention & control
- Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated the importance of stewardship of viral diagnostic tests to aid infection prevention efforts in healthcare facilities. We highlight diagnostic stewardship lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss how diagnostic stewardship principles can inform management and mitigation of future emerging pathogens in acute-care settings. Diagnostic stewardship during the COVID-19 pandemic evolved as information regarding transmission (eg, routes, timing, and efficiency of transmission) became available. Diagnostic testing approaches varied depending on the availability of tests and when supplies and resources became available. Diagnostic stewardship lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic include the importance of prioritizing robust infection prevention mitigation controls above universal admission testing and considering preprocedure testing, contact tracing, and surveillance in the healthcare facility in certain scenarios. In the future, optimal diagnostic stewardship approaches should be tailored to specific pathogen virulence, transmissibility, and transmission routes, as well as disease severity, availability of effective treatments and vaccines, and timing of infectiousness relative to symptoms. This document is part of a series of papers developed by the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America on diagnostic stewardship in infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship.
1 .- Published
- 2024
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32. Reclaiming Public Health Authority: Toward a Legal Framework that Centers the Public's Health, in the Courts and Beyond.
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Adler S, Parmet WE, Tvrdy L, and Bartel S
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- Humans, United States, Pandemics legislation & jurisprudence, Judicial Role, Public Health legislation & jurisprudence, COVID-19 prevention & control, COVID-19 epidemiology
- Abstract
This paper summarizes key shifts in judicial decisions relating to public health powers during the pandemic and the implications of those decisions for public health practice. Then, it gives a preview and call for partnership in developing a legal framework for authority that guides public health to better activities, processes, and accountability in service of the public's health.
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- 2024
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33. Lowering the Age of Consent for Vaccination to Promote Pediatric Vaccination: It's Worth a Shot.
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Irwin M, Soled DR, and Cummings CL
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- Humans, Adolescent, United States, Child, Vaccination legislation & jurisprudence, Vaccination ethics, Informed Consent legislation & jurisprudence, Minors legislation & jurisprudence, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S., SARS-CoV-2, Decision Making, COVID-19 Vaccines, COVID-19 prevention & control, Informed Consent By Minors legislation & jurisprudence, Informed Consent By Minors ethics
- Abstract
This paper challenges historically preconceived notions surrounding a minor's ability to make medical decisions, arguing that federal health law should be reformed to allow minors with capacity as young as age 12 to consent to their own Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC)-approved COVID-19 vaccinations. This proposal aligns with and expands upon current exceptions to limitations on adolescent decision-making. This analysis reviews the historic and current anti-vaccination sentiment, examines legal precedence and rationale, outlines supporting ethical arguments regarding adolescent decision-making, and offers rebuttals to anticipated ethical counterarguments.
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- 2024
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34. COVID-19 mortality among Jews in 2020: a global overview and lessons taught about the Jewish longevity advantage.
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Staetsky LD
- Subjects
- Female, Male, Humans, Longevity, Morbidity, Jews, COVID-19
- Abstract
An extensive body of demographic literature has described Jews as 'long-lifers'. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, this pattern affected all age groups and was particularly well expressed among Jewish males but was also present among Jewish females. It held good independently of the Jews' socio-economic position. This became known as 'Jewish pattern of mortality'. This paper has two aims. The first aim is to show the impact of COVID-19 on Jewish mortality. This is a study of a global pandemic in the Jewish population which is, to the best of our knowledge, unique in its scope and quality. The second aim is to settle the finding of relatively high mortality from COVID-19 in certain Jewish communities ('Jewish penalty' in relation to COVID-19) with the notion of 'Jewish pattern of mortality'. The author proceeds to show that the status of Jews as a low mortality group under a Western epidemiological regime, when mortality and morbidity are dominated by non-communicable diseases, does not stand in contradiction to a higher vulnerability among Jews to coronavirus. Thus, the paper further develops understanding of mortality of Jews and serves as a contribution to ethnic and religious demography and epidemiology.
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- 2024
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35. UK economic outlook: Brexit Britain in Covid recovery ward.
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Küçük, Hande, Lenoël, Cyrille, and Macqueen, Rory
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ECONOMIC forecasting ,COVID-19 ,BRITISH withdrawal from the European Union, 2016-2020 - Published
- 2021
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36. Analysis of the impact of antidepressants and other medications on COVID-19 infection risk in a chronic psychiatric in-patient cohort
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Louisa Steinberg, James D. Clelland, Krista Ramiah, and Catherine L. Clelland
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Fluoxetine ,medicine.medical_specialty ,trazodone ,business.industry ,fluoxetine ,Trazodone ,COVID-19 ,Retrospective cohort study ,Odds ratio ,Antidepressants ,Lower risk ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,psychiatric illness ,Cohort ,Papers ,medicine ,Psychiatric hospital ,Antidepressant ,Academic Psychiatry ,business ,Psychiatry ,medicine.drug - Abstract
BackgroundDuring the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, patients with confirmed cases in New York State accounted for roughly 25% of total US cases, with psychiatric hospital in-patients at particularly high risk for COVID-19 infection.AimsThe beneficial effects of mental health medications, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), on the severity of COVID-19 disease outcomes have been documented. Protective effects against infection have also been suggested for these medications. We therefore tested the hypothesis that medication use modifies the risk of COVID-19 infection in a long-stay, chronic in-patient psychiatry setting, where the potential for exposure was likely uniform across the facility, and where these medications were routinely prescribed.MethodThis was a retrospective cohort study of an adult psychiatric facility operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health. Current medication information and COVID-19 status was collected from electronic medical records for 165 people who were in-patients during the period January to July 2020, and logistic regression was employed to model the main effects of medication use on COVID-19 infection.ResultsA significant protective association was observed between antidepressant use and COVID-19 infection (odds ratio (OR) = 0.33, 95% CI 0.15–0.70, adjusted P < 0.05). Analysis of individual antidepressant classes showed that SSRI, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor and the serotonin-2 antagonist reuptake inhibitor classes of antidepressants, drove this protective effect. Exploratory analyses of individual antidepressants demonstrated an association between lower risk of infection and fluoxetine use (P = 0.023), as well as trazodone use (P = 0.001).ConclusionsThe novel finding of reduced COVID-19 infection risk for psychiatric in-patients taking antidepressants, suggests that antidepressants may be an important weapon in the continued fight against COVID-19 disease. This finding may become particularly salient for in-patient settings if vaccine-resistant strains of the virus appear.
- Published
- 2021
37. Nomogram prediction of severe risk in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia
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Wei Tang, Run Yao, Fang Zheng, Yaxiong Huang, Guoqiang Zhou, Ruochan Chen, and Ning Li
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nomogram ,Original Paper ,Infectious Diseases ,Epidemiology ,COVID-19 ,SARS-CoV ,prediction - Abstract
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) elicits a range of different responses in patients and can manifest into mild to very severe cases in different individuals, depending on many factors. We aimed to establish a prediction model of severe risk in COVID-19 patients, to help clinicians achieve early prevention, intervention and aid them in choosing effective therapeutic strategy. We selected confirmed COVID-19 patients who were admitted to First Hospital of Changsha city between 29 January and 15 February 2020 and collected their clinical data. Multivariate logical regression was used to identify the factors associated with severe risk. These factors were incorporated into the nomogram to establish the model. The ROC curve, calibration plot and decision curve were used to assess the performance of the model. A total of 228 patients were enrolled and 33 (14.47%) patients developed severe pneumonia. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that shortness of breath, fatigue, creatine kinase, lymphocytes and h CRP were independent factors for severe risk in COVID-19 patients. Incorporating age, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and these factors, the nomogram achieved good concordance indexes of 0.89 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.832–0.949] and well-fitted calibration plot curves (Hosmer–Lemeshow test: P = 0.97). The model provided superior net benefit when clinical decision thresholds were between 15% and 85% predicted risk. Using the model, clinicians can intervene early, improve therapeutic effects and reduce the severity of COVID-19, thus ensuring more targeted and efficient use of medical resources.
- Published
- 2021
38. Interleukin-18 and COVID-19
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C. M. Schooling, M. Li, and S. L. Au Yeung
- Subjects
Male ,Original Paper ,Epidemiology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,evolutionary biology ,Interleukin-18 ,COVID-19 ,Mendelian Randomization Analysis ,Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ,Severity of Illness Index ,Infectious Diseases ,Odds Ratio ,Humans ,Female ,Genetic Predisposition to Disease ,Mendelian randomisation ,Genome-Wide Association Study - Abstract
Vulnerability to coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 varies due to differences in interferon gamma (IFNγ) immunity. We investigated whether a key modifiable interferon precursor, interleukin-18, was related to COVID-19, overall and by severity, using Mendelian randomisation. We used four established genome-wide significant genetic predictors of interleukin-18 applied to the most recent genome-wide association study of COVID-19 (June 2021) to obtain Mendelian randomisation inverse variance weighted estimates by severity, i.e. any (cases = 112 612, non-cases = 2 474 079), hospitalised (cases = 24 274, non-cases = 2 061 529) and very severe (cases = 8779, non-cases = 1 001 875) COVID-19. To be comprehensive, we also conducted an exploratory analysis for IFNγ and two related cytokines with less well-established genetic predictors, i.e. interleukin-12 and interleukin-23. Genetically predicted interleukin-18 was associated with lower risk of any COVID-19 (odds ratio (OR) 0.96 per standard deviation, 95% confidence interval (0.94–0.99, P-value 0.004)) and of very severe COVID-19 (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.78–0.999, P-value 0.048). Sensitivity analysis and a more liberal genetic instrument selection gave largely similar results. Few genome-wide significant genetic predictors were available for IFNγ, interleukin-12 or interleukin-23, and no associations with COVID-19 were evident. Interleukin-18 could be a modifiable target to prevent COVID-19 and should be further explored in an experimental design.
- Published
- 2021
39. Estimating the SARS-CoV2 infections detection rate and cumulative incidence in the World Health Organization African Region 10 months into the pandemic
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Caitlin M. Wolfe, Antoine Flahault, Francis Kasolo, Cláudia Torres Codeço, Roland Ngom, George Sie Williams, Franck Mboussou, Bridget Farham, Ngoy Nsenga, Olivia Keiser, Humphrey Karamagi, Benido Impouma, Zabulon Yoti, and Cyrus Shahpar
- Subjects
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,Original Paper ,detection rate ,Time Factors ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,Incidence ,COVID-19 ,Middle Aged ,World Health Organization ,World health ,Infectious Diseases ,Geography ,Environmental health ,Pandemic ,Africa ,Humans ,Cumulative incidence ,Detection rate ,cumulative incidence ,Aged ,Retrospective Studies - Abstract
As of 03 January 2021, the WHO African region is the least affected by the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, accounting for only 2.4% of cases and deaths reported globally. However, concerns abound about whether the number of cases and deaths reported from the region reflect the true burden of the disease and how the monitoring of the pandemic trajectory can inform response measures. We retrospectively estimated four key epidemiological parameters (the total number of cases, the number of missed cases, the detection rate and the cumulative incidence) using the COVID-19 prevalence calculator tool developed by Resolve to Save Lives. We used cumulative cases and deaths reported during the period 25 February to 31 December 2020 for each WHO Member State in the region as well as population data to estimate the four parameters of interest. The estimated number of confirmed cases in 42 countries out of 47 of the WHO African region included in this study was 13 947 631 [95% confidence interval (CI): 13 334 620–14 635 502] against 1 889 512 cases reported, representing 13.5% of overall detection rate (range: 4.2% in Chad, 43.9% in Guinea). The cumulative incidence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was estimated at 1.38% (95% CI: 1.31%–1.44%), with South Africa the highest [14.5% (95% CI: 13.9%–15.2%)] and Mauritius [0.1% (95% CI: 0.099%–0.11%)] the lowest. The low detection rate found in most countries of the WHO African region suggests the need to strengthen SARS-CoV-2 testing capacities and adjusting testing strategies.
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- 2021
40. First whole-genome analysis of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) obtained from COVID-19 patients from five districts in Western Serbia
- Author
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Milanko Šekler, Joshua Quick, Jeremy D. Volkening, Marko Janković, Dejan Vidanović, Bojana Banović Đeri, Tamaš Petrović, Bojana Tešović, Claudio L. Afonso, Tanja Jovanovic, and Aleksandra Knežević
- Subjects
Coronavirus ,Original Paper ,Infectious Diseases ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,whole-genome sequencing ,COVID-19 ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus ,Biology ,Virology ,Genome ,Serbia - Abstract
This study was endeavoured to contribute in furthering our understanding of the molecular epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by sequencing and analysing the first full-length genome sequences obtained from 48 coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients in five districts in Western Serbia in the period April 2020–July 2020. SARS-CoV-2 sequences in Western Serbia distinguished from the Wuhan sequence in 128 SNPs in total. The phylogenetic structure of local SARS-CoV-2 isolates suggested the existence of at least four distinct groups of SARS-CoV-2 strains in Western Serbia. The first group is the most similar to the strain from Italy. These isolates included two 20A sequences and 15−30 20B sequences that displayed a newly occurring set of four conjoined mutations. The second group is the most similar to the strain from France, carrying two mutations and belonged to 20A clade. The third group is the most similar to the strain from Switzerland carrying four co-occurring mutations and belonging to 20B clade. The fourth group is the most similar to another strain from France, displaying one mutation that gave rise to a single local isolate that belonged to 20A clade.
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- 2021
41. Developing a sentinel syndromic surveillance system using school-absenteeism data, example monitoring absences over the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic
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Alex Lovelock-Wren, Alex J. Elliot, Jennifer Lai, Jamie Lopez Bernal, Esther Kissling, Jeremy Mabbitt, Paul Loveridge, Roger Morbey, Helen E Hughes, and Vanessa Saliba
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Male ,2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,school-aged children ,Disease Outbreaks ,Environmental health ,Pandemic ,real-time surveillance ,Absenteeism ,Medicine ,Short Paper ,Humans ,syndromic surveillance ,Absence data ,Child ,Students ,Pandemics ,Schools ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,COVID-19 ,School absenteeism ,Infectious Diseases ,England ,Communicable Disease Control ,Epidemiological Monitoring ,business ,Sentinel Surveillance - Abstract
This study describes the development of a pilot sentinel school absence syndromic surveillance system. Using data from a sample of schools in England the capability of this system to monitor the impact of disease on school absences in school-aged children is shown, using the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period as an example. Data were obtained from an online app service used by schools and parents to report their children absent, including reasons/symptoms relating to absence. For 2019 and 2020, data were aggregated into daily counts of ‘total’ and ‘cough’ absence reports. There was a large increase in the number of absence reports in March 2020 compared to March 2019, corresponding to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. Absence numbers then fell rapidly and remained low from late March 2020 until August 2020, while lockdown was in place in England. Compared to 2019, there was a large increase in the number of absence reports in September 2020 when schools re-opened in England, although the peak number of absences was smaller than in March 2020. This information can help provide context around the absence levels in schools associated with COVID-19. Also, the system has the potential for further development to monitor the impact of other conditions on school absence, e.g. gastrointestinal infections.
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- 2021
42. Comparison of ARIMA, ES, GRNN and ARIMA–GRNN hybrid models to forecast the second wave of COVID-19 in India and the United States
- Author
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Li Ye, Gang Wang, Junjun Jiang, Wudi Wei, Tiantian Wu, Bingyu Liang, Sanqi An, and Hao Liang
- Subjects
Original Paper ,ARIMA–GRNN ,Infectious Diseases ,ES ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,Computer science ,Econometrics ,GRNN ,COVID-19 ,Autoregressive integrated moving average ,ARIMA - Abstract
As acute infectious pneumonia, the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has created unique challenges for each nation and region. Both India and the United States (US) have experienced a second outbreak, resulting in a severe disease burden. The study aimed to develop optimal models to predict the daily new cases, in order to help to develop public health strategies. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, generalised regression neural network (GRNN) models, ARIMA–GRNN hybrid model and exponential smoothing (ES) model were used to fit the daily new cases. The performances were evaluated by minimum mean absolute per cent error (MAPE). The predictive value with ARIMA (3, 1, 3) (1, 1, 1)14 model was closest to the actual value in India, while the ARIMA–GRNN presented a better performance in the US. According to the models, the number of daily new COVID-19 cases in India continued to decrease after 27 May 2021. In conclusion, the ARIMA model presented to be the best-fit model in forecasting daily COVID-19 new cases in India, and the ARIMA–GRNN hybrid model had the best prediction performance in the US. The appropriate model should be selected for different regions in predicting daily new cases. The results can shed light on understanding the trends of the outbreak and giving ideas of the epidemiological stage of these regions.
- Published
- 2021
43. Effect of non-pharmacological interventions on the COVID-19 epidemic in Saudi Arabia
- Author
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Naif I. AlJohani and Kipkoech Mutai
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,Original Paper ,Nonpharmacological interventions ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,business.industry ,Epidemiology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,Incidence ,public health ,Physical Distancing ,Basic Reproduction Number ,Saudi Arabia ,COVID-19 ,Models, Theoretical ,modelling ,Hospitalization ,Infectious Diseases ,Quarantine ,medicine ,Humans ,Intensive care medicine ,business ,Asymptomatic Infections - Abstract
We quantified the potential impact of different social distancing and self-isolation scenarios on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic trajectory in Saudi Arabia and compared the modelling results to the confirmed epidemic trajectory. Using the susceptible, exposed, infected, quarantined and self-isolated, requiring hospitalisation, recovered/immune individuals, fatalities model, we assessed the impact of a non-pharmacological interventions’ subset. An unmitigated scenario (baseline), mitigation scenarios (25% reduction in social contact/twofold increase in self-isolation) and enhanced mitigation scenarios (50% reduction in social contact/twofold increase in self-isolation) were assessed and compared to the actual epidemic trajectory. For the unmitigated scenario, mitigation scenarios, enhanced mitigation scenarios and actual observed epidemic, the peak daily incidence rates (per 10 000 population) were 77.00, 16.00, 9.00 and 1.14 on days 71, 54, 35 and 136, respectively. The peak fatality rates were 35.00, 13.00, 5.00 and 0.016 on days 150, 125, 60 and 155, respectively. The R0 was 1.15, 1.14, 1.22 and 2.50, respectively. Aggressive implementation of social distancing and self-isolation contributed to the downward trend of the disease. We recommend using extensive models that comprehensively consider the natural history of COVID-19, social and behavioural patterns, age-specific data, actual network topology and population to elucidate the epidemic's magnitude and trajectory.
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- 2021
44. COVID-19 patients with increasing age experience differential time to initial medical care and severity of symptoms
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Alejandro Martínez-Esteban, Javier Mancilla-Galindo, Norma Galindo-Sevilla, Hector David Meza-Comparán, Ashuin Kammar-García, and Javier Mancilla-Ramírez
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Adult ,Male ,Pediatrics ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Aging ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Adolescent ,coronavirus ,Disease ,Logistic regression ,Severity of Illness Index ,Time-to-Treatment ,Young Adult ,Severity of illness ,Epidemiology ,medicine ,Humans ,Young adult ,Child ,Mexico ,Aged ,Retrospective Studies ,Aged, 80 and over ,Original Paper ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,pandemic ,Infant, Newborn ,COVID-19 ,Infant ,Retrospective cohort study ,Middle Aged ,Patient Acceptance of Health Care ,Ageing ,Infectious Diseases ,Child, Preschool ,Ambulatory ,epidemiology ,Female ,business - Abstract
We conducted a retrospective observational study in patients with laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) who received medical care in 688 COVID-19 ambulatory units and hospitals in Mexico City between 24 February 2020 and 24 December 2020, to study if the elderly seek medical care later than younger patients and their severity of symptoms at initial medical evaluation. Patients were categorised into eight groups (s.d.: 16.8 years; 50.4% were women). Mean time from symptom onset to medical care was 4.04 (s.d.: 3.6) days and increased with older age categories (P < 0.0001). Mortality risk increased by 6.4% for each day of delay in medical care from symptom onset. The risk of presenting with the symptoms of severity was greater with increasing age categories. In conclusion, COVID-19 patients with increasing ages tend to seek medical care later, with higher rates of symptoms of severity at initial presentation in both ambulatory units and hospitals.
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- 2021
45. Seroepidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 infections in an urban population-based cohort in León, Nicaragua
- Author
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Sylvia Becker-Dreps, Lakshmanane Premkumar, Fredman González, Rebecca Rubinstein, Michael Sciaudone, Aravinda M. de Silva, Patricia Blandon, Nadja A. Vielot, Christian Toval-Ruíz, Edwing Centeno Cuadra, Nancy Munguia, Natalie M. Bowman, Lester Gutierrez, and Filemon Bucardo
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Adolescent ,Urban Population ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,Nicaragua ,Cohort Studies ,Population based cohort ,Young Adult ,Seroepidemiologic Studies ,Environmental health ,Prevalence ,Medicine ,Humans ,Short Paper ,Child ,Aged ,Aged, 80 and over ,seroprevalence ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,COVID-19 ,Middle Aged ,Infectious Diseases ,Child, Preschool ,Female ,epidemiology ,business - Abstract
In a Nicaraguan population-based cohort, SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence reached 28% in the first 6 months of the country's epidemic and reached 35% 6 months later. Immune waning was uncommon. Individuals with a seropositive household member were over three times as likely to be seropositive themselves, suggesting the importance of household transmission.
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- 2021
46. Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine in preventing infection and disease severity: a case-control study from an Eastern State of India
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Manisha Verma, Bijaya Nanda Naik, Bijit Biswas, Prabhat Kumar Singh, Sanjay Pandey, Chandramani Singh, and Binod Kumar Pati
- Subjects
Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,COVID-19 Vaccines ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,Population ,effectiveness ,India ,Disease ,Case-control studies ,Severity of Illness Index ,Internal medicine ,Severity of illness ,medicine ,Humans ,education ,education.field_of_study ,Original Paper ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Case-control study ,COVID-19 ,Odds ratio ,vaccines ,Middle Aged ,Confidence interval ,Vaccination ,Infectious Diseases ,Treatment Outcome ,Female ,business - Abstract
Effectiveness of corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19) vaccines used in India is unexplored and need to be substantiated. The present case-control study was planned to elicit the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing infection and disease severity in the general population of Bihar, India. This case-control study was conducted among people aged ≥45 years during April to June 2021. The cases were the COVID-19 patients admitted or visited All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, Bihar, India, and were contacted directly. The controls were the individuals tested negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2) at the Virology laboratory, AIIMS-Patna and contacted telephonically for collection of relevant information. The vaccine effectiveness (VE) was calculated by using the formula (VE = 1 – odds ratio). The adjusted VE for partial and full vaccination were estimated to be 52.0% (95% confidence interval (CI) 39.0–63.0%) and 83.0% (95% CI 73.0–89.0%) respectively for preventing SARS CoV-2 infection. The sub-group analyses of the cases have shown that the length of hospital stays (LOS) (partially vaccinated: 9 days vs. unvaccinated: 12 days; P = 0.028) and the severity of the disease (fully vaccinated: 30.3% vs. partially vaccinated: 51.3% and unvaccinated: 54.1%; P = 0.035) were significantly low among vaccinated compared to unvaccinated individuals. To conclude, four out of every five fully vaccinated individuals are estimated to be protected from contracting SARS CoV-2 infection. Vaccination lowered LOS and chances of development of severe disease.
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- 2021
47. Non-pharmaceutical interventions and inoculation rate shape SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaign success
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Marta Galanti, Sen Pei, Jeffrey Shaman, Kimberly M. Shea, Apostolos Charos, Farid Khan, Teresa K. Yamana, Frederick J. Angulo, and David L. Swerdlow
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Emergency Use Authorization ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Original Paper ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,NPIs ,Epidemiology ,business.industry ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,Psychological intervention ,Authorization ,vaccination ,Vaccination ,Infectious Diseases ,Vaccine administration ,Vaccination Campaigns ,Pandemic ,Emergency medicine ,Medicine ,business ,Covid-19 - Abstract
Nearly 1 year into the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the first severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccines received emergency use authorisation and vaccination campaigns began. A number of factors can reduce the averted burden of cases and deaths due to vaccination. Here, we use a dynamic model, parametrised with Bayesian inference methods, to assess the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) (such as social distancing, mask mandates, school and workplace closure), and vaccine administration and uptake rates on infections and deaths averted in the United States. We show that scenarios depicting higher compliance with NPIs avert more than 60% of infections and 70% of deaths during the period of vaccine administration, and that increasing the vaccination rate from 5 to 11 million people per week could increase the averted burden by more than one-third. These findings underscore the importance of maintaining NPIs and increasing vaccine administration rates.
- Published
- 2021
48. What does Covid-19 teach us about English contract law?
- Author
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Mitchell, Catherine
- Subjects
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COVID-19 pandemic , *CONTRACTS , *VIS major (Civil law) , *FRUSTRATION , *GOOD faith (Law) , *STAY-at-home orders , *GOVERNMENT regulation , *LEGAL precedent - Abstract
This paper examines how English courts have responded to the contract problems generated by the Covid-19 pandemic and considers what this tells us about future contract law development. In relation to consumers, the case law on pandemic-affected contracts, though limited, indicates that traditional contract doctrine does not necessarily produce beneficial outcomes for consumers. This further diminishes the importance of the common law in the consumer contracting context. In the commercial sector, contracting parties were encouraged by government and other organisations to co-operate with one another and act in good faith during the crisis, but this has not influenced the courts applying contract law in the pandemic aftermath. The emerging case law suggests that contract law has retained its commitment to certainty, freedom of contract and sanctity of contract, notwithstanding the extraordinary circumstances around the outbreak and its unpredictable effects on contracts. The unalloyed application of formal contract law in the post-pandemic case law augments the position of relational norms as extra-contractual in English law, putting the further judicial development of relational contract principles in doubt. The paper concludes that despite the considerable social and economic upheaval caused by the pandemic, its impact on contract law development is likely to be minimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
49. Precarious ageing in a global pandemic – older adults' experiences of being at risk due to COVID-19.
- Author
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Gallistl, Vera, Richter, Lukas, Heidinger, Theresa, Schütz, Teresa, Rohner, Rebekka, Hengl, Lisa, and Kolland, Franz
- Subjects
- *
ATTITUDES toward aging , *LIFE change events , *FEAR , *ELDER care , *RESEARCH funding , *INTERVIEWING , *ATTITUDE (Psychology) , *AGING , *RESEARCH methodology , *LIFE course approach , *RISK perception , *COVID-19 , *COVID-19 pandemic , *OLD age - Abstract
Health authorities worldwide address older adults as a risk group for more serious illness and health complications associated with COVID-19, while social gerontologists have warned that addressing older adults as a risk group of COVID-19 bears the risk of reinforcing ageism. This paper empirically explores to what extent older adults perceive themselves as part of a COVID-19 risk group and how these perceptions influence their everyday lives and experiences of age and ageing. This paper draws upon data from a mixed-methods study on older adults' risk perceptions during COVID-19 in Lower Austria, including a representative survey on 521 adults (60+ years) and data from 20 semi-structured interviews. Approximately two-thirds of the respondents consider themselves at risk of COVID-19 and name age, in addition to pre-existing illness, as a contributing factor in this risk perception. Older adults with health constraints, and especially older men, have a higher probability of perceiving risk due to COVID-19. Additionally, older adults report that they experience being 'suddenly seen as old' or 'being put into a box' during the pandemic, which influenced their experiences and images of ageing. Our study provides insights into how perceived COVID-19 risk affects the everyday lives of older adults. Age-based categorisations of risk contribute to a shift in images of age and ageing, drawing on insecurity and risk, rather than successful and active ageing, to conceptualise later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
50. Hydrogen peroxide vapor decontamination of N95 respirators for reuse
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Lorraine Lee, Margaret Cintron, Nancy L. Havill, Thomas J. Balcezak, Richard A. Martinello, Mark Russi, Kaitlyn E. Kortright, Patrick A. Kenney, Jacqueline Epright, and Benjamin K Chan
- Subjects
Microbiology (medical) ,business.product_category ,Epidemiology ,N95 Respirators ,law.invention ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,law ,Equipment Reuse ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Respirator ,Aerosolization ,Filtration ,Decontamination ,0303 health sciences ,Inhalation ,030306 microbiology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Exhalation ,COVID-19 ,Human decontamination ,Hydrogen Peroxide ,Sterilization (microbiology) ,Pulp and paper industry ,Infectious Diseases ,Environmental science ,Vaporized hydrogen peroxide ,Original Article ,business - Abstract
Objective:The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to global shortages of N95 respirators. Reprocessing of used N95 respirators may provide a higher filtration crisis alternative, but whether effective sterilization can be achieved for a virus without impairing respirator function remains unknown. We evaluated the viricidal efficacy of Bioquell vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) on contaminated N95 respirators and tested the particulate particle penetration and inhalation and exhalation resistance of respirators after multiple cycles of VHP.Methods:For this study, 3M 1870 N95 respirators were contaminated with 3 aerosolized bacteriophages: T1, T7, and Pseudomonas phage phi-6 followed by 1 cycle of VHP decontamination using a BQ-50 system. Additionally, new and unused respirators were sent to an independent laboratory for particulate filter penetration testing and inhalation and exhalation resistance after 3 and 5 cycles of VHP.Results:A single VHP cycle resulted in complete eradication of bacteriophage from respirators (limit of detection 10 PFU). Respirators showed acceptable limits for inhalation/exhalation resistance after 3 and 5 cycles of VHP. Respirators demonstrated a filtration efficiency >99 % after 3 cycles, but filtration efficiency fell below 95% after 5 cycles of HPV.Conclusion:Bioquell VHP demonstrated high viricidal activity for N95 respirators inoculated with aerosolized bacteriophages. Bioquell technology can be scaled for simultaneous decontamination of a large number of used but otherwise intact respirators. Reprocessing should be limited to 3 cycles due to concerns both about impact of clinical wear and tear on fit, and to decrement in filtration after 3 cycles.
- Published
- 2021
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