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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic placed important challenges on parents, as they had to meet various demands during lockdown, including childcare, work and homeschooling. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate perceived stress levels among the parents of school-aged children and explore their association with sociodemographic, environmental and psychological factors during lockdown., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the parents of school-aged children ages 8 to 18, who lived in the Grand Est region of France during the first wave of the pandemic. An online survey collected sociodemographic data, living and working conditions, and exposure to COVID-19 as well as parent's levels of perceived stress (PSS-10), self-perceived health status (SF-12), social support (MSPSS) and resilience (BRS). Multivariable logistic regression models were conducted to evaluate the association between moderate to severe perceived stress and various factors., Results: In total, 734 parents were included. The results indicated that 47% were experiencing moderate stress and 7.2% were experiencing severe stress. Factors most strongly associated with risk of moderate to severe levels of stress were lower levels of parental resilience (OR = 3.8, 95% CI: 2.2-6.6) and poor self-perceived mental health status (OR = 7.3, 95% CI: 5.0-10.8). The following risk factors were also identified: female sex; being in the age range of 35-44; difficulties isolating and contracting COVID-19, which involved hospitalization and separation or isolation from family. The support of friends (OR = 0.8, 95% CI: 0.7-1.0) and family (OR = 0.5, 95% CI: 0.3-0.8) were protective factors., Conclusions: These findings suggest that supportive and preventive programs should focus on the improvement of resilience and mental health management to promote parents' wellbeing. Research has to focus both on individuals' inner potential for increasing resilience and the environmental resources to be activated. Building and boosting resilience among parents could serve as a protective factor against negative outcomes for them and their families., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

Introduction: COVID-19 lockdown measures resulted in children and adolescents staying and learning at home. This study investigated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its associated factors among youth during the first lockdown., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 8- to 18-year-olds from the French Grand Est region. Sociodemographic data and information on living and learning conditions were collected using an online survey. HRQoL was assessed using the KIDSCREEN-27. Multiple regression analysis was performed to explore factors related to low HRQoL in each dimension., Results: In total, 471 children from 341 households were included. Difficulties isolating at home were associated with low HRQoL in the psychological well-being (OR = 2.2, 95% CI: 1.2-4.0) and parent relations and autonomy (OR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.2-3.8) dimensions. Conflicts with dwelling occupants were related to increased ORs in the psychological well-being (OR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.9-4.6), parent relations and autonomy (OR = 2.2, 95% CI: 1.4-3.4) and school environment (OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.5-3.7) dimensions. Living in an apartment (OR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1-3.1), never leaving home (OR = 2.6, 95% CI: 1.2-5.9), having indoor noise at home (OR = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.2-4.6), and having a parent with high anxiety (OR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1-3.1) were associated with low HRQoL in the social support and peers dimension. Children working less than 1 h/day on schoolwork had an increased OR of 3.5 (95% CI: 1.4-9.0) in the school environment dimension., Conclusion: Living and learning conditions were associated with low HRQoL among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 lockdown. Prevention and intervention programs are needed to support youth by facilitating their interactions and improving their coping and to prepare for future waves., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: The COVID-19 epidemic has sent students around the world in to lockdown. This study sought to assess the prevalence of impaired self-perceived mental health and identify associated factors among French post-secondary students during the lockdown., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among French students living in the Grand Est area in France from May 7 to 17, 2020 during the first lockdown. An online survey was used to collect sociodemographic data, learning and teaching conditions, living conditions, and exposure to COVID-19, and self-perceived mental health was assessed with mental composite score (MCS) of the SF-12., Results: Overall, 4018 were analyzed. Most participants were female (70.7%), and the mean age was 21.7 years (SD 4.0). The mean MCS score was 44.5 (SD 17.3). Impaired mental health, defined by a MCS < 1st Quartile, was mainly associated with female sex; decreased time for learning; not having access to the outside with a garden, a terrace or a balcony; difficulties with the living situation and having someone in the home affected by the SARS-COV2 requiring hospitalization or not., Conclusions: This study showed that living conditions during lockdown had a clear impact on the mental health of French post-secondary students. There is a need to improve prevention and to access distance education as well as an urgent need for measures to develop healthy coping strategies for students. This is significant challenge and will assist in moderating the risk for the development of further distress and mental health concerns., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Background: Many effective physical activity (PA) interventions have focused on individual factors or a single theoretical model, limiting our understanding of the determinants of PA practice and their interactions in the cancer trajectory. The present mixed-method study aims to capture social and psychological determinants of PA practice from diagnosis to remission among cancer patients, and to identify key levers for PA practice., Methods/design: A nested sequential mixed-method design QUAN (QUAL+QUAL) will be used, with qualitative studies embedded in the quantitative study to broaden our understanding of the determinants of PA practice. The design is sequential, since qualitative data on medical staff will be collected before patient inclusion (Phase 1), followed by quantitative patient data collection lasting one year (Phase 2) and a final qualitative data collection one year after inclusion (Phase 3). Phase 1 will be a case study in the two hospitals involved in the study, exploring knowledge of and support for PA practice among medical staff. Through interviews and documental analyses, the PA support dynamic will be evaluated with regard to PA prescription. Phase 2 will be a one-year observational study among 693 cancer patients. Quantitative medical, social, dispositional and psychological data, PA practices and preferences, will be collected at diagnosis, and six months and one year thereafter. Phase 3 will be a retrospective study, evaluating societal and policy factors, as well as unexpected factors playing a role in PA levels and preferences among cancer patients. For this phase thirty patients will be identified six months after inclusion on the basis of their PA profiles. Quantitative data will provide the main dataset, whilst qualitative data will complete the picture, enabling determinants of PA practice and their interactions to be captured throughout the cancer trajectory., Discussion: The present study aims to identify key levers and typical trajectories for PA practice among cancer patients, adapted to different times in the course of cancer and taking into account "what works", "for whom", "where" and "how". The challenge is the tailoring of PA interventions to patients at different times in their cancer trajectory, and the implication of medical staff support., Trial Registration: Clinical Trial NCT03919149 , 18 April 2019. Prospectively registered.

Background: Evaluation of complex interventions (CI) is challenging for health researchers and requires innovative approaches. The objective of this work is to present the main methods used to evaluate CI., Methods: A systematic review of the scientific literature was conducted to identify methods used for the evaluation of CI. We searched MEDLINE via PubMed databases for articles including an evaluation or a pilot study of a complex intervention, published in a ten-year period. Key-words of this research were ("complex intervention*" AND "evaluation")., Results: Among 445 identified articles, 100 research results or protocols were included. Among them, 5 presented 2 different types of design in the same publication, thus our work included 105 designs. Individual randomized controlled trials (IRCT) represented 21.9% (n = 23) of evaluation designs, randomized clinical trials adaptations 44.8% (n = 47), quasi -experimental designs and cohort study 19.0% (n = 20), realist evaluation 6.7% (n = 7) and other cases studies and other approaches 8.6% (n = 9). A process/mechanisms analysis was included in 80% (n = 84) of these designs., Conclusion: A range of methods can be used successively or combined at various steps of the evaluation approach. A framework is proposed to situate each of the designs with respect to evaluation questions. The growing interest of researchers in alternative methods and the development of their use must be accompanied by conceptual and methodological research in order to more clearly define their principles of use.