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Background: The burden of sepsis is high in India and is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Vitamin C, an endogenous antioxidant, may improve patient outcomes. Methods: This was a parallel-group pilot feasibility randomized controlled trial conducted at 2 intensive care units in India. Adult patients (≥18 years) with proven or suspected infection as the main diagnosis and needing a continuous intravenous vasopressor infusion were randomized to intravenous vitamin C (50 mg/kg every 6 hours for a maximum of 16 doses) or matching placebo. Primary outcomes were related to protocol adherence and feasibility (enrollment per month). The key secondary outcome was the composite of mortality or persistent organ dysfunction (POD) at day 28 after randomization. Results: 60 patients were screened, 51 were eligible, 32 were randomized, and 30 were included in the analysis (randomized/eligible ratio: 0.63). The overall rate of enrollment was 1.5 patients per month. The median (IQR) age was 63.5 (51.0, 70.0) and 70.0% of the patients were male. In both arms, all patients received ≥90% of scheduled doses of the study drug. No patient received open-label vitamin C and there were no deviations from the glucose monitoring protocol. The composite outcome of mortality or POD at day 28 occurred in 56.3% (9/16) in the vitamin C arm as compared to 42.9% (6/14) in the placebo arm [RR: 1.31 (95% CI: 0.62, 2.76), p = 0.47]. Conclusion: In this pilot feasibility randomized controlled trial of vitamin C for adult patients with sepsis, protocol adherence was excellent and feasibility endpoints were met. Trial registration: CTRI/2020/03/024371. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work-family guilt (WFG) is sometimes perceived as an adaptive characteristic, since it has been found to encourage working parents to engage in more activities with their children in off-work time (Cho & Allen, 2012). However, while it may be an adaptive characteristic for the parent-child relationship, the same may not be true for parents' psychological health. Using insights from the work-home resources model (W-HR), this study aims to determine WFG's influence on parents' life satisfaction. This study also investigates if parents' belief regarding the investment of their spouse in recreational activities with their children is a resource that could foster their life satisfaction. A cross-sectional design was used with a sample of 289 working parents with at least one child aged between 5 and 10. A path analysis shows a significant moderated mediation model. Parent-child activities were found to partially mediate the relationship between strain-based work interference with family and parents' life satisfaction. Furthermore, WFG moderated this mediation. Specifically, it worsened the detrimental effect of doing fewer parent-child activities on parents' life satisfaction. Results also show that a spouse's investment in activity with their child is a resource that motivates parents to invest more in their children and directly contributes to parents' life satisfaction. Highlights: Level of parental engagement mediates the link between strain-based work interference with family and life satisfaction. High work-family guilt combined with low parent-child activities is detrimental to parents' life satisfaction. High spouse-child activity has a direct and indirect positive relationship to parents' life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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