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The COVID‐19 outbreak has become one of the largest public health crises of our time. Governments have responded by implementing self‐isolation and physical distancing measures that have profoundly impacted daily life throughout the world. In this study, we aimed to investigate how people experience the activities, interactions, and settings of their lives during the pandemic. The sample (N = 604) was assessed in Ireland on the 25 March 2020, following the closure of schools and non‐essential businesses. We examined within‐person variance in emotional well‐being and how people spend their time. We found that while most time was spent in the home (74%), time spent outdoors (8%) was associated with markedly raised positive affect and reduced negative emotions. Exercising, going for walks, gardening, pursuing hobbies, and taking care of children were the activities associated with the greatest affective benefits. Home‐schooling children and obtaining information about COVID‐19 were ranked lowest of all activities in terms of emotional experience. These findings highlight activities that may play a protective role in relation to well‐being during the pandemic, the importance of setting limits for exposure to COVID‐19‐related media coverage, and the need for greater educational supports to facilitate home‐schooling during this challenging period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the relationship between the economic concept of time preference and relevant concepts from psychology and biology. Using novel data from a time diary study conducted in Ireland that combined detailed psychometric testing with medical testing and real-time bio-tracking, we examine the extent to which individual differences in financial discounting are related to underlying biological and psychological differences. The paper finds that financial discounting is related to a range of psychological variables including consideration of future consequences, self-control, conscientiousness, extraversion, and experiential avoidance, as well as being predicted by heart rate variability and blood pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Shared book reading between parents and 9-month-old children predicts 36-month vocabulary ability in an Irish cohort. • Four in 5 infants in Ireland are read to by at least 1 parent. • Irish children are most likely to be read to if their parents are educated, non-depressed, and report a rich communicative home environment. • Implications for the small yet significant effect of early shared reading are discussed. It is well-established that participation in shared book reading interactions with caregivers supports children's early language and literacy development. Most of this literature focuses on reading experiences during the preschool period. Less is known about the nature and importance of such practices during infancy. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine literacy practices between parents and infants in a large cohort study, Growing Up in Ireland. Interview, survey, and direct measurements of children's language skills were used to examine whether parent-report of book reading practices when children were 9-months predicted child expressive vocabulary at 36-months (N = 9171). Regression analysis indicated that approximately 80% of 9-month-old Irish children are read to by parents. Characteristics of families who were more likely to report reading with children emerged: those with higher educational attainment, fewer depressive symptoms, and those who report a high-quality home language environment (e.g., reported talking more to children during everyday activities). Furthermore, children who were read to at 9-months had stronger expressive vocabulary skills at 36-months, even after accounting for socio-demographic and home literacy environment covariates measured at both 9- and 36-months. Results are discussed using a bioecological framework to describe how proximal and distal factors in the child's environment converge to impact early childhood literacy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased immigration to Ireland in the last decade has seen an increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in this population. We compared the glycemic and cardiovascular risk status of non-caucasian patients with T2DM who recently immigrated to Ireland with a matched population of Irish patients attending our clinical services. We identified 105 non-caucasian patients with T2DM who immigrated to Ireland within the last 10 years, and compared them with a matched population of 105 Irish patients with T2DM. The immigrant cohort consisted of patients from Africa (39%), Pakistan (30.5%), India (17.1%), the Middle East (9.5%) and the Far East (3.8%). The immigrant and Irish patients were matched in terms of sex, age (48.81 ± 1.15 years vs 49.26+/- 1.1.3 years, p = 0.78), diabetes duration (4.10±0.45 years vs 4.29+/-0.46 years, p= 0.21) and body mass index (29.16±0,6 kg/m² vs 29.2±0.6 kg/m2, p= 0.89). The mean HbA1c at first visit was higher in the immigrant patient group (9.8% vs 9.1%, p<0.05). At follow-up, HbA1c continued to be worse in the immigrant patient group than in the Irish patient group (8.3% vs 7.1%, p<0.001). The mean triglyceride concentration was significantly lower in the immigrant patient group (1.58 mM/L vs 1.91 mM/L, p < 0.05) whilst the mean microalbumin creatinine ratio was significantly higher in the immigrant patient group (6.19 mg/mM vs 2.77 mg/mM, p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean total cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. A higher proportion of immigrants with T2DM were on combination insulin therapy/oral agents for their diabetes (33.7% vs 18.1%). In conclusion, immigrants with T2DM had significantly worse initial and on-going glycemic control and higher microalbumin creatinine ratio compared to Irish patients. These results suggest that more aggressive management of glycemic control is needed in this vulnerable population and that further studies are required to identify the contributors to suboptimal diabetes control among immigrants with T2DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Reducing the door-to-balloon time (D2BT) in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients maximizes myocardial salvage and mitigates morbidity/mortality., Aims: To assess the D2BT in STEMI patients requiring inter-hospital transfer for revascularization and identify any potential causes of delay., Methods: Consecutive patients presenting to the Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown (CHB) emergency department (ED) who were transferred to the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin for primary percutaneous coronary intervention from January 2018 to October 2022 were identified in a regional database and their D2BTs calculated. D2BTs were further sub-categorized into key intervals to identify any potential causes of delay., Results: A total of 90 patients were included for analysis, with a median D2BT of 117.5 min (interquartile range [IQR]: 99.3-170.8 min) and 52.5% of patients achieving the ≤ 120 min target. Despite being the shortest interval considered, the time from arrival at the CHB ED to diagnostic electrocardiogram (ECG) was a substantial contributor to the overall delay to revascularization given its wide variability (median: 18.0 min; IQR: 9.0-46.8 min), with only 28.8% of patients achieving the ≤ 10 min target., Conclusions: Nearly half of the patients studied failed to achieve the overall target D2BT for revascularization. The time from arrival at the CHB ED to diagnostic ECG was identified as a substantial contributor to this failure, with a median time almost twice that of the target and a quarter of all patients spending longer than 46.8 min. These findings highlight a need to improve the implementation of ECG triage and interpretation in the ED., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Public health policies attempt to increase parental identification of child overweight and obesity. The objective of the present research was to determine the cross-sectional, prospective and longitudinal associations between parental identification of child overweight and child mental health problems., Methods: We made use of two cohort studies of Australian (Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, LSAC) and Irish children (Growing up in Ireland Study, GUI) that measured parental identification of child overweight and child mental health problems. Participant included 6502 (LSAC) and 7503 (GUI) children (49% female) and their parents. Child mental health problems were measured using child, parent and teacher-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) at ages 9/10 years old to 12/13 years old. In all analyses we controlled for child Z-BMI., Results: In LSAC children whose parents identified them as being overweight at age 10 experienced worse mental health at age 10 (β = 0.21, SE = 0.04) and age 12 (β = 0.13, SE = 0.04) than children whose parents failed to identify them as overweight. In GUI children whose parents identified them as being overweight at age 9 experienced worse mental health at age 9 (β = 0.20, SE = 0.04) and age 13 (β = 0.22, SE = 0.04). In LSAC parental identification of child overweight at age 10 did not significantly predict changes in mental health problems from age 10 to 12 (β = -0.02, SE = 0.03). In GUI parental identification of child overweight was predictive of increases in mental health problems from age 9 to 13 (β = 0.08, SE = 0.03)., Conclusions: Parental identification of child overweight and obesity is associated with worse child mental health, independent of child body weight. Parents should be aware of the potential stigma and mental health difficulties associated with labelling a child as overweight.

Objectives: To investigate the role of physician and patient characteristics in determining risk perceptions and decision making in a hypothetical case where confidentiality may need to be broken to protect the partner of a patient who is infected with HIV. To identify if risk perceptions mediate the relation between physician and patient characteristics and confidentiality decisions., Design: Analysis of a sample of 207 Irish general practitioners (GPs) randomly assigned to one of four experimental vignette conditions., Methods: A single vignette scenario was presented to each GP within which a hypothetical male HIV patient was depicted as unwilling to disclose his HIV status to his partner. The hypothetical patient's use of protection (used, not used) and sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual) were varied systematically. GPs then estimated the risk the patient posed to the partner and the likelihood that they would break confidentiality to inform the partner of the patient's HIV status., Results: Less experienced GPs and those who had broken confidentiality in the past were likely to indicate they would break confidentiality in response to the presented scenario. GPs were more likely to inform the partner when protection was not used during intercourse and when the relationship was heterosexual rather than homosexual. Risk perceptions partially mediated the relationship between the patient's use of protection and confidentiality decision ratings but did not explain the association between GP characteristics or patient sexuality and decision making., Conclusion: Physician background characteristics and HIV patient sexual practice and orientation are associated with hypothetical partner notification decisions. The perceived risk to the partner only partially explained the relation between patient use of protection and decision making., (©2010 The British Psychological Society.)

Background: An important theory of attention suggests that there are three separate networks that execute discrete cognitive functions. The 'alerting' network acquires and maintains an alert state, the 'orienting' network selects information from sensory input and the 'conflict' network resolves conflict that arises between potential responses. This theory holds promise for dissociating discrete patterns of cognitive impairment in disorders where attentional deficits may often be subtle, such as in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)., Methods: The Attentional Network Test (ANT), a behavioural assay of the functional integrity of attention networks, was used to examine the performance of 73 children with ADHD and 73 controls., Results: Performance on the ANT clearly differentiated the children with and without ADHD in terms of mean and standard deviation (SD) of reaction time (RT), the number of incorrect responses made and the number of omission errors made. The ADHD group demonstrated deficits in the conflict network in terms of slower RT and a higher number of incorrect responses. The ADHD group showed deficits in the alerting network in terms of the number of omission errors made. There was no demonstration of a deficit in the orienting network in ADHD on this task., Conclusions: The children with ADHD demonstrated deficits in the alerting and conflict attention networks but normal functioning of the orienting network.

Interventions for children with autism based upon Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) has been repeatedly shown to be related both to educational gains and to reductions in challenging behaviours. However, to date, comprehensive training in ABA for teachers and others have been limited. Over 7 months, 11 teachers undertook 90 hours of classroom instruction and supervision in ABA. Each teacher conducted a comprehensive functional assessment and designed a behaviour support plan targeting one behaviour for one child with an autistic disorder. Target behaviours included aggression, non-compliance and specific educational skills. Teachers recorded observational data for the target behaviour for both baseline and intervention sessions. Support plans produced an average 80 percent change in frequency of occurrence of target behaviours. Questionnaires completed by parents and teachers at the end of the course indicated a beneficial effect for the children and the educational environment. The potential benefits of teacher implemented behavioural intervention are discussed.