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Social media engagement is a vehicle for effective communication and engagement between governments and individuals, especially in crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it can be used to communicate resilience measures and receive feedback. This research aims to investigate public social media engagement with resilience measures related to COVID-19 in Macao. We examined 1107 posts and 791 comments about the government's face mask supply and consumption voucher schemes on Facebook. Using the Crisis Lifecycle model, we partitioned the data and analyzed the content and engagement of related posts, as well as the word semantics in user comments. Our findings show that social media engagement in these resilience measures is high and positive in the early stages of the pandemic, suggesting social media's potential in mobilizing society, preserving social resilience, and serving as a two-way communication tool in public health emergencies.

The transition to parenthood is one of the most stressful intra- and interpersonal adjustment periods for new parents. Bidirectional associations among intergenerational relationships during the transition to parenthood have received limited attention, and the complexity of reciprocal relationships varies in accordance with living arrangements. The objectives of this study were to explore (1) the bidirectional associations between marital relationships and conflicts with in-laws during the transition to parenthood and (2) the moderation of patrilineal coresidence on the aforementioned relationships. A three-wave prospective longitudinal design was adopted for 359 married mothers. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale and Stryker Adjustment Checklist were used to assess marital relationships and conflicts with parents-in-law. Cross-lagged panel analysis was applied to examine reciprocal relationships, and multigroup analyses were employed to determine whether these relationships exhibited different patterns in accordance with the individuals' living arrangements. The two cross-lagged models revealed the presence of a bidirectional relationship between marital distress and conflicts with parents-in-law during the mid- to late pregnancy stages. Meanwhile, the multigroup analyses suggested that conflicts with parents-in-law triggered marital distress during pregnancy in the coresidence group, whereas conflicts with fathers-in-law could intensify marital distress during late pregnancy to the postpartum period in the noncoresidence group. These findings shed light on cross-lagged associations with intergenerational conflicts. Healthcare professionals need to ensure that intergenerational relationships are positive during the transition to parenthood. This study enriches our understanding of the effect of patrilineal coresidence and can guide the future development of interventions based on culturally specific multidimensional approaches., (© 2020 Family Process Institute.)

Background: There is no standardized or formal communication skills training in the current nursing curriculum in Macao, China., Objectives: To develop and evaluate a learner-centered communication skills training course., Design: Both qualitative and quantitative designs were used in two separate stages., Settings and Participants: A randomized sample and a convenience sample were taken from students on a four-year bachelor's degree program at a public institute in Macao., Methods: Stage I consisted of developing a learner-centered communication skills training course using four focus groups (n=32). Stage II evaluated the training's efficacy by comparing communication skills, clinical interaction, interpersonal dysfunction, and social problem-solving abilities using a quasi-experimental longitudinal pre-post design among 62 nursing students. A course evaluation form was also used., Results: Content analysis was used to evaluate the essential themes in order to develop the specific content and teaching strategies of the course. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed significant improvement in all post-training scores for communication ability, content of communication, and handling of communication barriers. According to the mean scores of the course evaluation form, students were generally very satisfied with the course: 6.11 to 6.74 on a scale of 1 to 7., Conclusions: This study showed that the course was effective in improving communication skills, especially in terms of the content and the handling of communication barriers. The course filled an important gap in the training needs of nursing students in Macao. The importance of these findings and their implications for nursing education are discussed., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study investigated the prevalence of preterm birth and low-birth-weight in Macao. It also evaluated the effects of maternal perceived stress and health-related quality of life on these 2 birth outcomes. A quantitative study using a prospective longitudinal design was undertaken in an antenatal clinic in Macao. A community-based sample (N = 581) of pregnant women in their second trimester was recruited; birth outcome data were collected from medical records. Perceived stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale, whereas health-related quality of life was measured using the standard SF-12 Health Survey. The prevalence rates of preterm birth and low-birth-weight were found to be 6.4% and 7.1%, respectively. Two multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that participants with past adverse obstetric complications and higher perceived stress levels were more likely to have premature infants. Also, those participants with higher perceived stress levels and poorer health-related quality of life in the physical health domain were more likely to have low-birth-weight infants. Preliminary information was provided on risk factors associated with adverse birth outcomes; this could help nurses to design appropriate risk-specific interventions for preventing preterm birth and low-birth-weight.

Background: The rise of the production of CTX-M class extended spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) has been well documented in traveling countries but no data are found for Macao, an international travel city. The objectives of this study were to identify the antimicrobial resistance pattern, and determine the prevalence, genotype and clonal relationship of ESBLs in 209 clinical Escherichia coli strains from Macao, China., Methods: Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed to determine the resistance patterns of the isolates using the disk diffusion method with 17 antimicrobial agents. Phenotypic detection was screened and confirmed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. Genotypic characterization was detected by isoelectric focusing analysis, polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. The clonal relationship between the different ESBL isolates was studied by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)., Results: Imipenem and meropenem exhibited 100% susceptible among 209 strains. Overall, 82.3%, 67.3%, 52.9%, 51.2% and 51.0% of the isolates displayed resistance to ampicillin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole trimethoprim and gentamycin. The prevalence rate of ESBLs was 30.1%. Antibiotic resistances were found to be significantly higher among the ESBL producing group compared to non-ESBL producing group. We detected CTX-M-14 to be the major genotypic characterization of ESBLs (76.2%). Two strains showed indistinguishable patterns by PFGE., Conclusions: The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance is alarming high in Macao. Antimicrobial resistance is significantly higher among the ESBL producing group. This study documented CTX-M-14 as the predominant ESBL type. Although indistinguishable pattern was found between two strains, it was too small to decide whether any of the investigated strains was epidemic. Our findings may be also pertinent for other geographic areas undergoing similar travel characteristics to understand the corresponding effects on bacterial populations.