Vulnerability to the COVID-19 Pandemic for People with Disabilities in the U.S.

This study seeks to examine the relationship between COVID-19 vulnerability and disability status in the U.S. by investigating whether vulnerability to the pandemic is significantly greater in counties containing higher percentages of people with disabilities (PwDs) and those reporting specific types of difficulties, in four timeframes from May 2020 to February 2021. Values of the recently developed U.S. COVID-19 Pandemic Vulnerability Index (PVI) are analyzed with respect to disability variables from the 2019 American Community Survey five-year estimates. Statistical analyses are based on comparing the mean percentages of PwDs across five quintiles of PVI scores and bivariate generalized estimating equations that examine associations between PVI scores and disability characteristics while controlling for geographic clustering. The results indicate that the percentages of people with any disability and multiple disabilities, as well as percentages of PwDs reporting vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, and independent living difficulties, are significantly greater in counties in the highest 20% of the PVI, compared to those in the lowest 20%. The percentages of all these disability variables are significantly and positively associated with PVI scores, suggesting that PwDs were overrepresented in U.S. counties with higher pandemic vulnerability in all four timeframes. These county-level associations emphasize the urgent need for more detailed analyses to examine the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on PwDs and more detailed information to enable such analyses.

Temporal clustering of disorder events during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed multiple public health, socio-economic, and institutional crises. Measures taken to slow the spread of the virus have fostered significant strain between authorities and citizens, leading to waves of social unrest and anti-government demonstrations. We study the temporal nature of pandemic-related disorder events as tallied by the “COVID-19 Disorder Tracker” initiative by focusing on the three countries with the largest number of incidents, India, Israel, and Mexico. By fitting Poisson and Hawkes processes to the stream of data, we find that disorder events are inter-dependent and self-excite in all three countries. Geographic clustering confirms these features at the subnational level, indicating that nationwide disorders emerge as the convergence of meso-scale patterns of self-excitation. Considerable diversity is observed among countries when computing correlations of events between subnational clusters; these are discussed in the context of specific political, societal and geographic characteristics. Israel, the most territorially compact and where large scale protests were coordinated in response to government lockdowns, displays the largest reactivity and the shortest period of influence following an event, as well as the strongest nationwide synchrony. In Mexico, where complete lockdown orders were never mandated, reactivity and nationwide synchrony are lowest. Our work highlights the need for authorities to promote local information campaigns to ensure that livelihoods and virus containment policies are not perceived as mutually exclusive.

What we talk about when we talk about information literacy

Information literacy skills are requisite to fulfilling one’s potential and are highly connected to a good quality of life. However, the ways in which information literacy is discussed within the academic canon are largely unexplored, particularly as these conversations take place through different cultural lenses. The ways in which such cultures are grouped often rely on traditional methods of geographic clustering that are increasingly complicated by the disparate internal nature of societies. Using text analysis of a large bibliometric data set, this research is an attempt to examine how scholars around the world discuss information literacy in their publications. The authors pulled 3658 records with the exact term “information literacy” from the Scopus database. This data was analyzed for the most frequently employed words and phrases, and grouped by country. The authors then further grouped the countries by their levels of literacy, Human Development Index ranking, the average number of citations per article, and a metric created by the authors that assessed each country’s progress in regard to the Sustainable Development Goals and population health. The results include a discussion of the differences in the ways that scholars from different cultures discuss information literacy, and a number of data visualizations to highlight differences in the data.

Sleep and cardiometabolic risk: a cluster analysis of actigraphy-derived sleep profiles in adults and children

Study objectives Sleep plays an important role in cardiometabolic health. While the importance of considering sleep as a multidimensional construct is widely appreciated, studies have largely focused on individual sleep characteristics. The association between actigraphy-derived sleep profiles and cardiometabolic health in healthy adults and children has not been examined. Methods This study used actigraphy-measured sleep data collected between February 2015 and March 2016 in the Child Health CheckPoint study. Participants wore actigraphy monitors (GENEActiv Original, Cambs, UK) on their non-dominant wrist for seven days and sleep characteristics (period, efficiency, timing and variability) were derived from raw actigraphy data. Actigraphy-derived sleep profiles of 1,043 Australian children aged 11-12 years and 1337 adults were determined using K-means cluster analysis. The association between cluster membership and biomarkers of cardiometabolic health (blood pressure, body mass index, apolipoproteins, glycoprotein acetyls, composite metabolic syndrome severity score) were assessed using Generalised Estimating Equations, adjusting for geographic clustering, with sex, socioeconomic status, maturity stage (age for adults, pubertal status for children) and season of data collection as covariates. Results Four actigraphy-derived sleep profiles were identified in both children and adults: Short sleepers, Late to bed, Long sleepers, and Overall good sleepers. The Overall good sleeper pattern (characterised by adequate sleep period time, high efficiency, early bedtime and low day-to-day variability) was associated with better cardiometabolic health in the majority of comparisons (80%). Conclusion Actigraphy-derived sleep profiles are associated with cardiometabolic health in adults and children. The Overall good sleeper pattern is associated with more favourable cardiometabolic health.

Temporal Clustering of Disorder Events During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed multiple public health, socio-economic, and institutional crises. Measures taken to slow the spread of the virus have fostered significant strain between authorities and citizens, leading to waves of social unrest and anti-government demonstrations. We study the temporal nature of pandemic-related disorder events as tallied by the "COVID-19 Disorder Tracker" initiative by focusing on the three countries with the largest number of incidents, India, Israel, and Mexico. By fitting Poisson and Hawkes processes to the stream of data, we find that disorder events are inter-dependent and self-excite in all three countries. Geographic clustering confirms these features at the subnational level, indicating that nationwide disorders emerge as the convergence of meso-scale patterns of self-excitation. Considerable diversity is observed among countries when computing correlations of events between subnational clusters; these are discussed in the context of specific political, societal and geographic characteristics. Israel, the most territorially compact and where large scale protests were coordinated in response to government lockdowns, displays the largest reactivity and the shortest period of influence following an event, as well as the strongest nationwide synchrony. In Mexico, where complete lockdown orders were never mandated, reactivity and nationwide synchrony are lowest. Our work highlights the need for authorities to promote local information campaigns to ensure that livelihoods and virus containment policies are not perceived as mutually exclusive.

Lymphatic filariasis epidemiology in Samoa in 2018: Geographic clustering and higher antigen prevalence in older age groups

Background Samoa conducted eight nationwide rounds of mass drug administration (MDA) for lymphatic filariasis (LF) between 1999 and 2011, and two targeted rounds in 2015 and 2017 in North West Upolu (NWU), one of three evaluation units (EUs). Transmission Assessment Surveys (TAS) were conducted in 2013 (failed in NWU) and 2017 (all three EUs failed). In 2018, Samoa was the first in the world to distribute nationwide triple-drug MDA using ivermectin, diethylcarbamazine, and albendazole. Surveillance and Monitoring to Eliminate LF and Scabies from Samoa (SaMELFS Samoa) is an operational research program designed to evaluate the effectiveness of triple-drug MDA on LF transmission and scabies prevalence in Samoa, and to compare the usefulness of different indicators of LF transmission. This paper reports results from the 2018 baseline survey and aims to i) investigate antigen (Ag) prevalence and spatial epidemiology, including geographic clustering; ii) compare Ag prevalence between two different age groups (5–9 years versus ≥10 years) as indicators of areas of ongoing transmission; and iii) assess the prevalence of limb lymphedema in those aged ≥15 years. Methods A community-based cluster survey was conducted in 30 randomly selected and five purposively selected clusters (primary sampling units, PSUs), each comprising one or two villages. Participants were recruited through household surveys (age ≥5 years) and convenience surveys (age 5–9 years). Alere Filariasis Test Strips (FTS) were used to detect Ag, and prevalence was adjusted for survey design and standardized for age and gender. Adjusted Ag prevalence was estimated for each age group (5–9, ≥10, and all ages ≥5 years) for random and purposive PSUs, and by region. Intraclass correlation (ICC) was used to quantify clustering at regions, PSUs, and households. Results A total of 3940 persons were included (1942 children aged 5–9 years, 1998 persons aged ≥10 years). Adjusted Ag prevalence in all ages ≥5 years in randomly and purposively selected PSUs were 4.0% (95% CI 2.8–5.6%) and 10.0% (95% CI 7.4–13.4%), respectively. In random PSUs, Ag prevalence was lower in those aged 5–9 years (1.3%, 95% CI 0.8–2.1%) than ≥10 years (4.7%, 95% CI 3.1–7.0%), and poorly correlated at the PSU level (R-square = 0.1459). Adjusted Ag prevalence in PSUs ranged from 0% to 10.3% (95% CI 5.9–17.6%) in randomly selected and 3.8% (95% CI 1.3–10.8%) to 20.0% (95% CI 15.3–25.8%) in purposively selected PSUs. ICC for Ag-positive individuals was higher at households (0.46) compared to PSUs (0.18) and regions (0.01). Conclusions Our study confirmed ongoing transmission of LF in Samoa, in accordance with the 2017 TAS results. Ag prevalence varied significantly between PSUs, and there was poor correlation between prevalence in 5–9 year-olds and older ages, who had threefold higher prevalence. Sampling older age groups would provide more accurate estimates of overall prevalence, and be more sensitive for identifying residual hotspots. Higher prevalence in purposively selected PSUs shows local knowledge can help identify at least some hotspots.

Multidisciplinary Telemedicine Care for Tourette Syndrome: Minireview

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset, chronic neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics. TS poses a considerable burden on both patients and health care providers, leading to a major detriment of educational success, occupation, and interpersonal relationships. A multidisciplinary, specialist-driven management approach is required due to the complexity of TS. However, access to such specialty care is often dramatically limited by the patients' locations and the specialists' geographic clustering in large urban centers. Telemedicine uses electronic information and communication technology to provide and support health care when distance separates participants. Therefore, we conducted this mini-review to describe the latest information on telemedicine in the assessment and management of TS and discuss the potential contributions to care for TS patients with a multidisciplinary approach. We believe that telemedicine could be a revolutionary method in improving medical access to patients with TS.