Resilience And Mental Health Among Young Adults In The Context of Lockdown Due To The COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: Psychological resilience is defined as the ability of an individual to adapt to adverse situations and in a certain way regulate mental health. Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures implemented to avoid infection are considered risk agents for the development of mental disorders. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between resilience capacity and the presence of depressive symptoms and poor sleep quality in the context of lockdown due to the pandemic. Methods: The sample consisted of n = 8,426 young adults who were recruited via convenience sampling. Sociodemographic and mental health data was collected through online surveys. Previously validated test were used to collect information on depression and sleep quality. Restriction of mobility was evaluated using information from Google Mobility Reports. Results: Most of participants were highly educated women. Independently from sex, age and other confounders, individuals with psychological resilience were less likely to develop depressive symptoms or sleep disorders during confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, higher mobility restriction was associated with depression but not with bad sleep quality. In this way, a longest stay at home and a higher restriction of mobility to groceries and pharmacies were related to depression. Conclusions: These results show evidence of the importance of psychological resilience on mental health, and can contribute to the development of preventive public health interventions to face the negative effects of confinement on mental health.

Miasmas, mental models and preventive public health: some philosophical reflections on science in the COVID-19 pandemic

When the history of the COVID-19 pandemic is written, it is likely to show that the mental models held by scientists sometimes facilitated their thinking, thereby leading to lives saved, and at other times constrained their thinking, thereby leading to lives lost. This paper explores some competing mental models of how infectious diseases spread and shows how these models influenced the scientific process and the kinds of facts that were generated, legitimized and used to support policy. A central theme in the paper is the relative weight given by dominant scientific voices to probabilistic arguments based on experimental measurements versus mechanistic arguments based on theory. Two examples are explored: the cholera epidemic in nineteenth century London—in which the story of John Snow and the Broad Street pump is retold—and the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and early 2021—in which the evidence-based medicine movement and its hierarchy of evidence features prominently. In each case, it is shown that prevailing mental models—which were assumed by some to transcend theory but were actually heavily theory-laden—powerfully shaped both science and policy, with fatal consequences for some.

Persistence of Multimorbidity Among Women Aged 15–49 Years in India: An Analysis of Prevalence, Patterns and Correlation

Objectives: The present study has examined the patterns and possible correlates of coexisting morbidities among women aged 15–49 years based on biomarker measurement data at the national level in India.Methods: National Family Health Survey conducted during 2015–16 used in the present study. Simple disease count approach was used to calculate the multimorbidity among women. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to analyze the predictors of multimorbidity among women.Results: Almost 30% of the women had any of the selected morbidity and 9% of them had two or more morbidities. Hypertension and overweight combination (3%) was the most prevalent among women. The risk of having two or more morbidities was predominantly high among women aged above 30 years, low educated women, women from the wealthier group, ever-married women and women who were consuming tobacco as compared to their counterparts.Conclusions: From the policy perspective, the identification of groups of women vulnerable to multimorbidity will help in the selection of programmatic focus and preventive public health intervention in adult phase to reduce the multimorbidity burden among women in old ages.

Should We or Should We Not Include Confidence Intervals in COVID-19 Death Forecasting? Evidence from a Survey Experiment

Forecasting during the COVID-19 pandemic entails a great deal of uncertainty. The same way that we would like electoral forecasters to systematically include their confidence intervals to account for such uncertainty, we assume that COVID-19-related forecasts should follow that norm. Based on literature on negative bias, we may expect the presence of uncertainty to affect citizens’ attitudes and behaviours, which would in turn have major implications on how we should present these sensitive forecasts. In this research we present the main findings of a survey experiment where citizens were exposed to a projection of the total number of deaths. We manipulated the exclusion (and inclusion) of graphically depicted confidence intervals in order to isolate the average causal effect of uncertainty. Our results show that accounting for uncertainty does not change (1) citizens’ perceptions of projections’ reliability, nor does it affect (2) their support for preventive public health measures. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings.

Compliance with a boil water advisory after the contamination of a municipal drinking water supply system in Norway

Boil-water advisories (BWAs) are one of the several methods to prevent the spread of infectious diseases through contaminated water. However, for BWAs to be effective, consumers need to be aware of, understand and comply with the advisories. Although BWAs are a widely used preventive public health measure, compliance with BWAs is rarely examined. In Norway, only one previous study on compliance with BWAs has been conducted. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study to estimate consumers’ perception of and compliance with a BWA following a contamination incident at an elevated reservoir in Konnerud (population 10,314), Norway. In total, 2,451 of the 9,312 (26.3%) invited residents responded to the questionnaire. Among the respondents, 97.6% remembered receiving the BWA, of whom 94.6% complied with the advice. Effective compliance with the BWA was thus 92.3%. Only 130 (5.4%) respondents did not comply with the BWA. The main reason for non-compliance was perceived low or no risk of getting sick from the water (34.2%). Our study revealed high awareness of and compliance with the BWA, but the people who did not comply maintained several misconceptions about waterborne infections and transmission. The findings can be used by local health authorities to improve future BWAs.

COVID-19: Second Wave or Multiple Peaks, Natural Herd Immunity or Vaccine – We Should be Prepared

ABSTRACT Between December 31, 2019, and August 30, 2020 (date of this article), the novel coronavirus and its corresponding infection, coronavirus disease (COVID-19), increased to more than 25 million cases, and 843 158 deaths have been registered. Countries around the world have been affected, albeit in different levels and intensities. Despite implementations of preventive public health measures, most countries are seriously preparing for 1 or more waves. The threat of this surge is likely to persist until herd immunity is acquired either by natural infection or through vaccination. However, given the time frame needed for herd immunity to occur and the low probability that a vaccine will be available on a global scale by the coming fall and winter seasons, contingency preparedness plans should be established and put in place for the coming days or months. These plans should help mitigate new peaks of the pandemic while relaxing the social isolation rules, patient, public health, and hospital levels. In this article, we discuss recommendations that practicing physicians and public health agencies should provide to individuals, especially those at risk of infection, to take and implement pre-emptive measures in anticipation of the potential next peak of the pandemic.

The Challenges of Putting Systems Thinking into Practice Comment on "What Can Policy-Makers Get Out of Systems Thinking? Policy Partners’ Experiences of a Systems-Focused Research Collaboration in Preventive Health"

In theory, ‘systems thinking’ offers a remarkably attractive solution to the persistent challenges of preventive public health. Haynes and colleagues’ recent analysis of the Prevention Centre in Australia offers reason for optimism that it might be possible to translate this promise into action on the ground. In this commentary, we critically assess the claims from this promising case study and their broader applicability to the cause of preventive health. We argue that, in many other contexts, persistent obstacles remain, such as a lack of buy-in from senior policy actors, and a lack of tangible or concrete action following through on an abstract commitment to systems thinking.

Security and Subsistence

This chapter discusses the general structure of a moral right, as well as basic rights. It considers why people have a basic right to physical security—a right that is basic not to be subjected to murder, torture, mayhem, rape, or assault. The main reason for discussing security rights was to make explicit the basic assumptions that support the usual judgment that security rights are basic rights. The chapter then assesses whether matters other than physical security should also be basic rights. It will emerge that subsistence, or minimal economic security, can also be shown to be as well justified for treatment as a basic right as physical security is. Minimal economic security, or subsistence, refer to unpolluted air, unpolluted water, adequate food, adequate clothing, adequate shelter, and minimal preventive public health care.

Gastrointestinal Aspects of Malnutrition in Children

Throughout history mankind has suffered many scourges. In many parts of the world improvements in living standards, hygiene, nutrition, medical care and preventive public health programmes have made many of these infectious , diseases things of the past. However, in the so called "developing" countries, diarrhoeal diseases of infancy and childhood are still major problems which cause many millions of deaths each year (Mata, 1985).