Dataset Information

The impact of COVID-19 related 'stay-at-home' restrictions on food prices in Europe: findings from a preliminary analysis.

ABSTRACT: This study examines the impact of COVID-19 related 'stay-at-home' restrictions on food prices in 31 European countries. I combine the European Union's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) with the Stay-at-Home Restriction Index (SHRI) from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) dataset for January-May 2020. The results of a series of difference-in-difference regression models reveal that the severity of stay-at-home restrictions increased overall food prices by 1% in March 2020, compared to January and February 2020. The price level for food continued to rise in the high stay-at-home restriction countries relative to thier counterpart in April but stabilised in May. The food categories that witnessed the most significant surges in prices were meat, fish & seafood, and vegetables. The prices of bread & cereals, fruits, milk, cheese & eggs and oils & fats were not significantly affected. The correlations between food prices and stay-at-home restrictions were significant after controlling for cross-country variations in COVID-19 affectedness and other mitigation and adaptation measures, such as international travel controls, road closures and the size of the economic stimulus packages. This study presents the first empirical evidence of food price inflation as an unintended consequence of COVID-19 pandemic containment measures in one of the most severely hit continents of the world.

SUBMITTER: Akter S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7340765 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of COVID-19 related 'stay-at-home' restrictions on food prices in Europe: findings from a preliminary analysis.

Akter Sonia S

Food security 20200708 4

This study examines the impact of COVID-19 related 'stay-at-home' restrictions on food prices in 31 European countries. I combine the European Union's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) with the Stay-at-Home Restriction Index (SHRI) from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) dataset for January-May 2020. The results of a series of difference-in-difference regression models reveal that the severity of stay-at-home restrictions increased overall food prices by 1% in Marc ...[more]

PMID: 32837638

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Project description:BackgroundMost smartphones and wearables are currently equipped with location sensing (using GPS and mobile network information), which enables continuous location tracking of their users. Several studies have reported that various mobility metrics, as well as home stay, that is, the amount of time an individual spends at home in a day, are associated with symptom severity in people with major depressive disorder (MDD). Owing to the use of small and homogeneous cohorts of participants, it is uncertain whether the findings reported in those studies generalize to a broader population of individuals with MDD symptoms.ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the overall severity of depressive symptoms, as assessed by the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire, and median daily home stay over the 2 weeks preceding the completion of a questionnaire in individuals with MDD.MethodsWe used questionnaire and geolocation data of 164 participants with MDD collected in the observational Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Major Depressive Disorder study. The participants were recruited from three study sites: King's College London in the United Kingdom (109/164, 66.5%); Vrije Universiteit Medisch Centrum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (17/164, 10.4%); and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red in Barcelona, Spain (38/164, 23.2%). We used a linear regression model and a resampling technique (n=100 draws) to investigate the relationship between home stay and the overall severity of MDD symptoms. Participant age at enrollment, gender, occupational status, and geolocation data quality metrics were included in the model as additional explanatory variables. The 95% 2-sided CIs were used to evaluate the significance of model variables.ResultsParticipant age and severity of MDD symptoms were found to be significantly related to home stay, with older (95% CI 0.161-0.325) and more severely affected individuals (95% CI 0.015-0.184) spending more time at home. The association between home stay and symptoms severity appeared to be stronger on weekdays (95% CI 0.023-0.178, median 0.098; home stay: 25th-75th percentiles 17.8-22.8, median 20.9 hours a day) than on weekends (95% CI -0.079 to 0.149, median 0.052; home stay: 25th-75th percentiles 19.7-23.5, median 22.3 hours a day). Furthermore, we found a significant modulation of home stay by occupational status, with employment reducing home stay (employed participants: 25th-75th percentiles 16.1-22.1, median 19.7 hours a day; unemployed participants: 25th-75th percentiles 20.4-23.5, median 22.6 hours a day).ConclusionsOur findings suggest that home stay is associated with symptom severity in MDD and demonstrate the importance of accounting for confounding factors in future studies. In addition, they illustrate that passive sensing of individuals with depression is feasible and could provide clinically relevant information to monitor the course of illness in patients with MDD.

Project description:BackgroundBack in 1987, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that the screening of international travellers was an ineffective way to prevent the spread of HIV. However, some countries still restrict the entrance and/or residency of foreigners with an HIV infection. HIV-related travel restrictions have serious implications for individual and public health, and violate internationally recognized human rights. In this study, we reviewed the current situation regarding HIV-related travel restrictions in the 53 countries of the WHO European Region.MethodsWe retrieved the country-specific information chiefly from the Global Database on HIV Related Travel Restrictions at hivtravel.org. We simplified and standardized the database information to enable us to create an overview and compare countries. Where data was outdated, unclear or contradictory, we contacted WHO HIV focal points in the countries or appropriate non-governmental organizations. The United States Bureau of Consular Affairs website was also used to confirm and complement these data.ResultsOur review revealed that there are no entry restrictions for people living with HIV in 51 countries in the WHO European Region. In 11 countries, foreigners living with HIV applying for long-term stays will not be granted a visa. These countries are: Andorra, Armenia, Cyprus (denies access for non-European Union citizens), Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan, an HIV-positive foreigner cannot even enter the country, and in Georgia, we were not able to determine whether there were any HIV-related travel restrictions due to a lack of information.ConclusionsIn 32% of the countries in the European Region, either there are some kind of HIV-related travel restrictions or we were unable to determine if such restrictions are in force. Most of these countries defend restrictions as being justified by public health concerns. However, there is no evidence that denying HIV-positive foreigners access to a country is effective in protecting public health. Governments should revise legislation on HIV-related travel restrictions. In the meantime, a joint effort is needed to draw attention to the continuing discrimination and stigmatization of people living with HIV that takes place in those European Region countries where such laws and policies are still in force.

Project description:Stay-at-home restrictions such as closure of non-essential businesses were effective at reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in New York City (NYC) in the spring of 2020. Relaxation of these restrictions was desirable for resuming economic and social activities, but could only occur in conjunction with measures to mitigate the expected resurgence of new infections, in particular social distancing and mask-wearing. We projected the impact of individuals' adherence to social distancing and mask-wearing on the duration, frequency, and recurrence of stay-at-home restrictions in NYC. We applied a stochastic discrete time-series model to simulate community transmission and household secondary transmission in NYC. The model was calibrated to hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and COVID-attributable deaths over March-July 2020 after accounting for the distribution of age and chronic health conditions in NYC. We projected daily new infections and hospitalizations up to May 31, 2021 under the different levels of adherence to social distancing and mask-wearing after relaxation of stay-at-home restrictions. We assumed that the relaxation of stay-at-home policies would occur in the context of adaptive reopening, where a new hospitalization rate of ≥ 2 per 100,000 residents would trigger reinstatement of stay-at-home restrictions while a new hospitalization rate of ≤ 0.8 per 100,000 residents would trigger relaxation of stay-at-home restrictions. Without social distancing and mask-wearing, simulated relaxation of stay-at-home restrictions led to epidemic resurgence and necessary reinstatement of stay-at-home restrictions within 42 days. NYC would have stayed fully open for 26% of the time until May 31, 2021, alternating reinstatement and relaxation of stay-at-home restrictions in four cycles. At a low (50%) level of adherence to mask-wearing, NYC would have needed to implement stay-at-home restrictions between 8% and 32% of the time depending on individual adherence to social distancing. At moderate to high levels of adherence to mask-wearing without social distancing, NYC would have needed to implement stay-at-home restrictions. In threshold analyses, avoiding reinstatement of stay-at-home restrictions required a minimum of 60% adherence to mask-wearing at 50% adherence to social distancing. With low adherence to mask-wearing and social distancing, reinstatement of stay-at-home restrictions in NYC was inevitable. High levels of adherence to social distancing and mask-wearing could have attributed to avoiding recurrent surges without reinstatement of stay-at-home restrictions.

Dataset Information

The impact of COVID-19 related 'stay-at-home' restrictions on food prices in Europe: findings from a preliminary analysis.

Publications

The impact of COVID-19 related 'stay-at-home' restrictions on food prices in Europe: findings from a preliminary analysis.

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