Social Work under COVID-19: A Thematic Analysis of Articles in ‘SW2020 under COVID-19 Magazine’
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Sen R
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8241417 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ProblemDisrupted access to social and healthcare professional support during the COVID-19 pandemic have had an adverse effect on maternal mental health.BackgroundMotherhood is a key life transition which increases vulnerability to experience negative affect.AimExplore UK women's postnatal experiences of social and healthcare professional support during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 women, approximately 30 days after initial social distancing guidelines were imposed (T1), and a separate 12 women were interviewed approximately 30 days after the initial easing of social distancing restrictions (T2). Recurrent cross-sectional thematic analysis was conducted in NVivo 12.FindingsT1 themes were, 'Motherhood has been an isolating experience' (exacerbated loneliness due to diminished support accessibility) and 'Everything is under lock and key' (confusion, alienation, and anxiety regarding disrupted face-to-face healthcare checks). T2 themes were, 'Disrupted healthcare professional support' (feeling burdensome, abandoned, and frustrated by virtual healthcare) and 'Easing restrictions are bittersweet' (conflict between enhanced emotional wellbeing, and sadness regarding lost postnatal time).DiscussionRespondents at both timepoints were adversely affected by restricted access to informal (family and friends) and formal (healthcare professional) support, which were not sufficiently bridged virtually. Additionally, the prospect of attending face-to-face appointments was anxiety-provoking and perceived as being contradictory to social distancing guidance. Prohibition of family from maternity wards was also salient and distressing for T2, but not T1 respondents.ConclusionHealthcare professionals should encourage maternal help-seeking and provide timely access to mental health services. Improving access to informal and formal face-to-face support are essential in protecting maternal and infant wellbeing.
| S-EPMC8553649 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:The COVID-19 global pandemic has impacted the whole of society, requiring rapid implementation of individual-, population-, and system-level public health responses to contain and reduce the spread of infection. Women in the perinatal period (pregnant, birthing, and postpartum) have unique and timely needs for directives on health, safety, and risk aversion during periods of isolation and physical distancing for themselves, their child or children, and other family members. In addition, they are a vulnerable group at increased risk of psychological distress that may be exacerbated in the context of social support deprivation and a high-risk external environment. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study is to examine the public discourse of a perinatal cohort to understand unmet health information and support needs, and the impacts on mothering identity and social dynamics in the context of COVID-19. METHODS:A leading Australian online support forum for women pre- through to postbirth was used to interrogate all posts related to COVID-19 from January 27 to May 12, 2020, inclusive. Key search terms included "COVID," "corona," and "pandemic." A three-phase analysis was conducted, including thematic analysis, sentiment analysis, and word frequency calculations. RESULTS:The search yielded 960 posts, of which 831 were included in our analysis. The qualitative thematic analysis demonstrated reasonable understanding, interpretation, and application of relevant restrictions in place, with five emerging themes identified. These were (1) heightened distress related to a high-risk external environment; (2) despair and anticipatory grief due to deprivation of social and family support, and bonding rituals; (3) altered family and support relationships; (4) guilt-tampered happiness; and (5) family future postponed. Sentiment analysis revealed that the content was predominantly negative (very negative: n=537 and moderately negative: n=443 compared to very positive: n=236 and moderately positive: n=340). Negative words were frequently used in the 831 posts with associated derivatives including "worried" (n=165, 19.9%), "risk" (n=143, 17.2%), "anxiety" (n=98, 11.8%), "concerns" (n=74, 8.8%), and "stress" (n=69, 8.3%). CONCLUSIONS:Women in the perinatal period are uniquely impacted by the current pandemic. General information on COVID-19 safe behaviors did not meet the particular needs of this cohort. The lack of nuanced and timely information may exacerbate the risk of psychological and psychosocial distress in this vulnerable, high-risk group. State and federal public health departments need to provide a central repository of information that is targeted, consistent, accessible, timely, and reassuring. Compensatory social and emotional support should be considered, using alternative measures to mitigate the risk of mental health disorders in this cohort.
| S-EPMC7481017 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to cause global havoc posing uncertainty to educational institutions worldwide. Understanding the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in children is important because of the potential impact on clinical management and public health decisions.MethodsA meta-analysis was conducted for pediatric COVID-19 studies using PubMed and Scopus. It reviewed demographics, co-morbidities, clinical manifestations, laboratory investigations, radiological investigations, treatment, and outcomes. The 95% confidence interval (CI) was utilized.ResultsOut of 3927 articles, 31 articles comprising of 1816 patients were selected from December 2019 to early October 2020 and were defined by 77 variables. Of these studies 58% originated from China and the remainder from North America, Europe and the Middle East. This meta-analysis revealed that 19.2% (CI 13.6%-26.4%) of patients were asymptomatic. Fever (57%, CI 49.7%-64%) and cough (44.1%, CI 38.3%-50.2%) were the most common symptoms. The most frequently encountered white blood count abnormalities were lymphopenia 13.5% (CI 8.2%-21.4%) and leukopenia 12.6% (CI 8.5%-18.3%). Ground glass opacities were the most common radiological finding of children with COVID-19 (35.5%, CI 28.9%-42.7%). Hospitalization rate was 96.3% (CI 92.4%-98.2%) of which 10.8% (CI 4.2%-25.3%) were ICU admissions, and 2.4% (CI 1.7%-3.4%) died.ConclusionThe majority of pediatric patients with COVID-19 were asymptomatic or had mild manifestations. Among hospitalized patients there remains a significant number that require intensive care unit care. Overall across the literature, a considerable level of understanding of COVID-19 in children was reached, yet emerging data related to multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children should be explored.
| S-EPMC8013606 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, tribal and health organizations used social media to rapidly disseminate public health guidance highlighting protective behaviors such as masking and vaccination to mitigate the pandemic’s disproportionate burden on American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Objective Seeking to provide guidance for future communication campaigns prioritizing AI/AN audiences, this study aimed to identify Twitter post characteristics associated with higher performance, measured by audience reach (impressions) and web behavior (engagement rate). Methods We analyzed Twitter posts published by a campaign by the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health from July 2020 to June 2021. Qualitative analysis was informed by in-depth interviews with members of a Tribal Advisory Board and thematically organized according to the Health Belief Model. A general linearized model was used to analyze associations between Twitter post themes, impressions, and engagement rates. Results The campaign published 162 Twitter messages, which organically generated 425,834 impressions and 6016 engagements. Iterative analysis of these Twitter posts identified 10 unique themes under theory- and culture-related categories of framing knowledge, cultural messaging, normalizing mitigation strategies, and interactive opportunities, which were corroborated by interviews with Tribal Advisory Board members. Statistical analysis of Twitter impressions and engagement rate by theme demonstrated that posts featuring culturally resonant community role models (P=.02), promoting web-based events (P=.002), and with messaging as part of Twitter Chats (P<.001) were likely to generate higher impressions. In the adjusted analysis controlling for the date of posting, only the promotion of web-based events (P=.003) and Twitter Chat messaging (P=.01) remained significant. Visual, explanatory posts promoting self-efficacy (P=.01; P=.01) and humorous posts (P=.02; P=.01) were the most likely to generate high–engagement rates in both the adjusted and unadjusted analysis. Conclusions Results from the 1-year Twitter campaign provide lessons to inform organizations designing social media messages to reach and engage AI/AN social media audiences. The use of interactive events, instructional graphics, and Indigenous humor are promising practices to engage community members, potentially opening audiences to receiving important and time-sensitive guidance.
| S-EPMC9709694 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Think tanks and political leaders have raised concerns about the implications that the Covid-19 response and reconstruction might have on other social objectives that were setting the international agenda before the Covid-19 pandemic. We present evidence for eight consecutive weeks during April-May 2020 for Austria, testing the extent to which Covid-19 concerns substitute other social concerns such as the climate crisis or the protection of vulnerable sectors of the society. We measure behavior in a simple donation task where participants receive €3 that they can distribute between themselves and a list of charitable organizations, which vary between treatments. We consider initially a list of eight charities, including a broad set of social concerns. Results show that introducing the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund significantly reduces the sum of donations to the original eight charities. This derives from two effects: First, introducing the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund does not significantly change aggregate donations. Second, results point to a high support to the WHO Covid-19 Fund. Overall, our results indicate that donations to diverse social concerns are partially substituted by donations to the Covid-19 fund; yet, this substitution does not fully replace all other social concerns. Results are robust to a 10-fold increase in endowment, with decisions made over €30.
| S-EPMC8548029 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAlthough past research has focused on COVID-19-related frames in the news media, such research may not accurately capture and represent the perspectives of people from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, research on the public attention to COVID-19 as reflected through frames on social media is scarce.ObjectiveThis study identified the frames about the COVID-19 pandemic in the public discourse on Twitter, which voices diverse opinions. This study also investigated the amount of public attention to those frames on Twitter.MethodsWe collected 22 trending hashtags related to COVID-19 in the United States and 694,582 tweets written in English containing these hashtags in March 2020 and analyzed them via thematic analysis. Public attention to these frames was measured by evaluating the amount of public engagement with frames and public adoption of those frames.ResultsWe identified 9 frames including "public health guidelines," "quarantine life," "solidarity," "evidence and facts," "call for action," "politics," "post-pandemic life," "shortage panic," and "conflict." Results showed that some frames such as "call for action" are more appealing than others during a global pandemic, receiving greater public adoption and engagement. The "call for action" frame had the highest engagement score, followed by "conflict" and "evidence and facts." Additionally, "post-pandemic life" had the highest adoption score, followed by "call for action" and "shortage panic." The findings indicated that the frequency of a frame on social media does not necessarily mean greater public adoption of or engagement with the frame.ConclusionsThis study contributes to framing theory and research by demonstrating how trending hashtags can be used as new user-generated data to identify frames on social media. This study concludes that the identified frames such as "quarantine life" and "conflict" and themes such as "isolation" and "toilet paper panic" represent the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequences could be (1) exclusively related to COVID-19, such as hand hygiene or isolation; (2) related to any health crisis such as social support of vulnerable groups; and (3) generic that are irrespective of COVID-19, such as homeschooling or remote working.
| S-EPMC8437404 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVES:The purpose of this study is to show that social distancing is a public good under the COVID-19 pandemic. STUDY DESIGN:We apply economic theory to analyse a cross-sectional survey. METHODS:Economic theory is complemented with empirical evidence. An online survey of those aged 30-49 years in Japan (n = 2177) was conducted between April 28 and May 7. Respondents were selected by quota sampling with regard to age group, gender and prefecture of residence. Our main figure shows the proportion of people who increased/did not change/decreased social distancing, relative to the level of altruism and sensitivity to public shaming. The results of OLS and logit models are shown in Supplementary Materials. RESULTS:Social distancing is a public good under the COVID-19 pandemic for which the free-rider problem is particularly severe. Altruism and social norms are crucial factors in overcoming this problem. Using an original survey, we show that people with higher altruistic concerns and sensitivity to shaming are more likely to follow social distancing measures. CONCLUSIONS:Altruism and social norms are important for reducing the economic cost of the pandemic.
| S-EPMC7425541 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, several national governments have applied lockdown restrictions to reduce the infection rate. Here we perform a massive analysis on near-real-time Italian mobility data provided by Facebook to investigate how lockdown strategies affect economic conditions of individuals and local governments. We model the change in mobility as an exogenous shock similar to a natural disaster. We identify two ways through which mobility restrictions affect Italian citizens. First, we find that the impact of lockdown is stronger in municipalities with higher fiscal capacity. Second, we find evidence of a segregation effect, since mobility contraction is stronger in municipalities in which inequality is higher and for those where individuals have lower income per capita. Our results highlight both the social costs of lockdown and a challenge of unprecedented intensity: On the one hand, the crisis is inducing a sharp reduction of fiscal revenues for both national and local governments; on the other hand, a significant fiscal effort is needed to sustain the most fragile individuals and to mitigate the increase in poverty and inequality induced by the lockdown.
| S-EPMC7355033 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In today's world of work, the need for digital communication and collaboration competencies became even more prevalent during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, research and practice are lacking solid measurement instruments assessing digital communication and collaboration competencies of workers so far. Furthermore, it is yet unknown if digital communication and collaboration competencies and other so far known resources indeed act as drivers of work engagement during the pandemic. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and the conservation of resources theory, we hypothesized that personal (digital communication and collaboration competencies) and job (social support) resources positively influence each other over time, also boosting work engagement. In a cross-lagged study design during the pandemic, we investigated our hypotheses in a sample of German workers (N = 231). Against our expectations, we did not find support for effects from personal or job resources on work engagement over time or effects of the resources influencing each other. Instead, we found high stabilities of digital communication and collaboration competencies and work engagement. Our results provide important insights into the motivational process of individuals working during a pandemic. The theoretical and practical implications for the JD-R model in times of crisis are discussed.
| S-EPMC8733481 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveTo characterize activity, text sentiment, and online community characteristics regarding "fertility" on Twitter before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using social network analysis.DesignCross-sectional analysis.SettingPublicly available Twitter data.PatientsNot applicable.InterventionsNot applicable.Main outcome measuresNumber of users (vertices); edges (connections, defined as unique and total); self-loops (tweet without connection to another user); connected components (groups of users communicating back and forth frequently); maximum vertices in a connected component (largest group size); maximum and average geodesic distance (number of tweets to connect two users in the network); graph density; positive and negative sentiment tweets; and top 5 hashtags and top 5 word pairs.ResultsThere were 1426 unique users and 401 groups in the pre-COVID-19 data compared to 1492 unique users and 453 groups in the during COVID-19 data. There was no difference in the number of total connections (96.8% [1381/1426] vs. 96.0% [1433/1492]) or self-loops (20.0% [286/1426] vs. 22.1% [329/1492]) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The percentage of unique connections per user decreased during COVID-19 (91.6% [1381/1508] pre-COVID-19 vs. 83.3% [1433/1720] during COVID-19). The average and maximum distance between users in the community increased during COVID-19 (maximum: 5 pre-COVID-19, 8 during COVID-19; average 1.95 pre-COVID-19, 2.43 during COVID-19). The percentage of positive sentiments per total number of tweets increased during COVID-19 (58.1% pre-COVID-19 [773/1331] vs. 64.3% [1198/1863] during COVID-19). The top 5 hashtags changed during COVID-19 to include COVID-19. The top word pairs changed from "family, hereditary; parents, children" to "fertility, treatment; healthcare, decisions."ConclusionsDespite the challenge to the fertility community amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall Twitter sentiment regarding fertility was more positive during than before the pandemic. Top hashtags and word pairs changed to reflect the emergence of COVID-19 and the unique healthcare decision-making challenges faced. While the character, the number of users, and the total connections remained constant, the number of unique connections and the distance between users changed to reflect more self-broadcasting and less tight connections.
| S-EPMC8655431 | biostudies-literature