New routines under new conditions: social and cultural implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Waechter N
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8670610 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs), aimed at reducing the diffusion of the COVID-19 pandemic, have dramatically influenced our everyday behaviour. In this work, we study how individuals adapted their daily movements and person-to-person contact patterns over time in response to the NPIs. We leverage longitudinal GPS mobility data of hundreds of thousands of anonymous individuals to empirically show and quantify the dramatic disruption in people's mobility habits and social behaviour. We find that local interventions did not just impact the number of visits to different venues but also how people experience them. Individuals spend less time in venues, preferring simpler and more predictable routines, also reducing person-to-person contacts. Moreover, we find that the individual patterns of visits are influenced by the strength of the NPIs policies, the local severity of the pandemic and a risk adaptation factor, which increases the people's mobility regardless of the stringency of interventions. Finally, despite the gradual recovery in visit patterns, we find that individuals continue to keep person-to-person contacts low. This apparent conflict hints that the evolution of policy adherence should be carefully addressed by policymakers, epidemiologists and mobility experts.
| S-EPMC8712525 | biostudies-literature
Project description:(1) Background: The novel coronavirus COVID-19 has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a public health emergency of international concern and has caused cancellation of elective cochlear implantation in many countries. This article sets out our experience with resuming cochlear implant (CI) surgery under COVID-19 conditions over a period of 3 months. In addition, early results of hearing preservation (HP) after CI surgery are presented; (2) Methods: We adopted epidemic management policies and procedures according to the National Consultant for Infectious Diseases recommendations. During preoperative visits, all patients were tested for COVID-19 with a RT-PCR test. One month postoperatively, HP values in the Partial Deafness Treatment (PDT) group of patients was established using the HEARRING group formula; (3) Results: Between January and March 2021, we performed 312 CI procedures in adult and pediatric patients. Of these, none were subsequently re-admitted to hospital and found to be COVID-19 positive. Postoperative audiometric results showed that complete or partial HP was achieved in more than half the PDT patients; (4) Conclusion: Cochlear implantation during the coronavirus disease pandemic is essential and, with careful planning, is perfectly feasible.
| S-EPMC8466866 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Due to COVID 19 (Corona virus disease)pandemic, majority of surgeries, including surgery for cancer patients got delayed across the globe. Surgeries were limited to emergency set up only. At our institute we tried to perform colorectal cancer surgeries through out the pandemic, albeit in less numbers, as we thought cancer in itself is an emergency setting. we are planning to analyse the prospectively managed database of this particular group of patients over a period of last six 6 months and look out at 30 day post operative morbidity and mortality. Besides we will try to analyse the implications of our decision to carry on with cancer surgeries in terms of number of health care workers who got infected while being involved in primary care of these patients.
| 2354636 | ecrin-mdr-crc
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:ObjectivesThe purpose of this study is to show that social distancing is a public good under the COVID-19 pandemic.Study designWe apply economic theory to analyse a cross-sectional survey.MethodsEconomic 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.ResultsSocial 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.ConclusionsAltruism and social norms are important for reducing the economic cost of the pandemic.
| S-EPMC7425541 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted residential care delivery all around the world. This study investigates the current scheduling methods in residential care facilities in order to enhance them for pandemic conditions. We first define the basic problem that addresses decisions associated with the assignment and scheduling of staff members, who perform a set of tasks required by residents during a planning horizon. This problem includes the minimization of costs associated with the salary of part-time staff members, total overtime, and violations of service time windows. Subsequently, we adapt the basic problem to pandemic conditions by considering the impacts of communal spaces (e.g., shared rooms) and a cohorting policy (classification of residents based on their risk of infection) on the spread of infectious diseases. We introduce a new objective function that minimizes the number of distinct staff members serving each room of residents. Likewise, we propose a new objective function for the cohorting policy that aims to minimize the number of distinct cohorts served by each staff member. A new constraint is incorporated that forces staff members to serve only one cohort within a shift. We present a population-based heuristic algorithm to solve this problem. Through a comparison with two benchmark solution approaches (a mathematical programme and a non-dominated archiving ant colony optimization algorithm), the superiority of the heuristic algorithm is shown regarding solution quality and CPU time. Finally, we conduct numerical analyses to present managerial implications.
| S-EPMC9065499 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-BSST1055 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundDuring COVID-19 pandemic, children are confined at home, with changes in family routines.AimEvaluate sleep disorders among Brazilian and Portuguese children during social distancing, and its association with parental perception of child's oral hygiene.DesignIn this cross-sectional study, Portuguese and Brazilian parents/caregivers of 3- to 15-year-old children, practicing social distancing due to COVID-19 pandemic, answered an online questionnaire, from April 24-26, 2020, evaluating sociodemographic characteristics, child's school activities online, child's sleep quality during social distancing. Two questions from the questionnaire, developed based on previous studies, evaluated the parental perception of child's oral hygiene quality and routine changes during social distancing. Parents/caregivers answered five domains of the Portuguese-language version of the Sleep Disturbances Scale for Children, evaluating sleep-breathing disorders, disorders of arousal, sleep-wake transition disorders, disorders of excessive somnolence and sleep hyperhidrosis. Descriptive, Linear-by-linear association, Kruskal-Wallis and post hoc analysis were performed (P ≤ .05).ResultsParticipated in the study 253 parents/caregivers, 50.2% from Brazil. Most parents (72.2%) reported changes in child's routine during social distancing. Sleep breathing disorders (P = .019), sleep-wake transition disorders (P = .022), and disorders of excessive somnolence (P < .001) were associated with poor oral hygiene during social distancing.ConclusionSleep disorders are associated with poor oral hygiene during social distancing.
| S-EPMC7537505 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveTo evaluate the effects of parental sleep and work arrangements on children's sleep duration during the national lockdown period, referred to as 'Circuit Breaker' (CB), due to COVID-19.MethodsCross-sectional, anonymous, online questionnaire to parents with school-going children aged between 3 and 16 years. Child and parental sleep duration in relation to change in parental work arrangements, housing type and number of individuals in the household as reported by parents were evaluated. Descriptive statistics and tests of comparison were used to evaluate data.ResultsSchool-going children (n = 593) had a mean age of 8.68 (SD = 3.65; median 7) years. Both, fathers and mothers had gains in sleep during CB (based on self-reported sleep data), compared to pre-CB. Change in both maternal and paternal sleep duration positively correlated with change in child sleep duration (based on parent-reported sleep data) among all children (r2 = 0.27, p < 0.001 and r2 = 0.17, p < 0.001 respectively); pre-schoolers mirrored their mothers' sleep more closely. Parents who changed to working from home during the CB (compared to working from outside home previously) had the greatest gains in sleep during this period. Housing type was not significantly associated with change in child sleep duration from pre-CB to CB.ConclusionsGreater gains in sleep in parents was associated with working from home during CB. Child sleep duration mirrored gains in parental sleep, especially in pre-school and primary-school-going children. Optimising parental sleep may therefore be one of the means to improve child sleep.
| S-EPMC8557624 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background and objectivesThe novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have prompted more engagement in prosocial activities, such as volunteering and support transactions. The day-to-day affective and social implications of these activities for adults of different ages are unknown. The current study examined associations of daily prosocial activities with affective and social well-being, and whether these associations varied by age.Research design and methodsParticipants ages 18-91 in Canada and the United States (N = 1,028) completed surveys for 7 consecutive evenings about their daily experiences of COVID-19-related prosocial activities (formal volunteering, support provision, support receipt), positive and negative affect, and satisfaction with social activities and relationships. Analyses were conducted using multilevel modeling and accounted for a range of potential confounding factors (e.g., sociodemographics, work, family, caregiving, daily stressors).ResultsOlder age predicted more frequent formal volunteering, as well as more support provision and support receipt due to COVID-19. In particular, middle-aged and older adults provided more emotional support than younger adults, middle-aged adults provided the most tangible support, and older adults received the most emotional support. All three types of prosocial activities were associated with higher positive affect and greater social satisfaction on days when they occurred. Providing COVID-19-related support further predicted lower same-day negative affect. Age did not significantly moderate these associations.Discussion and implicationsOlder age was related to more frequent engagement in prosocial activities during the COVID-19 crisis. These activities were associated with improved daily affective and social well-being for adults of all ages.
| S-EPMC7665483 | biostudies-literature