Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                

scholarly journals Introduction to the Special Issue: Parenting and Family Dynamics in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce Weeland ◽  
Loes Keijsers ◽  
Susan Branje

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about worldwide challenges and had a profound impact on family dynamics, relationships and routines. At the same time, the impact may differ largely due to regional differences in the numbers of infections and severity of preventive measures, as well as individual and contextual risk and protective factors. The aims of this special issue were therefore to (1) provide insight into the impact of the pandemic on the family system and (2) increase our understanding of how this impact may differ between families. This special issue consists of 13 original empirical studies that show how the pandemic affected families across different levels of the family system. At first sight, it seems that many families were able to cope relatively well with the stressors. Yet, for others the demands of the pandemic and pandemic-related measures seemed to exceed their capabilities and available resources. Importantly, the studies in this special issue suggest that the pandemic disproportionally affected children, caregivers and families who were already at risk. Together, the contributions to the special issue offer knowledge on the consequences of both the pandemic and preventive measures on family functioning. At the same time it also raises questions on the long-term impact of the pandemic and its impact on families who are currently underrepresented in empirical research.

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 178-184
Author(s):  
Linda Nazarko

The impact of a dementia diagnosis can be devastating to the person with dementia and his or her family. The person and their loved ones have been informed that the person has a progressive disease that affects memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language, and judgement ( World Health Organization (WHO), 2017 ). It is often thought of as a diagnosis of despair; however, if managed well, the diagnosis is an opportunity to enable the person to experience the best possible quality of life and to inform the family of his or her wishes in relation to end-of-life care.


Author(s):  
Swati Gupta ◽  
Arun Aggarwal ◽  
Sanjay Gupta ◽  
Anchal

The current paper takes a tourism-focused perspective to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the attitude of the tourist to travel. For this, the present paper conceptualize, develop, and validate the multi-dimensional scale on preventive measures of COVID-19. Further, we have developed a new model named Financial Crisis from Contagious Disease (FCCD)-stimulator to assess the impact of the virus on the short term performance of the global tourism industry. The study was exploratory, where initial items were generated through the qualitative method. The purification of the scale items and extraction of the distinct factors were performed through a quantitative approach (exploratory factor analysis). Further, the confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the scale. The findings of the study manifested a multi-dimensional scale measuring the preventive measures of COVID-19 in the tourism context. The research renders a 25 item scale with four distinct factors named Isolation (7-items), Quarantine (7-items), Social Distancing (6-items), and Community Containment (5-items). The present scale will add to the literature of COVID-19 in the context of the tourism industry. The authors assume that this will be the first comprehensive scale, prepared on the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), that will measure the effect of preventive measures of COVID-19 on the attitude of the tourist to travel during a pandemic situation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 1458-1464
Author(s):  
Sweta Kamboj ◽  
Rohit Kamboj ◽  
Shikha Kamboj ◽  
Kumar Guarve ◽  
Rohit Dutt

Background: In the 1960s, the human coronavirus was designated, which is responsible for the upper respiratory tract disease in children. Back in 2003, mainly 5 new coronaviruses were recognized. This study directly pursues to govern knowledge, attitude and practice of viral and droplet infection isolation safeguard among the researchers during the outbreak of the COVID-19. Introduction: Coronavirus is a proteinaceous and infectious pathogen. It is an etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Coronavirus, appeared in China from the seafood and poultry market last year, which has spread in various countries, and has caused several deaths. Methods: The literature data has been taken from different search platforms like PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, who.int portal and complied. Results: Corona virology study will be more advanced and outstanding in recent years. COVID-19 epidemic is a threatening reminder not solely for one country but all over the universe. Conclusion: In this review article, we encapsulated the pathogenesis, geographical spread of coronavirus worldwide, also discussed the perspective of diagnosis, effective treatment, and primary recommendations by the World Health Organization, and guidelines of the government to slow down the impact of the virus are also optimistic, efficacious and obliging for the public health. However, it will take a prolonged time in the future to overcome this epidemic.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukman Olagoke ◽  
Ahmet E. Topcu

BACKGROUND COVID-19 represents a serious threat to both national health and economic systems. To curb this pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a series of COVID-19 public safety guidelines. Different countries around the world initiated different measures in line with the WHO guidelines to mitigate and investigate the spread of COVID-19 in their territories. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of these control measures using a data-centric approach. METHODS We begin with a simple text analysis of coronavirus-related articles and show that reports on similar outbreaks in the past strongly proposed similar control measures. This reaffirms the fact that these control measures are in order. Subsequently, we propose a simple performance statistic that quantifies general performance and performance under the different measures that were initiated. A density based clustering of based on performance statistic was carried out to group countries based on performance. RESULTS The performance statistic helps evaluate quantitatively the impact of COVID-19 control measures. Countries tend show variability in performance under different control measures. The performance statistic has negative correlation with cases of death which is a useful characteristics for COVID-19 control measure performance analysis. A web-based time-line visualization that enables comparison of performances and cases across continents and subregions is presented. CONCLUSIONS The performance metric is relevant for the analysis of the impact of COVID-19 control measures. This can help caregivers and policymakers identify effective control measures and reduce cases of death due to COVID-19. The interactive web visualizer provides easily digested and quick feedback to augment decision-making processes in the COVID-19 response measures evaluation. CLINICALTRIAL Not Applicable


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Walusa Assad Gonçalves-Ferri ◽  
◽  
Fábia Martins Pereira-Cellini ◽  
Kelly Coca ◽  
Davi Casale Aragon ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The World Health Organization recognizes exclusive breastfeeding a safe source of nutrition available for children in most humanitarian emergencies, as in the current pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Despite the Brazilian national guideline protecting breastfeeding practices, there are many concerns about protecting infants from their infected mothers. This study aimed to analyze how the Brazilian hospitals and maternity services promote and support mothers suspected or diagnosed with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Methods This is a descriptive cross-sectional and multicenter study which collected data from 24 Brazilian hospitals and maternity services between March and July 2020. Representatives of the institutions completed a questionnaire based on acts to promote and support breastfeeding, the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, and Brazil’s federal law recommendations. Results The results showed that in delivery rooms, 98.5% of the services prohibited immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact between mothers and their infants and did not support mothers to initiate breastfeeding in the first hour. On the postnatal ward, 98.5% of the services allowed breastfeeding while implementing respiratory hygiene practices to prevent transmission of COVID-19. Companions for mothers were forbidden in 83.3% of the hospitals. Hospital discharge was mostly between 24 and 28 h (79.1%); discharge guidelines were not individualized. Additionally, a lack of support was noticed from the home environment’s health community network (83.3%). Hospital and home breast pumping were allowed (87.5%), but breast milk donation was not accepted (95.8%). There was a lack of guidance regarding the use of infant comforting strategies. Guidelines specific for vulnerable populations were not covered in the material evaluated. Conclusions In Brazil, hospitals have not followed recommendations to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding during the COVID-19 outbreak. The disagreement between international guidelines has been a major issue. The absence of recommendations on breastfeeding support during the pandemic led to difficulties in developing standards among hospitals in different regions of Brazil and other countries worldwide. The scientific community needs to discuss how to improve maternal and infant care services to protect breastfeeding in the current pandemic.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101053952110260
Author(s):  
Mairead Connolly ◽  
Laura Phung ◽  
Elise Farrington ◽  
Michelle J. L. Scoullar ◽  
Alyce N. Wilson ◽  
...  

Preterm birth and stillbirth are important global perinatal health indicators. Definitions of these indicators can differ between countries, affecting comparability of preterm birth and stillbirth rates across countries. This study aimed to document national-level adherence to World Health Organization (WHO) definitions of preterm birth and stillbirth in the WHO Western Pacific region. A systematic search of government health websites and 4 electronic databases was conducted. Any official report or published study describing the national definition of preterm birth or stillbirth published between 2000 and 2020 was eligible for inclusion. A total of 58 data sources from 21 countries were identified. There was considerable variation in how preterm birth and stillbirth was defined across the region. The most frequently used lower gestational age threshold for viability of preterm birth was 28 weeks gestation (range 20-28 weeks), and stillbirth was most frequently classified from 20 weeks gestation (range 12-28 weeks). High-income countries more frequently used earlier gestational ages for preterm birth and stillbirth compared with low- to middle-income countries. The findings highlight the importance of clear, standardized, internationally comparable definitions for perinatal indicators. Further research is needed to determine the impact on regional preterm birth and stillbirth rates.


Author(s):  
Kirti Sundar Sahu ◽  
Arlene Oetomo ◽  
Niloofar Jalali ◽  
Plinio P. Morita

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To inhibit the spread of COVID-19, governments around the globe, including Canada, have implemented physical distancing and lockdown measures, including a work-from-home policy. Canada in 2020 has developed a 24-Hour Movement Guideline for all ages laying guidance on the ideal amount of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep (PASS) for an individual in a day. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes on the household and population-level in lifestyle behaviours (PASS) and time spent indoors at the household level, following the implementation of physical distancing protocols and stay-at-home guidelines. For this study, we used 2019 and 2020 data from ecobee, a Canadian smart Wi-Fi thermostat company, through the Donate Your Data (DYD) program. Using motion sensors data, we quantified the amount of sleep by using the absence of movement, and similarly, increased sensor activation to show a longer duration of household occupancy. The key findings of this study were; during the COVID-19 pandemic, overall household-level activity increased significantly compared to pre-pandemic times, there was no significant difference between household-level behaviours between weekdays and weekends during the pandemic, average sleep duration has not changed, but the pattern of sleep behaviour significantly changed, specifically, bedtime and wake up time delayed, indoor time spent has been increased and outdoor time significantly reduced. Our data analysis shows the feasibility of using big data to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the household and population-level behaviours and patterns of change.


Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Piotr Szweda

Based on World Health Organization reports, the resistance of bacteria to well-known antibiotics is becoming a major global health challenge [...]


Export Citation Format

Share Document