The Associations of Communal Space with Sense of Place and Mental Health in Public Housing: Evidence from Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Communal space is regarded as essential for human well-being in high-rise developments in Asia and increasing attention has been given to the underlying mechanism of its effects in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. From the perspective of person-place processes, this paper explores 'sense of place' and its possible mediating effects on the relationship between communal space and the mental health of residents in high-rise public housing. An analysis of data from a questionnaire survey conducted in Hong Kong and Guangzhou revealed differentiated mechanisms according to local context and age group. Sense of place and its subcomponents mediated the connection between communal space and mental health in Hong Kong but not in Guangzhou. More specifically, place identity, place attachment and place dependence had stronger effects among older residents in HK than younger ones. The findings from this study can inform evidence-based planning and decision-making for public housing policy for health-oriented environments in high-density cities.

Lymphocyte and Platelet Counts, as well as Interleukin-6 Levels, Predict Mortality of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the value of lymphocytes, platelets, and interleukin-6 in predicting the mortality of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to provide medical evidence for the long-term prognosis of patients with COVID-19. METHODS: The latest studies published until July 1, 2021, were retrieved from databases including PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library to analyze the ability of lymphocyte and platelet counts as well as interleukin-6 levels to predict mortality in patients with COVID-19. Two reviewers independently screened the literature and extracted data, then evaluated the risk of bias of included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS), and used Stata 15.0 software for meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of nine studies were included, involving 4340 patients. There were 1330 patients in the death group and 3010 patients in the survival group. Meta-analysis showed that, compared with the survival group, lymphocyte counts in the death group were significantly lower (SMD = -0.64, 95% CI: -0.86--0.43, p < 0.01), platelet counts were significantly lower (SMD = -0.47, 95% CI: -0.67--0.27, p < 0.01), and interleukin-6 levels were significantly higher (SMD = 1.07, 95% CI: 0.62-1.53, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Lymphocyte and platelet counts, as well as interleukin-6 levels, can help predict the mortality of patients with COVID-19. Due to the limitation of the number and quality of the included studies, these conclusions need to be validated by additional high-quality studies.