Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Towards COVID-19 Among Rural Residents of Hebei Province: A Cross-sectional Survey.

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 has spread worldwide due to high infectivity. The social sexual environment in rural areas of China and the weak basic medical facilities, may affect the treatment and transmission of the disease. The aim of this study was to understand the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) related to COVID-19 among residents in rural areas experiencing the epidemic and the factors, to provide a basis for further epidemic prevention and control. METHODS: The COVID-19 KAP of rural residents in Hebei Province was collected by the snowball sampling method. The COVID-19 KAP questionnaire was distributed on social platforms such as WeChat and QQ through a network questionnaire. RESULTS: The overall level of COVID-19 KAP in rural residents was good, but in terms of knowledge, the correct rate of isolation was 73.2%, the correct rate of two disinfection items were 72.3% and 77.4%, and the correct rate about hand washing was 70.7%. 54.5% residents feel panic. 81.0% disinfected household items, and 84.9% washed hands correctly. Residents still needed to strengthen these aspects. Binary logistic analysis showed that age, education and whether to participated in training were factors affecting the level of COVID-19 KAP. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that rural residents had good levels of COVID-19 KAP, but there were gaps in specific issues that warrant attention. We advocate training on COVID-19 for rural residents.

The impact of crop specialization on nutritional intake: Evidence from farm households in China.

BACKGROUND: In the wake of the severe impact of COVID-19 on the food security of the vulnerable groups in rural areas, the issue of how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 2 aims to "Zero Hunger" (SDG 2) and ensure the food safety of farmers has drawn unprecedented attention. Nutritional intake is generally used as an important indicator to reflect family food security. Under the background that Chinese farmers have gradually changed from the traditional diversified production mode to the specialized production of crops, the main purpose of this article is to explore what are the impact of crop specialization on farmers' nutritional intake? Could the specialization of crop production be taken as an important measure to ensure the food safety of farmers and achieve the SDG 2? METHODS: Based on the micro-survey data from 866 farmer households in China, this paper using Seemingly Unrelated Regressions model, Group Regression model and Mediating Effect model to analyze the average and heterogeneous effects of crop specialization on the nutritional intake of farmers, as well as the mediating effect of income. In addition, robustness test and endogenous treatment were performed by using alternative explanatory variables and IV-2SLS method was used to estimate the results. RESULTS: After correcting for endogenous bias, crop specialization had a significant negative impact on energy intake and fat intake of farmers at the statistical level of 5% and 1% respectively, especially for farmers in mountainous areas. Household income played a mediating effect on the effect of crop specialization on farmers' energy and fat intake, and the proportion of the masking effect was 8.43% and 8.96% respectively. In addition, household financial capital and social capital have a significant positive impact on farmers' nutritional intake. CONCLUSIONS: Crop specialization cannot guarantee the food safety of farmers in terms of nutritional intake. However, when the development trend of crop specialization is irreversible, more attention should be paid to improving the level of various livelihood capital of farmers, especially those in mountainous areas, and to continuously increasing their income to ease and ultimately eliminate the negative impact of crop specialization on farmers' nutritional intake, which finally make everyone realize the SDG 2.

The Effect of Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines on TRAB in Graves' Disease.

Background: The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced the development of vaccines. Reports have suggested that vaccines play a role in inducing autoimmune diseases (AIDs). Scattered cases have reported that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines may promote thyroid disease, including Graves' disease (GD). However, the effect of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine on GD remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the response of thyrotropin receptor antibody (TRAB) to inactivated SARS-COV-2 vaccines. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study to observe the differences in thyroid function and TRAB trends between pre-vaccination (n=412) and post-vaccination (n=231) groups at an interval of 2 months. We then retrospectively observed the differences in serum thyroid function and TRAB levels at 3 months before (n=280), 1 month before (n=294), 1 month after (n=306), and 3 months after (n=250) vaccination. Subsequently, 173 GD patients who were not vaccinated with inactivated SARS-COV-2 vaccines were selected for a prospective study. Thyroid function and TRAB assessment were performed before 3 and 1 months and 1 and 3 months after the first dose of vaccination and were then compared by repeated measures ANOVA to explore their dynamic changes. Results: A retrospective study preliminarily observed that the trend of TRAB post-vaccination was opposite of that pre-vaccination (p=0.000), serum TRAB levels decreased before vaccination and increased after vaccination. In this prospective study, repeated measures ANOVA indicated significant differences in serum FT3 (p=0.000), FT4 (p=0.000), TSH (p=0.000), and TRAB (p=0.000) levels at different time points before and after vaccination. Serum TRAB levels showed dynamic changes that decreased significantly at 1 month before vaccination (p=0.000), no significant differences at 1 month after vaccination (p=0.583), and reflected an upward trend at 3 months after vaccination (p=0.034). Serum FT3 and FT4 levels showed similar trends to serum TRAB levels before and after vaccination. Instead, the serum TSH levels showed a continuous upward trend over time. Conclusion: Based on the results obtained in both retrospective and prospective studies, we concluded that serum TRAB levels decreased less after inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and showed an upward trend, which may be related to humoral immunity induced by vaccination.