ABSTRACT
Peer mentorship is a mutually beneficial relationship that allows two individuals who are at approximately the same experience level to interact with one another with the goal of providing personal, professional, or both types of support. It has been found that peer mentorship within academic settings have generally positive retention, persistence, and student experience outcomes for both mentors and mentees. While peer mentoring research and initiatives are growing, very few instances exist of determining student perceived needs regarding peer mentorship. As such, at a western institution in the United States, students were surveyed to self-report their perceived peer mentorship needs. This survey occurred during Fall 2021, just after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of 223 participants, 79 students indicated that they currently had a peer mentor at the time the survey was administered. Students were given both a definition and examples of peer mentorship before indicating they had a peer mentor. Their mentors may have been formally assigned through an existing program at the college of engineering of interest or informally obtained through their own efforts. These 79 participants were asked what additional support they wish their peer mentor could provide. Through phenomenological analysis of open-ended responses, common avenues for additional support were determined. These findings allowed for development of recommendations for shaping the future implementation of more targeted and beneficial peer mentoring initiatives. The recommendations include providing flexibility in peer mentorship, training on resources and events, and a variety of peer mentoring opportunities early and consistently. © 2022 SEFI 2022 - 50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
We previously proposed the term ‘opportunistic non-communicable diseases (NCDs)' to raise awareness of how NCDs thrive in societies with inadequate healthcare services. However, we did not anticipate that within the next year the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) would sweep the globe. Lockdowns became the primary strategy for mitigation in most countries. However, the extensive restrictions and allocation of resources towards the containment of the pandemic have likely served as a catalyst of NCDs, especially in populations, societies and individuals already at high risk. We are presenting evidence to qualify two primary factors responsible for the potential impact on the development of NCDs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first is disrupted healthcare services including avoidance and postponement of healthcare visits. The second is effects of changing lifestyle and living conditions including isolation, loss of job and income. The accumulated effect of these factors will likely further accelerate the development of NCDs and impair their management, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Insufficient vaccination coverage due to inequality in vaccine distribution and vaccine hesitancy left room for the incubation of immune-evasive variants that threatened to sustain or reinitiate the pandemic. We believe the concept of opportunistic NCDs and the potential catalytic effect that pandemics may have on the development of NCDs and their management, should be used as further arguments to secure equal vaccine distribution, promote global vaccine acceptance and to speed up and increase investments in primary health care in low- and middle-income countries to cope with the already existing NCD crisis and to prepare for future epidemics. © 2022 Scandinavian Societies for Pathology, Medical Microbiology and Immunology.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic on gambling and problem gambling in Canada. Method(s): A stratified national cohort of regular gamblers (n=2790) completed a comprehensive online questionnaire 6 months before the onset of the pandemic (baseline;August-November 2019), during the nation-wide lockdown (May-June 2020), and 6 months after the lockdown (December 2020). Result(s): Significant decreases in gambling frequency, time spent in gambling sessions, money spent, and the number of game types played occurred during lockdown followed by significant increases in all of these same measures postlockdown. However, the level of postlockdown gambling behavior was still significantly lower than prepandemic baseline levels. A significant shift to online gambling was also observed during the lockdown, which persisted postlockdown. Problem gambling scores also declined during the lockdown, with no significant change in these scores postlockdown. Consistent with previous literature, it was found that a higher level of gambling engagement, online gambling participation, and known biopsychosocial factors (family history of problem gambling, gambling fallacies, substance use, male sex, mood disorder) were predictors of problem gambling at postlockdown. COVID-specific factors predictive of problem gambling postlockdown were the presence of negative COVID-related health impacts and increased levels of social interaction and leisure time. Conclusion(s): The COVID-related lockdowns have resulted in lower levels of gambling and problem gambling symptomatology as well as increased online gambling in Canada that have persisted to some extent 6 months postlockdown. Future studies are necessary to ascertain whether these represent permanent or temporary changes. Copyright © 2022 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background: The studies investigating the safety and efficacy of the SARS-COV2 mRNA vaccines only included a limited number of heart failure patients and no separate analyses were performed regarding the safety of the vaccines in this patient population. Purpose: The aims of this study were to investigate the risk of worsening heart failure and all-cause mortality associated with the SARS-COV-2 mRNA vaccines in a nationwide cohort of patients with heart failure. Methods: Using the Danish nationwide registries, two cohorts were constructed;1) all prevalent heart failure patients in 2019 and 2) all prevalent heart failure patients in 2021 who were vaccinated with either of the two mRNA vaccines (BNT162B2 or mRNA-1273). The patients in the two cohorts were matched 1:1 using exact exposure matching on age, sex, and duration of heart failure (intervals). For patients in the 2021 cohort, the index date was defined as the date of the patients' second vaccination. Patients in the 2019 cohort were assigned the index day and month of their 1:1 match in the 2021 cohort, but used the pre-vaccination index year 2019. The primary outcomes were worsening heart failure and all-cause mortality and secondary outcomes were myocarditis and venous thromboembolism. Standardized risks were estimated based on outcome-specific Cox regression analyses, and all models were standardized to age, sex, duration of heart failure, use of SGLT2 inhibitors or Entresto, ischemic heart disease, cancer, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and admission with heart failure <90 days before index. Results: The total study population comprised 101,786 patients, with 50,893 patients in each cohort. The median age of the study population was 74 (interquartile range (IQR);66,81), and duration of heart failure was 4.1 (IQR: 2.0,6.7) years. The standardized risk of all-cause mortality within 90 days was 2.2% (95% CI: 2.1% to 2.4%) in the 2021 cohort and 2.6% (95% CI: 2.4% to 2.7%) in the 2019 cohort, showing a significantly lower risk difference for all-cause mortality in 2021 versus 2019 (risk difference: −0.3% (95% CI: −0.5% to −0.1%)) Figure 1)). The standardized risk of worsening heart failure within 90 days was 1.1% (95% CI: −1.0% to 1.2%) in the 2021 cohort and 1.1% (95% CI: 1.0% to 1.2%) in the 2019 cohort showing no significant difference in the risk of worsening heart failure between the two cohorts (risk difference: 0% (95% CI: −0.1% to 0.1%)). No significant differences were found for venous thromboembolism or myocarditis. Conclusion: This study showed that the SARS-COV2 mRNA vaccines were not associated with an increased risk of worsening heart failure, venous thromboembolism or myocarditis, but was associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality. Our study may suggest that these vaccines are safe in heart failure patients. Funding Acknowledgement: Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): The Danish Heart FoundationLæge Sofus Carl Emil Friis og hustrus legatFigure 1
ABSTRACT
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and responses used to mitigate the spread such as selective closure of non-essential businesses, have been far-reaching. Some of these impacts include changes in health, economic, social and recreation. Included among other non-essential business, in-person gambling venues were closed across Canada. Yet, online gambling opportunities remained available, making this period both a historical first in Canada, and a natural experiment. The current study examined quantifiable ramifications of the sudden forced abstinence from in-person gambling during the nation-wide lockdown in Canada, and what changes occurred six-months later upon reopening. For this cohort study, pre-pandemic base line data was provided six-month before the lockdown by online panel participants (n = 2,790), who were then re-surveyed during the national lockdown and again six-months postlockdown. Nearly one-third of gamblers reported a complete cessation of gambling during the lockdown period. For those who continued gambling, quantitative data indicated signifi-cant decreases on all gambling engagement measures: frequency, time spent in gambling sessions, money spent, and the number of game types played. This was followed by significant increases on each engagement measure six-months post-lockdown. Although these increases did not return to pre-pandemic engagement levels. Problem gambling within the whole sample generally declined during lockdown, however, significant increases in highrisk gambling were evidenced six-months later. In fact, engaging in online gambling and COVID-specific changes in health, employment, and social isolation across the closure and re-opening periods were independent predictors for classification as a problem gambler sixmonths after the lockdown.
ABSTRACT
Human-to-animal and animal-to-animal transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been documented;however, investigations into SARS-CoV-2 transmission in congregate animal settings are lacking. We investigated four animal shelters in the United States that had identified animals with exposure to shelter employees with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Of the 96 cats and dogs with specimens collected, only one dog had detectable SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies;no animal specimens had detectable viral RNA. These data indicate a low probability of human-to-animal transmission events in cats and dogs in shelter settings with early implementation of infection prevention interventions.