ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the connection and importance of happiness leading and maintaining good health. An introduction and discussion of the history of Happiness Movement, the United Nations' International Day of Happiness, offers insight into the various initiatives that promote happiness. This chapter discusses the impact of Covid-19 and the need for increased global happiness while creating a deeper understanding for the various definitions of happiness across the globe as they can all differ depending on the region. There is a focus on the longer-term links between health and a more sustainable version of happiness. Finally, a summarization of the findings based on many research studies completes the conclusion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the connection and importance of happiness leading and maintaining good health. An introduction and discussion of the history of Happiness Movement, the United Nations' International Day of Happiness, offers insight into the various initiatives that promote happiness. This chapter discusses the impact of Covid-19 and the need for increased global happiness while creating a deeper understanding for the various definitions of happiness across the globe as they can all differ depending on the region. There is a focus on the longer-term links between health and a more sustainable version of happiness. Finally, a summarization of the findings based on many research studies completes the conclusion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Despite Australia having an extremely diverse population, research demonstrates that cancer patients from culturally and linguistically diverse ('CALD') communities are underrepresented in clinical trials. To inform future policy and strategy to address this inequity, we completed a national survey of the Australian clinical trials workforce evaluating current resources to address this issue, identified barriers and preferred solutions. This reports current resources in place. METHODS: An online survey was created using Redcap comprising a mix of 15 closed and open-ended items with an estimated completion time of 20 minutes. The survey was emailed to members of two peak bodies for oncology clinicians in Australia, the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA) and the Medical Oncology Group of Australia (MOGA) and all major cancer cooperative trial groups (12) in Australia. The survey was also promoted by the study team to relevant individuals and online via Twitter. Quantitative analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel and qualitative analysis of free text entries was performed using NVivo. RESULTS: 91 respondents completed the questionnaire, with representatives from each state - the majority of respondents were from NSW (53%) and Victoria (31%). 68% were clinicians and 16% were clinical trial coordinators. 55% of respondents reported that their trial catchment was comprised of over 20% patients from a CALD background - however, 62% reported that less than 20% of their trials had included CALD participants in the previous 12 months. 74% of respondents reported that their units do not routinely collect data on preferred language or ethnic background of trial patients. Qualitative analysis showed that the only resource routinely available to sites are in person interpreters used in standard of care, which additionally, have been difficult to access during the COVID pandemic leading to only phone interpreters. CONCLUSIONS: This representative survey of the Australian cancer clinical trials workforce confirms an ongoing inequity with disproportionately lower numbers of CALD patients on enrolled in cancer clinical trials compared to the catchments served. Most respondents stated that CALD data is not routinely collected, which inhibits ongoing monitoring of this issue. We did not find evidence of existing specific resources in place to support recruitment of CALD populations, apart from standard of care interpreters.
ABSTRACT
Most children with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection have mild or minimal disease, with a small proportion developing severe disease or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Complement-mediated thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) has been associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in adults but has not been studied in the pediatric population. We hypothesized that complement activation plays an important role in SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and sought to understand if TMA was present in these patients. We enrolled 50 hospitalized pediatric patients with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (n = 21, minimal coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]; n = 11, severe COVID-19) or MIS-C (n = 18). As a biomarker of complement activation and TMA, soluble C5b9 (sC5b9, normal 247 ng/mL) was measured in plasma, and elevations were found in patients with minimal disease (median, 392 ng/mL; interquartile range [IQR], 244-622 ng/mL), severe disease (median, 646 ng/mL; IQR, 203-728 ng/mL), and MIS-C (median, 630 ng/mL; IQR, 359-932 ng/mL) compared with 26 healthy control subjects (median, 57 ng/mL; IQR, 9-163 ng/mL; P < .001). Higher sC5b9 levels were associated with higher serum creatinine (P = .01) but not age. Of the 19 patients for whom complete clinical criteria were available, 17 (89%) met criteria for TMA. A high proportion of tested children with SARS-CoV-2 infection had evidence of complement activation and met clinical and diagnostic criteria for TMA. Future studies are needed to determine if hospitalized children with SARS-CoV-2 should be screened for TMA, if TMA-directed management is helpful, and if there are any short- or long-term clinical consequences of complement activation and endothelial damage in children with COVID-19 or MIS-C.