Characteristics of patients with acute ischemic stroke and covid-19 who required intensive care unit admission versus ward-only: The mississippi academic center experience

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral disease that has primarily been known to cause respiratory symptoms;however, there has also been an association of COVID-19 with neurological symptoms, including acute ischemic stroke (AIS). There is a lack of data on the characteristics of AIS patients with COVID-19 from the stroke belt. We aim to describe the characteristics of patients with COVID-19 and AIS and compare the characteristics of those who required intensive care unit (ICU) admission versus ward-only. Methods: Single center, retrospective cohort study of adult patients admitted in a tertiary academic center from March 1-December 31, 2020. The institutional COVID database was utilized for data collection. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected. Primary outcome measure was mortality. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay (LOS) and discharge disposition. Results: Both COVID-19 and AIS were found in 2.4% (n=75) of patients out of 3,031 patients with COVID-19, during the study period. These patients were male (45, 60%), African American (43, 57%), 65±12 years old, with hypertension (69, 92%) and Diabetes Mellitus type 2 (50, 67%). We noted a 20% (n=15) overall in-patient mortality rate among patients with both COVID-19 and AIS. Among these patients, 23% (n=17) required ICU admission. Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics were comparable among ICU versus ward-only patients except for higher LDH (476.12±189.70 vs 276.17±88.35 U/L, p==0.0003);and lower relative lymphocytic count (3.57±3.56 vs 8.93±7.83 10 cells/μL, p=0.0160) among those admitted into the ICU. Mortality (13, 68% vs 6, 32%, p<0.001) was significantly higher among the ICU cohort while majority of the ward-only cohort were discharged home (21, 95%). Conclusion: We present the first description of characteristics and outcomes of patients with AIS and COVID-19 from Mississippi. Novel to this cohort is the comparison of those who were admitted into the ICU versus ward-only. Prospective studies analyzing larger datasets of COVID-19 and stroke in the stroke-belt are warranted to further study disparities of care and outcomes.

Health and Wellbeing Benefits from Nature Experiences in Tropical Settings Depend on Strength of Connection to Nature.

A growing number of policies and programmes in cities aim to increase the time people spend in nature for the health and wellbeing benefits delivered by such interactions. Yet, there is little research investigating the extent to which, and for whom, nature experiences deliver such benefits outside Europe, North America, and Australia. Here, we assessed the relationships between nature dose (frequency, duration, and intensity) and three mental wellbeing (depression, stress, and anxiety) and two physical health (high blood pressure, diabetes) outcomes in Singapore, an intensely urbanised tropical city. Our analyses accounted for individual factors, including socio-economic status, nature connection (nature relatedness), and whether people with poor health are prevented by their condition from visiting green spaces. Our results show that the association between nature dose (specifically duration) and mental wellbeing is moderated by a nature connection. Specifically, people with a stronger nature connection were less likely to be depressed, stressed, and anxious, regardless of the duration of their nature dose. For those with a weaker connection to nature, spending longer in nature was associated with being more depressed, stressed, and anxious. We did not find a relationship between nature dose and high blood pressure or diabetes. Our results highlight that the relationship between nature dose and wellbeing might vary substantially among cities.

The Contagion Effect from U.S. Stock Market to the Vietnamese and the Philippine Stock Markets: The Evidence of DCC – GARCH Model

Using a DCC – GARCH model analysis, this paper examines the existence of financial contagion from the U.S. stock market to the Vietnamese and the Philippine stock markets during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. We use daily data from the S&P 500 (U.S.), VN-Index (Vietnam), and the PSEi (the Philippines). As a result, there is no evidence of contagion from the U.S stock market to the Philippine stock market that can be found during global financial crisis, while the Vietnamese market is influenced by this effect. Besides, both these developing stock markets (the Vietnamese and Philippine stock markets) are influenced by the contagion effect in COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Another finding is that the contagion effect during the coronavirus pandemic crisis in Vietnam is smaller than that during the global financial crisis, however, the opposite is the case for the Philippines. It is noticed that the Philippines seems to be more affected by the contagion effect from the COVID-19 pandemic than Vietnam at the time of this study. Because financial contagion is important for monetary policy, asset pricing, risk measurement, and portfolio allocation, the findings in this paper may give some useful information for policymakers and investors. © Copyright: The Author(s) This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.