ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic is im-pacting the emotional health of adolescents. Factors such as resilience can buffer this important impact on their well-being. Our aim was to study the association between anxious-depressive symptomatology and resilience in adolescents from Spain and Mexico, and to compare the differences between the two samples. A total of 476 adolescents (70.10 % female) aged 9-18 years (M = 15.62;SD = 1.22), equally distributed between the two countries, participated in the study. They were assessed using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and the Resilience Scale. We conduct-ed descriptive analyses, independent samples t-tests, effect size calculation and Pearson correlations. The results showed that the profile of adaptive adjustment to the pandemic was: being a male, not having experienced a stressful life event, not having previous physical or psychological health problems and residing in Spain. While the risk profile for the pandemic was: being a female, having a stressful life event, having some type of previous physical and psychological health problem, and residing in Ecuador. Our data point to the importance of detecting the specific needs of adolescents according to their socio-economic and cultural context in order to implement interventions to protect their mental health during the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Background: In 2019, we used the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Quality Training Program (QTP) as an instrument to improve the inclusion rate in clinical trials (CTs) for bladder cancer patients from 24% in 2018 to 43,75% in 2019. CTs play an important role in developing new treatments, expanding or refining treatments that are already available, and/or identifying behavioral changes that can prolong or improve the lives of subjects. Therefore, we believe it is important for patients and for society to maintain the inclusion rate in clinical trials despite COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We collected the number of bladder cancer patients evaluated for the first time in the Oncology department, the number of patients who were offered a clinical trial, the screen failures and the number of patients enrolled in CTs. Results: In 2019, we were able to increase the enrollment rate in CTs for bladder cancer patients to from 24% to 43,75% thanks to the ASCO-QTP. With this program we created a list of measures and identified the ones that would have a greater impact. The one that seems to have had the highest impact is the diffusion of CTs in the Investigation Unit and the Genitourinary (GU) board. In 2020, thanks to this measure and despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to maintain a 40,81% enrollment rate. When analyzing the patients evaluated for the first time in the Oncology department, 48 in 2019 and 49 in 2020, there were some interesting differences. In 2020, 42,86% had stage IV disease with respect to 39,6% in 2019, and only 22,44% had non-muscle invasive disease (NMIBC) versus 33,33% in 2019. However, thanks to the diffusion of CTs in the Investigation Unit and in the GU-board, which translates in an early derivation of patients to Medical Oncology and an increase in the number of available CTs, we were able to offer a CT to 73,5% of patients in 2020 against 60,4% in 2019. Although there was an increase of screen failures in 2020 (32,65% vs. 16,66%), 50% of them were due to the absence of a biomarker in a biomarker driven CT, with respect to 25% in 2019. Conclusions: Using ASCO-QTP as an instrument, we identified the importance of the diffusion of CTs and the close collaboration between departments. Maintaining these measures, we were able to uphold the inclusion rate in CTs for bladder cancer patients in 40,81% despite the later diagnosis of patients due to COVID-19 pandemic.