Emojis and stock returns

Purpose: The authors explore how the sentiment expressed by emojis in comments on stocks is associated with the stocks' subsequent returns. Design/methodology/approach: By applying our own analyzer, the authors find a sentiment effect of emojis on stocks returns separately to the plain text-expressed sentiment in Reddit posts about meme stocks such as Gamestop during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings: The authors document that a one-standard deviation change in emoji sentiment magnitude measured as the quantity of positive emoji sentiment posts over the previous hour is associated with an 0.06% (annualized: 109.2%) one-hour abnormal stock return compared to a mean of 0.03% (annualized: 54.6%). If the stock exhibits a higher intra-hour volatility, a proxy for uninformed noise trading, this relation is more pronounced and even stronger compared to stock return's relation to plain text sentiment. Research limitations/implications: The authors are not able to show causation that is open to future research. It also remains an open question how emojis impact market price efficiency. Practical implications: Emojis are positively related to stock returns in addition to plain text-expressed content if they are discussed heavily by retail investors in Internet boards such as Reddit. Social implications: Shared emotions expressed by emojis might have an influence on how disconnected individuals make homogeneous decisions. This argument might explain our found relation of emojis and stock returns. Originality/value: So, the study findings provide empirical evidence that emojis in Reddit posts convey information on future short-term stocks returns distinct from information expressed in plain text, in the case of volatile stocks, with a higher magnitude. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Telehealth as a therapeutic approach in the management of childhood obesity.

Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence are not only associated with severe medical and psychological complications and sequelae, but also represent one of the greatest challenges for the healthcare system from an economic point of view. The restrictions imposed by the global COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic have further aggravated the already high prevalence of juvenile obesity. Since pharmacological treatment options are generally not approved in childhood/adolescence and therefore they are not an option, lifestyle modification has a separate role from a therapeutic perspective. Multimodal training concepts from various disciplines (e.g., psychology, nutrition, sports, medicine) currently show the best prospects of success. The targeted transfer of these training programs into telemedical concepts could sustainably improve their effectiveness and reduce resource requirements on both the therapeutic and patient side.Copyright © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.

Significant improvement in dietary behaviors and quality of life among adolescents with obesity in the COVID19 lockdown through telehealth

Background: COVID19 Lockdown resulted in an extreme change in daily lifestyle with a significant increase in weight and loss of quality of life, as well as an increase in the risk of secondary health conditions even in young people. One reason for this is a fatal change in the nutritional situation, especially among adolescents. Convincing models to counter this problem are missing so far. Multiprofessional training programs could reveal an outstanding effect for secondary prevention of obesity in youth. Telehealth measures were successfully implemented several times during the COVID19 pandemic. Method(s): Adolescents (8-17 years) with severe obesity referred through a large obesity consultation were interviewed using standardized dietary behavior questionnaires (FEV-K, FFL-K, FFV-K) and quality of life questionnaires (WHO-5, KIND-L) and enrolled in a structured multimodal education program for adolescents with overweight. The program content (sports, nutrition, medicine, psychology) was tought exclusively video-based. After the end of the program (12 months), the patients were interviewed again regarding eating behavior and quality of life. In addition, a clinical examination including analysis of blood parameters was performed before and after the program. The results were analyzed and compared with results from the pre-pandemic period (2017 - 2019). Result(s): 108 children and adolescents (mean age 12.1 yrs;male 46.2%, BMI SDS 2.21) were studied and telemedicated. Based on a significantly increased intake of fatty and sugary foods and an increased amount of meals per day (7.2 meals per day), a significantly increased intake of vegetables and fruits as well as a massive decrease of sweets, snacks and soft drinks was observed after program participation, which corresponds to a significant improvement in dietary behavior also compared to the pre-pandemic period. The amount of meals per day decreased to 4.1 meals per day. The quality of life of the adolescents increased significantly. The BMI SDS and the blood parameters (cholesterol, triglycerides, HOMA index) showed a decreasing trend, which roughly corresponds to the effect of the pre-pandemic period. Discussion and Conclusion(s): This study demonstrated a beneficial effect on dietary behaviors and quality of life of adolescents with obesity during lockdown through video-based structured education. Future research needs to show the extent to which this effect is replicable with respect to new periods of contact restriction. It is possible that telemedicine obesity education components can reach a large number of patients and especially families in rural areas, and thus can be a supraregional support for adolescents with obesity.

Telehealth as a therapeutic approach in the management of childhood obesity

Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence are not only associated with severe medical and psychological complications and sequelae, but also represent one of the greatest challenges for the healthcare system from an economic point of view. The restrictions imposed by the global COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic have further aggravated the already high prevalence of juvenile obesity. Since pharmacological treatment options are generally not approved in childhood/adolescence and therefore they are not an option, lifestyle modification has a separate role from a therapeutic perspective. Multimodal training concepts from various disciplines (e.g., psychology, nutrition, sports, medicine) currently show the best prospects of success. The targeted transfer of these training programs into telemedical concepts could sustainably improve their effectiveness and reduce resource requirements on both the therapeutic and patient side.

Telehealth als Therapieoption in der juvenilen Adipositasprävention

Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence are not only associated with severe medical and psychological complications and sequelae, but also represent one of the greatest challenges for the healthcare system from an economic point of view. The restrictions imposed by the global COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic have further aggravated the already high prevalence of juvenile obesity. Since pharmacological treatment options are generally not approved in childhood/adolescence and therefore they are not an option, lifestyle modification has a separate role from a therapeutic perspective. Multimodal training concepts from various disciplines (e.g., psychology, nutrition, sports, medicine) currently show the best prospects of success. The targeted transfer of these training programs into telemedical concepts could sustainably improve their effectiveness and reduce resource requirements on both the therapeutic and patient side.

Did the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown affect the incidence of pediatric type 1 diabetes in Germany?

Objectives: To analyze a possible change in pediatric type 1 diabetes (T1D) incidence rate (IR) following the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in comparison with the IRs of the last decade in Germany. Viral infections are known to be associated with T1D risk. Thus the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may have increased the risk of T1D onset. Additionally, social separation in the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown may have set stress on families also possibly increasing the risk of T1D onset. On the other hand, social separation during lockdown may have decreased the frequency of common infections in children possibly reducing the T1D onset risk. Methods: We included T1D patients registered in the “Diabetes- Prospective Follow-up” registry (DPV) with onset age between 6 months and < 18 years diagnosed in the years 2011-2020 each between March 13th and May 13th, corresponding to the lockdownperiod in Germany in 2020. In each year, the number of cases was related to the respective patient-years at risk to estimate the IR (per 100,000 person-years [95% confidence intervals]) obtained from the Federal Statistical Office. Using a Poisson regression model, we predicted the IR for 2020 based on data from 2011-2019 in the whole cohort, and stratified by sex and age groups (< 6, 6- < 12, 12- < 18 years). Results: T1D IRs increased from 16.4 [14.7-18.2] in 2011 to 22.2 [20.3-24.2] in 2019 (p = 0.04). The IR in 2020, based on 532 cases among 13 million subjects <18 years, was 23.4 [21.5-25.5] and did not differ significantly from the predicted IR (22.1 [20.4-23.9]) (Figure 1). We found no significant deviation of T1D IRs in 2020 from the predicted IRs after stratifying by age and sex. Conclusions: The T1D IR in 2020 follows the increasing trend in the past decade without up- or downwards deviation, indicating no shortterm influence of the SARS-CoV-2 situation on T1D IR. SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in Germany were relatively low, so direct diabetogenic effects are unlikely. (Table Presented).