Evaluating the Risk of Social Isolation in Older People: AHP-Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation.

Background: Social isolation is a serious and pervasive health issue among older people, and it is difficult to identify and assess effectively. Based on a thorough and scientific evaluation index system, AHP-Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation could be a valuable technique. Objective: It is crucial to establish interventions that focus on risk factors for the prevention of social isolation in order to give a strong scientific foundation for enhancing older people's health habits. This can be achieved by using a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to assess the risk of social isolation in older people. Methods: A hundred community members over 60 from Nanjing were selected as the evaluation subjects in China. After the element layer was split into three categories of "social risk, economic risk, and cultural risk" using the analytic hierarchy process approach, a total of 22 assessment indicators were picked to develop a risk evaluation index system. Results: The risk level of social isolation belonging to the "low risk, relatively low risk, medium risk, relatively high risk, high risk" of membership degree are respectively "0.3392, 0.2632, 0.2257, 0.1069, 0.0650". Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation analysis showed that social relations (0.4934), monthly income (0.4654), health status (0.5960) were significant factors of social isolation risk in older people. The results showed that factors related to social risk had the most significant impact on social isolation. Conclusion: It is scientific and feasible to construct the risk evaluation index model of social isolation risk for the elderly by using AHP-Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. In preventing social isolation of older people in the future, we should pay attention to the impact of social and cultural factors on them, and provide practical intervention programs and references from the government, community, family.

The dynamic impact of monetary policy on financial stability in China after crises

This research investigates the role that China's monetary policy has played in maintaining financial stability after crises in the 21st century. We construct a financial stability index (FSI) with eight variables from four characteristics that reflect variations in the financial stability of China, and analyze the dynamic impacts of China's monetary policies on financial stability with a time-varying parameter vector-autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model. The three major crises that China has been involved in the past 15 years (i.e., the 2008 global financial crisis, 2015 stock market crash in China, and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis) indicate that the scale of social financing, stock market performance, and the degree of financial deepening in China have great influences on financial stability. We observe supportive evidence, moreover, that both quantitative and price-based monetary policies can promote financial stability after crises in China, especially in the short term. The quantitative policy is more effective than price-based monetary policy and has become the main policy tool in China. At a time when the world economy is still suffering from the COVID-19 crisis, the quick economic recovery is an imperative task for all countries. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to understand the relationship between monetary policy and financial stability after crises.

Critical roles of cytokine storm and secondary bacterial infection in acute kidney injury development in COVID-19: A multi-center retrospective cohort study.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) may develop in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is associated with in-hospital death. We investigated the incidence of AKI in 223 hospitalized COVID-19 patients and analyzed the influence factors of AKI. The incidence of cytokine storm syndrome and its correlation with other clinicopathologic variables were also investigated. We retrospectively enrolled adult patients with virologically confirmed COVID-19 who were hospitalized at three hospitals in Wuhan and Guizhou, China between February 13, 2020, and April 8, 2020. We included 124 patients with moderate COVID-19 and 99 with severe COVID-19. AKI was present in 35 (15.7%) patients. The incidence of AKI was 30.3% for severe COVID-19 and 4.0% for moderate COVID-19 (p < 0.001). Furthermore, cytokine storm was found in 30 (13.5%) patients and only found in the severe group. Kidney injury at admission (odds ratio [OR]: 3.132, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.150-8.527; p = 0.025), cytokine storm (OR: 4.234, 95% CI: 1.361-13.171; p = 0.013), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (OR: 7.684, 95% CI: 2.622-22.523; p < 0.001) were influence factors of AKI. Seventeen (48.6%) patients who received invasive mechanical ventilation developed AKI, of whom 64.7% (11/17) died. Up to 86.7% of AKI patients with cytokine storms may develop a secondary bacterial infection. The leukocyte counts were significantly higher in AKI patients with cytokine storm than in those without (13.0 × 109/L, interquartile range [IQR] 11.3 vs. 8.3 × 109/L, IQR 7.5, p = 0.005). Approximately 1/6 patients with COVID-19 eventually develop AKI. Kidney injury at admission, cytokine storm and ARDS are influence factors of AKI. Cytokine storm and secondary bacterial infections may be responsible for AKI development in COVID-19 patients.

The Development of Critical Care Medicine in China: From SARS to COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Critical care medicine is a branch of medical science that deals with the characteristics and regularity of life-threatening processes initiated by any injury or disease and, accordingly, relevant treatment for patients with critical illness. Conceptions of critical care medicine in China stemmed in the early 1970s. Ever since the establishment of the first intensive care unit (ICU) along with the increasingly incomparable role of ICU in medical practices, critical care medicine has become an indispensable part of the Chinese medical and health system. Currently, critical care medicine as a secondary clinical discipline and a well-constructed science is in sustainable development on the way towards systematization and standardization. METHODS: The gross domestic product (GDP) and population data were obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. The number of ICUs, ICU beds, and hospital beds and other data regarding ICU staffing and facility resources were obtained from the Yearbook of Health in the People's Republic of China and National Bureau of Statistics. The mortality rates of SARS and COVID-19 and the number of health workers aiding Hubei amid COVID-19 pandemic were obtained from the National Health Commission. Findings. Critical care medicine in mainland China has made significant strides: both quantity and quality are progressing at a fast pace after SARS in 2003. Although there exist some disparities in healthcare personnel and medical resources, they have not hindered the country from mobilizing its healthcare workers and resources against a public health emergency.