COVID‐19 and consumer behavior: Food stockpiling in the U.S. market

The emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic has brought radical changes in consumer spending patterns. One aspect of this change is food stockpiling detected in several countries. Using a univariate probit model, this paper relies on the COVID‐19 Impact Survey (2020) for American households to assess the likelihood of consumers stockpiling food in response to the stringent lockdown measures imposed by the government's pandemic regulations. Our findings reveal a set of significant correlations between marital status, age, race, occupation, household structure, and the propensity of stockpiling food during the pandemic. Furthermore, the results show that residents in urban areas are more likely to engage in food stockpiling compared with residents in rural and suburban areas. The paper also examines the nexus between residence areas, lockdown measures, and the probability of stockpiling food. This research reveals a significant association between psychological factors and the likelihood of stockpiling food in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic [EconLit Citations: D12, H12, I18, P25].

Adverse Reactions Associated with Comirnaty® Among Healthcare Professionals: A Cohort Event Monitoring Study in a Portuguese Hospital: An International Journal of Medical Toxicology and Drug Experience

Introduction: The Portuguese government put into practice a vaccination plan soon after the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine, prioritizing healthcare professionals (HCPs) and other population groups at risk. Objective: To characterize the case reports of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with the administration of Comirnaty to HCPs in a Portuguese oncology hospital (IPO Coimbra). Methods: This study was a nine-month prospective, observational study following a cohort event monitoring approach focused on signalling ADRs associated with the administration of Comirnaty to HCP in IPO Coimbra. The case reports of ADRs were sent to the Pharmacovigilance Unit of Coimbra (UFC) between 14/01/2021 and 13/10/2021. The population of HCP was characterized according to gender and age distribution. The seriousness of ADRs was assessed for each individual case in accordance with WHO criteria [1]. ADRs were coded with MedDRA version 24.0 (System Organ Classification [SOC] and Preferred Term [PT]). ADRs were classified as expected or unexpected according to their description in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) of Comirnaty [2]. Results: A total of 816 HCPs were inoculated with at least one dose of Comirnaty. The case reports of ADRs concerned 469 (57.5%) HCPs: 386 (82.3%) females;642 (78.7%) aged 30-59 years old. Of the 469 case reports, 24 (5%) were assessed as serious, 44 (9.4%) as unexpected, and 11 (2.3%) as both serious and unexpected. The 469 case reports contained a total of 1,955 ADRs. "General disorders and administration site condition" (n = 1,075;54,9%), such as vaccination site pain, chills and vaccination site swelling;"Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders" (n = 373;19.1%), including myalgia and arthralgia;and "Nervous system disorders" (n = 250;12.8%), including headache, were the most frequently reported ADRs, which is in line with the SmPC of Comirnaty®. The 11 case reports classified as both serious and unexpected contained a total of 17 ADRs, including hyperhidrosis and paraesthesia. Conclusion: The results of this study bring value to the characterization of the safety profile of Comirnaty® since the use of a cohort of individuals allows to estimate frequencies of ADRs in the real-world. Further, serious, and unexpected ADRs were identified. Importantly, this type of safety data was further included in the SmPC of the vaccine. In conclusion, the results are in favour of the positive benefitrisk ratio of Comirnaty®, and reinforce the importance of post-marketing pharmacovigilance to increase knowledge on drug safety.

Retrospective audit of adherence to bronchiolitis guidelines in children

AimsTo compare practice of investigating and managing children presenting with clinical features of bronchiolitis against hospital guidelines.MethodsPatients were identified using HIPE database. 129 patients presented with clinical features suggesting bronchiolitis over the 12 month audit period i.e., between 01/06/2019 and 31/05/2020. Out of these, 62 patients were randomly selected for further analysis. Data were collected using the audit tool and analyzed using Microsoft Excel.Results62 patients were selected for audit. Male to female ratio was 1.4:1. Age distribution: 0-3 months: 50%, 3-6 months: 22%, 6-24 months: 27%. 38% (24/62) were classified as mild, 46% (29/62) as moderate, and 14% (9/62) as severe bronchiolitis. Alternative diagnoses considered were: LRTI not specified: 21%, Sepsis 8%, UTI 1.6%, Pertussis 1.6%, BRUE 1.6%, Influenza B 1.6%, GORD 1.6%. 80% (50/62) of patients were hospitalized. Mean duration of hospital stay was 3.3 days. In terms of investigations, 40% had bloods or swabs or both taken, 32% had chest x-rays, and 8% had ECGs performed. Out of the 11 swabs performed, 6 were RSV positive, 1 COVID positive and 1 Influenza B positive. From the management point of view, 26% (16/62) received antibiotic treatment, 42% (26/62) required oxygen support, and 23% (14/62) received salbutamol/ipratropium nebulization. 10% (6/62) required respiratory support while 3.2% (2/62) were transferred to ICU. Complications included pneumonia in 10%, lung collapse in 6.5% and re-admission in 22%.ConclusionOverall clinical approach to children with bronchiolitis was in line with the guidelines. However, a significant percentage of patients underwent unnecessary investigations and treatments. Antibiotics were prescribed in a high percentage (26%) of cases. Moreover, the hospitalization and re-admission rates were significantly high. A clinical assessment tool made readily available in ED may help in improving the assessment and management of these patients.

Cross-Sectional Study of the Impact of the COVID-Pandemic on Diabetes Management in Primary Care in Ontario, Canada

Background: This study describes the impact of the pandemic on the management of people with type 2 diabetes (PwT2D) in a primary care network with existing virtual care capabilities in Ontario, Canada. Methods: Using de-identified primary care electronic medical records, PwT2D who had at least one healthcare touchpoint between March 1, 2018 and February 28, 2021 were analyzed by time period (baseline: 2018-19, pre-COVID-19: 2019-20, COVID-19: 2020-21) . The primary outcome measures include the number of people with at least one visit, number of people with vital measurements or lab tests, and the vital or lab results. Results: The three time periods had a similar average age and gender distribution (Table 1) . Compared to the pre-COVID-period, fewer people had any healthcare touchpoint (17% reduction) . In-person visits were reduced while more people had virtual visits. Fewer people had test results recorded during the COVID-vs. two pre-COVID-time periods, however, average results were similar across all three time periods. Conclusion: Our study described the immediate impact of the COVID-pandemic on patterns of primary care for PwT2D. While the total number people getting tests remains below pre-pandemic levels, of those who sought care, the mean A1c, LDL-c and eGFR were comparable across the three time periods.

Assessing the Accuracy of National Population Projections: A Case Study of Norway

Few producers of official population projections provide regular evaluations ofpast projection inaccuracies. This paper assesses deviations between the projected and registered total population for Norway (1996-2018), as well as deviations in the age structure, total fertility rate and number of births, period life expectancy at birth and number of deaths, and net international migration. Projected life expectancy was consistently lower than the real development. Few systematic deviations were observed for fertility up to 2009, but thereafter fertility has been consistently overprojected. However, the deviations between projected and realised trends in births and deaths have been relatively small as compared to those for net international migration. The projections produced between 1996-2005 underestimated long-term population growth due primarily to the unforeseen increase in immigration following EU expansion in 2004. More recent projections contain no consistent under- or overprojection of net migration and the deviations for the total population have been moderate.

COVID-19 and all-cause mortality in South Africa – the hidden deaths in the first four waves

Accurate statistics are essential for policy guidance and decisions. However, the reported number of cases and COVID-19 deaths are known to be biased due to under-ascertainment of SARS-CoV-2 and incomplete reporting of deaths. Making use of death data from the National Population Register has made it possible to track in near-real time the number of excess deaths experienced in South Africa. These data reveal considerable provincial differences in the impact of COVID-19, likely associated with differences in population age structure and density, patterns of social mixing, and differences in the prevalence of known comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. As the waves unfolded, levels of natural immunity together with vaccination began to reduce levels of mortality. Mortality rates during the second (Beta) wave were much higher than mortality in the third (Delta) wave, which were higher than in either the first or the fourth (Omicron) waves. However, the cumulative death toll during the second (Beta) wave was of a similar order of magnitude as that during the third (Delta) wave due to the longer duration of the Delta wave. Near-real time monitoring of all-cause deaths should be refined to provide more granular-level information to enable district-level policy support. In the meanwhile, there is an urgent need to re-engineer the civil registration and vital statistics system to enable more timely access to cause of death information for public health actions.

Exploring the Relationship between the Spatial Distribution of Different Age Populations and Points of Interest (POI) in China

Population spatialization data is crucial to conducting scientific studies of coupled human–environment systems. Although significant progress has been made in population spatialization, the spatialization of different age populations is still weak. POI data with rich information have great potential to simulate the spatial distribution of different age populations, but the relationship between spatial distributions of POI and different age populations is still unclear, and whether it can be used as an auxiliary variable for the different age population spatialization remains to be explored. Therefore, this study collected and sorted out the number of different age populations and POIs in 2846 county-level administrative units of the Chinese mainland in 2010, divided the research data by region and city size, and explored the relationship between the different age populations and POIs. We found that there is a complex relationship between POI and different age populations. Firstly, there are positive, moderate-to-strong linear correlations between POI and population indicators. Secondly, POI has a different explanatory power for different age populations, and it has a higher explanatory power for the young and middle-aged population than the child and old population. Thirdly, the explanatory power of POI to different age populations is positively correlated with the urban economic development level. Finally, a small number of a certain kinds of POIs can be used to effectively simulate the spatial distributions of different age populations, which can improve the efficiency of obtaining spatialization data of different age populations and greatly save on costs. The study can provide data support for the precise spatialization of different age populations and inspire the spatialization of the other population attributes by POI in the future.

Clinical Presentation of Iranian Patients Affected with COVID-19: A Thousand Faces Disease Clinical Presentation in COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Iran is part of the worldwide pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The present study aimed to demonstrate the clinical characteristics of patients affected by COVID-19, in our tertiary teaching hospital. Medical records and compiled data of 668 patients with suspected COVID-19 were obtained retrospectively between January to April 2020. The present study outcomes included demographic features of infected patients, underlying diseases and conditions, the relationship between the results of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or CT-scan with the manifestations of the disease, mortality rate, and age distribution of fatalities among men and women. The median age of hospitalized patients was 63 years old (from 18 to 94). The patients’ chief complaints in the admission time were cough, dyspnea, fever, and gastrointestinal problems, respectively. Hospitalized patients' common comorbidities were hypertension (HTN), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) (24%), diabetes mellitus (DM) (21.5%), asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (6%), or other underlying diseases (15.5%). One-third of patients had no comorbidity according to the data of medical records. In hospitalized patients, 169 (84.5%) had positive RT-PCR, and 156 (78%) had positive chest CT findings. The mortality rate of males was higher than females (66.3% vs. 33.3%) and in patients with positive RT-PCR compared to patients with positive chest CT-scan findings. The majority of deaths had a history of DM or HTN/CVD in their medical records. The chief complaint of patients was cough. DM and HTN or CVD were the common underlying disease related to death in hospitalized cases. Besides, the hospitalization and mortality rate in males was higher than in females. About 87% of dead hospitalized cases had positive RT-PCR results, and this rate was 82% for chest CT results.

Identification of the Right Moment for Motor Vehicle Replacement—Life-Cycle Analysis in Serbia and Montenegro

This paper deals with the issue of planning the end-of-life phase of motor vehicle life cycles in Serbia and Montenegro. This topic is trending around sustainability issues, given the very unfavorable age structure of vehicles and the increasing import of used cars, which intensifies the problem of the number of waste vehicles. On average, a motor vehicle is in active use for a period of 10 to 15 years. Individual phases of its life cycle are indicated differently, using multiple parameters. All phases are influenced by many factors, but this paper focuses on the phases of active use and the end of life of a motor vehicle. This paper investigates these two phases in terms of the influencing elements. The main aim of this study is to lay the foundations for making adequate decisions on how to handle end-of-life vehicles, from the perspective of their drivers. The study includes performing quantitative research analysis via the k-means clustering technique on a sample of 1240 drivers (private and commercial vehicles), in order to draw concrete conclusions through appropriate statistical analysis. The key findings suggest that different market, business, and environment indicators define the phases of active use and end of life, throughout the life cycle of a motor vehicle. Future research will expand the sample to surrounding countries.

CORONA VIRUS - SECURITY THREAT OR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CRISIS?

COVID - 19 pandemic prompted a change in the security paradigm and challenged the scientific community to define new approaches and new methods of researching security phenomena posing a threat that will "reshape our world". The aim of this research was to contribute to the understanding of the "new safety paradigm" created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to analyze the development potential of crisis transformation of influenza (Coronavirus Diseases) in relation to the age of the population exposed population of the Republic of Croatia. Research results have shown that there has been a significant change in the degree of exposure of certain age groups in the population of the Republic of Croatia, that the most vulnerable age group is the age group from 0 to 30 years, and in this group the greatest risk is borne by high school and university students in the first years of higher education. It has also shown that the level of exposure no longer follows the age structure and that only one measure, no matter how "ideal", does not solve the problem when the crisis has a strong potential to transform its effects on the population. The Government of the Republic of Croatia considers the epidemic (pandemic) COVID-19 a "developed crisis" and not a "security threat" which results show to be completely correct by confirming the research hypothesis that COVID - 19 can be reshaped according to the age of the population.