ABSTRACT
The governmental restrictions in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic led to social isolation, with many people spending more time at home with their pets. The relationships between pet ownership, pet attachment, and wellbeing were examined using two online surveys: one in the early stages of the pandemic (May, 2020) and the other over one year later (September, 2021). Resilience, optimism, and basic psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) were examined as potential moderators. Study 1 had an international sample of 495 participants (70% pet owners), while study 2 had a UK sample of 243 participants (57% pet owners). Most participants reported that their pets provided emotional comfort and had a positive impact on their lives during the early stages of the pandemic. Pet ownership and pet attachment were positively associated with wellbeing in people with low levels of resilience. Conversely, people with high resilience who were pet owners or had higher pet attachment had lower wellbeing than non-pet owners and those less attached. Optimism and basic psychological need satisfaction were not significant moderators. Although some of the associations found in study 1 might have been specific to the beginning of the pandemic, other results were replicated a year later in the UK sample when social restrictions were eased (study 2). The findings from the two studies suggest that higher scores on a subscale of pet attachment, which involves the pet playing a more central role than humans in the owner's life, might be directly linked to lower resilience and wellbeing and increased loneliness. The combination of high resilience and higher levels of pet attachment or pet ownership might be unfavorable. Nonetheless, pet ownership and healthy human-animal bonds can be protective factors for people with low levels of resilience.Copyright © 2022 International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ).
ABSTRACT
Efforts to improve public health, both in the context of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases, will often consist of measures that confer risk on some persons to bring about benefits to those same people or others. Still, it is unclear what exactly justifies implementing such measures that impose risk on some people and not others in the context of public health. Herein, we build on existing autonomy-based accounts of ethical risk imposition by arguing that considerations of imposing risk in public health should be centered on a relational autonomy and relational justice approach. Doing so better captures what makes some risk permissible and others not by exploring the importance of power and context in such deliberations. We conclude the paper by applying a relational account of risk imposition in the cases of (a) COVID-19 measures and (b) the regulation of sugar-sweetened beverages to illustrate its explanatory power.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to verify the relationship between physical activity (PA) with health-related quality (HQOL) of life domains in children and adolescents during COVID-19 social distancing. A Cross-sectional and analytical study with a quantitative approach in a sample of 119 girls and 121 boys. Questionnaires and statistical methods were applied. The correlation between PA and HQOL was stronger in boys (46.9%) than girls (14.5%), which may be explained because there is a considerable and stronger relationship between age, and the school grade with HQOL in girls. In conclusion, physical activity was associated with the quality of life of children and adolescents during social distance due to the COVID-19. These findings show the importance of this population to remain physically active so that health parameters are not affected during this period © Copyright 2018: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia
ABSTRACT
In this paper, the author reflects on the meaning of vulnerability in the moral sphere. He understands vulnerability in a broader, ontological sense, which means that every human being is vulnerable because everyone is fragile and imperfect. It is this state of vulnerability that opens the individual up to relating with others, connecting, to an attitude of empathy, compassion and solidarity, to finding creative solutions. At the societal level, we have recently experienced vulnerability in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and in facing the war in Ukraine, which, on one hand, reveals our helplessness, but on the other hand, strengthens the search for common solutions and solidarity. Drawing on Hans Jonas, the author discusses the vulnerability of nature, which is being en croached upon by human beings to such an extent that it threatens the quality of the permanent existence of humanity on our planet. The author is convinced that God is also essentially vulnerable because he is sentient and in solidarity with his people;moreover, in Jesus Christ, he becomes one of us and reveals himself to us in all his vulnerability. It is through his wounds that salvation and the possibility of new life come into the world. Faith in Jesus Christ enables us to accept our vulnerability, to be attentive to the vulnerability of other human beings and the whole creation, and to take responsibility and care of life.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: People diagnosed with neurodegenerative disorders often grapple with threats to their agency, prompting some to engage in advance care planning. Advance care plans are intended to protect autonomy by helping patients receive goal-consistent healthcare. Accordingly, there is a need to better understand factors associated with hospital doctors' application of advance care plans to treatment decisions of this patient cohort. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explain the recommendations of multidisciplinary hospital-based clinicians about the benefits of advance care plans for people diagnosed with neurodegenerative disorders, and the elements that influence how doctors apply such plans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a constructivist grounded theory informed thematic analysis, semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively and theoretical sampled hospital-based clinicians: 16 doctors, six registered nurses and 10 allied health clinicians who self-reported having experience delivering healthcare to people with neurodegenerative disorders and an advance care plan. Allied health and nurse data helped to inform questions posed to doctors. Data were inductively analysed using open and focused coding. RESULTS: Analysis revealed two main themes: recommending agency through advance care plans; and limiting agency through advance care plans. These themes formed the basis of the core category: patient agency. All clinicians held positive attitudes towards advance care plans as a means to preserve patient voices and alleviate family of responsibility. However, the extent to which doctors shared decisions with family revealed a tension between individualistic agency associated with advance care plans and relational autonomy perceived by doctors as appropriate. CONCLUSION: Although doctors expressed positive attitudes towards advance care plans, they typically practiced relational autonomy wherein they partner with family in contemporaneous healthcare decision on patients' behalf. Accordingly, the healthcare preferences of hospitalised, incompetent people with neurodegenerative disorders are balanced against judgements of both doctors and family.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has turned many ethical principles and presuppositions upside down. More precisely, the principle of respect for autonomy has been shown to be ill suited to face the ethical challenges posed by the current health crisis. Individual wishes and choices have been subordinated to public interests. Patients have received trial therapies under extraordinary procedures of informed consent. The principle of respect for autonomy, at least in its mainstream interpretation, has been particularly questioned during this pandemic. Further reflection on the nature and value of autonomy is urgently needed. Relational autonomy has been proposed as an alternative account of autonomy that can more adequately respond to contemporary ethical issues in general and to a pandemic such as the one we are currently facing in particular. As relational autonomy is an emerging notion in current bioethics, it requires further consideration and development to be properly operationalized. This paper aims to show how six different philosophical branches--namely, philosophy of nature, philosophical anthropology, existential phenomenology, discourse ethics, hermeneutics, and cultural anthropology--have incorporated the category of relation throughout the twentieth century. We first delve into primary philosophical sources and then apply their insights to the specific field of medical ethics. Learning from the historical developments of other philosophical fields may provide illumination that will enable bioethics to experience a successful "relational turn", which has been partially initiated in contemporary bioethics but not yet achieved.