Sociodemographic and clinical predictors for COVID-19 preventive measures compliance among pregnant women in Saudi Arabia: a multicenter study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the levels of adherence among pregnant women to the basic COVID-19 preventive measures, and to analyze the effect of risk perception and sociodemographic and clinical factors on adherence. METHOD: A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted at the obstetrics clinics of 50 primary care centers selected using a multistage sampling method. An online-administered, structured questionnaire was used to collect self-reported levels of adherence to four basic preventive measures against COVID-19, along with perceived COVID-19 severity, infectiousness, and harmfulness to the baby, besides sociodemographic and clinical data including obstetrical and other medical history. RESULTS: A total of 2460 pregnant women were included with a mean (SD) age of 30.21 (6.11) years. Levels of self-reported compliance were highest for hand hygiene (95.7%), followed by social distancing (92.3%), masking (90.0%), and avoidance of contact with a COVID-19 infected person (70.3%). Perceived COVID-19 severity and infectiousness, and harmfulness to the baby were observed in 89.2%, 70.7%, and 85.0% of the participants, respectively, and were variably associated with compliance to preventive measures. Analysis of sociodemographic factors highlighted the significance of education and economic status in determining adherence to preventive measures, which represents a potential inequity in the risk of COVID-19 infection. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of patients' education to enable functional perception of COVID-19 that promotes self-efficacy, besides investigating the specific social determinants of health to tackle inequalities in terms of prevention efficiency and the subsequent health outcomes.

Building Resilience in Times of New Global Challenges: A Focus on Six Main Attributes

This work discusses the crucial concept of resilience in six specific paragraphs, starting from the grid of the main attributes (namely, safety, robustness, adaptive capacity, sustainability, governance, and anamnesis) proposed by Indirli (2019). This study found that two views were particularly challenging, however conflicting: the homeostatic approach (engineering resilience, e.g. oscillations around an initial steady state) or the autopoietic approach (ecological resilience, e.g. irreversible shifts towards a new situation). In fact, a reliable resilience's assessment is fundamental when geohazards affect the environment, urban habitat, building construction, lifelines and heritage. The reason of this study is also due to the increasing ambiguity whereby the term is frequently used in multidisciplinary fields, as engineering, social-economical/social-ecological systems and disaster/risk assessment in case of catastrophic scenarios. Therefore, considering the urgent need of analysis tools to prevent/properly govern future crises, the authors intend to give a useful hint towards the adoption of resilient approaches. The original and captivating methodology developed here confirms and enhances the validity of the starting point cornerstones (modifying and fulfilling the initial definitions), in primis the relationship between the resilience's main concept and its attributes. Hence, the final goal is to provide an effective framework to study, without rigidity, complex questions in times of new global challenges, as the combination of natural and anthropogenic hazards, with particular reference to geohazards and global warming. Thus, successful actions focused on risk mitigation (with a tight link to communication, dissemination and exploitation policies) can be implemented, aimed at enhancing consciousness about disasters, for a wide range of different organizations, from experts in risk management and preservation of environment/heritage to people and stakeholders concerned. The investigation carried out here has been supported interlacing a theoretical discussion with the analysis of specific case studies (e.g. the behaviour of buildings, infrastructure and heritage under earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). It is to be noted that this approach has been already adopted to evaluate the overall resilience of the Italian community during the first period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a tragic event has certainly been a very hard test, where resilience should be considered as a strategic indicator, proving that really short time to operate effective choices is available, being the humanity able or not to govern the next changes, hopefully towards enough resilient results. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

[Features of Production Process and Risk Prevention and Control Points of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (2019-nCoV) Antigen Detection Reagent (Colloidal Gold Method)].

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (2019-nCoV) antigen detection reagent (colloidal gold method) has been applied to people who go to basic medical and health institutions for medical treatment and have respiratory tract, fever and other symptoms within 5 days, isolate observers, community residents who need antigen self-testing. The wide application of the reagent can effectively shorten the detection time, reduce the detection cost and time cost, and alleviate the pressure of nucleic acid detection. The article details the structural components, testing principles, production process and key risk points of the new coronavirus antigen test reagents, with the aim of providing a reference for the development of relevant work specifications for manufacturers, the organization of safe production and the verification and supervision of regulatory authorities.

The Early Warning Mechanism of Public Health Emergencies Through Whistleblowing: A Perspective Based on Considering the Uncertainty of Risk Perception.

Purpose: During the early warning period of public health emergencies, the information released by whistleblowers on the risk posed by the given event can reduce uncertainty in the public's risk perception and help governments take timely actions to contain the large-scale dissemination of risk. The purpose of this study is to give full play to whistleblowers and draw attention to the risk events, forming a pluralistic model of the risk governance during the early warning period of public health emergencies. Methods: We construct an evolutionary game model of the early warning of public health emergencies through whistleblowing that involves the government, whistleblowers, and the public, discussing the mechanism of interaction between these subjects under the uncertainty of risk perception. Furthermore, we use numerical simulations to analyze the influence of changes in the relevant parameters on the evolutionary trajectory of the subjects' behaviors. Results: The results of the research are obtained by numerical simulation of the evolutionary game model. The results show that the public's cooperation with the government encourages the latter to take a positive guidance strategy. Increasing the reward for whistleblowers within an acceptable cost, strengthening the propaganda of the mechanism and the higher level of risk perception of the government and whistleblowers will promote whistleblowers' vocalization actively. When the government's reward for whistleblowers is lower, the whistleblowers choose negative vocalization with the improvement of the public's risk perception. If there is no mandatory guidance from the government at this point, the public is prone to passively cooperating with the government owing to a lack of risk-related information. Conclusion: Establishing an early warning mechanism through whistleblowing is important for containing risk in the early warning period of public health emergencies. Building the whistleblowing mechanism in daily work can improve the effectiveness of the mechanism and enhance the public's risk perception better when the public health emergencies arise.

Research on Financial Systemic Risk Assessment Algorithm Based on Risk Data Fuzzy Cluster Analysis

The financial industry is a high-risk industry. Once the financial industry risk happen, it will affect the economic development. Ensuring the safe, efficient and steady operation of finance and preventing systemic financial risks are the urgent needs of China's opening up to the outside world and building a well-off society in an all-round way. Stable and efficient economic development is the basis of financial risk prevention and control, which is the inherent requirement of high-quality economic development. Strengthening macro-prudential management has become the core content of financial regulatory reform in major international organizations and economies after the international coronavirus outbreak and preventing systemic financial risks is the fundamental goal of macro-prudential management. This paper takes the assessment and monitoring of China's systemic financial risks as the research object, and proposes an assessment algorithm of systemic financial risks based on risk data fuzzy clustering analysis. The established financial systemic risk measurement method can identify risks to a certain extent, deeply understand the nature, root and key areas of systemic financial risks, and build a long-term mechanism to prevent and resolve systemic financial risks. © 2022 IEEE.

The impact of knowledge management on intellectual property risk prevention: analysis from China's strategic emerging industries

Purpose: Because of the globalization of the knowledge economy, intellectual property (IP) rights have become an important tool for maintaining market leadership and controlling emerging market shares. This paper aims to identify the IP risks that China's strategic emerging industries face in the process of knowledge management in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era seeking to minimize these risks and reduce unnecessary losses. Design/methodology/approach: Based on an analysis of the current situation in China's strategic emerging industries, this paper qualitatively organizes the various types of IP risks faced by China's strategic emerging industries in their development with knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and knowledge application. This paper further analyzes the factors triggering the risks and proposes endogenous and exogenous IP risk-prevention strategies for China's strategic emerging industries from the perspective of knowledge management. Findings: Adopting a knowledge management perspective, this paper identifies three main intellectual property risks in the knowledge creation, transfer, application processes of knowledge management for China's emerging industries, including infringement risks related to independent innovation, leakage risks related to international cooperation and ownership risks related to technology transfer. Research limitations/implications: Based on the entire technology–product–application process and from a knowledge management perspective, the IP risks in the development of China's strategic emerging industries are comprehensively elaborated in this paper, providing a theoretical basis for avoiding IP risks that is also widely applicable to other knowledge-intensive industries. Originality/value: This paper explicates the IP risk faced by China's strategic emerging industries in each step of the knowledge management process and suggestions from knowledge management strategy, tools and implementation support mechanism holds promise for business, industry and government IP risk prevention are elaborated specially to promote the development of China's strategic emerging industries. On the one hand, this paper expanded the research on knowledge management by exploring the relationship between knowledge management and intellectual property rights variables. On the other hand, the findings have practical significance for the stable, long term and efficient development of strategic emerging industries in China as well as other knowledge-intensive industries. Empirical analyses on this subject are suggested for future studies. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

A comprehensive multi‐hazard risk assessment model for an urban agglomeration with multiple factors

To assist the Department of Emergency Management in understanding the overall risk characteristics and situation of an urban agglomeration for a reasonable risk prevention and control strategy, this study developed a comprehensive multi-hazard risk assessment model for an urban agglomeration with multiple factors. The proposed model includes disaster probability and disaster loss sub-models. The model evaluated four types of disaster risk in urban agglomerations: natural disasters, accidental disasters, public health incidents, and social security incidents. In addition, a variety of factors were integrated into the model, including the socioeconomic foundation of urban agglomerations, the oligopoly effect of core cities, historical disaster losses, the effect of disaster chains, the ability of disaster prevention and mitigation, and intercity coordinated rescue capabilities. Finally, the risk assessment model was applied to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration. The assessment results were compared to the distribution of the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic in the target urban agglomeration. The results showed that after analyzing the risk characteristics and evaluating the risk levels, the model not only showed the comprehensive risk levels and distribution of urban agglomerations but also revealed the high-risk areas and the key points of risk prevention and control. More importantly, the results obtained through the model can facilitate the strategic planning of disaster prevention and mitigation for urban agglomerations. © 2022

Measuring the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on university resumption and suggestions for countermeasures.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities around the world had to find a balance between the need to resume classes and prevent the spread of the virus by ensuring the health of students. The purpose of our study was to effectively assess the overall risk of universities reopening during the COVID-19 epidemic. Design and methods: Using the pressure-state-response model, we designed a risk evaluation method from a disaster management perspective. First, we performed a literature review to find the main factors affecting the virus spread. Second, we used the pressure-state-response to represent how the considered hazards acts and interacts before grouping them as disaster and vulnerability factors. Third, we assigned to all factors a risk function ranging from 1 to 4. Fourth, we modeled the risk indexes of disaster and of system vulnerability through simple and appropriate weights and combined them in an overall risk for the university resumption. Finally, we showed how the method works by evaluating the reopening of the Hebei Province University in 2022 and highlighted the resulting advice for reducing related risks. Results: Our model included 20 risk factors, six representing exogenous hazards (disaster factors) that university can only monitor and 14 related to system vulnerability that can also control. Disaster factors included epidemic risk level of students' residence and the school's location, means of transportation back to school, size of the university population, the number of migrants on and off campus and express carrier infection. Vulnerability factors included student behaviors, routine campus activities and all the other actions the university can take to control the virus spread. The university of Baoding city (Hebei Province) showed a disaster risk of 1.880 and a vulnerability of 1.666 which combined provided a low risk of school resumption. Conclusion: Our study judged the risks involved in resuming school and put forward specific countermeasures for reducing the risk levels. This not only protects public health security but also has some practical implications for improving the evaluation and rational decision-making abilities of all parties.

COVID-19 Risk Perception and Prevention Practices among High- and Low-Density Populations in Bangladesh: A Mixed-Methods Study.

We aimed to explore coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) risk perception and prevention practices among people living in high- and low-population density areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A total of 623 patients with confirmed COVID-19 agreed to participate in the survey. Additionally, we purposively selected 14 participants from diverse economic and occupational groups and conducted qualitative interviews for them accordingly. Approximately 70% of the respondents had low socioeconomic status. Among the 623 respondents, 146 were from low-density areas, and 477 were from high-density areas. The findings showed that study participants perceived COVID-19 as a punishment from the Almighty, especially for non-Muslims, and were not concerned about its severity. They also believed that coronavirus would not survive in hot temperatures or negatively impact Bangladeshis. This study revealed that people were reluctant to undergo COVID-19 testing. Family members hid if anyone tested positive for COVID-19 or did not adhere to institutional isolation. The findings showed that participants were not concerned about COVID-19 and believed that coronavirus would not have a devastating impact on Bangladeshis; thus, they were reluctant to follow prevention measures and undergo testing. Tailored interventions for specific targeted groups would be relevant in mitigating the prevailing misconceptions.

A comprehensive multi-hazard risk assessment model for an urban agglomeration with multiple factors

To assist the Department of Emergency Management in understanding the overall risk characteristics and situation of an urban agglomeration for a reasonable risk prevention and control strategy, this study developed a comprehensive multi-hazard risk assessment model for an urban agglomeration with multiple factors. The proposed model includes disaster probability and disaster loss sub-models. The model evaluated four types of disaster risk in urban agglomerations: natural disasters, accidental disasters, public health incidents, and social security incidents. In addition, a variety of factors were integrated into the model, including the socioeconomic foundation of urban agglomerations, the oligopoly effect of core cities, historical disaster losses, effect of disaster chains, ability of disaster prevention and mitigation, and intercity coordinated rescue capabilities. Finally, the risk assessment model was applied to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration. The assessment results were compared to the distribution of the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic in the target urban agglomeration. The results showed that after analyzing the risk characteristics and evaluating the risk levels, the model not only showed the comprehensive risk levels and distribution of urban agglomerations, but also revealed the high-risk areas and the key points of risk prevention and control. More importantly, the results obtained through the model can facilitate the strategic planning of disaster prevention and mitigation for urban agglomerations.

The impact of knowledge management on intellectual property risk prevention: analysis from China’s strategic emerging industries

Purpose: Because of the globalization of the knowledge economy, intellectual property (IP) rights have become an important tool for maintaining market leadership and controlling emerging market shares. This paper aims to identify the IP risks that China’s strategic emerging industries face in the process of knowledge management in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era seeking to minimize these risks and reduce unnecessary losses. Design/methodology/approach: Based on an analysis of the current situation in China’s strategic emerging industries, this paper qualitatively organizes the various types of IP risks faced by China’s strategic emerging industries in their development with knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and knowledge application. This paper further analyzes the factors triggering the risks and proposes endogenous and exogenous IP risk-prevention strategies for China’s strategic emerging industries from the perspective of knowledge management. Findings: Adopting a knowledge management perspective, this paper identifies three main intellectual property risks in the knowledge creation, transfer, application processes of knowledge management for China’s emerging industries, including infringement risks related to independent innovation, leakage risks related to international cooperation and ownership risks related to technology transfer. Research limitations/implications: Based on the entire technology–product–application process and from a knowledge management perspective, the IP risks in the development of China’s strategic emerging industries are comprehensively elaborated in this paper, providing a theoretical basis for avoiding IP risks that is also widely applicable to other knowledge-intensive industries. Originality/value: This paper explicates the IP risk faced by China’s strategic emerging industries in each step of the knowledge management process and suggestions from knowledge management strategy, tools and implementation support mechanism holds promise for business, industry and government IP risk prevention are elaborated specially to promote the development of China’s strategic emerging industries. On the one hand, this paper expanded the research on knowledge management by exploring the relationship between knowledge management and intellectual property rights variables. On the other hand, the findings have practical significance for the stable, long term and efficient development of strategic emerging industries in China as well as other knowledge-intensive industries. Empirical analyses on this subject are suggested for future studies. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Tourists’ Behaviour in a Post-pandemic Context: The Consumption Variables—A Meta-Analysis

Although tourism, as a system, develops risk prevention and mitigation strategies, the direct, indirect, and induced generated shock by the Covid-19 pandemic is different when compared to previous high-impact events. This pandemic is more intense and conducive to structural changes. In this context, tourists’ perceptions affect their behaviour and decisions, with adverse results in Tourism consumption, and the safety, protection, and health risks generate a cause-effect relationship on the specificities of destinations, the valences of infrastructure, compliance with protocols, and the adoption of good practices (Seabra et al. in Int J Tour Cities 7:463–491, [1]). The prevailing opinion amongst specialists is that Tourism will only reach pre-Covid levels between 2023 and 2024 whereby the proposed approach and methodology prove to be opportune because they allow a more detailed knowledge of the characterization of demand and constitute a relevant information base for structuring the offer. Thus, through the systematic review of the literature, it is relevant to approach the behaviour of tourists in a post-pandemic context, through the meta-analysis of studies carried out in 2020 and 2021, emphasizing the conclusions obtained, the dynamics of their comparison, and their potential impact. The results achieved suggest the need to readjust models, methods, and processes, as well as to reconfigure means and interactions, in order to add value in the design of instruments, in the implementation of solutions and, in the management of expectations. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Addressing External Shock in Urban Agglomeration: Implications From the Transmission Pattern of COVID-19 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area.

Properly addressing external shocks in urban agglomeration is critical to sustaining the complex regional system. The COVID-19 pandemic has been widely acknowledged as an unintended external shock, but the temporal and spatial transmission patterns are largely ignored. This study analyzed the temporal and spatial transmission patterns of COVID-19 at the macro, meso, and micro levels, and proposes a conceptual model for regional comprehensive risk calculation, taking the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) area as the focus region. Our results showed that 1) at the temporal scale, the epidemic in the BTH area experienced stages of rapid increase, gradual decrease, and stabilization, and the first wave of the epidemic was under control from 23 February 2020; 2) at the spatial scale, confirmed cases were largely distributed at the terminal of the migration network, with closely interconnected cities in the BTH area, including Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan, and Langfang, holding the highest comprehensive epidemic risk, thus requiring special attention for epidemic prevention and control. Finally, a "two-wheels" conceptual framework was built to discuss implications for future policies for addressing external shocks. Our proposed framework consists of an isolation wheel, which involves information sharing from the holistic perspective, and a circulation wheel, which emphasizes stakeholder involvement from the individual perspective. The findings of this study provide a knowledge basis for epidemic prevention and control as well as useful implications for addressing external shocks in the future.

Changes in Temporal Properties of Notifiable Infectious Disease Epidemics in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Population-Based Surveillance Study.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 was first reported in 2019, and the Chinese government immediately carried out stringent and effective control measures in response to the epidemic. OBJECTIVE: Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) may have impacted incidences of other infectious diseases as well. Potential explanations underlying this reduction, however, are not clear. Hence, in this study, we aim to study the influence of the COVID-19 prevention policies on other infectious diseases (mainly class B infectious diseases) in China. METHODS: Time series data sets between 2017 and 2021 for 23 notifiable infectious diseases were extracted from public data sets from the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China. Several indices (peak and trough amplitudes, infection selectivity, preferred time to outbreak, oscillatory strength) of each infectious disease were calculated before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. RESULTS: We found that the prevention and control policies for COVID-19 had a strong, significant reduction effect on outbreaks of other infectious diseases. A clear event-related trough (ERT) was observed after the outbreak of COVID-19 under the strict control policies, and its decreasing amplitude is related to the infection selectivity and preferred outbreak time of the disease before COVID-19. We also calculated the oscillatory strength before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and found that it was significantly stronger before the COVID-19 outbreak and does not correlate with the trough amplitude. CONCLUSIONS: Our results directly demonstrate that prevention policies for COVID-19 have immediate additional benefits for controlling most class B infectious diseases, and several factors (infection selectivity, preferred outbreak time) may have contributed to the reduction in outbreaks. This study may guide the implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions to control a wider range of infectious diseases.

Several major issues concerning the environmental transmission and risk prevention of SARS-CoV-2.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the most serious infectious disease pandemic in the world in a century, and has had a serious impact on the health, safety, and social and economic development of all mankind. Since the earth entered the "Anthropocene", human activities have become the most important driving force of the evolution of the earth system. At the same time, the epidemic frequency of major human infectious diseases worldwide has been increasing, with more than 70% of novel diseases having zoonotic origins. The review of several major epidemics in human history shows that there is a common rule, i.e., changes in the natural environment have an important and profound impact on the occurrence and development of epidemics. Therefore, the impact of the natural environment on the current COVID-19 pandemic and its mechanisms have become scientific issues that need to be resolved urgently. From the perspective of the natural environment, this study systematically investigated several major issues concerning the environmental transmission and risk prevention of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). From a macroscopic temporal and spatial scale, the research focus on understand the impact of the destruction of the natural environment and global changes on the outbreak of infectious diseases; the threat of zoonotic diseases to human health; the regularity for virus diffusion, migration and mutation in environmental media; the mechanisms of virus transmission from animals and environmental media to humans; and environmental safety, secondary risk prevention and control of major epidemics. Suggestions were made for future key research directions and issues that need attention, with a view to providing a reference for the prevention and control of the global coronavirus disease 2019, and to improving the ability of response to major public health emergencies.

Predicting COVID-19 Patient Shielding: A Comprehensive Study

There are many ways machine learning and big data analytics are used in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, including predictions, risk management, diagnostics, and prevention. This study focuses on predicting COVID-19 patient shielding—identifying and protecting patients who are clinically extremely vulnerable from coronavirus. This study focuses on techniques used for the multi-label classification of medical text. Using the information published by the United Kingdom NHS and the World Health Organisation, we present a novel approach to predicting COVID-19 patient shielding as a multi-label classification problem. We use publicly available, de-identified ICU medical text data for our experiments. The labels are derived from the published COVID-19 patient shielding data. We present an extensive comparison across 12 multi-label classifiers from the simple binary relevance to neural networks and the most recent transformers. To the best of our knowledge this is the first comprehensive study, where such a range of multi-label classifiers for medical text are considered. We highlight the benefits of various approaches, and argue that, for the task at hand, both predictive accuracy and processing time are essential. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Occupational risks in telework and appropriate preventive measures: Lights and shadows

The teleworking caused by home confinement, improvised and casual in nature, from a point of view of health and safety prevention, has drawn attention to the importance and magnitude of the negative effects of this way of working on teleworkers' physical and mental health.Thus, a study on the general configuration of occupational risk prevention in teleworking, its main threats, effects and the main preventive measures to be implemented, becomes more imperative than ever. At the same time, an analysis of the preventive model adopted during the first months of the pandemic will be undertaken, as well as an analysis of the new regulations in terms of preventive matters framed in the Law 10/2021, 9th July. © 2021 Wolters Kluwer (UK) Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Trade union action in times of pandemic

Due to the sudden impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on people acute accent s lives in March 2020 after the declaration of the state of alarm and the limitations that were adopted regarding the mobility and confinement of the population, there were repercussions both in health as well as at work and the economy of the country. For this reason, Comisiones Obreras took on the challenge of informing, advising and training workers on the adoption of preventive measures and we took part in the social dialogue so that the regulatory protection would be the best guarantee for people who became ill, reduced their work activity or had to continue their essential activity with the best health and safety conditions;collaborating with the Administration and demanding its intervention in the areas that required it, as well as demanding the consideration of occupational disease for staff exposed in the health and social-health sector. This crisis has highlighted an aspect that has not yet been overcome: the necessary coordination that must exist between the Health and Labour authorities in order to attend to health in companies in its broadest sense, that is, Public Health. Whoever controls compliance with occupational health aspects must have the competences and power to act in the field of Public Health.

The schoolyard: A resource for health and educational innovation

The impact of the Covid19 pandemic has definitively revealed criticalities in those school infrastructures that are characterized by undersized and rigid spaces and / or are equipped with obsolete equipment. The reopening of schools in health emergency conditions has highly impacted on teaching methods, social relationships, student movement, as well as the use of spaces and equipment;however, it has also offered the opportunity to reconsider some forgotten places, such as schoolyards. In fact, these spaces have shown to be fundamental resources for the educational and physiological development of students. The purpose of this work is to compare a critical scenario, regarding the livability conditions in schools, to a more proactive vision, articulated through a set of examples of potential interventions, or perspectives. © 2021, Luciano Editore. All rights reserved.

Factors Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infection Risk among Healthcare Workers of an Italian University Hospital.

We report the results of a study on the cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in about 6000 workers of the University Hospital of Modena, Northern Italy, in the period March 2020-January 2021, and the relations with some individual and occupational factors. Overall, in healthcare workers (HCW) the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 during the period was 13.8%. Results confirm the role of overweight and obesity as significant risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Chronic respiratory diseases, including asthma, also proved to be significantly associated with the infection rate. Considering occupational factors, the COVID-19 risk was about threefold (OR: 2.7; 95% CI 1.7-4.5) greater in nurses and nurse aides than in non-HCW, and about double (OR: 1.9; 95% CI 1.2-3.2) in physicians. Interestingly, an association was also observed between infection risk and nightshifts at work (OR: 1.8; 95% CI 1.4-2.3), significantly related to the total number of shifts in the whole eleven-month period. Even if the vaccination campaign has now greatly modified the scenario of SARS-CoV-2 infections among HCW, the results of this study can be useful for further development of health and policy strategies to mitigate the occupational risk related to the new variants of coronavirus, and therefore the evolution of the pandemic.