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There is no doubt that epidemics and pandemics have transformed dentistry beyond recognition. In this commentary we recapitulate the possible reasons for the emergence of major global epidemics and pandemics, how and why they emerge, and the successful attempts of the dental profession to mitigate infectious transmission in the clinic, which in turn has metamorphosed our profession today. We also peer into the future of dentistry through the prism of the new conceptual approach of 'one world, one health' recently declared by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Finally, we discuss five realms of dentistry that have been irretrievably impacted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, viz vaccines, point of care diagnostics, teledentistry, reinforced infection control, and dental pedagogy. CPD/Clinical Relevance: Vaccines and vaccinations have become integral to societal wellbeing and the prevention of global pandemics.
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This rapid review provides an overview of recent literature on the nature of digital interventions for young people in terms of technologies used, substances and populations targeted, and theoretical or therapeutic models employed. A keyword search was conducted using MEDLINE and other databases for 2015-2021. Following a title/ and full-text screening of articles and consensus decision on study inclusion, data extraction proceeded using an extraction grid. Data synthesis relied on an adapted conceptual framework (Stockings et al., 2016) that involved a three-level treatment spectrum for youth substance use (prevention, early intervention, and treatment). The review identified 43 articles describing 39 digital interventions. Most were early interventions (n = 28), followed by prevention (n = 6) and treatment (n = 5). Of the five technologies identified, web-based interventions (n = 14) were most common. Digital interventions have mainly focused on alcohol use (n = 20), reflecting limited concern for other substance use and co-occurring use. Yet the rise in substance use and related harms during the Covid-19 pandemic highlights a critical need for more innovative substance use interventions. Technologies with more immersive and interactive features, such as VR and game-based interventions, call for further exploration. Only one intervention was culturally tailored and purposefully designed for gender minority youth, and another was geared to young men. As well, most interventions used a personalized or normative feedback approach, while a harm reduction approach guided only one intervention. The incorporation of culturally tailored interventions and harm reduction approaches may promote uptake and stronger engagement with digital interventions amongst youth.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed innovation in infection control measures, including widespread deployment of digital contact tracing systems. However, these technologies were not well understood by the general public and were complex for the public health community to implement, hampering adoption. Objective(s): To provide an overview of existing digital contact tracing systems, creating a framework for understanding design elements that impact their effectiveness as public health tools and offering a rubric for decision-makers to evaluate different systems for selection and implementation. Method(s): Scientific literature and publicly available information from relevant health authorities and other stakeholders was reviewed. Information was synthesized to develop a conceptual framework explaining how key design elements impact effectiveness of digital contact tracing systems and highlighting opportunities for future improvement. Result(s): A range of digital contact tracing interventions were deployed by governments worldwide and several professional sports leagues. Key design elements of the systems include: (1) data architecture (i.e., centralized versus decentralized systems, impacting privacy guarantees and data availability);(2) proximity detection technology (e.g., type of device signaling);(3) alert logic and timing (e.g., time- and distance-based criteria affecting sensitivity and specificity of alerts;real-time proximity alerts and/or bidirectional contact tracing, determining scope of infection prevention);(4) population (eligibility and availability);and (5) the structural and public health context of intervention (e.g., availability and timeliness of testing). Several systems demonstrated effectiveness in preventing transmission during COVID-19, though numerous limitations have also been documented in the literature. Conclusion(s): Digital contact tracing systems have the potential to mitigate the economic and public health impact of future infectious disease outbreaks, reducing community transmission and detecting potential cases earlier in the disease course. Lessons learned from solutions deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic provide an opportunity to improve multiple aspects of these systems, enhancing preparedness for future outbreaks.Copyright © 2023
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BACKGROUND: Conceptual models are abstract representations of the real world. They are used to refine medical and nonmedical health care scopes of service. During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous analytic predictive models were generated aiming to evaluate the impact of implemented policies on mitigating the spread of the virus. The models also aimed to examine the psychosocial factors that might govern the general population's adherence to these policies and to identify factors that could affect COVID-19 vaccine uptake and allocation. The outcomes of these analytic models helped set priorities when vaccines were available and predicted readiness to resume non-COVID-19 health care services. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our research was to implement a descriptive-analytical conceptual model that analyzes the data of all COVID-19-positive cases admitted to our hospital from March 1 to May 31, 2020, the initial wave of the pandemic, the time interval during which local policies and clinical guidelines were constantly updated to mitigate the local effects of COVID-19, minimize mortality, reduce intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and ensure the safety of health care providers. The primary outcome of interest was to identify factors that might affect mortality and ICU admission rates and the impact of the implemented policy on COVID-19 positivity among health care providers. The secondary outcome of interest was to evaluate the sensitivity of the COVID-19 visual score, implemented by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health for COVID-19 risk assessment, and CURB-65 (confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and age >65 years) scores in predicting ICU admission or mortality among the study population. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. The relevant attributes were constructed based on research findings from the first wave of the pandemic and were electronically retrieved from the hospital database. Analysis of the conceptual model was based on the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research guidelines and the Society for Medical Decision-Making. RESULTS: A total of 275 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 within the study design interval. The conceptualization model revealed a low-risk population based on the following attributes: a mean age of 42 (SD 19.2) years; 19% (51/275) of the study population being older adults ≥60 years of age; 80% (220/275) having a CURB-65 score <4; 53% (147/275) having no comorbidities; 5% (13/275) having extreme obesity; and 20% (55/275) having a significant hematological abnormality. The overall rate of ICU admission for the study population was 5% (13/275), and the overall mortality rate was 1.5% (4/275). The multivariate correlation analysis revealed that a high-selectivity approach was adopted, resulting in patients with complex medical problems not being sent to MOH isolation facilities. Furthermore, 5% of health care providers tested positive for COVID-19, none of whom were health care providers allocated to the COVID-19 screening areas, indicating the effectiveness of the policy implemented to ensure the safety of health care providers. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the conceptual model outcome, the selectivity applied in retaining high-risk populations within the hospital might have contributed to the observed low mortality rate, without increasing the risk to attending health care providers.
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OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 has brought challenges to the health of all mankind. It is particularly important to promote the construction of a 'Healthy China' and build a 'healthy community'. The aims of this study were to construct a reasonable conceptual framework for the Healthy City concept and to assess Healthy City construction in China. STUDY DESIGN: This study combined qualitative and quantitative research. METHODS: This study proposes the concept model of 'nature-human body-Healthy City' and accordingly constructs an evaluation index system for the construction of a Healthy City that integrates five dimensions, namely, the medical level, economic basis, cultural development, social services, and ecological environment to explore the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of Healthy City construction in China. Finally, the influencing factors of Healthy City construction patterns are explored using GeoDetector. RESULTS: (1) The pace of Healthy City construction is generally on the rise; (2) the construction of Healthy Cities exhibits significant global spatial autocorrelation and gradually increasing agglomeration. The spatial distribution of cold hotspot areas was relatively stable; (3) medical and health progress is an important factor; the level of economic development is the leading support; the endowment of resources and environment is the basic condition; public service support provides important support; and scientific and technological innovation capabilities provide technical support for the construction of a Healthy City. CONCLUSIONS: The spatial heterogeneity of Healthy City construction in China is evident, and the state of spatial distribution is relatively stable. The spatial pattern of Healthy City construction is shaped by a combination of factors. Our research will provide a scientific basis for promoting the construction of Healthy Cities and helping to implement the Health China Strategy.
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The purposive design, production and marketing of legal but health-demoting products that stimulate habitual consumption and pleasure for maximum profit has been called 'limbic capitalism'. In this article, drawing on alcohol and tobacco as key examples, we extend this framework into the digital realm. We argue that 'limbic platform capitalism' is a serious threat to the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and populations. Accessed routinely through everyday digital devices, social media platforms aggressively intensify limbic capitalism because they also work through embodied limbic processes. These platforms are designed to generate, analyse and apply vast amounts of personalised data in an effort to tune flows of online content to capture users' time and attention, and influence their affects, moods, emotions and desires in order to increase profits. Social media are central to young people's socialising, identities, leisure practices and engagement in civic life. Young people actively appropriate social media for their own ends but are simultaneously recruited as consumers who are specifically targeted by producers of limbic products and services. Social media platforms have seen large increases in users and traffic through the COVID-19 pandemic and limbic capitalism has worked to intensify marketing that is context, time and place specific, driving online purchases and deliveries of limbic products. This has public health implications that require immediate attention as existing regulatory frameworks are woefully inadequate in this era of data-driven, algorithmic marketing.
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Introduction: In a subset of Covid19-convalescent patients, a multitude of long-term sequelae are increasingly being reported. We report 4 cases with varying neuro-GI and motility manifestations after recent COVID-19 infection. Case Description/Methods: Case 1: A 23-year-old man contracted COVID-19 and had a protracted course of respiratory illness. Despite resolution of respiratory symptoms and dysgeusia, he continued to experience early satiety, postprandial nausea, vomiting and unintentional weight loss. Gastric Emptying Scan (GES) revealed gastroparesis (Figure A). Dietary modification and metoclopramide led to symptomatic improvement. Case 2: A 39-year-old woman with migraines, suffered from Covid-19 infection where anosmia and respiratory symptoms lasted for 2 weeks. Despite resolution of initial symptoms, she started experiencing nausea and vomiting, and reported stereotypical symptoms with complete absence of vomiting between episodes. Endoscopic examination, CT head and GES were normal. Urine tox screen was negative for cannabinoids. She responded favorably to amitriptyline and ondansetron. Case 3: A 47-year-old man started experiencing severe constipation associated with abdominal pain and bloating soon after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Three months after resolution of respiratory symptoms, in addition to constipation, he began reporting postprandial fullness, early satiation and epigastric pain. GES showed gastroparesis ( figure B) and a Sitzmarks Study revealed delayed colonic transit (Figure C). Prucalopride was started, leading to improvement in symptoms. Case 4: A 74-year-old woman with obesity and diabetes, was hospitalized and intubated for severe respiratory distress due to COVID-19. After discharge, she had persistent symptoms of brain fog, fatigue, dyspnea as well as diarrhea and abdominal cramping, persisting despite loperamide and dicyclomine. C. difficile toxin, random colonic biopsies and H2 breath test were unremarkable. Her symptoms eventually improved with rifaximin. Discussion(s): We report 4 cases with post-COVID gastroparesis, cyclical vomiting syndrome, pan-gut dysmotility, and post-infectious IBS phenotypes.The pathophysiology of post-infectious-gut-brain disorders is still obscure. The current conceptual framework implicates acquired neuropathy, altered motility, intestinal barrier disruption and persistent intestinal inflammation. Similar pathophysiology may be involved in COVID-19 infection leading to sustained neurogastroenterological dysfunction and gut dysmotility.
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The aim of this research is to describe the use of telemedicine applied to patients characterised by a particular state of illness, which often drives them toward a frail and chronic status, in a systematic manner. This work employed the Tranfield approach to carry out a systematic literature review (SLR), in order to provide an efficient and high-quality method for identifying and evaluating extensive studies. The methodology was pursued step by step, analysing keywords, topics, journal quality to arrive at a set of relevant open access papers that was analysed in detail. The same papers were compared to each other and then, they were categorised according to significant metrics, also evaluating technologies and methods employed. Through our systematic review we found that most of the patients involved in telemedicine programs agreed with this service model and the clinical results appeared encouraging. Findings suggested that telemedicine services were appreciated by patients, they increased the access to care and could be a better way to face emergencies and pandemics, lowering overall costs and promoting social inclusion.Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
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PurposeThis paper aims to identify the competency domains to be included in a conceptual framework for tax literacy.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative approach, this study expands on the current understanding of the competency areas of tax literacy. A dual-purpose literature review was, therefore, conducted. The literature review first provided the body of knowledge that underpinned the study and second, the key data concepts for the draft competency structure to determine whether there is consensus on an international (supra) level. The literature review was supported by an interactive qualitative analysis to further present the concept of tax literacy from the perspectives of various national stakeholders in an emerging economy. Accounting and public finance educators from a higher education institution, as well as financial advisers as representatives of a profession with a direct interest in tax-related matters, were considered.FindingsAlthough a discipline lens seems to strongly influence the previous authors' view of what tax literacy means, it was possible to identify certain tax literacy competency domains that should be included in a taxpayer education curriculum. These content domains consist first of a knowledge domain which includes disciplinary, interdisciplinary, epistemic and procedural knowledge components. Second, the skills domain should include components of cognitive and meta-cognitive, social and emotional, as well as physical and practice skills. Third, personal and societal attitudes and values represent the third domain. Fourth, transformative competencies such as value creation, taking responsibility and reconciliation attributes are important. Finally, core foundational competencies, such as numeracy and literacy should be in place.Practical implicationsThe draft conceptual framework for tax literacy could serve as the foundation for the further development of a tax literacy measurement instrument, as well as tax education courses.Originality/valueA more holistic conceptual framework for tax literacy, portraying the multidimensional nature of taxation, is presented in contrast to the limited one-dimensional position presented up to now.
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It is aimed to examine the reasons of Syrian migrant women getting married early. Universe selection has not been made. Participants were reached using the snowball sampling method. In this phenomenological qualitative study, 4 main themes were created with the method of description and examined. It has been determined that poverty, family coercion, love and the losses they suffered during the war are effective in the early marriage of Syrian migrant women. It has been investigated that most of the factors determined in the early marriage of Syrian migrant women are situations that develop against their will and that these women have to marry at an early age.
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The outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic has devastated economic activities around the world. The tourism industry is facing severe challenges, such as reduced tourist flow and the lack of tourist consumption at desti-nations. Recreational farms are one of the business types of agricultural tourism in Taiwan and have the char-acteristics of small and medium-sized agriculture businesses. The operator is facing an uncertain environment in the epidemic market, and the operator's dynamic capability is considered to be effective in coping with the current environment. In this study, 20 selected recreational farms were interviewed to explore how operators use dynamic capabilities to make responses. The results show that recreational farms have the three elements of dynamic capabilities: sense, seize, and transform, to change farm marketing channels and develop new products or services to respond to the new market. Recreational farm operators adopted resource optimization, computerization, and cost control strategies to respond to the market. Management implications: A successful implementation of recreational farm offers requires-the reallocation of resources, -the planning of new products and services, and-the improvement of service processes to create new business and to address additional target groups.The COVID-19 pandemic forces a systematic positioning or repositioning of the business.
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Although the pre-pandemic tourism debate was led by Overtourism, when the pandemic erupted, the increasing literature on this topic was still in an initial stage. The mobility restrictions derived from Covid-19 stopped Overtourism, but the problem is still far from being eradicated. There is an increasingly need for a solid body of knowledge on which to build recovery to avoid making past mistakes. A comprehensive pre-pandemic literature review is carried out, by proposing an overtourism conceptual framework that integrates its causes and consequences. How the pandemic could become an opportunity to transition to a responsible tourism model is discussed.
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Path-breaking transformative change is needed in human-environment relations to move towards more sustainable development trajectories at local, national and global scales. Crises may trigger transformative change and learning in the short and in the long term. However, in particular, a short-term response to crises may also be reactive, strengthening established unsustainable practices and further perpetuating vulnerability and inequality rather than supporting transformative change towards a more sustainable path. To understand the nature and response to a crisis in the context of sustainability transformations, this paper elaborates on the following aspects of a crisis: What are the characteristics of a crisis? What and who shapes the narrative(s) of a crisis? What and who shapes the nature of the response to a crisis? Do responses to crises trigger higher levels of learning? Conceptual synthesis is complemented with an exploratory comparative analysis of the Cape Town water crisis and of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. To this end the paper analyzes the interplay between mobilizing individual, collective and relational agency and navigating and transforming power relations to challenge and profit from already weakened unsustainable structures. This approach proves to be promising to understand the role of crises in catalysing and supporting transformative learning to eventually replace unsustainable structures. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Mental health is inextricably linked to both poverty and future life chances such as education, skills, labour market attachment and social function. Poverty can lead to poorer mental health, which reduces opportunities and increases the risk of lifetime poverty. Cash transfer programmes are one of the most common strategies to reduce poverty and now reach substantial proportions of populations living in low- and middle-income countries. Because of their rapid expansion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have recently gained even more importance. Recently, there have been suggestions that these cash transfers might improve youth mental health, disrupting the cycle of disadvantage at a critical period of life. Here, we present a conceptual framework describing potential mechanisms by which cash transfer programmes could improve the mental health and life chances of young people. Furthermore, we explore how theories from behavioural economics and cognitive psychology could be used to more specifically target these mechanisms and optimise the impact of cash transfers on youth mental health and life chances. Based on this, we identify several lines of enquiry and action for future research and policy.Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.
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Timely decision-making in national and global health emergencies such as pandemics is critically important from various aspects. Especially, early identification of risk factors of contagious viral diseases can lead to efficient management of limited healthcare resources and saving lives by prioritizing at-risk patients. In this study, we propose a hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) framework to identify major chronic risk factors of novel, contagious diseases as early as possible at the time of pandemics. The proposed framework combines evolutionary search algorithms with machine learning and the novel explanatory AI (XAI) methods to detect the most critical risk factors, use them to predict patients at high risk of mortality, and analyze the risk factors at the individual level for each high-risk patient. The proposed framework was validated using data from a repository of electronic health records of early COVID-19 patients in the US. A chronological analysis of the chronic risk factors identified using our proposed approach revealed that those factors could have been identified months before they were determined by clinical studies and/or announced by the United States health officials.Copyright © 2022 The Author(s)
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Social distancing as a health-related behavior during epidemics and pandemics, can significantly influence their control. In this regard, the identification of the factors influencing behavior change can play a remarkable role in assessing for how behaviors form. This paper is an attempt to show that the extended theory of planned behavior can provide a useful theoretical framework for explaining social distancing in the face of a contagion disease. The results showed that the constructs of attitude, descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control, and self-efficacy significantly influenced the students' intention to adhere to social distancing in the form of university closure. Among these constructs, self-efficacy was found to be the main predictor of the students' intention. Interestingly, the research revealed that injunctive norms were not a significant predictor of the students' intention. Practically, this study is a justification for the use of attitude, descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control, and self-efficacy in planning and decision-making for encouraging students to adhere to social distancing during epidemics and pandemics, like the COVID-19 pandemic. The extended theory of planned behavior is useful in understanding Iranian College Students' Intention toward Social Distancing in COVID-19 Pandemic.
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Mental volatilities are seen to be on the rise when it comes to retail employees and consumers. Specifically, in times of crisis there is a need to be able to customise care management in a way that is coherent and comprehensive to address mental volatility. This customisation is sought in technology and people. However, thus far there is no toolkit for a specific crisis-sensitive care management protocol. We, therefore, build on an ADO framework-based, illustrative case study of three UK retailers wherein we derive and exemplify how mental burnout in a volatile environment becomes a very important care management necessity which has been neglected thus far. Further, we detail how to contend with this need and how there is a demand for customisation, comprehensiveness, and consistency. In this respect, we conceptualise a technology-people-integrated toolkit that can be implemented with immediate effect for retail care management. We detail the practicalities work in two scenarios. To conclude, managerial and theoretical implications of this toolkit and study have been detailed along with the paper's limitations and suggestions for future research. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
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The corona virus disease (COVID-19) is a pandemic that facilitate a confrontation space for scientific and social existence of human frontiers. The rapid spread and mortality rate of COVID-19 and the preventive measures including social distancing and its impact on economy, developed an unprecedented consciousness around the globe. It has created an effect on the mental health of individuals employed across various sectors and is outlined in this study. There is currently an inadequate theoretical model that focuses on the comprehensive understanding of the psychology of preventive behaviour during the outbreak of pandemics. In this study, a transnational model is delineated for assessing the adoption of preventive behavioural practices associated with COVID-19 pandemic. It uses the components derived from the theories of situational awareness and health belief model and literatures related to impact of containment strategies on various sectors. The contribution includes policy recommendations that can be helpful for the healthcare professionals and government to control the disease spread.Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
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Minority communities have borne a disproportionate burden of health, social and economic consequences during the pandemic. By engaging in policy-shaping processes, social workers can contribute to the development of beneficial policies for minority communities. When working in cross-cultural environments with majorities and minorities, social workers must develop cultural competence to be effective in policy practice. Despite the importance associated with cultural competence in policy practice (CCPP), little empirical evidence exists regarding what is required of social workers in order to engage in culturally competent policy change during the pandemic. In the present study, we address this lacuna through the theoretical framework of culturally competent policy practice. Drawing on twenty-one in-depth interviews, which were conducted at two time points during the pandemic with social workers who work with ultra-Orthodox minority communities in Israel, we demonstrate that CCPP involves the combination of two perspectives—contextual and structural. These include identifying and analysing social problems from a local and global perspective, reshaping the problem through self-awareness and critical awareness of power relations, and applying cultural competence skills that reflect the unique characteristics of the communities. This article discusses the strengths and limitations of CCPP, especially when implemented in changing social and political situations.