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Aims: Suicide is a leading cause of death for young people, and rates in Australia are increasing. The Australian city of Melbourne faced the toughest COVID-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions worldwide, which had a major impact on youth mental health. This study aimed to provide a snapshot into the mental health and suicide-related thoughts and behaviours of Australian Adolescents from Melbourne post the lockdowns. Method(s): Participants were 932 young people (Age M = 15.5, 53% female) recruited from high schools in Melbourne, Australia as part of a larger RCT. Participants completed measures of suicidal ideation (SIDAS) and behaviour (recent attempts and current plans), and depressive symptoms (PHQ-9). Result(s): Preliminary results indicate that 28% of participants experienced some level of suicidal ideation with 7% reporting severe suicidal ideation. Suicide attempts in the sample in the last 12 months (13%) and current plans (3%) were less common but still prevalent. In terms of depressive symptoms, the breakdown in the sample was 5% severe, 8% moderately severe, 18% moderate, 25% mild and 43% none to minimal with 1% not reporting. Data related to particular risk factors (e.g., years since the pandemic, gender, school etc.) along with implications for practice and policy will be presented at the conference. Conclusion(s): This study sheds light on the mental health and suiciderelated thoughts and behaviours of school-attending young people following COVID-19-related lockdowns in Australia. The high levels of suicidality and poor mental health in the cohort point to a need for targeted interventions and support for this group.
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Aim: The Fear of COVID-19 Scale is a widely used measurement tool for related anxieties, however previous studies validating the scale report varying fit indices, often below accepted cut-off points. This suggests re-specification of the scale may be required. The present study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the English-version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in a population of help-seeking males using exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Material and methods: Data from 621 males aged 18-80 years (mean=38.23, SD=13.59) was collected via a cross-sectional open online survey. Along with the 7-item Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the PHQ-4 and PROMIS Anger Short Form were used to measure probable anxiety, depression and anger. Data were randomly partitioned into two subsamples and separate factor analyses were conducted with robust CFA corrections applied for non-normality. Results: A 4-item single-factor version of the scale was identified reporting excellent model fit (R-RMSEA=.033, R-CFI=.998, R-TFI=.997, SRMR=.012) and good internal consistency (α=.86). Age and probable anxiety effects were observed. Discussion: Relative to existing validation studies of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the present study provides improved psychometrics of the 4-item version of the scale, while scale means observed were comparable to other studies. Conclusion: This study validates a 4-item version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale to assess related anxieties in a help seeking male population. Future research should seek to validate the 4-item version in other subpopulations. © 2022 Polish Psychiatric Association. All rights reserved.
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Background: People with diabetes and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have a significantly greater risk of death and/or intensive care unit (KU) admission. The Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD) recently audited out- comes for people hospitalised in the UK with diabetes and COVID-19. Methods: The ABCD COVID-19 and diabetes audit was a retrospective audit of patients admitted to UK hospitals with diabetes and COVID-19 between March and December 2020. Data related to patients admitted in Wales were compared with patients admitted in England and Scotland. Results: In Wales, 40/82 (48.7%) patients with diabetes had COVID-19-related mortality compared with 1,149/2,916 (39.1%) in the UK group (p=0.08). The Welsh cohort were more likely to be Caucasian, have a higher body mass index and HbA1c, be diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy and prescribed a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor or insulin than those in England and Scotland. Patients admitted to the ICU in Wales were more likely to be male and have type 2 diabetes. Conclusions: Patients admitted to hospital with diabetes and COVID-19 in Wales had a poorer outcome compared with England and Scotland. This disparity may reflect social inequality, differences in cardiovascular risk factors and/or differences in diabetes medications between hospitalised patients in Wales and the UK.
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Purpose: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in major reorganization and limitations of clinical activities, changing the landscape for procedure-based specialties. We evaluated the change in case volume for interventional radiology (IR), gastroenterology (GI), and surgery (OR) during the lockdown period (LDP) for COVID-19 at a tertiary care hospital in New York State. Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of the surgical procedures performed at a New York State tertiary care center during the LDP was performed. Comparison was made between LDP time period from March 15, 2020, to May 17, 2020 (LDP COVID), the 9-weeks immediately prior to LDP January 12, 2020, to March 15, 2020 (2020 pre-COVID), and the same time period in 2019 (2019 non-COVID), was performed. A univariable analysis was conducted for all IR procedures with specific attention paid to a subset of emergent procedures with overlap between the 3 specialties (percutaneous abscess drainage, gastrostomy, nephrostomy and cholecystectomy tube placement vs. percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG), appendectomy, cholecystectomy, and cystoscopy stent placements). P values were calculated with a two-sample t-test. Statistical significance threshold was set at 5%. Statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel. Results: A total of 2105 IR procedures (LDP COVID: 551;2020 pre-COVID: 721;2019 non-COVID: 833) were included. During LDP COVID, case volume decreased by 23.6% (P < 0.023) and 33.9% (P < 0.117) when compared with 2020 pre-COVID and 2019 non-COVID, respectively, these were not statistically significant. Specifically examining the subgroup of emergent IR procedures, there was a 41.7% (188 vs. 322, P < 0.064) and 38.0% (188 vs. 303 P < 0.045) decrease from the LDP compared to 2020 pre-COVID and 2019 non-COVID time intervals, respectively. For other procedural specialties, there was a 62.1% (113 vs. 298, P < 0.066) and 65.3% (113 vs. 326 P < 0.041) decrease in cases performed when compared to 2020 pre-COVID and 2019 non-COVID. Conclusions: The census of our hospital during the height of the pandemic was over 40% COVID positive patients. This led to drastic changes to the schedule and workflow of patients. Volume in procedural specialties decreased as a result of the COVID pandemic. Non-IR specialties experienced a more prominent decrease in procedural volume during the LDP when compared to similar times before the pandemic. This is in stark contrast to IR, which did not see a statistically significant drop in the total amount of procedures performed due to the large volume of minimally invasive procedures performed in critically ill in-patients.