No going back: COVID-19 disease threat perception and male migrants' willingness to return to work in India.

This paper explores the causal link between the likelihood of re-migration to cities and the perceived threat of contracting COVID-19 using novel data on male reverse migrant workers in India. We find that reverse-migrants who believe there is a significant chance of contracting COVID-19 display a significantly lower likelihood of returning to their urban workplaces, regardless of their duration of migration. On the other hand, longer-duration migrants display a lower perceived chance of contracting COVID-19 than shorter-duration migrants. We also contribute to the migration literature by linking behavioural attributes to the decision to migrate. We find that more impatient individuals display a heightened belief regarding contracting COVID-19 and a higher projected likelihood of returning to work. Finally, we find that while both loss and risk-averse individuals have a lower projected likelihood of returning to urban workplaces, only loss-averse individuals perceive that their chance of contracting COVID-19 is lower.

Double Jab: Survey Evidence on Vaccine Hesitancy, Beliefs, and Attitudes in India.

India witnessed a large surge in COVID-19 cases in April 2021, a second wave of nearly 350,000 daily new infections across the country. As of December 2021, cases have reduced drastically, in part due to greater vaccine coverage across the country. This study reports results on vaccine hesitancy, attitudes, and behaviors from an online survey conducted between February and March 2021 in nine Indian cities (N = 518). We find that vaccine hesitancy negatively predicts willingness to take the vaccine, and beliefs about vaccine effectiveness supersede hesitancy in explaining vaccine uptake. Furthermore, we find that mask-wearing and handwashing beliefs, information sources related to COVID-19, and past COVID-19 infection and testing status are all strongly associated with the hypothetical choice of vaccine. We discuss these findings in the context of behavioral theories as well as outline implications for vaccine-related health communication in India.

A Culture-Centered Approach to Experiences of the Coronavirus Pandemic Lockdown Among Internal Migrants in India.

India's coronavirus lockdown forced low-wage migrant workers to return from the city to the home towns and villages from which they came. Pre-pandemic living and working conditions were already stressful and difficult for these migrants. The lockdown became an additional burden, since it shut down sources of income with no assurance about when, or if, work and earning to support families could be resumed. This article draws on the lens of the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) to understand how workers engaged with and navigated these difficult times. A total of 54 migrant workers locked-down at home across the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal were interviewed for this qualitative study. Financial worries were found to be endemic, with rising debt a major source of stress, and educational qualifications becoming an obstacle to earning. Returning migrants were suspected of bringing the virus from the city, and so stigmatized in their home towns and villages. However, the pandemic lockdown also showed some unexpected healthful consequences. It provided these marginalized, and always busy workers the time and space to stop working for a while, to stay home, eat home food, and take walks in the comparatively green and clean spaces of their home environments. In this, the pandemic lockdown may be seen to have enabled a measure of agency and health in the lives of these workers, an oasis albeit temporary, and ultimately subject to the demands of the globalized cities of India.

A comparison of cost and cost-effectiveness analysis of two- implant-retained overdentures versus other removable prosthodontic treatment options for edentulous mandible: A systematic review.

AIM: The aim of this study was to examine systematically the data published on the cost and cost-effectiveness of mandibular two-implant-retained overdentures compared to other removable prosthodontic treatment options for edentulous mandible. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: It is a systematic review which analyses the available data from the prospective and retrospective studies and randomized clinical trials to find out costs and cost effectiveness of different removable treatment modalities for completely edentulous mandible. The study protocol was decided according to PRISMA guidelines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The search was limited to English literature only and included an electronic search through PubMed Central, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and complemented by hand-searching. All clinical trials published up to August 2019 were included (without any starting limit). Two independent investigators extracted the data and assessed the studies. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: No meta-analysis was conducted because of the high heterogeneity of data. RESULTS: Out of the initial 509 records, only nine studies were included. The risks of bias of individual studies were assessed. Six studies presented data on cost and cost analysis only. The rest three articles provided data on cost-effectiveness. The overall costs of implant overdentures were higher than the conventional complete dentures. However, implant overdentures were more cost-effective when compared to conventional complete dentures. Single-implant overdentures are also less expensive than two-implant overdentures. Overdentures supported by two or four mini-implants were also reported as more cost-effective than conventional two-implant-supported overdentures. CONCLUSIONS: Two-implant-retained overdentures are more expensive but cost-effective than the conventional complete dentures. Two- or four-mini-implant-retained overdentures are less expensive than two-implant-retained overdentures, but there is a lack of long-term data on aftercare cost and survival rate of mini-implants. Single-implant overdentures are also less expensive than the two-implant-retained overdentures. The differences of the aftercare costs of different attachment systems for implant overdentures were not significant. There is a need of further studies on comparative cost-effectiveness of different types of implant overdentures.