Older Adolescents Who Did or Did Not Experience COVID-19 Symptoms: Associations with Mental Health, Risk Perception and Social Connection.

After a decrease in detected cases in the summer, Europe faced the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). Few studies have investigated adolescents, who may constitute a target group with possible lower compliance to public health measures, particularly the social distancing measures. A total sample of 492 participants was included in the study, and the ages of the participants ranged from 18-24 years. According to the hypothesis of our study, the sample was divided into two groups: those who experienced COVID-19 symptoms and those who did not experience COVID-19 symptoms. Demographic characteristics, knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors related to COVID-19 were investigated with ad hoc items; in addition, mood disorders, self-efficacy, and social connectedness were explored. Our results showed significant differences in the variables of risk perception, self-efficacy, and measures of belongingness among older adolescents who did or did not experience COVID-19 symptoms. In this period, adolescents experienced unprecedented disruptions in their daily lives, leading them to isolation and loneliness. Compliance with restrictive measures is considered both a proactive behavior and a social responsibility, especially if supported by prosocial reasons to prevent others from getting sick; therefore, this must be the focus of raising awareness of anti-COVID-19 compliance among adolescents.

Alexithymia in HIV, HCV and coinfections.

Recent studies show that alexithymia, an impairment of emotional processing, plays a role in HIV and HCV infections, although little is known about about alexithymia in HIV/HCV coinfection. This study aimed to assess alexithymia in patients suffering from HIV, HCV or HIV/HCV coinfection and observe major differences. We selected 153 subjects, excluding those with psychiatric diagnosis, cognitive impairment or opportunistic diseases, of whom 70 (46%) had HIV infection, 57 (37%) HCV infection and 26 (17%) HIV/HCV coinfection. For the evaluation of alexithymia, we used the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), a self-report questionnaire which allows the results to be assessed both on a dimensional level and on defined cutoff scores. Data analysis showed significant differences between monoinfected and coinfected subjects. The coinfected group had a mean score of 54.00 ±13.43, higher than HIV (48.11 ± 12.38) and HCV (48.28 ± 10.71) (p <0.05). Furthermore, we found clinically relevant scores (≥51) in 65.38% of coinfected subjects, in 42.85% of HIV and in 40.35% of HCV (p <0.05). Given the medical and behavioral correlates of alexithymia highlighted in the literature, we suggest that further investigations are needed to clarify the relationship between alexithymia and HIV/HCV coinfection.