Clinical characteristics of pediatric patients with COVID-19 between Omicron era vs. pre-Omicron era

IntroductionDetailed data on clinical characteristics in children with the omicron strain of SARS-COV-2 are limited.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective observational study of children with COVID-19 at the National Center for Child Health and Development to evaluate the clinical manifestations during and before the emergence of the omicron variant. Only symptomatic patients without underlying diseases were included. Participants were divided into two temporal groups: the “omicron era” (1/2022–2/2022) and the “pre-omicron era,” where the delta variant predominated (7/2021–11/2021). The patients were subclassified into an older vaccine-eligible group (aged 12–17 years), a younger vaccine-eligible group (aged 5–11 years), and a vaccine-ineligible group (aged 0–4 years).ResultsWe compared 113 patients in the omicron era with 106 in the pre-omicron era. Most patients in both eras had non-severe disease, and no patients required mechanical ventilation or died. Among patients aged 0–4 years, sore throat and hoarseness were more common during the omicron era than the pre-omicron era (11.1% vs. 0.0% and 11.1% vs. 1.5%, respectively). Croup syndrome was diagnosed in all patients with hoarseness. Among patients aged 5–11 years, vomiting was more frequent during the omicron era (47.2%) than during the pre-omicron era (21.7%). Cough and rhinorrhea were less common during the omicron era in patients aged 0–4 and 5–11 years, respectively, than during the pre-omicron era.ConclusionsIn children with COVID-19, clinical manifestations differed between the omicron and pre-omicron eras. In the Omicron era, croup syndrome was more frequent in vaccine-ineligible children.     

Stakeholder collaboration in long-term care of older people in Lithuania

Demographic situation, changes in the role of women in society and growing demand for long-term care (LTC) of older people have challenged the ability to meet the growing LTC needs in most developed countries. In countries where responsibility for LTC is still largely laid on families, it is, however, even more critical and calls for improvements in formal LTC systems. More intensive stakeholder collaboration in LTC policy development, organising and delivery are of primary importance in improving LTC systems. Such collaboration, however, is not always successful; thus, it is critical to understand what makes it effective and efficient. In this paper, we specifically look into multistakeholder collaboration in LTC in Lithuania, one of the fastest ageing countries in the EU, with the demand for LTC services growing fast and exceeding the supply despite rising business and NGO engagement. To determine facilitators of such collaboration, we build on the data obtained through eight focus group discussions with all key stakeholder representatives (LTC policymakers, organisers and service providers [public, private and NGOs], 54 participants in total). Our findings indicate that in addition to national and organisational level facilitators studied in prior research, there are important individual level factors, such as meaningfulness at work, concern and care for others, possibility for personal growth and development, satisfaction with supervision, a sense of belonging and role clarity. On the other hand, our results show that collaboration is constrained by a shortage of human resources, increased workload caused by growing LTC demand, bureaucratic requirements, legal restrictions, lack of awareness of LTC service availability among elder persons, and prevailing social norms and attitudes to institutionalised care. Interestingly, a lack of financial resources is not perceived as a major constraint.     

The theory of Rational Addiction

The Theory of Rational Addictions, by Gary Becker & Kevin Murphy (1988), was a rational choice model that became a standard tool for economists modeling addictive behavior. The approach differs from other theories of addiction by modeling addictive behavior as the gradual implementation of a rational, forward‐looking plan, where consumption at any point in time is partly motivated by the immediate payoff of consumption and partly by the effects this consumption has on the individual in the future. This makes addictive behavior a subset of rational behavior, requiring no more specific government policies or attention than any other consumption choice. Later work by economists extended the theory in different ways, allowing it to match an increasing number of consumption patterns, and searched for ways to test the forward‐looking assumption in different types of market data. While the work was successful as a contribution to rational choice theory, with possible statistical applications, there are several reasons to dismiss its usefulness as an explanation of real‐world addictive behavior and its ability to assess the welfare effects of addictions.     

儿科诊断性X线扫描家属知情与接受现状调查

目的:了解建德市基层医院儿科门诊进行X线扫描治疗中,家属对X射线检查的知情同意与接受现状。方法:随机抽取建德市属3家公立综合性医院共60位接受X线扫描的儿童患者家属为调查对象,发放自制调查问卷并统计分析。结果:55位(91.67%)患者表示治疗前主治医生只告知了X射线是诊断性检查,没有具体告知X射线的危害性;18位(30%)的患者家属不清楚辐射会对人体有损害,42位(70%)不清楚或不注意辐射警示标志,更不会主动要求防护措施,学历水平较高者及有从事医务工作背景者接受X射线检查的为12人(20%),明显低于学历水平低者或没有从事医务工作背景者的46人(76.67%),不知可否接受的有2人(3.33%)(P<0.001)。结论:基层医院儿科诊断性X射线扫描前的知情同意告知仍需加强,儿科放射检查偏多,应避免并加强宣传和教育。     

Patient preferences and predicted relative uptake for targeted therapies in metastatic colorectal cancer: a discrete choice experiment

Abstract

Objective

Ras wild-type metastatic colorectal cancers (mCRC) may be treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) agents. We aim to estimate patients’ preferences for mCRC treatment and relative importance of cost, efficacy improvement, avoidance of side effects and therapy convenience, and relative uptake between profiles that resemble Bevacizumab (anti-VEGF) and Cetuximab (anti-EGFR), two commonly prescribed mCRC targeted therapies.     

Trends in HIV sexual prevention: Attitudinal beliefs and behavioral intention in Spanish young people over the past two decades (1999–2020)

Despite preventive efforts, HIV exposure is still a concern for public health. The current prevalence is related to unsafe sex, which is based on socio-cognitive variables. Therefore, information about these variables is required to verify whether the past preventive strategies have been effective and improve the future ones. However, there is not updated information to adjust future preventive interventions. For this reason, this study analyzes trends by gender in Spanish young people over the past two decades in perceived susceptibility to HIV, severity perceived to HIV, condom confidence and the intention of condom use, from 1999 to 2020. For this purpose, 11,665 Spanish young people (from 17 to 40 years old) completed the AIDS Prevention Questionnaire in each year. Following our results, in general, the socio-cognitive variables have revealed an unsatisfactory trend: a low perceived susceptibility to HIV and a behavioral intention that have remained stable or even declined slightly over the past years. Particularly, men are more likely to report a riskier level in socio-cognitive variables although, in the latest evaluations, women would decrease condom use intention largely than men. In general, regarding age, young adult would report better levels of condom confidence, but early youth would get higher results in perceived severity, as well as better scores in the latest evaluations of condom use intention. Considering these results, policies should make an effort in HIV prevention programs, and emphasize the attention to attitudinal beliefs and behavioral intention to improve their effectiveness.