COVID-19 Health Emergency Research Articles

The COVID-19 health emergency: the influence of the Human Development Index on the reorganization of primary care

The COVID-19 health emergency: the influence of the Human Development Index on the reorganization of primary care

Corporate Philanthropy and Corporate Reputation During a Global Health Crisis

The aim of the study is to examine the nexus between corporate philanthropy (CP) and corporate reputation (CR) from the perspective of a global health emergency, cultural orientation, and African context. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. A purposive sampling procedure was adopted in the selection of 200 respondents and data were collected from the 200 respondents (Recipients of palliatives) through a structured questionnaire. Considering organizations as the unit of analysis, the data were aggregated, averaged and analyzed through paired (dependent-sample) t-tests, multivariate regression and moderation analysis. The results demonstrate that corporate philanthropy before and during the pandemic had a positive effect on corporate reputation, there was a significant difference in the perceived corporate reputation before and during the COVID-19 pandemic while cultural orientation and COVID-19 health crisis orientation moderated the relationship between CP and CR during the pandemic. This study is the first of its kind to empirical examine the link between CP and CR from the lens of cultural milieu, global health emergency of COVID-19 and in African context. The study contributed to management theory and practice through critical findings from the dimension of a global health crisis.

The selection process of jurisdictional guarantees in ecuador during the COVID-19 health emergency

El artículo aborda el proceso de selección de garantías constitucionales, de conformidad con lo previsto en la Constitución de la República del Ecuador y la Ley Orgánica de Garantías Jurisdiccionales y Control Constitucional, así como los mecanismos internos que usa la Corte Constitucional para cumplir con su competencia. Posteriormente, trata los casos que han sido seleccionados durante el periodo de la emergencia sanitaria por la COVID-19, y los asuntos sobre los que la Corte Constitucional podrá desarrollar jurisprudencia a fin de reparar graves vulneraciones de derechos durante la crisis sanitaria, así como establecer estándares para evitar que la limitación al ejercicio de ciertos derechos en el contexto de la pandemia no vulnere derechos fundamentales.

COVID-19 Disruptions to Social Care Delivery: A Qualitative Study in Two Large, Safety-Net Primary Care Clinics

BackgroundSocial care integration refers to the incorporation of activities into health systems that assist patients with health-related social needs (HRSNs) that negatively impact the health outcomes of their patients, such as food insecurity or homelessness. Social care integration initiatives are becoming more common. The COVID-19 pandemic strained health systems while simultaneously increasing levels of unmet social needs.ObjectiveTo describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on established social care delivery in a primary care setting.DesignWe used qualitative semi-structured interviews of stakeholders to assess barriers and facilitators to social care delivery in the primary care setting during the COVID-19 health emergency. Data was analyzed using a hybrid inductive/deductive thematic analysis approach with both the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and the Screen-Navigate-Connect-Address-Evaluate model of social care integration.SettingTwo safety-net, hospital-based primary care clinics with established screening for food insecurity, homelessness, and legal needs.ParticipantsSix physicians, six nurses, six members of the social work team (clinical social workers and medical case workers), six community health workers, and six patients (total N = 30) completed interviews.ResultsFour major themes were identified. (1) A strained workforce experienced challenges confronting increased levels of HRSNs. (2) Vulnerable populations experienced a disproportionate negative impact in coping with effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on HRSNs. (3) COVID-19 protections compounded social isolation but did not extinguish the sense of community. (4) Fluctuations in the social service landscape led to variable experiences.ConclusionsThe COVID-19 pandemic disrupted established social care delivery in a primary care setting. Many of the lessons learned about challenges to social care delivery when health systems are strained are important considerations that can inform efforts to expand social care delivery.

Impacto generado por el Covid-19 en las MiPymes de la Orinoquia colombiana

Introduction: The world is going through an unexpected situation, which has left many companies in a precarious situation, especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) due to the appearance of Covid-19. This virus affected the economic performance of companies, which led to a reduction in the production of goods and services in different economic sectors, therefore, economic instability caused thousands of companies to declare bankruptcy and millions of people to lose their jobs. Objective: Taking the above into account, an investigation was carried out with the objective of analyzing the impact of the Covid-19 health emergency on MSMEs registered in the jurisdictions of the Villavicencio and Casanare Chambers of Commerce. Methodology: This research developed a quantitative methodology, using the survey prepared by the Ibero-American Observatory of MSMEs. Results: The sample is 267 MSMEs. 62% of the companies surveyed consider that they will increase their sales in the next year. The sectors that perceive the impact as negative the most are tourism and other services. No impact on international trade is perceived by businessmen. Conclusion: A negative impact and the adaptability of entrepreneurs are evident. As well as the presence of business resilience and an increase in innovation.

La educación virtual durante la pandemia de COVID-19 y su impacto en la salud mental de estudiantes de medicina humana de una universidad de Chiclayo, Perú

Objective: Determine the perception of virtual education and its relationship with the mental health of human medicine students at a university in Chiclayo, Peru, during the COVID-19 health emergency. Methods: Observational, cross-sectional analytical study in a probabilistic sample of 104 students. Two questionnaires were applied: one measured virtual education from 12 valid and reliable items (α=0.98), and the other a self-report questionnaire (SQR) that measured mental health from 28 items and high reliability (α= 0.90). Results: The sample was characterized by an average age of 23.9 years and a predominance of women (61.5%). The perception of virtual education was bad in 35.6%, regular in 34.6% and good in 29.8%; Likewise, 44.2% presented high risk and 55.8% without mental health risk. An inverse correlation was observed between the “skills” dimension of virtual education with mental health risk (p=0.048, Rho= -0.27); but not with the general perception of virtual education. Conclusions: More than half of the students perceived virtual education as bad or average, which was not related to the greater mental health risk in them.

Data as environment, environment as data: One Health in collaborative data-intensive science

This article analyses the operationalization of One Health in the context of data-intensive science in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Building on ethnographic field research and revisiting the lives of a knowledge infrastructure of interdisciplinary collaboration set up online in the early phase of the COVID-19 health emergency, the article develops the notion of “data as environment.” This environment is a contact structure that entangles knowledge systems, subjects, processing tools, and mediated bio-socialities in processes of data-intensive knowledge co-production. Claims for new collaborative approaches between the biomedical, environmental, and social sciences are increasingly marked by the emergence of digital knowledge-making infrastructure that leverages data, knowledge, and expertise from different disciplines and sectors to increase scientific productivity via data-sharing technologies. Yet, digital knowledge-making infrastructures appear self-evident when they are in place, while data are often conceived as inert and disembodied information units separated from social relations of research. The argument that data are an environment expands anthropological thinking on data and digital knowledge-making infrastructures by enlightening political-ethical questions that are at stake in the emerging technoscientific worlds of the Anthropocene.

Capacity building with access to information for the development of public health research in the framework of the COVID-19 health emergency

Capacity building with access to information for the development of public health research in the framework of the COVID-19 health emergency

Facing emergency remote language teaching: The attitudes and competences of future EFL teachers

The COVID-19 or Coronavirus health emergency brought about disruptions that highlighted the need to adapt education, especially language education, to secure students’ learning process. In this light, new terms, such as Emergency Remote Language Teaching, arose to differentiate ‘traditional’ online education from what was done in classrooms when schools were closed during the pandemic. Teachers directed their efforts to guarantee the continuity of students’ learning, which has been reflected in the increase in the number of studies examining how they have coped with this situation. In relation to the teaching and learning of English, however, there is limited research, up to the researchers’ knowledge, that explores whether teachers feel prepared to teach in Emergency Remote Language Teaching situations. Therefore, this paper studies the attitudes of Spanish future teachers of English concerning their readiness and abilities for Emergency Remote Language Teaching situations. Findings show that participants have positive attitudes towards adapting content to Emergency Remote Language Teaching, giving appropriate feedback, and selecting proper assessment methods. Moreover, they consider their training at university has been appropriate. Finally, recommendations to include strategies for Emergency Remote Language Teaching in teacher training syllabi are provided.

Current Progress, Challenges and Prospects in the Development of COVID-19 Vaccines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 772 million confirmed cases, including nearly 7 million deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Leveraging rapid development, accelerated vaccine approval processes, and large-scale production of various COVID-19 vaccines using different technical platforms, the WHO declared an end to the global health emergency of COVID-19 on May 5, 2023. Current COVID-19 vaccines encompass inactivated, live attenuated, viral vector, protein subunit, nucleic acid (DNA and RNA), and virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines. However, the efficacy of these vaccines is diminishing due to the constant mutation of SARS-CoV-2 and the heightened immune evasion abilities of emerging variants. This review examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the biological characteristics of the virus, and its diverse variants. Moreover, the review underscores the effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages of authorized COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, it analyzes the challenges, strategies, and future prospects of developing a safe, broad-spectrum vaccine that confers sufficient and sustainable immune protection against new variants of SARS-CoV-2. These discussions not only offer insight for the development of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines but also summarize experiences for combating future emerging viruses.

Tension between Digital Distance and Physical Presence in Hybrid Teaching: Evidence from Two Natural Experiments During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a French Business School

The advent of digitization has promised learning paradigms based on digital communication and virtual reality at the expense of physical presence. During the COVID-19 health emergency, the tension between digital distance and physical presence evolved from competing alternatives to a more nuanced coexistence. Several organizations resorted to hybrid arrangements; hybrid teaching is a notable example. In this paper, we draw from the theory of planned behavior to theorize the effect of physical presence on learning outcomes in the context of hybrid teaching. We differentiate between individual and team learning outcomes. We predict that physical presence induces competition and has a negative effect on individual learning outcomes. For team learning outcomes, we predict that physical presence induces cooperation and has a positive impact. We exploit two natural experiments in a French business school during the fall semester of 2020. The school’s administration allocated students to subgroups randomly for fairness reasons. This context offered a natural within-subjects experiment, where every student was randomly assigned to either in-person or online lectures. Students had up to 4.9% lower likelihood of correctly answering exam questions for lectures they followed in person rather than online. However, in group-work assignments, teams with one more student following in person tended to see a 3.6% increase in their team evaluation. Digital distance, therefore, constitutes a barrier to learning in a hybrid setting only when tasks are evaluated on a team basis.

Analysis of journalistic framing during the Covid-19 pandemic in Colombia's leading newspapers: El Tiempo and El Espectador

This study presents a content analysis of headlines featured on the front pages of Colombia's two most prominent newspapers during the COVID-19 health emergency. The objective was to examine the framing strategies employed by El Tiempo and El Espectador during their journalistic coverage of the initial phase of the pandemic. Criteria for analysis included informational tone, thematic approaches, grammatical structures in the headlines, information sources, coverage scope, and media perspective. Regarding interpretative frameworks, both newspapers predominantly adopted a negative approach towards the crisis and the structural impact the pandemic had on the country, especially within a context marked by uncertainty and tension. Primary themes were associated with economic and social aspects. The most prominent terms in the headlines during this period were linked to the pandemic, Covid-19, and the virus, concepts that consistently maintained a significant presence in the media agenda of the studied outlets.

Cohort profile: the British Columbia COVID-19 Cohort (BCC19C)-a dynamic, linked population-based cohort.

The British Columbia COVID-19 Cohort (BCC19C) was developed from an innovative, dynamic surveillance platform and is accessed/analyzed through a cloud-based environment. The platform integrates recently developed provincial COVID-19 datasets (refreshed daily) with existing administrative holdings and provincial registries (refreshed weekly/monthly). The platform/cohort were established to inform the COVID-19 response in near "real-time" and to answer more in-depth epidemiologic questions. The surveillance platform facilitates the creation of large, up-to-date analytic cohorts of people accessing COVID-19 related services and their linked medical histories. The program of work focused on creating/analyzing these cohorts is referred to as the BCC19C. The administrative/registry datasets integrated within the platform are not specific to COVID-19 and allow for selection of "control" individuals who have not accessed COVID-19 services. The platform has vastly broadened the range of COVID-19 analyses possible, and outputs from BCC19C analyses have been used to create dashboards, support routine reporting and contribute to the peer-reviewed literature. Published manuscripts (total of 15 as of July, 2023) have appeared in high-profile publications, generated significant media attention and informed policy and programming. In this paper, we conducted an analysis to identify sociodemographic and health characteristics associated with receiving SARS-CoV-2 laboratory testing, testing positive, and being fully vaccinated. Other published analyses have compared the relative clinical severity of different variants of concern; quantified the high "real-world" effectiveness of vaccines in addition to the higher risk of myocarditis among younger males following a 2nd dose of an mRNA vaccine; developed and validated an algorithm for identifying long-COVID patients in administrative data; identified a higher rate of diabetes and healthcare utilization among people with long-COVID; and measured the impact of the pandemic on mental health, among other analyses. While the global COVID-19 health emergency has ended, our program of work remains robust. We plan to integrate additional datasets into the surveillance platform to further improve and expand covariate measurement and scope of analyses. Our analyses continue to focus on retrospective studies of various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as prospective assessment of post-acute COVID-19 conditions and other impacts of the pandemic.

Réussir le télétravail : le rôle du leadership et la relation avec l’épuisement professionnel

By combining the Job Demands-Resources Model and the Self-Determination Theory, this research postulates a theoretical model that considers the leader–member exchange, a type of positive leadership, as a resource that would be able to promote the feeling of effectiveness in telecommuting, by creating a motivational process capable of inducing a reduction in ill-being at work, such as job exhaustion. The results from regression analyses with mediation on a sample of 352 executives teleworking during the Covid-19 health emergency show that a positive leader–member exchange promotes the perception of efficiency in teleworking which contributes to reducing job exhaustion. Considering that after the health crisis, remote working has become a practice increasingly used by many companies, especially in a hybrid way, these results encourage to question and develop the potential of positive leadership in supporting teleworkers to improve their sense of effectiveness and promote their well-being during remote work.

Predicting consumers' intention to use OFD services during COVID-19 health emergency in the USA and the UK: an application of the S-O-R model

Predicting consumers' intention to use OFD services during COVID-19 health emergency in the USA and the UK: an application of the S-O-R model

Organizational resilience factors in Bogotá-based businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic

This article reports on descriptive case studies, and researched the factors of improvisation in organizational resilience in the context of the Covid-19 health emergency. A total of 23 businesses in the city of Bogotá, from different economic activities, participated in this study. Participants were managers, owners, legal representatives, or executives from those businesses. The research type is descriptive with a qualitative approach, aimed at identifying qualitative attributes based on responses or ratings using the Likert scale. A Likert-type questionnaire was used, rating seven resilience factors, whose indicators were defined by reviewing the literature on the subject. It was found that among the resilience factors, those with the lowest performance were the components of sustainability, corporate culture, and innovative ecosystem; the determinants of coping skills and leadership were the best performing; meanwhile, human talent and the elements of flexibility and adaptation played an intermediate role in sustaining the business amid the health emergency. The study corroborates the previously existing theory and shows the possible variation in the influence of improvisation factors depending on the size of the company, its structure and organization. This study may serve as an input for future research related to the determining factors in organizational resilience and the behavior of companies in the face of different types of crises.

Decentralisation, unfunded mandates and the regional response to the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a surge in the number and scope of governmental interventions in both centralised and decentralised states. While decentralisation theories and recent empirical studies suggest that highly decentralised systems are more resilient to shocks and cope better with adversity, other research presents inconclusive or even contradictory findings. Yet, little is still known about how decentralised governments coped with the COVID-19 health emergency. Using an original dataset of 445 regions across 26 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for 2020 and 2021, this article finds that excess mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic are not connected to the degree of fiscal and political decentralisation, but rather tied to the mismatch between the two dimensions, also known as unfunded mandates. Large unfunded mandates are positively associated with higher excess mortality rates during COVID-19. Fiscal and political decentralisation, by contrast, become statistically insignificant when unfunded mandates are considered. Hence, better – not more – decentralisation is needed as unfunded mandates represented a threat to the capacity of subnational authorities to address the COVID-19 emergency. In emergency situations, the dysfunctionality caused by unfunded mandates undermines the effectiveness of the response of the relevant public authorities to pressing challenges.

Tele-Health Psychological Interventions in Breast Cancer at the Time of Coronavirus: A Narrative Review

Introduction: During the recent pandemic-related health emergency of COVID-19, the health system care has undergone several substantial and sudden changes to benefit the populations of patients affected by COVID-19 delaying the diagnosis and treatment of all other patients. One of the most vulnerable populations during this period was the oncological population. The use of telemedicine has become necessary to compensate for all this by forging medical and psychological support at a distance.
 Objectives: The purpose of this narrative review is to offer an overview of the literature on present scientific papers regarding tele-health psychological interventions aimed at breast cancer patients during the pandemic period of COVID-19 and discussing the reported effects.
 Methods: This narrative review has been realized through a revision of the scientific literature conducted from August to October 2023 using the following electronic databases: “PubMed”, “Science Direct” and “Google Scholar” typing keywords related to the pandemic period, breast cancer population and telehealth psychological interventions. For the evaluation of the effects of the interventions, the statistical indices of p-value and effect size measures were considered.
 Results: Online mindfulness-based interventions have been found to be significant in reducing anxiety, depression and sleep problems, and in improving self-perception of body image, quality of life, and self-efficacy. No significant results are detected in the reduction of depression symptoms and stress levels between groups.
 Discussions: Very limited studies investigated the topic. Further research is needed to better understand the efficacy of telepsychology during the pandemic period and deepen research in terms of other therapeutic approaches and other methods of treatment delivery. In addition, interventions based on a systemic approach, that involve both health care workers and caregivers, can be more effective for the overall well-being of breast cancer patients.

COVID-19, people with disabilities, and the Italian government recovery: investigating the impact and promoting psychological resources to prevent future emergencies.

Given its profound and transversal impact, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 marked a deep point of division in how people make sense of the world and their lives. The consequences of this event were remarkable, especially for populations already facing vulnerability, exclusion, and discrimination. In Italy, over 3 million people (5.2% of the entire population) have a disability due to health issues or severe limitations that prevent them from performing daily activities. Although the COVID-19 health emergency aggravated and amplified these problems, research and studies investigating the incidence of psychological distress and the role of psychological resources for people with disabilities in the aftermath of the pandemic are still to be implemented. For these reasons, the Department of Psychology conducted a study on behalf of the Italian Government to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social, psychological, and economic wellbeing of Italians with disabilities. The aim was to assess the consequences of the pandemic on this population, especially the impacts related to the lockdowns and preventive measures, and to evaluate the protective role that could be played by psychological resources such as resilience, future orientation, and career adaptability in a Life Design perspective. With the collaboration of local, regional, and national associations for people with disability, an anonymous, online self-report questionnaire was distributed to 403 persons with disabilities in Italy. Results showed a strong relationship between the levels of psychological resources and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with studies in international literature regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with disabilities, this research highlights the extension of this period's impacts on this population's psychological wellbeing. Moreover, this study amplifies the urgent call for action and research in promoting Life Design psychological resources, given their positive and protective role in preserving and increasing people's wellbeing.

Guidelines for Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Sleep in Colombian Youth during COVID-19

Abstract The Canadian 24-Hour movement guidelines integrate physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep habits for children and adolescents. This study aims to assess the compliance of these guidelines in Colombia, as an instrument to design strategies of health promotion in this population. A cross-sectional study in 619 scholars aged 7-17 in Caribbean Colombian region was performed to measure aerobic activity, muscular force and flexibility during 7 days through the ActivityGram questionnaire of the Cooper Institute. The data was gathered in May, 2021, through phone interviewing, and parents and participants signed an informed consent form. The screen time was measured (in hours/day), as well as the times sitting and sleeping, to perform a regression analysis and determine the Pearson coefficient characterizing the correlation between the total time in physical activity and the time in aerobic exercise. A 73.5% of the sample do not comply with the Canadian physical activity guidelines. The mean sleeping time per day is 7.9±1.2 h, being 8.1±1.2 h for 7-13 scholars and 7.5±1.3 h for 14-17 adolescents (p = 0.003). Sedentary behaviour exceeds 2 h per day, being 4.7±1.3 h sitting and 3.2±1.9 h screen time. Aerobic exercise was the most influential in the total time of physical activity (r = 0.82, p = 0.0001). The sample was composed of 51.5% males, and the mean age was 11.5±3.2 years. In this sample, 80.5% were socioeconomically vulnerable, and 55.7% were involved in remote learning activities. The COVID-19 health emergency increased the non-compliance of the physical activity guidelines and the sedentary behaviour in childhood and adolescence. It is mandatory to design health promotion strategies to encourage active life styles during these stages, as they lay the foundations of healthy habits in the future, and this is a shared responsibility between educational institutions, families and policy-making institutions Key messages • The ActivityGram test assesses physical activity in children and adolescents. • Analysis of physical activity and sedentary habits help to design health promotion policies in young people.