Health-related Events Research Articles

Modified B. G. Prasad socioeconomic scale: 2022 update of India

Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most important determinants of family’s health as well as access to resources. It is vital to determine the SES of the participant in community-based research for documenting the incidence and prevalence of numerous health related events. The modified BG Prasad SES is one of the most widely used tool to determine the SES of rural and urban population but this scale requires regular update taking into account the inflation and deflation of value of the Rupees as this scale is based on the per capita Income of an individual. It is based on consumer price index (CPI) for industrial workers. The updated version of Modified BG Prasad for year 2022 thus presented.

Relationship between occlusal force and psychological frailty in Japanese community-dwelling older adults: The Septuagenarians, Octogenarians, Nonagenarians Investigation with Centenarians study.

Frailty increases the risk of negative health-related events, such as falls, disability, hospitalizations, and death. Although the association between oral health and physical frailty is well established, the relationship between oral health and psychological frailty has not yet been investigated. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the association between maximal occlusal force and psychological frailty in Japanese community-dwelling older adults. Psychological frailty was defined as a World Health Organization-5 scale (WHO-5) score of <13, cognitive and functional status was defined as a Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-J) score of <23, and psychological robustness was defined as a WHO-5 score of ≥13 and a MoCA-J score of ≥23. We used a cross-sectional study design to measure maximal occlusal force in 1810 participants, and examined the following factors relevant to psychological frailty: educational level, financial status, living situation, history of chronic diseases, handgrip strength, and instrumental activities of daily living. We used propensity score matching to match the psychological frailty and psychological robustness groups according to demographic and confounding factors. This process, resulted in 344 participants, of whom 172 were in the psychological frailty group and 172 were in the psychological robustness group. In the matched cohort, differences between groups with and without psychological frailty were compared using generalized estimating equations for maximal occlusal force after adjusting for the number of teeth. After controlling for potential confounding factors of frailty, the psychological frailty group showed lower maximal occlusal force compared with the psychological robustness group (unstandardized regression coefficients=-72.7, 95% confidence interval: -126.3 to -19.1). Maximal occlusal force was associated with a reduced prevalence of psychological frailty among Japanese community-dwelling older adults participating in our study.

A 6-Week Time Period May not be Sufficient to Identify Potential Adverse Events Following COVID-19 Vaccination

Background. Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have been widely used as the main sanitary measure destined to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Rapidly purported as being “safe and effective”, this new generation of vaccines is radically different from those developed traditionally and for which potentially associated adverse events (AEs) are considered through a standard 6-week post-vaccination period. Hypothesis. Here, we posit that the reporting period for AEs related to the COVID-19 vaccines may need to be longer. Method. In this retrospective, observational study, we aimed to assess the chronology of new/worsening ailments occurring after the administration of COVID-19 vaccines based on the changes to the participants’ pharmacological records. Patients vaccinated against COVID-19 and experiencing health-related events during the study period (between September 30, 2021 and July 15, 2022) were included and the changes to their pharmacological records were analyzed. Results. One hundred and twelve (112) adult patients (63 men, 49 women; 67.54 ± 14.55 years-old; mean ± standard deviation) have reported changes to their pharmacological record following health-related events, which occurred 11.57 weeks (median; range 0.04-47.14) following their last COVID-19 injection of 3 doses (median; range 1-4). The most frequent medical ailments that appeared or worsened were cardiovascular diseases (CVD; N=61), cancer (N=31), respiratory diseases (RD; N=22) and zona (N=10), half of which occurred after the second dose. Nineteen (19) patients (10 men, 9 women; 78.2 ± 11.4 years-old) died on average 17.14 weeks (SD 13.71) after their last injection. Conclusion. Most (76.1%) of the health-related events experienced by patients vaccinated against COVID-19 occurred beyond the 6-week period prescribed by the health authorities. Our findings call for further investigations and an extension of the post-vaccination AE reporting period.

Study on utilization of healthcare and social security schemes among street vendors in an urban area of Bengaluru

Background: Access to healthcare may vary across countries, groups, and individuals, largely influenced by social and economic conditions as well as the health policies in place. In the Indian scenario, most health-care expenses are paid out-of-pocket by patients and their families, rather than through insurance or social security schemes. Health-seeking behavior denotes visiting the health-care facility for need of care during diseases, injury and health related events which includes public hospitals, clinics or privately owned hospitals. There is a lack of inadequate information on health-care utilization and social security benefits availed by street vendors in India. Hence, the study was planned to look into issues of health-care utilization and related issues. Aims and Objectives: To assess the utilization of health care and social security schemes among the street vendors of urban area of Bengaluru and to find the determinants of health-care utilization among them. Materials and Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional, descriptive, and explorative study was undertaken for 2 months from May to June 2021 among 160 street vendors in urban area of Bengaluru. Data on socio-demographic factors, vending type and nature, social security benefits, health insurance, and health-care utilization were collected from each vendor. The prevalence of utilization of healthcare and social security schemes among street vendors were estimated. Results: Majority of the vendors (77% males and 82.4% females) visit health-care center only when the illness was severe and only 18.8% of the vendors seek healthcare for all types of illnesses. Over-the-counter medicines were preferred than visiting a health-care facilities by 71.3% of the street vendors and majority of them were males (76.3%). The part time vendors (38.5%) used more than one health facility, i.e., government, polyclinic, and medical college facilities, whereas (27.2%) of full time vendors were dependent on government health-care facilities. The fixed place vendors (23.8%) and mobile cart vendors (32.7%) used government health-care facilities. Majority of the fruit vendors used government facilities. There were 20% of the street vendors who were aware of only Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS), 18.8% aware of only Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) Scheme, 28% aware of Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), 8% were aware of Pradhan Mantra Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana (PM-SYM), and 9.4% aware of all the above schemes as applicable. Almost two third of the study population (69% of males and 61.8% of females) were not availing any of the social security schemes. 71.4% of males above 60 years of age were availing IGNOAPS, 31% of females in the reproductive age group availed JSY as applicable, 12% availed AB-PMJAY, 67.6% of the fixed place vendors, and 67.3% of the mobile cart vendors did not avail any social security scheme. None of the vendors had any type of medical health insurance and only 59.4% of the vendors were below poverty line card holders. Conclusion: Most of the vendors and their family members used government facilities (26.9%) and only 44.4% were availing the social security schemes. Timing of vending (part/full time), time of visit of different health-care facilities, and financial status were the important determinants of utilizing healthcare. Therefore, government run health-care centers should be made more accessible and available to the unorganized working class.

Food based Epidemiology in Karnataka: An Ayurvedic preview

Introduction: Ahara is explained extensively through all dimensions in Ayurveda. Food epidemiology may sound relatively new topic but traces of these is vastly found in Ayurveda. Ahara is not only responsible for nourishment of the body and maintenance of health but also the prime cause behind most of the disease if it is not utilized properly. Satmya (conduciveness) plays an important role in a healthy diet. Food based epidemiology can be the study of the dietary diversities found among population of a particular region and its health impact on them. As any of the states, Karnataka also has unique culture, tradition, art and food diversities. Material and Method: A compilation and critical analysis of Ayurvedic literature, national and international journal, online search engine, contemporary textbook book of medicine and other sources that contributes to the compilation of study and comparing the food regional diversities in Karnataka with food epidemiology Results: Ayurveda has well explained about regional food diversity and its influence on health. There is a greater impact of land on the food on which it is grown. The marshy land (Anupa) has more moisture (Kledata) in food articles; where as the food grown in dry arid land (Jangala desha) will be light for digestion. Similarly, the aquatic food of river and sea origin will have different health impact. Karnataka with its wide geographical diversity and biodiversity has varieties of food culture. Conclusion: Food based epidemiology that is, the food varieties with specific to region and health related events are well explained in Ayurveda. The explanations on the multiple dimensions of food aspects such as its consumption, procurement, quality of food based on the origin and the other factors affecting health can be found in great extent.

Review on effect of antimicrobial residual on human health

Human beings can get protein-rich foods from animal as by product (milk, meat, and eggs), to fulfill their nutritional requirements, and the quality and nature of this animal origin food may be directly or indirectly associated with the health human that consumed this animal origin food. “Veterinary drug” means any substance or mixture of substances that are essential for treatment of diseased animal (as therapeutic purpose), prevention of diseases (prophylaxis), modification of physiological functions (such as tranquilizers, anesthetic drugs), improvement of growth and productivity (growth promoters) as well as for ensuring food safety or restoring, correcting or modifying any physical, mental or organic function in an animal. However, the benefits of drug utilization to farm animals used for food production are also accompanied by the risks associated with drug residues in the edible parts of treated animals. The drug itself and their metabolites left over in the body after their administration for longer time are termed as residues. Residues are defined as chemical substances or metabolites of medicinal products that may accumulate within the tissues or edible parts of treated animals. These residues may result from failure to observe the proper withholding period following treatment, failure to maintain treatment records, overdose, or using prohibited drugs for economic animal treatment. Age of animal, disease statues, Extra-label drug use and Improper Withdrawal Time are the major risk factor for drug residues. The major potential effect of veterinary drug residues on public health are development of drug resistance, hypersensitive reaction, mutagenicity, carcinogenic disruption of intestinal micro flora and microbial drug resistance. Drug residue control and prevention responsible organs not only lie on within a governmental agency; rather the responsibility must be shared by all responsible bodies which includes, the government, producers, animal health practitioner and academicians, marketing associations, livestock producers, farmers and other interested parties, who must strive for both healthy and efficiently grown animals as well as a safe food supply. Proper maintenance of treatment records and identification of treated animals; institute a workable health record for each animal to record all health related events, including administration of medication, this for all about mentioned above points are the way of prevention and control strategies of drug residues.

What does Google Trends reveal about the proportion of waterpipe users in the Brazilian population?

To analyze the relationship between internet search volume and the prevalence of waterpipe use among young Brazilians in 2019. This was a descriptive study with data from Brazil in 2019, using the relative search volume on waterpipes extracted from Google Trends and the proportion of waterpipe users aged between 15 and 24 years, as measured by the National Health Survey (Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde - PNS), and aged between 13 and 17 years, as measured by the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey (Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar - PeNSE). The relationship was assessed by means of Spearman's correlation. The point prevalence of waterpipe use across the Brazilian Federative Units (FUs) showed a moderate (r = 0.51; PNS) to strong correlation (r = 0.74 and r = 0.80; PeNSE) with the relative search volume (p-value < 0.05). Google Trends can support the monitoring system on waterpipe use in the FUs, providing additional information to existing population-based surveys. The search volume for waterpipes by states in Brazil, as measured by Google Trends, showed a moderate to high correlation with the respective proportions of current use and experimentation of waterpipe among the adolescent/young adult population. The use of Google Trends as a support to the monitoring system for waterpipe consumption in Brazil warrants further exploration in terms of the validity of additional information to existing population surveys. Expanding the use of Google Trends searches to assess its potential in monitoring other health risk products and detecting (or predicting) incidence or seasonality of health-related events.

Measuring Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Health in the Background of Multiple Disadvantages: A Scoping Review for Equitable Public Health Policy Formulation.

How climate change is uniquely affecting Indigenous health remains a very less explored area in the existing research literature. The imperative of inclusive climate action to protect indigenous health multiplies manifolds due to their unique vulnerabilities owing to predominant dependence on natural resources and multiple disadvantages faced. The current article attempted to add to the evidence pool regarding climate change impacts on the indigenous population by systematically collecting, processing, and interpreting data as a scoping literature review for effective and inclusive climate policymaking. Twenty-Nine articles of varied study designs were identified employing a systematically organized search strategy using PubMed (Field, MeSH, and advanced search) and Google scholar; relevant data were extracted for further analysis. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines were followed. Changing climate scenarios had both direct and indirect health-related impacts on indigenous health, and altered the epidemiological triad for various health-related events, causing the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases, and increased prevalence of chronic diseases and mental disorders. An expanded framework was developed showcasing the variability of climate change events, multiple disadvantages, and its impacts on indigenous populations. Few studies also reported a wide range of adaptation responses of indigenous peoples towards climate change. It was substantiated that any climate-change mitigation policy must take into account the trials and tribulations of indigenous communities. Also, due to the complexity and large variability of the impacts and differences in mitigation capabilities, policies should be contextualized locally and tailored to meet the climate need of the indigenous community.

Epidemiologia reprodukcyjna i jej użyteczność w rozwiązywaniu wybranych problemów zdrowotnych kobiet – według projektów i badań własnych

The dynamic development of basic and clinical medical knowledge, also in the field of family medicine, makes it difficult for clinicians to keep up with the news. Therefore, clinical management standards are more and more often developed based on the principles of evidence-based medicine and data from the field of epidemiology.The above tendency can also be observed in sexology and family medicine in the context of gender issues, despite the still very poor knowledge of the physiology of sexual reactions and the etiopathology of their dysfunction. Epidemiology is an interdisciplinary field that studies the occurrence and distribution of health-related conditions or events in specific populations, and assesses the factors that influence health, and applies this knowledge to controlling health problems.The research projects carried out by the author and the published results of the conducted research justify the usefulness of the relatively young subdiscipline of epidemiology, which is reproductive epidemiology in solving the problems of reproductive medicine, which is also more important in family medicine.

Establishing an Emergency Medical Team in LMIC Setup; Experience from Ethiopia’s Challenges and Opportunity

Background/Introduction:Natural and man-made catastrophes have caused significant destruction and loss of lives throughout human history. Disasters accompany various events with multiple causes and consequences, often leading to a cascade of health-related events. Ethiopia, amongst the developing countries in the horn of Africa, is vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters. Over the last few years, Ethiopia learned the hardest way to transform its disaster management from a mere apparatus of response and recovery to preparedness and mitigation.Objectives:Review the challenges and opportunities for establishing the Ethiopian EMT and its disaster response experience.Method/Description:This was a mixed-methods, cross-sectional Intra-Action Review of activities of country EMT. It included a review of documents and key informant interviews. All data were analyzed thematically.Results/Outcomes:In May 2022, the Ethiopian Federal MOH, in collaboration with WHO, adapted the WHO EMT initiative to tackle the identified challenges. Ethiopia’s EMT implementation plan was created, which included ten steps and 50 detailed activities. This initiative aims to have a classified Type I fixed EMT in the coming six months. Based on the objective evaluation of the last four months’ performance toward plan implementation, activities show that 65% of the overall plan has been completed.Conclusion:Implementing the EMT initiative in Ethiopia has positively impacted the clinical quality of care, enhanced coordination, and improved health outcomes for the population served at times of great need. However, the implementation requires collaboration in support, guidance, and experience sharing from stakeholders and partners, including twinning with other organizations.Tables and Figures (optional)Table 1.Ethiopian EMT Ten Steps Implementation

Tracking Day-To-Day Achilles Tendon Loading Progression During Rupture Recovery: A Case Study

Category: Sports; Basic Sciences/Biologics Introduction/Purpose: Achilles tendon rupture patients often suffer long-term functional deficits. Although progressive tendon loading improves healing, it is difficult to reliably measure in the real world and thus be precisely prescribed in rehabilitation. Modern wearable sensors, including instrumented shoe insoles, provide powerful platforms to measure real-world biomechanics. Using simple algorithms, we showed that these instrumented insoles can accurately quantify Achilles tendon loads. Yet, the feasibility of using wearables to enhance targeted Achilles tendon therapeutics remain unknown, partly due to the challenges of obtaining data on many patients over the long recovery process. Therefore, we leveraged a case study to verify whether instrumented insoles are able to track the longitudinal progression of Achilles tendon loading in daily life, and relate to clinically relevant events of tendon health. Methods: A patient (F, 30y/o) who underwent a right Achilles tendon repair was enrolled after consent in this IRB-approved study. During a standard rehabilitation protocol, an immobilizing boot fit with a 3-sensor instrumented insole (Loadsol) was worn starting from week 4 post-surgery. The insole remained in footwear after switching from boot to shoe, and data collection continued until week 22. The patient recorded &gt;10 seconds of insole data during gait each day, logged daily step count, and documented any event that may be related to tendon health, including pain and notable daily living activities. For each step identified by insole, we estimated Achilles tendon loads using our established algorithm, including load peak, impulse over a step, and load rates. We compared the daily average of these variables to self-reported events to explore their inter-relationships. We also correlated the load variables to determine whether they each provide unique insights into tendon loading. Results: The insole recorded up to 70 steps each day on a total of 116 days. Peak Achilles tendon load increased gradually yet non-linearly along the recovery process, with large variations between week 12-19 (Figure). 'Sharp' loading changes often corresponded to tendon health-related events, such as days of pain and swelling following rapid load increases in late week 12. A day of high step count (20k+) in week 18 was followed by a large decrease of the peak tendon load at the end of the same day. The insole also identified tendon load changes according to patient instructions, including a 65% increase in peak load by intentionally 'trying to push off' during gait. Finally, tendon load rates and impulse strongly correlated with peak load (R2 &gt;0.85). Conclusion: Longitudinally monitoring Achilles tendon loading is challenging because 1) it is limited by the scarce frequency of clinical visits, and 2) lab-based gait measurements do not faithfully reflect real-world biomechanics. Our first-of-kind case study shows the feasibility of using instrumented insoles to track day-to-day Achilles tendon loading in the real world. The results suggest Achilles tendon loading can be sufficiently tracked using peak load, and modified instantly and interactively via instructions or biofeedback. Our innovative paradigm empowers future studies to leverage accessible tools and deliver personalized rehabilitation according to quantitative guidance, thereby optimizing long-term Achilles tendon healing and functional recovery.

Nurses' perception regarding barriers to use of health information system in the teaching hospital of Abbottabad

The Health Management Information System (HMIS) was designed to provide information on the status of ongoing health-related events. It has been designed to enhance data management in health care facilities. The effectiveness of this system depends on the appropriate collection, analysis, interpretation, and utilization of data. Objective: This study intended to generate knowledge to bridge this knowledge gap to overcome barriers to using and implementing integrated HIS. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional design was used in this study. The data were collected in a Teaching hospital in Abbottabad from July 27, to Aug 3, 2022. Five item Likert scale was used to collect data from 206 nurses. Those who have one-year of experience with HMIS were included in this study. Result: More than half 51.9 % (n=107) of the study participants were female. Almost half 49.5% (n=102) of the participants responded with little and very few barriers in the use of health information systems, followed by much and very much by one-fourth of the participants 25.7% (n=53) and moderate 24.8% (n=51). technical (2.98±1.17) had the highest total mean scores followed by legal (2.95±1.19), organizational (2.91±1.15), and personal (2.90±1.16). Conclusions: The study concluded technical barrier as the top most and comprises computer shortage, internet breakdown and improper health information network. The nurses also reported workload due to documentation and access of an unauthorized person to information

Political polarization on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study in Brazil.

The debate over the COVID-19 pandemic is constantly trending at online conversations since its beginning in 2019. The discussions in many social media platforms is related not only to health aspects of the disease, but also public policies and non-pharmacological measures to mitigate the spreading of the virus and propose alternative treatments. Divergent opinions regarding these measures are leading to heated discussions and polarization. Particularly in highly politically polarized countries, users tend to be divided in those in-favor or against government policies. In this work we present a computational method to analyze Twitter data and: (i) identify users with a high probability of being bots using only COVID-19 related messages; (ii) quantify the political polarization of the Brazilian general public in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; (iii) analyze how bots tweet and affect political polarization. We collected over 100 million tweets from 26 April 2020 to 3 January 2021, and observed in general a highly polarized population (with polarization index varying from 0.57 to 0.86), which focuses on very different topics of discussions over the most polarized weeks–but all related to government and health-related events.

1429P Impact of previous health-related events on coping with cancer

This study examines the impact of past health events on coping with cancer. The structure of the study was based on the assumption that cancer is a source of stress resulting from the inevitable changes in previous functioning of people with cancer and while the coping strategies which they adopt may be explained in terms of the transactional theory of stress and coping (Lazarus, Folkman) and the critical life events model (Filipp). These two concepts provided the theoretical basis for the study, the focus of which was on defining the role played by antecedents (understood as an earlier experience of loss of health as a result of a serious illness) in the course of the stress transaction in cancer patients.

Health Challenges and Community College Student Outcomes Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study details the prevalence of community college students’ reports of serious health events both before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. Survey responses from a representative sample of students within the largest community college at the City University of New York highlighted serious health challenges. Findings indicated that serious health challenges (including illness/injury/disability/mental health) were a significant factor in predicting students’ outcomes during the spring 2020 term. However, health-related events that occurred prior to the onset of the pandemic had a substantially and significantly larger correlation with course outcomes than those that occurred after the onset of the pandemic. This suggests that serious health issues may be a major barrier to student progress at community colleges, even outside of the conditions of a global pandemic, and that the pandemic may have only exacerbated this significant but often overlooked preexisting issue.

Hypertension Detection Based on Photoplethysmography Signal Morphology and Machine Learning Techniques

In our modern digitalized world, hypertension detection represents a key feature that enables self-monitoring of cardiovascular parameters, using a wide range of smart devices. Heart rate and blood oxygen saturation rate are some of the most important ones, easily computed by wearable products that are provided by the photoplethysmography (PPG) technique. Therefore, this low-cost technology has opened a new horizon for health monitoring in the last decade. Another important parameter is blood pressure, a major predictor for cardiovascular characterization and health related events. Analyzing only PPG signal morphology and combining the medical observation with machine learning (ML) techniques, this paper develops a hypertension diagnosis tool, named the ANC Test™. During the development process, distinguishable characteristics have been observed among certain waveforms and certain types of patients that leads to an increased confidence level of the algorithm. The test was enchanted by machine learning models to improve blood pressure class detection between systolic normotensive and hypertensive patients. A total of 359 individual recordings were manually selected to build reference signals using open-source available databases. During the development and testing phases, different ML models accuracy of detecting systolic hypertension scored in many cases around 70% with a maximum value of 72.9%. This was resulted from original waveform classification into four main classes with an easy-to-understand nomenclature. An important limitation during the recording processing phase was given by a different PPG acquisition standard among the consulted free available databases.

Validity of an iPhone App to Detect Prefrailty and Sarcopenia Syndromes in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: The Protocol for a Diagnostic Accuracy Study.

Prefrailty and sarcopenia in combination are more predictive of mortality than either condition alone. Early detection of these syndromes determines the prognosis of health-related adverse events since both conditions can be reversed through appropriate interventions. Nowadays, there is a lack of cheap, portable, rapid, and easy-to-use tools for detecting prefrailty and sarcopenia in combination. The aim of this study is to validate an iPhone App to detect prefrailty and sarcopenia syndromes in community-dwelling older adults. A diagnostic test accuracy study will include at least 400 participants aged 60 or over without cognitive impairment and physical disability recruited from elderly social centers of Murcia (Spain). Sit-to-stand muscle power measured through a slow-motion video analysis mobile application will be considered as the index test in combination with muscle mass (calf circumference or upper mid-arm circumference). Frailty syndrome (Fried’s Phenotype) and sarcopenia (EWGSOP2) will both be considered as reference standards. Sensibility, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and likelihood ratios will be calculated as well as the area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic. This mobile application will add the benefit for screening large populations in short time periods within a field-based setting, where space and technology are often constrained (NCT05148351).

Prevalence and Clinical Conditions Related to Sarcopaenia among Older Persons Living in the Community

(1) Background: In health care and in society at large, sarcopaenia is a disorder of major importance that can lead to disability and other negative health-related events. Our study aim is to determine the prevalence of sarcopaenia among older people attended in primary care and to analyse the factors associated with this age-related clinical condition; (2) Methods: A multicentre cross-sectional study was conducted of 333 community-dwelling Spanish adults aged 65 years or more. Sociodemographic, clinical, functional, anthropometric, and pharmacological data were collected. Sarcopaenia was defined following European Working Group on Sarcopaenia in Older People (EWGSOP) criteria; (3) Results: Sarcopaenia was present in 20.4% of the study sample, and to a severe degree in 6%. The intensity of the association between sarcopaenia and frailty was weak-moderate (Cramer V = 0.45). According to the multinomial logistic regression model performed, sarcopaenia was positively associated with age and with the presence of psychopathology (OR = 2.72; 95% CI = 1.30–5.70) and was inversely correlated with body mass index (OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.67–0.80; (4) Conclusions: Sarcopaenia commonly affects community-dwelling older persons and may be associated with age, body mass index, and psychopathology. The latter factor may be modifiable or treatable and is therefore a possible target for intervention.

Identifying Frames of the COVID-19 Infodemic: Thematic Analysis of Misinformation Stories Across Media.

The word "infodemic" refers to the deluge of false information about an event, and it is a global challenge for today's society. The sheer volume of misinformation circulating during the COVID-19 pandemic has been harmful to people around the world. Therefore, it is important to study different aspects of misinformation related to the pandemic. This paper aimed to identify the main subthemes related to COVID-19 misinformation on various platforms, from traditional outlets to social media. This paper aimed to place these subthemes into categories, track the changes, and explore patterns in prevalence, over time, across different platforms and contexts. From a theoretical perspective, this research was rooted in framing theory; it also employed thematic analysis to identify the main themes and subthemes related to COVID-19 misinformation. The data were collected from 8 fact-checking websites that formed a sample of 127 pieces of false COVID-19 news published from January 1, 2020 to March 30, 2020. The findings revealed 4 main themes (attribution, impact, protection and solutions, and politics) and 19 unique subthemes within those themes related to COVID-19 misinformation. Governmental and political organizations (institutional level) and administrators and politicians (individual level) were the 2 most frequent subthemes, followed by origination and source, home remedies, fake statistics, treatments, drugs, and pseudoscience, among others. Results indicate that the prevalence of misinformation subthemes had altered over time between January 2020 and March 2020. For instance, false stories about the origin and source of the virus were frequent initially (January). Misinformation regarding home remedies became a prominent subtheme in the middle (February), while false information related to government organizations and politicians became popular later (March). Although conspiracy theory web pages and social media outlets were the primary sources of misinformation, surprisingly, results revealed trusted platforms such as official government outlets and news organizations were also avenues for creating COVID-19 misinformation. The identified themes in this study reflect some of the information attitudes and behaviors, such as denial, uncertainty, consequences, and solution-seeking, that provided rich information grounds to create different types of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some themes also indicate that the application of effective communication strategies and the creation of timely content were used to persuade human minds with false stories in different phases of the crisis. The findings of this study can be beneficial for communication officers, information professionals, and policy makers to combat misinformation in future global health crises or related events.

Smart mask – Wearable IoT solution for improved protection and personal health

The use of face masks is an important way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we envision the Smart Mask, an IoT supported platform and ecosystem aiming to prevent and control the spreading of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses. The integration of sensing, materials, AI, wireless, IoT, and software will help the gathering of health data and health-related event detection in real time from the user as well as from their environment. In the larger scale, with the help of AI-based analysis for health data it is possible to predict and decrease medical costs with accurate diagnoses and treatment plans, where the comparison of personal data to large-scale public data enables drawing up a personal health trajectory, for example. Key research problems for smart respiratory protective equipment are identified in addition to future research directions. A Smart Mask prototype was developed with accompanying user application, backend and heath AI to study the concept.