摘要： The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) is affected by high nicotine use and disease burden. Understanding nicotine exposure is important to recognize what groups may be at higher risk for negative health outcomes, including COVID-19. To compare self-reported health outcomes and nicotine use between exclusive electronic cigarette (e-cig) users, users of combustible cigarettes, dual e-cig/cigarette users, and nonusers among adult residents on the CRST. The CRST “COVID-19 – Wayakta He study” (“Are you on guard against COVID-19?”) recruited 562 participants on the reservation who filled out a 97-item survey. Regression models were used to analyze nicotine exposure, demographic characteristics, and health outcomes. Prevalence of nicotine use among participants was 53%. Reported median puffs per day was 15 for e-cig, 100 for cigarette, and 20 for dual users (p < 0.001). The odds of having COVID-19 were lower for nicotine users compared to nonusers (p < 0.001). The odds of hypertension (p = 0.04) and high cholesterol (p = 0.03) were lower for nicotine users compared to nonusers. The proportional odds were higher for nicotine users for longer COVID-19 recovery time (p = 0.046) and lower for more severe COVID-19 infection (p = 0.001). This study provides critical data on self-reported COVID-19, chronic disease outcomes, and exposure to commercial nicotine products. Results from this unique Tribal community–driven study with a large sample size (N = 562 participants from 289 households) will help understand the role that environmental exposures played on increased COVID-19 mortality, help target public health interventions, and inform Tribal public health policies on emergency preparedness and exposure analyses.

摘要： The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted on human lives, especially local economies. However, our understanding of the relationship between COVID-19 and local economies is still limited due to the lack of empirical evidence. The objective of this study is to explore COVID-19’s impacts on sales volume of local commercial district by focusing on the city of Seoul, South Korea. To identify the spatial spillover effects among commercial districts, we conducted a spatial panel data analysis by employing spatial panel models. Our results show that the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected sales volume in commercial districts in Seoul. However, COVID-19’s impact on sales volume varies by business type and district type. For example, among the restaurant, retail, and service sectors, the business most negatively affected by COVID-19 was retail, while restaurants were the least affected. Our spatial panel models also show that spatial spillover effects exist among commercial districts, indicating that neighboring commercial districts interact spatially. Particularly, negative spatial spillover effects have appeared in traditional markets during the pandemic. It is suggested that high priority for policy support should be given to the firms and districts that have experienced the most financial damage from COVID-19, and place-based policies that consider spatial spillover effects should be carefully designed and promptly implemented.

关键词： CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019   CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS  

摘要： The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic demands effective prognostic tools for precise risk evaluation and timely intervention. This study utilized the APTASHAPE technology to profile plasma proteins in COVID-19 patient samples. Employing a highly diverse 20-fluoro-protected RNA aptamer pool enriched toward proteins in the plasma samples from COVID-19 patients, we performed a single round of parallel selection on the derivation cohort and identified 93 discriminatory aptamers capable of distinguishing COVID-19 and healthy plasma samples. A subset of these aptamers was then used to predict 30-day mortality with high sensitivity and specificity in a validation cohort of 165 patients. We predicted 30-day mortality with areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.91 in females and 0.68 in males. Affinity purification coupled with mass spectrometry analysis of the aptamer-targeted proteins identified potential biomarkers associated with disease severity, including complement system components. The study demonstrates the APTASHAPE technology as an unbiased approach that not only aids in predicting disease outcomes but also offers insights into gender-specific differences, shedding light on the nuanced aspects of COVID-19 pathophysiology. In conclusion, the findings highlight the promise of APTASHAPE as a valuable tool for estimating risk factors in COVID-19 patients and enabling stratification for personalized treatment management.

摘要： The Justification-Suppression Model posits that people are motivated to justify their prejudice-driven treatment of others with a nonprejudiced cause. Notably, individuals have utilized COVID-19—related stress to justify their assaults on Chinese people. We examined factors that might predict people employing similar pandemic-related stress attributions to justify another person’s assault of a Chinese individual which could, in turn, predict diminished support for punishing the perpetrator. Specifically, we explored the role of pathogenic threat given its well-documented tendency to elevate outgroup-directed prejudice. Participants reported their feelings of COVID-19-related threat and read about a COVID-19—related assault. They then reported the extent they believed the perpetrator committed the assault due to COVID-19-related stress (viz., pandemic stress attributions) and their support for perpetrator-directed legal sanctions. In Study 1, we varied victim ethnicity (i.e., Chinese, White). In Study 2, we varied the degree of ethnic identification (i.e., strong, weak) for the Chinese victim. In Study 1, higher COVID-19-related threat predicted greater pandemic stress attributions when the victim was Chinese (but not White). For Study 2, higher COVID-19-related threat predicted greater pandemic stress attributions for victims strongly (but not weakly) identified with their Chinese ethnicity. Across both studies, heightened pandemic stress attributions predicted reduced support for legal sanctions. Pathogenic threat was linked to motivated processes (i.e., pandemic stress attributions) that predicted diminished societal support for punishing those who assaulted Chinese people. This pattern of findings did not occur when the victim showed weak ethnic identification.

摘要： Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is a major cause of childhood hospitalization. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the usual seasonal pattern of RSV, resulting in high activity during the off-season. This study aims to evaluate the effects of the pandemic on the severity of RSV infections. Data from 11,915 children hospitalized due to RSV infection between 2016 and 2022 were analyzed. The hospitalized patients were categorized into two groups, from January 2016 to February 2020 (PreCoV19 group) and from March 2020 to December 2022 (CoV19 group). The hospitalization duration, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, length of stay at ICU, mechanical ventilation requirement and duration, Elixhauser comorbidity index scores, and in-hospital mortality were analyzed. Children in the PreCoV19 group had a mean age of 0.4 ± 0.7, whereas those in the CoV19 group had a mean age of 0.6 ± 1.0 years. Children during the pandemic had significantly shorter hospital stays (4.3 ± 2.6 days) compared to children of the pre-pandemic period (4.9 ± 3.3 days). Although ICU admission rates did not change, the duration of ICU stays decreased in the CoV19 group. Moreover, the in-hospital mortality did not differ between the groups. A multivariable analysis showed that younger age, regardless of the pandemic period, was associated with prolonged hospital stays, higher ICU admission rates, and an increased requirement for mechanical ventilation. Our findings highlight significant changes of the clinical characteristics of RSV infections during the pandemic, with implications for clinical management and public health strategies.

摘要： The mortality risk of co-infections/secondary infections (CoI/ScI) is under-reported in patients with non-critical COVID-19, leading to the under-management of CoI/ScI and publication bias in the medical literature. We aimed to investigate the association between CoI/ScI and mortality in patients hospitalised with mild-to-severe COVID-19. We conducted a retrospective cohort study at a COVID-19 treatment hospital in Vietnam and collected all eligible medical records, with CoI/ScI status as the exposure (non-CoI/ScI and CoI/ScI, with the latter including nature of pathogen [bacterial, fungal, or bacterial + fungal] and multidrug-resistance pathogen [no MDRp or ≥ 1 MDRp]). The outcome was all-cause mortality, defined as in-hospital death by all causes or being discharged under critical illness. We used time-dependent analysis to report rates of mortality with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI, Poisson regression) and hazard ratios (HR) with 95% CI (Cox proportional hazards regression with Holm’s method for multiplicity control). We followed 1466 patients (median age 61, 56.4% being female) for a median of 9 days. We recorded 387 (26.4%) deaths (95/144 [66.0%] in the CoI/ScI group and 292/1322 [22.1%] in the non-CoI/ScI group). Adjusted mortality rates (per 100 person-days) of the CoI/ScI (6.4, 95% CI 5.3 to 7.8), including bacterial (8.0, 95% CI 7.2 to 8.9), no MDRp (5.9, 95% CI 4.8 to 7.4), and ≥ 1 MDRp (9.0, 95% CI 8.2 to 10.0) groups were higher than that of the non-CoI/ScI group (2.0, 95% CI 1.8 to 2.2). These corresponded to higher risks of mortality in the overall CoI/ScI (HR 3.27, 95% CI 2.58 to 4.13, adjusted p < 0.001), bacterial CoI/ScI (HR 3.79, 95% CI 2.97 to 4.83, adjusted p < 0.001), no MDRp CoI/ScI (HR 3.13, 95% CI 2.42 to 4.05, adjusted p < 0.001), and ≥ 1 MDRp CoI/ScI group (HR 3.89, 95% CI 2.44 to 6.21, adjusted p < 0.001). We could not attain reliable estimates for fungal and bacterial + fungal CoI/ScI. Compared with the non-CoI/ScI g

摘要： Studies integrating an exhaustive longitudinal long-term follow-up of postintensive care syndrome (PICS) in critically ill COVID-19 survivors are scarce. We aimed to 1) describe PICS-related sequelae over a 12-month period after intensive care unit (ICU) discharge, 2) identify relevant demographic and clinical factors related to PICS, and 3) explore how PICS-related sequelae may influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in critically ill COVID-19 survivors. We conducted a prospective cohort study in adult critically ill survivors of SARS-CoV-2 infection that did or did not need invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain (March 2020 to January 2021). We performed a telemedicine follow-up of PICS-related sequelae (physical/functional, cognitive, and mental health) and HRQoL with five data collection points. We retrospectively collected demographic and clinical data. We used multivariable mixed-effects models for data analysis. We included 142 study participants in the final analysis, with a median [interquartile range] age of 61 [53–68] yr; 35% were female and 59% needed IMV. Fatigue/dyspnea, pain, impaired muscle function, psychiatric symptomatology and reduced physical HRQoL were prominent sequelae early after ICU discharge. Over the 12-month follow-up, functionality and fatigue/dyspnea improved progressively, while pain remained stable. We observed slight fluctuations in anxiety symptoms and perception of cognitive deficit, whereas posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms improved, with a mild rebound at the end of the follow-up. Female sex, younger age, and the need for IMV were risk factors for PICS, while having higher cognitive reserve was a potential protective factor. Physical HRQoL scores showed a general improvement over time, whereas mental HRQoL remained stable. Shorter ICU stay, better functionality, and lower scores for fatigue/dyspnea and pain were associated with better physical HRQoL, while