BACKGROUND: Developing programmes to improve adolescents' health competences defined as health literacy (HL) seems to be crucial for their current and future health.
OBJECTIVE: To understand if living in regions with low deprivation and high social capital increases HL in adolescence.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: The survey was conducted in the 2018 as part of the HBSC study involving 5648 Polish students aged 13-17, 47,3% boys. Adolescents’ self-reported HL was measured with a brief 10-item Health Literacy for School-Aged Children (HLSAC) instrument (IJERPH, Paakkari et al. 2020). HLSAC was developed as a set of competencies to promote and sustain health (5 dimensions of HL covered, index ranged 10-40, mean 30.64 ± 4.55). As independent variables: gender, age group, neighbourhood social capital scale (as social feature), subjective assessment of neighbourhood affluence (as structural feature), family affluence (FAS) were used. Comparison of mean HL indexes by nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test and General Linear Model (GLM) with 2-way interactions were applied.RESULTS: The average HL index increases from 29.94 to 31.85 along with the neighbourhood social capital (p<0.001), as well as the neighbourhood affluence ( from 29.26 to 31.43; p<0.001). An significant interaction between FAS and the neighborhood affluence (p=0.004) means the accumulation of risk and protective factors (HL index ranges from 26.97 to 31,64) and a much stronger protective effect of the neighborhood features in the poor families as compared to average and high FAS groups.
CONCLUSION: Environmental features should be analyzed in research on social determinants of HL and in planning targeted interventions.

Partnerships are a cornerstone of modern public health practice, yet in the face of the global Covid-19 pandemic, many traditional public health partners either floundered or lacked the resources to perform adequately. The public health community should begin looking at alternative pathways to fulfilling public health needs when traditional partners are not available. One such partner that has historically been overlooked in providing Public Health support, especially with interventional epidemiology and public health policy, is the Advanced Materials (AM) Community. Many emerging technologies, including nanotechnology and additive manufacturing are making key inroads into medicine, but these technologies could serve the broader Public Health Community writ large. The AM Community could play a larger role in public health practice by developing and implementing preventive measures for disease, including global pandemics like Covid-19. Public Health professionals can integrate the unique skill sets and resources of the AM Community into the Public Health Infrastructure to help reduce the risk and burden of disease. One such example is the Advanced Material Pandemic & Future Preparedness Taskforce (AMPT), which is an international Public-Benefit initiative focused on using Advanced Materials to help solve some of humanity's most pressing challenges. As an international cooperative platform, the multidisciplinary taskforce is building a global infrastructure and an ecosystem network that enables the advanced material community to respond swiftly and effectively under the umbrella of Future Preparedness. AMPT was formed in April 2020 in direct response to many of the gaps revealed during the pandemic response. Advanced materials have played and will continue to play some role in public health, including for use in diagnostics tests, antimicrobial coatings, and filtering face piece respirators. Technology has advanced to a point where researchers and manufacturers of advanced materials now have clear direction and resources to be partners that the Public Health Community can no longer afford to overlook.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the current grand global public health challenge. To assess the body’s immune response from natural COVID-19 disease or from the effects of vaccines, it is necessary to have a method that meets the rapid quantitative detection of antibodies.

We integrated a newly designed spectrochip to our COVID-19 test strip procedures to provide sensitive, quantitative capacity to a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA). Optical interpretation of results by quantitative α index was taken, rather than visual qualification. This detection method can quickly produce results in 6 minutes. We compared the developed product with several other serological IgM/IgG antibody reagents on the market by recruiting 111 participants of suspected COVID-19 infection from March to May 2020 in a single hospital.

Taking RT-PCR positive individuals as the gold standard, the analytical platform (Spectrochip +ACE Biolab) can correctly detect all 12 COVID-19 patients (100% sensitivity, 12/12). In contrast, the sensitivity for ACE Biolab alone is 91.67% (11/12), for Biomedomics is 58.33% (7/12). Methods that use Nucleocapsid (N) + Spike (S) solid-phase antigen (i.e., ACE Biolab, TBG, and Spectrochip +ACE Biolab) perform better, compared with those that use Nucleocapsid (Biomedomics) or Spike (ASK) alone. This new platform's extraordinary detection ability demonstrated clinical potential.

Abstract: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus. Assessing the prevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare workers groups offers a unique opportunity to study the correlation between seroconversion and immunization because of their occupational exposure and higher risk of contagious.

Methods: The study enrolled 3242 asymptomatic employees of “Policlinico Riuniti,” Foggia. After the first screening, we collected sequential serum samples up to 23 weeks from the same subjects. In order to perform a longitudinal follow-up study and get information about the titration of IgG level, we analyzed data from subjects (33) with at least two consecutive serological IgG positive tests. Moreover, we tested some salivary samples analyzing IgG by CLIA method, and IgA by ELISA method.

Results: 62 subjects were positive (1.9%, 1.4-2.3%, 95% CI) for at least one antibody anti-SARS-CoV-2. The seroprevalence was lower in the high-risk group 1.4% (6/428,0.5-2.6%, 95% CI) vs. intermediate-risk group 2.0 % (55/2736, 1.5-2.5%, 95% CI). Overall, within eight weeks, we detected a mean reduction of -17% in the IgG level. Our data suggest a reduction of about 9.27 AU/mL every week (R2=0.35, p=0.0003). This study revealed a low prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among our hospital healthcare staff (1.9%). The preliminary analysis of saliva, belonging to positive subjects by molecular testing for SARS CoV2, showed that out of 4 saliva samples we observed an Ig ratio (Ig saliva/Ig Serum) corresponding to 0.06, 0.02, 0.01, 0.03 for IgG, while it was 2.43, 2.42, 0.48, and 1.28 for IgA, respectively.

Conclusions: The IgG level reduction suggests that the serological response fades fast in asymptomatic infections. Our preliminary data also suggest that the IgA anti-SARS-CoV2 is present also in saliva of positive subjects and its level is higher than IgG.

The pandemic caused by covid-19 is generating important changes in organizations and in the ways of working. Restrictions on the mobility of citizens and quarantines decreed by governments to try to stop contagions in the population are causing decreases in forecasts for economic growth and predictions of a new economic crisis. In Spain, the professional sectors most affected by this crisis are tourism, catering and commercial, and especially the retail sector. The pandemic is not over and its effects on the workplace may be even worse than those that have already occurred. Furthermore, in Spain women suffer worse working conditions and have been more affected by previous economic crises. In this context, it is important to know if there are differences between men and women in their perception of the effects that covid-19 can have at the workplace. In this study, 467 retail sector workers (188 men and 279 women) answered a short eight-item survey on their perception of the effects of the pandemic on their job, on a five-point Likert scale. Comparison of the responses given by gender showed that women have more uncertainty in their work (men = 3.4 vs. women = 4.1); they have noticed more changes at the psychosomatic level (men = 3.1 vs. women = 3.6); they are more afraid that their employment situation will be affected by the pandemic (men = 3.6 vs. women = 4.2) and they consider that their situation will worsen (men = 3.4 vs. women = 3.9) (p ≤ 0.001 in all cases). However, both genders showed the same high concern about the pandemic and similar levels in terms of how the covid-19 had affected them at the workplace. The results of this study allow us to conclude that although, for now, the pandemic has negatively and similarly affected men and women in terms of their work, expectations about the future effects of the crisis caused by covid-19 are worse for women than for men.

This study conducted to explore the relationship between outdoor activity time, screen time and body weight of children. All participants, 3–6 years of age (n =  1422), from 4 kindergartens in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province were selected as the subjects by random cluster sampling. Weight and height were measured. Total screen time, time of outdoor play were self-reported by parents in a questionnaire. We used X² test, t-test and logistic regression analysis to analyze the data. After adjusting the influencing factors such as children's age, father's education level and screen time, the risk of overweight and obesity was 1.734 times (95% CI: 1.178-2.552) for children with outdoor activity time ≤ 2h/d, among which 2.050 times (95% CI: 1.252-3.357) for boys, 1.472 times (95% CI: 0.785-2.761) for girls. After adjusting the influencing factors such as children's age, father's education level and outdoor activity time, the risk of overweight and obesity in children whose screen time ≥ 1h/d was 1.639 times (95% CI: 1.272-2.113) that in children whose screen time was less than 1h/d, including 1.474 times (95% CI: 1.057-2.057) for boys, and 1.676 times (95% CI: 1.119-2.511) for girls. Thus, both long screen time and outdoor activity time were associated with the increases the risk of overweight and obesity.

On March 12^th, New York governor declared a state of emergency, which banned large gatherings, resulting in statewide school and business closures. By November 2020, there were 270,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New York City (NYC). As state-wide lockdown orders were progressively lifted and NYC began to reopen in phases, there was widespread health and safety concerns especially in the reopening of NYC schools. Here we analyzed NYC 311 Call Center Inquiries to assess what types of information NYC residents are seeking in regards to schools during COVID-19. Inquiries from July 7-November 22 that contained the term “School” were downloaded from the NYC Open Data website for 2018(n=32,836), 2019 (n=30,626) and 2020(n=45,602). School-related inquires increased by 39% from 2018-2020. During 2020, the most common (49%, n=22,471) call description was “Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Schools”. This tag describes calls seeking information about learning options, school health and safety, and resources for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Spikes in the volume of these inquiries corresponded to dates when announcements about lock-downs were made by NY public officials. On August 7^th ,the Governor announced schools would reopen during the fall; a spike in “COVID-19 and School” related 311 calls occurred between August 31^st (n= 678) and September 1^st (n=624). A second spike occurred between September 16^th (n=1,043) and 17^th (n=713) when the mayor announced the school reopening schedule and staffing plan, followed by a spike on September 21^st (n=680) when pre-K and special needs classes began in-person learning. This study demonstrates that as NYC residents received school-related news centered around COVID-19, there were increased health and safety concerns. Future announcements about schools plans during COVID-19 need to be conveyed clearly and disseminated effectively in order to avoid confusion about NYC’s strategy and address concerns regarding the health and safety around school openings.

Continuity of care (COC) is regarded as an important factor to improve the quality of healthcare. To assess the concordance between the continuity of child care measured by administrative data and the questionnaire reported by caregivers. To analyze the related factors that affect the continuity of child care reported by caregivers in the questionnaire.

The population profile of the 2016 National Health Insurance Research Database (NHID) and the child care questionnaire was linked to analyze 1283 caregivers of children, using the four indexes UPC (Usual Provider of Care), HI (Herfindahl Index), COCI (Continuity of Care Index), and SECON (Sequential Continuity Index) to calculate the continuity of care. Ordinal logistic regression used to examine the association between the two measurements. Then, 1454 caregivers of children, and the regression models were developed by using the demographic characteristics of caregivers and children to explore the factors that affect the continuity of child care reported by the caregivers.

The results of the study indicated that the highest degree of fit is the COCI index. In the five aspects of the questionnaire, the caregiver reported children’s loyalty to the doctor for the same disease (OR=2.54, 95%CI: 1.40-4.62), loyalty to the doctor for different diseases (OR=1.93, 95%CI: 1.06,3.52), trust (OR=3.16, 95 %CI: 1.76-5.69) and importance (OR=2.91; 95%CI: 1.21-7.36) four aspects are statistically significant.

The satisfaction of the health-care system is the most important factor affecting the continuity of child care. When caregivers are highly satisfied, they have a positive impact on the confidence of the visiting physician, the importance of having a regular care physician for children, the frequency of changing physicians, and the willingness to pay for healthcare.

The implementation of the lockdown measures in Spain due to the COVID-19 has had a deep impact on the soundscape especially in urban environments. One of the most clear effects is the decrease of the urban noise levels observed by means of noise mapping techniques using Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks deployed in medium-size and big cities. This study pretends to reflect the variation of the noise levels in Girona, a 100.000 inhabitants city in the North-East of Catalonia (Spain). We have analyzed the LAeq levels in eight different locations of the city from January to June 2020, including all the lockdown period, comparing with all the available noise monitoring data from the previous years (2019, 2018 and 2017 if available). The results show a considerable decrease of the noise levels in the street during all the hard lockdown. This analysis is part of the project "Sons al Balcó", which aims to draw the soundscape of Catalonia during the lockdown. Future work will be focused on finding dependencies between the equivalent levels measured in the sensors and the questionnaires and videos received from all the contributors in Girona.

Most studies on the coronavirus pandemic focus clinical aspects of the COVID-19 disease. However, less attention is paid to other health aspects of the pandemic. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the coronavirus pandemic, together with associated measures taken to combat it, and the occurrence of a wide range of psychosomatic symptoms and to explore if there is any factor that plays a role in this association.

We collected data from a sample of Czech adults (n=1,431) and measured the occurrence of nine health complaints, respondents’ experience during the pandemic and sociodemographic characteristics.

The results showed associations between the coronavirus pandemic/measures and increased psychosomatic symptoms and negative emotions. We further found higher risks of increased health complaints in younger people, women and highly spiritual people. It is also possible that there is higher risk of increased health complaints also for respondent with secondary school education and students, but this relationship has to be further investigated. In contrast, respondents with the highest achieved secondary school education with graduation had a lower risk of increased frequency of stomach ache. We also found that more negative emotions could increase the frequencies of health complaints.

Our findings suggest that the coronavirus pandemic and associated government measures could have a significant influence on the prevalence of health complaints and the emotional state of people.