Collection description

COVID-19 pandemic led to severe health and financial conditions worldwide. As an attempt to reduce the pandemic spread, most countries followed a lockdown policy albeit its devastating financial cost. It was generally reported, during and after the lockdown period, on an increase in anxiety and stress among the population. In the current study, we explored the manifestations of this period on the brain structure. Hypothesizing that the lockdown period might have induced stress-related brain modification, we examined volumetric changes in N = 100 participants scanned in two time-points. We examined the neural changes observed in n = 50 participants scanned before and after the lockdown period, and compared these changes to a control group of n = 50 participants that were scanned twice before the lockdown.

Subject species

homo sapiens

Modality

Structural MRI

Analysis level

group

Cognitive paradigm (task)

None / Other

Map type

Z

Multiple linear regression investigating factors associated with adherence to the COVID-19 preventive measures.

As of December 22, 2022, Austria had performed the most COVID-19 tests per one million population among the countries most severely impacted by the pandemic. The U.S. has conducted over 1.1 billion COVID-19 tests in total.

Testing is the key to controlling virus The World Health Organization sent a clear message to all countries in March 2020: test, test, and test. The more tests that are conducted, the easier it becomes to track the spread of the virus and reduce transmission. Many countries followed the advice, identifying a greater number of cases at an earlier stage, isolating infected individuals, and limiting the spread of the disease to others. As cases numbers have decreased in some regions so have restrictions, however many countries still require negative test results before entering the country.

What is an antibody test? Countries around the world made widespread testing a key part of their plans to exit lockdown. However, the global demand for antibody test kits has been huge. The kits are used to identify antibodies in a person’s blood sample. The presence of antibodies means the individual has been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and developed antibodies to help fight it. Antibody tests are important in detecting infections in people who are asymptomatic, i.e., showing few or no symptoms. Asymptomatic carriers may have unwittingly contributed to the rapid spread of the disease.

Adherence to community preventive measures for COVID-19.

Objectives: (1) To investigate factors associated with intention to self-isolate, request a test, and share details of close contacts when required. (2) To determine whether associations were stronger during periods when less stringent national COVID-19 restrictions were in place.Design: Series of cross-sectional nationally representative surveys. We selected survey waves where different national restrictions were in place in England (first lockdown, summer release, second lockdown, third lockdown).Methods: We investigated whether psychological factors and increased out-of-home activity in the last week were associated with intention to self-isolate and request a test if you were to develop COVID-19 symptoms, and intention to share details of contacts if you were to test positive. We also investigated whether the strength of associations differed by timepoint in the pandemic.Results: Intention to self-isolate, request a test and share details of contacts were associated with greater perceived risk of COVID-19 to people in the United Kingdom, knowing that COVID-19 transmission can be asymptomatic, and agreeing that personal behaviour has an impact on COVID-19 transmission. There were few differences in strength of associations by timepoint suggesting these effects are broadly stable over time.Conclusions: Psychological factors were associated with intention to adhere to key components of the contact tracing system; there was no evidence for an association with increased out-of-home activity. Messages that increase knowledge that COVID-19 can be transmitted even if someone does not have symptoms and that an individual’s actions can contribute to the spread of the virus may promote engagement with the test, trace, and isolate system.

Before the outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019 and January 2020, around 25.1 percent of the user attendance on the Tencent Classroom platform in China was related to IT and Internet courses. As the pandemic spread in China in February and March 2020, the user number of courses on exam preparation increased significantly, mainly driven by high school students who were searching for additional training during the lockdown.

Estimation of Aerobic Capacity (VO2max) Using Non-Exercise Test among Malaysian Youth during Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) Lockdown 08042022

Impact of COVID-19 confinement measures on domestic and professional habits.

The data underpins a study which aimed to investigate the impact of remoteness on the travel time and population catchment for all COVID-19 point-of-care-test sites within Victoria during Stage 4 restrictions during July 2020.

There are two files 'mesh_block_summary' and 'testing_site_summary'.

In relation to 'mesh_block_summary', please consider the points below. - The data provides the average travel time (in minutes) and distance (in metres) to the closest point-of-care-test site for each mesh block. MB_CODE16: Mesh block identifier Duration: Distance in metres Distance: Travel time in minutes MB_Category_Name_2016: Mesh block category Dwelling: Number of dwellings Person: Number of people

In relation to 'testing_site_summary', please consider the points below. - The data provides the average travel time (in minutes) and distance (in metres) for mesh blocks which were closest (based on travel time) to each test site. Site_Name: Name of point-of-care-test site Facility: Type of site Website: Site website COVID_Lat: Latitude coordinate COVID_Long: Longitude coordinate Dwelling: Number of dwellings within mesh blocks which were closest (based on travel time) to each test site. Population: Number of people within mesh blocks which were closest (based on travel time) to each test site. Mean_distance: Average distance (in metres) for closest mesh blocks Mean_duration: Average travel time (in minutes) for closest mesh blocks N_mesh_blocks: Number of mesh blocks which are closest Mean_catchment_IRSD: Mean 'Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage' for closest mesh blocks

The methodology to derive the data above has been detailed within the reference below: Lakhani A, Wollersheim D. COVID-19 test sites in Victoria approaching Stage 4 restrictions: evaluating the relationship between remoteness, travel time and population serviced. Aust N Z J Public Health. 2021 Dec;45(6):628-636. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.13154. Epub 2021 Oct 28. PMID: 34709703; PMCID: PMC8652517.

Reported signs and symptoms according to SARS-CoV-2 serological status for women admitted for delivery.

Effect of physical activity on psychological distress: Odds ratio of being borderline versus normal and severe versus normal.

This project folder contains supplementary data files and software codes (Stata and Matlab) to replicate the estimation and simulation results documented in:"Is large-scale rapid CoV-2 testing a substitute for lockdowns?"written by Diederichs, M., Kremsner, P.G., Mitze, T., Müller, G.J., Papies, D., Glawion, R., Schulz, F. and Wälde, K. (this version: January 2022).An earlier working paper version of this research can be downloaded from medRxiv preprint series at: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.26.21256094.

Introduction and Aims: The increase in stress levels, social confinement, and addiction's physical consequences play an essential role in the proliferation of drug abuse. In this context, the Covid-19 pandemic produced remarkable effects on those individuals prone to addictions, especially to alcohol. Alcohol is linked to multiple dangerous conditions such as social issues, severe medical conditions, and road accidents. The determination of ethylglucuronide (EtG) in hair is frequently performed to test and monitor chronic excessive alcohol intake conditions, as it allows differentiation among low-risk/moderate drinkers, and excessive/chronic drinkers. Our study aimed to explore hair EtG levels in a controlled population to assess the impact of Covid-19 lockdown on alcohol intake along March-May 2020.Materials and Methods: EtG levels were measured in all hair samples collected in the months following April 2020 to evaluate the behaviors related to alcohol intake along with the time frame from March to May 2020. The measured concentration distributions for each month were compared with those reported in the same month during the previous 4 years (2016–2019). The dataset was built to highlight possible differences between genders, and the different categories of alcohol consumption, separately.Results: The samples collected from April to August 2020 (500 < N

HADS estimated marginal means (EMMs) by levels of physical activity.

Characteristics of study participants (n = 2175).

IntroductionDuring the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) lockdowns, children repeatedly experienced social isolation. Dealing with the resulting post-pandemic health implications remains a challenge. The role of group recreational activities is crucial in promoting children’s health; however the implementation can encounter challenges, especially when infections such as COVID-19 are surging.ObjectivesIn this prospective observational study, we aimed to investigate whether safe cohorts can be created through appropriate test strategies to facilitate music trips during the COVID-19 waves. The primary outcome was the occurrence of positive cases during the journey. Secondarily, a survey was conducted to evaluate the physical and mental health status of participants before and after the first journey.MethodsTwo school music trips were conducted. The first trip (T1) took place from 4 January 2022 to 9 January 2022, and the second trip (T2) from 3 January 2023 to 8 January 2023. For T1, central laboratory SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) pool tests were performed before departure. For T2, prior point-of-care (PoC) PCR pool tests were conducted to validate the findings. A hygiene protocol was mandatory for T1 and recommended for T2.ResultsBefore T1, 95 volunteers underwent PCR laboratory pool testing, which revealed one positive COVID-19 case. During the travel, one student had a positive antigen test. Questionnaires for the mental health status were collected before T1 from 95 participants and again as a follow-up after T1 from 79 participants. There was a significant decrease in cold symptoms among students (p = 0.002). Following this, the perceived risk of infection significantly increased in the students’ group (p = 0.019). Additionally, anxiety symptoms [as measured using generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)-7 score] and the fear of getting infected marginally increased in students. All T1 participants indicated that they would be willing to attend a similar trip again. In the initial T2 pool testing, 88 participants took part. Two participants tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, with one solely showing signs of a subsiding infection and the other being highly infectious, which led to the exclusion of the highly infectious participant from the travel. During the trip and the follow-up period, no further cases were reported.ConclusionBoth testing concepts effectively identified positive “SARS-CoV-2 cases in advance and prevented transmissions, enabling safe school music trips during the winter. The use of PoC-PCR may be superior in terms of time efficiency and flexibility. Despite the increase in the perceived fear of infection among children, the overall experience of the journey was positive.

Two COVID-19 surveys were used to create the test dataset, both collected by teams from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Stanford University. The collected data were intended to assess the general topics experienced by participants during the pandemic lockdown. The test dataset comprises a total of 1,000 randomly chosen sentences, with 500 sentences selected from each survey. Each set was annotated by three separate and independent annotators. The annotators were instructed to assess the polarity of each sentence on a scale of -1 (negative), 0 (neutral), or 1 (positive). We then followed a three-step procedure to determine the final labels. First, if all three annotators agreed on a label (full agreement), that label was accepted. Second, if two out of the three agreed on a label (partial agreement), that label was also accepted. Third, if there was no agreement, the label was set as neutral (no agreement).

Associations between participant social and demographic characteristics and thinking you have had COVID-19.

Associations between thinking you have had COVID-19 and perceived immunity to COVID-19; worry about COVID-19; perceived risk of COVID-19 (to oneself and people in the UK); and total out-of-home activities in the last seven days (continuous outcomes).

ObjectiveThe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) disrupted healthcare systems and medical care worldwide. This study attempts to assess the performance of three Saudi hospitals during COVID-19 by comparing waiting times for outpatient appointments and the volume of elective surgeries before and after COVID-19.MethodsWe used ADA’A data collected from three Saudi hospitals for this retrospective cohort study. The outcome variables were “Waiting Time for Appointment” and “Elective OR Utilization”. The hospitals included in this study were: a 300-bed maternity and children’s hospital; a 643-bed general hospital; and a 1230-bed tertiary hospital. We included all patients who visited the OPD and OR in the time period from September 2019 to December 2021. A two-way ANOVA test was used to examine the differences in the outcome variables by hospital and by the phase of COVID-19.ResultsFor the elective OR utilization rate, the results showed that both the hospital and the phase of COVID-19 were significantly different (p-value < 0.05). On average, the elective OR utilization rate dipped considerably in the early phase of COVID-19 (33.2% vs 44.9%) and jumped sharply in the later phase (50.3%). The results showed that the waiting time for OPD appointment was significantly different across hospitals and before and after COVID-19 in each hospital (p-value < 0.05). the waiting time dropped during the early phase of COVID-19 for both the general hospital (GEN) (24.6 days vs 34.8 days) and the tertiary hospital (MDC) (40.3 days vs 48.6 days), while the maternity and children’s hospital (MCH)’s score deteriorated sharply (24.6 days vs 9.5 days).ConclusionThis study indicates that COVID-19 led to a significant impact on elective surgery rates and waiting time for OPD appointments in the early stage of the pandemic when the lockdown strategy was implemented in the country. Although the elective surgery rate had decreased at the designated COVID-hospital, the waiting time for OPD appointment had improved. This is a clear indication that the careful planning and management of resources for essential services during pandemic was effective.