Articles: pandemics.
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Palliative medicine · Apr 2023
'Sadly I think we are sort of still quite white, middle-class really' - Inequities in access to bereavement support: Findings from a mixed methods study.
Voluntary and community sector bereavement services are central to bereavement support in the UK. ⋯ Service providers report inequities in access to bereavement support. Attention needs to be paid to identifying, assessing and meeting unmet needs for appropriate bereavement support. Identified positive interventions can inform service provision and research.
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Home working has increased since the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic's onset with concerns that it may have adverse health implications. We assessed the association between home working and social and mental wellbeing among the employed population aged 16 to 66 through harmonised analyses of 7 UK longitudinal studies. ⋯ No clear evidence of an association between home working and mental wellbeing was found, apart from greater risk of psychological distress during the second lockdown, but differences across subgroups (e.g., by sex or level of education) may exist. Longer term shifts to home working might not have adverse impacts on population wellbeing in the absence of pandemic restrictions but further monitoring of health inequalities is required.
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Most research on the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) health burden has focused on confirmed cases and deaths, rather than consequences for the general population's health-related quality of life (HRQoL). It is also important to consider HRQoL to better understand the potential multifaceted implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in various international contexts. This study aimed to assess the association between the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in HRQoL in 13 diverse countries. ⋯ In this study, we observed that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a reduction in perceived HRQoL globally, especially with respect to the anxiety/depression health domain and among younger people. The COVID-19 health burden would therefore be substantially underestimated if based only on mortality. HRQoL measures are important to fully capture morbidity from the pandemic in the general population.
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Emerg Med Australas · Apr 2023
Potential to be more effective: reduction in lower urgency emergency department presentations during the COVID-19 period in New South Wales, Australia.
Diverting lower urgency ED presentations to more suitable healthcare is a key goal of several healthcare systems. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there was a substantial drop in ED presentations in New South Wales (NSW), potentially because of lower risk of illness and injury through social restrictions, or ED avoidance for lower urgent care. The present study aimed to better understand the impact of social restrictions during the pandemic on ED presentations, to inform potential shifts to alternative modes of care in emergency medicine. ⋯ This finding suggests that reducing lower urgency ED presentation beyond the COVID-19 pandemic maybe feasible, by supporting alternative, more appropriate sources of care.
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Pediatric emergency care · Apr 2023
The Use of Ketamine Sedation for the Treatment of Nail Bed Repairs in the Pediatric Emergency Department.
This study aimed to determine if sedation with ketamine is safe and effective for the treatment of nail bed injuries in the pediatric emergency department (PED). ⋯ We have demonstrated nail bed injury repair facilitated by sedation with ketamine to be safe, effective, and cost efficient in the PED. This management strategy, brought to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic, should be adopted widely in PEDs.