A community-based volunteer service to reduce COVID-19 vaccination inequities in New York City.

OBJECTIVES: We describe our experiences and challenges as community volunteers in assisting individuals in scheduling initial COVID-19 vaccine appointments and highlight disparities and barriers in vaccine access in New York City (NYC). METHODS: Priority for assistance was given to individuals who were eligible for vaccination in NYC and New York State with the following barriers: technological, language, medical, physical and undocumented immigrants. Volunteers in NYC performed outreach and created program to assist in scheduling appointments. RESULTS: In sum, 2101 requests were received to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments from 28 February to 30 April 2021. Vaccinations were successfully scheduled for 1935 (92%) individuals. Challenges in this project included limited community outreach, language barriers, transportation difficulties and safety concerns travelling to vaccination sites. Spanish (40.5%) and Chinese (35.6%) were the primary languages spoken by appointment requesters. Most requests came from residents of Queens (40%) and Brooklyn (27.2%). CONCLUSIONS: The older population, public-facing workers, non-English speakers, undocumented immigrants and the medically complicated population experienced challenges in vaccine appointment access. In-person services and early website access in languages in addition to English may have reduced barriers in appointment navigation. While volunteers faced numerous obstacles when assisting individuals in scheduling vaccine appointments, most found the work fulfilling and rewarding.

The effect of visual target presence and age on antisaccade performance.

Antisaccade and prosaccade (PS) performance were studied in a large cohort of females (age range 42-74 yr). Antisaccade performance was assessed in two variants of the task, a "traditional" antisaccade (TA) task, in which no visual stimuli were present at the saccade goal, and a visually guided antisaccade (VGA) task, in which small visual stimuli were present at the possible saccade goals prior to the imperative visual stimulus. Directional error frequency was similar in the two antisaccade tasks. However, reaction time (RT) was ∼33 ms longer in the VGA task than in the TA task. Across participants, the average saccade amplitudes of prosaccades and TAs were both correlated with those of VGAs but not with each other. TAs had a hypermetria that increased with age. Saccade amplitude variability was much higher for TAs than for PSs and VGAs. Saccade polar angle variability was low for all three tasks. Age diminished performance with modest task dependence, except for an increase in TA hypermetria. These results suggest that the generation of antisaccade directional errors does not depend on visual target presence at the saccade goal, that antisaccade RT can be affected by target presence, that age can increase saccade hypermetria in the absence of visual guidance, and that visually guided antisaccades are governed by distinct voluntary and visually guided saccade mechanisms. Moreover, these results suggest that an understanding of human motor performance benefits from the use of a participant pool with a larger age range than that used in most studies.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study uses a visually guided antisaccade (VGA) task to determine whether poor performance in a large middle-aged participant pool on an antisaccade task results from problems with executive control or voluntary saccade generation. Spatial and temporal attributes of saccade performance as a function of task and age are analyzed comprehensively. Correlational analysis is used to determine how VGAs are governed jointly by voluntary and visually guided movement mechanisms.

Longitudinal Effects of Breast Cancer Treatment on Neural Correlates of Attention.

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive dysfunction has been observed consistently in a subset of breast cancer survivors. Yet, the precise physiological and processing origins of dysfunction remain unknown. The current study examined the utility of methods and procedures based on cognitive neuroscience to study cognitive change associated with cancer and cancer treatment. METHODS: We used electroencephalogram and behavioral measures in a longitudinal design to investigate pre- versus post-treatment effects on attention performance in breast cancer patients (n = 15) compared with healthy controls (n = 24), as participants completed the revised Attention Network Test, a cognitive measure of alerting, orienting, and inhibitory control of attention. RESULTS: We found no group differences in behavioral performance from pretest to posttest, but significant event-related potential effects of cancer treatment in processing cue validity: After treatment, patients revealed decreased N1 amplitude and increased P3 amplitude, suggesting a suppressed early (N1) response and an exaggerated late (P3) response to invalid cues. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that treatment-related attentional disruption begins in early sensory/perceptual processing and extends to compensatory top-down executive processes.

Prognosis in metastatic lung cancer: vitamin D deficiency and depression-a cross-sectional analysis.

BACKGROUND: Depression and vitamin D deficiency are common in patients with lung cancer and have prognostic implications in cancer settings. However, their relationship and concomitant survival implications have not been evaluated in patients with metastatic lung cancer specifically. We hypothesised that vitamin D deficiency would be associated with depression and inferior cancer-related survival in patients receiving therapies for stage IV lung cancer. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional analysis of vitamin D, depression and lung cancer characteristics. Vitamin D levels were stratified by level (no deficiency ≥30 units, mild deficiency 20 to 29 units and moderate-to-severe <20 units). Depression was measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Depression (HADS-D). Survival estimations were made using Cox proportional hazard model and Kaplan-Meier analyses. RESULTS: Vitamin D deficiency was evident in almost half of the sample (n=98) and was associated with significant depression (HADS-D ≥8) (χ2=4.35, p<0.001) even when controlling for age, sex and inflammation (ß=-0.21, p=0.03). Vitamin D deficiency and depression were associated with worse survival and showed evidence of an interaction effect (HR 1.5, p=0.04). CONCLUSION: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with depression in patients with metastatic lung cancer. Depression modulates the survival implications of vitamin D deficiency in this population. The role of vitamin D deficiency in cancer-related depression warrants further investigation since both are amenable to treatment. Psychological and nutritional prognostic considerations may help inform treatment paradigms that enhance quality of life and survival.