Student engagement in voluntary service in response to COVID-19 in Guangzhou, China: Implications for disease control and public health education from a cross-sectional study.

Public health students have been seen as a potential force to meet the demand for health workers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, few studies have provided empirical data. This study was conducted to summarize the experiences of public health students who engaged in voluntary service in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Guangzhou, China. A cross-sectional study was conducted among postgraduate and undergraduate students at the School of Public Health, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, in August 2021. A self-designed online questionnaire was used to collect data on the experience of voluntary service during the early stage of the outbreak (in February 2020) and during the normalization stage of the prevention and control of COVID-19 (in June 2021) in China. Among the 96 students, 40 (41.7%) participated in voluntary service in February 2020, and 56 (58.3%) participated in voluntary service in June 2021. Most of the students participated in the voluntary service due to the motivations to help others (55.2%), to apply theoretical knowledge to practice (74.0%), to improve their fieldwork skills (72.9%), and to gain the experience for future careers (80.2%). Most volunteers were driven by professional responsibility (81.3%). More than half (53.1%) of the students felt anxious during their voluntary service. A lower proportion of students felt anxious in June 2021 than in February 2020 (44.6% vs 65.0%, P = .049), while a higher proportion of students found voluntary service harder than expected in June 2021 than in February 2020 (33.9% vs 7.5%, P = .002). Most students improved their knowledge and skills about COVID-19 after the training, but some knowledge and skills still needed improvement after their voluntary service. Public health students could help support the health system during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing adequate training and protection. More efforts should be made to provide psychological support for student volunteers and to optimize the curriculum to bridge the gap in public health education between theoretical knowledge and practical skills in responding to public health emergencies.

Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Infection and Symptoms - China, December 2022-February 2023.

What is already known about this topic?: A considerable percentage of the population has received both primary and booster vaccinations, which could potentially provide protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron infections and related symptoms. What is added by this report?: The self-reported infection rate, as determined from an online survey, reached its peak (15.5%) between December 19 and 21, 2022, with an estimated 82.4% of individuals in China being infected as of February 7, 2023. During the epidemic, the effectiveness of booster vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection was found to be 49.0% within three months of vaccination and 37.9% between 3 and 6 months following vaccination. Furthermore, the vaccine effectiveness of the booster vaccination in relation to symptom prevention varied from 48.7% to 83.2% within three months and from 25.9% to 69.0% between 3 and 6 months post-booster vaccination. What are the implications for public health practice?: The development and production of efficacious vaccines, together with prompt vaccinations or emergency vaccinations, have the potential to mitigate the epidemic's impact and safeguard public health.

Change in global burden of unintentional drowning from 1990 to 2019 and its association with social determinants of health: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically analyse global, regional and national burden change of unintentional drowning from 1990 to 2019, and to further quantify the contribution of social determinants of health (SDH) on the change. DESIGN: Data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 were used in this study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Individuals of all ages and genders from 204 countries and territories. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcomes were the age-standardised rates (ASRs) of mortality and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of unintentional drowning. The percentage change in the ASRs were used to estimate the joint effect of SDH on trends in global burden of drowning. RESULTS: We observed that the global burden of unintentional drowning declined markedly from 1990 to 2019, with age-standardised mortality rate and DALYs rate decreasing by 61.5% and 68.2%, respectively. Women, children, middle Socio-Demographic Index (SDI) countries, South-East Asia and Western Pacific region had higher reduction. At national level, greater reductions were observed in Armenia and Republic of Korea, but significant increases in Cabo Verde and Vanuatu. We found that every one percentile increase in six SDHs (Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person, SDI, educational attainment, health spending, health workers and urbanisation) was associated with a decrease of 0.15% and 0.16% in drowning age-standardised mortality rate and DALYs rate globally, respectively. Health spending and GDP per capita were the main contributors to the reduction of drowning globally. CONCLUSIONS: The global burden of unintentional drowning significantly declined in the past three decades, and the improvement of SDHs such as GDP per capita and health spending mainly contributed to the decrease. Our findings indicate that improvement of SDHs is critical for drowning prevention and control.