COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among College Students at a Midwest University.

COVID-19 is responsible for over 750,000 Americans deaths. Despite efforts to vaccinate, many college students are hesitant. Hesitancy has hindered efforts to achieve high COVID-19 vaccination rates. Students at a Midwest university completed an online survey. Questions included COVID-19 vaccination intent and behavior. Over 1600 students participated. Half reported being vaccinated. Of those not vaccinated, 49% did not intend to get vaccinated, and 22% were undecided. Reasons for hesitancy included not trusting the vaccine was fully tested (85%), fear of potential side effects (78%), not trusting the vaccine is safe (72%), not trusting the US government (61%), and having read negative reports from the media about the vaccine (60%). Additionally, students were concerned the vaccine was not safe (B = - 0.902; 95% Χ2 = 11.68; p = 0.001) and that it could not protect them from COVID-19 (B = - 0.834; Χ2 = 12.43; p < 0.001). Students' religious beliefs (B = - 1.245; Χ2 = 4.61; p = 0.032) and having unvaccinated family members (B = - 0672; Χ2 = 11.50; p = 0.001) also contributed to intention not to receive the vaccine. Unexpectedly, students reporting fear of potential side effects (B = 1.26; Χ2 = 12.86; p < 0.001) were significantly more likely to indicate intention to get vaccinated than students who did not report this fear. College students may be more hesitant to receive the vaccination than others. Targeted messaging addressing concerns/fears may be a way to influence those who are hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.

Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment Training for Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Quasi-Experimental Comparison of Distance and Face-to-Face Learning.

Alcohol and drug misuse continue to result in negative outcomes in the United States. Training nurses in screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) has been proposed as one approach to mitigating those harms. Such training can lead to improved attitudes and intention to use SBIRT in clinical practice, but whether those outcomes manifest similarly for distance or face-to-face learning has not been investigated. The current study is a quasi-experimental comparison of face-to-face and distance SBIRT education for undergraduate nursing students performed in Fall 2019. No differences in attitudes or intentions were observed between face-to-face and distance learning approaches. Self-reported competence meaningfully increased in both study arms, and there was some evidence of additional increases in perceived role legitimacy and intention to use SBIRT. To the degree that benefits are observed for SBIRT training, they may not vary between face-to-face and distance learning implementations of the same curriculum. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 60(8), 46-51.].

Indoor air quality assessment of daycare facilities with carbon dioxide, temperature, and humidity as indicators.

Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) in daycare facilities affects both attending children and care providers. Incident rates of upper-respiratory-tract infections have been reported to be higher in children who attend daycare. Excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) exposure can cause several health effects and even sudden infant death. For this study, 26 facilities were randomly selected in a Midwestern county of the United States. CO2, room temperature, and relative humidity were used as indicators for IAQ and comfort levels. These IAQ parameters were continuously monitored for eight hours at each facility by a direct-reading instrument that was calibrated before each measurement. More than 50 percent of the facilities had an average CO2 level over the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standard of 1,000 parts per million (ppm). For temperature and relative humidity, respectively, 42.3 percent and 15.4 percent of facilities were outside of the ASHRAE-recommended comfort zones. The nap-time average CO2 level was about 117 ppm higher than the non-nap-time level. The increment of the nap-time CO2 level in the sleeping-only room over the level in multipurpose rooms was statistically significant (p < .05). According to stepwise multiple regression analysis, nap-time CO2 level was predicted by CO2 level before occupancy, nap-time average temperature, carbon monoxide, and child density (R2 = .83). It is recommended that an appropriate IAQ standard for daycare facilities be established and that children should not be placed in a completely isolated room during nap time.

Ozone-induced DNA single strand-breaks in guinea pig tracheobronchial epithelial cells in vivo.

Two-month-old male guinea pigs (Dunkin-Hartley strain, specific pathogen free), 4 in each group, were exposed to 0.00, 0.45, and 1.00 ppm O3 for 72 h. The trachea with two main bronchi was removed from each animal after O3 exposure. The trachea lavage fluid was used to measure the protein content as an index of altered tracheobronchial epithelial (TE) cell membrane permeability after O3 exposure. The TE cells were isolated and employed for the determination of DNA single-strand breaks (SSBs) by fluorometric analysis of DNA unwinding (FADU). The statistical significance level was set at alpha =.05. The results show that neither the yield nor the viability of the TE cell from various O3 treatment groups was different from that of controls. Compared to controls, the protein content was elevated significantly after 0.45 ppm O3 exposure; however, the amount of DNA SSBs was not. The number of DNA SSBs increased significantly in the 1.00 ppm O3 exposure group when compared to controls. Regardless of the alkali incubation time at 15 degrees C, the double-stranded DNA left in the alkali TE cell lysate was a linear function of O3 exposure concentrations.