Spatiotemporal Modeling of the Association between Neighborhood Factors and COVID-19 Incidence Rates in Scotland

This study aims to investigate the association between neighborhood-level factors and COVID-19 incidence in Scotland from a spatiotemporal perspective. The outcome variable is the COVID-19 incidence in Scotland. Based on the identification of the wave peaks for COVID-19 cases between 2020 and 2021, confirmed COVID-19 cases in Scotland can be divided into four phases. To model the COVID-19 incidence, sixteen neighborhood factors are chosen as the predictors. Geographical random forest models are used to examine spatiotemporal variation in major determinants of COVID-19 incidence. The spatial analysis indicates that proportion of religious people is the most strongly associated with COVID-19 incidence in southern Scotland, whereas particulate matter is the most strongly associated with COVID-19 incidence in northern Scotland. Also, crowded households, prepandemic emergency admission rates, and health and social workers are the most strongly associated with COVID-19 incidence in eastern and central Scotland, respectively. A possible explanation is that the association between predictors and COVID-19 incidence might be influenced by local context (e.g., people's lifestyles), which is spatially variant across Scotland. The temporal analysis indicates that dominant factors associated with COVID-19 incidence also vary across different phases, suggesting that pandemic-related policy should take spatiotemporal variations into account. © 2023 by American Association of Geographers.

Differences in Disease Burden and Treatment Utilization By Socioeconomic Status Among a Large Cohort of Patients with COVID-19 Diagnosis in the United States

Objectives: Social determinants of health (SDoH) including income, education, employment, and housing are known to affect health outcomes;while use in real-world database studies are limited. This study assessed socioeconomic differences in burden of disease and utilization of COVID-19 specific medications in a large cohort of patients in the US. Method(s): A total of 17,682,111 patients having a COVID-19 diagnosis between 4/1/2020 and 4/30/2022 were identified in the IQVIA longitudinal medical and pharmacy claims databases of >277 million patients. For SDoH, a 3-digit zip code median Area Deprivation Index (ADI) (v2.0 University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health 2015) was calculated for each patient, maintaining patient privacy. The ADI is a validated tool ranking neighborhoods by socioeconomic disadvantage. Medical and pharmacy utilization was assessed and stratified by ADI pentiles, where 0-20 was the least disadvantaged, and 81-100 was the most disadvantaged. Result(s): The proportion of patients having a claim with COVID-19 diagnosis was higher in the most disadvantaged (7.75%) compared to the least disadvantaged group (5.94%) (US overall: 6.37%). Medical claims prior to COVID-19 diagnosis were highest in the least disadvantaged, while prior pharmacy utilization was highest in the most-disadvantaged group. There was sparse use of COVID-19 medications overall;the least disadvantaged patients had the lowest use of COVID-19 specific medications. Casirivimab/imdevimab use was highest in the 61-80 (2.01%) and 81-100 (1.79%) ADI groups, and remdesivir use was highest in the moderately disadvantaged (ADI 41-60 and 61-80) groups (both 2.33%). Utilization of hydroxychloroquine (unapproved for COVID-19) increased from 0.91% in the least to 2.13% in the most disadvantaged groups. Conclusion(s): This study shows unequal burden of COVID-19 prevalence by SDoH, with the most disadvantaged having a higher disease burden and utilization of certain approved and unapproved COVID-19 medications, highlighting the need for further study of the reasons for these disparities.Copyright © 2023

Innovative Methods for Integrating Social Determinants of Health Data with Administrative Claims to Facilitate Health Equity Research

Objectives: The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of considering Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) in healthcare research. Administrative claims databases are widely used for research, but often lack SDoH data or sufficient transparency in how these data were obtained. This study describes innovative methods for integrating SDoH data with administrative claims to facilitate health equity research. Method(s): The HealthCore Integrated Research Database (HIRD) contains medical and pharmacy claims from a large, national US payer starting in 2006 and includes commercial (Comm), Medicare Advantage (MCare), and Medicaid (MCaid) populations. The HIRD includes individually identifiable information, which was used for linking with SDoH data from the following sources: national neighborhood-level data from the American Community Survey, the Food Access Research Atlas, and the National Center for Health Statistics' urbanicity classification;and member-level data on race/ethnicity from enrollment files, medical records, self-attestation, and imputation algorithms. We examined SDoH metrics for members enrolled as of 05-July-2022 and compared them to the respective US national data using descriptive statistics. We also examined telehealth utilization in 2022. Result(s): SDoH data were available for ~95% of currently active members in the HIRD (Comm/MCare/MCaid 12.5m/1m/7.6m). Socioeconomic characteristics at the neighborhood-level differed by membership type and vs. national data: % of members with at least a high-school education (90/88/84 vs. 87);median family income ($98k/$76k/$70k vs. $82k);% of members living in low-income low-food-access tracts (9/14/18 vs. 13);urban (57/52/47 vs. 61). At the member-level, the % of White Non-Hispanics, Black Non-Hispanics, Asian Non-Hispanics, and Hispanics were 61/6/5/6 (Comm), 76/12/2/2 (MCare), and 45/26/5/19 (MCaid). Imputation contributed 15-60% of race/ethnicity values across membership types. Telehealth utilization increased with socioeconomic status. Conclusion(s): We successfully integrated SDoH data from a variety of sources with administrative claims. SDoH characteristics differed by type of insurance coverage and were associated with differences in telehealth utilization.Copyright © 2023

A Study of the Epidemiology of COVID-19 in the City of Tehran, Iran.

Background and Objectives: COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of severe problems in the world. This study investigated the epidemiology of the disease in Tehran in the first quarter of the epidemic's beginning. Method(s): The available information recorded for patients from 20 February 2020 to 20 May 2020 in Tehran was used. To prepare disease-related distribution maps, the addresses of patients' residences in Google Earth were called to ARC-GIS version 10-4. The methods used in GIS include IDW, Hotspot and also software development. Result(s): Overall, 3699 individuals whose PCR results were positive in Tehran were included in the study. Out of the total number of them, 550 people died and the fatality rate of the disease in hospitalized patients was 14.9%. One thousand five hundred thirty patients (41.4%) have recovered, and the remaining 1619 patients were under treatment until data collection. Of the total, 1479 confirmed cases were women (40%). The average age was 57.4 years (SD=16.5). The density of cases in areas 4, 8 and 13, and the existence of some cluster diseases in neighborhoods such as Tehran Pars, Ayat and Pirouzi streets are noteworthy points. Conclusion(s): The trend of the COVID-19 epidemic is dire and requires long-term measures. Nevertheless, to control this disease, the health system, the policy of isolating patients and suspicious people, wear masks especially in densely populated areas, are the most important controlling factors.Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Social and Spatial Governance: The History of Enclosed Neighborhoods in Urban China

COVID-19 calls for a new understanding of urban landscape and associated living. As an emerging topic, lockdown urbanism involves an unpredictable future where lockdown or quarantine may be a come and go new normal for everyday practice, but the topic itself seems to have escaped historical inquiry. This paper attempts to answer why the strict lockdown is suitable for China by revealing a long and complex history of urbanization and its social and administrative organization. The urban fabric is characterized by a system of urban patterns: enclosed communities, the spatial layout and service distribution of the neighborhood, and the formation of the center. It was also animated by daily ritualistic practices, such as the control of time, quotidian lockdown practice (yejin), and individual ties within the enclosed neighborhood. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the deep history of urban form and the order and logic behind lockdown urbanism. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Urban History is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Community Support Organizations in Gay Neighborhoods: Assessing Engagement During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Volunteerism, grassroots activism, and mutual aid have been critical to the advancement of rights and opportunities for LGBTQ+ people. These activities are institutionally anchored within supportive organizations embedded in LGBTQ+ communities. But these supportive organizations can be stressed by external crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, limiting the capacity for providing routine services. This article provides a typology of community support organizations-including healthcare providers, business improvement districts, neighborhood planning organizations, and social groups and clubs- to better understand how non-governmental organizations and non-profit entities provide services not traditionally provided by government agencies for LGBTQ+ people. We characterize how community support organizations continued to provide critical services to the LGBTQ+ community-consistent with the missions and aims of these organizations-while also providing services and information related to health and safety during the Covid-19 pandemic. The article concludes with takeaway messages that synthesize the functions and services of community support organizations and explain how various types of supportive organizations in gay neighborhoods responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Supportive Neighborhoods, Family Resilience and Flourishing in Childhood and Adolescence.

Flourishing is linked with health and well-being in childhood and adulthood. This study applied a promotive factors model to examine how neighborhood assets might benefit child and adolescent flourishing by promoting family resilience. Using data from the combined 2018 and 2019 National Survey of Children's Health, structural equation models tested direct and indirect relationships between neighborhood physical environment, neighborhood social cohesion, family resilience, and flourishing among 18,396 children and 24,817 adolescents. After controlling for multiple covariates that may influence flourishing, the models supported that higher levels of neighborhood social cohesion were directly associated with higher levels of flourishing adolescents, and indirectly by positive associations with family resilience for both children and adolescents. No indirect effects between neighborhood physical environments and flourishing were supported by the data for either children or adolescents. However, neighborhood physical environments were positively associated with adolescent flourishing. Understanding social environmental factors that strengthen and enhance child and adolescent flourishing are critical toward designing prevention, intervention, and policy efforts that can build on the existing strengths of families and their communities.

Evaluation of Physical Activity Level and Related Factors in Pregnancy During the COVID-19 Period.

Objectives: It was aimed to determine the level of physical activity and related factors in pregnant women. Methods: The study is a mixed methods study. The participants are women applied to the pregnancy outpatient clinic of a hospital. The level of physical activity was assessed with the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire. Sociodemographic questions and seven questions of the International Physical Activity Environment Module were asked. Besides, in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 women. Results: The study was conducted with 304 women. The median age was 29.0 (18.0-40.0) years. The mean total activity and sedentary activity scores were 195.8 ± 107.9 and 37.22 ± 31.08 MET-hours/week, respectively. Pregnant women were mostly involved in light-intensity and housework/caregiving activities. Most of the participants mentioned that they were less active than pre-pregnancy period. The most common reasons for being less active were weakness, fatigue, lack of time and complaints such as low back pain and nausea. Conclusion: More than half of the pregnant women mentioned that they were less active during pregnancy. Thus, interventions should be planned to increase physical activity level of pregnant women.

Neighborhood Factors Associated with COVID-19 Cases in California.

BACKGROUND: There is a need to assess neighborhood-level factors driving COVID-19 disparities across racial and ethnic groups. OBJECTIVE: To use census tract-level data to investigate neighborhood-level factors contributing to racial and ethnic group-specific COVID-19 case rates in California. DESIGN: Quasi-Poisson generalized linear models were used to identify neighborhood-level factors associated with COVID-19 cases. In separate sequential models for Hispanic, Black, and Asian, we characterized the associations between neighborhood factors on neighborhood COVID-19 cases. Subanalyses were conducted on neighborhoods with majority Hispanic, Black, and Asian residents to identify factors that might be unique to these neighborhoods. Geographically weighted regression using a quasi-Poisson model was conducted to identify regional differences. MAIN MEASURES: All COVID-19 cases and tests reported through January 31, 2021, to the California Department of Public Health. Neighborhood-level data from census tracts were obtained from American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2015-2019), United States Census (2010), and United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. KEY RESULTS: The neighborhood factors associated with COVID-19 case rate were racial and ethnic composition, age, limited English proficiency (LEP), income, household size, and population density. LEP had the largest influence on the positive association between proportion of Hispanic residents and COVID-19 cases (- 2.1% change). This was also true for proportion of Asian residents (- 1.8% change), but not for the proportion of Black residents (- 0.1% change). The influence of LEP was strongest in areas of the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego. CONCLUSION: Neighborhood-level contextual drivers of COVID-19 burden differ across racial and ethnic groups.

TemporalDedup: Domain-Independent Deduplication of Redundant and Errant Temporal Data

Deduplication is a key component of the data preparation process, a bottleneck in the machine learning (ML) and data mining pipeline that is very time-consuming and often relies on domain expertise and manual involvement. Further, temporal data is increasingly prevalent and is not well suited to traditional similarity and distance-based deduplication techniques. We establish a fully automated, domain-independent deduplication model for temporal data domains, known as TemporalDedup, that infers the key attribute(s), applies a base set of deduplication techniques focused on value matches for key, non-key, and elapsed time, and further detects duplicates through inference of temporal ordering requirements using Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) for records of a shared type. Using LCS, we split each record's temporal sequence into constrained and unconstrained sequences. We flag suspicious (errant) records that are non-adherent to the inferred constrained order and we flag a record as a duplicate if its unconstrained order, of sufficient length, matches that of another record. TemporalDedup was compared against a similarity-based Adaptive Sorted Neighborhood Method (ASNM) in evaluating duplicates for two disparate datasets: (1) 22,794 records from Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) trophy data, where duplication may be indicative of cheating, and (2) emergency declarations and government responses related to COVID-19 for all U.S. states and territories. TemporalDedup (F1-scores of 0.971 and 0.954) exhibited combined sensitivities above 0.9 for all duplicate classes whereas ASNM (0.705 and 0.732) exhibited combined sensitivities below 0.2 for all time and order duplicate classes. © 2023 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Assessing Factors Contributing to Disparities in Kidney Stone Management

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Studies suggest that there is a disproportionately increasing prevalence of kidney stone disease among African American and Hispanic patients in the United States. Furthermore, evidence indicates that disparities exist in the workup, management, and surgical interventions of different diseases based on race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, among other variables. We sought to explore the potential non-clinical factors that could lead to disparities in the management of patients with symptomatic nephrolithiasis at a tertiary care center serving a mixed urban and non-urban population. METHOD(S): We retrospectively analyzed consecutive nonestablished adult patients presenting with symptomatic unilateral nephrolithiasis requiring definitive ureteroscopic stone extraction at a single institution between October 2019 and September 2021. The primary endpoint was time in days from the date of referral to the date of definitive treatment. Other variables included patient demographics, clinical characteristics, need for preoperative decompression, referral source, treatment date in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Area Deprivation Index (ADI) ranking, a validated measure of neighborhood adversity related to education, employment, housing, and income. RESULT(S): Of 398 included patients, the mean age was 53 years, 55% female and 75% Caucasian. 47% had private insurance, 40% had government assistance and 13% were uninsured. The majority (73%) of referrals were from the emergency department. 10% of patients had a urinary tract infection on presentation. Renal obstruction was present in 77% of patients with 40% requiring preoperative decompression. The overall mean time from referral to surgery was 29 days (IQR 15-36). Factors associated with significantly longer time to surgery included Hispanic identity (40 days IQR 12-68, p=0.0098) compared to other ethnicities, Medicaid insurance (36 days IQR 17-55, p=0.012) compared to other payer groups and patients within the highest tertile ADI (most disadvantaged) ranking (+8 days, p=0.022) compared to those in the lowest tertile (most advantaged). CONCLUSION(S): In our cohort we demonstrated several nonclinical factors that resulted in a delay to definitive treatment in symptomatic kidney stone patients including Hispanic identity, Medicaid insurance, and most disadvantaged ADI ranking. Recognition of such disparities is the first step to help delineate and eliminate the barriers delaying the care of these vulnerable patients.

Covid-19 Vaccine Coverage among People with Hiv in the Vaccine Safety Datalink

Background: People with HIV (PWH) may be at increased risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes compared with people without HIV. However, COVID-19 vaccination coverage among PWH is largely unknown, especially among those with advanced HIV or comorbidities. Method(s): We conducted a cohort study to evaluate coverage of the initial COVID-19 vaccine primary series and factors associated with the completion in adult PWH (>=18 years) enrolled in 8 healthcare organizations participating in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) project during December 1, 2020- December 31, 2021. Completion of two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines or one dose of the single-dose Janssen COVID-19 vaccine was assessed. Multivariable analysis was conducted using a robust Poisson regression model to estimate the rate ratio (RR) for factors associated with primary series completion, accounting for follow-up time. Result(s): A total of 22,063 PWH were identified, among which 89% were male and 93% were viral suppressed (viral load, VL <=200 copies/ml). Chronic comorbid conditions were prevalent, with 25% having a Charlson comorbidity score of 1-2 and 13% having a score of 3 or greater. About 23% were overweight and 17% were obese. The majority (90%) completed the primary series and 1,782 PWH (8%) did not receive any dose during the study period. A rapid uptake was achieved within the 6 months after the national COVID-19 vaccination program launched on December 14, 2020. (Figure 1) PWH who received one dose of mRNA vaccine (i.e., partially vaccinated) were excluded (n=314) from the analysis for the primary series completion. Having received an influenza vaccination in the past 2 years was the strongest predictor of completion (RR=1.17, 95%CI: 1.15, 1.20). Males (RR= 1.06, 95%CI: 1.04-1.08) and those of Asian race (RR=1.05, 95%CI: 1.03-1.06, vs. White) were more likely to complete the primary series. However, PWH with baseline CD4 counts < 200 (RR=0.97, 95%CI: 0.94-0.99) and those failing to achieve viral suppression (VL= 201-10k: RR= 0.89, 95%CI: 0.85-0.94;VL >10k: RR= 0.92, 95%CI: 0.87-0.98) were less likely to complete the primary series. Body mass index, Charlson comorbidity score, and neighborhood household income level were not associated with completion. Conclusion(s): Coverage of the COVID-19 vaccine primary series was high in adult PWH in the VSD. However, targeted vaccination outreach is warranted for PWH with low CD4 counts and uncontrolled HIV viral load.

City, cholera, and COVID: A reading mediated by religiosity and science.

On its way to liberalism and, above all, in relation to the difficulties that characterized this moment, the 19th century was fundamental in the configuration of the societies of Mexican cities and, in particular, of peripheral neighborhoods. This process is discussed in this article from a phenomenological and hermeneutic position and with ethnographic and historiographic tools. It considers the cases of the vice-royal neighborhoods of Analco and La Luz in the baroque city of Puebla. Historical factors are described that shaped its processes during a public health emergency. It is shown that the everyday life of its inhabitants had a dual character, mediated by religiosity and science. Thus, the streets functioned and still do function as the neighborhood center, the symbolic site of this syncretism and the site for neighborhood tactics in the protective search for a sense of identity. Also, the eventual and the permanent are found in the streets, where space becomes where one is and lives, as the symbol of attachment and belonging. The relevance of the text lies in the fact that it offers a privileged testimonial position for understanding what was done and what was understood during a disruptive event like COVID-19 from a social and collective lens. In addition, this text contributes to documenting the origin of new elements that add to existing immaterial heritage. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Por el tránsito al liberalismo, pero sobre todo por la actuación ante las calamidades que caracterizaron al siglo XIX, este resultó determinante en la configuración de las sociedades de las urbes mexicanas y en particular de sus barrios periféricos. Desde una postura fenomenológica-hermenéutica, y con herramientas tanto etnográficas como historiográficas, en este artículo se discute sobre ello. Tomando como referentes los barrios virreinales de Analco y La Luz, en la barroca ciudad de Puebla, se descubre los elementos históricos que condicionan su proceder ante una emergencia sanitaria. Se muestra también que la cotidianidad de sus habitantes tuvo un carácter dual, puesto que estaba mediada por la religiosidad y la ciencia. Así, la calle funcionaba y funciona como centralidad barrial, lugar simbólico de este sincretismo y sitio para las tácticas vecinales en la búsqueda protectora de su sentido identitario. También en la calle se encuentran lo eventual y lo permanente;deviene espacio donde se es y se habita, símbolo del arraigo y la pertenencia. La relevancia del texto estriba en que se está ante la inmejorable posición testimonial para comprender lo que se realizó y lo que significó, desde la óptica social o colectiva, un evento disruptivo como la covid-19;asimismo, este texto contribuye a documentar el origen de nuevos elementos que se suman al patrimonio inmaterial existente. (Spanish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Íconos. Revista de Ciencias Sociales is the property of FLACSO Ecuador (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on a British Columbia Children's Hospital Youth Advisory Committee

Purpose of Study: Between September 2020 and November 2021, a survey was developed in partnership with children, youth, and community members experiencing vulnerabilities in a Vancouver Inner City Neighbourhood (ICN) to explore challenges encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the survey, participants were asked questions about their financial status, housing security, food accessibility, and other social determinants of health. Other equity-seeking groups in Vancouver, including youth experiencing developmental and/or other medical diversity, wished to adapt the ICN COVID-19 survey to explore the impact of the pandemic in their community. These youth are active members of the province's pediatric tertiary care teaching hospital's Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), and in sharing their lived experience as patients, they strive to improve the quality of healthcare for children and youth throughout British Columbia. The objectives of this study were to: 1) adapt the COVID-19 survey to capture the views and needs of youth experiencing developmental and/or other medical diversity;and 2) identify how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted this group's social determinants of health. Methods Used: Ethics board approval was obtained for this observational, cross-sectional study (H20-00987). The research team and YAC co-constructed an adapted COVID-19 survey via Zoom dialogues. YAC members completed the survey online via Qualtrics from May 2022-August 2022. Demographic information and survey results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Summary of Results: In total, 12 participants completed the survey, including 11 youth and 1 staff member. The median age of the youth participants was 23 years (n=11, min=14, max=29). During the COVID-19 pandemic, 82% (9/11) of youth reported changes in their ability to attend work or school, 36% (4/11) reported concern around reliable and affordable access to medications/medical treatment, and 46% (5/11) reported difficulty in caring for themselves. 46% (5/11) of youth also reported difficulty in caring for older adults or people in their families with disabilities. Many youth (6/11;55%) reported they had less than five people to turn to for support in times of stress, and 46% (5/11) of youth reported the pandemic changed their ability to connect with these people. Furthermore, 82% (9/11) of youth reported experiencing some level of distress related to the pandemic. 73% (8/11) of youth reported heightened anxiety, 82% (9/11) reported worsened mood, 55% (6/11) reported difficulty sleeping, and 64% (7/11) reported difficulty exercising. Conclusion(s): Youth with developmental and/or other complex medical diversity experienced difficulties accessing work and education, reliable and affordable medical care, and social support due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic negatively impacted the social, emotional, and physical wellbeing of these youth, indicating a need for future dialogue and advocacy to ensure the views and voices on rights of children and youth are honoured.

Environmental and Mobility Strategies During Early COVID-19: Insights From an Empirical Study Focusing on Park Visitations in El Paso, TX.

OBJECTIVES: We explored the importance of environmental and mobility strategies during early COVID-19 by age and ethnicity and investigated predictors of park visitations considering the COVID-19 impacts. BACKGROUND: Parks are safe and accessible venues to stay active and reduce social isolation, which is especially important considering COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns. METHODS: We analyzed online survey data from 683 residents (collected July 2020) of El Paso, TX, and objective measures of neighborhood park characteristics. Chi-square tests and mixed-effects logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the environmental/mobility strategies, personal and environmental factors, and park visitations, considering the COVID-19 impacts. RESULTS: The percentage of those who visited (1+ times/week) parks or trails/paths in the neighborhood dropped from 41.7% to 19.5% since the start of COVID-19 (OR = 0.015, p < .001). Before COVID-19, middle-aged and older adults were less likely to visit parks than younger adults, while this difference became insignificant during early COVID-19. Hispanic adults were more likely to visit parks than non-Hispanics both before and during early COVID-19. Positive environmental predictors of park visitations included park availability in the neighborhood, proximity to the closest park, seeing people being physically active in the neighborhood, and neighborhood aesthetics. CONCLUSIONS: Proximately located parks, trails, and paths well integrated into residential communities, and high aesthetic quality of the neighborhood are the potential features of pandemic-resilient communities and should be considered an important national priority to maintain and promote the health and well-being of the population, especially during pandemics like COVID-19.

Universities as Anchor Institutions in Place-Based Development: Implications for South African Universities Engagement

The concept of anchor institutions has emerged as a more integrated way in which universities are engaging with their communities towards achieving social and economic transformation of the city regions as well as the university itself. Starting in the United States, the anchor institution concept has widely gained currency, especially for universities in historically disadvantaged or socio-economically declining communities. Exacerbated by Covid-19, many universities are reviewing their place-based mandates within a period where communities are facing huge and increasing socio-economic demise. This article teases out the core components of an anchor university to argue for a more active hands-on and outcome-oriented approach to universitycommunity engagement for South African universities. The article identifies facets for anchoring including economic transformation, infrastructural development, and sociocultural transformation. Four active functions for universities are proposed within their immediate communities. These include a core institutional role, an economic role, an infrastructure development role, and a public good role. The last section provides a reflection on possible pathways for South African universities to adopt an anchoring posture and mandate.

Evolutionary Optimization of COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution With Evolutionary Demands

Vaccination uptake has become the key factor that will determine our success in containing the coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) pandemic. Efficient distribution of vaccines to inoculation spots is crucial to curtailing the spread of the novel COVID-19 pandemic. Normally, in a big city, a huge number of vaccines need to be transported from central depot(s) through a set of satellites to widely scattered inoculation spots by special-purpose vehicles every day. Such a large two-echelon vehicle routing problem is computationally difficult. Moreover, the demands for vaccines evolve with the epidemic spread over time, and the actual demands are hard to determine early and exactly, which not only increases the problem difficulty but also prolongs the distribution time. Based on our practical experience of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in China, we present a hybrid machine learning and evolutionary computation method, which first uses a fuzzy deep learning model to forecast the demands for vaccines for each next day, such that we can predistribute the forecasted number of vaccines to the satellites in advance;after obtaining the actual demands, it uses an evolutionary algorithm (EA) to route vehicles to distribute vaccines from the satellites/depots to the inoculation spots on each day. The EA saves historical problem instances and their high-quality solutions in a knowledge base, so as to capture inherent relationship between evolving problem inputs to solutions;when solving a new problem instance on each day, the EA utilizes historical solutions that perform well on the similar instances to improve initial solution quality and, hence, accelerate convergence. Computational results on real-world instances of vaccine distribution demonstrate that the proposed method can produce solutions with significantly shorter distribution time compared to state-of-the-arts and, hence, contribute to accelerating the achievement of herd immunity.

Common pots in Chile. Understanding a social phenomenon of organization to face hunger during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a socioeconomic crisis, increasing food insecurity. Government measures have not been enough, and the community has organized itself to solve its food needs. In Chile, the "Ollas Comunes" (OC) have re-emerged: self-managed social organizations whose purpose is to feed community members in a situation of hunger. The study aims to describe the characteristic elements of the operation of the OC in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method(s): This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study, which uses quantitative and qualitative data. Through an online form, information was collected from 117 OC nationwide. Result(s): On average, nine people work in the OC, with different tasks. The OC operated mainly three days a week in community spaces and in the more vulnerable neighborhoods. The volunteers recognized that the OC arose from a community need that the government could not attend to;the OC promoted social participation and helped the vulnerable population. Conclusion(s): This research could help develop public policies that consider these community organizations and their role in food insecurity and take advantage of the community capacity.Copyright © 2022 Sociedad Espanola de Nutricion Comunitaria. All rights reserved.

The Social Determinants of Loneliness During COVID-19: Personal, Community, and Societal Predictors and Implications for Treatment

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered social determinants of health including work, education, social connections, movement, and perceived control;and loneliness was commonly experienced. This longitudinal study examined how social determinants at the personal (micro), community (meso), and societal (macro) levels predicted loneliness during the pandemic. Methods Participants were 2056 Australian adults surveyed up to three times over 18 months in 2020 and 2021. Multi-level mixed-effect regressions were conducted predicting loneliness from social determinants at baseline and two follow-ups. Results Loneliness was associated with numerous micro determinants: male gender, lifetime diagnosis of a mental health disorder, experience of recent stressful event(s), low income, living alone or couples with children, living in housing with low natural light, noise, and major building defects. Lower resilience and perceived control over health and life were also associated with greater loneliness. At the meso level, reduced engagement with social groups, living in inner regional areas, and living in neighbourhoods with low levels of belongingness and collective resilience was associated with increased loneliness. At the macro level, increased loneliness was associated with State/Territory of residence. Conclusions Therapeutic initiatives must go beyond psychological intervention, and must recognise the social determinants of loneliness at the meso and macro levels. Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy.

Ties that bind: Young people, community and social capital in the wake of the pandemic

The connection that young people have to their local neighbourhood and community has been shown to impact on health and wellbeing, particularly for those living in the most deprived areas. We report on a qualitative participatory study using photo elicitation methods undertaken in three deprived neighbourhoods across London exploring concepts of community and social connection, with young people aged 13-24 years, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The construct of social capital, referring to the extent of solidarity and connection between groups, has been shown to impact on pandemic related outcomes, and is used in this study as a lens to enhance understanding of young people's experience of the pandemic. Young people created heterogenous physical social ties across class, ethnicity, and geographical area which were important during the pandemic, although these may be jeopardised by a range of factors including fear of violence, mistrust of those in power, parental control and place-based inequity. The isolation and localism enforced by the pandemic encouraged young people to pay more attention to the value of local connections they built up both with people and place. Place-based research needs to continue a dialogue with young people, acknowledging and drawing on existing networks, community assets and cultural beliefs. The impact of COVID-19 on accentuating existing inequalities means that the need for place-based action, addressing the social determinants of health and involving the experiences and input of the young, is more vital than ever.Copyright © 2022 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine