Effects of Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration on Pneumonia Occurrence and Course in Infants Up to 6 Months of Age: A Case-Control Study.

We aimed to analyze the effects of exclusive breastfeeding duration on the occurrence and course of pneumonia in infants aged up to 6 months. Prospective case-control study. This study was conducted from August 2020 to August 2022 at a maternity and child health hospital in China. A total of 218 infants up to 6 months of age with pneumonia were included in the analyses. Health data were obtained using a hospitalization information system or an interview-based questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to analyze the data. The incidence of pneumonia, hospitalization duration, and costs to participants were significantly affected by the duration of exclusive breastfeeding (p < 0.01). The incidence of pneumonia among participants with different exclusive breastfeeding durations also differed significantly (p < 0.01). The shorter the duration of exclusive breastfeeding, the higher the incidence of pneumonia among infants. We found that the longer the exclusive breastfeeding duration in infants up to 6 months of age, the lower the recurrence of pneumonia, the shorter the hospital stay, and the lower the hospital costs. The rate of exclusive breastfeeding for infants up to 6 months of age should be increased as much as possible to reduce the occurrence of pneumonia and hospital costs.

The influence of psychological response and security sense on pregnancy stress during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019: A mediating model.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To observe the psychological status of pregnant women during COVID-19 pandemic, and to test a hypothetical model that estimates the influence of psychological response to COVID-19 and security sense on pregnancy stress. BACKGROUND: COVID-19 advanced rapidly and then spread worldwide. Pregnant women were more susceptible to the COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, it is not clear whether this infection will increase the risk of congenital monstrosity, foetal growth restriction, premature delivery or cause other long-term adverse effects. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey. METHODS: A total of 331 pregnant women participated in this study. And this research adhered to the STROBE guideline. The psychological questionnaire for emergent events of public health, pregnancy stress scale and security questionnaire were used to collect data. The hypothetical path model was tested using the SPSS version 25.0 software and AMOS version 26.0 software. RESULTS: Fear and depression were the most common psychological responses among pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hypothesis model of this study fitted the data well, and the results showed that psychological response positively affected pregnancy stress, while security sense negatively affected pregnancy stress; security sense mediated between psychological response and pregnancy stress. CONCLUSION: Nurses and midwives can help reduce the stress in pregnant women by alleviating their psychological response to the COVID-19 pandemic and by improving their security sense. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: It is essential for the health staff to build trust with pregnant women and their families, and communicate accurate information to them. Nurses should promptly conduct a psychological response evaluation and psychological guidance for pregnant women to alleviate their fears and hypochondria related to COVID-19.

[Changes in serum cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone in children with sepsis shock and their clinical significance].

OBJECTIVE: To study the changes in serum levels of cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in children with septic shock (SS) and to explore their relationship with the disease severity and prognosis. METHODS: Twenty-five children with decompensated SS and 24 children with early SS were enrolled. Serum cortisol and ACTH levels were determined on admission and days 3 and 8 after admission. Twenty-five healthy children were used as the control group. The children with decompensated SS were further divided into death group (n=5) and survival group (n=20) based on their clinical outcome. RESULTS: On admission, the decompensated SS and early SS groups had significantly higher serum cortisol and ACTH levels than the control group (P<0.05), and the decompensated SS group had significantly higher serum cortisol and ACTH levels than the early SS group. On day 3 after admission, the decompensated SS group had significantly higher serum cortisol and ACTH levels than the early SS and control groups (P<0.05), and the early SS group had a significantly higher serum ACTH level than the control group (P<0.05). Among the children with decompensated SS, the death group had significantly higher serum cortisol and ACTH levels than the survival group on admission (P<0.01); on day 3 after admission, the death group still had a significantly higher serum cortisol level than the survival group (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Children with SS have increased serum cortisol and ACTH levels, which are associated with the disease severity. A persistent high serum cortisol level indicates a poor prognosis. Dynamic monitoring of serum cortisol and ACTH levels in children with SS is of great significance in evaluating the disease severity and prognosis.

Effects of coping on nurses' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Mediating role of social support and psychological resilience.

BACKGROUND: Fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, front-line nurses were under unprecedented psychological pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to promptly evaluate the psychological status of nurses during the COVID-19 epidemic period. AIM: To investigate nurses' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to test the mediating role of social support and psychological resilience between coping and mental health. DESIGN: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional survey which used a structural equation model. METHOD: In total, 711 registered nurses were included. All participants were invited to complete a socio-demographic questionnaire, the general health questionnaire, the trait coping style questionnaire, the perceived social support scale and the Conner-Davidson Resilience scale. RESULTS: In total, 50.1% nurses had high risk of mental health. Positive coping positively affected social support and psychological resilience, while it negatively affected mental health. Negative coping negatively affected social support and psychological resilience, while it positively affected mental health. Social support positively affected psychological resilience, while it negatively affected mental health. In addition, social support mediated coping and psychological resilience, and coping and mental health. Moreover, psychological resilience negatively affected mental health, and it mediated coping and mental health.

[Sequencing and analysis of the complete genome sequence of WU polyomavirus in Fuzhou, China].

WU polyomavirus (WUPyV), a new member of the genus Polyomavirus in the family Polyomaviridae, is recently found in patients with respiratory tract infections. In our study, the complete genome of the two WUPyV isolates (FZ18, FZTF) were sequenced and deposited in GenBank (accession nos. FJ890981, FJ890982). The two sequences of the WUPyV isolates in this study varied little from each other. Compared with other complete genome sequences of WUPyV in GenBank (strain B0, S1-S4, CLFF, accession nos. EF444549, EF444550, EF444551, EF444552, EF444553, EU296475 respectively), the sequence length in nucleotides is 5228bp, 1bp shorter than the known sequences. The deleted base pair was at nucleotide position 4536 in the non-coding region of large T antigen (LTAg). The genome of the WUPyV encoded for five proteins. They were three capsid proteins: VP2, VP1, VP3 and LTAg, small T antigen (STAg), respectively. To investigate whether these nucleotide sequences had any unique features, we compared the genome sequence of the 2 WUPyV isolates in Fuzhou, China to those documented in the GenBank database by using PHYLIP software version 3.65 and the neighbor-joining method. The 2 WUPyV strains in our study were clustered together. Strain FZTF was more closed to the reference strain B0 of Australian than strain FZ18.