The effectiveness of healthy meals at work on reaction time, mood and dietary intake: a randomised cross-over study in daytime and shift workers at an university hospital

AbstractOur dietary habits affect both cognitive performance and mood. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of increased availability of healthy meals and water at work on healthcare staff. The study used an 8-week randomised cross-over design. A total of sixty physicians, nurses and nursing assistants, including sixteen working on shifts, were recruited. The participants received a self-selected keyhole-labelled (Nordic nutrition label) lunch, snack and bottled water during each shift throughout the intervention period. Reaction time (Go/No-Go test), mood-related scores (POMS) and dietary intake were assessed at run-in, and at the end of the intervention and the control periods. The intake of fat (P=0·030) and PUFA (P=0·003) was lower, and the intake of carbohydrate (P=0·008), dietary fibre (P=0·031) and water (P&lt;0·001) was greater in the intervention period than in the control period. The intervention had no effect on reaction time or any of the mood-related scores in the group as a whole. In shift-working participants, the intervention period resulted in a 31·1 % lower Fatigue-Inertia Score (P=0·003), a 15·3 % higher Vigour-Activity Score (P=0·041) and a 42·7 % lower Total Mood Disturbance Score (P=0·017), whereas the only dietary component that significantly improved was water intake (P=0·034), when compared with the control period. Providing healthy meals, snacks and water during working hours seems to be an effective way of improving employees’ dietary intake. Moreover, increased intake of water may be associated with beneficial effects on fatigue, vigour and total mood in shift-working healthcare staff.</jats:p

Knowledge, Compliance, and Attitudes of Teachers Toward Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting in British Columbia

Research indicates that teachers, among other professionals, continue to underreport cases of suspected child maltreatment. To better understand factors associated with noncompli- ant behaviour, we investigated teachers’ knowledge of, compliance with, and attitudes toward mandatory child abuse reporting in British Columbia. Results showed that virtually all the participating teachers were aware of the existence of the mandatory reporting law; they were, however, only moderately knowledgeable about the specific components of the legislation. Teachers’ tendency to respond varied as a function of type of maltreatment, with sexual abuse being most likely to be reported and emotional abuse being least likely to be reported. Les recherches indiquent que les enseignants, entre autres, continuent à ne pas signaler tous les cas présumés d’enfants maltraités qu’il y aurait lieu de signaler. Afin de mieux comprendre les facteurs associés à ce comportement, les auteurs ont cherché à savoir si les enseignants connaissent la loi qui les oblige, en Colombie-Britannique, à signaler les cas d’enfants maltraités, s’ils la respectent et quelles sont leurs attitudes vis-à-vis de cette loi. Les résultats démontrent que pratiquement tous les enseignants participants savent que cette loi existe, mais en connaissent plus ou moins les dispositions précises.

Help for the heartland? The employment and electoral effects of the Trump tariffs in the United States

We study the economic and political consequences of the 2018-2019 trade war between the United States, China and other U.S. trade partners at the detailed geographic level, exploiting measures of local exposure to U.S. import tariffs, foreign retaliatory tariffs, and U.S. compensation programs. So far, the trade-war has not provided economic help to the U.S. heartland: import tariffs on foreign goods neither raised nor lowered U.S. employment in newly-protected sectors; retaliatory tariffs had clear negative employment impacts, primarily in agriculture; and these harms were only partly mitigated by compensatory U.S. agricultural subsidies. Nevertheless, consistent with expressive views of politics, the tariff war appears to have been a political success for the governing Republican party. Residents of regions more exposed to import tariffs became less likely to identify as Democrats, more likely to vote to reelect Donald Trump in 2020, and more likely to elect Republicans to Congress. Foreign retaliatory tariffs only modestly weakened that support