Effects of Interrupting Sitting with Use of a Treadmill Desk Versus Prolonged Sitting on Postural Stability

High amounts of sitting increase the risk of non-communicable disease and mortality. Treadmill desks make it possible to reduce sitting during the desk-based worker's day. This study investigated the acute effect on postural stability of interrupting prolonged sitting with an accumulated 2-h of light-intensity treadmill desk walking. Twenty-one sedentary adults participated in this randomized acute crossover trial, with two 6.5 h conditions: 1) uninterrupted sitting and 2) interrupted sitting with accumulated 2 h light-intensity treadmill desk walking. Pre- and post-condition, participants performed four postural stability tests on a pressure plate (bipedal and unipedal standing stance, eyes open and eyes closed). Anteroposterior center of pressure amplitude showed a significant condition x time interaction in bipedal eyes closed (F(1,20)=4.62, p=0.046) and unipedal eyes open (F(1,20)=9.42, p=0.006) tests, and mediolateral center of pressure amplitude in bipedal eyes closed (F(1,20)=6.12, p=0.023) and bipedal eyes open (F(1,12)=5.55, p=0.029) tests. In the significant interactions, amplitude increased pre to post condition in the uninterrupted sitting condition. The accumulated 2 h light-intensity treadmill desk walking ameliorated the negative effect of 6.5 h prolonged sitting on postural sway, supporting workplace treadmill desk use

Maternal Psychosocial Stress during Pregnancy and Placenta Weight: Evidence from a National Cohort Study

To study in a large-scale cohort with prospective data the associations between psychosocial stress during pregnancy and placenta weight at birth. Animal data suggest that the placenta is involved in stress-related fetal programming.; We defined a priori two types of psychosocial stress during pregnancy, life stress (perceived burdens in major areas of life) and emotional symptoms (e.g. anxiety). We estimated the associations of maternal stress during pregnancy with placenta weight at birth, controlled for length of gestation, by predicting gestational age- and sex-specific z-scores of placenta weight through multiple regression analysis, adjusted for potential confounders (N?=?78,017 singleton pregnancies). Life stress (per increase in stress score by 1, range: 0-18) during pregnancy was associated with increased placenta weight at birth (z-score, reported in 10(-3); B, 14.33; CI, 10.12-18.54). In contrast, emotional symptoms during pregnancy were not associated with placenta weight at birth.; Maternal life stress but not emotional symptoms during pregnancy was associated with increased placenta weight at birth; yet, the association-estimate was rather small. Our results may contribute to a better understanding of the role of the placenta in the regulation of intrauterine processes in response to maternal stress

Magnitude and determinants of excess total, age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality in 24 countries worldwide during 2020 and 2021: results on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from the C-MOR project.

INTRODUCTION: To examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality, we estimated excess all-cause mortality in 24 countries for 2020 and 2021, overall and stratified by sex and age. METHODS: Total, age-specific and sex-specific weekly all-cause mortality was collected for 2015-2021 and excess mortality for 2020 and 2021 was calculated by comparing weekly 2020 and 2021 age-standardised mortality rates against expected mortality, estimated based on historical data (2015-2019), accounting for seasonality, and long-term and short-term trends. Age-specific weekly excess mortality was similarly calculated using crude mortality rates. The association of country and pandemic-related variables with excess mortality was investigated using simple and multilevel regression models. RESULTS: Excess cumulative mortality for both 2020 and 2021 was found in Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Cyprus, England and Wales, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Northern Ireland, Norway, Peru, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, and the USA. Australia and Denmark experienced excess mortality only in 2021. Mauritius demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in all-cause mortality during both years. Weekly incidence of COVID-19 was significantly positively associated with excess mortality for both years, but the positive association was attenuated in 2021 as percentage of the population fully vaccinated increased. Stringency index of control measures was positively and negatively associated with excess mortality in 2020 and 2021, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence of substantial excess mortality in most countries investigated during the first 2 years of the pandemic and suggests that COVID-19 incidence, stringency of control measures and vaccination rates interacted in determining the magnitude of excess mortality

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on total, sex- and age-specific all-cause mortality in 20 countries worldwide during 2020: results from the C-MOR project.

BACKGROUND: To understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality, this study investigates overall, sex- and age-specific excess all-cause mortality in 20 countries, during 2020. METHODS: Total, sex- and age-specific weekly all-cause mortality for 2015-2020 was collected from national vital statistics databases. Excess mortality for 2020 was calculated by comparing weekly 2020 observed mortality against expected mortality, estimated from historical data (2015-2019) accounting for seasonality, long- and short-term trends. Crude and age-standardized rates were analysed for total and sex-specific mortality. RESULTS: Austria, Brazil, Cyprus, England and Wales, France, Georgia, Israel, Italy, Northern Ireland, Peru, Scotland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the USA displayed substantial excess age-standardized mortality of varying duration during 2020, while Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Mauritius, Norway, and Ukraine did not. In sex-specific analyses, excess mortality was higher in males than females, except for Slovenia (higher in females) and Cyprus (similar in both sexes). Lastly, for most countries substantial excess mortality was only detectable (Austria, Cyprus, Israel, and Slovenia) or was higher (Brazil, England and Wales, France, Georgia, Italy, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Peru and the USA) in the oldest age group investigated. Peru demonstrated substantial excess mortality even in the <45 age group. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights that excess all-cause mortality during 2020 is context dependent, with specific countries, sex- and age-groups being most affected. As the pandemic continues, tracking excess mortality is important to accurately estimate the true toll of COVID-19, while at the same time investigating the effects of changing contexts, different variants, testing, quarantine, and vaccination strategies

The ethical climate and its relation to individualised care

The achievement of the main goals of the nursing profession, including the provision of quality and individualised nursing care to patients, often requires improvements in the working environment of nurses, while there are various research evidences to support such a need. However, it is additionally recognised in the scientific community that the ethical climate of an organisation is actually an important component of the overall working environment that is related to employees’ shared perceptions of what is ethically correct behaviour and how ethical issues should be handled in organisations. Moreover, both the nurses’ practice environment and the ethical climate that exist in healthcare settings specifically, as it is perceived by nurses themselves, had been linked in some studies to various important professional variables and patient outcomes including individualised nursing care. Having this in mind, the aim of this chapter is to discuss the literature regarding the ethical climate as it is perceived by nurses themselves with a focus on the association between ethical climate and individualised nursing care. In this light the chapter attempts to demonstrate the existing body of relevant knowledge and the possible knowledge deficits that need exploration with further research studies

Excess all-cause mortality and COVID-19-related mortality: a temporal analysis in 22 countries, from January until August 2020.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate overall and sex-specific excess all-cause mortality since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic until August 2020 among 22 countries. METHODS: Countries reported weekly or monthly all-cause mortality from January 2015 until the end of June or August 2020. Weekly or monthly COVID-19 deaths were reported for 2020. Excess mortality for 2020 was calculated by comparing weekly or monthly 2020 mortality (observed deaths) against a baseline mortality obtained from 2015-2019 data for the same week or month using two methods: (i) difference in observed mortality rates between 2020 and the 2015-2019 average and (ii) difference between observed and expected 2020 deaths. RESULTS: Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the UK (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) and the USA demonstrated excess all-cause mortality, whereas Australia, Denmark and Georgia experienced a decrease in all-cause mortality. Israel, Ukraine and Ireland demonstrated sex-specific changes in all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: All-cause mortality up to August 2020 was higher than in previous years in some, but not all, participating countries. Geographical location and seasonality of each country, as well as the prompt application of high-stringency control measures, may explain the observed variability in mortality changes

The concept of individualised care

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019. The conceptual investigation of individualised care includes the meaning attributed to the term, the uses of the concept in nursing literature and the various proposed definitions of the concept found in the nursing literature. This chapter outlines the utilisation of the individualised care concept in nursing science literature but also in some other health disciplines. Furthermore, the development of the concept in regard to its different meanings and definitions used over time will be examined