How a Guaranteed Annual Income Could Put Food Banks Out of Business

The federal Conservative government recently began phasing in a plan to raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security from 65 to 67. But a more sensible move for improving the effectiveness of Canada’s social safety-net system may be to actually lower the age below 65 and rely strictly on an income test instead, regardless of age. The government could go a lot further toward the reduction of poverty in Canada by building on the success of its income supports for seniors, and making them available to poor Canadians of all ages. Canada can boast of having one of the lowest rates for poverty among seniors in the world, largely due to its guaranteed income programs for those 65 years and older. When low-income Canadians turn 65 years old and leave behind low-paying, often unstable jobs, their poverty levels drop substantially. What a guaranteed income provides, that their vulnerable job situation did not, is a form of protection against budget shocks — a sudden volatility in income or expenses without the access to savings or credit to smooth things out until stability returns. A guaranteed income provides a kind of “disaster insurance” that can protect someone in a crisis situation from going without necessities such as food or even shelter. Statistics show that the rate of Canadians experiencing “food insecurity” — that is, lack of access to food because of financial constraints — is half that among Canadians aged 65 to 69 years than it is among those aged 60 to 64. Self-reported rates of physical and mental health improve markedly as well after lowincome Canadians move from low-wage, insecure employment to a guaranteed income at the age of 65. That dramatic shift in physical and mental health indicates that expanding guaranteed income programs to younger Canadians is more than a simple cost calculation: there are potential savings to be found as poorer Canadians, given a guaranteed income, become healthier and therefore reduce the burden on the public health-care system. Canadian governments already spend billions of dollars on the downstream effects of poverty, but scant emphasis is put on programs targeting poverty’s roots. There is no evidence, where smaller-scale experiments have been tried, to show that a guaranteed income program creates a serious problem with negative incentives and discourages people from working who otherwise might. But because this is a common worry with working-age guaranteed income eligibility, phasing in the program gradually, by lowering eligibility a few years at a time, will allow ongoing investigation and analysis of the effects, before the program is rolled out on a large scale. The tremendous impact that guaranteed incomes have had on reducing poverty and improving health among seniors is something for which Canadians can be rightly proud. So much so that it is incumbent upon us to investigate whether Canada could use the same policy tools to drastically reduce poverty and improve health among Canadians of all ages

Intra-hisian 2:1 atrioventricular block secondary to Lyme disease

We describe a case of Lyme carditis with intra-hisian 2:1 atrioventricular (AV) block documented by electrophysiological study. To our knowledge, only two cases of AV block at the level of the His bundle has been described in the literature. Sinus rhythm was restored after 4 days of i.v. ceftriaxon

Cerebellar Degeneration as Presenting Symptom of Recurrent Endometrial Stromal Sarcoma with Sex-Cord Elements

We report a 66-year-old woman with slowly progressive ataxia due to cerebellar atrophy. Imaging studies revealed multiple lesions in both the lungs and dorsal subpleural space. A biopsy identified the lesions as metastases of a low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma containing sex-cord elements. The histological appearance was identical to a uterine tumor the patient was treated for with hysterectomy 16 years before. The metastases were removed surgically, and after 3 months ataxia had regressed. We conclude that the presenting cerebellar degeneration in this patient resulted from the metastatic recurrence of the endometrial tumor

Epidemic Spread of a Single Clone of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus among Injection Drug Users in Zurich, Switzerland

We describe an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among injection drug users (IDUs). From August 1994 through December 1999, we registered 31 IDUs with MRSA infections (12 with soft-tissue infection, 7 with pneumonia [fatal in 1], 7 with endocarditis [fatal in 1], 2 with osteomyelitis, 2 with septic arthritis, and 1 with ulcerative tonsillitis), with a marked increase in the number of IDUs registered during 1998 and 1999. Of 31 patients, 15 (48%) were infected with human immunodeficiency virus. A point-prevalence study among IDUs who frequented outpatient facilities in Zurich revealed an MRSA carriage rate of 10.3% (range, 0%-28.6%) in various facilities. In all but 1 case, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis banding patterns of isolates obtained from these patients were indistinguishable from isolates of the initial 31 IDUs registered. Risk factors for MRSA carriage were disability and prior hospitalization in a hospice. In summary, MRSA became endemic in IDUs in Zurich as a result of the spread of a single clone. This clone caused major morbidity and was responsible for a lethal outcome in 2 case

Effects of Partial and Complete Ablation of the Slow Pathway on Fast Pathway Properties in Patients with Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73520/1/j.1540-8167.1994.tb01187.x.pd

Development of a digital biomarker and intervention for subclinical depression: study protocol for a longitudinal waitlist control study

Background Depression remains a global health problem, with its prevalence rising worldwide. Digital biomarkers are increasingly investigated to initiate and tailor scalable interventions targeting depression. Due to the steady influx of new cases, focusing on treatment alone will not suffice; academics and practitioners need to focus on the prevention of depression (i.e., addressing subclinical depression). Aim With our study, we aim to (i) develop digital biomarkers for subclinical symptoms of depression, (ii) develop digital biomarkers for severity of subclinical depression, and (iii) investigate the efficacy of a digital intervention in reducing symptoms and severity of subclinical depression. Method Participants will interact with the digital intervention BEDDA consisting of a scripted conversational agent, the slow-paced breathing training Breeze, and actionable advice for different symptoms. The intervention comprises 30 daily interactions to be completed in less than 45 days. We will collect self-reports regarding mood, agitation, anhedonia (proximal outcomes; first objective), self-reports regarding depression severity (primary distal outcome; second and third objective), anxiety severity (secondary distal outcome; second and third objective), stress (secondary distal outcome; second and third objective), voice, and breathing. A subsample of 25% of the participants will use smartwatches to record physiological data (e.g., heart-rate, heart-rate variability), which will be used in the analyses for all three objectives. Discussion Digital voice- and breathing-based biomarkers may improve diagnosis, prevention, and care by enabling an unobtrusive and either complementary or alternative assessment to self-reports. Furthermore, our results may advance our understanding of underlying psychophysiological changes in subclinical depression. Our study also provides further evidence regarding the efficacy of standalone digital health interventions to prevent depression. Trial registration Ethics approval was provided by the Ethics Commission of ETH Zurich (EK-2022-N-31) and the study was registered in the ISRCTN registry (Reference number: ISRCTN38841716, Submission date: 20/08/2022)