Physical and cognitive impact following SARS-CoV-2 infection in a large population-based case-control study

© 2023. The Author(s).BACKGROUND: Persistent symptoms are common after SARS-CoV-2 infection but correlation with objective measures is unclear. METHODS: We invited all 3098 adults who tested SARS-CoV-2 positive in Iceland before October 2020 to the deCODE Health Study. We compared multiple symptoms and physical measures between 1706 Icelanders with confirmed prior infection (cases) who participated, and 619 contemporary and 13,779 historical controls. Cases participated in the study 5-18 months after infection. RESULTS: Here we report that 41 of 88 symptoms are associated with prior infection, most significantly disturbed smell and taste, memory disturbance, and dyspnea. Measured objectively, cases had poorer smell and taste results, less grip strength, and poorer memory recall. Differences in grip strength and memory recall were small. No other objective measure associated with prior infection including heart rate, blood pressure, postural orthostatic tachycardia, oxygen saturation, exercise tolerance, hearing, and traditional inflammatory, cardiac, liver, and kidney blood biomarkers. There was no evidence of more anxiety or depression among cases. We estimate the prevalence of long Covid to be 7% at a median of 8 months after infection. CONCLUSIONS: We confirm that diverse symptoms are common months after SARS-CoV-2 infection but find few differences between cases and controls in objective parameters measured. These discrepancies between symptoms and physical measures suggest a more complicated contribution to symptoms related to prior infection than is captured with conventional tests. Traditional clinical assessment is not expected to be particularly informative in relating symptoms to a past SARS-CoV-2 infection.Peer reviewe

What can determine that specialist nurses in anesthesia and surgical care stay at the same workplace for a longer period of time? : A qualitative interview study with focus groups

Regionerna står inför ett stort problem med brist av specialistsjuksköterskor och svårighet att behålla kompetens för att klara framtidens utmaningar. Bristen på specialistsjuksköterskor inom anestesi- och operationssjukvård kan bli kostsamt och ett stort problem då många planerade operationer ställs in och patienter drabbas. Det tycks finnas ett gap mellan den högre styrningen inom regionerna och den verksamhetsnära styrningen i hur kompetensförsörjningen ska lösas i det korta och långa perspektivet. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka faktorer som kan påverka specialistsjuksköterskor att välja att stanna kvar inom anestesi och operationssjukvården. Därigenom öka kunskapen om vad som behöver göras för att förbättra förutsättningarna att klara kompetensförsörjningen i framtiden. Utifrån syfte och frågeställningar genomfördes kvalitativa fokusgruppsintervjuer med induktiv ansats. Resultatet visade på ett antal olika faktorer som delades in i fem kategorier ledarskap, medarbetarskap, hållbarhet, stämning och organisation. Resultaten pekade på att den närvarande chefen är viktig och att denne också får förutsättningar till att möta medarbetarna där de är och ge utrymme för utveckling utifrån individens behov och önskemål har en stor påverkan. Författarnas slutsats var att det inte är en faktor som påverkar utan det finns många faktorer som påverkar och samverkar varför specialistsjuksköterskor inom anestesi- och operationssjukvård väljer att stanna kvar i sitt yrke.The regions are facing a major problem with the risk of a shortage of specialist nurses and need to be able to maintain competence to meet future challenges. The lack of specialist nurses in anesthesia and surgical care can be costly and a major problem as many planned operations are canceled and patients suffer. There seems to be a gap between the higher management within the regions and the operational management in how the supply of skills should be solved in the short and long term. The purpose of the study was to investigate which factors can influence specialist nurses to choose to remain in anesthesia and surgical care and thereby increase knowledge about what needs to be done to improve the conditions to cope with the supply of skills in the future. Based on the purpose and questions, a qualitative focus group interview was conducted with an inductive approach. The result showed several factors which were divided into leadership, employees, sustainability, atmosphere and organization. The results indicated that the present manager is important and that the manager also gets room to meet the employees where they are and give room for development based on the individual's conditions and wishes has a big impact. The authors' conclusion was that it is not one factor that influences, but there are many factors that influence and work together why specialist nurses in anesthesia and surgical care choose to remain in their profession

What can determine that specialist nurses in anesthesia and surgical care stay at the same workplace for a longer period of time? : A qualitative interview study with focus groups

Regionerna står inför ett stort problem med brist av specialistsjuksköterskor och svårighet att behålla kompetens för att klara framtidens utmaningar. Bristen på specialistsjuksköterskor inom anestesi- och operationssjukvård kan bli kostsamt och ett stort problem då många planerade operationer ställs in och patienter drabbas. Det tycks finnas ett gap mellan den högre styrningen inom regionerna och den verksamhetsnära styrningen i hur kompetensförsörjningen ska lösas i det korta och långa perspektivet. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka faktorer som kan påverka specialistsjuksköterskor att välja att stanna kvar inom anestesi och operationssjukvården. Därigenom öka kunskapen om vad som behöver göras för att förbättra förutsättningarna att klara kompetensförsörjningen i framtiden. Utifrån syfte och frågeställningar genomfördes kvalitativa fokusgruppsintervjuer med induktiv ansats. Resultatet visade på ett antal olika faktorer som delades in i fem kategorier ledarskap, medarbetarskap, hållbarhet, stämning och organisation. Resultaten pekade på att den närvarande chefen är viktig och att denne också får förutsättningar till att möta medarbetarna där de är och ge utrymme för utveckling utifrån individens behov och önskemål har en stor påverkan. Författarnas slutsats var att det inte är en faktor som påverkar utan det finns många faktorer som påverkar och samverkar varför specialistsjuksköterskor inom anestesi- och operationssjukvård väljer att stanna kvar i sitt yrke.The regions are facing a major problem with the risk of a shortage of specialist nurses and need to be able to maintain competence to meet future challenges. The lack of specialist nurses in anesthesia and surgical care can be costly and a major problem as many planned operations are canceled and patients suffer. There seems to be a gap between the higher management within the regions and the operational management in how the supply of skills should be solved in the short and long term. The purpose of the study was to investigate which factors can influence specialist nurses to choose to remain in anesthesia and surgical care and thereby increase knowledge about what needs to be done to improve the conditions to cope with the supply of skills in the future. Based on the purpose and questions, a qualitative focus group interview was conducted with an inductive approach. The result showed several factors which were divided into leadership, employees, sustainability, atmosphere and organization. The results indicated that the present manager is important and that the manager also gets room to meet the employees where they are and give room for development based on the individual's conditions and wishes has a big impact. The authors' conclusion was that it is not one factor that influences, but there are many factors that influence and work together why specialist nurses in anesthesia and surgical care choose to remain in their profession

Cutting edge:a comparison of contemporary practices of riparian buffer retention around small streams in Canada, Finland, and Sweden

Abstract Forested riparian buffers are recommended to mitigate negative effects of forest harvesting on recipient freshwater ecosystems. Most of the current best practices of riparian buffer retention aim at larger streams. Riparian protection along small streams is thought to be lacking; however, it is not well documented. We surveyed 286 small streams flowing through recent clearcuts in three timber‐producing jurisdictions—British Columbia, Canada (BC), Finland, and Sweden. The three jurisdictions differed in riparian buffer implementation. In BC, forested buffers are not required on the smallest streams, and 45% of the sites in BC had no buffer. The average (±SE) width of voluntarily retained buffers was 15.9 m (±2.1) on each side of the stream. An operation‐free zone is mandatory around the smallest streams in BC, and 90% of the sites fulfilled these criteria. Finland and Sweden had buffers allocated to most of the surveyed streams, with average buffer width of 15.3 m (±1.4) in Finland and 4 m (±0.4) in Sweden. Most of the streams in the two Nordic countries had additional forestry‐associated impairments such as machine tracks, or soil preparation within the riparian zone. Riparian buffer width somewhat increased with stream size and slope of the riparian area, however, not in all investigated regions. We concluded that the majority of the streams surveyed in this study are insufficiently protected. We suggest that a monitoring of forestry practices and revising present forestry guidelines is needed in order to increase the protection of our smallest water courses

MMc in controls and healthy individuals in previously published reports.

<p>* Not provided; ** Quantitative real-time PCR; *** single-nucleotide polymorphism; **** Amplification refractory mutation detection system polymerase chain reaction</p

Patients’ characteristics.

<p>* Manifestations are defined according to American College of Rheumatology’s 1982 revised criteria for SLE [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0074534#B44" target="_blank">44</a>], SLAM = Systemic Lupus Activity Measure, a validated measure of disease activity [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0074534#B45" target="_blank">45</a>], SLICC = Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics damage index, a validated cumulative organ damage [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0074534#B46" target="_blank">46</a>], APS =antiphospholid syndrome was diagnosed according to the Sydney criteria [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0074534#B47" target="_blank">47</a>]</p