Physical Activity Levels and Depressive Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Sample of Vermont Adults

Objective: To investigate the association between meeting physical activity (PA) recommendations and having ever been told of having a depressive disorder in a cross-sectional sample of Vermont adults. Methods: Study participants (n = 11,429) were Vermont residents that had answered all required questions from 2015 and 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) telephone surveys. Descriptive and binary logistic analyses were run with PA as the exposure variable and depression as the outcome variable. Results: Study participants were 44.5% males; 93.2% white/non-Hispanic; 67.6% with some college or more; 46% age 60 or over; 45.8% employed for wages and retired. A significant association between PA and depression was observed (0.669, 0.609 – 0.734) when adjusting for sex, age, employment status, education level, alcohol consumption, current diabetes status, and smoking status. However, a significant association was not observed for educational level (1.011, 0.963 – 1.062) or race (0.893, 0.734 – 1.087). Conclusions: Our study found that there is an association between meeting the PA recommendations and having ever been told you have depression

Assessing the Reliability of SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Studies That Use Post-Vaccination Sera

Assessing COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants is crucial for determining future vaccination strategies and other public health strategies. When clinical effectiveness data are unavailable, a common method of assessing vaccine performance is to utilize neutralization assays using post-vaccination sera. Neutralization studies are typically performed across a wide array of settings, populations and vaccination strategies, and using different methodologies. For any comparison and meta-analysis to be meaningful, the design and methodology of the studies used must at minimum address aspects that confer a certain degree of reliability and comparability. We identified and characterized three important categories in which studies differ (cohort details, assay details and data reporting details) and that can affect the overall reliability and/or usefulness of neutralization assay results. We define reliability as a measure of methodological accuracy, proper study setting concerning subjects, samples and viruses, and reporting quality. Each category comprises a set of several relevant key parameters. To each parameter, we assigned a possible impact (ranging from low to high) on overall study reliability depending on its potential to influence the results. We then developed a reliability assessment tool that assesses the aggregate reliability of a study across all parameters. The reliability assessment tool provides explicit selection criteria for inclusion of comparable studies in meta-analyses of neutralization activity of SARS-CoV-2 variants in post-vaccination sera and can also both guide the design of future neutralization studies and serve as a checklist for including important details on key parameters in publications

Knowledge, Attitudes and Awareness of Lyme Disease in Martha’s Vineyard, MA

Lyme disease has become increasingly prominent, especially in the northeastern United States. Lyme disease is spread through tick bite, and can be prevented through personal protection behaviors, such as limiting time in tick-infested areas, wearing tick repellant and protective clothing, and performing regular tick checks. Incidence of the disease in Martha’s Vineyard has been consistently high, regardless of efforts to combat this, including educational programs, tick surveys, and discussions of culling the deer herd. This research project looks at the knowledge of Lyme disease among residents and visitors on Martha’s Vineyard and studies how often they utilize precautionary behaviors. This will help to show if knowledge of the disease affects the use of preventative behaviors. The research also examines if there is a difference in awareness and use of prevention behaviors between residents of and visitors to the island. The research was conducted through a quantitative survey, which had questions assessing awareness of Lyme disease, use of Lyme disease prevention behaviors, and demographic factors, with an experimental aspect to see if ordering of questions had any influence on respondents’ answers. The survey was administered to a convenience sample of individuals in predetermined locations across the island. This research can provide information on the awareness of Lyme disease in a place where it is a prevalent issue, which could further affect future public education about the disease

Assessing the Reliability of SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Studies That Use Post-Vaccination Sera

Assessing COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants is crucial for determining future vaccination strategies and other public health strategies. When clinical effectiveness data are unavailable, a common method of assessing vaccine performance is to utilize neutralization assays using post-vaccination sera. Neutralization studies are typically performed across a wide array of settings, populations and vaccination strategies, and using different methodologies. For any comparison and meta-analysis to be meaningful, the design and methodology of the studies used must at minimum address aspects that confer a certain degree of reliability and comparability. We identified and characterized three important categories in which studies differ (cohort details, assay details and data reporting details) and that can affect the overall reliability and/or usefulness of neutralization assay results. We define reliability as a measure of methodological accuracy, proper study setting concerning subjects, samples and viruses, and reporting quality. Each category comprises a set of several relevant key parameters. To each parameter, we assigned a possible impact (ranging from low to high) on overall study reliability depending on its potential to influence the results. We then developed a reliability assessment tool that assesses the aggregate reliability of a study across all parameters. The reliability assessment tool provides explicit selection criteria for inclusion of comparable studies in meta-analyses of neutralization activity of SARS-CoV-2 variants in post-vaccination sera and can also both guide the design of future neutralization studies and serve as a checklist for including important details on key parameters in publications