Variations in the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across 5 continents: A cross-sectional, individual level analysis.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has caused profound socio-economic changes worldwide. However, internationally comparative data regarding the financial impact on individuals is sparse. Therefore, we conducted a survey of the financial impact of the pandemic on individuals, using an international cohort that has been well-characterized prior to the pandemic. METHODS: Between August 2020 and September 2021, we surveyed 24,506 community-dwelling participants from the Prospective Urban-Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study across high (HIC), upper middle (UMIC)-and lower middle (LMIC)-income countries. We collected information regarding the impact of the pandemic on their self-reported personal finances and sources of income. FINDINGS: Overall, 32.4% of participants had suffered an adverse financial impact, defined as job loss, inability to meet financial obligations or essential needs, or using savings to meet financial obligations. 8.4% of participants had lost a job (temporarily or permanently); 14.6% of participants were unable to meet financial obligations or essential needs at the time of the survey and 16.3% were using their savings to meet financial obligations. Participants with a post-secondary education were least likely to be adversely impacted (19.6%), compared with 33.4% of those with secondary education and 33.5% of those with pre-secondary education. Similarly, those in the highest wealth tertile were least likely to be financially impacted (26.7%), compared with 32.5% in the middle tertile and 30.4% in the bottom tertile participants. Compared with HICs, financial impact was greater in UMIC [odds ratio of 2.09 (1.88-2.33)] and greatest in LMIC [odds ratio of 16.88 (14.69-19.39)]. HIC participants with the lowest educational attainment suffered less financial impact (15.1% of participants affected) than those with the highest education in UMIC (22.0% of participants affected). Similarly, participants with the lowest education in UMIC experienced less financial impact (28.3%) than those with the highest education in LMIC (45.9%). A similar gradient was seen across country income categories when compared by pre-pandemic wealth status. INTERPRETATION: The financial impact of the pandemic differs more between HIC, UMIC, and LMIC than between socio-economic categories within a country income level. The most disadvantaged socio-economic subgroups in HIC had a lower financial impact from the pandemic than the most advantaged subgroup in UMIC, with a similar disparity seen between UMIC and LMIC. Continued high levels of infection will exacerbate financial inequity between countries and hinder progress towards the sustainable development goals, emphasising the importance of effective measures to control COVID-19 and, especially, ensuring high vaccine coverage in all countries. FUNDING: Funding for this study was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the International Development Research Centre

Household, community, sub-national and country-level predictors of primary cooking fuel switching in nine countries from the PURE study

Introduction. Switchingfrom polluting (e.g. wood, crop waste, coal)to clean (e.g. gas, electricity) cooking fuels can reduce household air pollution exposures and climate-forcing emissions.While studies have evaluated specific interventions and assessed fuel-switching in repeated cross-sectional surveys, the role of different multilevel factors in household fuel switching, outside of interventions and across diverse community settings, is not well understood. Methods.We examined longitudinal survey data from 24 172 households in 177 rural communities across nine countries within the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study.We assessed household-level primary cooking fuel switching during a median of 10 years offollow up (∼2005–2015).We used hierarchical logistic regression models to examine the relative importance of household, community, sub-national and national-level factors contributing to primary fuel switching. Results. One-half of study households(12 369)reported changing their primary cookingfuels between baseline andfollow up surveys. Of these, 61% (7582) switchedfrom polluting (wood, dung, agricultural waste, charcoal, coal, kerosene)to clean (gas, electricity)fuels, 26% (3109)switched between different polluting fuels, 10% (1164)switched from clean to polluting fuels and 3% (522)switched between different clean fuels

Evaluating Mobile E-Learning Systems Acceptance: An Integrated Model

Previous studies have confirmed that managers need to develop influencing strategies to encourage employees to accept mobile information systems. Despite the recognition in past research that external variables can influence employee’s perceptions, the explanation of how their approval of the framework is affected by these external variables’ pathways or procedures remains limited. Participants were selected from Malaysian institutions that have previously rolled out mobile e-learning technologies into their operations. Empirical findings disclose that source credibility is positively associated with playfulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness. Similarly, organizational support and task equivocality are significantly related to perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Additionally, perceived ease of use positively affects playfulness, perceived usefulness, and employee attitude. Finally, an employee’s attitude is positively and significantly related to behavioral intentions (BI). The findings of this study provide insight for firms considering implementing a mobile information system at all levels of their institutions. Furthermore, it offers employees valuable information about the system, its value, benefits, and advantages

Interaction of Depression and Unhealthy Diets on the Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases and All-Cause Mortality in the Chinese Population: A PURE Cohort Substudy

This study aimed to identify the interaction of depression and diets on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) incident and death in China and key subpopulations. We included 40,925 participants from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE)-China cohort which recruited participants aged 35–70 years from 45 urban and 70 rural communities. Depression was measured by the adapted Short-Form (CIDI-SF). The unhealthy diet was considered when the score of Alternative Healthy Eating Index was below the lowest tertile. The primary outcome was a composite outcome of incident CVD and all-cause mortality. Cox frailty models were used to examine the associations. During a median follow-up of 11.9 years (IQR: 9.6–12.6 years), depression significantly increased the risk of the composite outcome (HR = 2.00; 95% CI, 1.16–3.27), major CVD (HR = 1.82; 95% CI, 1.48–2.23), and all-cause mortality (HR = 2.21; 95% CI, 1.51–3.24) for the unhealthy diet group, but not for the healthy diet group. The interaction between depression and diet for the composite outcome was statistically significant (RERI = 1.19; 95% CI, 0.66–1.72; AP = 0.42, 95% CI, 0.27–0.61; SI = 3.30, 95% CI, 1.42–7.66; multiplicative-scale = 1.74 95% CI, 1.27–2.39), even in the subgroup and sensitivity analyses. In addition, the intake of vegetable and polyunsaturated fatty acids contributed most to the interaction of diets and depression. Depressive participants should focus on healthy diets, especially vegetables and polyunsaturated fatty acids, to avoid premature death and CVD

Household, community, sub-national and country-level predictors of primary cooking fuel switching in nine countries from the PURE study

Introduction . Switching from polluting (e.g. wood, crop waste, coal) to clean (e.g. gas, electricity) cooking fuels can reduce household air pollution exposures and climate-forcing emissions. While studies have evaluated specific interventions and assessed fuel-switching in repeated cross-sectional surveys, the role of different multilevel factors in household fuel switching, outside of interventions and across diverse community settings, is not well understood. Methods . We examined longitudinal survey data from 24 172 households in 177 rural communities across nine countries within the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study. We assessed household-level primary cooking fuel switching during a median of 10 years of follow up (∼2005–2015). We used hierarchical logistic regression models to examine the relative importance of household, community, sub-national and national-level factors contributing to primary fuel switching. Results . One-half of study households (12 369) reported changing their primary cooking fuels between baseline and follow up surveys. Of these, 61% (7582) switched from polluting (wood, dung, agricultural waste, charcoal, coal, kerosene) to clean (gas, electricity) fuels, 26% (3109) switched between different polluting fuels, 10% (1164) switched from clean to polluting fuels and 3% (522) switched between different clean fuels. Among the 17 830 households using polluting cooking fuels at baseline, household-level factors (e.g. larger household size, higher wealth, higher education level) were most strongly associated with switching from polluting to clean fuels in India; in all other countries, community-level factors (e.g. larger population density in 2010, larger increase in population density between 2005 and 2015) were the strongest predictors of polluting-to-clean fuel switching. Conclusions . The importance of community and sub-national factors relative to household characteristics in determining polluting-to-clean fuel switching varied dramatically across the nine countries examined. This highlights the potential importance of national and other contextual factors in shaping large-scale clean cooking transitions among rural communities in low- and middle-income countries