scholarly journals Respiratory epidemics and older people

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 896-900
Author(s):  
Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy ◽  
Ravinder Mamtani ◽  
Marco Ameduri ◽  
Amit Abraham ◽  
Sohaila Cheema
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Global Epidemic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low Middle Income Countries ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Urgent Action

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been particularly severe on older people. Past coronavirus epidemics namely Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome have also been severe on older people. These epidemics lasted for only a limited period, however, and have proven short lived in the memories of both the public and public health systems. No lessons were learnt to mitigate the impact of future epidemics of such nature, on older people. This complacency we feel has claimed the lives of many older people during the current COVID-19 global epidemic. The nature of risks associated with acquiring infections and associated mortality among older people in respiratory epidemic situations are varied and of serious concern. Our commentary identifies demographic, biological, behavioural, social and healthcare-related determinants, which increase the vulnerability of older people to respiratory epidemics. We acknowledge that these determinants will likely vary between older people in high- and low-middle income countries. Notwithstanding these variations, we call for urgent action to mitigate the impact of epidemics on older people and preserve their health and dignity. Intersectoral programmes that recognise the special needs of older people and in unique contexts such as care homes must be developed and implemented, with the full participation and agreement of older people. COVID-19 has created upheaval, challenging humanity and threatening the lives, rights, and well-being of older people. We must ensure that we remain an age-friendly society and make the world a better place for all including older people.

scholarly journals Older People, Mobility and Transport in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of the Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 6157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Gorman ◽  
Sion Jones ◽  
Jeffrey Turner
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Older populations are rising globally, which in high-income countries has helped to generate a growing literature on the impact of ageing on travel requirements and transport policy. This article aims to provide an initial assessment of the state of knowledge on the impact on transportation policy and usage of the increasing numbers of older people in low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs), through a review of the literature relating to older people and transportation. As both the academic and policy/practice-related literature specifically addressing ageing and transport in LAMICs is limited, the study looks beyond transportation to assess the state of knowledge regarding the ways in which older people’s mobility is affected by issues, such as health, well-being, social (dis)engagement and gender. We find significant knowledge gaps, resulting in an evidence base to support the implementation of policy is lacking. Most research in low-income countries (LICs) is either broad quantitative analysis based on national survey data or small-scale qualitative studies. We conclude that, although study of the differing contexts of ageing in LAMICs as they relate to older people’s mobilities and transport use has barely begun, institutions which both make and influence policymaking recognise the existence of significant knowledge gaps. This should provide the context in which research agendas can be established.

The Impact of Covid 19 on Pregnant Women and Child Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 1367-1373
Author(s):  
Nikhil Sanjay Mujbaile ◽  
Smita Damke
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low Middle Income Countries ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Separation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
And Child Health ◽  
General Wellbeing

The Covid illness (COVID-19) pandemic has spread rapidly all through the world and has had a drawn-out impact. The Pandemic has done incredible damage to society and made genuine mental injury to numerous individuals. Mental emergencies frequently cause youngsters to deliver sentiments of relinquishment, despondency, insufficiency, and fatigue and even raise the danger of self-destruction. Youngsters with psychological instabilities are particularly powerless during the isolate and colonial removing period. Convenient and proper assurances are expected to forestall the event of mental and social issues. The rising advanced applications and wellbeing administrations, for example, telehealth, web-based media, versatile wellbeing, and far off intuitive online instruction can connect the social separation and backing mental and conduct wellbeing for youngsters. Because of the mental advancement qualities of youngsters, this investigation additionally outlines intercessions on the mental effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Further difficulties in Low Middle-Income Countries incorporate the failure to actualize successful general wellbeing estimates, for example, social separating, hand cleanliness, definitive distinguishing proof of contaminated individuals with self-disconnection and widespread utilization of covers The aberrant impacts of the Pandemic on youngster wellbeing are of extensive concern, including expanding neediness levels, upset tutoring, absence of admittance to the class taking care of plans, decreased admittance to wellbeing offices and breaks in inoculation and other kid wellbeing programs. Kept tutoring is critical for kids in Low Middle-Income Countries. Arrangement of safe situations is mainly testing in packed asset obliged schools. 

scholarly journals The impact of pulse oximetry on diagnosis, management and outcomes of acute febrile illness in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. e007282
Author(s):  
Rusheng Chew ◽  
Meiwen Zhang ◽  
Arjun Chandna ◽  
Yoel Lubell
Keyword(s):  
Pulse Oximetry ◽  
Patient Outcomes ◽  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
Acute Febrile Illness ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low Middle Income Countries ◽  
Hospital Referral ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundAcute fever is a common presenting symptom in low/middle-income countries (LMICs) and is strongly associated with sepsis. Hypoxaemia predicts disease severity in such patients but is poorly detected by clinical examination. Therefore, including pulse oximetry in the assessment of acutely febrile patients may improve clinical outcomes in LMIC settings.MethodsWe systematically reviewed studies of any design comparing one group where pulse oximetry was used and at least one group where it was not. The target population was patients of any age presenting with acute febrile illness or associated syndromes in LMICs. Studies were obtained from searching PubMed, EMBASE, CABI Global Health, Global Index Medicus, CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science and DARE. Further studies were identified through searches of non-governmental organisation websites, snowballing and input from a Technical Advisory Panel. Outcomes of interest were diagnosis, management and patient outcomes. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool for Cluster Randomised Trials and Risk of Bias in Non-randomized Studies of Interventions tools, as appropriate.ResultsTen of 4898 studies were eligible for inclusion. Their small number and heterogeneity prevented formal meta-analysis. All studies were in children, eight only recruited patients with pneumonia, and nine were conducted in Africa or Australasia. Six were at serious risk of bias. There was moderately strong evidence for the utility of pulse oximetry in diagnosing pneumonia and identifying severe disease requiring hospital referral. Pulse oximetry used as part of a quality-assured facility-wide package of interventions may reduce pneumonia mortality, but studies assessing this endpoint were at serious risk of bias.ConclusionsVery few studies addressed this important question. In LMICs, pulse oximetry may assist clinicians in diagnosing and managing paediatric pneumonia, but for the greatest impact on patient outcomes should be implemented as part of a health systems approach. The evidence for these conclusions is not widely generalisable and is of poor quality.

scholarly journals 407 - Living through the pandemic as an older person: Long-term psychological impacts in low- and middle-income countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. 33-33
Author(s):  
Clarissa Giebel ◽  
Bwire Ivan ◽  
Maria Isabel Zuluaga ◽  
Suresh Kumar ◽  
Mark Gabbay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Background:The pandemic has put a huge strain on people’s mental health, with varying restrictions affecting people’s lives. Little is known how the pandemic affects older adults’ mental health, particularly those living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where restrictions are affecting people’s access to basic necessities. Thus, the aim of this 3-country study was to understand the long- term impacts of the pandemic on the mental well-being of older adults with and without dementia in LMICs.Methods:We are collecting 30 baseline and 15 follow-up interviews with older adults (aged 60+), people with dementia, and family carers in Colombia, India, and Uganda, as well as a baseline and follow-up focus group with health and social are professionals in each country. Interviews are conducted remotely over the phone due to pandemic restrictions, with data collection taking place between March and July 2021. Transcripts are translated into English before being analysed using thematic analysis.Results:To date, we have completed close to 90 baseline interviews and 3 focus groups with health and social care professionals. Analysis is ongoing, but findings are capturing the detrimental second wave in India and follow-up interviews will capture the longitudinal impacts on mental health.Conclusions:Whilst vaccines are starting to be rolled out in LMICs, albeit at different rates, the virus will likely take much longer to be somewhat managed in LMICs. This leaves more room for people’s physical as well as mental health to be impacted by the restrictions, and with often limited mental health service coverage, it is all the more important o understand the impact of the pandemic on older people’s mental health.

scholarly journals Innovations in achieving sustainable economic performance under income inequality

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-154
Author(s):  
Inna Cabelkova ◽  
Manuela Tvaronaviciene ◽  
Wadim Strielkowski
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
The Impact

The negative effect of income inequality on economic growth represents a topic that constitutes a broad topic of research in the standard economic theory. One of the immediate consequences of income inequality is diminished consumption. Many «poor» customers cannot provide sufficient demand for the producers, causing overproduction that might lead to an economic crisis. It constitutes a problem because sustainable economic performance needs to be achieved under the conditions of income inequality. Reducing social and economic inequality in countries is an essential step towards ensuring that no one is left behind. It is also part of the 10th Sustainable Development Goal aimed to reduce it by 2030. Inequality is based on the income distribution between the top 1% and the bottom 99% of households in any given country. The degree of inequality could play a beneficial role if it is driven by market forces and is associated with incentives to increase growth. In developing and emerging countries, greater equality and improvements in living standards are needed to enable populations to flourish. Inequality reduction is one of the most critical steps a government could take to improve the well-being of its population. The income inequality growth increases human capital in poor countries and reduces it in high and middle-income countries. In poorer countries, it increases them, but in higher – and middle-income countries, it reduces them. Income inequality could be reduced by improving human capital and general skill levels, correcting labor-market policies, and making better use of financial services. In turn, sustainable economic growth could reverse the negative effects of inequality, reducing the need for high-wage and higher-earning households. Thus, it provides higher economic growth. This paper discusses three ways to circumvent the impact of decreasing consumption on economic growth adopted in developing economies over the last fifty years, such as increasing exports, providing loans for consumption, and printing new money. The findings showed that none of these methods seem to be sustainable in the long run. Thus novel and innovative mechanisms that would allow our economy to reduce inequality are necessary and need to be put into place.

scholarly journals Impact of contact tracing on COVID-19 mortality: An impact evaluation using surveillance data from Colombia

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0246987
Author(s):  
Andres I. Vecino-Ortiz ◽  
Juliana Villanueva Congote ◽  
Silvana Zapata Bedoya ◽  
Zulma M. Cucunuba
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Fixed Effects Model ◽  
Surveillance Strategy ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The Public ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Crucial Part

Background Contact tracing is a crucial part of the public health surveillance toolkit. However, it is labor-intensive and costly to carry it out. Some countries have faced challenges implementing contact tracing, and no impact evaluations using empirical data have assessed its impact on COVID-19 mortality. This study assesses the impact of contact tracing in a middle-income country, providing data to support the expansion and optimization of contact tracing strategies to improve infection control. Methods We obtained publicly available data on all confirmed COVID-19 cases in Colombia between March 2 and June 16, 2020. (N = 54,931 cases over 135 days of observation). As suggested by WHO guidelines, we proxied contact tracing performance as the proportion of cases identified through contact tracing out of all cases identified. We calculated the daily proportion of cases identified through contact tracing across 37 geographical units (32 departments and five districts). Further, we used a sequential log-log fixed-effects model to estimate the 21-days, 28-days, 42-days, and 56-days lagged impact of the proportion of cases identified through contact tracing on daily COVID-19 mortality. Both the proportion of cases identified through contact tracing and the daily number of COVID-19 deaths are smoothed using 7-day moving averages. Models control for the prevalence of active cases, second-degree polynomials, and mobility indices. Robustness checks to include supply-side variables were performed. Results We found that a 10 percent increase in the proportion of cases identified through contact tracing is related to COVID-19 mortality reductions between 0.8% and 3.4%. Our models explain between 47%-70% of the variance in mortality. Results are robust to changes of specification and inclusion of supply-side variables. Conclusion Contact tracing is instrumental in containing infectious diseases. Its prioritization as a surveillance strategy will substantially impact reducing deaths while minimizing the impact on the fragile economic systems of lower and middle-income countries. This study provides lessons for other LMIC.

scholarly journals The Impact of COVID-19 on the Care of Patients With Noncommunicable Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Online Survey of Patient Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 237437352110340
Author(s):  
Ratna Devi ◽  
Felicity Goodyear-Smith ◽  
Kannan Subramaniam ◽  
Jessica McCormack ◽  
Amanda Calder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
Low And Middle Income

We sought to gain insights into the impacts of COVID-19 and associated control measures on health and health care of patients from low- and middle-income countries with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and mental health conditions, using an online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common concern for the 1487 patients who took part was contracting COVID-19 when they accessed health care. Of those infected with COVID-19, half said that their health had been worse since being infected. Collectively, most people reported an increase in feelings of stress and loneliness. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a range of health care impacts on patients with noncommunicable diseases, including constraints on access to care and health effects, particularly mental well-being.

scholarly journals The impact of energy consumption on Carbon Intensity of Human Well-Being (CIWB)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thuan ◽  
Dang Bac Hai
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Control Variables ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Impact

A key concern when constructing sustainable development policy is reducing the negative impact on environmental systems and maximizing human welfare. In this study, we assess how energy consumption effected on Carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB). Using two-way fixed effects in panel regression, this relationship has been investigated during 2000-2018 for 9 lower middle-income countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, while adding GDP and FDI per capita as control variables. The study reveals that the use of energy for economic development is ineffective and inconsistent with the overview of sustainable development due to the result of increasing CIWB. However, the sign of negative coefficients of GDP and FDI per capita in control variables have given the striking findings that these factors will be helpful for lower middle - income countries to pursue sustainable development by reducing CIWB.

scholarly journals The impact of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health in low- and middle- income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel McGuire ◽  
Caspar Kaiser ◽  
Anders Bach-Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
The Impact

Background: A large body of evidence evaluates the impact of cash transfers (CTs) on physical health and economic indicators. A growing amount of research on CTs contains measures of subjective well- being (SWB) and mental health (MH) but no attempt has been made to systematically synthesize this work.Methods/design: We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs and quasi- experimental studies, including peer-reviewed publications and grey literature (e.g. reports, pre-prints, and working papers), conducted over the period 2000-2020, examining the impact of CTs on self- reported SWB and MH outcomes.Results: Two authors (JM and CK) double-screened 1,147 records of potentially relevant studies, finding 38 studies suitable for inclusion in our meta-analysis, covering 100 outcomes and a total sample of n=114,274 individuals. The average effect size (Cohen’s d) of 38 CT studies on our composite outcome of MH and SWB is 0.10 standard deviations (SDs) (95% CI: 0.8, 0.13) for an average time until follow-up of two years. However, there is a substantial amount of heterogeneity in the estimated effects (I-squared = 64% and 95% Prediction interval: 0.0021, 0.215). CT value, both in absolute terms and relative to previous income, are significant predictors of the effect size. We find only weak evidence that the impact diminishes over time. Four randomized controlled trials in our sample were designed to identify the spillover effects of CTs on the SWB and MH outcomes of non-recipients. Two found negative spillovers but the average effect is not statistically significant and is close to zero.Discussion: Cash transfers significantly increase MH and SWB in low- and middle-income countries. More research on the long run (5+ years) effects is needed, as well as further analysis of the community and household spillover effects of cash transfers on MH and SWB outcomes. We encourage the inclusion of MH and SWB metrics in impact evaluations of interventions to enable the assessment of their relative cost-effectiveness at improving lives compared to cash transfers.

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