A universal coronavirus vaccine could save billions of dollars if ready before next pandemic

What if scientists had developed a universal coronavirus vaccine in the years prior to 2020 so that it was available at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? A universal coronavirus vaccine targets parts of the virus that are common to either many or all coronaviruses, thereby offering some degree of protection against a range of strains. A new study suggests […]

Covid conspiracies: social media fatigue linked to misinformation

The spread of false information and conspiracy theories accelerated during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inadvertently inaccurate, and some deliberately misleading, ideas were widely shared on social media channels on topics ranging from the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to the safety of vaccines. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, set out to understand why COVID-19 misinformation thrived and […]

How did the initial COVID-19 wave affect mental health in the UK?

New research published in Economic Inquiry reports substantial increases in psychological distress in the UK during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health effects were more pronounced for females; younger individuals; Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities; and migrants. Also, people who had financial worries, loneliness, or were living in overcrowded dwellings experienced significantly worse mental health deterioration during the […]

Practicing mindfulness with an app may improve children’s mental health

Many studies have found that practicing mindfulness — defined as cultivating an open-minded attention to the present moment — has benefits for children. Children who receive mindfulness training at school have demonstrated improvements in attention and behavior, as well as greater mental health. When the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, sending millions of students home from school, a group of […]

Majority of nurses attribute well-being struggles to staffing shortages

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCRN), a market-leading, tech-enabled workforce solutions platform and advisory firm, in collaboration with Florida Atlantic University, today announced the results of its annual survey of nursing professionals and students. The study found that although nurses are passionate about doing meaningful work and earning a good income, only one-third of nurses plan to remain in the profession for […]

Emergency department visits for attempted suicides rose globally among youth during pandemic

Even though pediatric emergency department visits decreased greatly overall during the COVID-19 pandemic, a newly published study led out of the University of Calgary shows there was also a sharp increase in emergency department visits for attempted suicide and suicide ideation among children and adolescents in that same period of social isolation. Dr. Sheri Madigan, a clinical psychologist in the […]

Skilled nursing facilities continued to provide high quality care for those hospitalized during the pandemic

Older adults who entered skilled nursing facilities (SNF) for care after hospitalizations after the pandemic received rehabilitation care comparable to the levels of care that were provided pre-pandemic, according to research published in the JAMA Health Forum. Despite exceptional challenges during the pandemic, SNFs provided post-acute rehabilitation with only a modest decline in intensity, said the researchers. This suggests that SNFs […]

COVID-19 pandemic increased rates and severity of depression, whether people were infected or not

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted just about every part of people’s lives. Quarantining, social distancing, societal disruptions and an ever-shifting, uncertain landscape of rules and restrictions and variants created stress and isolation that impacted the mental health of millions of Americans. Now, in a new study of nearly 136,000 patients from Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, researchers found that depressive […]

Spike in obesity among pre-schoolers during pandemic

A new study, published in the European Journal of Public Health based on data from 25,049 children aged three to five, shows an increase in obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new paper is authored by Anton Holmgren, research associate in paediatrics at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, and Anna Fält, researcher in child health and parenthood at Uppsala University. Previous […]

New research shows pandemic’s toll on frontline healthcare workers

For frontline healthcare workers, the mental health impact from the pandemic is extending beyond career burnout.  Much of the attention on the mental toll suffered by frontline workers has focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). New research from a collaboration between Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh reveals that even those who are not formally diagnosed as suffering from […]