Evidence suggests that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic might have deleterious effects on the population's mental health and psychiatric outcomes. We examined the prevalence of depression, distress, and ...suicidal thoughts and their association with social and economic factors during the state of emergency in a nationwide representative sample of the general population in Latvia.
An online survey was conducted using a randomized stratified sample of the general adult population in July 2020 for 3 weeks. Distress, depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-reported changes in mental health were identified using a structured questionnaire. The statistical analysis included chi-square tests, analyses of variance, and multivariate forward-stepwise linear regressions.
The study sample included 2608 respondents. Clinical depression was present in 5.75% and distress in 7.82%. Suicidal thoughts increased in 13.30% of those with a history of clinical depression, and 27.05% of those with a history of suicidal attempts. The variables that were associated with increases in self-reported anxiety, depressive thoughts, suicidal ideation, and being currently depressed/distressed included lower general health, increased fears of contracting COVID-19 or having family members contract it and die, history of suicidality, increased family conflicts, decreased religiosity, caring for a vulnerable person. Protective factors included positive changes in family relationships and economic situation, maintaining one's basic routine, and having more people living in the household.
Further research and interventions should focus specifically on these factors. The study's findings can help to develop future strategies for management of psychological support for different groups in general population.
Considering the trend towards climate neutrality and energy efficiency at the global level as well as the problem of high energy poverty at the national level, the issue of housing renovation was ...inevitable for Latvia in 2023. The main objective of the study is to analyse the situation in Latvia, its problematic aspects and opportunities for the government, as well as to propose possible methods for solving the problem of low rates of housing renovation in Latvia. The main methods used were PESTLE analysis to identify problems and cluster analysis to compare financial opportunities in each country. The main results of the study are the conclusion that the financial aspect of renovation in Latvia is at a satisfactory level and is not the main reason for the unpopularity of renovation, but the main problem is energy poverty. The main conclusion is that renovation in Latvia requires a new approach that can improve the energy efficiency situation in Latvia, and providing such a method in the form of building renovation based on private-public partnership is the possible approach.
Performance art in Western Europe and North America developed in part as a response to the commercialisation of the art object, as artists endeavoured to create works of art that could not be bought ...or sold. But what are the roots of performance art in Eastern Europe and Russia, where there was no real art market to speak of? While many artworks created in the ‘East’ may resemble Western performance art practices, their origins, as well as their meaning and significance, is decidedly different. By placing specific performances from Russia, Latvia and Poland from the late- and post-communist periods within a local and international context, this book pinpoints the nuances between performance art East and West. Performance art in Eastern Europe is examined for the first time as agent and chronicle of the transition from Soviet and satellite states to free-market democracies. Drawing upon previously unpublished sources and exclusive interviews with the artists themselves, Amy Bryzgel explores the actions of the period, from Miervaldis Polis's Bronze Man to Oleg Kulik's Russian Dog performances. Bryzgel demonstrates that in the late-1980s and early 1990s, performance art in Eastern Europe went beyond the modernist critique to express ideas outside the official discourse, shocking and empowering the citizenry, both effecting and mirroring the social changes taking place at the time. Performing the East opens the way to an urgent reassessment of the history, function and meaning of performance art practices in East-Central Europe.
Founded as an ecclesiastical center, trading hub, and intended capital of a feudal state, Riga was Old Livonia's greatest city and its indispensable port. Because the city was situated in what was ...initially remote and inhospitable territory, surrounded by pagans and coveted by regional powers like Poland, Sweden, and Muscovy, it was also a fortress encased by a wall. The House of Hemp and Butter begins in the twelfth century with the arrival to the eastern Baltic of German priests, traders, and knights, who conquered and converted the indigenous tribes and assumed mastery over their lands. It ends in 1710 with an account of the greatest war Livonia had ever seen, one that was accompanied by mass starvation, a terrible epidemic, and a flood of nearly Biblical proportions that devastated the city and left its survivors in misery. Readers will learn about Riga's people—merchants and clerics, craftsmen and builders, porters and day laborers—about its structures and spaces, its internal conflicts and its unrelenting struggle to maintain its independence against outside threats. The House of Hemp and Butter is an indispensable guide to a quintessentially European city located in one of the continent's more remote corners.
To study caries prevalence/severity in 12-year-old children in Latvia and potential risk indicators.
A cross-sectional oral-health national survey of 12-year-old children was conducted in 2016. A ...nationally representative stratified-cluster probabilistic sample of 2,138 pupils in 92 schools was selected. Children were examined by seven calibrated examiners (kappa inter-examiner, intra-examiner scores of 0.71–0.77, 0.81–0.97, respectively) at school. Enamel-non-cavitated decay (D1), enamel cavitation (D3), dentine cavitation (D5), missing (M) or filled (F) status at the tooth (T)/surface (S) levels were evaluated, and decayed, missing, and filled (DMF) index scores for severity, along with the Significant Caries Index (SiC), were calculated. An associated caries factor questionnaire was completed by participants.
The prevalence of caries was 98.5% for D1MFT, 79.7% for D3MFT, and 71.9% for D5MFT. The means (standard deviations) for severity were 9.2 (5.3) for D1MFT, 3.3 (3.0) for D3MFT, and 2.4 (2.4) for D5MFT, and 5.6 (2.1) for the SiC. Indicators associated with a lower risk of caries (D5MFT) were irregular dental visits (prevalence odds ratio POR = 0.45, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.36, 0.56) and irregular use of mouthwashes (POR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.60, 0.89).
We found a high caries prevalence and severity in 12 year-old children in Latvia. Although the WHO target for 2010 (D5MFT ≤ 3) is met, the values for caries prevalence (D5MFT > 0 = 71.9%) and severity (D5MFT = 2.5) in 12-year-old Latvian children are higher than the European averages (D5MFT > 0 = 52%, D5MFT = 1.1).
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the ability of healthcare systems to ensure the continuity of health services for patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The issue of remote ...consultations has emerged. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, remote consultations were not routinely provided or covered by public health funding in Latvia. This study aimed to describe the dynamics of consultations and the volume of remote consultations provided for patients with particular NCD and explore clinicians' experiences of providing remote consultations during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia.
A mixed-method study focusing on the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia in Spring 2020 was conducted. Quantitative data from the National Health Services were analysed to assess the dynamics of consultations for patients with selected NCDs. Qualitative data were collected through 34 semi-structured interviews with general practitioners (GPs) and specialists and were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis. Purposive maximum variation sampling was used for participant selection.
During the period with the strongest restrictions of scheduled on-site consultations, a decrease in the total number of consultations was observed for a variety of NCDs. A significant proportion of consultations in this period were provided remotely. GPs provided approximately one-third of cancer-related consultations and almost half of consultations for the other selected conditions remotely. Among specialists, endocrinologists had the highest proportion of remote consultations (up to 72.0%), while urologists had the lowest (16.4%). Thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews revealed five themes: 1) Adjusting in a time of confusion and fear, 2) Remote consultations: safety versus availability, 3) Sacrifice and loss of privacy, 4) Advantages and disadvantages of communication technologies, and 5) Different form of communication and a health literacy challenge.
During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia, disruptions to health care services decreased the total number of consultations for patients with NCDs provided by both GPs and specialists. In this period, remote consultations proved to be an important instrument for ensuring the continuity of health care for patients with NCDs, and the necessity to develop a well-designed system for telemedicine in Latvia was highlighted.
The book, based on research results from a three-year study of parliamentary and media debates in Latvia, analyses the discourses of Latvian politicians and the media about nation, citizenship, ...cultural diversity, history and the nation-state. This is the first large-scale study of political debates in a Baltic State from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Separate chapters, by researchers from Canada, Latvia, Lithuania and the UK, analyse the intersections between national identity construction, national mythmaking, concepts of citizenship, journalistic action, press ownership and questions of control of political and media discourses. All of these have impact on the fundamental questions of the relationship between individuals and the state. The authors conclude that even after the accession to the European Union in 2004, political pressures in Latvia, as also frequently on the political Right in other EU countries, promote ethnic membership as the guiding factor of state-building.
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