For children and youth, the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced at a critical time in their development. Children have experienced extended disruptions to routines including in-person schooling, physical ...activities, and social interactions-things that bring meaning and structure to their daily lives. We estimated the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms of children and youth and their experiences of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), during the first year of the pandemic, and identified factors related to these outcomes. Further, we examined these effects among ethnocultural minority families. We conducted an online survey (March-July 2021) with 510 children and youth aged 8-18 years and their parents/caregivers. The sample was representative of the targeted population. We modelled the relationship between anxiety, depression (measured using the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale), HRQoL (measured using KIDSCREEN-10), and sociodemographic, behavioural, and COVID-19-contributing factors using binary logistic regression. A priori-selected moderating effects of sociodemographic characteristics and self-identified ethnocultural minority groups on the outcomes were tested. The point-in-time prevalence of medium-to-high anxiety symptoms and depression symptoms was 10.19% and 9.26%, respectively. Almost half (49.15%) reported low-to-moderate HRQoL. Children reporting medium-to-high anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and low-to-moderate HRQoL were more likely to be aged 8-11 years, 16-18 years, ethnocultural minority participants, living in rural/urban areas, having good/fair MH before COVID-19, experiencing household conflicts, having less physical activity, and having ≥3 h of recreational screen time. Those who had more people living at home and ≥8 h of sleep reported low anxiety and depression symptoms. Ethnocultural minority 16-18-year-olds were more likely to report low-to-moderate HRQoL, compared to 12-15-year-olds. Additionally, 8-11-year-olds, 16-18-year-olds with immigrant parents, and 16-18-year-olds with Canadian-born parents were more likely to report low-moderate HRQoL, compared to 12-15-year-olds. Children and youth MH and HRQoL were impacted during the pandemic. Adverse MH outcomes were evident among ethnocultural minority families. Our results reveal the need to prioritize children's MH and to build equity-driven, targeted interventions.
While the dual behavior of consistent mask wearing and vaccine acceptance represents an effective method of protecting oneself and others from COVID-19, research has yet to directly examine its ...predictors. A total of 3347 responses from a pooled cross-sectional survey of adults living in Saskatchewan, Canada, were analyzed using a multinomial logistic regression model. The outcome variable was the combined behavior of mask-wearing and vaccine intention in four combinations, while covariates consisted of socio-demographic factors, risk of exposure to coronavirus, mitigating behaviors, and perceptions of COVID-19. Those who were 65 years and older, financially secure, consistently practiced social distancing and had no or very few contacts with people outside their households, were concerned about spreading the virus, and perceived they would be seriously sick if infected were likely to engage in both mask wearing and vaccine acceptance, rather than one or the other, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 2.24 to 27.54. Further, within mask wearers, these factors were associated in a graded manner with vaccine intent. By describing the characteristics of those who engage in both mask wearing and vaccine acceptance, these results offer a specific set of characteristics for public health authorities to target and, therefore, contribute to the rapidly evolving body of knowledge on protective factors for COVID-19.
Issues
Preventable overdose deaths, especially due to opioids, have increasingly been reported worldwide. Expansion of life‐saving harm reduction services is underway with increasing public support ...in some jurisdictions. However, such services often fall short of reaching people who use drugs (PWUD), in part, due to law enforcement practices that are aligned with punitive drug laws and incongruent with harm reduction principles. One suggested strategy to facilitate police understanding and uptake of practices that are more congruent with harm reduction is to provide police with relevant training.
Approach
This scoping review synthesises English‐language peer‐reviewed and grey literature on harm reduction training programs for police.
Key Findings
We reviewed 31 sources and found that most trainings covered topics related to harm reduction objectives, overdose recognition and response, occupational safety and policing practices. Information was often presented via single‐session, 1‐hour long, slide‐assisted presentations that were integrated into in‐service trainings. Inconsistent throughout the literature was the career stage or position/rank of training audience (e.g. cadets, senior officers, street‐level officers), when and how much training should be provided, and the occupational background of the training facilitator.
Implications
The available literature contains significant gaps pertaining to descriptions of training development, design and content specific to facilitating positive police‐PWUD interactions, and formal evaluations. These gaps limit our understanding of what well‐designed trainings may look like, if and how training alters policing practices, and to what extent training completion may lead to improved outcomes.
Conclusion
Greater research and formal evaluations of harm reduction training for police is recommended.
This paper aims to understand the impact of COVID-19 on three mental health outcomes-anxiety, depression, and mental health service use. Specifically, whether the associations between social and ...economic variables and these outcomes are exacerbated or buffered among equity-seeking groups in Saskatchewan. We analyzed secondary datasets of Saskatchewan adults from population-based national surveys conducted by Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) on three occasions: cycle 2 (August 2020), cycle 5 (February 2021), and cycle 7 (June 2021). We examined temporal changes in the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and service utilization. Using the responses from 577 respondents in cycle 5 dataset (as it coincides with the peak of 2nd wave), we performed multinomial logistic regression. The policy implications of the findings were explored empirically through a World Café approach with 30 service providers, service users and policy makers in the province. The prevalence of anxiety and depression remained steady but high. Mental health services were not accessed by many who need it. Participants reporting moderate or severe anxiety were more likely to be 30-49 years old, women, and immigrants who earned less than $20,000 annually. Immigrants with either college or technical education presented with a lesser risk of severe anxiety. Factors associated with moderate or severe depression were younger age (<50 years), low household income, as well as immigrants with lower levels of education. Racialized groups had a lower risk of severe depression if they were under 30 years. Students and retirees also had a lower risk of severe depression. Canadian-born residents were more likely to require mental health supports but were not accessing them, compared to immigrants. Our analysis suggests mental health outcomes and service utilization remain a problem in Saskatchewan, especially among equity-seeking groups. This study should help drive mental health service redesign towards a client-centred, integrated, and equity-driven system in Saskatchewan.
Background A high population level of vaccination is required to control the COVID-19 pandemic, but not all Canadians are convinced of the value and safety of vaccination. Understanding more about ...these individuals can aid in developing strategies to increase their acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. The objectives of this study were to describe COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, hesitancy and refusal rates and associated factors in Saskatchewan, Canada. Methods This is a cross-sequential study that consisted of pooled responses from weighted samples of 9,252 Saskatchewan adults (≥18 years) across nine rounds of data collection between May 4, 2020 and April 3, 2021. The outcome variable was vaccine intention: vaccine acceptance, hesitancy, and refusal. The independent variables were layered into socio-demographic factors, risk of exposure to coronavirus, mitigating behaviours, and perceptions of COVID-19. Data were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression and a classification and regression tree. Results Seventy-six percent of the respondents indicated that they had been or were willing to be vaccinated, 13% had not yet decided, and the remaining 11% said they would not be vaccinated. Factors that increased the likelihood of vaccine refusal and hesitancy were lower education level, financial instability, Indigenous status, and not being concerned about spreading the coronavirus. Perceiving COVID-19 to be more of a threat to one’s community and believing that one had a higher risk of illness or death from COVID-19 decreased the likelihood of both vaccine refusal and hesitancy. Women and newcomers to Canada were more likely to be unsure about getting vaccinated. Respondents who did not plan to be vaccinated were less likely to wear face masks and practice physical distancing. Conclusion While many Canadians have voluntarily and eagerly become vaccinated already, reaching sufficient coverage of the population is likely to require targeted efforts to convince those who are resistant or unsure. Identifying and overcoming any barriers to vaccination that exist within the socio-demographic groups we found were least likely to be vaccinated is a crucial component.
In September 2001, a 12-year-old Saulteaux Cree girl-child of the Yellow Quill First Nation was sexually assaulted by three white men from Tisdale, Saskatchewan--Dean Edmondson (24), Jeffrey Kindrat ...(20), and Jeffrey Brown (25). This thesis interrogates the discursive construction of this crime and its representation as an ongoing media event in one of Saskatchewan's major newspapers, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Analysing coverage that begins in October 2001, the scope and trajectory of this thesis includes an analysis of numerous preliminary court appearances and hearings, two trials, Edmondson's conviction and Kindrat and Brown's acquittal in 2003, the ensuing appeals, and associated and related stories. The approach to media discourse employed in this thesis strives to locate this media event firmly within the time and place it occurred--contextualising it within intersecting discourses of race and sex specific to this case, in Saskatchewan, at this time. This work problematises not only the hegemonic production of media discourse, but the power-knowledge of authorised speakers and the dominant discourses of rape and Aboriginality that were invoked and reproduced. As such, this thesis forwards an understanding of the physical and discursive contestations of power involved in discourses of rape, racism, and sexism, paying particular attention to violent ways in which this victim's credibility was attacked and erased, as well as the reproduction of the conditions that produced this rape. It concludes by identifying how hegemonic constructions are defended and reinforced at the expense of Aboriginal girls and women.
Shakespeare and the Book Kastan, David Scott
Canadian Journal of Communication,
04/2003, Letnik:
28, Številka:
2
Journal Article, Book Review
Recenzirano
While fully aware of the utopian dreams of a virtual Shakespeare, David Scott Kastan suggests that the computer may offer an escape from the trials that dogged editors of Shakespeare's "book." ...Although the footnotes once threatened to take over Shakespeare's words on the page, a hypertext Complete Works of Shakespeare can include all of the quartos and folios, the changes, the editorial notes, the corrections, and so on that have accumulated over the past four centuries--texts intersecting infinitely. (But Kastan is not oblivious to the paradox that the sheer volume of this work may drive people back to a single, if never completed, text--the book.) Shakespeare has already asserted his authority on this "brave new medium" (Shakespeare sites and hypertext projects abound). In the age of the computer, neither Shakespeare nor the book has disappeared. Computers are no better nor worse than the codex as media for Shakespeare, since neither contains the "authentic" Shakespeare. This is because, as Kastan has illustrated quite remarkably, "He has never been in any of those textual spaces where we pretend he resides" (p. 136). In Shakespeare and the Book, Kastan makes this argument quite convincingly, but there are (as there always will be) holes in his thesis. One assumption that Kastan makes throughout is that Shakespeare was not interested in printing; his plays were written for the stage (although Kastan warns against us looking for "him" there). Although his plays were printed in his lifetime (the first folio came after), there is no evidence that printing concerned him. Nevertheless, print conserved Shakespeare--as performance cannot. Kastan draws a line between text (specifically, printed text presented in the medium of the book) and performance as distinct modes of production as well as discussion. Thus, while insisting Shakespeare himself was not a literary man (he was a theatre man), Kastan is adamant that the book is Shakespeare's "milieu" (although manuscript was his medium). Somehow this line of reasoning leads Kastan to make the assertion that "Shakespeare's legitimate medium is not merely the theatre but also, if not primarily, the book" (p. 11). This is where Kastan's contruction of "Shakespeare"--the man, the best-selling dramatist, the actor, the playwright, the myth, the aura, the author--is revealed. He is shown to be not an author, but what Foucault calls an "author-function." Kastan argues that we have only recently critically observed the book as something that is neither natural nor inevitable. Although I do not dispute this, I would argue that his discussion of Shakespeare and the book assumes that Shakespeare himself is somehow natural and inevitable. He does talk about Shakespeare's construction vis-a-vis the book, but not the construction of Shakespeare as "the author," a construction upon which his place in the history of the book depends. The function of "Shakespeare," for Kastan's purposes, is to organize the texts he "authored," at the time in which his works came to be printed, and to evoke the multiplicity of significations that his name carries in our culture. It is Shakespeare's "author-function," not the author himself, whose medium is the book. Kastan does not discuss Shakespeare in these Foucauldian terms, but he is aware of the cachet of the Shakespeare author-function: "The prestige he offers is already less a function of memorable plays enjoyed in the theatre by millions... than of their function in print" (p. 13). Shakespeare here is "not a man, but a book" (p. 13).
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects >200 million people worldwide and is associated with high mortality and morbidity. We sought to identify genomic variants associated with PAD overall and in ...the contexts of diabetes and smoking status.
We identified genetic variants associated with PAD and then meta-analyzed with published summary statistics from the Million Veterans Program and UK Biobank to replicate their findings. Next, we ran stratified genome-wide association analysis in ever smokers, never smokers, individuals with diabetes, and individuals with no history of diabetes and corresponding interaction analyses, to identify variants that modify the risk of PAD by diabetic or smoking status.
We identified 5 genome-wide significant (
≤5×10
) associations with PAD in 449 548 (N
=12 086) individuals of European ancestry near
) loci (which overlapped previously reported associations). Meta-analysis with variants previously associated with PAD showed that 18 of 19 published variants remained genome-wide significant. In individuals with diabetes, rs116405693 at the
) locus was associated with PAD (odds ratio 95% CI, 1.51 1.32-1.74,
=2.5×10
,
=5.3×10
). Furthermore, in smokers, rs12910984 at the
locus was associated with PAD (odds ratio 95% CI, 1.15 1.11-1.19,
=9.3×10
,
=3.9×10
).
Our analyses confirm the published genetic associations with PAD and identify novel variants that may influence susceptibility to PAD in the context of diabetes or smoking status.
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