Sílvia Monteiro Fonseca, Sara Faria, Sónia Cunha, Márcio Silva, M. Joaquina Ramos, Guilherme Azevedo, Rui Campos, António Ruão Barbosa and Cristina Queirós
This study aims to explore patterns of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel's mental health, regarding their levels of anxiety, depression, stress, COVID-19 anxiety…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore patterns of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel's mental health, regarding their levels of anxiety, depression, stress, COVID-19 anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and well-being; and to explore variables that contribute to these patterns, among sociodemographic/professional and COVID-19 experience variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were 214 EMS personnel, who answered the Patient-Health Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale, COVID-19 Anxiety Scale, Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, Well-Being Questionnaire and COVID-19 related questions.
Findings
EMS personnel showed an adequate psychological adjustment during COVID-19. Two clusters/patterns were found: the poorly (34%) and the well (66%) psychologically-adjusted. Personnel's age, COVID-19 fear and workplace security measures' adequacy contributed to which pattern they were more likely to belong to.
Research limitations/implications
Despite being cross-sectional and not controlling for pre-COVID-19 data, this study adds to the COVID-19 literature. Findings call for the need to explore: other COVID-19 fears; how personnel perceive workplace security measures; COVID-19 valid instruments; pre-COVID-19 data; and mental health patterns with different rescuers.
Practical implications
Findings explored EMS personnel's patterns of mental health during the COVID-19, as well as its covariates. Results allow to better prepare emergency management, which can develop prevention strategies focused on older professionals, COVID-19 related fears and how personnel assess security measures.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the scarce literature focused on COVID-19 mental health patterns instead of focussing on isolated mental health variables, as well as what contributes to these patterns. Moreover, it is one of the few studies that focused on EMS personnel rather than hospital staff.
Details
Keywords
In the twenty-first century, the family has been turning towards a greater plurality of training paths, situations, family and parental arrangements. However, despite changes in…
Abstract
In the twenty-first century, the family has been turning towards a greater plurality of training paths, situations, family and parental arrangements. However, despite changes in legislation, values, representations and practices, the word family remains inexorably associated with the heterosexual bi-parental model. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge of the family dynamics of non-heterosexual people, mainly concerning the process of transition to parenting, in relation to family changes in Portuguese society. To do so this study aims to analyze four in-depth interviews1 with young adults, women and men who have a homoconjugality relationship and a project of parenting in mind.
Based on a qualitative methodology the study intends to discuss issues related to the challenge of heteronormativity, equality within the couple, projects and gender representations of parenthood and in particular what it means for the men and women interviewed, to be a father and to be a mother in a same sex couple and how they project themselves as fathers and mothers.
The study discusses all these issues always in relation to the biographical trajectories, the history and life as a couple and the structural and individual resources, such as school and professional qualifications. It also analyzes the main difficulties experienced in revealing their sexuality to the significant others and the difficulties / strategies they anticipate in relation to the parenting project.
The authors conclude that female interviewees show greater independence of a male figure in relation to their parental projects and anticipate less difficulty in their parental skills compared with the gay man interviewed.
To analyze the dynamics of parenting in same-sex couples, this study also points out to the need to construct a model of analysis capable of articulating structural factors, such as job insecurity and heteronormativity, biographies and individual resources and profiles of conjugal interactions.
Details
Keywords
Ana Paula Mena Alberico, Glória Valeria da Veiga, Mirian Ribeiro Baião, Marta Maria Antonieta de Souza Santos, Sônia Buongermino de Souza and Sophia Cornbluth Szarfarc
This study describes the breast‐feeding profile as well as the consumption of iron source foods and vitamin C source foods for both anaemic and non‐anaemic children. A total of…
Abstract
This study describes the breast‐feeding profile as well as the consumption of iron source foods and vitamin C source foods for both anaemic and non‐anaemic children. A total of 500 infants attending two Municipal Primary Health‐Care Centres in Rio de Janeiro were assessed. The prevalence of anaemia was 57.6 per cent. A low probability of consumption of exclusive breast‐feeding at four months was found (9 per cent for anaemic and 12 per cent for non‐anaemic). Further findings showed that the early consumption of cow’s milk, as well as the low probability of consumption and late introduction of beans, liver and green vegetables in the child’s diet, were considered risk dietary factors for iron deficiency anaemia among the evaluated children.
Fabian Maximilian Johannes Teichmann, Sonia Ruxandra Boticiu and Bruno S. Sergi
This study aims to analyze the relationship between financial sustainability and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the relationship between financial sustainability and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
To do so, an extensive literature review on sustainability, FinTech, P2P lending and their associated risks was conducted using a fundamentally theoretical and descriptive methodology.
Findings
In addition, this study shows that finance can accelerate the transition to a low-carbon circular economy by allocating investments in sustainable projects and businesses. Moreover, FinTech P2P lending platforms can help to vitalize green digital finance by using the internet and information technology in the lending market. Nevertheless, anonymous lending and borrowing ventures can produce potential risks such as money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud risk and information asymmetry.
Originality/value
Sustainable finance remains an emerging and relevant area; however, the literature has not sufficiently addressed compliance concerns. To address this gap, this study aims to contribute to the literature by analyzing the link between sustainable finance and P2P platforms and drawing attention to the compliance risks listed above.
Details
Keywords
Barbara de Lima Voss, David Bernard Carter and Bruno Meirelles Salotti
We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in…
Abstract
We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.
Details
Keywords
Ana Paula Mena Alberico, Glória Valeria da Veiga, Mirian Ribeiro Baião, Marta Maria Antonieta de Souza Santos, Sônia Buongermino de Souza and Sophia Cornbluth Szarfarc
This study evaluated the prevalence of anaemia and its association with various risk factors in 500 infants attended at two municipal primary health care centres in Rio de…
Abstract
This study evaluated the prevalence of anaemia and its association with various risk factors in 500 infants attended at two municipal primary health care centres in Rio de Janeiro. Anaemia was assessed using a portable haemoglobinometer (HemoCue). Nutritional status was assessed via weight/age, weight/height and height/age indices. The cut off value –2 z score was used to define underweight, wasted and stunted children according to the National Centre for Health and Statistics – NCHS – curves. Socio‐economic and biological data were obtained from the child’s mother through the use of questionnaires. No association was corroborated between the prevalence of anaemia and the studied risk factors. Development of primary health care intervention is important as a means of reducing the incidence of anaemia in infants, especially in boys and children in the second semester of life, who demonstrated a higher risk.
This chapter focuses on how to leverage public transport infrastructure to produce walk-friendly environments, positioning public transport as a walk-enhancing mode. What are the…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on how to leverage public transport infrastructure to produce walk-friendly environments, positioning public transport as a walk-enhancing mode. What are the steps that public transport operators can take to create walk-friendly environments? Do more comfortable waiting conditions result in stronger loyalty from the existing customer base and stronger buyout from new customers? This novel approach stemmed from a partnership with the public transport operator Transdev on a real-life experiment in Grenoble to provide a more comfortable walking and resting experience for public transport users. Named Carrefour de Mobilité (‘the crossroads of mobility’), the experiment prototyped urban design interventions to enhance the access and waiting experience of users engaged in mixed-mode commuting. An ex ante/ex post evaluation was deployed to ascertain whether walk-friendlier environments encourage a more intensive use of public space and easier shifting between public transport modes. The findings show that when users perceive dedicated infrastructure as walk-friendly, they consider it more visible and more attractive, and find it comfortable enough to spend longer waiting times there. The evaluation would have benefited from an extension of the perimeter covered by the sensor technology measuring system which was not feasible because of budget constraints. The experiment reached out beyond the initial target public and captured children and older women as well, providing an amenity which was lacking for these groups and resulting in a livelier and more diverse environment for everyone. This lean and low-cost experiment shows that activating public space near public transport hubs enhances their attractiveness in the eyes of the public transport users.