Introduction: Overweight and obesity among adults and children has increased dramatically worldwide in the last few decades. Overweight children usually remain overweight in adulthood and develop lots of comorbidities. It is therefore important to take preventive measures as early as possible to counteract this trend. Objective: To find out what effect the temporary school closure in Austria due to COVID-19 had on the school children in terms of body weight. Methods: Anthropometric parameters (bodyweight, body fat percentage and height) were measured twice in all students (before and after a 6-month intervention period). The intervention group received a one-hour nutrition lesson and two one-hour sports lessons per week. The control group was only tested and received no intervention. Subjects: The study group consisted of a control and an intervention group with a total of 115 school children. Results: The intervention and the control group gained about +4.5 kg in 2019/20, whereas the average increase in body weight was +2.85 kg (intervention group) and +2.61 kg (control group) the year before (2018/19). Conclusion: The lockdown in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has a big impact on body weight. Special online trainings should be implemented for school children, which should also involve the families.
People experiencing homelessness (PEH) face a disproportionately high prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes compared with the non-homeless population and are known to utilize primary healthcare services less frequently while seeking help in emergency care facilities. Given that primary health services are more efficient and cost-saving, services with a focus on mental health that are co-designed with the participation of users can tackle this problem. Hence, we aimed to synthesize the current evidence of such interventions to assess and summarize the characteristics and effectiveness of co-designed primary mental healthcare services geared towards adult PEH. Out of a total of 10,428 identified records, four articles were found to be eligible to be included in this review. Our findings show that co-designed interventions positively impacted PEH’s mental health and housing situation or reduced hospital and emergency department admissions and increased primary care utilization. Therefore, co-designed mental health interventions appear a promising way of providing PEH with continued access to primary mental healthcare. However, as co-designed mental health interventions for PEH can improve overall mental health, quality of life, housing, and acute service utilization, more research is needed.
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Studies show an enhanced increase in children’s weight and body mass index (BMI) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore measures to maintain children´s health are of vital importance. This study examines the effects of a 15-week web-based intervention of nutritional education and physical activity on children’s BMI z-score during the COVID-19 pandemic in Vienna. This pilot study was conducted in a Viennese primary school from February to June 2021. The study population included an intervention group and a control group comprising 125 8- to 11-year-olds. The intervention group received online nutritional and physical activity training, whereas the control group received no intervention. Anthropometric measurements were performed before and after intervention for both groups. At baseline, 41.2% were overweight/obese. After the study period, the BMI z-score decreased by 0.06 (±0.21) in the intervention group, whereas it increased by 0.17 (±0.34) in the control group (p<0.001). Further results show that the decrease in BMI z-score according to sex was significant in the intervention group for boys (p=0.004) and girls (p=0.012). In conclusion, an online intervention with combined nutritional education and physical activity training could be an adequate tool to lessen the enhanced increase in body weight during a pandemic. Therefore, further studies and the rapid implementation of such intervention programs are needed.
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