Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, with its cyclical lockdown restrictions and school closures, has influenced family life. The home, work, and school environments have collided and merged to form a new normal for many families. This merging extends into the family food environment, and little is known about how families are currently navigating this landscape. The objective of the present study was to describe families’ adaptations in the family food environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Parents participated in one of 14 virtual focus groups (conducted in English and Spanish between December 2020 and February 2021). Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcripts. Results: Forty-eight parents (81% Hispanic and SES diverse) participated. Five themes and one subtheme were identified around changes in eating habits and mealtime frequency, increases in snacking, family connectedness at mealtimes, and use of screens at meals. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the family food environment. Families shared how their eating habits have changed and that device usage increased at mealtimes. Some changes (e.g., weight gain) may have lasting health implications for both children and parents. Public health officials, pediatricians, and schools should work with families to resume healthy habits post pandemic.
Electrical vehicles operating at low speed are often too quiet to be detected by pedestrians in time. In order to study the efficiency of additional auditory warning signals they might be equipped with, a sample of 100 sighted and 53 blind listeners was exposed to a virtual roadcrossing scenario in which they had to detect whether an approaching vehicle came from the right or left. Nine warning signals, designed to differ in particular sound features such as FM, AM or the number of harmonics were studied and compared with the recording of an unfitted electrical vehicle (EV) and a conventional diesel car. The responses measured in the scenario in which cars approached at irregular intervals over two 20-min periods showed no reaction-time differences between blind and sighted participants, and a significant advantage when listening under dry weather conditions as opposed to recordings mixed with the sound of rain. Most importantly, however, regardless of listening conditions and the population studied (sighted or blind), the additional warning signals differed greatly in efficiency. Some signals facilitated detection of the EV as much as making it as noticeable as a control diesel car of significantly higher sound pressure level. Other signals were largely ineffective compared with the unfitted EV. Analysis of the signal characteristics suggested a relatively low number of harmonics, absence of frequency modulation, and irregular amplitude modulation to be the most salient features facilitating timely detection.
Background Child screen time (ST) has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdowns and restrictions have forced changes to regular family routines. It is important to investigate how families are navigating ST. Objective This study aimed to explore families’ experiences of ST during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Virtual focus group sessions were conducted between December 2020 and February 2021 in English and Spanish. Transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results In total, 48 parents (predominantly Hispanic) residing in California participated in 1 of 14 focus group sessions. Children were attending school remotely at the time of the study. A total of 6 themes and 1 subtheme were identified: (1) total ST has increased; (2) children are too attached to screens; (3) ST has advantages and disadvantages but parents perceive ST as mostly negative; (4) parents and children have limited options; (5) ST restrictions (subtheme: children react negatively when ST is restricted); and (6) parents are concerned that children are not getting enough exercise. Conclusions This study provides a cross-sectional insight into how family life has changed with regard to ST during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents expressed concerns about total ST, the addictive nature of it, and lack of physical activity. It is important that future studies examine the long-term effects of heavy ST and preemptively introduce ways to redirect children’s ST habits as the country attempts to establish a new normal.
The increase in availability of alternative fuel vehicles has elicited concerns for pedestrians who might not hear the approach of these quieter cars. Three experiments tested the relative audibility of hybrid vehicles (in their electric mode) and internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. Binaural recordings were made of the cars approaching from either the right or left, at 5 mph. Subjects were asked to listen to these recordings over headphones and press one of two buttons indicating from which direction the car approached. Subjects’ accuracies and reaction times were measured. The first experiment revealed that (sighted) subjects were able to determine the approach direction of the ICE cars substantially sooner than the hybrid cars. A second experiment added the natural background sounds of idling engines to the stimuli. The addition of background sound disproportionately hindered perception of the hybrid cars, so that they could not be localized until very close. A final experiment testing both sets of stimuli with blind subjects revealed the same pattern of results. Implications of these results for pedestrian safety will be discussed. [Work supported by a grant from the National Federation for the Blind.]
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