Abstract: To improve research and care for patients with post-COVID-19 condition more insight into different subtypes of post-COVID-19 condition and their risk factors is urgently needed. We aimed to identify risk factors of post-COVID-19 condition in general and for specific symptom profiles. Methods This study is based on data collected within the Lifelines Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cohort (N = 76 503). Mean pre- and post-SARS-CoV-2 infection symptom scores were compared to classify post-COVID-19 condition. Latent Profile Analysis was used to identify symptom profiles. Logistic and multinomial regression analyses were used to examine the association between demographic, lifestyle and health-related risk factors and post-COVID-19 condition, and symptom profiles, respectively. Results Of the 3465 participants having had COVID-19, 18.5% (n = 642) classified for post-COVID-19 condition. Four symptom profiles were identified: muscle pain, fatigue, cardiorespiratory and ageusia/anosmia. Female sex was a risk factor for the muscle pain and fatigue profiles. Being overweight or obese increased risk for all profiles, except the fatigue profile. Having a chronic disease increased the risk for all profiles except the ageusia/anosmia profile, with the cardiorespiratory profile being only significant in case of multimorbidity. Being unvaccinated increased risk of the ageusia/anosmia profile. Conclusions Findings from this study suggest that Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may trigger different pathophysiological mechanisms that may result in different subtypes of post-COVID-19 condition. These subtypes have shared and unique risk factors. Further characterization of symptom profiles and quantification of the individual and societal impact of specific symptom profiles are pressing challenges for future research.

Abstract: —J. BLUNDEN, T. BOYER, AND E. BARTOW-GILLIES Earth’s global climate system is vast, complex, and intricately interrelated. Many areas are influenced by global-scale phenomena, including the “triple dip” La Niña conditions that prevailed in the eastern Pacific Ocean nearly continuously from mid-2020 through all of 2022; by regional phenomena such as the positive winter and summer North Atlantic Oscillation that impacted weather in parts the Northern Hemisphere and the negative Indian Ocean dipole that impacted weather in parts of the Southern Hemisphere; and by more localized systems such as high-pressure heat domes that caused extreme heat in different areas of the world. Underlying all these natural short-term variabilities are long-term climate trends due to continuous increases since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the atmospheric concentrations of Earth’s major greenhouse gases. In 2022, the annual global average carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere rose to 417.1±0.1 ppm, which is 50% greater than the pre-industrial level. Global mean tropospheric methane abundance was 165% higher than its pre-industrial level, and nitrous oxide was 24% higher. All three gases set new record-high atmospheric concentration levels in 2022. Sea-surface temperature patterns in the tropical Pacific characteristic of La Niña and attendant atmospheric patterns tend to mitigate atmospheric heat gain at the global scale, but the annual global surface temperature across land and oceans was still among the six highest in records dating as far back as the mid-1800s. It was the warmest La Niña year on record. Many areas observed record or near-record heat. Europe as a whole observed its second-warmest year on record, with sixteen individual countries observing record warmth at the national scale. Records were shattered across the continent during the summer months as heatwaves plagued the region. On 18 July, 104 stations in France broke their all-time records. One day later, England recorded a temperature of 40°C for the first time ever. China experienced its second-warmest year and warmest summer on record. In the Southern Hemisphere, the average temperature across New Zealand reached a record high for the second year in a row. While Australia’s annual temperature was slightly below the 1991–2020 average, Onslow Airport in Western Australia reached 50.7°C on 13 January, equaling Australia's highest temperature on record. While fewer in number and locations than record-high temperatures, record cold was also observed during the year. Southern Africa had its coldest August on record, with minimum temperatures as much as 5°C below normal over Angola, western Zambia, and northern Namibia. Cold outbreaks in the first half of December led to many record-low daily minimum temperature records in eastern Australia. The effects of rising temperatures and extreme heat were apparent across the Northern Hemisphere, where snow-cover extent by June 2022 was the third smallest in the 56-year record, and the seasonal duration of lake ice cover was the fourth shortest since 1980. More frequent and intense heatwaves contributed to the second-greatest average mass balance loss for Alpine glaciers around the world since the start of the record in 1970. Glaciers in the Swiss Alps lost a record 6% of their volume. In South America, the combination of drought and heat left many central Andean glaciers snow free by mid-summer in early 2022; glacial ice has a much lower albedo than snow, leading to accelerated heating of the glacier. Across the global cryosphere, permafrost temperatures continued to reach record highs at many high-latitude and mountain locations. In the high northern latitudes, the annual surface-air temperature across the Arctic was the fifth highest in the 123-year record. The seasonal Arctic minimum sea-ice extent, typically reached in September, was the 11th-smallest in the 43-year record; however, the amount of multiyear ice—ice that survives at least one summer melt season—remaining in the Arctic continued to decline. Since 2012, the Arctic has been nearly devoid of ice more than four years old. In Antarctica, an unusually large amount of snow and ice fell over the continent in 2022 due to several landfalling atmospheric rivers, which contributed to the highest annual surface mass balance, 15% to 16% above the 1991–2020 normal, since the start of two reanalyses records dating to 1980. It was the second-warmest year on record for all five of the long-term staffed weather stations on the Antarctic Peninsula. In East Antarctica, a heatwave event led to a new all-time record-high temperature of −9.4°C—44°C above the March average—on 18 March at Dome C. This was followed by the collapse of the critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf. More than 100 daily low sea-ice extent and sea-ice area records were set in 2022, including two new all-time annual record lows in net sea-ice extent and area in February. Across the world’s oceans, global mean sea level was record high for the 11th consecutive year, reaching 101.2 mm above the 1993 average when satellite altimetry measurements began, an increase of 3.3±0.7 over 2021. Globally-averaged ocean heat content was also record high in 2022, while the global sea-surface temperature was the sixth highest on record, equal with 2018. Approximately 58% of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2022. In the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand’s longest continuous marine heatwave was recorded. A total of 85 named tropical storms were observed during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons, close to the 1991–2020 average of 87. There were three Category 5 tropical cyclones across the globe—two in the western North Pacific and one in the North Atlantic. This was the fewest Category 5 storms globally since 2017. Globally, the accumulated cyclone energy was the lowest since reliable records began in 1981. Regardless, some storms caused massive damage. In the North Atlantic, Hurricane Fiona became the most intense and most destructive tropical or post-tropical cyclone in Atlantic Canada’s history, while major Hurricane Ian killed more than 100 people and became the third costliest disaster in the United States, causing damage estimated at $113 billion U.S. dollars. In the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Batsirai dropped 2044 mm of rain at Commerson Crater in Réunion. The storm also impacted Madagascar, where 121 fatalities were reported. As is typical, some areas around the world were notably dry in 2022 and some were notably wet. In August, record high areas of land across the globe (6.2%) were experiencing extreme drought. Overall, 29% of land experienced moderate or worse categories of drought during the year. The largest drought footprint in the contiguous United States since 2012 (63%) was observed in late October. The record-breaking megadrought of central Chile continued in its 13th consecutive year, and 80-year record-low river levels in northern Argentina and Paraguay disrupted fluvial transport. In China, the Yangtze River reached record-low values. Much of equatorial eastern Africa had five consecutive below-normal rainy seasons by the end of 2022, with some areas receiving record-low precipitation totals for the year. This ongoing 2.5-year drought is the most extensive and persistent drought event in decades, and led to crop failure, millions of livestock deaths, water scarcity, and inflated prices for staple food items. In South Asia, Pakistan received around three times its normal volume of monsoon precipitation in August, with some regions receiving up to eight times their expected monthly totals. Resulting floods affected over 30 million people, caused over 1700 fatalities, led to major crop and property losses, and was recorded as one of the world’s costliest natural disasters of all time. Near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Petrópolis received 530 mm in 24 hours on 15 February, about 2.5 times the monthly February average, leading to the worst disaster in the city since 1931 with over 230 fatalities. On 14–15 January, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcano in the South Pacific erupted multiple times. The injection of water into the atmosphere was unprecedented in both magnitude—far exceeding any previous values in the 17-year satellite record—and altitude as it penetrated into the mesosphere. The amount of water injected into the stratosphere is estimated to be 146±5 Terragrams, or ∼10% of the total amount in the stratosphere. It may take several years for the water plume to dissipate, and it is currently unknown whether this eruption will have any long-term climate effect.

Abstract: Frailty is associated with COVID-19 severity in clinical settings. No general population-based studies on the association between actual frailty status and COVID-19 hospitalization are available. Aims To investigate the association between frailty and the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization once infected. Methods 440 older adults who participated in the Lifelines COVID-19 Cohort study in the Northern Netherlands and reported positive COVID-19 testing results (54.2% women, age 70 ± 4 years in 2021) were included in the analyses. COVID-19 hospitalization status was self-reported. The Groningen Frailty Indicator (GFI) was derived from 15 self-reported questionnaire items related to daily activities, health problems, and psychosocial functioning, with a score ≥ 4 indicating frailty. Both frailty and COVID-19 hospitalization were assessed in the same period. Poisson regression models with robust standard errors were used to analyze the associations between frailty and COVID-19 hospitalization. Results Of 440 older adults included, 42 were hospitalized because of COVID-19 infection. After adjusting for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, a higher risk of COVID-19 hospitalization was observed for frail individuals (risk ratio (RR) [95% CI] 1.97 [1.06–3.67] ) compared to those classified as non-frail. Discussion Frailty was positively associated with COVID-19 hospitalization once infected, independent of sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Future research on frailty and COVID-19 should consider biomarkers of aging and frailty to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms and manifestations between frailty and COVID-19 outcomes. Conclusions Frailty was positively associated with the risk of hospitalization among older adults that were infected with COVID-19. Public health strategies for frailty prevention in older adults need to be advocated, as it is helpful to reduce the burden of the healthcare system, particularly during a pandemic like COVID-19.

Abstract: This study evaluates to what extent symptoms are present before, during, and after a positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and to evaluate how the symptom burden and quality of Life (QoL) compares to those with a negative PCR test. Participants from the Dutch Lifelines COVID-19 Cohort Study filled-out as of March 2020 weekly, later bi-weekly and monthly, questions about demographics, COVID-19 diagnosis and severity, QoL, and symptoms. The study population included those with one positive or negative PCR test who filled out two questionnaires before and after the test, resulting in 996 SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive and 3978 negative participants. Nearly all symptoms were more often reported after a positive test versus the period before the test (p  〈  0.05), except fever. A higher symptom prevalence after versus before a test was also found for nearly all symptoms in negatives (p  〈  0.05). Before the test, symptoms were already partly present and reporting of nearly all symptoms before did not differ between positives and negatives (p  〉  0.05). QoL decreased around the test for positives and negatives, with a larger deterioration for positives. Not all symptoms after a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test might be attributable to the infection and symptoms were also common in negatives.

Abstract: While research on customer gratitude is gaining momentum, there is an absence of a clear conceptualization and operationalization of the construct. This paper aims to provide a grounded theory definition of customer gratitude, develops and validates a gratitude scale to fully capture the comprehensive definition and assesses the scale in a nomological network with antecedents and consequences. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study and four quantitative studies examine customer gratitude within service encounters. Findings Results from all five studies support a three-dimensional definition of customer gratitude that includes affective, behavioral and cognitive dimensions. The quantitative findings show that the three-dimensional gratitude scale offers strong predictive ability of loyalty and relationship continuity and that gratitude maintains its effect on these relational outcomes after assessing other mediating mechanisms (e.g. value). Research limitations/implications This research offers an expanded conceptual definition and scale of customer gratitude that conforms to theory and the extant literature. The scale maintains construct validity which is supported in a nomological context of theoretically based antecedents and consequences. Originality/value This work advances the emerging gratitude literature by clearly delineating the construct’s domain, measurement and impact on relational outcomes.

Abstract: 〈 b 〉 〈 i 〉 Background: 〈 /i 〉 〈 /b 〉 Coping is of substantial relevance in the treatment and course of psychiatric disorders. Standardized instruments to assess coping with psychotic symptoms, particularly delusions, are rare. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a new instrument to assess coping strategies in the context of delusional experiences: the Heidelberg Coping Scales for Delusions (HCSD). 〈 b 〉 〈 i 〉 Methods: 〈 /i 〉 〈 /b 〉 Two hundred and twelve inpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and affective disorders currently experiencing delusions were interviewed with the HCSD and other coping assessment instruments. Psychometric properties and factor structure were analyzed. 〈 b 〉 〈 i 〉 Results: 〈 /i 〉 〈 /b 〉 The HCSD showed good inter-rater reliability and convergent validity. Factor analysis yielded an interpretable structure with five factors: resource-oriented coping, medical care, distraction, cognitive coping, and depressive coping. Symptomatic behavior, due to its particular characteristics, was considered apart. 〈 b 〉 〈 i 〉 Conclusion: 〈 /i 〉 〈 /b 〉 The HCSD is a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of coping strategies in patients with delusions. Further research is needed to evaluate coping changes over time and their influence on treatment and clinical outcomes.