Recently, the whole of Europe, including Poland, have been significantly affected by COVID-19 and its social and economic consequences which are already causing dozens of billions of euros monthly losses in Poland alone. Social behaviour has a fundamental impact on the dynamics of the spread of infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2, challenging the existing health infrastructure and social organization. Modelling and understanding mechanisms of social behaviour (e.g. panic and social distancing) and its contextualization with regard to Poland can contribute to better response to the outbreak on a national and local level. In the presented study we aim to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 on society by: (i) measuring the relevant activity in internet news and social media; (ii) analysing attitudes and demographic patterns in Poland. In the end, we are going to implement computational social science and digital epidemiology research approach to provide urgently needed information on social dynamics during the outbreak. This study is an ad hoc reaction only, and our goal is to signal the main areas of possible research to be done in the future and cover issues with direct or indirect relation to public health.

Background: Little is known about frailty among patients hospitalized with heart failure (HF). To date, the limited information on frailty in HF is based on a unidimensional view of frailty, in which only physical aspects are considered when determining frailty. The aims of this study were to study different dimensions of frailty (physical, psychological and social) in patients with HF and the effect of different dimensions of frailty on the incidence of heart failure. Methods: The study used a cross-sectional design and included 965 patients hospitalized for heart failure and 164 healthy controls. HF was defined according to the ESC guidelines. The Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) was used to assess frailty. Probit regression analyses and chi-square statistics were used to examine associations between the occurrence of heart failure and TFI domains of frailty. Results: Patients diagnosed with frailty were 15.3% more likely to develop HF compared to those not diagnosed with frailty (p < 0.001). An increase in physical, psychological and social frailty corresponded to an increased risk of HF of 2.9% (p < 0.001), 4.4% (p < 0.001) and 6.6% (p < 0.001), respectively. Conclusions: We found evidence of the association between different dimensions of frailty and incidence of HF.

Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine jest oficjalnym pismem Uniwersytetu Medycznego im. Piast?w Sl?skich we Wroc?awiu. Publikowane s? w nim prace naukowe polskie, jak r?wnie? zagraniczne.

Recently, the whole of Europe, including Poland, have been significantly affected by COVID-19 and its social and economic consequences which are already causing dozens of billions of euros monthly losses in Poland alone. Social behaviour has a fundamental impact on the dynamics of spread of infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2, challenging the existing health infrastructure and social organization. Modelling and understanding mechanisms of social behaviour (e.g. panic and social distancing) and its contextualization with regard to Poland can contribute to better response to the outbreak on a national and local level. In the presented study we aim to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 on society by: (i) measuring the relevant activity in internet news and social media; (ii) analysing attitudes and demographic patterns in Poland. In the end, we are going to implement computational social science and digital epidemiology research approach to provide urgently needed information on social dynamics during the outbreak. This study is an ad hoc reaction only and our goal is to signal the main areas of possible research to be done in future and cover issues with direct or indirect relation to public health.

Problem: Due to the spread of SARS CoV-2 virus infection and COVID-2019 disease, there is an urgent need to analyze COVID-2019 epidemic perception in Poland. This would enable authorities for preparation of specific actions minimizing public health and economic risks. Methods: We study the perception of COVID-2019 epidemic in Polish society using quantitative analysis of its digital footprints on the Internet (on Twitter, Google, YouTube, Wikipedia and electronic media represented by Event Registry ) from January 2020 to 12.03.2020 (before and after official introduction to Poland on 04.03.2020). To this end we utilize data mining, social network analysis, natural language processing techniques. Each examined internet platform was analyzed for representativeness and composition of the target group. Results: We identified three temporal major cluster of the interest before disease introduction on the topic COVID-2019: China- and Italy-related peaks on all platforms, as well as a peak on social media related to the recent special law on combating COVID-2019. Besides, there was a peak in interest on the day of officially confirmed introduction as well as an exponential increase of interest when the Polish government “declared war against disease” with a massive mitigation program. From sociolingistic perspective, we found that concepts and issues of threat, fear and prevention prevailed before introduction. After introduction, practical concepts about disease and epidemic dominate. We have found out that Twitter reflected the structural division of the Polish political sphere. We were able to identify clear communities of governing party, mainstream oppostition and a protestant group and potential sources of disinformation. We have also detected bluring boundaries between comminities after disease introduction. Conclusions: Traditional and social media do not only reflect reality, but also create it. Due to filter “bubbles” observed on Twitter, public information campaigns might have less impact on society than expected. For greater penetration, it might be necessary to diversify information channels to reach as many people as possible which might already be happening. Moreover, it might be necessary to prevent the spread of disinformation, which is now possible in Poland due to the special law on combating COVID-2019.