On November 17th 2019, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) became epidemic in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. By, March 11th 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 became pandemic according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Reunion Island, a French overseas department in the South-West Indian Ocean with a long story of social inequalities, was hit by this epidemic the same day. During March 2020, several nationwide countermeasures were ordered (mainly, social distancing and lockdown), with the goal to reduce, both the human contacts and SARS-CoV-2 spread within the general population. Those universal prevention measures (dedicated to the general population) were aimed at flattening the epidemic curve and avoiding the hospitals to be overwhelmed. However, given these unprecedented measures, some population adverse effects were expected, these with a higher probability to affect the most isolated or deprived persons, especially the elderly people and those experiencing poor living conditions. We assumed that social distancing and lockdown, as preventive measures to tackle the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, may have contributed to the increase of Social Inequalities in Health (SIH) on Reunion Island, in terms of stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, violence, inactivity, obesity and difficulties in healthcare access. Ré-Conf-ISS is an anonymous phone survey designed by the CIC1410 (Inserm/CHU de la Réunion) in collaboration with the ORS Océan Indien and EQUITY team from UMR1027 (LEASP), respectively. Its primary objective is to describe, just after the lockdown event, the state of health of the Reunionese population according to its socioeconomic characteristics, mainly the district deprivation level and the housing conditions experienced during the lockdown. The study population is composed of persons aged 18 years and older, without curatorship, who were living on the island before the lockdown started, and stayed within all through the lockdown event. This cross-sectional survey plans to enroll a total of 900 individuals selected (via the ‘Pages Blanches’ telephone directory) within the 114 main Reunion districts as defined by the Insee Reunion, following the quotas of major inhabitants for these main districts and their deprivation level (5 groups). The questionnaire describes the individual socio-economic characteristics, housing and its equipment, the close environment to the habitat occupied during the lockdown, the exposure to the epidemic, the psychological state, the addictive behaviors and lifestyle, nutritional status and physical activity, as well as the healthcare use. Two objectives detail the children health reported by the co-enrolled parent and intimate partner violence. By July 25th 2020, inclusions and data collection – both started on May the 13th – have finished with a cumulated number of 900 phone interviews acquired. The study findings will be communicated as a report, aimed at informing the local authorities and the media towards the Reunion Island population. The Ré-Conf-ISS study should help to inform policy makers and public health stakeholders about the vulnerable populations faced with a lockdown event. It will also be used to propose adjustments and guide the countermeasures to prevent the difficulties linked to the lockdown event with a special target to locally reducing the SIH, in the perspective of a next epidemic wave or another health crisis leading for similar measures implemented on this territory. This proposal addresses the general theme "Risk assessment for vulnerable populations and influence of social and behavioral factors and co-morbidities" of the "Epidemiological studies" section of this call for projects.

The ComIngGen project addresses knowledge, measurement of public opinion and communication tools regarding on-going biotechnologies (Genome Editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 and New Plant Breeding Techniques). It has two main objectives. - Firstly, based on the idea that public opinion expresses a mixture of distrust and hopefulness, misunderstandings and occasionally unadvised rejection or, on the contrary, adoption of emerging biotechnologies without appropriate regulation, the project will characterize cognitive and cultural concerns that shape public opinion. It will develop a scientific policy approach based on innovating measurement tools for identifying key-conditions allowing the emergence of a public understanding of on-going research (PUR) based on scientific communication, scientific mediation and the inclusion of legal specialists. This entails exploring and mapping various communication strategies regarding the management of bio-engineering controversies including political demands, activist statements, as well as resources from specialized institutions (parliaments, museums, science centres, aesthetical exhibitions-bio-art) with the help of digital tools (big data-gathering methods). - Secondly, the project will engage European and national governments, and cultural institutions in sustained debate on the complex governance of biological technologies, to develop successful strategies for communicating about new bio-engineered products, and to provide a better understanding of research to stakeholders and citizens. We will devise a range of policy recommendations for a more effective communication about unstable and provisional scientific data. Such communication relies on cultural innovations implying cutting-edge artistic and pedagogical mediations. To fulfill these two objectives, ComIngGen will develop two methodologies. - The first methodology will provide an analysis of public opinion about these on-going biotechnologies. Based on a massive web data gathering (Hyphe software), this method will allow us to document the huge diversity of communication and supports. This approach is a plea to consider the usefulness of Big Data gathering methods for analyzing the form and the strength of digital networks about emerging biotechnologies. This mapping completes the classic study of public opinion based on the questionnaire. It opens a new field to digital sciences. - The second methodology will document risk perception and communication issues regarding those bio-technological products which break with traditional techniques of genetic modification (legal and scientific literature review), and propose various pedagogical supports jointly developed by researchers, legal specialists and museographers. ComIngGen team will examine ways of linking digital mapping (expressed opinions), institutional communication strategies (OPECST, EPTA etc.) and cultural mediations (museums, science centers). The aim is to offer a range of varied answers (technical, scientific, legal and cultural) to public opinion issues, to devise communication strategies in the context of on-going controversies and to ensure the development of an timely understanding of synthetic biology by the general public.

This interdisciplinary project combines disciplinary approaches from social epidemiology, psychology, social philosophy, and sociology in order to explore in real time the socio-economic and psychological determinants and consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic in France. It has two main objectives: 1) To describe the social epidemiology of the COVID-19 epidemic in France in demographic, socioeconomic and territorial terms 2) To examine the psychological, socio-cultural and economic consequences of forced isolation and social distancing at different times of confinement. Our working method, resolutely interdisciplinary, will consist in coordinating work Packages (WP), in three phases. In phase 1, we will define the concepts and variables common to the three WPs and proceed with data collection. In phase 2, we will implement quantitative analyses for social epidemiology and psychology, and qualitative analyses for philosophical and sociological research, ensuring the integration of our approaches at each stage of the analysis through regular interdisciplinary work meetings. In phase 3, we will work together to integrate and interpret our results and disseminate them. WP1 will retrieve medico-administrative data from public health and health agencies and conduct epidemiological analyses of the socio-demographic and socio-economic determinants of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The general aim of WP2 is to assess, in the general population, the psychological consequences of the containment of Covid-19 by a quantitative approach based on questionnaires. This will enable us to describe the psychological impact of Covid-19 and the associated containment on the psychological health of the French. WP3, based on a combination of qualitative approaches (questionnaires, semi-directive interviews and analysis of confinement narratives), will combine a sociological survey on the unequal conditions of confinement with a social philosophy reflection on issues of social justice in health prevention. The role of WP4 will be to integrate the approaches, concepts, variables and interpretations carried out in the complementary tasks of each WP in order to produce interdisciplinary expertise on the epidemic crisis and its management. This work will produce knowledge to guide public health decisions in times of crisis and to build public and population health strategies that are necessary and appropriate to accompany the next epidemic risks.

Heterogeneous profiles in Autism Spectrum (AS) have often been reported. One way to account for this heterogeneity is to distinguish AS individuals with and without speech onset delay (AS-SOD and AS-NoSOD). In fact, certain studies show superior abilities in visual tasks for AS-SOD individuals. In the VISUAL project we aim to show that AS-SOD individuals are visual thinkers, and therefore possess a visual cognitive style. This visual cognitive style will involve: higher voluntary mental imagery capacities such as higher ability to generate, maintain, inspect, and manipulate mental images; higher reports of involuntary mental imagery (synaesthesia, intrusive images); as well as a visual preference during learning, measured with eye tracking techniques. Moreover, we hypothesize that this visual cognitive style will have repercussions in the development of certain psychopathological comorbidities and will impact the daily life of these individuals. We will use interviews, questionnaires, and experimental tasks to implement the project. We will compare performance of AS-SOD participants, AS-NoSOD participants and control participants. Results from the VISUAL project will significantly contribute to the general comprehension of AS and the heterogeneity observed in this condition. Furthermore, by studying extensively mental imagery in two subgroups of AS participants, results will highlight existence of different cognitive profiles and also different psychopathological comorbidities in these two groups. This might have considerable impact in the development of functional evaluation tools for a specific intervention in these individuals. This study will be the first to evaluate the phenomenon of intrusive images in AS and its impact in daily life. By connecting the cognitive and psychopathological dimensions of visual thinking, results will clearly contribute to the prevention of certain psychopathological disorders (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder) in AS but also to the development of adapted Intervention.

The FairHealth project brings together researchers from a variety of social sciences and medical disciplines to create a deeper understanding of the processes by which employees’ perceptions of unfair treatment – a psychosocial job stressor – can lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) over time. MSDs refer to health problems of the locomotor apparatus and include all forms of ill-health ranging from light, transitory disorders to irreversible, disabling injuries. MSDs are among the most common and costly health problems among working populations, and constitute a major cause of disability and social exclusion. Research indicates that MSDs are not a simple consequence of harmful physical exposures, and that psychosocial factors have substantial influence on MSDs. However, the underlying mechanisms through which psychosocial factors can affect MSDs, as well as the contingencies of these processes, are not adequately understood. The objective of FairHealth is to study the time course of unhealthy reactions to perceived injustice, and to produce new and actionable knowledge about whether, why and when injustice at work influences employees’ physical health. The project consists of two observational, prospective cohort studies combined with a longitudinal qualitative investigation. By combining theoretical frameworks and methods stemming from several relevant disciplinary fields, FairHealth is likely to generate significant scientific, economic and social impacts.