scholarly journals COVID-19 in Gastroenterology Departments: The Impact of the First Wave

Author(s):  
Tiago Leal ◽  
Margarida Gonçalves ◽  
Irina Mocanu ◽  
Rita Carvalho ◽  
Luísa Glória ◽  
...  

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that has severely affected health care systems around the world. During the emergency state declared in Portugal in the months of March and April 2020, there was a severe reduction in medical activity in order to reduce the pressure on health systems. This study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 in gastroenterology departments across Portugal and the strategies developed to overcome this challenge. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This was a cross-sectional study based on an online survey. A detailed questionnaire concerning different aspects of gastroenterology department activity was sent via e-mail to the heads of gastroenterology departments of Portuguese District Hospitals (Núcleo de Gastroenterologia dos Hospitais Distritais). Two periods were assessed, i.e., the emergency state and the recovery period between May and September. The responses were collected between September and October 2020. <b><i>Results:</i></b> A total of 21 hospitals were enrolled (80.8% response rate). Twenty-eight percent of the responders reported healthcare professionals from their unit infected with COVID-19. At least 1 member (mostly fellows) of the department was deployed to another workplace in 66.7% of the hospitals. During the emergency state, 47.6% of the hospitals only performed urgent/emergent endoscopic procedures. In 38.5% of the hospitals the need to ration personal protective equipment led to the suspension of endoscopic training. Regarding the recovery period, nonurgent procedures were restarted in almost all of the centers. The same was reported for the colorectal cancer screening program. Remarkably, 81% of the responders confirmed that they had postponed procedures at patients’ request for “fear of getting infected.” Remote consultation was maintained in 81% of the hospitals. Globally, the fellows had resumed their training. <b><i>Discussion/Conclusion:</i></b> This study provides a snapshot of the impact and consequences of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic across Portuguese hospitals. It is important to understand how the gastroenterology world dealt with the first impact of COVID-19 and what strategies were implemented in order to better prepare for what might follow.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 92-102
Author(s):  
Isha Tajane ◽  
Aamena Golwala ◽  
Devanshi Nangia ◽  
Isha Chavan

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced children to spend increased amounts of time at home resulting in adverse effects on their physical and psychosocial wellbeing. Parents need to be aware about the changes in the mental and physical health of the children. Objectives: To identify the physical and mental health problems the children are facing because of the lockdown and to assess the awareness of such problems amongst the parents. Design: A cross sectional online survey was conducted to assess the impact of COVID-19 on physical and mental health of the children from parents' perspectives. Setting: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Main Outcome Measure: Parent reported questionnaire. Results and conclusion: There were a significant increase in the number of hours spent on mobile phones, sitting, and sleeping during the lockdown as compared to before the lockdown whereas the number of hours spent on physical activity significantly decreased and also impacted their mental health. By taking part in the survey, the parents of the children became aware of the changes occurring in their child. These findings can guide immediate programmatic and policy efforts to preserve and promote child health during the COVID-19 outbreak and crisis recovery period, and to inform strategies to mitigate potential harm during future pandemics.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Perla Werner ◽  
Sarang Kim

Background: Despite the increasing amount of research on dementia stigma, there is a dearth of cross-national studies conducted on this subject. This is surprising since the experience of stigma is closely associated to socio-cultural aspects. Objective: The present study intended to expand knowledge about the impact of culture on dementia stigma by comparing the level and correlates of stigmatic beliefs about dementia among the general public in Israel and Australia. Methods: A cross-sectional study using an online survey was conducted with two age-matched samples: 447 adults in Israel and 290 adults in Australia. Results: Overall, dementia stigma was moderate in both countries. However, the level of dementia stigma was significantly higher in Australia than in Israel. Lower levels of subjective knowledge and higher levels of ageism were associated with increased levels of stigmatic beliefs in both countries. Gender was a significant correlate of dementia stigma, with male participants reporting higher levels of public stigma than women, although this gender difference was mainly driven by the Australian sample. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that providing knowledge and decreasing ageist attitudes should be key considerations in dementia awareness and stigma reduction campaigns despite the cultural context. In addition, developing gender-specific messages should be considered as a way of improving the effects of such campaigns.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kochu Therisa Karingada ◽  
Michael Sony

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has caught many educational institutions by surprise and warranted an abrupt migration from offline to online learning. This has resulted in an education change, without any time for due consideration, as regards its impact on musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) on students. The purpose of this study is to investigate MSD related to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study was conducted on undergraduate students in India. In total, 261 students participated in this online survey.FindingsThe study finds that around 80% of students have reported some symptom in the head, neck and eyes since they started online learning. In total, 58% have reported MSD symptom in the right shoulder and 56% in the right hand fingers. Besides, more than 40 % of students experienced some MSD symptoms, in almost all the body parts studied, due to online learning. Correlation analysis is conducted between time spent on online learning per day and MSD symptoms.Originality/valueThis is the first study conducted on MSD and online learning during COVID-19 pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 256-260
Author(s):  
KC Deepti ◽  
S Poudel ◽  
SB Hamal Thakuri ◽  
S Shrestha

Background: Following the outbreak of Coronavirus disease in 2019, the year 2020/21 has been an incredibly challenging one for all global health-care systems. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive research design was used to conduct the study. The study was carried out in all general private and public hospitals of Kaski district of Nepal. Data were collected from 25th October to 5th December, 2020 from the Hospital administrators using a semi structured interview schedule. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Results: Most (96.3%) of the hospitals reported that increased cost or expenses of the hospitals creating financial threat is the most challenging situation that hospitals are facing in this pandemic. In addition shortages of ventilators creating ethical dilemma for patient allocation and changing guidelines from authorities have been reported as a challenge by 88.9 percent of the hospitals respectively. All of the surveyed hospitals had developed the use of thermometers for screening at the hospital entrances to minimize the risk. Conclusion: Hospitals in this pandemic are facing a lot of challenges with regard to staff management, PPE management and so on. Hence they need to adopt best strategies in responding to the corona virus.


2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 880-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate L Mandeville ◽  
Rose-Marie Satherley ◽  
Jennifer A Hall ◽  
Shailen Sutaria ◽  
Chris Willott ◽  
...  

BackgroundLittle is known about the political views of doctors in the UK despite doctors' importance in the functioning of the National Health Service (NHS).MethodsThis is a survey-based, cross-sectional study in which we asked questions about voting behaviour in 2015 and 2017 UK general elections and 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union (EU) (Brexit), and questions relating to recent health policies.Results1172 doctors (45.1% women) from 1295 responded to an online survey. 60.5% described their political views as ‘left-wing’ and 62.2% described themselves as ‘liberal’. 79.4% of respondents voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum compared with 48.1% of voters as a whole (χ2=819.8, p<0.001). 98.6% of respondents agreed that EU nationals working in the NHS should be able to remain in the UK after Brexit. The median score for the impact of Brexit on the NHS on a scale of 0 (worst impact) to 10 (best impact) was 2 (IQR=1–4). Most respondents agreed with the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing in the UK (73.9%), charging patients who are not eligible for NHS treatment for non-urgent care (70.6%) and protecting a portion of national spending for the NHS (87.1%). 65.8% thought there was too much use of NHS-funded private sector provision in their medical practice. Specialty, income and grade were associated with divergent opinions.ConclusionsUK doctors are left-leaning and liberal in general, which is reflected in their opinions on topical health policy issues. Doctors in the UK voted differently from the general electorate in recent polls.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
M. Maggio ◽  
M. Barbolini ◽  
Y. Longobucco ◽  
L. Barbieri ◽  
C. Benedetti ◽  
...  

Objectives: Frailty is a pre-disability condition in older persons providing a challenge to Health-Care Systems. Systematic reviews highlight the absence of a gold-standard for its identification. However, an approach based on initial screening by the General Practitioner (GP) seems particularly useful. On these premises, a 9-item Sunfrail Checklist (SC), was developed by a multidisciplinary group, in the context of European Sunfrail Project, and tested in the Community. Objectives: – to measure the concordance between the judgments of frailty (criterion-validity): the one formulated by the GP, using the SC, and the one subsequently expressed by a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment Team (CGA-Team); – to determine the construct-validity through the correspondence between some checklist items related to the 3 domains (physical, cognitive and social) and the three tools used by the CGA-Team; – to measure the instrument’s performance in terms of positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV). Design: Cross-sectional study, with a final sample-size of 95 subjects. Setting: Two Community-Health Centers of Parma, Italy. Participants: Subjects aged 75 years old or more, with no disability and living in the community. Measurements: We compared the screening capacity of the GP using the SC to that one of CGA-Team based on three tests: 4-meter Gait-Speed, Mini-Mental State Examination and Loneliness Scale. Results: 95 subjects (51 women), with a mean age of 81±4 years were enrolled. According to GPs 34 subjects were frail; the CGA-Team expressed a frailty judgment on 26 subjects. The criterion-validity presented a Cohen’s k of 0.353. Construct-validity was also low, with a maximum contingency-coefficient of 0.19. The analysis showed a PPV of 58.1% and a NPV equal to 84.6%. Conclusions: Our data showed a low agreement between the judgements of GP performed by SC and CGA-Team. However, the good NPV suggests the applicability of SC for screening activities in primary-care.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren R Sastre ◽  
Leslie T Van Horn

Abstract Background Previous studies have examined barriers (e.g. time) for Family Medicine Providers (FMPs) to provide nutrition and lifestyle counseling, however, to date no studies have examined access or interest to Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) care for patients. Objective The objective of this study was to explore FMP access, referral practices, barriers and preferences for RDN care. Methods A cross-sectional online survey, with content and face validation was conducted with Family Medicine Departments within large academic health care systems in the Southeastern United States. The main variables of interest included: FMP access, interest, current referrals and referral preferences for RDN care, barriers to referrals and overall perceptions regarding RDN care. Descriptive analysis of close-ended responses was performed with SPSS 26.0. Open-ended responses were analysed using inductive content analysis. Results Over half of the respondents (n = 151) did not have an RDN on-site (64%) yet were highly interested in integrating an RDN (94.9%), with reported preferences for full-time on-site, part-time on-site or off-site RDN care (49.1%, 39.5% and 11.4% respectively). The greatest reported barriers to RDN referrals were perceived cost for the patient (64.47%) and uncertainty how to find a local RDN (48.6%). The most consistent theme reported in the open-ended responses were concerns regarding reimbursement, e.g. ‘Insurance does not cover all of the ways I would like to use an RDN’. Conclusions FMPs report interest and value in RDN services despite multiple perceived barriers accessing RDNs care. Opportunities exist for interprofessional collaboration between dietetic and FMP professional groups to address barriers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-406
Author(s):  
Hooshang Dadgar ◽  
◽  
Saman Maroufizadeh ◽  
Jalal Bakhtiyari ◽  
Atabak Vosoughi ◽  
...  

Objectives: COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences highlighted the importance of using telerehabilitation systems and affected the professional’s attitude toward it. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility, satisfaction, and attitude of rehabilitation professionals toward telerehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. Methods: A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the feasibility, satisfaction, and attitude of rehabilitation professionals toward virtual training and telerehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 118 occupational therapists, speech therapists, audiologists, psychologists, and educators completed the study questionnaires. Results: The findings indicate that the correlations among satisfaction, feasibility, advantages, and compatibility were significant (r ranging from 0.418 to 0.717). There were significant but weak positive correlations between years of working experience and scores of feasibility and advantages. In addition, the mean scores of feasibility, advantages, compatibility, and complexity in participants who provided telerehabilitation before the COVID-19 pandemic were higher than other respondents. Discussion: Because of the positive role of telerehabilitation in a situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic, health care systems should create mechanisms for its optimal use, protocol preparation, health professionals training, and infrastructure acquisition.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Widya Lestari ◽  
Nur Hazirah Yazid ◽  
Zawin Najah Azhar ◽  
Azlini Ismail ◽  
Cortino Sukotjo

Abstract Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has spread across the world at unprecedented speed and gained worldwide attention. The pandemic proved to hold an impact to humankind including dental students in all aspects of life. Dental students’ performances may indirectly be affected following the preventive measures in containing the disease. This study aims to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on physical, mental, financial health and academic concern among dental students in Malaysia. Methods The current research implemented a cross sectional study among dental students in Malaysia. Assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on dental education was done by the distribution of a set of online survey consisting of 28 questions to dental students (n = 353) from public and private universities in Malaysia. The questionnaires include sociodemographic backgrounds and assessment on the 4 main domains. Results A total number of 353 respondents was recorded and 76.2% comprised of female. 59.7% were clinical students and 40.3% were preclinical students. 55.8% of the respondents attended hybrid mode of study. 78.0%, 76.5% and 91.8% students were concerned about their own emotional, physical health and the amount of clinical skill they acquire respectively. Year 3 students were found to be more concerned about their mental and financial health concern (p < 0.05). Conclusions COVID-19 pandemic had indeed significantly affected Malaysian dental students mainly due to fear of the quality of online learning and the amount of clinical skills acquired.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (36) ◽  
pp. 1176-1185
Author(s):  
Esraa Abd Almuhsen ALI ◽  
Hussein Fadhil ALJAWADI

Congenital disabilities affect a remarkable proportion of neonates and have a significant role in hospital admission, morbidity, and pediatrics mortality. Besides, the long-term morbidity and disability caused by birth defects may have a considerable effect on the development of the child and family and health care systems. In Misan, congenital disabilities are considered a third common cause of neonatal mortality. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence, types, and risk factors of congenital disabilities to have an action plan toward preventing the occurrence of these defects. A cross-sectional study performed in the neonatal care unit in Misan Hospital for Child and Maternity during the period of two years (2018 and 2019). Misan province is located in the South East of Iraq. The information was collected from the files of patients and registration records. Any delivered a live neonate with birth defects was enrolled in this study. These cases were diagnosed depending on history, clinical examination supported by other investigations, and radiographic studies whenever needed. The prevalence rates of congenital disabilities were 7.1/1000 and 6.6/1000 live birth in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Central nervous system involvement was the most typical pattern. Congenital disabilities were more frequent in male, single, and term babies of maternal age 18-35 years living in an urban area with a consanguinity history. Thus, the prevalence rate of congenital disabilities was notably high in Misan. Efforts toward prevention, as well as improving the prenatal diagnosis, would be essential.


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