ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: There is a scarcity of evidence regarding the real-world effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. This was the first study to evaluate the effectiveness of four types of vaccines against asymptomatic and symptomatic infection, and COVID-19 outcomes among the general population. METHODS: This was a matched comparison group quasi-experimental study conducted in Jordan between 1 January and 29 August 2021. In the first part of the study, 1200 fully vaccinated individuals were matched with 1200 unvaccinated control participants. In order to measure vaccine effectiveness, the infection rates of both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups were calculated. The second part of the study included measuring specific anti-SARS CoV-2 immune cells and antibodies. RESULTS: BNT162b2 (Pfizer, New York, NY, USA) showed a significantly higher effectiveness against asymptomatic COVID-19 infection (91.7%) and hospitalization (99.5%) than BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm, Beijing, China) (88.4% and 98.7%, respectively) and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK) (84.3%, and 98.9%, respectively). The effectiveness rates of the Sputnik V (Gamaleya Research Institute, Moscow, Russia) vaccine against asymptomatic, symptomatic, and hospitalization were 100%, 100%, and 66.7%, respectively. The highest median anti-spike (S) IgG values were seen in individuals who received BNT162b2 (2.9 AU/mL) and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (2.8 AU/mL) vaccines. The levels of anti-S IgG were significantly decreased after 7 months of vaccination with BNT162b2 and BBIBP-CorV. There were significant decreases in the median number of neutralizing antibodies one month and seven months after receiving BNT162b2 (from 88.5 to 75.2 4 Bioequivalent Allergen Unit per milliliter/mL), BBIBP-CorV (from 69.5 to 51.5 BAU/mL), and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (from 69.2 to 58.BAU/mL) vaccines. The highest percentage of T cells specific to COVID-19 vaccine was found in individuals who received BNT162b2 (88.5%). CONCLUSION: All four vaccines evaluated in this study showed effectiveness against asymptomatic COVID-19 infection, symptomatic infection, hospitalization, and death. Furthermore, BNT162b2, BBIBP-CorV, and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 induced high levels of immunology markers within one month of vaccination.
Subject(s)
Medication Errors , Pandemics , Humans , Medication Errors/prevention & control , Patient SafetyABSTRACT
Background Given its pathophysiology and evidence on its long-term effects, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may have altered the incidence, types, and severity of other respiratory infections (RIs). Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the potential impact of COVID-19 on non-SARS-CoV-2 RIs in COVID-19 survivors. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered, online survey from February 2022 to April 2022 in the United Arab Emirates. Participants included adults diagnosed with COVID-19 before February 2021. Those who did not undergo nasopharyngeal swab tests for contraction of other RIs after recovering from COVID-19 were excluded. Results Of the 384 participants, 24.5% were aged 18–24 years, and 55.5% were women. The mean body mass index (BMI) was 29.6±3.7 kg/m2. Among the participants, 34.4% experienced at least one non-SARS-CoV-2 RI after recovering from COVID-19, of which 25.8% reported that the RI lasted longer than those previously, 27.3% sought physician advice, 31.8% reported increased coughing as a symptom of the non-SARS-CoV-2 RI, and 38.6% reported increased sputum. Based on patient responses, the degree of COVID-19 severity was significantly associated with non-SARS-CoV-2 RIs (p=0.003), and depression was found to be a significant predictor of changes in shortness of breath symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=1.29;95% confidence interval [CI], 1.17–1.46). Conclusions The participants of this study reported changes in the duration and severity of non-SARS-CoV-2 RIs after recovering from COVID-19. Further research is needed to confirm these findings, which suggest a need for swift action to protect the public against RIs, particularly seasonal pathogens.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The research on consumerism has been dramatically rising in recent decades. However, in the food industry, little research has been empirically conducted in the beverage industry. This research empirically tests the consequences of consumer perceptions: perceived price (PPR), perceived quality (PQ), perceived packaging (PPG) and perceived taste (PT) on repurchase intention (RI) particularly;it unveils the consumer attributes, e.g. gender, age and ethnicity between consumer perceptions and RI of the consumers. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 403 consumers of the beverage industry (e.g. Nestle, Mitchell's Fruit Farms, Murree Brewery and OMORE) in Pakistan. The researchers used online survey questionnaires followed by a cross-sectional approach because data collection physically was not possible due to COVID-19. Findings: Data were analyzed by Smart partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) 3.3.3, and the results supported the significant influence of consumer perceptions separately, e.g. PPR, PQ, PPG and PT on RI. Additionally, gender, age and ethnicity were found to have a moderating role between consumer perceptions and RI, so, the truth of having consumer attributes has been revealed. Practical implications: The managers of beverage industries should provide ethical and operational strategies to tackle consumer's problems based on cultural norms. Furthermore, they should make sensible measures for the quality branding of the beverage products. In this way, the consumers will have a better experience of quality, price, taste and packaging, in turn, to RI. Originality/value: This research targeted the beverage industry that needs facts and figures based on consumer attributes, e.g. age, gender and ethnicity. This research also disclosed the behaviors of consumers according to their gender, age and area of residence. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, which has spread very quickly, has created crises in all aspects of life around the world. The administration of the COVID-19 heterologous vaccine in Indonesia is prioritized for high-risk groups, one of which is health workers. This study aimed to determine the comparison of quantitative IgG antibody levels for SARS CoV2 between health workers with and without a history of being infected with COVID-19 after heterology vaccination at Dr. Mohammad Hoesin General Hospital, Palembang, Indonesia. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional analytic observational study. A total of 64 subjects participated in this study. Data analysis was carried out with the help of SPSS software in univariate and bivariate. Results: SARS-CoV2 IgG antibody levels with and without a history of being infected with COVID-19 after heterologous vaccination did not find a significant difference in IgG levels between the two groups. However, the quantitative IgG levels of SARS-CoV2 in the infected history group were greater, namely 4834.25 AU/mL, compared to no history of COVID-19 infection of 3833.35 AU/mL Conclusion: There is a difference in the average SARS-CoV 2 IgG between subjects with a history of being infected with COVID-19 and without a history of COVID-19 at Dr. Mohammad Hoesin General Hospital, Palembang, Indonesia, although statistically, it is not significantly different.
ABSTRACT
This article investigates the presence of herding on global stock markets during COVID-19. Cross-Sectional Absolute Deviation developed by Chiang and Zheng (2010) and Chang et al. (2000) examine market-wide herding. Results show that herding is prevalent in Brazil, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, China-Shanghai, China-Shenzhen and Turkey. During the epidemic, no evidence of herding was detected in France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. It has been shown that the United States and Chinese cross-market herding substantially influences all markets. The impact of analyst information (target price, EPS forecasts and revenue predictions) on herding is shown before the pandemic and weakening during the pandemic. It indicates that investors disregard expert recommendations and liquidate equities during the pandemic. The findings shed light on the occurrence and determinants of herding that causes investors' to behave irrationally during COVID-19. Policymakers, government and regulators should formulate a more robust policy to monitor, control and oversee the naïve herding that drives fundamentals away from stock prices. © 2023 MDI.
ABSTRACT
The abuse and misuse of OTC medicines is a common problem in community pharmacies and is expected to escalate during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is limited research on the patterns, causes, and consequences of these incidents during the pandemic. This article aims to provide evidence-based insights into the potential impact of COVID-19 on the abuse and misuse of OTC medicines, and suggest strategies for reducing these occurrences for pharmacy practitioners and healthcare managers.
ABSTRACT
The two-parameter classical Weibull distribution is commonly implemented to cater for the product's reliability, model the failure rates, analyze lifetime phenomena, etc. In this work, we study a novel version of the Weibull model for analyzing real-life events in the sports and medical sectors. The newly derived version of the Weibull model, namely, a new cosine-Weibull (NC -Weibull) distribution. The importance of this research is that it suggests a novel version of the Wei-bull model without adding any additional parameters. Different distributional properties of the NC-Weibull distribution are obtained. The maximum likelihood approach is implemented to esti-mate the parameters of the NC-Weibull distribution. Finally, three applications are analyzed to prove the superiority of the NC-Weibull distribution over some other existing probability models considered in this study. The first and second applications, respectively, show the mortality rates of COVID-19 patients in Italy and Canada. Whereas, the third data set represents the injury rates of the basketball players collected during the 2008-2009 and 2018-2019 national basketball associ-ation seasons. Based on four selection criteria, it is observed that the NC-Weibull distribution may be a more suitable model for considering the sports and healthcare data sets.(c) 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
ABSTRACT
Objectives: To examine the pattern, nature, and attitude towards herbal medicines usage in the UAE. Methods: A cross-sectional national questionnaire was distributed over five weeks in 7 emirates of UAE: The questioner was constructed using an online platform and delivered randomly to 448 adults in the UAE. The data collection technique adopted for this study was a convenient sampling. SPSS version 24 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Among participants, 98.7% used herbal medicines (HMs), and respondents who aged between 18 and 24 years were more likely to use HMs. Participant were mainly female (70.3%), with fair health status (55%), and participant with chronic disease were significantly less likely to use HM (10.9%). The majority of herbal medicine users believed herbal medicine were harmless, because they were derivatives of natural products. The findings of this study reported that many participants use HMs to enhance immunity (26.8%), and for relaxation (23.5%). Conclusion: Despites the risk of adverse-effects, many participants in this study are regular users for HMs and have perception that 89 may cure or prevent COVID-19. Therefore, awareness-raising campaigns that target HM users are essential to mitigate any unwanted consequences.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThis study aims to examine the existence of herding and the impact of economic and political factors in the Shariah-compliant stocks of Gulf Cooperation Council markets, namely, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. This study also seeks to explore the existence of herding under market stress and cross-stocks herding between Shariah-compliant and conventional stocks. Design/methodology/approachThe data period is from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2021. Panel data regression and panel quantile regression are used to examine herding. FindingsThe results show that herding tends to exist in Shariah stocks before the pandemic but is more pronounced in both types of stocks during the pandemic. The empirical evidence shows that economic factors are significant to herding before and during pandemic, whereas the political factors are only shown to be significant before COVID-19. Conventional stocks are correlated to the herding of Shariah stocks but the Shariah stocks have no significant impact on the herding of conventional stocks. Panel quantile regression shows that herding exists in extreme conditions but not all markets perform similarly. Originality/valueThe results of this study imply that the political factor can lead investors to herd. This political factor represents information that is used by investors to herd, consistent with the prediction of information-based theory of herding. Hence, policymakers and regulators need to be wary of any change in the political factors as they may cause movement in stock prices that deviate from fundamental value because of investor herding.
ABSTRACT
We aim by this research to use mathematical methods to model the Coved-19 epidemic in Iraq by comparing time series by using box & Jenkins model and artificial neural networks. The infections, cures and deaths data were used for the period from 24/2/2020 to 30/11/2020. The study found a tendency in the numbers of infections and cures using the Box & Jenkins model to rise, while the numbers of deaths tended to stabilize. Artificial neural networks, using the MLP algorithm, have found a tendency to number of infections by decline and cures to rise, while deaths numbers tended to decrease and then to stability. In addition, the study found that the forecasting of the numbers of infections was more accurate using artificial networks, while the forecasting of the numbers of cures was more accurate in the Box Jenkins model and the forecasting of death numbers was at the same level of accuracy in the trade-off between the two methods. The study recommends to sue the artificial networks to forecast the number of infections and deaths and the use of the Box Jenkins model to forecast cures. In addition, the study recommends the use of these mathematical methods to help decision makers respond to the epidemic. And also recommends to conduct another study using other techniques for artificial networks as an algorithm extreme learning machines (ELM). The study also recommends a survey of habits associated with the spread of the epidemic, such as social distancing and other, linking them with the numbers of infections, cures and deaths to reach a protocol specific to Iraq based on accurate mathematical and scientific foundations. © 2022 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background: : Risk assessment with prognostic scoring, though important, is scarcely studied in emergency surgical patients with COVID-19 infection. Methods and Material: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on adult emergency surgical patients with COVID-19 infection in our institute from 1 May 2020 to 31 October 2021 to find the 30-day postoperative mortality and predictive accuracy of prognostic scores. We assessed the demographic data, prognostic risk scores (American Society of Anesthesiologists-Physical Classification (ASA-PS), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), Quick SOFA (qSOFA), Physiologic and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality and Morbidity (POSSUM) and Portsmouth-POSSUM (P-POSSUM) scores), surgical and anesthetic factors. We assessed the postoperative morbidity using the Clavien-Dindo scale and recorded the 30-day mortality. Correlation of prognostic scores and mortality was evaluated using Univariate Cox proportional hazards regression, receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), Youden's index and Hosmer- Lemeshow goodness of fit model. Results: Emergency surgery was performed in 67 COVID-19 patients with postoperative complication and 30-day mortality rate of 33% and 19%, respectively. A positive qSOFA and ASAPS IIIE/IVE had a 9.03- and 12.7-times higher risk of mortality compared to a negative qSOFA and ASA-PS IE/IIE (P < 0.001), respectively. Every unit increase of SOFA, POSSUM and P-POSSUM scores was associated with a 50%, 18% and 17% higher risk of mortality, respectively. SOFA, POSSUM and P-POSSUM AUCROC curves showed good discrimination between survivors and non-survivors (AUC 0.8829, 0.85 and 0.86, respectively). Conclusions: SOFA score has a higher sensitivity to predict 30-day postoperative mortality as compared to POSSUM and P-POSSUM. However, in absence of a control group of non-COVID-19 patients, actual risk attributable to COVID-19 infection could not be determined.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Adult , Humans , Retrospective Studies , Prognosis , Postoperative Period , Risk Assessment/methods , ROC Curve , Postoperative Complications/etiology , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all aspects of human life, including education. Implementation of learning through virtual meetings is an alternative solution when face-to-face learning cannot be done. However, the implementation of learning through monotonous virtual meetings has the potential to cause eye fatigue for students. This study aims to determine the relationship between virtual meeting learning and eye fatigue experienced by students in participating in learning. This research is quantitative research with an analytical survey with a cross-sectional study design. The population in this study were all students in Gorontalo Province. The sample size was 105 students who were selected using a purposive sampling technique with several considerations from the researcher. The data was collected using a questionnaire made in the form of a google form. Data analysis using Chi-Square test. The results of the analysis show that virtual meetings are related to the fatigue experienced by students in participating in learning (p-value = 0.031). Fatigue can be avoided by replacing learning through virtual meetings with e-learning approaches, or other learning methods. © 2022 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) had devastating effects on the healthcare and economic sector worldwide. India stands second in the list of most number of COVID-19 cases. Most of the deaths due to COVID-19 were seen in patients with associated co-morbidities like hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and obesity. This study would like to examine specific co-morbidities in relation to the COVID-19 disease progression and outcomes. Aim(s): To compare the clinicoradiological profile and outcome of COVID-19 in patients with and without co-morbidities (diabetes and hypertension). Material(s) and Method(s): The present observational, cross-sectional study was conducted at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh between June 2020 to September 2020, after obtaining Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) approval. A total of 148 patients with COVID-19 were included in the study. The COVID-19 patients admitted in the hospital were divided into four groups as those having only diabetes, only hypertension, both diabetes and hypertension, and those without any co-morbidities. Those with any other co-morbidity were excluded from the study. The general clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, disease severity, morbidity and mortality were compared among various groups and the data was analysed. Categorical data were analysed using the Chi-square test. Result(s): A total of 148 patients with COVID-19 were included in the study, of which 26 patients were diabetic, 36 were hypertensive, 24 were both hypertensive and diabetic and 62 patients didn't had any significant co-morbidity. Severe COVID-19 disease was most commonly observed in those with diabetes (n=14) (53.8%). The highest proportion of patients requiring oxygen (84.6%) and Non Invasive Ventilator (NIV) support (46.1%) was also seen among diabetics. The presence of diabetes, severe disease and leukocytosis at presentation increased the risk of mortality. The association of hypertension with COVID-19 does not seem to affect the in-hospital mortality. Conclusion(s): COVID-19 in diabetics is associated with both increased risk of severe disease and increased odds of death. In diabetics, those with uncontrolled diabetes were more prone to severe disease and death than those with good glycaemic control. Hypertension, on the other hand, showed no association. Copyright © 2022 Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Aims Hospital Miri is a district hospital with NICU that caters neonatal care service in Northern Sarawak. Preterm birth rate in our centre makes up of 10% (n=487) in 2019 and 11% (n=491) in 2020 of the live births, with mortality rate of 3% for preterm infants less than 33 weeks. According to WHO and Cochrane review (2016), Kangaroo mother care helps to reduce mortality, nosocomial infection, hypothermia, and improved growth and exclusive breastfeeding. Methods This is a retrospective observational study. Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) Project was introduced in 2020 in Hospital Miri NICU as part of quality improvement project. Stable preterm infants with postmenstrual age 30 weeks to 34 weeks 6 days were enrolled with mother's consent into the project. It was carried out in 3 phases, with phase 1 of stable infants under room air or HFNC, phase 2 of stable infants on NIV and phase 3 with intubated infants. As COVID-19 endemic encroached, the project was put on hold at phase 2. Infants' demographic data was analysed using frequency and percentage. Outcomes were measured in mean, frequency and percentage. Maternal mental health score, knowledge score were taken prior to implementation of KMC and upon discharge. The mental health score is described as median and knowledge score is compared by wincoxon signed-rank test. Overall experience score was taken as median and mean. Results A total of 41 infants with the gestation of 32 to 34 weeks 6 days participated, 22 (53.7%) with majority of 41.5% aged 34 to 34 weeks 6 days post menstrual age at the time of enrolment. Mean length of stay was 38.34 days (SD:24.4), time taken to achieve birth weight was 11.4 days (SD: 4.05). Time taken to initiate breastfeeding range from 8 to 14 days to >22 days of life, mean: 24.78. Eighteen infants (43.9%) achieved exclusive breastfeeding on discharge. Mother's mental health, knowledge and experience were measures using Likert scale with the total score of 15 for mental health and 18 for knowledge and experience. For mental health score, pre-KMC median score:14, post-KMC median score was 15. There was improvement in the mother's experience upon discharge (p-value: <0.001). For overall experience, median was 18 with the mean score of 16.88 (SD:1.56). Conclusion Our study was suspended prematurely as per local pandemic control guideline. Knowing about the benefit of KMC to both mother and infants, we suggest that it should be encouraged and continued with adaptation and modification of the procedure during COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Background: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Since then, it has spread to 215 countries, and 42 million people around the globe are affected. The knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19 play a role in determining the acceptance of behavioral change measures from health authorities to suppress this pandemic status. The KAP on COVID-19 is also important among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate the outbreak of COVID-19. Hence, this study aimed to determine the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 and its association with sociodemographic factors among nursing students of Universiti Malaysia Sabah. Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted among the Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 nursing students. The questionnaire consists of four parts: 1) demographics, which surveys participants’ sociodemographic information;2) knowledge about COVID-19;3) attitude towards COVID-19;and 4) practices relevant to COVID-19. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26.0 was used for data entry and analysis. Result: A total of 113 Nursing Students participated in the study. More than half of the respondents have good general knowledge and practices of COVID-19. However, only one in three respondents have positive attitudes towards COVID-19. Older age was associated with good knowledge about COVID-19 (p=0.02). Female (P=0.02) and high household income (P=0.02) has a better attitude towards COVID-19. However, no significant association between sociodemographic and practices towards COVID-19. Conclusion: Most of the respondents demonstrate a good level of knowledge and practices towards COVID-19 but not for attitudes. Sociodemographic characteristics such as younger, male respondents and those with lower-income families have inadequate knowledge and practices towards COVID-19. Hence, health education programs such as campaigns need to be conducted to increase the knowledge and encourage adequate preventive practice towards COVID-19 should be targeted towards this group. © 2022, Sanglah General Hospital. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
In this study eco-friendly antimicrobial finish was developed by Azadirachata indica, Butea monosperma and Litchi chinensis and then applied on 100% silk fabric. The effectiveness of antimicrobial finish was checked up to 25 washes. The antimicrobial finish was extracted from leaves of these plants and applied on silk fabric by using pad dry cure method. It is true experimental study with pre-test and post-test control group design. FTIR and SEM tests were used to observe the presence of antimicrobial finish on silk fabric. The antimicrobial finish was fixed on silk fabric by the use of poly urethane binder. The antimicrobial activity of treated and untreated fabric and durability to successive washes were assessed by using ASTEM E2149 shake flask method. The treated fabric with A. indica and B.monosperme showed 100% reduction in microorganism presence while L. chinensis revealed 60% reduction against microorganisms. The antimicrobial finish showed 100% reduction after successive laundring up to 25 washes. This fabric is beneficial for home furnishing, sportswear and footwear industry as well as in apparel sector such as in formal wear and making matching face mask against COVID-19 pandemic.