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Background: SARS-Cov-2 is a coronavirus that caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease outbreak in late 2019 in Wuhan China. By early 2020, the disease had rapidly spread across the world and was declared a global pandemic as a public health emergency of international concern. The mechanisms behind the behavior of SARS-cov-2 in the elderly include immunosenescence and related impaired antiviral immunity, mature immunity, and related hyper-inflammatory responses. We aim to summarize the clinical features and outcomes of elderly COVID-19 patients and compare the difference between young-old patients (60-74 years old) and elderly-old patients (75 years old). Aims and Objective: (1) The aim of the study was to compare the clinical and biochemical profile of young-old patients and elderly-old COVID-19 patients. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 389 patients, during the study period from March 2021 to September 2021. Case record form with follow-up chart was used to record the duration of disease, history of treatment, and complications. Patients underwent biochemical investigations. Results: The study includes 389 patients, 331 were not young-old and 58 were elderly-old. Mean age of young-old group 65.01..4.10 years and elderly-old group 80.74..5.35 years. Mortality in elderly-old group (29.3%) and young-old group (15.4%) with significant P=0.02. Comparing inflammatory markers such as total leucocyte count and neutrophil count are more in elderly-old than young-old COVID-19 patients, this difference is statistically significant P<0.005. Conclusion: Elderly patients usually have chronic comorbidities and are likely to have a severe or critically severe condition. They could show atypical symptoms. Elderly-old patients tend to have more complications than young-old patients during hospitalization. Careful nursing, observation, and systemic treatment are very important in elderly patients.
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Introduction and Aim: A sudden shift of medical education from physical class teaching to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic created concern in both the students and teachers. The aim of the study is to evaluate the perception of medical students towards online learning during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Material(s) and Method(s): This observational study included all the MBBS students of our institution. The study was conducted after obtaining ethical clearance from the Institutional Ethics Committee. A validated questionnaire was used to collect the information. The data was analysed using the statistical software SPSS-28. Demographic variables were expressed in terms of frequencies and percentages. Data was analysed using Chi square test and Mann Whitney U test. P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result(s): Five hundred sixty-five students of both genders out of total 600 (94%) participated. 54.3% experienced online classes for the first time and 48.1% studied online for 3-6 hrs. They liked recorded MP4 videos of their own teachers. Majority felt that online classes should be more interactive. They did not want the online classes to continue after the pandemic and opined that online classes cannot replace classroom teaching. Majority agreed that online learning saved time of travel, saves cost, was flexible but practical knowledge and interaction with teachers and patients was lacking. They experienced additional stress and their examination results are affected. Conclusion(s): Online learning is a less effective mode for learning practical skills and may be used as a supplementary mode to teach a few elective topics. Copyright © 2022, Indian Association of Biomedical Scientists. All rights reserved.
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Purpose –This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance during pre and post-pandemic. The pandemic's effect on businesses, especially those of developing nations, served as a motivating factor for the author. Methodology – The balanced panel data were used for firms listed in BSE S&P 500 from the financial year 2018 to 2021. To account for possible endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity, we employed the Generalised Method of Moments to analyse the relationship between corporate governance and business performance. After excluding financial firms and firms with unavailable data, the sample size was reduced to 285 listed firms. Findings – The study's findings showed that the average board size for Indian firms is over nine and has a significant positive relationship with ROA. ROE and dividend payout in both sampling periods. A significant number of directors bring intellectual diversity and a variety of ideas. However, before the pandemic, board independence had a significant positive relationship with ROA, ROE and TobinQ but a significant negative association with the firm's market value (TobinQ). Further findings revealed that CEO-Duality had a significant negative relationship with firm performance in both sampling periods. Implications-The study's findings provide helpful empirical evidence to policymakers and listed companies in India. Originality-Few studies have examined the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance in pre and post-pandemic periods in emerging markets. Limitation-Although the time frame for this study was restricted, further research might be conducted over a longer time. Future studies could add other factors, such as ownership structure and cost of capital.
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Objectives: The aim of the study was (1) to assess and compare the profile of COVID-19 patients with diabetes and without diabetes and (2) to determine the outcome of COVID-19 patients with diabetes mellitus. Methods: A hospital-based longitudinal analytical study was conducted on a total of 2000 patients in Bengaluru during the study period from August 2020 to July 2021. The patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were enrolled for the study after obtaining informed consent. Patients were divided into diabetic and non-diabetic groups and inflammatory markers were compared between these two groups and outcome of these patients was noted. Results: Of the 2000 COVID-19 patients included, 358 were diabetics in this study. Mean age of non-diabetic patients was 41.71 (±15.37) years and diabetic patients were 54.37 (±11.95) years. The inflammatory markers such as Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH), Ferritin, C-Reactive Protein (CRP), and Neutrophil-Lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were significantly high in patients with diabetes compared to the non-diabetic patients with COVID-19 (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study shows that diabetes is a major risk factor and contributes to the severity and mortality of patients with COVID-19. Our recommendations are for the strict glycemic control in patients affected by COVID-19 during treatment for the same.
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The regulation of private space activities has become a matter of considerable complexity in the present era of commercialization. The international space treaties fix responsibility and liability for both public and private space activities on the States, and therefore, the States cannot risk allowing the private players to operate without proper regulation. This has led the States to move toward enacting national space legislation to address a plethora of issues involved in regulating private space activities. India has been trying to enact national space legislation since the beginning of the 21st century. With the concerted efforts, it could succeed in preparing a draft Space Activities Bill in 2017. Unfortunately, the 2017 Bill suffers from several inherent loopholes and it also misses out many key aspects, which need to be incorporated in a comprehensive national space law. Hence, the aim of this article is to critically evaluate the 2017 Bill with an objective to highlight the need for a better model in tune with the Indian commitments under international space treaties. Such an endeavor is absolutely required in the wake of present developments to promote private space activities in India to boost its economy in the post-COVID-19 era. © Copyright 2022, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2022.
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Introduction: Although the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is creating a major global health crisis, the risk factors for mortality and the detailed clinical course of disease has not yet established. Aim: To determine association of the demographic data of COVID-19 patients with clinical profile and disease outcomes. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional single-center study considered adults patients of both the gender from March to June 2020 with an estimated sample size of 2000 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection by Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) technique. Necessary demographic and clinical data were collected and selected subjects were followed-up until discharge or death. Subjects were classified as those who survived (1839 patients) and succumbed (138 patients) to death. T-Test was used for comparing continuous variables and chi-square test for categorical data between the groups. Results: The study included 1977 patients with a male-To-female ratio of 1:0.62. Fever, dyspnea and cough were noted as the major symptoms prevalent among patients who succumbed to death when compared to those who survived (p-value <0.001). Statistically significant variables noted between the groups were age (survived mean age-42.74±15.15 years vs mean age 59.12±12.95 in those who succumbed to death, p-value <0.001), age groups (p-value <0.001), gender (p-value 0.042), haemoglobin, Total Leucocyte Count (TLC), neutrophil, lymphocytes, Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH), ferritin, all the comorbidity variables and the asymptomatic status. Variables identified as significant predictors of disease outcomes were Haemoglobin (Hb), TLC, neutrophils, lymphocytes, NLR, LDH and ferritin (p-value <0.001). Most of the subjects belonging to the mortality group required oxygen and other Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities when compared to the survival group (p-value <0.001). The mean days of viral clearance noted in COVID subjects was around 8.98±3.54 days. Conclusion: Hb, TLC, neutrophils, lymphocytes, NLR, LDH and ferritin are noted as significant predictors of COVID-19 outcome. Biochemical monitoring of COVID-19 patients helps in identifying critically ill patients early and can reduce mortality and improve the recovery.
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Background: With uncertainty surrounding the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic, there is no knowledge of the psychological impact of this pandemic on the general public from Kashmir. We aimed to understand the psychological impact in the form of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, quality of sleep, and coping during this pandemic. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using social networking sites. The questionnaire meant for this study was sent as a link to a respondent. Initial part of questionnaire collected the socio-demographic details of the respondents. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess the quality of sleep. There was also an open-ended question to look for coping skills used. Results: The majority of our respondents were below 45 years (around 95%) with 54.9% from 18 to 30 years age group. 72.3% were males and 27.7% were females. 58.7% were from rural background. 55.7% were employed, and 32.2% were students. In our respondents, 55% had anxiety symptoms, 55% had depressive symptoms, around 53% had poor quality of sleep, and around 30% of used maladaptive coping skills. Significant depressive symptoms were there in the younger age group, 18–30 years (p = 0.03). Significant depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms were present in females (p = 0.01 and 0.006, respectively). In urban population, significant anxiety symptoms (p = 0.03) were present. The mean score for anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms was 8.05 ± 4.53 and 8.07 ± 4.56, respectively. Mean global PSQI score was 6.90 ± 3.82 and was positively correlated with score on depressive symptom scale (p = 0.001) as well as score on anxiety symptom scale (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Younger people, females, those living in urban conditions, and those using maladaptive coping skills are likely to have anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms as well as poor quality of sleep. © 2020, The Author(s).