ABSTRACT
Background Italy was the first western country severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic attesting more than 16 million cases since the outbreak began. Po Valley regions have been most afflicted, with Piedmont ranking sixth at 25,899 cases/100,000 inhabitants. Within this area, air dispersion is hampered making Po Valley a recognised air pollution hotspot. We aimed to explore the potential association between the environment and Covid-19 incidence. Methods Daily key air pollutants (NO2, NO, CO, O3, PM10, and PM2.5), meteorological parameters (temperature, %humidity, wind speed and solar radiation), pollens and Covid-19 cases were collected from 01/01 to 31/12/2021 in Turin, Italy. This ecological study preliminarily tested correlations (Spearman) between air pollutants and Covid-19 cases. Results The Covid-19 pandemic followed a seasonal trend with the highest number of cases (/100,000 inhabitants) in winter and spring (3.1) followed by autumn (1.3) and summer (0.5) (KW test p < 0.0001). Likewise, all air pollutants showed peaks in winter and autumn and sensibly decreased during spring and summer apart from pollens and O3. O3 follows the photochemical processes reaching its peak in the sunniest periods, while pollens undergo their natural vegetative process. Daily Covid-19 cases were positively correlated with daily-averaged NO2 (0.50, p < 0.0001), NO (0.48, p < 0.0001), CO (0.81, p < 0.0001), PM10 (0.36, p < 0.0001), PM2.5 (0.39, p < 0.0001), pollens (0.15, p = 0.073) and inversely with O3 (-0.44, p < 0.0001). We plan future analyses to test the hypothesized association by enhanced models with lagged air pollution variables, with demographic characteristics and meteorological data as potential confounders. Conclusions Results from ecological studies may support researchers’ preliminary understanding of the interplay between environment and Public Health issues, including pandemics. A multidisciplinary approach is mandatory to deepen the complexity of this topic across European regions Key messages • The Covid-19 pandemic may be associated with environmental conditions and air pollution but further research is needed. • Atmospheric particulate matter, including aeroallergens, can favour many airborne-related diseases by acting as immune suppressor and/or carrier, but these hypotheses deserve future research.
ABSTRACT
The Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) disease pandemic has a huge impact on global health and hospitals, which have had to reorganize their services to deal with an unprecedented health emergency. This paper describes the experience of the Clinical Psychology Unit of a large healthcare organization in Milan (Italy), focusing on the interventions delivered for hospitalized COVID-19 patients with the aim of highlighting their experiences and related psychological needs, and propose reflections on the functions that the psychologist can have with respect to these needs. The reflections are based on an extensive clinical experience conducted in presence for over a year with those patients hospitalized for COVID-19 who have received treatment with C-PAP, helmet, or low-flow oxygen. This led to the bottom-up identification of three macro-areas of issues that these patients face: isolation, fear of death, grief. In addition, two further transversal themes have been identified - guilt and the perception of time - which seem to modulate the articulation of the three macro-areas. Starting from these experiences and needs, two lines of actions of the psychologist with the hospitalized COVID- 19 patient are identified that correspond to the two phases of hospitalization: 1) an action in the `here and now' when the patient is still in a critical phase;2) an action of narrative recovery of the lived experience when the patient is recovering. The importance for hospitalized COVID-19 patients of delivering psychological consultations in presence is supported by clinical experience;however, its effectiveness in preventing subsequent maladjustments should be evaluated in further studies.