ABSTRACT
Background: The coronavirus disease "COVID-19" was reported in 2019 as an outbreak in Wuhan, China, and categorized as a pandemic disease in 2020 with severe complications. Objective: This study aimed to test the effects of COVID-19 infection on blood parameters and to assess these effects with disease progress. Patients and Methods: 120 patients with COVID-19 in Al-Amal Specialized Hospital for Communicable Diseases in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf province with 30 healthy (control) individuals of both genders were included in this study. Blood parameters (complete blood count, PLT and ferritin) were measured for 3 weeks from the 1st day of hospitalization. Results: The study revealed significant differences in the hematological parameters for COVID-19 patients in comparison with the control group and these variations increased with the progress and severity of the disease. No significant variations were noticed in Hb and HCT of patients compared to control, but these parameters decreased with disease progression. Conclusion: A comparison of COVID-19 patients with healthy individuals revealed significant differences in hematological parameters, which became more pronounced with the progression and severity of the disease. © 2022, Ain Shams University Faculty of Medicine. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic is challenging. Strong intention and good knowledge on the risk and benefit of breastfeeding are important for a woman to breastfeed her child during this period. This study aims to develop and validate a Malay language questionnaire in order to measure Malaysian women's knowledge and intention about breastfeeding during the pandemic. The items were developed based on an extensive review of literature as well as breastfeeding guidelines and suggestions from experts, followed by an assessment of content and face validity that involved nine and 30 reviewers respectively. A pilot study was conducted on 90 respondents and the reliability assessment was performed using Rasch analysis. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to determine the number of latent factors within the intention dimension. Among 29 knowledge items and 36 intention items, 19 knowledge items remained with a person separation (person reliability) as well as item separation (item reliability) of 1.73(0.75) and 3.97(0.94). The final intention domain had 17 items with a person separation (person reliability) as well as item separation (item reliability) of 1.54(0.70) and 3.87(0.94). Three latent factors were identified within the intention questionnaire. The final 17 items explained 53.7% of the variance with an overall Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy of 0.70, χ2 = 623.40 (136), p<0.001. Using the framework of the theory of planned behaviour, the drafted questionnaire is reliable and valid based on the Rasch measurement model to measure the knowledge and intention about breastfeeding during an infection outbreak. © 2022, Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine. All Rights Reserved.