How anxiety attributed to COVID-19, disease knowledge, and intention to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2 viral infection prevail in general public of Saudi Arabia?

Aim: The study aimed to document the anxiety attributed to COVID-19, disease knowledge, and intention to vaccinate against the disease in general public. Moreover, the interplay among these three outcomes was also investigated. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted for 2 months in three cities of Dammam Region of Saudi Arabia. The target segment was the adult population of Saudi Arabia. Convenience sampling was used and all adults aged ≥18 were invited to participate. The questionnaire used in the study was available in both Arabic and English languages. It included a demographic section, a section dedicated to vaccination intention and, a section containing coronavirus anxiety scale (CAS). The data analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS version 23. The study was approved by an ethics committee (IRB-2021-05-297). Results: A total of 542 responses were analyzed. Most respondents had no anxiety attributed to COVID-19 (92.1%), self-reported good knowledge of COVID-19 (79.7%) and intended to administer a vaccine (57.4%). Age groups 18-29 years and 30-45 years, and having a chronic medical condition, were found to be determinants of having COVID-19 anxiety (p < 0.05). The variables of self-rated good knowledge of disease, never contracted COVID-19, and incomes of SAR 5,000 (i.e., USD 1333), and SAR 7,500-10,000 (i.e., USD 1999.5-2666), were found to be determinants of having positive intention toward vaccination (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The anxiety due to COVID-19 was present in a few participants. Besides, self-reported knowledge about COVID-19 and intention to administer a vaccine, were positively linked to each other. However, both variables had no effect on COVID-19 anxiety. It is important to review and address the determinants of positive intention to further increase vaccine acceptance rate.

“The whole sky has broken down on me. I might die alone”: A qualitative study on the lived experiences of COVID-19 positive frontline workers in Bangladesh

Many countries, including Bangladesh, have conducted research on the mental health of frontline workers and their challenges in adjusting to their new workplaces. However, the authors are unaware of any studies on their real-life experiences as COVID-19-positive patients in Bangladesh. This study intends to investigate the lived experiences of Bangladeshi frontline workers who were isolated as a result of the COVID-19 infection and tested positive for the virus. We used a qualitative methodology and a semi-structured interview guide to conduct ten interviews between July 26 and August 12, 2020. The participants were recruited via a social media campaign and purposive sampling. All interviews were conducted via telephone and online and were transcribed and analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. The study does, however, identify four primary themes and 13 supporting themes, including (1) experience in a new working environment (subthemes: workload and adaptation, maintaining health protocol and social distance, and the fear of infection), (2) diagnosis (subthemes: the origin of infection, physiological problems, experiences at the diagnosis center), (3) recovery days (subthemes: earlier reactions, experiences in isolation, coping mechanisms), and (4) post-COVID-19 (subthemes: excitement, fear, and confusion;physiological problems;increased religiosity;and changes in philosophy). This study is important for healthcare policymakers because it helps them design healthcare management systems that take Bangladeshi society's social context into account. This study also recommends that long-term behavioral change programs be implemented by national policymakers to lessen societal stigma. At the same time, it suggests that the government should help lessen the barriers to health care services that persons with lower socioeconomic status confront.

Assessment of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Reluctance Among Staff Working in Public Healthcare Settings of Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Study.

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination acceptance and reluctance among staff working in Saudi healthcare facilities. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during April - May 2021, among healthcare workers in five public hospitals under the National Guards Health Association located in Alahsa, Dammam, Jeddah, Madinah, and Riyadh. The study used a questionnaire in English language, which was distributed through official email communication among healthcare staff currently working at study venues. The data was analyzed using IBM SPSS v23. An ethical approval was obtained. Results: A total of 1,031 responses were recorded. Most of the staff had both doses of COVID-19 vaccine (89%). The mean score for vaccine acceptance on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was 3.55 ± 1.6. The mean score for vaccine reluctance on the same scale was 2.71 ± 1.05. Most participants mentioned safety (76.9%) and efficacy (56.3%) as vaccine concerns and believed that COVID-19 vaccine may not be effective because of changes in virus strain (55.5%). The variables of gender and nationality significantly affected vaccine acceptance, while age, gender, nationality, and profession significantly affected vaccine reluctance (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Most healthcare staff were vaccinated, and a high acceptance for COVID-19 vaccination was reported. Several demographic factors affected the vaccine acceptance and reluctance.

Spatial pattern of COVID-19 in Bangladesh: an ecological study

ObjectiveTo analyse the spatial clustering of COVID-19 case fatality risks in the districts of Bangladesh and to explore the association of sociodemographic indicators with these risks.Study designEcological study.Study settingSecondary data were collected for a total of 64 districts of Bangladesh.MethodsThe data for district-wise COVID-19 cases were collected from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh from March 2020 to June 2020. Socioeconomic and demographic data were collected from National Census Data, 2011. Retrospective spatial analysis was conducted based on district-wise COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh. Global Moran’s I was adopted to find out the significance of the clusters. Furthermore, generalised linear model was conducted to find out the association of COVID-19 cases with sociodemographic variables.ResultsTotal 87 054 COVID-19 cases were included in this study. The epidemic hotspots were distributed in the 11 most populous cities. The most likely clusters are primarily situated in the central, south-eastern and north-western regions of the country. High-risk clusters were found in Dhaka (Relative Risk (RR): 5.22), Narayanganj (RR: 2.70), Chittagong (RR: 1.69), Munshiganj (RR: 2.31) Cox’s Bazar (RR: 1.63), Faridpur (RR: 1.65), Gazipur (RR: 1.33), Bogra (RR: 1.35), Khulna (RR: 1.22), Barishal (RR: 1.07) and Noakhali (RR: 1.06). Weekly progression of COVID-19 cases showed spatially clustered by Moran’s I statistics (p value ranging from 0.013 to 0.436). After fitting a Poisson linear model, we found a positive association of COVID-19 with floating population rate (RR=1.542, 95% CI 1.520 to 1.564), and urban population rate (RR=1.027, 95% CI 1.026 to 1.028).ConclusionThis study found the high-risk cluster areas in Bangladesh and analysed the basic epidemiological issues;further study is needed to find out the common risk behaviour of the patients and other relative issues that involve the spreading of this infectious disease.

Assessment of quality of work life (QWL) among healthcare staff of intensive care unit (ICU) and emergency unit during COVID-19 outbreak using WHOQoL-BREF.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to document the quality of work life (QWL) among healthcare staff of intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency units during COVID-19 outbreak using the WHOQoL-BREF. METHODS: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted for two months (May - June 2020) among healthcare staff working in intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency units of the hospitals under the National Guard Health Authority (NGHA) across five cities of Saudi Arabia. The study used the WHOQoL-BREF instrument to document the QWL through an electronic institutional survey. The data was analyzed through IBM SPSS version 23. The study was approved by an ethics committee. RESULTS: A total of 290 healthcare professionals responded to the survey. The mean overall quality of life score was 3.37 ± 0.97, general health = 3.66 ± 0.88, domains, i.e., physical = 11.67 ± 2.16, psychological = 13.08 ± 2.14, social = 13.22 ± 3.31 and environment = 12.38 ± 2.59. Respondents aged > 40 years, male gender, married status, being a physician and, having a work experience > 15 years and no extra working hours, had higher mean scores for several domains of Quality of life (QoL), overall QoL and general health (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The QWL among healthcare staff during COVID-19 pandemic was low. Demographic factors were mainly the determinants for a higher QWL while the variable of extra working hours was a determinant of lower QWL. Despite the pandemic, no COVID-19 related variables affected the work life of healthcare staff.

'POLIDON' Approach-A Novel Solution for the ENT & Skull Base Surgeons in COVID-19 era.

Health care providers (HCP) of ENT and Skull base surgery are highly vulnerable and mostly infected by novel coronavirus as they have to examine and perform procedures directly in oral cavity, oropharynx, nose, nasopharynx, where coronavirus remains in plenty. ENT & Skull base surgeons need to do several aerosol generating procedures (AGP). Most of the endoscopic and microscopic ENT & skull base surgery are AGP; like-mastoid surgery, sinus surgery, surgery of pituitary, tympanomastoid paraganglioma, temporal bone malignancy, tracheostomy etc. All of we know, COVID negative by RT-PCR test is not always COVID negative. In COVID-19 pandemic-routine, even cancer surgeries are avoided or postponed for the sake of safety of HCPs. Moreover, in case of surgical emergency there's no way to refuse a patient for not having a report of COVID test. We thought about neutralizing or destroying the novel coronavirus from it's route of entry zone, as well as preventing aerosol to be transmitted in the air of OT. We designed a novel approach, i.e. 'POLIDON' (POLIDON = Polythene + Povidone Iodine), which can be the solution for these patients as well as surgeons or HCPs of above mentioned specialties. Use of Povidone Iodine as mouthwash and nasal spray or irrigation for both patient and HCPs prior to surgery is proposed. Then, use of simple polythene as barrier drape of patient or operative area for prevention of spread of aerosol in OT during surgery is the other component. With the POLIDON' approach-all these ENT & skull base surgeries can be done with more safety and confidence.