ABSTRACT
Background: Among many responsibilities, the doctors from the COVID war room of our institute were assigned to take telephonic follow-up of discharged COVID patients to provide any medical assistance if needed. During this process, few relatives of the patient's informed back that the patients had died after discharge from the COVID wards. Aim and Objective: Such data of death in the COVID patients after discharged are limited in India;hence, we conducted this study so that more information is generated. Materials and Methods: Relatives of these COVID patients were asked about date and place of death. Other data including gender, age, date of admission, date of discharge, and requirement of oxygen were available with the COVID war room and were used for evaluation. Results: Out of the 892 COVID discharged patients (between August and October 2020) who could be contacted, 19 (2.13%) patients (6 females and 13 males) had died after discharge from the COVID ward. Characteristics of these 19 patients included higher age (n = 11 were 61-80 years old and n = 3 were >80 years old), hospital stay of 11-20 days (n = 12), and required oxygen support (n = 12). Most deaths occurred within 20 days (n = 16) after discharge from the COVID ward. Conclusions: The current study reports deaths occurring COVID patients after discharge. Most of these deaths occurred within 4 weeks of cure and in elderly patients. More research with long-term follow-up is needed in "cured" COVID-19 patients so that appropriate preventive measures can be undertaken in the future.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to considerable stress and anxiety, adversely affecting the quality of the sleep. A study was conducted to evaluate if the COVID-19 pandemic had any effects(s) on the sleeping pattern and on overall sleep quality. Study was conducted as a cross sectional, questionnaire-based survey in Indian population on an online platform utilising Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess pattern and quality of sleep before and during the pandemic. The survey questionnaire was conducted during pandemic;hence the data collected for "before pandemic” duration was retrospective. A total of 1615 participants' responses were received of which there were 756 female and 859 male participants. The mean PSQI score (global) before the pandemic was 4.68 ± 2.98 while that during the pandemic is 6.02 ± 3.62 indicating a significant change in the sleep quality. The proportion of poor sleepers also increased dramatically from 26.1% pre-covid to 49.3% during covid. Both sleep deprivation and poor-quality of sleep are well-known to produce significant mood disturbances and to lower the immunity. Thus, it can be extrapolated that those individuals who developed significant sleep disturbances during COVID-19 are likely to be at a greater risk for negative health consequences even if they did not develop active COVID-19 infection. As sleep is vital for both mental and physical health of the human body, adequate measures should be taken at an individual level as well as at the community level to maintain quality of the sleep during pandemic or other disasters like war that trigger considerable stress.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to considerable stress and anxiety, adversely affecting the quality of the sleep. A study was conducted to evaluate if the COVID-19 pandemic had any effects(s) on the sleeping pattern and on overall sleep quality. Study was conducted as a cross sectional, questionnaire-based survey in Indian population on an online platform utilising Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess pattern and quality of sleep before and during the pandemic. The survey questionnaire was conducted during pandemic;hence the data collected for "before pandemic" duration was retrospective. A total of 1615 participants' responses were received of which there were 756 female and 859 male participants. The mean PSQI score (global) before the pandemic was 4.68 +/- 2.98 while that during the pandemic is 6.02 +/- 3.62 indicating a significant change in the sleep quality. The proportion of poor sleepers also increased dramatically from 26.1% pre-covid to 49.3% during covid. Both sleep deprivation and poor-quality of sleep are well-known to produce significant mood disturbances and to lower the immunity. Thus, it can be extrapolated that those individuals who developed significant sleep disturbances during COVID-19 are likely to be at a greater risk for negative health consequences even if they did not develop active COVID-19 infection. As sleep is vital for both mental and physical health of the human body, adequate measures should be taken at an individual level as well as at the community level to maintain quality of the sleep during pandemic or other disasters like war that trigger considerable stress. Copyright © 2022 Ubiquity Press. All rights reserved.