The Thai version of the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale: a valid instrument for the psychometric assessment of the community members in Bangkok, Thailand.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can develop into a long-term COVID in some cases, which can have a major impact on various health systems requiring appropriate treatment involving multi-disciplinary healthcare. The COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRS) is a standardized tool widely used for screening the symptoms and severity of long-term COVID. Translation of the English version of the C19-YRS into the Thai language and testing it is essential for the psychometric evaluation of the severity of the long-term COVID syndrome prior to providing rehabilitation care for community members. METHODS: Forward-and back-translations including cross-cultural aspects were conducted in order to develop a preliminary Thai version of that tool. Five experts evaluated the content validity of the tool and produced a highly valid index. A cross-sectional study was then conducted on a sample of 337 Thai community members recovering from COVID-19. Assessment of internal consistency and individual item analyses were also performed. RESULTS: The content validity resulted in valid indices. The analyses showed that 14 items had acceptable internal consistency, based on the corrected item correlations. However, five symptom severity items and two functional ability items were deleted. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the final C19-YRS was 0.723, indicating acceptable internal consistency and reliability of the survey instrument. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicated that the Thai C19-YRS tool had acceptable validity and reliability for the evaluation and testing of the psychometric variables in a Thai community population. The survey instrument also had acceptable validity and reliability for screening the symptoms and severity of long-term COVID. Further studies are warranted in order to standardize the various applications of this tool.

Management of food insecurity in the COVID-19 pandemic: a model of sustainable community development.

The COVID-19 pandemic has a severe and immediate impact on unemployment and reduced household income, resulting in global food insecurity. Women play a major role as household food providers who manage food insecurity in Thai community. In this qualitative study researchers aimed to understand how communities engage in management of food insecurity resulting from COVID-19. Participants included 12 female food providers who were community volunteers, four community leaders, and four health providers. Focus group interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed using content analysis. We explain community engagement to manage food insecurity through strategies including connecting through empathy, community empowerment, and engaging for sustainability. We present findings to illustrate how women's groups may work through a public-private partnership to achieve sustainable food security.