Living with "long COVID": A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence.

OBJECTIVES: Long-term health consequences of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), also known as "long COVID," has become a global health concern. In this systematic review, we aimed to synthesize the qualitative evidence on lived experiences of people living with long COVID that may inform health policymaking and practice. METHODS: We searched six major databases and additional sources and systematically retrieved relevant qualitative studies and conducted a meta-synthesis of key findings using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines and reporting standards of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) checklist. RESULTS: We found 15 articles representing 12 studies out of 619 citations from different sources. These studies provided 133 findings that were categorized into 55 categories. All categories were aggregated to the following synthesized findings: living with complex physical health problems, psychosocial crises of long COVID, slow recovery and rehabilitation, digital resources and information management, changes in social support, and experiences with healthcare providers, services, and systems. Ten studies were from the UK, and others were from Denmark and Italy, which highlights a critical lack of evidence from other countries. CONCLUSIONS: More representative research is needed to understand long COVID-related experiences from diverse communities and populations. The available evidence informs a high burden of biopsychosocial challenges among people with long COVID that would require multilevel interventions such as strengthening health and social policies and services, engaging patients and caregivers in making decisions and developing resources, and addressing health and socioeconomic disparities associated with long COVID through evidence-based practice.

Compliance to Public Health Advisory amid COVID-19 Scare: The Communication Conundrum and Public Health Ethics

Discussion of ethics in the public health arena has primarily focused on the practices of public health doctors and professionals. The community could not get the required attention in terms of their role in compliance with the communication in the form of public health advisory in times of public health crisis. Even though public health is the societal approach to protecting and promoting health, ethics in public health have prioritised behaviours of and moral dilemmas faced by public health professionals only. Leaving out the community?s responsibility makes the entire gamut of public health efforts incomplete and deficient. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, non-compliance to the public health advisory raised an important aspect of expectation of ethical behaviour by the community and what could facilitate and hinder compliance of ethical behaviour ensuring the safety of self and others. Public health ought to consider the community as not only an important but also responsible stakeholder in its pursuit of promotion of health and prevention of disease.

Burnout among healthcare providers during COVID-19: Challenges and evidence-based interventions.

Burnout is a major occupational problem among healthcare providers, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The frontline health workforce is experiencing a high workload and multiple psychosocial stressors which may affect their mental and emotional health, leading to burnout symptoms. Moreover, sleep deprivation and a critical lack of psychosocial support may aggravate such symptoms amidst Covid-19. From an ethical viewpoint, healthcare providers may experience moral distress while safeguarding patient welfare and autonomy. Moreover, social injustice and structural inequities may affect their emotional health while tackling a high volume of new cases and mortality. Global evidence indicates the need for adopting multipronged evidence-based approaches to address burnout during this pandemic, which may include increasing the awareness of work-related stress and burnout, promoting mindfulness and self-care practices for promoting mental wellbeing, ensuring optimal mental health services, using digital technologies to address workplace stress and deliver mental health interventions, and improving organisational policies and practices focusing on burnout among healthcare providers.

Mental health outcomes of quarantine and isolation for infection prevention: a systematic umbrella review of the global evidence.

OBJECTIVES: Transmission of infectious diseases is often prevented by quarantine and isolation of the populations at risk. These approaches restrict the mobility, social interactions, and daily activities of the affected individuals. In recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, quarantine and isolation are being adopted in many contexts, which necessitates an evaluation of global evidence on how such measures impact the mental health outcomes among populations. This umbrella review aimed to synthesize the available evidence on mental health outcomes of quarantine and isolation for preventing infectious diseases. METHODS: We searched nine major databases and additional sources and included articles if they were systematically conducted reviews, published as peer-reviewed journal articles, and reported mental health outcomes of quarantine or isolation in any population. RESULTS: Among 1,364 citations, only eight reviews met our criteria. Most of the primary studies in those reviews were conducted in high-income nations and in hospital settings. These articles reported a high burden of mental health problems among patients, informal caregivers, and healthcare providers who experienced quarantine or isolation. Prevalent mental health problems among the affected individuals include depression, anxiety, mood disorders, psychological distress, posttraumatic stress disorder, insomnia, fear, stigmatization, low self-esteem, lack of self-control, and other adverse mental health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This umbrella review found severe mental health problems among individuals and populations who have undergone quarantine and isolation in different contexts. This evidence necessitates multipronged interventions including policy measures for strengthening mental health services globally and promoting psychosocial wellbeing among high-risk populations.

Risk Communication Initiatives amid COVID-19 in India: Analyzing Message Effectiveness of Videos on National Television

Communication for all hazards including widespread public health emergencies is a massive task. The crucial element is to reach and cover maximum people in a timely manner. This article is based on a systematic content analysis of videos on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on National Television by Indian Public Service Broadcaster and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A total of 36 videos were telecasted on National Television channel Doordarshan from 3 March to 21 April 2020 in between programme breaks. The article analyses the presentation characteristics of these videos with respect to timing, duration, language, characters, format and key message content of communication videos on COVID-19. The article deliberates about the manner in which the chronology of the communication messages synced with the external events of the trajectory of the pandemic and thereby information-need of the community in India. All the messages which evolved in these videos (real and animated) were built on each other and depicted an information hierarchy (e.g., washing hands to social distancing) which could be viewed as an empowering tool for the community. The videos were analysed based on the nine constructs of conceptual model of emergency risk communication given bySeeger et al. (2018). The key preventive messages in these videos focused on generating awareness, which was the fundamental necessity in view of the new type of pandemic like COVID-19. The summated scores show that 36 videos were appropriate up to 79 per cent times for the nine constructs, indicating the effectiveness of the messages in communicating the intended message as per the assessed construct. Limitations of the messages were primarily related to the inability to design communication messages with respect to specific understanding, needs and culture of the community.

The New Consumer Behaviour Paradigm amid COVID-19: Permanent or Transient?

A critical situation pushes human behaviour towards different directions with some aspects of behaviour being irrevocable. COVID-19 pandemic is not a normal crisis, and to control the spread of disease various measures were taken including complete and then partial lockdown. Since all elements of the economy are intricately interrelated with public health measures and lockdown, this resulted in economic instabilities of the nations hinting towards change in market dynamics. In every market, consumers are the drivers of the market competitiveness, growth and economic integration. With economic instability, consumers are also experiencing a transformation in behaviour, though how much of transformation experienced during the crisis will sustain is a question. This article looks at the consumer behaviour during COVID-19 crisis and in the subsequent lockdown period when the world stood still for more than a quarter of a year. Further, the article attempts to weave through the maze of literature available about consumer behaviour in normal times and in crisis times, strengthens it with the rapid assessment reports culled out by the different consulting organisations during lockdown phase, substantiates the same with first-hand telling and retelling of experiences by consumers and professionals with marketing background to bring up a hypothesis of the pandemic affecting a paradigm shift from consumer materialism to consumer spiritualism. The proposition offers further testable hypotheses for future research to understand consumer sentiments or requirement in buying ?what is enough? within the marketing context and how it can be reinforced post-COVID crisis for ensuring sustainability of business models. It would also be interesting to explore the correlates of this forced consumer behaviour with other variables such as learning from crisis, changing needs, personality, nationality, culture, new market segment and age to develop new models of consumer behaviour.