ABSTRACT
Aims The outbreak of COVID-19, lockdown and self-isolation has created a lot of additional pressure on the society as a whole. We aim to audit the number of patients presenting to SVUH ED since March 27th 2020 (the date at which the government imposed a stay-at-home order) with an overdose. Methods The cohort of cases analysed was identified using ED MAXIMS under the subheading of ‘overdose and poisoning’ presentations. Data were collected using MAXIMS and clinical portal and stored on the SVUH system and analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. Results There were a total of 713 cases in both years (from 27th of March – 31st December), with 353 (49.5%) admitted in 2019 and 360 (50.5%) admitted in 2020. Out of those admitted, 423 patients were females (196 and 227 in 2019 and 2020 respectively). There was a significant increase in the number of female presentations in 2020, with a p value of 0.041. When stratifying patients based on age, the mean ages were 37.22 (SD 17.04) and 34.18 (SD17.32) in 2019 and 2020 respectively (p = 0.076). When dividing age groups in three categories (under 18, over 65 and 19–64), our data showed significant differences. There was a significant increase in numbers in the ≤18 yr and 19–64 age groups in 2020 compared with 2019. In the under 18 groups, there was an increase in numbers by 7.9% in 2020 (11.6% compared with 19.5%). When comparing numbers between Months per year, overall, there were no changes in presentations. Interestingly March 2020 had no presentations compared with March 2019, coinciding with the beginning of the pandemic in Ireland. May showed more than 50% decrease in presentations in 2020. Similar numbers were seen in the rest of the months of both years. Conclusion Between 2019 and 2020, there was a 1.9% increase of ED presentations with overdoses, which did not show any significance in increase of numbers or in age demographics. There were three main findings from our analysis: 1. A significant difference between the two years in a rise in female patients admitted with overdose (p = 0.041) 2. An increase in presentations in the age groups of under 18 and 19–64. This may allude to increase strain in the younger population with loss of jobs, financial burdens etc. 3. There were no presentations in March 2020, coinciding with the beginning of the pandemic in Ireland.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Physicians may be an important source of blood donations as they are more likely to be familiar with the importance of donating and the donation process. The aim of this study is to report physicians' knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards voluntary and non-voluntary blood donations. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC), Saudi Arabia. One-hundred-and-sixteen physicians and dentists responded to an online structured questionnaire sent to their institutional emails. RESULTS: Sixty-eight percent of participants (79% of males and 43% of females) reported previously having donated blood. Eighty-six percent of donors had previously donated on a voluntary basis, whereas 31% of donors had previously donated for a specific person. A recent donation within 5 years was associated with the younger age group and knowledge of the minimum interval between donations. Fifty-six percent of participants agreed with using replacement donations. Compared to participants in the youngest age group (25-35 years), older participants in the age groups (46-55 years) and (>55 years) were less likely to express intention to donate in the next 6 months (OR 0.289, P = .022 and OR 0.083, P = .004, respectively). Participants reporting poor nutritional status or other medical reasons as a barrier to donating blood were less likely to intend to donate (OR 0.146, P < .001). Among previous donors, intention to donate was associated with a recent donation within 1 year (OR 27.13, P = .002) and having had a pleasant donation experience (OR 14.98, P < .001). CONCLUSION: Blood donation practices are strongly tied to physicians' gender and age and their knowledge of the donation process. The most significant barrier to blood donation was found to be nutritional and medical status.