ABSTRACT
AIM: The uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 has demanded unparalleled measures, from the imposition of quarantine to the declaration as a public health emergency of international concern. COVID-19 poses a severe threat to our day-to-day life as well as physical and mental health. This study explores mental health status among married women that remain understudied in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 597 married women via face-to-face interview, maintaining all safety protocols. A semi-structured questionnaire was assembled that included socio-demographics and the DASS-21 scale. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression were performed to examine the associations between variables. RESULT: Almost 35% of the respondents had stress, 20% had anxiety, and 44% had depression ranging from mild to extremely severe. Metropolitan city inhabitants, being housewives, higher educational status, number of children, financial condition, comorbidities, family members assistance in household activities, relocation during COVID-19, social media use, concern about family, infected family members, tendency to get COVID-19 updates had been found significant in multivariable and univariate regression analysis with depression, anxiety, and stress. CONCLUSION: In this study, we found high rates of stress, anxiety, and depression among the study participants. These findings provide us with an epidemiological picture of the mental health status of our target population that could be a key benchmark for identifying high-risk groups and developing policies as well. Results could also be used to formulate psychological interventions that might be helpful during the COVID-19 period and later.
ABSTRACT
Technologies play an essential role in monitoring, managing, and self-management of chronic diseases. Since chronic patients rely on life-long healthcare systems and the current COVID-19 pandemic has placed limits on hospital care, there is a need to explore disease monitoring and management technologies and examine their acceptance by chronic patients. We systematically examined the use of smartphone applications (apps) in chronic disease monitoring and management in databases, namely, Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and Proquest, published from 2010 to 2020. Results showed that app-based weight management programs had a significant effect on healthy eating and physical activity (p = 0.002), eating behaviours (p < 0.001) and dietary intake pattern (p < 0.001), decreased mean body weight (p = 0.008), mean Body Mass Index (BMI) (p = 0.002) and mean waist circumference (p < 0.001). App intervention assisted in decreasing the stress levels (paired t-test = 3.18; p < 0.05). Among cancer patients, we observed a high acceptance of technology (76%) and a moderately positive correlation between non-invasive electronic monitoring data and questionnaire (r = 0.6, p < 0.0001). We found a significant relationship between app use and standard clinical evaluation and high acceptance of the use of apps to monitor the disease. Our findings provide insights into critical issues, including technology acceptance along with regulatory guidelines to be considered when designing, developing, and deploying smartphone solutions targeted for chronic patients.
ABSTRACT
Yemen has been termed as the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the United Nations. About 20.1 million (more than 50% of population) Yemenis are facing hunger and 10 million are severely food insecure according to reports by the World Food Programme. With the spread of COVID-19, the situation in Yemen has worsened and humanitarian aid from other countries has become the basis of life for hundreds of thousands of Yemenis after the threat of famine. Yemen is practically one of the poorest countries in the world. It has structural vulnerabilities that have developed over a protracted period of conflict and poor governance and more than 50% live in starving, they suffer for getting one meal a day. To prevent a total collapse of Yemen's food crises, the government and the international community should act now more decisively.