ABSTRACT
The outbreak of Covid-19 has exacerbated the mental health of Healthcare Workers (HCWs), caused by an increase in their stress levels owing to an exponential rise in their workloads. Previous works have revealed visible changes in Heart Rate Variability (HRV), in response to increased/decreased stress levels. This study focused on analyzing HRV as a parameter to observe the impact of higher stress levels, on clinicians, due to the pandemic. Their responses to a Perceived Stress Score (PSS) questionnaire were used as a reference to determine their escalated stress levels. The responses showed that 40% of clinicians revealed increased levels of high chronic stress while the remaining were affected by moderate chronic stress. We computed HRV for each clinician from HR data obtained using a chest-based wearable device during sleep and ward sessions. Through detailed analysis of HRV, we observed clinicians with high chronic stress showed lower HRV when compared to clinicians with moderate chronic stress during both sleep and ward sessions. Later we did a close investigation of their HRV on Day 1 and Day 2 in Covid-IP (Inpatient) and compared the HRV features. Finally, we compared the HRV features of clinicians between Covid-IP Covid-OP (Outpatient) ward sessions. The above study validated that HRV is a reliable parameter for an objective assessment of stress levels. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Background: Primarily our respiratory system is affected by SARS-CoV-2 virus. Covid 19 in severe cases causes Pneumonia(lung), kidney failure and even death. About 80% of covid infections are mild, 15% severe infections and 5% critical infections. Months after recovery some of them experience complications such as loss of taste (or) smell, heart beat irregularities, shortness of breath, etc. Aim: To assess the awareness about the complications pertaining to Covid 19 among the general population. Materials and methods:The cross sectional study was conducted among the general public population between 15-60 years of age. A pre-validated and reliable questionnaire containing 11 questions had been distributed to the participants (Annexure 1). Statistical analysis was performed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 23.0 (IBM, Chicago, USA). Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were performed. Result: This study was conducted among 100 participants from the general public population. 69.90% of participants accepted that covid 19 causes respiratory and liver failure. 81.55% of them were aware that diabetic patients are at risk of a serious form of covid 19.45.63% believe that covid 19 infection leads to both loss of short term memory and psychosis, 52.43% have responded that covid virus damages lungs and 48.54% accepted that agitation, delirium and stroke are all the neurological and mental complications caused due to covid 19 infection.