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As a strategy to contain the effects of the social and economic crisis produced by the COVID-19 pandemic, Fundación WWB Colombia designed its Plan Reactivate to strengthen the economic and commercial activity of necessity-based entrepreneurships in Valle del Cauca. Using quasi-experimental quantitative methodology Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and qualitative methods, we found that the gap in terms of revenue recovery between the entrepreneurships participating in the Plan and the non-participants was at least 40%, showing the importance of this type of program to promote economic reactivation of these productive units and the need for targeted policies to strengthen them. © 2023, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economia. All rights reserved.
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Introduction: To obtain control of the COVID-19 epidemic in Cuba, the decision was made by the highest management of the government and the Ministry of Public Health to carry out a health intervention with Abdala vaccine in Matanzas province, due to its high incidence and mortality. Objective: To estimate the impact and effectiveness of Abdala vaccine in the face of symptomatic disease of reported cases and death in hospitals in Matanzas province. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted, with a cohort of vaccinated people consisting of 252,557 people who met the three-dose schedule, and another of unvaccinated or who had not complied with the complete vaccination schedule of 325,462 people. Age and personal pathological history were explored. As a source of information, the registry of confirmed cases and deaths issued by the Ministry of Public Health and the automated vaccination base Andariego Higia were used. It was calculated the effectiveness (VE=1-RR) and by confidence intervals and analyzed epidemiological indicators with the Bayesian structural time series method. Results: The effectiveness against symptomatic disease and death was 75.5 % and 95.7 %, respectively. In the analysis of the causal impact, values of reduction of 90.0% of the reported incidence and 86.0% of mortality were evidenced with respect to the expected figures. Conclusions: Abdala vaccine showed high effectiveness and impact in the prevention of symptomatic disease and death in real-world conditions. © 2022, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.
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Background Hospitalized COVID-19 patients are prone to develop persistent symptoms and to show reduced quality of life following hospital admission. Methods Prospective cohort study of COVID-19 patients admitted to a hospital from March 1 to April 30, 2020. The primary outcome was to compare health related quality of life and persistent symptoms six months after hospital admission, of COVID-19 patients who required ICU admission with those who did not. Results Among the 242 patients hospitalized during the defined period of time, 44 (18.2%) needed ICU admission. Forty (16.5%) patients died during hospital admission. Two hundred and two (83.5%) patients were discharged alive from the hospital. At six months, 183 (75.6%) patients completed the questionnaires (32 ICU patients and 151 non ICU patients). Ninety-six (52.4%) reported decreased quality of life and 143 (78.1%) described persistent symptoms. More ICU patients showed worsening of their quality of life (71.9% vs 43.7%, P = 0.004). There were no differences in the proportion of patients with persistent symptoms between ICU and non ICU patients (87.5% vs 76.2%, P = 0.159). ICU patients showed more frequently dyspnea on exertion (78.1% vs 47.7%, P = 0.02), dyspnea on light exertion (37.5% vs 4.6%, P < 0.001), and asthenia (56.3 vs 29.1, P = 0.003). Conclusions Survivors of COVID-19 needing hospitalization had persistent symptoms and a decline in the quality of life. ICU patients referred a large decrease of their quality of life compared with non ICU patients.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Hospitalized COVID-19 patients are prone to develop persistent symptoms and to show reduced quality of life following hospital admission. METHODS: Prospective cohort study of COVID-19 patients admitted to a hospital from March 1 to April 30, 2020. The primary outcome was to compare health related quality of life and persistent symptoms six months after hospital admission, of COVID-19 patients who required ICU admission with those who did not. RESULTS: Among the 242 patients hospitalized during the defined period of time, 44 (18.2%) needed ICU admission. Forty (16.5%) patients died during hospital admission. Two hundred and two (83.5%) patients were discharged alive from the hospital. At six months, 183 (75.6%) patients completed the questionnaires (32 ICU patients and 151 non ICU patients). Ninety-six (52.4%) reported decreased quality of life and 143 (78.1%) described persistent symptoms. More ICU patients showed worsening of their quality of life (71.9% vs 43.7%, P=0.004). There were no differences in the proportion of patients with persistent symptoms between ICU and non ICU patients (87.5% vs 76.2%, P=0.159). ICU patients showed more frequently dyspnea on exertion (78.1% vs 47.7%, P=0.02), dyspnea on light exertion (37.5% vs 4.6%, P<0.001), and asthenia (56.3 vs 29.1, P=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Survivors of COVID-19 needing hospitalization had persistent symptoms and a decline in the quality of life. ICU patients referred a large decrease of their quality of life compared with non ICU patients.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , COVID-19/complications , Dyspnea , Hospitalization , Humans , Intensive Care Units , Prospective Studies , Quality of Life , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Introduction: COVID-19, rocked the world in December 2019. Since its inception, it has been observed that older patients are prone to develop severe forms of the disease. Objective: To determine the role of age as a variable associated with severity in COVID-19 patients. Methods: A retrospective cohort analytical study was conducted in 150 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, during March to June 2020. The severity was analyzed according to age groups, and a simple binary logistic regression model was used. Clinical and laboratory variables at hospital admission were summarized for the comparison of two age groups from the optimal cut-off point for age using the ROC curve. The free software R version 4.0.2 (22-06-2020) was used for processing. Results: The age of the patients had a wide range, with disease severity predominating in the older age groups. The optimal cut-off point calculated was 71.5. Was observed that from 70 years of age onwards patients had greater comorbidity and altered laboratory tests. Likewise, a greater number of symptoms, hospital stay, and number of deaths. Conclusions: Age is a risk factor associated with severity in patients with COVID-19, which increases significantly after 70 years of age, where a series of factors coexist which, together with advanced age, play an important role in the prognosis. © 2022, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.
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Background: Hospitalized COVID-19 patients are prone to develop persistent symptoms and to show reduced quality of life following hospital admission. Methods: Prospective cohort study of COVID-19 patients admitted to a hospital from March 1 to April 30, 2020. The primary outcome was to compare health related quality of life and persistent symptoms six months after hospital admission, of COVID-19 patients who required ICU admission with those who did not. Results: Among the 242 patients hospitalized during the defined period of time, 44 (18.2%) needed ICU admission. Forty (16.5%) patients died during hospital admission. Two hundred and two (83.5%) patients were discharged alive from the hospital. At six months, 183 (75.6%) patients completed the questionnaires (32 ICU patients and 151 non ICU patients). Ninety-six (52.4%) reported decreased quality of life and 143 (78.1%) described persistent symptoms. More ICU patients showed worsening of their quality of life (71.9 vs. 43.7%, P = 0.004). There were no differences in the proportion of patients with persistent symptoms between ICU and non ICU patients (87.5 vs. 76.2%, P = 0.159). ICU patients showed more frequently dyspnea on exertion (78.1 vs. 47.7%, P = 0.02), dyspnea on light exertion (37.5 vs. 4.6%, P < 0.001), and asthenia (56.3 vs. 29.1, P = 0.003). Conclusions: Survivors of COVID-19 needing hospitalization had persistent symptoms and a decline in the quality of life. ICU patients referred a large decrease of their quality of life compared with non ICU patients.
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The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the factors sufficiency and efficiency of e-services websites at the municipal (local) level on the intention of use by citizens. To test the hypothesis, a survey was applied with 12 items divided into three blocks with questions designed through a 5-degree Likert scale;the data analysis was applied using a descriptive analysis, linear regression and Pearson correlation. The instrument was applied to citizens of the State of Veracruz, Mexico during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between the sufficiency and efficiency factors and the intention of use, indicating that the citizen’s perspective is motivated by the sufficiency and efficiency of e-government websites. © 2021, Universidad del Zulia. All rights reserved.