Association Between the Awareness of Antiretroviral Drugs-Related Services and Drug Accessibility During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Patients Undergoing Antiretroviral Therapy: A Cross-Sectional Study.

In a cross-sectional survey from 21 February to 6 March, 2020, we analyzed the awareness and utilization of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs)-related services among people living with HIV during the COVID-19 pandemic in Guangzhou, China. In addition, a subgroup analysis was performed among those who needed to go to hospital to access their drugs, and we explored the association between the awareness of ARVs-related services and the accessibility of ARVs. Of 375 participants, 89.9% were aware of drug-borrowing service, 90.7% were aware of drug-delivery service and 86.9% were aware of information-assistance service. Knowing about the drug-borrowing service or the information-assistance service, knowing about at least two services and knowing about all of the three services were all positively associated with ARVs accessibility. In addition, 35 (39.3%) of those who had acquired their drugs on time received them via the drug-delivery service. To some extent, the three ARVs-related services have alleviated the difficulties in accessing ARVs during the pandemic, especially the drug-delivery service.

Working conditions and health status of 6,317 front line public health workers across five provinces in China during the COVID-19 epidemic: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Public health workers at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and primary health care institutes (PHIs) were among the main workers who implemented prevention, control, and containment measures. However, their efforts and health status have not been well documented. We aimed to investigate the working conditions and health status of front line public health workers in China during the COVID-19 epidemic. METHODS: Between 18 February and 1 March 2020, we conducted an online cross-sectional survey of 2,313 CDC workers and 4,004 PHI workers in five provinces across China experiencing different scales of COVID-19 epidemic. We surveyed all participants about their work conditions, roles, burdens, perceptions, mental health, and self-rated health using a self-constructed questionnaire and standardised measurements (i.e., Patient Health Questionnaire and General Anxiety Disorder scale). To examine the independent associations between working conditions and health outcomes, we used multivariate regression models controlling for potential confounders. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and poor self-rated health was 21.3, 19.0, and 9.8%, respectively, among public health workers (27.1, 20.6, and 15.0% among CDC workers and 17.5, 17.9, and 6.8% among PHI workers). The majority (71.6%) made immense efforts in both field and non-field work. Nearly 20.0% have worked all night for more than 3 days, and 45.3% had worked throughout the Chinese New Year holiday. Three risk factors and two protective factors were found to be independently associated with all three health outcomes in our final multivariate models: working all night for >3 days (multivariate odds ratio [ORm]=1.67~1.75, p<0.001), concerns about infection at work (ORm=1.46~1.89, p<0.001), perceived troubles at work (ORm=1.10~1.28, p<0.001), initiating COVID-19 prevention work after January 23 (ORm=0.78~0.82, p=0.002~0.008), and ability to persist for > 1 month at the current work intensity (ORm=0.44~0.55, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Chinese public health workers made immense efforts and personal sacrifices to control the COVID-19 epidemic and faced the risk of mental health problems. Efforts are needed to improve the working conditions and health status of public health workers and thus maintain their morale and effectiveness during the fight against COVID-19.