ABSTRACT
Many studies have confirmed that chemosensory disorder (including smell, taste and chemesthesis) is one of the symptoms of COVID-19 infection. However, new data indicated that the changes of chemosensory sensation caused by COVID-19 may be different among different populations and COVID-19 variants. At present, there are few studies focusing on the influence of Omicron on qualitative changes and quantitative reductions of chemosensory in China. We conducted a cross-sectional study on COVID-19 Omicron variant patients to investigate the prevalence of chemosensory disorders and their chemosensory function before and during infection by online questionnaire. A total of 1245 patients with COVID-19 completed the study. The prevalence of smell, taste and chemesthesis disorder was 69.2%, 67.7% and 31.4% respectively. Sex, age, smoking and COVID-19-related symptoms such as lack of appetite, dyspnea and fatigue may have association with chemosensory disorders during COVID-19. Self-ratings of chemosensory function revealed that patients experienced a decline in the function of smell, taste and chemesthesis generally. Further studies are needed to combine the data using objective assessment and investigate the factors affecting chemosensory in COVID-19 through longitudinal research.
Subject(s)
Dyspnea , Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities , COVID-19 , FatigueABSTRACT
Background As the COVID-19 epidemic was gradually brought under control, a new autumn semester began in 2020. How was the mental health of postgraduates as they experienced quarantine at home, only commuting between the school and hospital? Methods The research was conducted in a cross-sectional online survey in October 2020. The data were collected from 1,645 medical postgraduates (master's and doctoral students) by using the demographic information questionnaire, the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Questionnaire on Psychological Stressors of Postgraduates (QPSP), the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) and the Social Support Rate Scale (SSRS). One-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to explore the relationships among anxiety, depression, psychological stressors, social support and coping style. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to assess the mediation model. Results Among the total of 1,645 medical postgraduates, 21.6% (n = 356) had self-rated depression symptoms, and 9.4% (n = 155) had self-rated anxiety symptoms. The main disturbances they experienced were employment, academic and interpersonal pressure. The master of third grade students had the highest employment pressure, and the master of second grade students had the highest academic and interpersonal pressure. Negative coping played a negative mediating role and social support played a positive mediating role in the relationships between perceived stress and anxiety (β = 0.027, P < 0.01;β = 0.124, P < 0.01) and depression (β = 0.016, P < 0.01;β = 0.193, P < 0.01). Conclusion Medical postgraduates in China restricted to studies on campus and in the hospital experienced psychological distress. Our results suggest that providing employment and learning guidance, while strengthening social support and guiding positive coping may be effective at improving the mental health of the medical graduate students, mediating their perceived stress and negative emotions.
ABSTRACT
Background. Fear is a negative emotional reaction to or persistent worry over an imminent public health event like COVID-19. The COVID-Fear Scale was developed in many countries, but not in China. The current study aims to examined the psychometric properties of Chinese version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale.Methods. Translation into Chinese and back-translation into English were conducted firstly. Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis in Sample 1, followed by validity tests in Sample 2). Likely, test-rest reliability was conducted in Sample 3.Results. A bifactor structure of Chinese version of FCV-19S with a general fear factor and two orthogonal group factors with fear thoughts and physical response was confirmed. Besides, it has good internal consistency reliability (α=.92), composite reliability (CR=.92) and validity correlation validity.Conclusion. The results of the present study confirmed that the Chinese version of FCV-19S has good psychometric properties in the Chinese communities.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
Since early 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly across the world. As at the date of writing this article, the disease has been globally reported in 223 countries and regions, infected over 108 million people and caused over 2.4 million deaths (https://covid19.who.int/, accessed on Feb. 17, 2021). Avoiding person-to-person transmission is an effective approach to control and prevent the pandemic. However, many daily activities, such as transporting goods in our daily life, inevitably involve person-to-person contact. Using an autonomous logistic vehicle to achieve contact-less goods transportation could alleviate this issue. For example, it can reduce the risk of virus transmission between the driver and customers. Moreover, many countries have imposed tough lockdown measures to reduce the virus transmission (e.g., retail, catering) during the pandemic, which causes inconveniences for human daily life. Autonomous vehicle can deliver the goods bought by humans, so that humans can get the goods without going out. These demands motivate us to develop an autonomous vehicle, named as Hercules, for contact-less goods transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The vehicle is evaluated through real-world delivering tasks under various traffic conditions.