ABSTRACT
The study was conducted between 2021 and 2022 among the post-COVID patients in Ernakulam district of Kerala by assessing Dietary Diversity Score (DDS), comorbidities, symptoms during COVID and post-COVID, fatigue, stress, and insomnia. The research was a six-month community-based prospective cohort study comprising 250 patients. Out of the 250 patients, 41.6% were male and 58.4% were female. On studying the age-wise distribution of patients, the majority (38%) belonged to the 18-29-year age group. Among the patients, 26% had a high Dietary Diversity Score. The most common comorbidities observed were hypertension (24%), followed by obesity (20.8%), diabetes mellitus (19.2%), and cardiovascular disease (16.8%), respectively. During the period of infection, the most common symptom among patients was tiredness (89.2%), followed by fever (83.2%), headache (78.8%), dry cough (67.6%), and loss of taste or smell (56.4%). Breathlessness (30%), chest pain (26%), and diarrhea (9.2%) were the other significant symptoms. The most prevalent post-COVID symptoms in various systems among patients were loss of appetite (89%), weakness (62.4%), sore throat (51.6%), dry cough (40.4%), joint pain (26.8%), and pain/burning in the chest (14.8%). During COVID, 42.4% of the patients were severely fatigued, 61.2% of the patients had a moderate level of perceived stress, and 44.4% of the patients had subthreshold insomnia. During post-COVID, 80.4% were severely fatigued;moderate stresswas found in 40%, of the subjects;and 22.8% of the study subjects had subthreshold insomnia. The Pearson's coefficient of correlation, 'r', between stress and insomnia among study subjects was 0.37. The obtained t-value for stress (7.14 > 2.58), fatigue (8.31 > 2.58), and insomnia (10.97 > 2.58) were significant. Post-COVID is associated with comorbidities and disease severity. The prevalence of new-onset fatigue, perceived stress, and insomnia was significant among COVID-19 survivors.
ABSTRACT
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered panic buying of food, face masks, gloves, cleaning products and hand sanitizers. Change in food practices, dynamics of plastic and biomedical waste generation during the pandemic has, however, stirred the woes of household solid waste management. The virus loaded waste from indiscriminately discarded face masks, gloves and other biomedical waste with the regular waste stream could cause serious health risks. The present study was undertaken to find out the situation of waste management systems during pandemic outbreak by the households. An online survey was conducted via Google form using well-structured questionnaire. The study covered a sample size of 100 homemakers using simple random sampling technique. Only 45% of households agree with the satisfaction in current waste management system. A majority of 59% of the respondents are burning the household medical waste, 70% of respondents saw the need to avoid mixing of household waste with the PPE products, 64% of respondents are not educated by local authorities on proper waste disposal, and 81% of respondents think there is no sufficient waste management information to the public. Of respondents 54% received awareness regarding the disposal of household medical waste during COVID19 outbreak via social media. Household solid waste management training is important to improve the hygiene and sanitation practices of community people. The current study showed that participants who received training on household solid waste management were significantly correlated with good hygiene practices.