ABSTRACT
Background: This web-based survey is done to collect and assess data from people tested for COVID-19 with PCR in Pakistan. Methods: This 3-month study is a cross-sectional online survey, conducted by Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), Health Research Advisory Board (HealthRAB) and National Institute of Health (NIH). Data collection was done using Google Forms. People who were tested for COVID-19 using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) were included in the study. The sample size of the study was 1,537. SPSS version 22 was used for data analysis. Results: Majority of the respondents belonged to the age group 20 - 39 years. The most common symptoms found were fever 633 (41%), cough 534 (34%), generalized body aches 432 (28%) and sore throat 392 (25%). The mean COVID-19 mental health score was 3.59 (SD: 5.808, range: 0-18). Treatment with antibiotics and painkillers had a strong correlation (p-value < 0.05) with the disease outcomes. The disease outcomes had moderate correlation (p-value < 0.05) with anti-allergy, steroids, plasma and oxygen therapy, and weak correlation (p-value < 0.05) with Antiviral and Antimalarial therapy. Out of the total respondents, 561 (36.1%) were cured from COVID-19, 14 (0.9%) were expired during/after hospitalization, 15 (1%) were still infected and 962 (62%) were not infected. Conclusion: Pakistani population has a better cure rate than some of its neighboring countries. However, further research in this area is required to draw a definite conclusion.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The coronavirus outbreak has been publicly and formally defined a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11th 2020. Some extreme but effective safety measures have been applied in order to limit the spread of the infection among the population. The price of COVID-19 restrictive measures and lockdowns has been especially heavy for individual's mental health. There is previous evidence that the COVID-19-related lockdown has impacted on mental health worsening among individuals with Feeding and Eating Disorders (EDs) and clinical obesity. Potential affecting aspects might have been restriction to daily activities and movements, excessive exposure to harmful eating patterns on social media, emotional distress, fear of contagion, and low access to treatment and care. Nevertheless, especially on the basis of the proven-detrimental impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on in- dividuals with clinical eating disorders, home confinement might analogously have had a negative impact also on the eating behaviors of individuals from the general population. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of EDs symptoms and dysfunctional eating behaviours (i.e. emotional overeating, night eating, snacking, binge eating, undereating, food avoidance) among the general population. Method(s): We searched eligible articles in Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science. Prevalence rates were pooled with meta-analysis using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was tested using I-squared (I2) statistics. A total of 221 studies met the inclusion criteria. Result(s): The pooled prevalence of increased body weight was 33% (95% CI 30-35) among individuals in 84 studies. Forty-five percent (95% CI 31-59) of participants in 10 studies experienced body shape concern, body dissatisfaction and body misperception. Other EDs symptoms increased in the general population during the pandemic, such as overeating (41%;95% CI 33-48), food cravings (36%;95% CI 12- 59), binge eating (35%;95% CI 20-51), emotional eating (28%;95% CI 23-33) and snacking (27%;95% CI 23-32). Food restriction, excessive physical activity, weight loss and night eating were also common. Pooled data of longitudinal studies showed a significant difference in BMI and dysfunctional eating behaviours before and during the pandemic. Conclusion(s): This meta-analysis evidenced a negative impact of the pandemic on eating behaviors among the general population. Overall, these results highlight the need for further high-quality longitudinal studies that examine which specific populations experienced higher distress than others, and what are the long-term negative consequences of COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Purpose Since most developed countries are facing an increase in the number of patients per healthcare worker due to a declining birth rate and an aging population, relatively simple and safe diagnosis tasks may need to be performed using robotics and automation technologies, without specialists and hospitals. Since the 1800s, auscultation has been an essential component of clinical examination and is a highly costeffective screening tool to detect abnormal clinical signs [1]. Additionally, recent studies have reported that auscultation is a potential diagnostic tool for COVID-19 patients and can be used as a follow-up tool for noncritical COVID-19 patients [2]. In this study, we aim to develop a robotic auscultation platform that enables estimation of the landing positions and safe placement of the stethoscope at the estimated position. The contribution of this paper is to establish a proofof- concept of the robotic platform that enables autonomous positioning of the stethoscope based on external body information while satisfying the patient's safety in terms of the contact between the stethoscope and body surface. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dedicated robotic system designed for autonomous auscultation. Methods The developed robotic platform is composed of a 6-degree-of-freedom cooperative robotic arm, the light detection and ranging (LiDAR), and a spring-based mechanism holding an electric stethoscope (Fig. 1). The platform enables autonomous stethoscope positioning based on external body information acquired using LiDAR camera-based multi-way registration. The platform also ensures safe and flexible contact, maintaining the contact force within a certain range through the passive-actuated mechanism. The pipeline for estimating the landing positions to place the stethoscope with the developed robotic auscultation platform is organized into three components: (i) acquisition of the point cloud data for covering the entire chest and registration of the acquired point cloud data to reconstruct the entire chest shape;(ii) estimation of the landing positions based on the reconstructed body shape and the anatomical landmarks on the body surface;(iii) placement of the stethoscope at the estimated positions while maintaining a certain safe contact force. Results Our preliminary results confirm that the robotic platform enables estimation of the landing positions required for cardiac examinations based on the depth and landmark information of the body surface. The registration error in the 3D space occurred in the range of 5.1 to 7.6 mm on average. It also handles the stethoscope while maintaining the contact force without relying on the push-in displacement by the robotic arm. The generated contact forces were precisely achieved to the targeted forces (5, 10, 15 N). The maximum error was 7.2% of the targeted force. Conclusion The developed robotic platform enables the estimation of the landing positions and handling the stethoscope while maintaining the contact force, which promises the potential of automatic remote auscultation. The developed robotic platform has the potential to address the critical issue of the increase in the number of patients per healthcare worker. The use of this technology may further enhance the efficiency of screening for abnormal clinical signs, including COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Objective(s): SARC-F1 is recommended by the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2) for sarcopenia case finding2. A number of other screening tools have been devised. We aim to present (i) SARC-F in the context of other screening measures for sarcopenia, (ii) their comparison to SARC-F in terms of the psychometric properties but also feasibility in different clinical scenarios. Material and methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched for the SARC-F original papers and conference s, and for the other screening measures for sarcopenia. The SARC-F national validation paper by Piotrowicz et al.3 will serve as an anchor for the discussion of the topic. Results: Eleven screening methods for sarcopenia case finding have been identified. We present their applicability in the various settings and different clinical conditions. This includes the COVID-19 pandemic and an emerging concept of acute sarcopenia due to SARSCoV- 2 infection. Conclusion(s): As compared with other sarcopenia screening tools, SARC-F is more versatile, as it can be self-administered, assessed during a telephone interview, or used in subjects of varying body-build, or body-build affected by pathologies such as heart failure, liver failure, hypoalbuminemia.