Psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on chronic disease patients in Dessie town government and private hospitals, Northeast Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The novel corona virus disease which was first detected in China, December 2019 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2. In Ethiopia, the number of infected peoples has been increased from day to day, despite government mitigation measures. But in our country the psychological impact of COVID-19 on patients with chronic diseases was unknown. Hence, this study was aimed to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 and its associated factors among chronic disease patients. METHODS: A facility based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 413 chronic disease patients in Dessie town government and private hospitals from July 20 to August 5, 2020. Impact of event scale revised questionnaire was used for data collection. Both binary and multivariable logistic regression analyses were utilized to show the association between outcomes and independent variables. In multivariable analysis, significant association was declared at p-value of <0.05. RESULTS: Overall, COVID-19 had abnormal psychological impact on 22.8% (95% CI: 18.6-27.1) of chronic disease patients. Age, sex, duration of chronic disease, respiratory symptoms and having no social support were factors for abnormal psychological impact. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 had abnormal psychological impact on one-fourth of chronic disease patients. Therefore, the government, health professionals and researchers should contribute to prevent the psychological impact ofCOVID-19 on chronic disease patients.

Upper extremity emergencies during SARS-COV-2 pandemic: Turnout trends.

INTRODUCTION: During the SARS-COV-2 pandemic and consequent government measures to prevent the overwhelming of public hospitals, emergency department (ED) orthopaedic turnout was significantly altered. This study compared the turnout of patients with upper extremity (UE) and hand & wrist (H&W) emergencies during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, with the same period of 2019, in the public and private sector. MATERIAL-METHODS: Data from a two-month period [March 23, 2020 (application of severe restrictions of civilian circulation) to May 18, 2020 (two weeks after lockdown cessation)] were collected from a public-university hospital and a private hospital and were compared with data from the same "normal" period in 2019. RESULTS: During the pandemic, the number of patients with orthopaedic, UE, and H&W problems was significantly reduced by 57.09%, 49.77%, 49.92% respectively (p<0.001) compared to 2019. However, the ratios of UE/total orthopaedic emergencies and of H&W/total orthopaedic emergencies increased significantly during the pandemic from 37.17% to 43.32% and from 25.07% to 29.15% (p=0.006 and p<0.001) respectively, compared to 2019. In the private sector, the turnout  was increased for patients with UE problems (8.82%, p=0.67) and H&W problems (24.39%, p=0.3), while in the public sector the turnout was significantly decreased for UE (49.77%, p<0.001) and H&W problems (49.92%, p<0.001) in 2020 compared to 2019. DISCUSSION: The extent of lockdown was unprecedented in recent years. The reduction of orthopaedic, UE and H&W emergencies during lockdown can be attributed to the fear of contracting the virus in the hospitals and even more in hospitals serving as COVID-19 reference centers. Despite the decrease -in absolute numbers- of patients, the increased percentages of UE to total orthopaedic and of H&W to total orthopaedic emergencies in 2020 in both hospitals, reflect the new hobbies' uptake and the increase of domestic accidents during the lockdown, despite overall activity decrease, and underline the necessity of presence of hand surgeons in the EDs. This is one of the very few population-based studies worldwide to show trends in incidence of different injuries of the UE at a regional level during the pandemic, and its results could affect future health care policies.