Effects of Hypertension Alone and in Comorbidity with Diabetes on Death within 30 Days among Inpatients with COVID-19 Infection

Background: Hypertension and diabetes are common comorbidities in patients with COVID-19 and could be influencing the mortality of such patients. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of hypertension alone and in comorbidity with diabetes on the death within 30 days among inpatients with COVID-19 in presence of well-known determinates of COVID-19 death.Study Design: A case-control study.Methods: Four groups of COVID-19 inpatients including controls, diabetes alone, hypertension alone, and hypertension and diabetes comorbidities were defined. Each study groups did not have underlying diseases other than hypertension and diabetes. Demographic and general characteristics, underlying diseases, and hospital course events were extracted from medical records. The outcome of interest was alive at discharge/ death within 30 days after admission. Multivariable binary logistic analysis was employed to estimate the effect measures.Results: The number of death within 30 days among controls (n = 1359), diabetes alone (159), hypertension alone (406) and hypertension and diabetes comorbidities (188) were 12.68%, 15.72%, 20.74% and 26.74%, respectively. According to three multivariable analyses after adjusting older age, hospital length of stay, and intensive care unit (ICU) admission separately, the odds of death within 30 days in COVID-19 patients with having hypertension and diabetes comorbidities was 1.58, 2.13 and 1.91 times of patients without such comorbidities, respectively (P < 0.015). The effect of hypertension alone was also significant after adjusting hospital length of stay and ICU admission but not for older age.Conclusion: Our results suggest that comorbidities, such as hypertension and diabetes may be associated with COVID-19-related deaths independent of other underlying diseases, older age, and adverse hospital course events.

Promoting the Safety of Pregnant Women: Information Management System Strategy for the COVID-19 Vaccination

Background: Promoting the immunity of pregnant women during the Covid-19 pandemic through vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection is one of the main challenges. It is important to manage the information related to receiving the vaccine and its possible complications for surveillance of its safety and to deal with the challenges. Based on this, it is necessary to design a national information management system for the COVID-19 vaccination. Objective(s): To promote the safety of pregnant women by providing a national model of an information management system for pregnant women's COVID-19 vaccination in Iran. Method(s): The present research was of applied descriptive type. Based on the review of articles and information sources and a com-parative study of the information management and surveillance system for the vaccination of pregnant women in developed coun-tries, and according to the country's organizational structure, the national model of the information management system for pregnant women's COVID-19 vaccination was designed for Iran. Then the validation of the model was examined in two steps using the Delphi technique. Finally, after analyzing the data, the final model was presented. Result(s): The findings were categorized into two main groups, including the structural components (responsible organization and databases, surveillance center, participating organizations, and data sources) and informational process (data set, data collection, quality control, data exchanges, data processing, reporting) that reached 100% consensus of experts. Conclusion(s): For developing IMS for the COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant women, it is necessary to specify the responsible organization and the participating centers, create surveillance centers and databases, and define the information management system process.Copyright © 2023, Author(s).

COVID-19 pandemic and management on hospital length of stay: A review

COVID-19 virus is a serious threat to public health everywhere on the planet. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease epidemic in December 2019 because of its rapid prevalence around the world. The disease is transferred by inhalation or contact with contaminated droplets, and the incubation period varies from 2 to 14 days. COVID-19 has led to unprecedented pressures as demand for healthcare in hospitals and intensive care units around the world increases. As the epidemic intensifies, determining the resulting needs for health care resources (beds, staff, equipment) has become a priority for many countries. Predicting future demand requires estimating how long COVID-19 patients must have access to different levels of hospital care. The length of hospitalization for these patients is one of the management priorities. It is possible to pass through the crisis only with careful planning and comprehensive cooperation.

Telehealth in management of COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review

COVID-19 has created major health-related, economic, and social challenges in societies, and its high contagion has dramatically altered access to healthcare. COVID-19 management can be improved by the use of telehealth. This study aimed to examine different telehealth technologies in the management of COVID-19 disease in the domains of surveillance, diagnosis, screening, treatment, monitoring, tracking, and follow-up and investigate the challenges to the application of telehealth in COVID-19 management. This scoping review was conducted based on Arksey and O'Malley's framework. Searches were performed in Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases to examine the evidence on the effectiveness of telehealth in COVID-19 management. Eventually, 36 articles were selected based on the inclusion criteria. The majority of these studies (33%) were conducted in China. Most services offered via telehealth focused on surveillance, tracking, and follow-up, in that order. Moreover, the most frequently used technologies were social networks, web-based apps, and mobile apps, respectively. The use of telehealth in COVID-19 disease management plays a key role in surveillance, diagnosis, screening, treatment, monitoring, tracking, and follow-up.

The study of COVID-19 in an iranian family with sickle cell disease

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a significant medical and public health problem in the world. It is believed that it can worsen in extreme conditions. Also, it is suggested that blood disorders such as sickle cell disease (SCD) may increase the risk of COVID-19 symptoms. The present study reports a family facing COVID-19, in which one of two members with SCD presented with fever, repeated cough and dizziness followed by acute chest syndrome leading to death. The remained members that had sickle cell trait manifested mild symptoms based on our findings. Although COVID-19 in individuals with SCD showed an increased risk for COVID19 compared with individuals with sickle cell trait, it seems that SCD cannot lead to worse condition in our patients.