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BACKGROUND: An infection (COVID-19) without any specific cure makes the people more vulnerable to get affected due to insufficient knowledge and unhealthy practices. In this scenario, healthcare students can act as reliable information providers. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and perception about COVID-19 among medical and allied health science students. METHODS: A web-based cross sectional survey was conducted during February and March 2020. A 24-item survey was developed and randomly distributed among the study population. Descriptive statistics was applied to represent participant characteristics and Chi-square test was used to evaluate the level of association among variables with a significance level of p < 0.01. RESULTS: Total, 97.95% (715/730) participants completed the survey. High proportion of students were from pharmacy (45.73%) followed by medical (22.52%), physiotherapy, nursing and dental background. Majority of participants were having adequate knowledge while about 18% had partial knowledge about the symptoms of severe COVID-19 cases. Students have shown a positive perception of COVID-19 prevention and control while few invalid responses related to the use of herbal medicines or garlic were noted. About 50% had rightly stated that, the antibiotics and vaccine are not effective in COVID-19 infection at present. CONCLUSION: As the COVID-19 cases are rapidly increasing worldwide, it is essential to improve the knowledge and beliefs among general public to prevent its spread. Health care students with their education background and basic understanding about COVID-19 can play a significant role by making community people aware about the seriousness of this pandemic situation.
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OBJECTIVES: To establish the predictive value on mortality after 2 months from hospital admission of two laboratory markers of nutritional and inflammatory status, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and prealbumin, in a cohort of frail multimorbid elderly without terminal illness. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Internal medicine ward of a large teaching hospital in Italy. PARTICIPANTS: 544 Caucasian patients with acute disease consecutively admitted from January to June 2013. 102 were excluded for being younger than 65 years old, having life expectancy <30 days or not having frailty syndrome. Further 42 patients were excluded for missing data or withdrawn at follow-up. Final analysis was performed on 400 subjects (179 M, 221 F, mean age 79±10). MEASUREMENTS: Serum prealbumin and hs-CRP were measured at admission. Death within 2 months from hospital admission was assessed through a telephonic interview with the caregiver for each patient discharged alive. Inhospital mortality was also recorded. Survival was calculated from date of admission to our unit. RESULTS: Mean prealbumin at admission was 17.3±7.7 mg/dl, while hs-CRP median was 24.2 mg/L (IQR 8.7 to 51.8). 108 patients (27%) died within two months from admission. In an age- and sex-adjusted analysis, log(hs-CRP) levels at admission, but not prealbumin, were independently associated with an increased risk for mortality (HR 1.40, 95% CI 1.18 to 1.66, p<0.001). After multiple adjustments for covariates, including comorbidity burden measured through Charlson score, log(hs-CRP) remained significantly associated with mortality (HR 1.38, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.76, p=0.01). A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to test the predictive value of hs-CRP at admission on two-month mortality (AUC 0.68, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.72, p<0.001). Cut-off value was set at 38.4 mg/L. After dichotomization of hs-CRP values according to this cut-off, hs-CRP≥38.4 mg/L at admission proved to be a significant risk factor for mortality (HR 2.10, 95% CI 1.23 to 3.58, p=0.006). CONCLUSION: Serum hs-CRP, but not prealbumin, values at admission are predictors of short-term mortality at hospital admission in elderly multimorbid patients. Inflammation seems to affect prognosis more than malnutrition in this setting and may therefore guide clinicians' attitude towards therapeutic choices.
