Plos One
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In the frontline of the pandemic stand healthcare workers and public service providers, occupations which have proven to be associated with increased mental health problems during pandemic crises. This cross-sectional, survey-based study collected data from 1773 healthcare workers and public service providers throughout Norway between March 31, 2020 and April 7, 2020, which encompasses a timeframe where all non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) were held constant. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression were assessed by the Norwegian version of the PTSD checklist (PCL-5), General Anxiety Disorder -7, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), respectively. ⋯ Health workers and public service providers are experiencing high levels of PTSD symptoms, anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health workers working directly with COVID-19 patients have significantly higher levels of PTSD symptoms and depression compared to those working indirectly. Appropriate action to monitor and reduce PTSD, anxiety, and depression among these groups of individuals working in the frontline of pandemic with crucial societal roles should be taken immediately.
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Since the end of February 2020 a severe diffusion of COVID-19 has affected Italy and in particular its northern regions, resulting in a high demand of hospitalizations in particular in the intensive care units (ICUs). Hospitals are suffering the high degree of patients to be treated for respiratory diseases and the majority of the health structures, especially in the north of Italy, are or are at risk of saturation. Therefore, the question whether and to what extent the reduction of hospital beds occurred in the past years has biased the management of the emergency has come to the front in the public debate. ⋯ The results of this study underlines that, despite the reduction of beds for the majority of the hospital wards, ICUs availabilities did not change between 2010 and 2017. Moreover, this study confirms that the majority of the Italian regions have a routinely efficient management of their facilities allowing hospitals to treat patients without the risk of having an overabundance of patients and a scarcity of beds. In fact, this analysis shows that, in normal situations, the management of hospital and ICU beds has no critical levels.
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Low levels of physical activity (PA) and high levels of physical inactivity (PI) are associated with higher mortality and cardiovascular diseases. Higher age is associated with a decrease of PA, only 2.4-29% of ≥60 year-olds achieve the PA times recommended by WHO. The aim of this study was to identify levels of and determinants for moderate PA, overall PA and PI in a sample of individuals aged ≥65 years. ⋯ The participants of our study showed high levels of PA. This is likely due to selection bias in this convenience sample. However, also levels of PI are very high and those correspond with average levels in the German population. The determinants for higher PA and lower PI differed between males and females. Thus, strategies for improving PA and decrease PI are likely different with respect to sex and should take individual factors (e.g. age, BMI) into account.
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Due to a high prevalence of chronic non-degenerative diseases, it is suspected that COVID 19 poses a high risk of fatal complications for the Mexican population. The present study aims to estimate the risk factors for hospitalization and death in the Mexican population infected by SARS-CoV-2. ⋯ The present study points out that in Mexico, where an important proportion of the population has two or more chronic conditions simultaneously, a high mortality rate is a serious risk for those infected by SARS-CoV-2.
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We performed an exclusive study to investigate the associations between a total of 23 lactate-related indices during the first 24h in an intensive care unit (ICU) and in-hospital mortality. ⋯ These data indicate that the maximal arterial lactate concentration at T24 is a robust predictor of in-hospital mortality as well as 90-day survival in unselected ICU patients with predictive ability as comparable with APACHE III score.