Background:
COVID-19 disease is one of the most destructive events that humanity has witnessed in the 21st century. It has impacted all aspects of life and all segments of populations, including ...already vulnerable health care providers.
Aims:
This study sought to detect the prevalence of mental health issues in sample of physicians and nurses working in several health facilities in Oman.
Method:
We gauged the mental health conditions of 509 physicians (38.1%) and nurses (61.9 %) using the Perceived Stress Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale and World Health Organization Well-Being Index.
Results:
The study revealed a high prevalence of stress, anxiety and poor psychological well-being, especially among females, young health care workers and those who interacted with known or suspected COVID-19 patients.
Conclusion:
The outcomes of this study support the handful of studies published during this global health crisis that have found that the mental health of health care workers has been harshly affected and predicted that it will continue, to various degrees, to be affected in the foreseeable future. The results of this study highlight the urgency of providing administrative and psychological support as well as current and accurate information on COVID-19 to health care workers.
Thyroid dysfunction is diagnosed and managed based on guidelines that focus primarily on the measurement of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), as the most sensitive and specific marker of systemic ...thyroid status, with test results interpreted according to defined reference ranges. Understanding the results of a biomarker test of thyroid function hangs on the ability to distinguish normal from abnormal results. As such, the population reference range for normal TSH is classified as comprising 95% of a normal population who are assumed to be free of conditions that could influence TSH levels, with 2.5% of people over and under the actual range. Thyroid function tests may differ with age and sex, and between race and ethnicity. This is possibly influenced by genetic factors and hence populationspecific thyroid hormones normative data should be employed to provide clinicians the accurate evaluation of thyroid disease disorders. Presently, we utilize international reference ranges for almost all our laboratory tests. Among chronic kidney disease (CKD), we found that thyroid dysfunction had a prevalence of 11.7%, whereas Rhee et al, found that among hemodialysis patients, 1928 (22%) had hypothyroid and 6912 (78%) had euthyroid.
•Overall, 4.3% of healthcare workers (HCWs) at Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman, tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during the study period.•There was no significant difference ...between hospital and community acquisition according to age, nationality, or presence of co-morbidities.•There was a significant difference between hospital and community acquisition according to HCW category, sex, and being at risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the hospital.•Overall, 78% of the infected HCWs had no chronic diseases and all made an uneventful recovery.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new emerging infectious disease, first identified in China in December 2019, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study describes the characteristics of healthcare workers (HCWs) who tested positive for COVID-19 in a tertiary care hospital in Oman.
This was a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of HCWs with COVID-19.
During the study period, 204 HCWs tested positive for COVID-19 by rRT-PCR test, with a test positivity rate of 21.2%; the percentage of infected hospital staff was 4.3%. Their mean age was 36 years. Overall, 2.2% of the male staff were infected, while 9.3% of the female staff were infected. Among the clinicians, 4.7% were infected; among the nurses, 4.1% were infected. Regarding acquisition, 61.3% of infections (n = 125) were community-acquired and 25.5% (n = 52) were hospital-acquired; no source was identified in 13.2% of cases (n = 27). There was a significant difference between hospital-acquired and community-acquired COVID-19 according to the different HCW categories (p < 0.001), sex (p = 0.041), and being at risk of COVID-19 exposure in the hospital (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in relation to nationality (p = 0498), age (p = 0.119), or the presence of co-morbidities (p = 0.326). Seventy-eight percent (n = 160) had no chronic diseases and 44% presented with fever and an acute respiratory infection (n = 90); all made an uneventful full recovery. The peak of infection acquisition was after the Eid Al Fitr festival.
HCWs are at an increased risk of COVID-19 in the workplace. The strengthening of infection control measures to prevent exposures from infected patients and colleagues and to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is a necessity.
To identify the clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in Oman.
A case series of hospitalized COVID-19 laboratory-confirmed patients between February 24th ...through April 24th, 2020, from two hospitals in Oman. Analyses were performed using univariate statistics.
The cohort included 63 patients with an overall mean age of 48±16 years and 84% (n=53) were males. A total of 38% (n=24) of the hospitalized patients were admitted to intensive care unit (ICU). Fifty one percent (n=32) of patients had at least one co-morbidity with diabetes mellitus (DM) (32%; n=20) and hypertension (32%; n=20) as the most common co-morbidities followed by chronic heart and renal diseases (12.8%; n=8). The most common presenting symptoms at onset of illness were fever (84%; n=53), cough (75%; n=47) and shortness of breaths (59%; n=37). All except two patients (97%; n=61) were treated with either chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, while the three most prescribed antibiotics were ceftriaxone (79%; n=50), azithromycin (71%; n=45), and the piperacillin/tazobactam combination (49%; n=31). A total of 59% (n=37), 49% (n=31) and 24% (n=15) of the patients were on lopinavir/ritonavir, interferons, or steroids, respectively. Mortality was documented in (8%; n=5) of the patients while 68% (n=43) of the study cohort recovered. Mortality was associated with those that were admitted to ICU (19% vs 0; p=0.009), mechanically ventilated (31% vs 0; p=0.001), had DM (20% vs 2.3%; p=0.032), older (62 vs 47 years; p=0.045), had high total bilirubin (43% vs 2.3%; p=0.007) and those with high C-reactive protein (186 vs 90mg/dL; p=0.009) and low corrected calcium (15% vs 0%; p=0.047).
ICU admission, those on mechanical ventilation, the elderly, those with high total bilirubin and low corrected calcium were associated with high mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
We, the Editor and Publisher of the journal Renal Failure, have retracted the following article:
"Birthweight predicts glomerular filtration rate in adult-life: population based cross sectional ...study" 10.1080/0886022X.2021.1915798
Since publication, the Editor and publisher were alerted that the figures and data were used without the permission of the owners of the dataset from the AusDiab study. The authors were asked for comment but we have not received a response.
As obtaining required permissions for the published research was not obtained by the authors, we have retracted the article. The corresponding author has been notified.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as 'Retracted'.
Worldwide, there is a global progressive rise of chronic kidney disease. In parallel, children born after intra-uterine growth retardation are surviving to adult-life and beyond. This study describes ...the association of birthweight with and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).
Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study participants were asked to complete a birthweight questionnaire. The associations between birthweight and eGFR were determined.
A total of 4502 reported information related to their birthweight, with the other responders did not provide a value. The birthweight of the participants ranged from 0.4 to 7.0 kg with a mean-(SD) of 3.37 (0.7) kg. The mean (95%CI) birthweight was lower for females, 3.28 (0.6) kg, when compared to males, 3.5 (0.7) kg. Eight percent had a birthweight less than 2.5 kg. The eGFR was strongly and positively associated with birthweight, with people in the lowest sex-specific birthweight-quintiles having the lowest mean eGFR. This relationship persisted with adjustment for confounding factors. The OR(CI) for eGFR <10th-percentile (<61.4 ml/min for females and <73.4 for males) for people in the lowest vs. the higher birthweight-quintile was 2.19 (95%CI 1.14-4.2) for females and 2.37 (1.1-5.3) for males, after adjustment for other factors.
Birthweight had a positive relationship with eGFR. Possible explanations include an association of birthweight with nephron-endowment. From a global health perspective but more in developing countries and in populations in epidemiologic transition, where substantially lower birthweights coexist with recently improved infant and adult survivals, the overall impact of this phenomenon on the population health profile could be more substantial.
Since the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China, COVID-19 has spread swiftly worldwide and is caused by SARS-CoV-2. The development of myocardial injury is associated with significantly worse ...clinical course and increased mortality. However, currently, it is unclear whether cardiac injury occurred in COVID-19 patients. Histological results obtained directly from the viral infection of the myocardium (i.e., SARS-CoV-2 viral myocarditis) or indirectly from the complications of COVID-19, showed that only a portion of patients infected with the virus developed viral myocarditis. Therefore, it is possible that with more autopsy evidence of SARS-CoV-2 and more correlation with the severity of the viral infection, viral myocarditis will emerge. Although COVID-19 manifests primarily as respiratory disease, few cases of cardiac injury without respiratory involvement or febrile illness have been reported. The pathogenesis of cancer and viral infections is due to the inability of the immune system to distinguish between self and non-self. Several oncogenic (hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human papilloma virus, Epstein-Barr virus, and HIV) and oncolytic viruses (coxsackievirus, reovirus, vaccinia virus, and adenovirus) are known to cause and regress various cancer types. We report a case of atypical manifestation of COVID-19-induced acute myocarditis and thyroid gland follicular neoplasm in a hemodialysis patient with no respiratory symptoms. This case illustrates that COVID-19 can present atypically and affect non-respiratory organ systems.
The severity and mortality from COVID-19 infection vary among populations. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and predictors of mortality among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 ...infection in a tertiary care hospital in Oman.
We conducted a retrospective study using database that included: demographic, clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, medications and clinical outcomes of all patients hospitalized in Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman, between March 12, 2020 and December 1st 2020. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was performed to investigate the relationship between each variable and the risk of death of COVID-19 infected patients.
In total,1002 patients with COVID-19 infection with mean age of the cohort was 54±16 years (65% (n=650) male) were included, with an overall and intensive care unit (ICU) mortalities of 26% (n=257) and 42% (n=199/473), respectively. The prevalence of ICU admission was 47% (n=473) and the need for mechanical ventilation was 41% (n=413). The overall length of stay in the ICU was 13 (9–21) days. Adjusting for other factors in the model, the multivariable logistic regression demonstrated that in-hospital mortality in admitted COVID-19 patients was associated with old age (p<0.001), heart diseases (adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 1.84; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11–3.03; p=0.018), liver diseases (aOR, 4.48; 95% CI: 1.04–19.3; p=0.044), those with higher ferritin levels (aOR, 1.00; 95% CI: 1.00–1.00; p=0.006), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (aOR, 3.20; 95% CI: 1.65–6.18; p=0.001), sepsis (aOR, 1.77; 95% CI: 1.12–2.80; p=0.022), and those that had ICU admission (aOR, 2.22; 95% CI: 1.12–4.38; p=0.022).
In this cohort, mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients was high and was associated with advanced age, heart diseases, liver disease, high ferritin, ARDS, sepsis and ICU admission. These high-risk groups should be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccinations.
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