Quality of life among health care workers with and without prior COVID-19 infection in Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND: Health care workers have been facing difficulties in coping with the COVID-19 infection from the beginning. The study aimed to compare Quality of Life (QOL) among health care workers (HCWs) with and without prior COVID-19 disease. METHODS: This study was conducted from July 2020 to January 2021 among 444 HCWs. We randomly interviewed 3244 participants for our earlier nationwide survey from a list of COVID-19 positive cases after their recovery, and we found 222 HCWs among the respondents. We randomly chose 222 HCWs unaffected by COVID as a comparison group from our selected hospitals. We measured QOL using World Health Organization's WHOQOL-BREF tool. Physical, psychological, environmental, and social ties were the four areas assessed on a 5-point Likert scale where a higher score suggests better QOL. Due to pandemic restrictions, we used telephonic interviews for data collection. RESULTS: A higher QOL score was observed in HCWs with prior COVID-19 infection in all four domains than HCWs without previous COVID-19 conditions. Comorbidity was negatively associated with QOL scores of the physical (p = 0.001) and (p < 0.001) and psychological (p = 0.05, and (p < 0.05) domains for non-COVID and COVID-affected groups, respectively. Current smoking was significantly associated with lower psychological (p = 0.019) and environmental (p = 0.007) QOL scores among HCWs with prior COVID-19 infection. Hospitalization history due to COVID infection was a contributing factor for lower physical QOL scores (p = 0.048). Environmental (p = 0.016) QOL scores were significantly associated with the monthly income in the prior COVID-19 infection group, and physical scores were significantly associated (p = 0.05) with a monthly income in the non-COVID group. CONCLUSION: Governmental and non-governmental stakeholders should focus on potentially modifiable factors to improve health care workers' quality of life.

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in South Asia: a multi-country study.

OBJECTIVES: With COVID-19 vaccination underway, this study aimed to understand belief, attitude and intention of the people in the South Asia region towards the vaccine. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study using semi-structured questionnaires among 18201 individuals in four South Asian countries; Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Nepal between January 17 and February 2, 2021. We used the Health Belief Model (HBM) to identify the predictors related to vaccine acceptance. STATA (v16.1) was used for all analyses. RESULTS: The percentage of respondents willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was 65%, 66%, 72% and 74% for Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal, respectively. Perceived destructive impact of COVID-19, positive perception of vaccines and concern about possible side effects were significant in modifying respondents' intentions.. In multivariable logistic regression, age, sex, marital status, education, comorbidities, worry about getting infected, perceived COVID-19 impact, belief regarding vaccine efficacy, positive attitude towards mandatory measures, and vaccine availability were found to be associated with vaccine acceptance across countries. CONCLUSION: Nearabout two-third of the respondants were willing to take COVID-19 vaccine in the four South Asia countries.

Lifestyle and Comorbidity-Related Risk Factors of Severe and Critical COVID-19 Infection: A Comparative Study Among Survived COVID-19 Patients in Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND: Severe COVID-19 infections have already taken more than 4 million lives worldwide. Factors, such as socio-demographics, comorbidities, lifestyles, environment, and so on, have been widely discussed to be associated with increased severity in many countries. The study aimed to determine the risk factors of severe-critical COVID-19 in Bangladesh. METHODS: This was a comparative cross-sectional study among various types of COVID-19 patients (both hospitalized and non-hospitalized) confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We have selected 1500 COVID-19 positive patients using a convenient sampling technique and analyzed lifestyle and comorbidity-related data using IBM SPSS-23 statistical package software. Chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression were used to determine risk factors of life-threatening COVID-19 infection. RESULTS: The mean age of the study participants was 43.23 (±15.48) years. The study identified several lifestyle-related factors and common commodities as risk factors for severe-critical COVID-19. The patient's age was one of the most important predictors, as people >59 years were at higher risk (AOR=18.223). Among other lifestyle factors, active smoking (AOR=1.482), exposure to secondary smoking (AOR=1.728), sleep disturbance (AOR=2.208) and attachment with SLT/alcohol/substance abuse (AOR=1.804) were identified as significant predictors for severe-critical COVID-19. Patients those were overweight/obese (AOR=2.105), diabetic (AOR=4.286), hypertensive (AOR=3.363), CKD patients (AOR=8.317), asthma patients (AOR=2.152), CVD patients (AOR=7.747) were also at higher risk of severe-critical COVID-19 infection. CONCLUSION: This study has identified several vital lifestyles and comorbidity-related risk factors of severe-critical COVID-19. People who have these comorbidities should be under high protection, and risky lifestyles of the general population should modify through the proper educational campaign.

Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine and its determinants: evidence from a large sample study in Bangladesh.

AIM: Our study aimed to understand the acceptance level of the COVID-19 vaccine and its determinants among the adult Bangladeshi population. METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional study was conducted in all eight divisions of Bangladesh. Data from 7,357 adult respondents were collected between January 17 and February 2, 2021, using a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Statistical software STATA (Version 16.1) was used for all analyses. RESULTS: The majority of study participants were from the Dhaka division (34.24%). The most common age group was ≤30 years (46.18%). Almost two-thirds of respondents were male (65.50%) and married (67.76%). A large portion (79.85%) of people who had positive vaccine intentions believed that vaccination should be made mandatory for everyone. The majority of the respondents thought that the vaccine would work against COVID-19 infection (67%). In the binary logistic regression analysis, participants who had the education level of graduation or above (AOR = 1.80), age ≥50 years (AOR = 1.97), students (AOR = 2.98), monthly income ≥41,000 BDT (AOR = 2.22), being resident of rural area (AOR = 2.24), respondents from Khulna division (AOR = 6.43) were more likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Those who had family members diagnosed with COVID-19 (AOR = 1.24), presence of chronic disease (AOR = 0.72), and those who were vaccinated in the last few years (AOR = 1.32) were also more likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccine. CONCLUSION: Most of the respondents were willing to be vaccinated based on the belief that the vaccine will work against COVID-19. As rumors are generating daily, there is a need for policy-level initiative and evidence-based mass media promotion to keep inspired the general Bangladeshi people to accept the COVID-19 vaccine whenever it will be available at the individual level.

ABO Blood Group and Outcomes in Patients with COVID-19 Admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU): A Retrospective Study in a Tertiary-Level Hospital in Bangladesh.

PURPOSE: The world is heavily suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic for more than a year, with over 191 million confirmed cases and more than 4.1 million deaths to date. Previous studies have explored several risk factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but there is still a lack of association with ABO blood type. This study aimed to find out the relationship between the ABO blood group and COVID-19 outcomes in Bangladesh. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary-level COVID-dedicated hospital in Dhaka city, Bangladesh, between April 2020 and November 2020. Records from 771 critically ill patients were extracted who were confirmed for COVID-19 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay, and blood grouping records were available in the health records. RESULTS: The blood groups were 37.35%, 17.38%, 26.46%, and 18.81% for A, B, AB, and O type, respectively. Clinical symptoms were significantly more common in patients with blood type A (p < 0.05). Patients with blood type A had higher WBC counts and peak serum ferritin levels and both were statistically significant (p < 0.001). Patients with blood type A had a greater need for supplemental oxygen, and they were more likely to die in comparison to the patients with other blood types (p < 0.05). In multivariable analysis, our primary outcome death was significantly associated with blood type A (AOR: 3.49, 95% CI: 1.57-7.73) while adjusting for age, male gender, and non-communicable diseases. CONCLUSION: Based on this study results, it can be concluded that the COVID-19 patients with blood type A have a higher chance of death and other complications. The authors recommend blood grouping before treating the COVID-19 patients, and healthcare workers should prioritize treating the patients based on that result.

Quality of life of COVID-19 recovered patients in Bangladesh.

Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) quickly surged the whole world and affected people's physical, mental, and social health thereby upsetting their quality of life. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the quality of life (QoL) of COVID-19 positive patients after recovery in Bangladesh. This was a study of adult (aged ≥18 years) COVID-19 individuals from eight divisions of Bangladesh diagnosed and confirmed by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) from June 2020 to November 2020. Given a response rate of 60% in a pilot study, a random list of 6400 COVID-19 patients was generated to recruit approximately 3200 patients from eight divisions of Bangladesh and finally a total of 3244 participants could be recruited for the current study. The validated Bangla version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire was used to assess the QoL. Data were analyzed by STATA (Version 16.1) and R (Version 4.0.0). All the procedures were conducted following ethical approval and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The mean scores of QoL were highest for the physical domain (68.25±14.45) followed by social (65.10±15.78), psychological (63.28±15.48), and environmental domain (62.77±13.07). Psychological and physical domain scores among females were significantly lower than the males (p<0.001). The overall quality of life was lower in persons having a chronic disease. Participants over 45 years of age were 52% less likely to enjoy good physical health than the participants aged below 26 years (AOR: 0.48, CI: 0.28-0.82). The quality of life of employed participants was found 1.8 times higher than the unemployed (AOR: 1.80, CI: 1.11-2.91). Those who were admitted to hospitals during infection had a low QoL score in physical, psychological, and socials domains. However, QoL improved in all aspect except the psychological domain for each day passed after the diagnosis. These findings call for a focus on the quality of life of the COVID-19 affected population, with special emphasis given to females, older adults, unemployed, and people with comorbidities.