ABSTRACT
Introduction: Millions around the globe were directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 epidemic has harmed the lives of children with special needs in many ways, whether directly or in-directly. Few studies have evaluated the Impact of covid-19 lockdown among children with disability. Howev-er, the Impact of COVID on parents dealing with special children was scarcely studied in detail. Investigating parental stress, worries, and morbidity during the lockdown is particularly important for assisting these par-ents during further outbreaks. The aim is to assess the Impact of covid-19 lockdown among parents handling disabled children, parenting stress, their concerns, and morbidity during the COVID-19 lockdown.Materials And Method: The study was done among the parents of disabled children attending special schools in Chennai, using a cross-sectional study design. Parents with any recent trauma, mental disorders, or major diseases and undergoing treatment for themselves were excluded. After obtaining ethics approval, a semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess the Impact of the covid-19 lockdown. Collected data were ana-lyzed using SPSS v.21.Results: The study includes 305 parents, predominantly mothers (58%) and the mean age was 38.9+8.2 years. We observed that the COVID-19 lockdown impacted 149 parents (48.9%). The significant predictors for the Impact of COVID-19 lockdown were being a single parent [AOR-2.91(95%CI- 1.05-8.08)] and having a part-time job [AOR-0.36(95%CI- 0.14-0.93)]. Conclusion: The COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown significantly impacted the parents of disabled children. It is high time we give importance to these parents of children with special needs during this pandemic to help them during similar occasions in the future.
ABSTRACT
Background: There is growing evidence that patient care is affected by increasing psychological problems among healthcare workers all around the world. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of psychological problems among health care workers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Methodology: A cross-sectional study conducted over a period of 6 months. A structured questionnaire that included the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Cohen抯 Perceived stress scale were used. Analysis was done using SPSS 21.0 software. Frequency was expressed in percentage and association with factors was tested for significance using Chi square test. p Value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Among the participants, nurses had the highest scores for psychological problems, followed by doctors and other staffs. According to PHQ-9, 32.4% of participants were found to have depression and 9% of participants had suicidal intentions, 20.3% reported high stress levels and about 70.02% reported moderate stress levels. Conclusion: Compared to senior and experienced faculty, the junior and young faculty had higher proportions of stress, depression. It was found that lower recreational activities, experiencing abuse either verbal or physical from patients/caregivers/senior staff, lack of empathy among co-workers showed higher association with psychological problems among the health care workers.