Grief and mourning in Covid-19 pandemic and delayed business as a new concept

The measures, restrictions, and death-related rituals in the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the mourning-related routines of individuals. Moreover, mourning processes have been affected by the restriction of death-related cultural rituals, funeral ceremonies performed only by the officials, and the prohibition of visiting graves. This study aims to investigate the experiences of individuals who lost their loved ones in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. For that purpose, the phenomenological method is employed in the design of the study. Individual interviews were conducted with nine participants who lost their relatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected through semi-structured interview forms prepared by the researchers. The study participants described the various factors contributing to the grief and mourning process in the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors were categorized into three following main categories: grief and mourning responses of the individuals lost loved ones, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses;risk factors including the expectation of harm, unfinished business, and restriction of death-related religious-cultural rituals;and protective factors including relative support (i.e., family, spouse, friend, partner), tele-support (i.e., mobile phone, internet, social media), positive coping strategies (cognitive, behavioral, and religious-spiritual), and delayed business. The "delayed business” concept was also addressed within protective factors and explained in general terms. Finally, the findings were discussed considering the literature and presented some theoretical and practical implications.

Gender and COVID-19 related fear and anxiety: A meta-analysis.

Studies conducted during the pandemic revealed strong associations between gender and COVID-19 related fear and anxiety. Females perceive coronavirus as a greater threat to personal health and population than males. The aim of the current meta-analysis is to estimate gender difference in COVID-19 related fear and anxiety. The second purpose of this study is to clarify the role of potential moderators in COVID-19 fear and anxiety. For these reasons, studies published between March 2020 and October 2021 were searched in various databases (Web of Science, SCOPUS, PubMed, and Google Scholar). In total, 315 studies met the inclusion criteria, and 60 studies for COVID-19 related fear and 23 studies for COVID-19 related anxiety were included in the current study. Cohen's d effect size values were calculated based on these individual studies showing the difference between males and females in terms of COVID-19 related fear and anxiety. Results revealed that gender has a moderate and statistically significant effect on COVID-19 related fear (ES = 0.307) and anxiety (ES = 0.316) in favor of females. Moderator analyses showed that continent variable was a statistically significant moderator of gender difference in COVID-19 related fear and anxiety. The highest effect size of gender differences in COVID-related fear and anxiety were obtained from the studies conducted in Europe. However, other moderators (the average age of sample, culture, timing, and population) were not statistically significant. Although this meta-analysis has a few limitations, the findings showed that COVID-19 outbreak negatively affected females more.

Grief and mourning in Covid-19 pandemic and delayed business as a new concept

The measures, restrictions, and death-related rituals in the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the mourning-related routines of individuals. Moreover, mourning processes have been affected by the restriction of death-related cultural rituals, funeral ceremonies performed only by the officials, and the prohibition of visiting graves. This study aims to investigate the experiences of individuals who lost their loved ones in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. For that purpose, the phenomenological method is employed in the design of the study. Individual interviews were conducted with nine participants who lost their relatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected through semi-structured interview forms prepared by the researchers. The study participants described the various factors contributing to the grief and mourning process in the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors were categorized into three following main categories: grief and mourning responses of the individuals lost loved ones, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses;risk factors including the expectation of harm, unfinished business, and restriction of death-related religious-cultural rituals;and protective factors including relative support (i.e., family, spouse, friend, partner), tele-support (i.e., mobile phone, internet, social media), positive coping strategies (cognitive, behavioral, and religious-spiritual), and delayed business. The “delayed business” concept was also addressed within protective factors and explained in general terms. Finally, the findings were discussed considering the literature and presented some theoretical and practical implications.

Gender and COVID-19 related fear and anxiety: A meta-analysis

Studies conducted during the pandemic revealed strong associations between gender and COVID-19 related fear and anxiety. Females perceive coronavirus as a greater threat to personal health and population than males. The aim of the current meta-analysis is to estimate gender difference in COVID-19 related fear and anxiety. The second purpose of this study is to clarify the role of potential moderators in COVID-19 fear and anxiety. For these reasons, studies published between March 2020 and October 2021 were searched in various databases (Web of Science, SCOPUS, PubMed, and Google Scholar). In total, 315 studies met the inclusion criteria, and 60 studies for COVID-19 related fear and 23 studies for COVID-19 related anxiety were included in the current study. Cohen's d effect size values were calculated based on these individual studies showing the difference between males and females in terms of COVID-19 related fear and anxiety. Results revealed that gender has a moderate and significant effect on COVID-19 related fear (ES = 0.307) and anxiety (ES = 0.316) in favor of females. Moderator analyses showed that continent variable was a significant moderator of gender difference in COVID-19 related fear and anxiety. The highest effect size of gender differences in COVID-related fear and anxiety were obtained from the studies conducted in Europe. However, other moderators (the average age of sample, culture, timing, and population) were not statistically significant. Although this meta-analysis has a few limitations, the findings showed that COVID-19 outbreak negatively affected females more.

Relative changes in the pattern of diseases presenting in dermatology outpatient clinic in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As an increasing number of COVID-19 cases, there were changes in the number of patients who attended the dermatology outpatient clinics. We aimed to investigate the change profiles of dermatologic diseases in the first and second months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey by comparing with the corresponding period of the previous year. The total number and diagnosis of patients, who attended a tertiary care hospital for the dermatology outpatient clinic between 1 April 2020 and 31 May 2020, were included in this study. These data were compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. The percentage of the patients with scabies, contact dermatitis, psoriasis, pityriasis rosea, urticaria, and alopecia areata were statistically significantly increased a month after the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the percentage of patients with scabies, alopecia areata, telogen effluvium, acne vulgaris, and xerosis cutis were statistically significantly increased 2 months after the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic (P < 0.05). An increase in the number of certain diseases such as urticaria and pityriasis rosea may indicate the risk of asymptomatic COVID-19 carriage in these patients. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or antibody-based further studies should be performed to explore whether certain dermatologic diseases are related to asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.

Dermatologic comorbidities of the patients with severe COVID-19: A case-control study.

The current studies focus on the association between COVID-19 and certain comorbidities. To the best of our knowledge, the association between severe COVID-19 and dermatologic comorbidities has not been reported yet. In this study, we aimed to describe the dermatologic comorbidities of patients with severe COVID-19 and compare it with the control group. Patients who have died at Usak Training and Research Hospital due to COVID-19 and other diseases in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Units and Internal Medicine Intensive Care Units were recruited into the study. Two groups were compared with each other regarding the most common dermatologic comorbidities. A total of 198 patients including 111 patients with COVID-19 and 87 age and sex-matched patients with other diseases were enrolled in the study. The most common dermatologic comorbidities were pruritus (8.1%), eczema (6.3%), skin infections (3.6%), leukocytoclastic vasculitis (1.8%), and urticaria (0.9%) in the COVID-19 group while they were skin infections (9.2%), eczema (3.4%), pruritus (2.3%), and urticaria (1.1%) in the control group. None of patients in the control group had leukocytoclastic vasculitis. There were no significant differences between COVID-19 and control groups in terms of pruritus, eczema, skin infections, and urticaria (P values were .117, .517, .181, .505, and 1.000, respectively). In conclusion, although it is not statistically significant, it appears that pruritus and leukocytoclastic vasculitis are more common in severe COVID-19 patients. These cytokines-related diseases in the immuno-cutaneous systems may give some clues on the COVID-19 severity. Further studies are required to elucidate the relationship between the immuno-cutaneous system and COVID-19 severity.

Dermatological diseases presented before COVID-19: Are patients with psoriasis and superficial fungal infections more vulnerable to the COVID-19?

Recent studies have focused on the comorbid conditions of the COVID-19. According to the current studies, numerous diseases including lung disease, cardiovascular disease and immunosuppression appear to be at higher risk for severe forms of the COVID-19. To date, there are no data in the literature on the comorbid dermatologic diseases and COVID-19. We tried to analyze the previous dermatological comorbidity of 93 patients with COVID-19 (51 males, 42 females) who presented to the dermatology outpatient clinics for the last 3 years. The most common dermatologic diseases in patients with COVID-19 who have dermatologic diseases for the last 3 years were superficial fungal infections (24, 25.8%), seborrheic dermatitis (11, 11.8%), actinic keratosis (10, 10.8%), psoriasis (6, 6.5%), and eczema (6, 6.5%), respectively. In addition, the number of COVID-19 patients who presented to dermatology in the last 3 months was 17 (11 men, 6 women). The median age of these patients was 58 (minimum 18, maximum 80) years, and the most common dermatologic diseases before diagnosed COVID-19 were superficial fungal infections (5, 25%), psoriasis (4, 20%), and viral skin diseases (3, 15%). The possible similarity between cutaneous and mucosal immunity and immunosuppression suggests that patients with some dermatologic diseases especially superficial fungal infections and psoriasis may be more vulnerable to the COVID-19.

The effect of the "stay-at-home" policy on requests for dermatology outpatient clinic visits after the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged late in Turkey but it showed a rapid progression later. We aimed to investigate the changes in the number of patients who requested a dermatology outpatient clinic visit due to the increased social and medical burden caused by COVID-19 in Turkey during the first days of the pandemic. We also examined the most common dermatologic diseases diagnosed during the COVID-19 outbreak. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between the number of COVID-19 patients in the country and the number of patients requesting a dermatology outpatient clinic visit in the secondary and tertiary care hospitals during self-quarantine. In the first 10 days after the COVID-19 outbreak, acne (28.2%), urticaria (12.8%), scabies (12.8%), irritant contact dermatitis (10.3%), and xerosis cutis (10.2%) were the most common diseases seen in the dermatology clinic at the secondary care hospital, while acne (23.3%), warts (5.4%), seborrheic dermatitis (4.5%), urticaria (3.8%), and psoriasis (3.32%) were the most common diseases seen in the dermatology clinic at the tertiary care hospital. This is our first study on the frequency and nature of outpatient dermatology visits during this novel coronavirus pandemic. Understanding the trends and impacts of dermatologic diseases on patients and health systems during this pandemic will allow for better preparation of dermatologists in the future.