Worry from contracting COVID-19 infection and its stigma among Egyptian health care providers.

BACKGROUNDS: Healthcare providers (HCPs) in COVID-19 epidemic face stressful workload of disease management, shortage of protective equipment and high risk of infection and mortality. These stressors affect greatly their mental health. The aim is to identify working conditions among Egyptian HCPs during COVID-19 epidemic as well as stigma and worry perceptions from contracting COVID-19 infection and their predictors. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 565 HCPs. Data was collected through Google online self-administered questionnaire comprised seven parts: demographics characteristics, knowledge and attitude of COVID-19, working condition, worry of contracting COVID-19 at work, discrimination intention at work for COVID-19 patients, stigma assessment using impact stigma, and internalized shame scales. RESULTS: The vast majority of HCPs (94.7%) were worried from contracting COVID-19 at work. Risk factors for perceiving severe worry from contracting COVID-19 were expecting infection as a severe illness, believing that infection will not be successfully controlled, improbability to continue working during the pandemic even if in a well/fit health, high discrimination intention and impact stigma scales. Significantly high impact stigma scores were detected among those aged < 30 years, females, workers primarily in sites susceptible for contracting COVID-19 infection, those had severe worry from contracting infection at work, and high internalized shame scale. The risk factors for perceiving higher internalized shame scores were not having a previous experience in working during a pandemic, high discrimination intention towards COVID-19 patients and high impact stigma scale. CONCLUSIONS: Considerable levels of worry and stigma were detected among Egyptian HCPs during COVID-19 outbreak. The psychological aspect of health care providers should not be overlooked during epidemic; appropriate institutional mental health support should be provided especially for young HCPs, those without previous work experience in epidemic and those who work in high-risk units. Raising the community awareness about contribution of HCPs in fighting the epidemic might decrease stigmatization action toward HCPs.

Does a diabetic retinopathy educational program raise awareness among elderly diabetic patients?

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Diabetic retinopathy is a serious and common complication of diabetes that causes irreversible blindness. The aim of the present study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practice regarding diabetic retinopathy among patients attending a diabetic clinic and identify the effect of an educational program about diabetic retinopathy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two hundred diabetic patients were recruited from the outpatient's diabetic clinic, Assiut University hospitals, Egypt. Quasi-experimental (pretest-posttest) research design was applied using a structured interview questionnaire; including socio-demographic data, assessment of the patients' knowledge, attitude, and practices toward diabetic retinopathy. RESULTS: The mean score of knowledge and attitude showed significant improvement (5.3 and 15.1, respectively in pretest vs 16.7 and 16.8, respectively in posttest) among the diabetic patients (p<0.001). From multivariate linear regression model; the predictors for knowledge score were educational level, family history of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy and hypertension. Likewise, attitude score predictors were age, residence, and smoking. Predictors for practice score were hypertension, blood sugar level, and weight. CONCLUSION: There was a statistically significant relationship between educational level and mean knowledge score. The diabetic education program significantly helped to improve awareness of patients in relation to diabetic retinopathy.