Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Quality of Life in Pregnant Women.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with significant impacts on mental health and well-being of populations worldwide. However, little is known about its significant impact on psychological aspects of vulnerable population groups such as pregnant women. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among pregnant women in mainland China. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was performed between July and August 2020 using a modified validated 40-item questionnaire which consisted of sociodemographics, attitude, lifestyle changes and the Impact of Event Scale (IES) toward COVID-19 using snowball and convenience samplings. RESULTS: A total of 1,078 participants were included in the study. The mean age of participants was 29.4 ± 4.0 years. Overall, the mean IES of participants was 30.6 ± 12.8 (i.e., moderate-to-severe stressful impact) amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, with 63.9% of participants had an IES score ≥26. Despite increased family and social support, more than half of participants also reported increased feeling of being horrified, apprehensive and helpless. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic has several psychological impacts on pregnant women. Therefore, based on these valuable data of pregnant women collected, we recommend that a thoughtful planning and time preparation by the government would definitely help to reduce the negative impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and restore the quality of life among pregnant women. Further research is needed to identify vulnerable groups including pregnant women to better adapt and inform mental health interventions and policies by health authorities.

Adsorption characteristics of poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) resin functionalized with methoxy and phenoxy groups for phenol.

Two macroporous crosslinked poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) resins functionalized with methoxy and phenoxy groups, PVBME and PVBPE were prepared and their adsorption characteristics for phenol were studied in hexane as well as in aqueous solution. It was shown that the equilibrium adsorption capacity of phenol onto PVBPE was a little larger than that onto PVBME at the same temperature and equilibrium concentration. The adsorption onto PVBME in hexane can be correlated to Langmuir isotherm model, whereas the semi-empirical Freundlich isotherm model characterized the adsorption onto PVBPE better. The adsorption thermodynamic parameters were calculated and it was found that the adsorption enthalpy, adsorption free energy, and adsorption entropy were all negative, and the adsorption thermodynamic parameters onto PVBPE were more negative than the corresponding ones onto PVBME. The relationship of the adsorption capacity with the equilibrium concentration was linear in aqueous solution. The adsorption was hypersensitive to the solution pH in aqueous solution, and the optimum pH was determined to be 6.0. The adsorption dynamics of phenol onto PVBPE in aqueous solution was investigated and it was seen that the adsorption can be well fitted by the pseudo-first-order rate equation.