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Healthcare
Special Issues
Human Health before, during, and after COVID-19
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Human Health before, during, and after COVID-19

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 1746

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Alessia Verduri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Respiratory Unit, Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Hospital Policlinico, Modena, Italy
Interests: COPD; dyspnea; frailty; ageing; COVID-19; asthma; interstitial lung disease; pleural disease
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It has been more than three years since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. Since that point, we have experienced profound changes in the ways that we work, socialise, and learn. The severity of this transformation has allowed us to examine daily practices, social norms, institutions, and the positive and negative aspects of our former lifestyles. The pandemic compelled us to appreciate the precious details of our lives that we have taken for granted: workplaces, human touch, parties, travel, and access to and the utilisation of healthcare facilities. We are thus able to reflect on the ways we live now in order to modify our cultures and find different ways to improve the quality of life for future generations. Many trends that had already started before COVID-19 have been accelerated by the impact of the pandemic. Examples include the digital economy, with the rise of telemedicine in the healthcare delivery services.

One of the hardest things to deal with in this period was maintaining physical distance. Physical interactions are an essential part of human social experience, and they are particularly important for the development of young people. Social distancing, school closures, and physical isolation from friends have been especially challenging for adolescents. Some have subsequently experienced feelings of loneliness, hopelessness, and sadness. Remote learning and homeworking under lockdown have also impacted the wellbeing of university students and young workers. Over the course of the pandemic, people of all ages reported symptoms consistent with anxiety and depression, regardless of severity of any viral infection. Additionally, increasing evidence of post-COVID long-term effects has been reported in the literature. Long COVID describes a range of symptoms, including fatigue, dyspnea, brain fog, and mental health disorders.

COVID is becoming endemic, which means that we will live with it as we do with the flu, i.e., without consequences as severe as those seen in the first three years. However, while some countries have reported a decline in COVID-19 cases and deaths, largely due to high vaccination coverage, there is still a relevant public health concern about refugees and unvaccinated people in many developing countries. The behaviour we all exhibit and the epidemiology of the virus itself are extremely important. New SARS-CoV-2 variants show increasing levels of concern and are likely to impact the epidemiological situation worldwide.

This Special Issue aims to provide a collection of high-quality data and new insights into COVID-19. We invite healthcare professionals and researchers involved in COVID-19 to submit original research articles or reviews to Healthcare. Papers will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Life.

Dr. Alessia Verduri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • telemedicine
  • pandemic-related anxiety
  • pandemic-related depression
  • long COVID
  • unvaccinated people
  • new SARS-CoV-2 variants

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 229 KiB  
Article
Psychological Distress Associated with Enforced Hospital Isolation Due to COVID-19 during the “Flatten the Curve” Phase in Morocco: A Single-Center Cross-Sectional Study
by Sarra Chadli, Rhita Nechba Bennis, Naoufel Madani, ElMostafa El Fahime, Redouane Abouqal and Jihane Belayachi
Healthcare 2024, 12(5), 548; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12050548 - 26 Feb 2024
Viewed by 727
Abstract
(1) Background: although much research has highlighted the mental health challenges faced by patients in hospital isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, data from low–middle-income countries, including Morocco, are lacking. The main objective of this study was to assess the psychological distress of patients [...] Read more.
(1) Background: although much research has highlighted the mental health challenges faced by patients in hospital isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, data from low–middle-income countries, including Morocco, are lacking. The main objective of this study was to assess the psychological distress of patients undergoing enforced hospital isolation during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Morocco. (2) Methods: we conducted a cross-sectional study between 1 April and 1 May 2020, among patients hospitalized in isolation for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 at the Ibn Sina University Hospital of Rabat, Morocco. Anxiety and depression were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Binary logistic regression was performed to identify variables associated with anxiety and depression, with a cutoff of ≥8 used for both scales to create dichotomous variables. (3) Results: among 200 patients, 42.5% and 43% scored above the cut-off points for anxiety and depression, respectively. Multiple logistic regression identified female gender, a higher education level, a longer duration of isolation, and a poor understanding of the reasons for isolation as significant factors associated with anxiety. Conversely, female gender, chronic disease, a longer duration of isolation, and a poor understanding of the reasons for isolation were factors significantly associated with depression. (4) Conclusions: our study underscores high rates of anxiety and depression among patients forced into hospital isolation during the initial phase of COVID-19 in Morocco. We identified several factors associated with patients experiencing psychological distress that may inform future discussions on mental health and psychiatric crisis management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human Health before, during, and after COVID-19)
12 pages, 3569 KiB  
Article
Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure
by Jesus S. Aguilar-Ruiz, Roberto Ruiz and Raúl Giráldez
Healthcare 2024, 12(5), 517; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12050517 - 21 Feb 2024
Viewed by 741
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on various aspects of our lives, affecting personal, occupational, economic, and social spheres. Much has been learned since the early 2020s, which will be very useful when the next pandemic emerges. In general, mobility and [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on various aspects of our lives, affecting personal, occupational, economic, and social spheres. Much has been learned since the early 2020s, which will be very useful when the next pandemic emerges. In general, mobility and virus spread are strongly related. However, most studies analyze the impact of COVID-19 on mobility, but not much research has focused on analyzing the impact of mobility on virus transmission, especially from the point of view of monitoring virus incidence, which is extremely important for making sound decisions to control any epidemiological threat to public health. As a result of a thorough analysis of COVID-19 and mobility data, this work introduces a novel measure, the Infection Ratio (IR), which is not sensitive to underestimation of positive cases and is very effective in monitoring the pandemic’s upward or downward evolution when it appears to be more stable, thus anticipating possible risk situations. For a bounded spatial context, we can infer that there is a significant threshold in the restriction of mobility that determines a change of trend in the number of infections that, if maintained for a minimum period, would notably increase the chances of keeping the spread of disease under control. Results show that IR is a reliable indicator of the intensity of infection, and an effective measure for early monitoring and decision making in smart cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human Health before, during, and after COVID-19)
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