Project description:To understand and analyse the global impact of COVID-19 on outpatient services, inpatient care, elective surgery, and perioperative colorectal cancer care, a DElayed COloRectal cancer surgery (DECOR-19) survey was conducted in collaboration with numerous international colorectal societies with the objective of obtaining several learning points from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our colorectal cancer patients which will assist us in the ongoing management of our colorectal cancer patients and to provide us safe oncological pathways for future outbreaks.
Project description:The main objective of this study is to offer and evaluate an interim triage approach for patients waiting for surveillance colonoscopies. This will reduce the waiting period and the psychological stressors for our patients and from a scientific point of view allow us to compare the yield of findings for each approach.
Project description:The SARS-CoV-2 virus has altered people's lives around the world. Here we document population-wide shifts in dietary interests in 18 countries in 2020, as revealed through time series of Google search volumes. We find that during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic there was an overall surge in food interest, larger and longer-lasting than the surge during typical end-of-year holidays in Western countries. The shock of decreased mobility manifested as a drastic increase in interest in consuming food at home and a corresponding decrease in consuming food outside of home. The largest (up to threefold) increases occurred for calorie-dense carbohydrate-based foods such as pastries, bakery products, bread, and pies. The observed shifts in dietary interests have the potential to globally affect food consumption and health outcomes. These findings can inform governmental and organizational decisions regarding measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on diet and nutrition.
Project description:This empirical study aims to investigate factors associated with insomnia symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in 4,921 Norwegian adults. Participants were queried across two time-points, between March 31st and April the 7th 2020, and between June 22nd and July 13th, 2020. Relevant risk factors and psychological correlates at the first time-point and insomnia symptoms were measured 3 months later, allowing for the investigation of concurrent associations as well as associations across time. Insomnia symptoms were measured with the Bergen Insomnia Scale. The results revealed that individuals reported higher mean levels of insomnia symptoms during the COVID-19 lockdown, compared to pre-pandemic surveys from 2008 (p < 0.0001, Cohen's d = 0.29). Individuals who predominantly socially distanced reported higher mean levels of insomnia symptoms than those who did not predominantly distance. Females, individuals with lower education levels, individuals who had lost their job, and individuals who declared having been diagnosed with an unspecified pre-existing psychiatric disorder reported the most symptoms. The regression model (R2 = 0.44) showed that physical exercise, was associated with less symptoms of insomnia. Symptoms of health Anxiety, symptoms of depression, unhelpful coping strategies, worry about job and economy, and older age were all associated with higher levels of insomnia symptoms. These findings highlight particularly vulnerable subgroups, as well as providing clinicians with key areas of intervention to help individuals suffering from insomnia symptoms.
Project description:Research questionDiscontinuation of IVF cycles has been part of the radical transformation of healthcare provision to enable reallocation of staff and resources to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to estimate the impact of cessation of treatment on individual prognosis and US population live birth rates.DesignData from 271,438 ovarian stimulation UK IVF cycles was used to model the effect of age as a continuous, yet non-linear, function on cumulative live birth rate. This model was recalibrated to cumulative live birth rates reported for the 135,673 stimulation cycles undertaken in the USA in 2016, with live birth follow-up to October 2018. The effect of a 1-month, 3-month and 6-month shutdown in IVF treatment was calculated as the effect of the equivalent increase in a woman's age, stratified by age group.ResultsThe average reduction in cumulative live birth rate would be 0.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.3-0.3), 0.8% (95% CI 0.8-0.8) and 1.6% (95% CI 1.6-1.6) for 1-month, 3-month and 6-month shutdowns. This corresponds to a reduction of 369 (95% CI 360-378), 1098 (95% CI 1071-1123) and 2166 (95% CI 2116-2216) live births in the cohort, respectively. Th e greatest contribution to this reduction was from older mothers.ConclusionsThe study demonstrated that the discontinuation of fertility treatment for even 1 month in the USA could result in 369 fewer women having a live birth, due to the increase in patients' age during the shutdown. As a result of reductions in cumulative live birth rate, more cycles may be required to overcome infertility at individual and population levels.
Project description:Due to COVID 19 (Corona virus disease)pandemic, majority of surgeries, including surgery for cancer patients got delayed across the globe. Surgeries were limited to emergency set up only. At our institute we tried to perform colorectal cancer surgeries through out the pandemic, albeit in less numbers, as we thought cancer in itself is an emergency setting. we are planning to analyse the prospectively managed database of this particular group of patients over a period of last six 6 months and look out at 30 day post operative morbidity and mortality. Besides we will try to analyse the implications of our decision to carry on with cancer surgeries in terms of number of health care workers who got infected while being involved in primary care of these patients.
Project description:The aim of this study was to assess the gene expression profil of skin chilblain-like lesions that appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare it with seasonal chilblain and healthy skin
Project description:BackgroundCOVID-19 was first reported in 2019, and the Chinese government immediately carried out stringent and effective control measures in response to the epidemic.ObjectiveNonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) may have impacted incidences of other infectious diseases as well. Potential explanations underlying this reduction, however, are not clear. Hence, in this study, we aim to study the influence of the COVID-19 prevention policies on other infectious diseases (mainly class B infectious diseases) in China.MethodsTime series data sets between 2017 and 2021 for 23 notifiable infectious diseases were extracted from public data sets from the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China. Several indices (peak and trough amplitudes, infection selectivity, preferred time to outbreak, oscillatory strength) of each infectious disease were calculated before and after the COVID-19 outbreak.ResultsWe found that the prevention and control policies for COVID-19 had a strong, significant reduction effect on outbreaks of other infectious diseases. A clear event-related trough (ERT) was observed after the outbreak of COVID-19 under the strict control policies, and its decreasing amplitude is related to the infection selectivity and preferred outbreak time of the disease before COVID-19. We also calculated the oscillatory strength before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and found that it was significantly stronger before the COVID-19 outbreak and does not correlate with the trough amplitude.ConclusionsOur results directly demonstrate that prevention policies for COVID-19 have immediate additional benefits for controlling most class B infectious diseases, and several factors (infection selectivity, preferred outbreak time) may have contributed to the reduction in outbreaks. This study may guide the implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions to control a wider range of infectious diseases.