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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 24620

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Elena Olea

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Guest Editor

Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, University of Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain
Interests: nursing; physiology; oxygen sensitivity; respiratory diseases; comprehensive health care

Dr. Rosa M. Cárdaba-García

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Guest Editor

Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, University of Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain
Interests: comprehensive health care; mental health; interpersonal relations; social behavior; gender and health

Dr. Carlos Durantez-Fernández

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 45600 Talavera de la Reina, Spain
Interests: epidemiology; nursing; public health; real-world evidence; translational research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has produced a pandemic with consequences across the health, social and economic fields. While the repercussions are difficult to completely quantify, the World Health Organisation emphasises the psychological difficulties that have arisen in the general population as a result of the pandemic. Fear, worry and stress are normal responses during times of uncertainty, the unknown or crisis situations, but they can also be incapacitating. This psychological impact can also be compounded by the physical consequences, for example in patients with persistent COVID-19. The social impact is evident in the changes in the way we relate to each other, especially in countries where, culturally, we relate to each other more closely. The loss of loved ones, friends and neighbours, among others, has also significantly impacted society. In terms of the economy, the dip in consumption deeply affected the initial devaluation of products in a capitalist market. Today, the balance is tipping the other way and citizens are suffering the consequences of the inflation of values, which sometimes makes it difficult to obtain certain products.

The impact of COVID-19 can be studied in many areas, including the general population, front-line health and non-health workers, workers considered essential in a pandemic, students at different educational levels and teachers, among others.

This special issue of IJERPH aims to include articles concerning the impact of COVID-19, in order to enrich the scientific literature on this subject, which is of vital importance in today's society, and which involves studying the consequences of an unprecedented crisis. To this end, academic articles of high standard are requested to lay the foundations of the impact of SARS-CoV-2 in any socio-cultural environment.

Dr. Elena Olea
Dr. Rosa M. Cárdaba-García
Dr. Carlos Durantez-Fernández
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

coping behaviors
mental health
physiological adaptation
post-acute COVID-19 syndrome
socio-cultural environment

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 321 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

What Do We Know Today about Long COVID? Nursing Care for a New Clinical Syndrome

by Rosa M. Cárdaba-García, Carlos Durantez-Fernández, Lucía Pérez Pérez, María Ángeles Barba-Pérez and Elena Olea

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(14), 8642; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148642 - 15 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1685

Abstract

Persistent COVID, long COVID, long-effects, long-term effects or chronic COVID are all names of a new syndrome caused by a set of multi-organ symptoms that appear after having been infected with SARS-CoV-2 [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

Research

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12 pages, 1001 KiB

Open AccessArticle

COVID-19 Pandemic Control Measures and Their Impact on University Students and Family Members in a Central Region of Spain

by Lucía Pérez-Pérez, Inés Cárdaba-García, Miguel A. Madrigal-Fernández, Federico Montero-Cuadrado, E. M. Sobas and Raúl Soto-Cámara

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(5), 4470; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054470 - 2 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1634

Abstract

The first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic were times of great change in the lives of university students and their families in Spain. The aim of this study was to explore the psychosocial aspects and preventive measures carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic by students and family members of the nursing degree students of the University of Valladolid (Spain). The number of people surveyed was 877, by means of an ad hoc questionnaire. Relationships between variables were established by means of the Chi-square test and Student’s t-test. In addition, multivariate logistic regression was generated. The significance level used was 0.05. Students and family members maintained preventive measures= such as hand washing, correct use of masks =in closed places, avoiding crowds and maintaining social distance, but at low rates (close to 20% in all cases). Regarding psychosocial aspects, 41.07% of the participants suffered from anxiety and loneliness, while 5.2% needed to take drugs to reduce anxiety or sleep and 66.07% were dependent on technology. Suicidal behavior is related to stress, anxiety, loneliness, poor family relationships, psychotropic drug use and technology abuse. The pandemic has caused life changes in university students and their families at the psychosocial level, generating high figures of suicidal ideation regardless of age. Preventive measures adopted to control the pandemic have not been followed for the most part. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

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16 pages, 451 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Previous Mental State on Psychological Outcomes of Spanish Out-of-Hospital Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic

by María Molina-Oliva, Rafael Martín-Sánchez, Elena Pastor-Benito, Raúl Soto-Cámara, Rosa M. Cárdaba-García, Israel John Thuissard, Juan José Fernández-Domínguez, María Paz Matellán-Hernández, Susana Navalpotro-Pascual and Almudena Morales-Sánchez

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(4), 3574; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043574 - 17 Feb 2023

Viewed by 2204

Abstract

This study aimed to describe factors relating to the psychological distress of healthcare workers (HCWs) in Spanish out-of-hospital emergency medical services (EMS), according to the previous or non-use of psychotropic drugs or psychotherapy. A multicentre, cross-sectional descriptive study was designed. The study population were all physicians, nurses, and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) working in any Spanish out-of-hospital EMS between February and April 2021. The main outcomes were the levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and self-efficacy, assessed by DASS-21 and G-SES. Differences in levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and self-efficacy, according to sex, age, previous use of psychotropic drug or psychotherapy, work experience, professional category, type of work, and modification of working conditions were measured using the Student’s t-test for independent samples, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, or 2-factor analysis of covariance. A total of 1636 HCWs were included, of whom one in three had severe mental disorders because of the pandemic. The interaction of the previous or non-use of psychotropic drugs or psychotherapy with the rest of the factors considered did not modify the levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and self-efficacy. However, HCWs with a history of psychotropic drug or psychotherapy use had a more intense negative emotional response and lower self-efficacy, regardless of their sex, professional category, type of work, or change in the working conditions. These HCWs are considered particularly vulnerable to the development or recurrence of new disorders or other comorbidities; therefore, the implementation of monitoring and follow-up strategies should be a priority. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

10 pages, 349 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Austerity Measures and Underfunding of the Spanish Health System during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Perception of Healthcare Staff in Spain

by Laura Otero-García, José Tomás Mateos, Alexo Esperato, Laia Llubes-Arrià, Vanesa Regulez-Campo, Carles Muntaner and Helena Legido-Quigley

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 2594; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032594 - 31 Jan 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2258

Abstract

Insufficient pandemic preparedness and underfunding of human and economic resources have conditioned the response to COVID-19 in Spain. This underfunding has continued since the austerity measures introduced during the 2008 financial crisis. This study aims to understand the perceptions of healthcare staff in Spain on the relationship between the funding of the health system and its capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, we carried out a thematic content analysis, based on 79 online semi-structured interviews with healthcare staff across the regions most affected by the COVID-19 first wave. Participants reported a lack of material resources, which had compromised the capacity of the health system before the pandemic. The lack of human resources was to be addressed by staff reorganisation, such as reinforcing hospital units to the detriment of primary health care. Staff shortages continued straining the COVID-19 response, even after material scarcities were later partially alleviated. Personnel shortages need to be adequately addressed in order to adequately respond to future health crises. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

16 pages, 807 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Panic Food Purchasing amid COVID-19 Pandemic: Does the Impact of Perceived Severity, Anxiety and Self-Isolation Really Matter?

by Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih and Fatheya Moustafa

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 15277; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215277 - 18 Nov 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2330

Abstract

This research examines the influences of perceived severity, anxiety, and self-isolation intention, amid the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), on panic food purchasing. The research adopted a quantitative approach using a pre-examined instrument, which was self-administered by the research team (with support from a data collection-specialised company) to consumers who were urgently shopping for food in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) using analysis of a moment structures (AMOS) software showed a significant positive impact of perceived severity on consumers’ anxiety and self-isolation intention amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Self-isolation intention was found to have a significant positive impact on the anxiety of consumers amid the pandemic. Additionally, perceived severity, anxiety, and self-isolation have a significant positive impact on panic food purchasing. Both anxiety and self-isolation were found to have partial mediating effects in the link between perceived severity and panic purchasing intention. The results of the current research contribute to a better understanding of factors that influence panic purchasing behaviour, especially amid a pandemic. This will help policymakers to deal with this behaviour when such issues arise in the future. Other implications for scholars and policy makers are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

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10 pages, 627 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Has COVID-19 Impacted Our Language Use?

by Francesca Pisano, Alessio Manfredini, Daniela Brachi, Luana Landi, Lucia Sorrentino, Marianna Bottone, Chiara Incoccia and Paola Marangolo

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(21), 13836; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113836 - 24 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1813

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe consequences for people’s mental health. The pandemic has also influenced our language use, shaping our word formation habits. The overuse of new metaphorical meanings has received particular attention from the media. Here, we wanted to investigate whether these metaphors have led to the formation of new semantic associations in memory. A sample of 120 university students was asked to decide whether a target word was or was not related to a prime stimulus. Responses for pandemic pairs in which the target referred to the newly acquired metaphorical meaning of the prime (i.e., “trench”—“hospital”) were compared to pre-existing semantically related pairs (i.e., “trench”—“soldier”) and neutral pairs (i.e., “trench”—“response”). Results revealed greater accuracy and faster response times for pandemic pairs than for semantic pairs and for semantic pairs compared to neutral ones. These findings suggest that the newly learned pandemic associations have created stronger semantic links in our memory compared to the pre-existing ones. Thus, this work confirms the adaptive nature of human language, and it underlines how the overuse of metaphors evoking dramatic images has been, in part, responsible for many psychological disorders still reported among people nowadays. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

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17 pages, 413 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cultural Perspectives, Feelings and Coping Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Romanian Students

by Simona Șimon, Marcela Alina Fărcașiu and Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12445; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912445 - 29 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1750

Abstract

Socio-cultural patterns and communication styles differ from culture to culture. As such, the way in which people deal with a crisis situation is also culture-dependent. The COVID-19 pandemic has pointed, once more, to the cultural diversity of the world through a variety of reactions to the measures imposed by the global spread of the deadly virus. The present research aims at identifying the feelings, coping behaviors and communication patterns of the younger Romanian generation during the COVID-19 pandemic and at explaining them from a cultural standpoint, in an effort to raise awareness of the cultural (un)predictability of human reactions to certain external stimuli. The survey conducted online on 409 students at Politehnica University of Timișoara (Romania) revealed that most of students’ socio-cultural behavior could have been anticipated by the Romanian authorities when they decided a certain pandemic action plan, and that the few unexpected results indicate the versatility of a culture that is still changing under the Western European influence caused by the fact that Romania has adhered to European Union principles for more than fifteen years. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

15 pages, 379 KiB

Open AccessArticle

COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress and Loneliness in Chinese Residents in North America: The Role of Contraction Worry

by Andrea D. Y. Lee, Peizhong Peter Wang, Weiguo Zhang and Lixia Yang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(13), 7639; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137639 - 22 Jun 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1774

Abstract

The current study examined the association of COVID-19 contraction worry for self and for family members with COVID-19 peritraumatic distress and loneliness in Chinese residents in North America. A sample of 943 Chinese residents (immigrants, citizens, visitors, and international students) in North America completed a cross-sectional online survey during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (between January and February 2021). Univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) models identified possible sociodemographic variables that were included in the subsequent hierarchical regression models. According to the hierarchical regression models, self-contraction worry was significantly associated with both COVID-19 peritraumatic distress (B = −4.340, p < 0.001) and loneliness (B = −0.771, p = 0.006) after controlling for related sociodemographic covariates; however, family-contraction worry was not significantly associated with the outcome variables. Additionally, poorer health status and experienced discrimination significantly predicted higher COVID-19 peritraumatic distress, whereas poorer health status and perceived discrimination significantly predicted increased loneliness. The results highlighted the detrimental impacts of self-contraction worry on peritraumatic distress and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chinese residents in North America. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

Review

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9 pages, 1503 KiB

Open AccessReview

Cutaneous Manifestations of COVID-19 in the Lower Limbs: A Narrative Review

by Inmaculada C. Palomo-Toucedo, Manuel Jesús López-Sánchez, María Reina-Bueno and Manuel Coheña-Jiménez

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(14), 8861; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148861 - 21 Jul 2022

Viewed by 5684

Abstract

In 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic. This infectious pathology can be associated with different manifestations in different body systems, among which are dermatological lesions. The purpose of this work is to determine the most frequent dermatological signs, in the lower limbs, produced by SARS-CoV-2. To carry this out, a bibliographic search was performed in the following databases: PubMed, SciELO, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the Google Scholar literature. The inclusion criteria were articles that included confirmed subjects or those with a clinical suspicion of COVID-19, written in the Spanish or English languages, and the results presented clinical manifestations in the lower extremities. Initially, 128 scientific documents were identified and, after reading the title and abstract, 18 articles were selected. The most frequent skin lesions on the lower limbs are acral lesions such as pernio erythema or ischemic lesions, maculopapular rash, petechiae, and erythematous plaques. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

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Other

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13 pages, 940 KiB

Open AccessStudy Protocol

Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Benefit of a Novel Clinical Decision Support System for the Management of COVID-19 Patients in Home Quarantine: A Study Protocol

by Irene Alcoceba-Herrero, María Begoña Coco-Martín, Luis Leal-Vega, Adrián Martín-Gutiérrez, Lidia Peña-de Diego, Carlos Dueñas-Gutiérrez, Flor de Castro-Rodríguez, Pablo Royuela-Ruiz and Juan F. Arenillas-Lara

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 2300; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032300 - 28 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2072

Abstract

(1) Background: We present the protocol of a randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the benefit of a novel clinical decision support system for the management of patients with COVID-19. (2) Methods: The study will recruit up to 500 participants (250 cases and 250 controls). Both groups will receive the conventional telephone follow-up protocol by primary care and will also be provided with access to a mobile application, in which they will be able to report their symptoms three times a day. In addition, patients in the active group will receive a wearable smartwatch and a pulse oximeter at home for real-time monitoring. The measured data will be visualized by primary care and emergency health service professionals, allowing them to detect in real time the progression and complications of the disease in order to promote early therapeutic interventions based on their clinical judgement. (3) Results: Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Drug Research Ethics Committee of the Valladolid East Health Area (CASVE-NM-21-516). The results obtained from this study will form part of the thesis of two PhD students and will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed journal. (4) Conclusions: The implementation of this telemonitoring system can be extrapolated to patients with other similar diseases, such as chronic diseases, with a high prevalence and need for close monitoring. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19))

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