Department of Internal Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
Medical Officer - Armed Forces Medical Services, Chabua, Assam, India.
Neurol India. 2022 Jan-Feb;70(1):122-126. doi: 10.4103/0028-3886.338723.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put the entire medical fraternity into a very challenging and demanding situation. Along with always being at the risk of COVID infection, healthcare workers (HCWs) are also facing neurological problems due to long working hours in personal protective equipment (PPE). These symptoms and their characteristics need to be observed and studied in-depth to understand the problems experienced by HCWs and to design new solutions to overcome such problems.
This study intends to evaluate the various neurological manifestations among the HCWs wearing PPE for prolonged periods.
We conducted a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study at a Covid care center from western India from April 20 to June 01, 2021 by using a self-administered web-based questionnaire. A total of 256 HCWs were surveyed. The de-identified data were analyzed using JMP 15.0.0.
Among a total of 256 HCWs surveyed for this study, the majority (58.6%) were aged 24-35 years, with a male preponderance (65.62%, n = 168). Participants included doctors (41%), nurses (35%), paramedical staff (22%), and housekeeping staff (1%). The symptoms encountered among the HCWs wearing the PPE were headache, classified further as donning headache in 112 (44.98%), doffing headache in 56 (26.24%), slowed mentation in 48 (21.05%), and excessive sleepiness in 86 (38.74%), which affected their work performance. The age of the HCWs had a significant correlation with all the symptoms.
Headache, slowed mentation, and excessive sleepiness was encountered among the HCWs wearing PPE, which depended upon the duration of PPE usage. The most common symptom was headache, which was of moderate to severe intensity.
COVID-19 大流行使整个医学界陷入了极具挑战性和高要求的境地。医护人员（HCWs）不仅一直面临 COVID 感染的风险，而且由于长时间穿着个人防护装备（PPE），还面临着神经系统问题。需要观察和深入研究这些症状及其特征，以了解 HCWs 所面临的问题，并设计新的解决方案来克服这些问题。
本研究旨在评估穿戴 PPE 时间较长的 HCWs 出现的各种神经表现。
我们于 2021 年 4 月 20 日至 6 月 1 日在印度西部的一个 COVID 护理中心进行了一项基于问卷的横断面研究，采用自我管理的网络问卷。共调查了 256 名 HCWs。使用 JMP 15.0.0 对匿名数据进行分析。
在这项研究中，共调查了 256 名 HCWs，其中大多数（58.6%）年龄在 24-35 岁之间，男性占比（65.62%，n=168）更高。参与者包括医生（41%）、护士（35%）、辅助医务人员（22%）和家政人员（1%）。穿着 PPE 的 HCWs 遇到的症状包括头痛，进一步分为 112 例（44.98%）穿脱头痛、56 例（26.24%）脱卸头痛、48 例（21.05%）思维迟缓、86 例（38.74%）过度嗜睡，这些都影响了他们的工作表现。HCWs 的年龄与所有症状均显著相关。
穿戴 PPE 的 HCWs 会出现头痛、思维迟缓、过度嗜睡等症状，这些症状取决于穿戴 PPE 的时间长短。最常见的症状是头痛，且头痛强度为中重度。
