Srivastava Niraj, Rathia Santosh K, Dey Chandan, Shukla Arvind, T Pugazhenthan, Singh Sunita, Anand Varun
General Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raebareli, IND.
Trauma and Emergency (Pediatric Emergency Medicine), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur, IND.
Cureus. 2023 Jun 28;15(6):e41073. doi: 10.7759/cureus.41073. eCollection 2023 Jun.
The first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created havoc and confusion in choosing appropriate treatment, as well as prophylaxis, due to its rapid surge, disease novelty, and lack of evidence-based literature. It was even more concerning among the healthcare workers (HCWs), who had to take care of patients, themselves, and their own families.
This online survey-based study targeted finding the various options for COVID-19 precautionary or prophylactic measures opted for by HCWs.
This was an observational study based on a predesigned questionnaire, which was floated online for three months after institutional ethical approval, just after the first wave of COVID-19 in 2021, targeting HCWs of different cadres (doctors, nurses, paramedics/laboratory technicians, etc.), ages, and sexes and HCWs hailing from across the country. Questions were focused on HCW's adopted measures, the order of preference and its reasons, and concerns related to safety and efficacy. Data was collected through Google Forms (Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA) into an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA) and analyzed by the latest Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY) using appropriate statistics.
The routine practice of standard precautionary measures (face mask, hand hygiene, and social distancing) and wearing a personal protective equipment (PPE) kit during the care of COVID-19-positive or COVID-19-suspected patients was adopted by the majority of HCWs, i.e., 306/312 (>98%) irrespective of cadre (p = 0.001). After the "routine measures," the most adopted measure by participant HCWs irrespective of profession, age, and gender was the consumption of allopathic drugs (n = 188; 60.26%). Anti-COVID-19 measures in the category of drugs used by healthcare providers (HCPs) were prophylactic allopathic drugs (60.26%), homeopathic drugs (11.86%), and other Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH)/traditional medical system drugs (11.86%). Vitamin C was the most consumed among all of the drugs for COVID-19 prophylaxis purposes. Non-drug measures espoused by the HCPs were physical exercises (46.47%), increased sleep duration (35.89%), change in dietary habits (42.62%), and spiritual measures (19.23%).
The fear of COVID-19 imposed on the HCPs the obligation to use all the available preventive measures in spite of the lack of evidence on actual benefits. After the routine infection preventive measures, the most adopted measure by participant HCWs irrespective of profession, age, and gender was the consumption of prophylactic allopathic drugs (>60%), and the most non-drug preventive measures were the initiation of physical exercises and change in dietary habits. Adapting some form of physical exercise was more noted with males than females (p = 0.001), and it significantly increased with HCPs of higher age of >25 and >40 years than younger HCPs (58.6% versus 29.3%; p = 0.016). Females preferred more dietary and nutritional modifications.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的第一波疫情造成了混乱，由于其迅速蔓延、疾病新颖性以及缺乏循证文献，在选择适当的治疗和预防措施方面产生了困惑。这在医护人员中更令人担忧，因为他们既要照顾患者，又要照顾自己和家人。
这项基于在线调查的研究旨在找出医护人员选择的COVID-19预防措施的各种选项。
这是一项基于预先设计问卷的观察性研究，在获得机构伦理批准后，于2021年COVID-19第一波疫情过后在线发放问卷三个月，目标人群为不同岗位（医生、护士、医护辅助人员/实验室技术员等）、年龄和性别的医护人员，以及来自全国各地的医护人员。问题集中在医护人员采取的措施、偏好顺序及其原因，以及与安全性和有效性相关的问题。数据通过谷歌表单（谷歌公司，加利福尼亚州山景城）收集到Excel电子表格（微软公司，华盛顿州雷德蒙德）中，并使用最新的社会科学统计软件包（SPSS）软件（IBM SPSS Statistics，纽约州阿蒙克）进行适当的统计分析。
大多数医护人员（即306/312，>98%）在护理COVID-19阳性或疑似COVID-19患者时采取标准预防措施（戴口罩、手部卫生和保持社交距离）的常规做法，且不论岗位如何（p = 0.001）。在“常规措施”之后，参与调查的医护人员不论职业、年龄和性别，最常采取的措施是服用对抗疗法药物（n = 188；60.26%）。医护人员使用的药物类别中的抗COVID-19措施为预防性对抗疗法药物（60.26%）、顺势疗法药物（11.86%）以及其他阿育吠陀、瑜伽、自然疗法、尤纳尼、悉达和顺势疗法（AYUSH）/传统医学体系药物（11.86%）。在所有用于预防COVID-19的药物中，维生素C的服用量最大。医护人员支持的非药物措施包括体育锻炼（46.47%）、增加睡眠时间（35.89%）、改变饮食习惯（42.62%）和精神措施（19.23%）。
尽管缺乏实际益处的证据，但对COVID-19的恐惧使医护人员有义务采取所有可用的预防措施。在常规感染预防措施之后，参与调查的医护人员不论职业、年龄和性别，最常采取的措施是服用预防性对抗疗法药物（>60%），最常采取的非药物预防措施是开始体育锻炼和改变饮食习惯。男性比女性更倾向于采取某种形式的体育锻炼（p = 0.001），且年龄大于25岁和大于40岁的医护人员比年轻医护人员显著更多地采取体育锻炼（58.6%对29.3%；p = 0.016）。女性更倾向于饮食和营养方面的调整。
