Jundishapur Journal of Chronic Disease Care
Volume:9 Issue: 2, Apr 2020

In late December 2019, a new coronavirus, called COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2/2019-nCoV), triggered the outbreak of pneumonia from Wuhan (Han’s seafood market) in China, which is now possessing major public health threats to the world. The objective of this review was to describe the epidemiology of COVID-19 in different chronic diseases and understand the pathophysiological mechanisms by which the virus can lead to the progression of these diseases.

The prevalence of COVID-19 infection has become a clinical threat to the general population and healthcare staff around the world. However, knowledge is limited about this new virus. The most commonly reported conditions are diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease.

Effective antiviral therapy and vaccination are currently being evaluated and under-development. What we can do now is the aggressive implementation of infection control measures to prevent the human-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Public health services should also monitor the situation. The more the knowledge about this new virus and its prevalence, the better the ability of us to deal with it. It is hoped that we will overcome COVID-19 soon with the discovery of effective vaccines, drugs, and treatments.

The current world crisis, COVID-19 disease, is different from any other world’s previous crises since it has killed thousands of people all around the world and made the medical science desperate. During the COVID-19 outbreak, spirituality can be one of the proper methods to create mental relaxation.

 The present study is a review of the literature from 1978 to 2019. The search was done in electronic databases and reputable websites including PubMed, Medline, Springer, Elsevier, Science Direct, Scopus, and SID for both English and non-English language articles using the following keywords: “spirituality”, “prayer”, “and “some religious advice were assessed in times of crisis”. A total of 11 articles were selected for review.

The results indicated that spirituality could aid people to have mental relaxation in times of crisis and dangerous diseases. Some of the religious solutions proposed against the COVID-19 prevalence could be helpful.

Since a long time ago, religions have attempted to provide behavioral pieces of advice in times of crisis to help humankind spiritually. In the present study, some of these pieces of advice are mentioned. It has been suggested that medical staff in hospitals pay more attention to the spiritual and religious beliefs of COVID-19-infected patients to improve their calmness and well-being.

Diabetes is a global epidemic with serious complication and there is a clear need for paying special attention to self-management as the cornerstone to optimal control of the disease.

This study aimed to assess the self-management status and its correlation to disease control indicators in people with diabetes.

In a descriptive cross-sectional study, 220 patients were selected from the list of the referred patients available in Lamerd public health network from December 2014 to June 2015. In the first step, data about demographic information and disease control were collected from the patients’ records. In the second step, the self-management status of each patient was assessed by the Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire developed by Schmitt et al. To analyze the data, independent sample t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used.

The mean age of the male and female participants was 56.43 ± 13.50 and 56.46 ± 10.49 years old, respectively. The mean duration of the disease was 6.67 ± 4.72 years for men and 7.07 ± 5.30 years for women. Twenty-one (25.9%) men and 60 (43.7%) women had a history of smoking. The results of the Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there was an inverse and statistically significant relationship between diabetes self-management status and weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, glucose tolerance test (GTT), LDL, and cholesterol. The results of the t-test did not show significant differences between the level of HbA1C (HbA1C7) and self-management scores of the patients (P > 0.05).

Patients with better self-management status were in a better disease control condition with respect to weight, BMI, waist circumference, GTT, LDL, and cholesterol levels. Special attention to the control and management of LDL, cholesterol, HbA1C, BMI, and blood pressure levels is recommended in planning for these patients.

The majority of patients living with chronic pain faces several challenges; therefore, factors affecting their adaptation to the disease to provide appropriate therapeutic methods and meditation and relaxation therapy should be identified.

The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between perceived burdensomeness and psychosocial adjustment, and the mediating role of pain self-efficacy.

This descriptive correlational study was conducted on 240 patients with chronic pain referred to the orthopedic centers in Ardabil in 2019 selected by convenience sampling. Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale, Pain Self-efficacy Questionnaire, and Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire were used for data collection. Also, Pearson correlation and multiple regressions were used for data analysis. Data were analyzed using SPSS V. 19 and AMOS V. 21.

The findings confirmed the negative and direct effect of perceived burdensomeness (β = -0.11 and P < 0.01), as well as the positive and direct effect of pain self-efficacy (β = 0.86 and P < 0.01) on psychosocial adjustment. On the other hand, perceived burdensomeness (β = -0.32, P < 0.01) had a negative and direct effect on pain self-efficacy. The indirect effect of perceived burdensomeness and pain self-efficacy on psychosocial adjustment to illness was also confirmed.

According to the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that the feelings of pain self-efficacy mediate the relationship between perceived burdensomeness and psychosocial adjustment in patients with chronic pain. That can also be important for the patient and their caregivers in relation to other chronic illnesses. Chronic diseases can also affect patients and their caregivers.

Renal failure is strongly associated with serum osmolarity and changes in electrolytes and some blood metabolites. Because fasting is often associated with Ramadan, especially during the warm months of the year, there is a concern that renal function may be affected.

This study aimed to observe the effect of one month of fasting on electrolytes, serum osmolarity and body composition in fasting and non-fasting students.

Twenty-nine healthy males (age 21.20 ± 1.69 years and body mass index 25.03 ± 2.11 kg/m2) were divided into two groups: fasting (n = 15) and non-fasting (n = 14). All measurements such as electrolytes index, serum osmolarity and body composition were collected before and after the fasting month. Data were analyzed with repeated measure ANOVA to compare within and between groups. The significance level was set at P < 0.05.

Within-group variations were changed BMI, WHR, hip circumference, and waist circumference. Fasting glucose levels were significantly decreased at the end of the fasting period (P < 0.05). Fasting urea, creatinine, uric acid, sodium, potassium, osmolarity increased significantly in the fasting group but no significant change was observed in serum albumin levels.

According to this result, fasting during Ramadan leads to an increase in osmolarity and serum electrolytes and a decrease in body composition. However, the use of healthy eating principles during Ramadan can help minimize these changes.

Identifying safe strategies to regulate the laboratory and clinical parameters of patients with diabetes is critical.

The study aimed to compare the effect of walking and yoga on clinical and laboratory indicators in men with type II diabetes.

This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 108 patients with diabetes who were randomly assigned to walking, yoga, and control groups. Data were collected using a demographic information questionnaire, mercury sphygmomanometer, height, and weight scale, and blood serum biochemical tests before the intervention and after the end of the eighth week of the intervention. Interventions were performed in both yoga and walking groups for 8 weeks, three times a week for 60 minutes each time, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS V. 20 software. The significance level was less than 0.05.

The results showed after the intervention the mean of FBS (P = 0.045), LDL (P = 0.005), HDL (P = 0.001), systolic blood pressure (P = 0.002), and diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.003) were significantly different between the three groups. Changes in the mean of fasting blood sugar (FBS), cholesterol, and body mass index (BMI) were significant only in the yoga group, and changes in the mean of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were significant solely in the walking group (P < 0.05).

Yoga and walking had a desirable effect on improving the clinical and laboratory indicators in men with type II diabetes. However, yoga regulated more indicators in the studied patients in comparison to walking.

Chronic low back pain is a common problem in primary care. Low back pain is one of the most common causes of disability that affects different aspects of these patients’ lives. One of the aspects that are affected by chronic low back pain is couples’ marital adjustment.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of laminectomy surgery in marital adjustment of patients with chronic low back pain.

The study design was quasi-experimental. The statistical population of this research consisted of all patients with chronic back pain referred to Fatemi Hospital in Ardabil. The instrument used in this research to collect data was Spanier Dyadic Adjustment scale (DAS) distributed once before surgery and once 3 months after surgery. The data were analyzed by dependent t-test using SPSS software.

Forty persons (55.6%) were female, and 32 persons (44.4%) were male. The results showed that marital adjustment significantly increased after the laminectomy surgery in terms of the following dimensions, marital satisfaction, solidarity, affection, and mutual trust compared to the before surgery (P < 0.05).

Considering the obtained results, the laminectomy surgery in patients with chronic back pain causes an increase in marital adjustment in terms of all dimensions.

Dear Editor,The novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) pandemic has created a lot of disruptions to the global health development. The short-term consequences of this global pandemic are known; however, the long-term consequences are difficult to be predicted. Currently, most countries lack enough equipment to fight against COVID-19. Nevertheless, some countries have tried drastically to produce the required materials and equipment domestically (such as equipment, pharmaceutical agents, and medical supplies). As a result of COVID-19 pandemic, the world realized the economic costs of a pandemic outbreak; thus, this experience will lead to more investment in research and prevention. Through this outbreak, we learn how close to each other our world is in terms of vulnerability (1). The COVID-19 has spread all over the world and causes shutting down most of the countries across the globe. Most of pre-COVID-19 operations going on are monitored and carried out by domestic state institutions; hence, this is the important aspect of global health governance (2).The COVID-19 pandemic hopefully will alter the global health community’s acceptance and use of digital health technologies nowadays since the global health systems are overwhelmed as a result of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most healthcare providers turn to telemedicine to reduce exposure to COVID-19 as well as discovered the effectiveness of telehealth. Hopefully, these modern technologies are expected to be the means that will help the healthcare providers to get closer to each other in order to share the goal of universal health coverage. The COVID-19 pandemic has put greater value on research and epidemiological investigations all over the world (1). As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the concerned authority will somehow force a reexamination of global health architecture. I have no doubt the governments are going to promote an approach to sustainability and increase investment in health research, emergency preparedness, and strengthen the overall healthcare systems.