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COVID-19 survivors may experience complex, distressing and persistent symptoms, referred to as long COVID, lasting months or years after diagnosis. More evidence is needed for effective long COVID screening and management.
To explore the clinical profile of long COVID and factors associated with its development.
A multicentre correlational study using a cross-sectional design.
Adults diagnosed with COVID-19 6–9 months earlier were recruited via social media and referrals from three facilities. Participants provided demographic data and assessed their symptoms and functional status using validated questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and binomial logistic regression.
Among 102 participants, 13%–30% reported significant impairments in cognitive, emotional and physical functioning. Over 10% experienced symptoms such as diarrhoea, sleep problems, dyspnoea, nausea, fatigue and pain. These impairments and symptoms were associated with acute symptom severity, chronic disease, overweight status, regular exercise and living without partners.
This study adds to the literature by examining long-term functional status and symptoms in omicron survivors using comprehensive, validated tools. The findings highlight the prevalence and clinical significance of long COVID symptoms, aiding in the identification of functional impairments requiring medical and nursing interventions.
Nurses should recognise these symptoms and educate survivors about potential challenges. Policies addressing long-term issues, including research, health services and education, are essential.
This study follows the STROBE guideline (Table S1).
Patients self-reported symptoms for this study.
ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05303103)
To identify the contaminated areas of the hand collection and analyse the distribution characteristics of bacteria in the hand after swab collection.
This study used a cross-sectional design.
A cross-sectional study sampling 50 pairs of hands (sampling hand and auxiliary hand) of healthcare workers was performed. Ten samples were collected from each participant. The optimal hand hygiene rates and bacterial colony counts of the whole hand and different hand sections without hand hygiene were identified as the primary outcomes.
The optimal hand hygiene rates of the sampling hand and auxiliary hand were 88.8% (222/250) and 91.6% (229/250), respectively. The lowest optimal hand hygiene rates for the sampling hand and the auxiliary hand were both on the dorsal side of the finger and the dorsum of the hand (86.0%, 86.0% vs. 90.0%, 86.0%); the optimal hand hygiene rates for both sites of the sampling hand were 86.0% (43/50), and the optimal hand hygiene rates for the auxiliary hand were 90.0% (45/50) and 86.0% (43/50). The bacteria colony counts did not differ between the sampling hands and auxiliary hand.
The dorsal side of the finger and dorsum of the hand were the most likely to be contaminated during oropharyngeal swab collection. Therefore, it is essential to pay extra attention to hand hygiene care of these two sites during the collection process to minimize the risk of cross-contamination.
The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines were adopted in this study.
FreshRSS 