Objective: To consider the challenges of communicating COVID-19 directives to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Australia, and present evidence-based solutions to influence policy and practice on promoting relevant health behaviours; to advance participatory research methodologies for health behaviour change. Type of program or service: We present a case study of a participatory research collaboration between CALD community leaders and health behaviour change scientists during the COVID-19 crisis. The goal was to better understand the role of community leaders in shaping health behaviours in their communities and how that role might be leveraged for better health outcomes. Methods: This article is the culmination of a series of dialogues between CALD community and advocacy leaders, and health behaviour change scientists in July 2020. The academic authors recruited 12 prominent CALD community leaders, conducted five semi-structured dialogues with small
Evidence-based audit tools were used to identify the antibiotic stewardship improvements necessary to meet the NHS England targets in a 750-bed teaching hospital.Antibiotic prescribing was reviewed against published evidence-based audit tools for 139 patients treated with antibiotics. Severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) median course length was 8.5 days. Ninety-six percent of non-severe CAP patients were initiated on intravenous antibiotics (IV); median antibiotic course length 9 days. Twenty-six percent of urinary tract infection (UTI) patients without an indwelling catheter met the UTI diagnostic criteria. IV antibiotics initiated in 79% patients with other infections. Of these, 17% met the IV to oral switch criteria at 72 hours but were not switched. On average, antibiotic courses were 19% longer than recommended. Three key areas for improvement consist of: (a) implement the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence UTI Quality Standard - only 38% of patients treated for UTI met the UTI definition; (b) ensure antibiotic course lengths are in line with local prescribing guidelines - antibiotics were continued for 14% longer than recommended in local guidelines; (c) switch antibiotic therapy to oral when switch criteria met - 17% percent of patients initiated on IV antibiotics were eligible for oral switch by 72 hours and were not switched.
Background
It is not clear whether pre-existing macrovascular complications (ischemic heart disease, stroke or peripheral artery disease) are associated with health outcomes in people with diabetes mellitus hospitalized for COVID-19.
Methods
We conducted cohort studies of adults with pre-existing diabetes hospitalized for COVID-19 infection in the UK, France, and Spain during the early phase of the pandemic (between March 2020—October 2020). Logistic regression models adjusted for demographic factors and other comorbidities were used to determine associations between previous macrovascular disease and relevant clinical outcomes: mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and use of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) during the hospitalization. Output from individual logistic regression models for each cohort was combined in a meta-analysis.
Results
Complete data were available for 4,106 (60.4%) individuals. Of these, 1,652 (40.2%) had any prior macrovascular disease of whom 28.5% of patients died. Mortality was higher for people with compared to those without previous macrovascular disease (37.7% vs 22.4%). The combined crude odds ratio (OR) for previous macrovascular disease and mortality for all four cohorts was 2.12 (95% CI 1.83–2.45 with an I2 of 60%, reduced after adjustments for age, sex, type of diabetes, hypertension, microvascular disease, ethnicity, and BMI to adjusted OR 1.53 [95% CI 1.29–1.81]) for the three cohorts. Further analysis revealed that ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease were the main contributors of adverse outcomes. However, proportions of people admitted to ICU (adjOR 0.48 [95% CI 0.31–0.75], I2 60%) and the use of IMV during hospitalization (adjOR 0.52 [95% CI 0.40–0.68], I2 37%) were significantly lower for people with previous macrovascular disease.
Conclusions
This large multinational study of people with diabetes mellitus hospitalized for COVID-19 demonstrates that previous macrovascular disease is associated with higher mortality and lower proportions admitted to ICU and treated with IMV during hospitalization suggesting selective admission criteria. Our findings highlight the importance correctly assess the prognosis and intensive monitoring in this high-risk group of patients and emphasize the need to design specific public health programs aimed to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection in this subgroup.
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