This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Our study aimed to understand the acceptance level of the COVID-19 vaccine and its determinants among the adult Bangladeshi population. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in all eight divisions of Bangladesh. Data from 7,357 adult respondents were collected between January 17 and February 2, 2021, using a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Statistical software STATA (Version 16.1) was used for all analyses. Results: The majority of study participants were from the Dhaka division (34.24%). The most common age group was 30 years (46.18%). Almost two-thirds of respondents were male (65.50%) and married (67.76%). A large portion (79.85%) of people who had positive vaccine intentions believed that vaccination should be made mandatory for everyone. The majority of the respondents thought that the vaccine would work against COVID-19 infection (67%). In the binary logistic regression analysis, participants who had the education level of graduation or above (AOR ¼ 1.80), age 50 years (AOR ¼ 1.97), students (AOR ¼ 2.98), monthly income 41,000 BDT (AOR ¼ 2.22), being resident of rural area (AOR ¼ 2.24), respondents from Khulna division (AOR ¼ 6.43) were more likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Those who had family members diagnosed with COVID-19 (AOR ¼ 1.24), presence of chronic disease (AOR ¼ 0.72), and those who were vaccinated in the last few years (AOR ¼ 1.32) were also more likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusion: Most of the respondents were willing to be vaccinated based on the belief that the vaccine will work against COVID-19. As rumors are generating daily, there is a need for policy-level initiative and evidence-based mass media promotion to keep inspired the general Bangladeshi people to accept the COVID-19 vaccine whenever it will be available at the individual level.

Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) quickly surged the whole world and affected people’s physical, mental, and social health thereby upsetting their quality of life. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the quality of life (QoL) of COVID-19 positive patients after recovery in Bangladesh. This was a study of adult (aged ≥18 years) COVID-19 individuals from eight divisions of Bangladesh diagnosed and confirmed by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) from June 2020 to November 2020. Given a response rate of 60% in a pilot study, a random list of 6400 COVID-19 patients was generated to recruit approximately 3200 patients from eight divisions of Bangladesh and finally a total of 3244 participants could be recruited for the current study. The validated Bangla version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire was used to assess the QoL. Data were analyzed by STATA (Version 16.1) and R (Version 4.0.0). All the procedures were conducted following ethical approval and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The mean scores of QoL were highest for the physical domain (68.25±14.45) followed by social (65.10±15.78), psychological (63.28±15.48), and environmental domain (62.77±13.07). Psychological and physical domain scores among females were significantly lower than the males (p<0.001). The overall quality of life was lower in persons having a chronic disease. Participants over 45 years of age were 52% less likely to enjoy good physical health than the participants aged below 26 years (AOR: 0.48, CI: 0.28–0.82). The quality of life of employed participants was found 1.8 times higher than the unemployed (AOR: 1.80, CI: 1.11–2.91). Those who were admitted to hospitals during infection had a low QoL score in physical, psychological, and socials domains. However, QoL improved in all aspect except the psychological domain for each day passed after the diagnosis. These findings call for a focus on the quality of life of the COVID-19 affected population, with special emphasis given to females, older adults, unemployed, and people with comorbidities.

Background Health care workers have been facing difficulties in coping with the COVID-19 infection from the beginning. The study aimed to compare Quality of Life (QOL) among health care workers (HCWs) with and without prior COVID-19 disease. Methods This study was conducted from July 2020 to January 2021 among 444 HCWs. We randomly interviewed 3244 participants for our earlier nationwide survey from a list of COVID-19 positive cases after their recovery, and we found 222 HCWs among the respondents. We randomly chose 222 HCWs unaffected by COVID as a comparison group from our selected hospitals. We measured QOL using World Health Organization’s WHOQOL-BREF tool. Physical, psychological, environmental, and social ties were the four areas assessed on a 5-point Likert scale where a higher score suggests better QOL. Due to pandemic restrictions, we used telephonic interviews for data collection. Results A higher QOL score was observed in HCWs with prior COVID-19 infection in all four domains than HCWs without previous COVID-19 conditions. Comorbidity was negatively associated with QOL scores of the physical (p = 0.001) and (p < 0.001) and psychological (p = 0.05, and (p < 0.05) domains for non-COVID and COVID-affected groups, respectively. Current smoking was significantly associated with lower psychological (p = 0.019) and environmental (p = 0.007) QOL scores among HCWs with prior COVID-19 infection. Hospitalization history due to COVID infection was a contributing factor for lower physical QOL scores (p = 0.048). Environmental (p = 0.016) QOL scores were significantly associated with the monthly income in the prior COVID-19 infection group, and physical scores were significantly associated (p = 0.05) with a monthly income in the non-COVID group. Conclusion Governmental and non-governmental stakeholders should focus on potentially modifiable factors to improve health care workers’ quality of life.

Background: The occurrence of COVID-19 infection in rheumatic patients and their evaluation are of global interest. The purpose of this study was to determine the clinicodemographiccharacteristics of COVID-19 infection among rheumatic patients. Methods: In this observational cross-sectional study, 167 consecutive patients of both genders from online consultancy were enrolled from 13th June to 12thOctober 2020 conducted in a tertiary level rheumatology consultation center, Modern One Stop Arthritis Care & Research Center®, Dhanmondi, Dhaka. The WHO case definition of COVID-19 and disease severity scoring tool were used for diagnosis and assessment of the patients.Suspected cases were interviewed in detail and investigated with RT-PCR for COVID-19, HRCT of the chest, X-ray chest P/A view, and other necessary tests. The prevalence of COVID-19 infection was expressed in percentage. Results: Out of 167 rheumatic subjects,64 and 103 were men and women respectively, witha mean age of 42.15±13.04 years. The prevalence of COVID-19 infection was 7.78% (13/167). RT-PCR was positive in 9 (69.23%) patients and the remaining weresuspected cases (RT-PCR was negative but positive clinical features and X-ray chest findings.All COVID-19 positive patients presented with fever (100%).Among COVID-19 cases,spondyloarthritis (SpA), osteoarthritis of knee(OA),psoriatic arthrtis (PsA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE)were5 (38.46%), 3 (23.08%), 2 (15.38%), 2 (15.38%) and 1 (7.69%) respectively.DMARDs/biologics wereongoingin 3 (tofacitinib), 1 (etanercept), 1 (methotrexate), 1 (sulphasalazine), 1(hydroxychloroquine) and 1 (leflunomide) patients.The use of non-specific drugs for Covid-19 treatment were azithromycin, ivermectin, doxycycline, and hydroxychloroquin. Among these rheumatic patients, the elderly group of patients with the comorbidities like diabetes5 (38.46%), hypertension 5 (38.46%)and bronchial asthma 3 (23.08%)were infected with COVID-19. Conclusion: The prevalence of COVID-19 was 7.78% among the rheumatic patients. Fever was the universal presentation in this study. The commonest rheumatic diseases were SpA . Diabetes and hypertension werethe most common comorbidities in patients with rheumatic diseases with COVID-19 infection. J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2023; 41: 205-211