Background : There is a lack of data concerning impact of COVID-19 among older adults (OA) living at long-term care (LTC) centers. This study investigated how COVID-19 has affected this population. The prevalence of and risk factors for post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety were investigated. Methods : A semi-structured interview to determine the effect of COVID-19 was conducted to 200 OA at two government LTC centers. The 17-item Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire, and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale were used to evaluate post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety, respectively. Results : Most OA reported moderate or severe impact of COVID-19. The most impacted area was financial due to decreased support from outside the center. Seventy percent of OA reported no or mild psychological stress from COVID-19; however, 5.5% had post-traumatic stress, 7.0% had depression, and 12.0% had anxiety. Higher psychological stress from COVID-19 and having respiratory tract infection symptoms were independently associated with post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety. Receiving COVID-19 news via social media was independently associated with post-traumatic stress and depression. Having psychiatric comorbidity was independently associated with depression. Conclusions : OA living in LTC centers reported moderate or severe impact from COVID-19, especially financial, but relatively low psychological stress. Psychological stress from COVID-19, having respiratory tract infection symptoms, and receiving COVID-19 news via social media were risk factors for psychological disorders. Limitations : The data reflected the post-outbreak period. There is limitation in the generalizability of the results for other countries with different health care systems.

No abstract

Prevalence of depression is high among medical students and several mental problems are identified as risk factors. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic causes difficulties that could adversely affect mental health. However, data concerning prevalence of mental problems, and whether or not these problems remain risk factors for depression during the COVID-19 pandemic in medical students are scarce. To investigate the prevalence of depression, social media addiction, game addiction, sleep quality, eating disorder risk, and perceived stress among Thai medical students, risk factors for depression were investigated. Online surveys via our faculty's learning portals were advertized to medical students who engaged online learning and 224 respondents provided complete data. Study-related medical students' data were collected using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression, the Social-Media Addiction Screening Scale for social media addiction, the Game Addiction Screening Test for game addiction, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index for sleep quality, the Eating Attitudes Test for eating disorder risk, and the Perceived Stress Scale for perceived stress. Depression was reported in 35.7% of medical students, social-media addiction in 22.3%, game addiction in 4.5%, eating disorder risk in 4.9%, poor sleep quality in 80.8%, and moderate-to-high perceived stress in 71.4%. The independent predictors of depression were lower grade point average, social media addiction, and moderate-to-high perceived stress. A high prevalence of depression, stress, and poor sleep was found among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical students who are stressed, have lower grades, and/or who are addicted to social media warrant depression screening. Abbreviations: BMI = body mass index, COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019, GAST = game addiction screening test, GPA = grade point average, MS = medical students, PHQ-9 = patient health questionnaire-9, PSQI = Pittsburgh sleep quality index, PSS-10 = perceived stress scale, S-MASS = social-media addiction screening scale.

No abstract

No abstract

This study examined the prevalence, risk factors, and disability associated with depression. We conducted a cross-sectional, observational study in 217 consecutive kidney transplant (KT) recipients routinely followed-up at a Kidney Transplantation Clinic in Northern Thailand. Participants were assessed using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the 12-item self-report of World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale, Version 2.0 (WHODAS). Twenty-eight (12.9%) patients had depression (PHQ-9 score, ≥10). A binary logistic regression analysis found that the CCI score was significantly higher in KT recipients with depression (β = 0.54, p < 0.01). After the adjustment of education and glomerular filter rates, an ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that the PHQ-9 scores were positively correlated with the WHODAS scores (β = 0.39, p < 0.01). In KT recipients, physical comorbidity is associated with depression, and depression is correlated with functional disability.

No abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a common pathogen in human diseases. Thirtyseven clinical clones from different patients were tested for a molecular study of the mecA gene and multilocus sequence types (ST). Total genomic extraction, followed by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for DNA amplification with specific primers for mecA, and specific primers for various ST were used. Molecular typing for the study of genetic relationships among clones was performed by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing for all clones to 9 drugs was performed by the disk diffusion and vancomycin Etest. The presence of mecA was detected in all clones. The most common ST was MRSA-ST30, accounting for 81.1% of all MRSA tested, followed by MRSA-ST8/ST97/ST779 (8.1%), MRSA-ST239 (2.7%) and MRSA-nontypeable clones (8.1%). Molecular typing by ERIC-PCR demonstrated DNA fingerprints with corresponding results with sequence types. All clones were susceptible (70-100%) to fosfomycin, fusidic acid, gentamicin, tetracycline, trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole and vancomycin [minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) range, MIC 50 and MIC 90 were 0.25-1.0, 0.5 and 0.75 µg/ml, respectively by using E-test] but resistant to ciprofloxacin, clindamycin and erythromycin. Inducible macrolide, lincosamide-type B streptogramin resistance (iMLSB) phenotype was 5.4% while constitutive MLSB phenotype was 91.9%. For MRSA-ST30 clones, 96.7% were multi-drug resistant (MDR) with the most common pattern being resistant to ciprofloxacin, clindamycin and erythromycin. These results suggest the importance of MRSA in the field of epidemiology at a hospital in Thailand.