The experience of individuals placed in quarantine: A systematic review, meta‐summary, and meta‐synthesis

Abstract

Objective To summarize the experience of individuals placed in quarantine during an outbreak. Design A meta‐summary and a meta‐synthesis based upon a systematic review of qualitative studies. Sample The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases were all searched up to April 2020. Measurements The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines were followed; then, the methodological quality of the studies included was assessed with the Critical Appraisal Screening Programme tool for qualitative studies. Results Five studies have been included documenting the experience of 125 adult individuals. A total of 16 codes emerged: in the meta‐summary, the most and least frequent codes were “ Thinking about quarantine ” (80%) and “ Emotional roller coaster ,” “ Being alert for any symptom ,” “ Trusting or not? ,” “ Knowing who brought the infection ,” and “ Living in a surreal world ” (20%). The codes which emerged were categorized into three main themes which summarized the whole experience of being placed in quarantine: (a) “ Being swamped with a thousand emotions ”; (b) “ Being restrained ”; and (c) “ Needing to be considered .” Conclusions The experience of quarantine for people is a long journey which can feel chaotic due to uncertainty about the consequences on health, work, and the future. The findings of this study can help nurses in caring for quarantined individuals by enabling them to understand people's need for educational and emotional support. Ensuring the supply of consistent information is also important to increase people's compliance.

Experiences and perspectives of nurses infected with COVID‐19: A qualitative systematic review and meta‐synthesis

“…Our findings validate previous systematic reviews concerning the physical and psychological ordeals faced by infected individuals (Basso et al, 2021). The emotional experiences reported here align with previous studies, revealing a wide spectrum of emotions, including anxiety, shock, fear, sadness, and anger (Bian et al, 2022).…”

Psychological experience of home‐quarantined older women with COVID‐19 in Hong Kong: A qualitative study

“…The previous systematic review summarized the negative psychological impact of the quarantine on individuals (Basso et al, 2021). Findings from our study further added to the literature on coping strategies during older women's home‐quarantine period.…”

“…The previous systematic review summarized the negative psychological impact of the quarantine on individuals (Basso et al, 2021).…”

“…A systematic review of five qualitative studies has been published on the experience of individuals in quarantine during past infectious disease outbreaks (i.e. severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola and influenza) (Basso et al, 2021), which indicated that the quarantine caused stress, depression, feelings of isolation and stigmatization, and a sense of uncertainty. There was a lack of studies focused on a subgroup of individuals, such as older adults.…”

The prevalence of probable mental health disorders among hospital healthcare workers during COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Due to increased infection risks, rates of quarantine have been significantly higher in hospitals HCWs compared to the general public (Kumar et al, 2020) and have been found to be associated with PTSD symptoms (Brooks et al, 2020; Brophy et al, 2020; Carmassi et al, 2020). While an effective measure to reduce nosocomial outbreaks of COVID-19 in hospitals (Grzelakowska and Kryś, 2021; Huang et al, 2021), studies have demonstrated that quarantine procedures can have severe psychological impact due to feelings of threat, restrain and social isolation (Basso et al, 2021; Brooks et al, 2020; Gómez-Durán et al, 2020), which were likely intensified as hospital HCWs face repeated quarantine and its’ consequences due to their work in hospitals. Another contributing factor could be the social stigma and social rejection (Ding et al, 2021; Gómez-Durán et al, 2020; Schubert et al, 2021; Yuan et al, 2021b) faced by these professional groups due to their work, which have been found to increase experiences of PTSD symptoms (Yuan et al, 2021a).…”