The Functional Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Rapid Review

Abstract

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic is having a severe and unprecedented impact on human functioning, due to its influence on bodily functions and structures, the activities we participate in and the environments in which we live. The aim of this rapid review is to inform health services planning and decision making, by identifying and synthesizing the potential functional impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on human health and wellbeing.Methods: This rapid review was completed within four weeks during April – May 2020. The review focused on primary sources describing and evaluating the functional impact of the SARS, MERS and Covid-19 coronavirus pandemics, published since January 2000 in peer reviewed journal articles. All included sources were evaluated for quality, and the International Classification of Function provided a theoretical structure for synthesizing the available evidence.Results: A total of 65 sources met the inclusion criteria for this review. The majority (n=42, 61.6%) were related to the SARS pandemic, and originated from Asia for North America. Almost half of the reviewed sources (n=32, 49.2%) investigated the impact of coronavirus pandemics on the community, with smaller evidence bases related to people with coronaviruses and their families (n=19, 29.2%) and healthcare workers (n=17, 26.1%). Of the research sources available, the majority utilized descriptive quantitative methods via cross sectional data collection.The functional impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to spread far beyond infected patients, to influence the wellbeing of healthcare workers and the entire community in both positive and negative ways. The findings of this review indicate that health services must engage with the inter-sectionality of pandemic experiences, collaborate with other sectors as part of society-wide responses and prioritize function as a key outcome.Conclusions:Based on the experience of past coronavirus pandemics, and the experience to date of the current Covid-19 outbreak, every health service in all health systems must be prepared to prevent and manage the functional impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, possibly for decades to come. This review highlights the multitude of avenues available for health service prioritization and planning, and emphasized that a multi-dimensional, multi-service (and ideally multi-systems) approach is needed.

COVID Impact on Functional Status of Hospitalized Patients

“…[18] Together the physical and functional impacts lead to COVID-19 patients being weak, having fever, suffering from anxiety and depression, not just this they had joint pain, muscle pain, sore throat, nasal congestion, headache, loss of smell and taste and diarrhoea. [19] Less common physical symptoms include discoloration of toes or fingers while the serious physical and functional symptoms include chest pain or pressure, difficulty breathing, loss of speech and movement. [8] The main motive of our study was to assess the functional impacts of the patients infected with COVID-19 admitted in the hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpin-According to the FSS-ICU scale, 6.0% of the participants were completely reliant on their caregivers/ nurses, 9.8% required maximum assistance, 17.5% required moderate assistance, 14.8% required minimal assistance, 13.1% required supervision to complete their tasks, and 15.3% required assistance (Table 2).…”

Possible association of urinary incontinence with post-COVID-19: a report of three cases

“…The pandemic and post-pandemic periods have substantiated how consequential adequate therapy can be for the physical and mental impairment of the patients, especially the individuals affected by the possible long-term adverse effects of the acute form of the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Consequently, emphasis should be placed on more holistic and multidisciplinary methodologies for the collation of information to ameliorate the diagnoses of the adverse effects associated with the disease [8,9]. Muscle weakness is one of the more notable symptoms, which is exhibited in the acute form of COVID-19 that compromises the respiratory musculature [10,11].…”

Hope During COVID-19 Lockdown

“…Beckman observed that the inability to continue daily routines and practice usual habits and work activities often leads to low levels of energy, chaos, and emotional exhaustion [ 18 ]. As might be expected, many of the reports in the literature emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic in general focus on negative effects, such as despair, helplessness, and hopelessness and apply various tools and questionnaires to measure these negative effects [ 3 , 19 ]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that specifically explored the association of COVID-19 lockdown with hope.…”