Abstract

ONLINE SURVEY ON IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON DIABETES AND BLOOD PRESSURE PATIENTS

Y. S. Thorat, Ganesh S. Mali and Revati D. Mengshetti*

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has quickly spread, infecting and claiming the lives of many as healthcare Professionals around the globe work tirelessly to treat patients who became infected. COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-Cov-2). It was first identifies in Wuhan, China in 2019 and rapidly spread across the world such that it was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. Since then, it has infected more than 5 million people in the United States, and the death roll continues to rise more than 219,000 at the time of publication. It is known that the older adults and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. The management of Diabetes and blood pressure has become a challenge due to the COVID-19 lockdown. An online based survey was conducted to study how people with Diabetes and BP were coping with their Diabetes and Hypertension during the COVID-19 lockdown. The questions were designed in an online survey to conduct this cross sectional study. The link was generated and sent to peoples and it was done between 31 January toapril2 2021. The questionnaire consisted of questions on home blood glucose monitoring, regularity in doing their physical activity and dietary compliance and anxiety about the viral infection. Most of the people surveyed coping well with their Diabetes and BP. Patients have reported that they are able to maintain proper dietary compliance and be more physically active at home during lockdown.

Keywords: COVID-19, Diabetes, China, Hypertension, Pandemic.