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Introduction: End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) has increased in prevalence worldwide, becoming a major public health problem. About 80% of ESRD patients have subjective complaints of poor sleep.Poor sleep quality can potentially affect their quality of life and the pattern of medication use. Hence this study was designed to evaluate the quality of sleep in patients undergoing haemodialysis and to determine associated risk factors. Method: This cross sectional study was carried out among 110 ESRD patients in the dialysis unit of Kanyakumari hospital. Patients previously diagnosed with neuropsychiatric disorders, sleep apnoea or epilepsy were excluded. An investigator-administered structured questionnaire was used. Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index. A global PSQI score of more than 5 indicates poor sleep quality. Results: Mean age of ESRD patients was 52.7 years. About 71% of the patients were males. Majority of the patients (68.2%) had pre-existing Diabetes and Hypertension. Almost all of the patients (97.3%) had a PSQI score of more than 5 and were ‘poor sleepers’. About 94.7% patients had not used sleep medications at all. Increasing age and multiple morbidity were found to be statistically significant risk factors of poor sleep quality. Conclusion: Almost all of our subjects had poor sleep quality sleep and only few of them sought treatment for the same. Early detection of poor sleep quality will help in better management of sleep disorders among ESRD patients.

Introduction: The novel Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) affected India, predominantly in two time periods – the first wave from March to December 2020, and the second wave began from April 2021 to July 2021. Although the time duration of second wave was shorter than the first, the onslaught of the disease was much more severe during the second wave. Methodology: Demographic, duration of hospitalization, ICU admission, and mortality data of 482 RT-PCR positive COVID-19 individuals were retrospectively analyzed in a teaching hospital in South India. The case file data were compared between the first and second wave. Results: The median age of hospitalisation was 46.2 years and 48.39 years during first and second wave respectively, with male preponderance in second wave. During the second wave, statistically significant difference was found in mean duration of stay (9.04 vs 7.53), mean Spo2 at admission (98.4 vs 96.65), NIV requirement (1.5% vs 8.7%), oxygen requirement(7.4 % vs 13.9%), ICU care, Remedesevir, steroids and enoxaparin. Conclusion: During the second covid wave, significantly higher hospitalisation, intensive care requirements and inpatient mortality was observed. Diabetes and other comorbid conditions had elevated CRP, lymphocytopenia were associated with higher severity and poor outcomes in both waves.