Does Social Distancing During The Lock Down Due To Covid-19 Outbreak In Mumbai Affect Quality Of Life?

Abstract

Background – Social distancing leads to decrease in the spread of the novel virus but at the same time it shows to have a negative effect on the quality of life of the general population.
 Methodology - A cross-sectional survey study was conducted using an electronic version of WHOQOL-BREF scale. The demographic data was collected along with the 26 questions of the scale. We distributed this survey to the general population through electronic and social media.
 Results – We received 861 responses. Excluding the incomplete responses, we analyzed 832 responses. They had a mean age of 48.33yrs, majority being graduates (56.4%), majority of the subjects were males (59.25%), and there was no significant age difference between both the genders. The overall quality of life was perceived to be 3.48 and the satisfaction for health was 3.77. Most affected domains were the physical and psychological domains. Lowest quality of life responses were noted for questions pertaining to financial, transportation and sleep related. 
 Conclusion- The quality of life in lock downs due to corona virus is affected due to social distancing. Law makers need to take care to avoid increasing this negative impact while enforcing lock downs.

The impact of COVID-19 on rheumatology patients in a large UK centre using an innovative data collection technique: prevalence and effect of social shielding

“…Patients who had suffered COVID-19 were found to have significantly worse mental health score, while physical health scores were similar in COVID and non-COVID groups. In contrast, patients 'shielding' with RD had both lower physical and mental health scores (Table 2), while association does not prove causation these results, in keeping with other studies, suggests that shielding may have adverse effects on mental health [18], as well as negatively impacting patients RD symptom profile [19]. These differences were not seen in other proxy-markers of RD disease severity, such as biologic therapy (Table 2) and a large proportion of our questionnaire responses (46.8%) were from 'high risk' patients.…”

COVID-19 prevalence and the impact on quality of life from stringent social distancing in a single large UK rheumatology centre

“…Importantly, however, there was adverse effect on both MCS and PCS reported by patients undergoing shielding when compared with those not, a finding reflecting early work from India. 6 Quality-of-life scores were not affected by use of biologic as opposed to non-biological DMARD, suggesting this was not simply a reflection of disease severity. Patients are likely to require increased mental and physical support as a result of the COVID pandemic, and further work on the role of therapy efficacy and impact of shielding is needed to support the important registry work presented by Gianfrancesco et al 1 to guide future policy.…”

The COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis of lockdowns in Nigeria: The household food security perspective

“…While quarantine is aimed at persons who have come in contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19 or persons who have travelled to or returned from places with a high incidence of COVID-19. Hitav et al (2020) similarly shared the view that quarantine is aimed at separation and isolation of individuals who have been in close contact with a positively tested patient. Lockdown is a measure that closes the entire country except essential services such as healthcare service, pharmaceutical service and security services, amongst others.…”

“…Similarly, Mishra et al (2020) found that the lockdown in India assisted in flattening the COVID-19 curve, bidding more time for healthcare preparedness, weaving optimism around changing weather conditions and developing a (questionable) herd immunity leveraging their demographic structure as a young population. Conversely, Hitav et al (2020) revealed that lockdown has subjected Indians to boredom, loss of income, loss of employment and certain rumours related to the condition.…”