Search

INTRODUCTION Research suggests that racial minorities are overrepresented in the number of COVID-19 related deaths compared to people of White origin. This is the first study to assess racial differences in the clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 positive patients, hospitalized in Greece. METHODS This retrospective, cross-sectional study included 628 COVID-19 hospitalized patients, from 10 September to 31 December 2020. We compared data concerning gender, age, comorbidities and outcome, between patients of European and non-European origin. Moreover, we applied logistic regression in which the outcome, in our case in-hospital death, was assessed with race, age, sex, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score. RESULTS In the first and unadjusted race-only logistic regression model, non- Europeans (OR=0.057; 95% CI: 0.008-0.411, p=0.005) were less likely than European patients to die in the hospital. However, controlling for sex, age and CCI score resulted in non-significant differences. CONCLUSIONS There are a lot of statistically significant differences between European and non-European COVID-19 hospitalized patients regarding their clinical characteristics, with the second presenting a lower hospital mortality rate, but after adjusting for age, sex and CCI score, race seems to be not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a mental health crisis. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of depression in medical students in Greece during a nationwide lockdown. The secondary aims were to assess the association of depression with socio-demographic factors and students' attitudes regarding the quality of their studies. The data was gathered anonymously through a self-administered online questionnaire between January 11 and 27, 2021. The CES-D scale was used to measure depression rates. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify factors independently associated with depression. Analyses were conducted using Stata version 16.0 and the IBM® SPSS® software. In total, 978 sixth- and fifth-year medical students participated; their mean age was 23.2 years and 65.6% were females. The prevalence of clinical depression was 21.3% (95% CI: 18.7%, 24.0%), whereas 17.9% (95% CI: 15.5%, 20.4%) experienced severe distress. Depression was more prevalent in females (25.4% vs 13.1% in males, p<0.001). Approximately half (53.4%) of the participants reported a change in plans regarding their medical career due to the pandemic and 16.9% expressed a decreased willingness to practice medicine. Factors independently associated with depression were female gender, living alone or with housemates at high risk for COVID-19, being anxious about becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, studying in one of the three largest medical schools, negatively evaluating the adjustment of the teaching personnel to online teaching and the university's response to the pandemic. The findings of this study report depression in one out of five medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need to protect the most vulnerable medical students during a pandemic. Medical students must be able to seek professional mental health services, even in the era of a pandemic. Universities should increase accessibility to support services and provide a student-centered approach in their strategies, as the pandemic has placed a spotlight on an existing phenomenon.