Comparison of the incidence of covid-19 caregivers in the intensive care unit with the incidence of covid-19 caregivers in general wards: a descriptive cross-sectional study

Title: Comparison of the incidence of covid-19 caregivers in the intensive care unit with the incidence of covid-19 caregivers in general wards: a descriptive cross-sectional study

Caregivers of corona patients in ICU wards and medical wards are at the forefront of treatment and care of corona patients who are exposed to infection with covid-19, differently based on the condition of corona patients in ICU wards and medical wards. This study was designed to compare the incidence of ICU wards caregivers with the incidence of medical wards caregivers.

In this study, 198 caregivers of corona patients including caregivers of corona patients working in medical wards and ICU wards from the three hospitals were studied. The study included demographic information, caregivers 'underlying diseases, clinical symptoms, hospitalization and caregivers' treatment after coronary heart disease. All this information was collected in the form of a checklist of these caregivers and finally the results of this study were analyzed using SPSS software version 22.
 

. The results of the study showed that 120 caregivers of patients with covid 19 were employed in the intensive care unit and 78 patients were employed in the  internal ward. 15 (19.2%)   of medical wards caregivers and 38 (31.7%)   of   ICU wards caregivers were hospitalized due to severity of infection, that was significant (Pvalue = 0.037). The mean age of participants in this study was 34.6 years. Six of the ICU patients and 3 of the internally employed patients had diabetes. Twenty-five ICU ward staff and nine internal wards were smokers. In terms of clinical symptoms, caregivers of ICU wards were significantly more likely than those with medical wards to have symptoms of fever (Pvalue = 0.001), shortness of breath (Pvalue = 0.013), weakness and lethargy (Pvalue = 0.000), and weight loss (0.001) = Pvalue).

According to the results of this study, caregivers of ICU wards were more exposed to the more severe type of coronavirus infection than caregivers of the medical ward, and continues training is needed on how to prevent coronavirus infection. Specialized personal protective devices and equipment should also be provided to ICU and medical wards caregivers so that they can better protect themselves against the coronavirus.