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The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Elderly Type 2 Diabetes Patient Care in the Rural Areas: a Cross-sectional Study in the West of Iran

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a decrease in visits by diabetic patients to medical centers due to the fear of infection. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the pandemic on the elderly type 2 diabetes patients care in the rural areas of Nahavand County. A cross-sectional study was conducted to gather information on the care and treatment of 321 elderly diabetic patients in rural areas of Nahavand, before and during the COVID-19 epidemic, using a researcher-made questionnaire. The mean age of the patients was 67 ± 3.35 years. 58.3% were female, and 69.5% were illiterate. The number of periodic lab tests, the number of physician’s visits, the number of Behvarz care, the number of HbA1c measurements, and eye and kidney health checks during the COVID-19 epidemic were significantly reduced compared to before the epidemic (P < 0.001). Furthermore, the FBS and HbA1c control status during the epidemic period were significantly reduced compared to before the epidemic (P < 0.001). The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced the quantity of care for elderly diabetic patients. Therefore, it is necessary to plan for the provision of prevention and treatment services for these patients during epidemics.

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Data Availability

The data regarding this work is available in the Stata format and can be provided by the corresponding author upon request

Code Availability

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

HbA1c:

hemoglobin A1c

COVID-19:

Coronavirus Disease 2019

FBS:

fasting blood sugar

SARS-CoV-2:

severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

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Acknowledgements

This article is a part of the thesis of the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in the elderly (project code 1401011674 and ethics code IR.UMSHA.REC.1400.914). The authors of the article consider it necessary to express their gratitude for the financial support of the Vice-Chancellor of Research and Technology from Hamadan University of Medical Sciences.

Funding

Vice-Chancellor of Research and Technology from Hamadan University of Medical Sciences financially supported this work (project code 1401011674).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Internal Department, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

    Shiva Borzouei

  2. Student Research Committee, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

    Manoochehr Solgi

  3. Research Center for Health Sciences, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

    Salman Khazaei

Authors
  1. Shiva Borzouei
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  2. Manoochehr Solgi
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  3. Salman Khazaei
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Contributions

Conceptualization: SK, SHB; methodology: SK, MS; investigation: SK, MS; writing — original draft: SK, MS, SHB; writing — review and editing: SK, MS. SHB; supervision: SK.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Salman Khazaei.

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Ethics Approval

The ethics committee of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences approved the study (Ethics code: IR.UMSHA.REC.1400.914)

Consent to Participate

Verbal consent was obtained from the patients to participate to the study

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Not applicable.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Borzouei, S., Solgi, M. & Khazaei, S. The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Elderly Type 2 Diabetes Patient Care in the Rural Areas: a Cross-sectional Study in the West of Iran. SN Compr. Clin. Med. 5, 170 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399-023-01513-0

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