Carlos Alberto Delgado

Background: During the pandemic in Peru, the COVIDA (Collaboration Network of Volunteer Brigade Members for the Investigation, Detection, and Primary Management of Community Cases Affected by COVID-19) project proposed an innovative way to provide telemonitoring and teleorientation to COVID-19 patients, led by health care student volunteers. However, it has not been described how this interaction is perceived from the patient’s perspective and which factors increase their engagement with this service. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the perceptions of patients about COVIDA and identify factors associated with their engagement with this service. Methods: A mixed methods study was conducted to evaluate perceptions of patients that participated in the COVIDA project. This telehealth intervention organized by the National University of San Marcos was implemented in Peru from August to December 2020. The service involved daily phone calls by volunteer students to monitor registered COVID-19 patients until the completion of the 14th day of the illness or if a warning sign was identified. The volunteers also provided teleorientation to address the patients’ needs and concerns. Quantitative analysis was performed to describe the characteristics of the patients and to assess the factors related to their engagement with the service, which was defined by the percentage of participants who completed the follow-up according to their individual schedule. Qualitative analysis through semistructured interviews evaluated the patients’ perceptions of the service regarding the aspects of communication, interaction, and technology. Results: Of the 770 patients enrolled in COVIDA, 422 (55.7%) were female; the median age was 39 (IQR 28-52) years. During the monitoring, 380 patients (49.4%) developed symptoms, and 471 (61.2%) showed warning signs of COVID-19. The overall median for engagement was 93% (IQR 35.7%-100%). Among those patients who did not develop warning signs, engagement was associated with the presence of symptoms (OR 3.04, 95% CI 2.22-4.17), a positive COVID-19 test at the start of follow-up (OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.48-2.61), and the presence of comorbidities (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.29-2.59). Patients reported that the volunteers provided clear and valuable information and emotional support. Communication via phone calls took place smoothly and without interruptions. Conclusions: COVIDA represents a well-accepted and well-perceived alternative model for student volunteers to provide telemonitoring, teleorientation, and emotional support to patients with COVID-19 in the context of overwhelmed demand for health care services. The deployment of this kind of intervention should be prioritized among patients with symptoms and comorbidities, as they show more engagement with these services.

Introducción: Es importante que el personal sanitario sepa usar correctamente la oxigenoterapia para evitar la retinopatía o afectar desfavorablemente la evolución de los recién nacidos prematuros. Objetivos: Determinar la asociación entre nivel de conocimiento del personal sanitario sobre oxigenoterapia y la incidencia de retinopatía de la prematuridad en unidades Neonatales de dos hospitales de la región Lima ­ Perú, durante el año 2021. Métodos: Estudio observacional analítico transversal. La muestra estuvo constituida por personal de salud de dos hospitales Peruanos de tercer nivel, ubicados en la región Lima. El conocimiento de oxigenoterapia fue evaluado a través de un cuestionario virtual usando REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), luego de consentimiento informado. La incidencia de retinopatía de la prematuridad, fue calculada a través con datos de las historias clínicas. Se utilizó el programa STATA versión 17 para el análisis estadístico. Resultados: Participaron voluntariamente 51 profesionales sanitarios en los dos hospitales. Se observó un buen nivel de conocimiento en el 18 % de los encuestados en el primer hospital, y en el 45 % en el segundo hospital (p = 0,1067). La incidencia de retinopatía de la prematuridad en el primer hospital fue de 5,1 en comparación con el segundo hospital con 5,9 por cada 100 neonatos pretérmino (p = 0,754). Conclusiones: No existe asociación entre el bajo nivel de conocimiento actualizado sobre oxigenoterapia y una baja incidencia de retinopatía de la prematuridad en los dos hospitales estudiados.

BACKGROUND During the pandemic in Peru, the COVIDA (Collaboration Network of Volunteer Brigade Members for the Investigation, Detection, and Primary Management of Community Cases Affected by COVID-19) project proposed an innovative way to provide telemonitoring and teleorientation to COVID-19 patients, led by health care student volunteers. However, it has not been described how this interaction is perceived from the patient’s perspective and which factors increase their engagement with this service. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to describe the perceptions of patients about COVIDA and identify factors associated with their engagement with this service. METHODS A mixed methods study was conducted to evaluate perceptions of patients that participated in the COVIDA project. This telehealth intervention organized by the National University of San Marcos was implemented in Peru from August to December 2020. The service involved daily phone calls by volunteer students to monitor registered COVID-19 patients until the completion of the 14th day of the illness or if a warning sign was identified. The volunteers also provided teleorientation to address the patients’ needs and concerns. Quantitative analysis was performed to describe the characteristics of the patients and to assess the factors related to their engagement with the service, which was defined by the percentage of participants who completed the follow-up according to their individual schedule. Qualitative analysis through semistructured interviews evaluated the patients’ perceptions of the service regarding the aspects of communication, interaction, and technology. RESULTS Of the 770 patients enrolled in COVIDA, 422 (55.7%) were female; the median age was 39 (IQR 28-52) years. During the monitoring, 380 patients (49.4%) developed symptoms, and 471 (61.2%) showed warning signs of COVID-19. The overall median for engagement was 93% (IQR 35.7%-100%). Among those patients who did not develop warning signs, engagement was associated with the presence of symptoms (OR 3.04, 95% CI 2.22-4.17), a positive COVID-19 test at the start of follow-up (OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.48-2.61), and the presence of comorbidities (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.29-2.59). Patients reported that the volunteers provided clear and valuable information and emotional support. Communication via phone calls took place smoothly and without interruptions. CONCLUSIONS COVIDA represents a well-accepted and well-perceived alternative model for student volunteers to provide telemonitoring, teleorientation, and emotional support to patients with COVID-19 in the context of overwhelmed demand for health care services. The deployment of this kind of intervention should be prioritized among patients with symptoms and comorbidities, as they show more engagement with these services.

Background During the pandemic in Peru, the COVIDA project proposed an innovative way to provide telemonitoring and teleorientation to COVID-19 pandemics led by health student volunteers. However, it has not been described how this interaction is perceived from the user’s perspective. The aim of this study is to describe the adherence and perceptions of users about COVIDA. Methods A mixed-method study was conducted to evaluate the adherence and perceptions of COVIDA users. This telehealth intervention implemented in Peru from August to December 2020 involved daily phone-calls by volunteer students to monitor registered users for 14 days or until a warning sign was identified. The volunteers also provided teleorientation to address the users’ needs and concerns. Quantitative analysis described the characteristics of users and assessed the factors related to adherence to the service. Qualitative analysis trough semi-structured interviews evaluated the user’s perceptions about the service. Results Of the 778 users enrolled in COVIDA, 397 (54.7%) were female and had a mean age of 41 years (SD: 15.3). During the monitoring, 380 users (44.4%) developed symptoms, and 471 (55.5%) showed warning signs for COVID-19. The overall median of adherence was 93% (p25:36%, p75:100%). Among those users who did not develop warning symptoms, a high level of adherence (>66%) was seen predominantly in users that developed symptoms and those with a positive COVID-19 test (pConclusions COVIDA represented an affordable, well-accepted, and perceived alternative model for telemonitoring, teleorientation and emotional support from student volunteers to users with diseases such as COVID-19 in a context of overwhelmed demand for healthcare services.

Numerosos estudios evidencian alta prevalencia de enfermedades cardiovasculares y metabólicas en los adultos y adultos mayores, aunque su frecuencia se está incrementando en jóvenes. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo en estudiantes del primer año de medicina de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), con el objetivo de conocer los niveles de actividad física y los criterios para síndrome metabólico (SM). El estudio fue aceptado por un Comité de Ética de la Facultad de Medicina. El análisis estadístico fue realizado con Stata v6. El 56,7% de los estudiantes tiene 17-19 años, y 53,3% es del sexo femenino; el 56,7% tiene un ingreso familiar mensual per cápita mayor de 500 nuevos soles, y el 76,7% procede de Lima-urbana. El 83.4% tuvo actividad física limitada, siendo los componentes del SM más frecuentes: circunferencia abdominal elevada (36.7%) y bajos niveles de colesterol de alta densidad (23.3%). La única variable con asociación estadística con el SM (p=0,0389) fue la Circunferencia Abdominal-CA. El Índice de Masa Corporal-IMC es la única variable asociada con la CA (p=0,007). Pese al limitado tamaño de la muestra, los resultados indican limitada actividad física e importante riesgo cardiometabólico, en particular circunferencia abdominal elevada, por lo que son necesarios estudios en otras poblaciones universitarias, para incidir en las políticas de bienestar universitario con fines preventivos.