Yueming Xu

Anhui Medical University, China

Abstract Title: Non-pharmacological home care dominates in covid-19 recovery: A propensity-matched analysis of self-care efficacy

Biography:

Yueming Xu is currently a second-year Master's degree candidate in Nursing at the School of Nursing, Anhui Medical University, China. Her research focuses on maternal and child health and nutritional nursing. During her academic tenure, she has published one paper as the first author in a Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD) core journal. Additionally, she has co-authored one paper in a CSCD core journal and two papers indexed by the Science Citation Index (SCI), contributing to advancements in her field of study.

Research Interest:

Background: Home self-care has become a cornerstone of health system resilience during infectious disease outbreaks, especially for mild to moderate respiratory infections. However, the effectiveness of different home-based self-care needs to be further explored.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey (October 2022 to February 2023) recruited 2,119 COVID-19 patients undergoing home isolation. Participants self-reported care interventions (pharmacological/non-pharmacological) via an online questionnaire. Chi-square tests were used to analyze the relationship between different care interventions and recovery outcomes. To further explore the efficacy of pharmacological care for influenza, propensity score matching was used to analyze the course of the fever and prognosis of patients with or without antipyretics.

Results: A total of 2119 patients were included, of which 1084 patients chose medication care (51.15%), 859 hot compresses (40.54%), 275 cold compresses (12.98%), 1331 had sufficient sleep (62.81%), 1107 had sufficient water intake (52.24%), and 784 lived in a suitable environment (37.00%). The chi-square test showed that adequate sleep (P < 0.001) and adequate hydration (P = 0.003) were effective in reducing recovery time. To further analyze the efficacy of medication care, 1740 patients were successfully matched in a 1:1 ratio. The results showed that the group taking antipyretics had a higher maximum post-infection temperature (P < 0.001), longer duration of fever (P < 0.001), greater likelihood of recurrent fever (P < 0.001), more post-febrile malaise, more diagnoses of pneumonia (P = 0.017), more hospitalizations (P = 0.006), more admissions to the intensive care unit (P < 0.001), and longer course of the fever (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Home care measures of adequate sleep and sufficient water intake were effective in Chinese patients with mild to moderate infections during the COVID-19 period, but the effectiveness of pharmacological care needs to be further explored.

Keywords: Home-based care; Influenza management; Non-pharmacological interventions; Pharmacological intervention; Propensity score matching.