Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Workers in Africa, Associated Factors and Coping Mechanisms: A Systematic Review

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health problem that has caused harm to the mental health of healthcare workers. In Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic has led healthcare workers to experience mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia and burnout. This study aimed to review published studies on the effect of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare workers, associated factors and coping strategies that have been employed in Africa. Methods: This was a systematic review that was conducted through searching databases including;PubMed/Medline and Google Scholar. The study included published literature from January 2020 to May 2022 that met the inclusion criteria. The selection of articles was conducted following the 2020 PRISMA guidelines. Results: A total of 39 articles were retrieved, of which only 18 met the inclusion criteria and were used in this study. Our review revealed that healthcare workers experienced mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, stress and burnout that were associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Coping strategies such as religious practices, support from family members and colleagues and avoiding listening to social media about COVID-19 were used to minimize mental health problems. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused increased mental health disorders among healthcare workers in Africa. Identification of factors associated with mental health problems is cardinal in developing coping mechanisms against the psychological impact of COVID-19. Therefore, there is a need for governments to develop and implement strategies for protecting the mental health of healthcare workers during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Experiences of implementing a coping mechanism for the elderly who face chronic diseases while living with the family: a phenomenology study

Objective: Physical and psychological stress causes harm to the health status of the elderly with chronic diseases. This study aimed to understand coping mechanisms of the elderly with chronic conditions who live with their family. Methods: This study was conducted using a descriptive phenomenology method from the experience of 13 older adults with chronic disease. The study processes were interviewed, tape recorded, transcribed, and explored from the transcripts using Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method. The steps of the descriptive phenomenology process are bracketing, intuiting, analyzing, and describing. Results: The coping mechanisms used by the elderly with chronic diseases are (1) the behavioral focus coping ways by doing sports, and physical activities;(2) Focus on spirituality has been implemented by fasting, chanting, dhikr, and prayer;(3) The cognitive focus by working on hobbies or habitual activities and helping each other;(4) The social interaction focus was by interacting with friends, family, and neighbors. Conclusions: This shows that elderly adults with disease conditions try to adapt various forms of coping mechanisms, which positively affects their psychological state. Families which have elderly with chronic diseases are expected to provide nurturing and psychological support to them so that the elderly can consistently apply coping mechanisms to overcome and tackle chronic diseases. Understanding the coping mechanism implementation of the elderly who have chronic diseases by their family can guide health specialists in designing psychological and spiritual approach interventions.

Stressors and coping mechanisms of people with mental disorders in the community

Background:People with mental disorders often experience human rights violations,discrimination,exclusion,and stigma.Objective:To determine the stressors and coping mechanisms of people with mental disorders in society.Methods:This research is a qualitative phenomenological research.We wanted to explore and describe the experiences of mentally ill patients in the community at the rehabilitation stage in stress management,including the stressors in people with a mental health condition and the coping mechanisms used.Data collection was carried out using in-depth interviews with 15 participants.Results:The results of this study show that the stressors of mental illness patients are a less-accepting environment,feeling of shame,fear of being excluded,having no income,and side effects of drugs.Conclusions:The coping mechanisms used include carrying out activities,telling stories to others,and diverting emotions.

Anti-Asian Racism in the Shadow of COVID-19 in the USA:Reported Incidents,Psychological Implications,and Coping Resources

Racism,which has been a deeply rooted feature of so many human societies across the world for centuries,has become rampant in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.In the past racism was thought to be as somehow“natural”or“biological.”Later on,sociologists recognized“race”as a socially and culturally constructed ideology,which exists in a society at both the individual and institutional levels.Further down the timeline,psychologists viewed racism as an individual or a collective psychological defensive mechanism generated by feelings of fear,insecurity,and anxiety in the face of imminent or presumed internal or external threat.No matter how it is described,racism has become rampant in the shadow of COVID-19,manifested in the incidents of racial slurs and verbal abuse,online bullying,physical attacks,vandalism,and others.It took the forms of white supremacy,xenophobia,Sinophobia,and institutional and aversive racism.It was institutionalized,politicized,and religionized.Given this increasing occurrence of racism triggered by COVID-19,this paper tried to trace the historical roots of racism,followed by the analysis of the specific incidents of anti-Asian racism and discrimination related to COVID-19 in the United States.This paper also sketched the psychological implications of racism and some coping mechanisms for the victims.

Investigating Women’s Realization on Understanding the Impact of Climate Variability in Socioeconomic Performance in Zanzibar, Tanzania: A Case of Jambiani Village

The study employed the triangulation approach to investigate the impact of climate variability on selected socioeconomic indicators, particularly food production, health and education, and how much climate variability and its impact on those indicators was realized and understood among the women living in Jambiani community in Zanzibar. The study used the explanatory, sequential mixed method to collect, datasets related to Jambiani communities (i.e. from the women in Kibigija village), other climate data acquired from Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA), Ministries of Agriculture and Health and Southern District in Zanzibar. The results obtained from the analysis of both anecdotal (interview, questionnaire among others) data shows that climate variability was imminent in Jambiani communities between 2010 and 2015 and had a negative impact on food production, health and education. Further results revealed that women working in informal sectors are more vulnerable to climate impacts than women working in formal sectors due to less knowledge and techniques to mitigate/cope with climate variability impacts. Conclusively the study has shown that climate variability affects more women with less awareness of what is happening and how to cope with it, thus the study calls for new research work and increasing the awareness on the impacts of climate on human basic needs.

A Loaded Label:Intricacies of Being a Fan in Henrik and Sara Linden's Fans and Fan Cultures

In Fans and Fan Cultures,Henrik and Sara Linden examine what it means to be a fan in an increasingly globalized,digitized,and capitalized world.In an age when personal information is easily searchable in the Internet era,people can now become fans immediately with the click of a"like,""follow,"or"subscribe"button.The ideal fan is not an obsessive fanatic who claims ownership of the product,but rather one who is balanced and has a following of their own,thus making them not only a fan,but also an influencer and a brand advocate.As worldwide media is largely controlled by an exclusive number of corporations that determine what kind of media we consume,fandom and fan communities offer a compromise:Though corporations and brands shape and control the majority of media content,fandom serves as an opportunity for people with shared interests to come together,forge connections,and find a sense of value and belonging that exists outside the mundane.My analysis will concentrate on a selection of Linden and Linden's topics and explore how fandom has become a manifestation of the need for authentic,meaningful connections in a time when technological development effectively renders authenticity as a bargaining chip in a much larger marketing ploy.

Can Strategies to Cope with Hazard Shocks be Explained by At-Risk Households' Socioeconomic Asset Profile? Evidence from Tropical Cyclon-Prone Coastal Bangladesh

This article documents the results of an empirical investigation on the complex interplay between diverse coping mechanisms and the socioeconomic asset profiles of coastal households at risk. Focusing on household-level perceptions and responses to cyclone hazards, a case study was carried out in a poor area in Bangladesh that is prone to natural hazards. We developed and tested our own analytical models based on the asset approach. We conducted a face-to-face household survey in southwestern coastal Bangladesh, in the Koyra sub-district, in late 2009.We asked 360 households affected by the May 2009 tropical Cyclone Aila about their hazard perceptions, preparedness, coping practices, and socioeconomic assets. The results suggest that the majority of households at risk perceive an increasing trend of different climate hazards,with a distinct dominance of tropical cyclones, storm surges, and flash floods in the study area, which resulted in a yearly average economic damage of USD 144 for each household in the first year after Aila. However, such damage is significantly and inversely correlated with the number of adopted coping practices. Significant and systematic differences exist between upstream and downstream households in the study area with respect to hazard perception, hazard induced damages, asset accessibility,and adopted diversified coping practices. The empirical findings suggest that the degree of adoption of coping practices depends primarily on elements of socioeconomic asset profile and the duration of the consequences of cyclone hazards. Disaster preparedness training seems to improve at-risk households' degree of information access and eventually leads them to adopt more coping practices to reduce adverse impacts of climate hazards. Area-specific practical modules on coping practices should be incorporated in curricula of disaster preparedness training to make people at risk more resilient to hazard shocks.

Network Coding-Aware Routing Protocol in Wireless Mesh Networks

Network coding mechanisms, such as COPE, can improve network throughput effectively in Wireless Mesh Networks（WMN）. While the Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol（HWMP） is suitable for WMN, its extension with COPE does not provide any added benefits; specifically, HWMP cannot establish paths with more coding opportunities. As a result, the advantages of network coding cannot be exploited sufficiently. This paper proposes improvements upon HWMP with a new, network Coding-Aware routing protocol（CAHWMP） for WMN. In the CAHWMP protocol, we propose a coding criterion based on data streams to devise an algorithm for actively detecting coding opportunities during path discovery. CAHWMP subsequently establishes paths using the codingaware routing metric, which can balance channel resource consumption and the gain due to sharing resources introduced by network coding. Simulation results show that CAHWMP can establish paths with more coding opportunities; as a result, it improves network performance such as network throughput.