Abstracts by keywords: lockdown
The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has been spreading worldwide since it was first discovered at the end of 2019. In Germany, too, the virus and the associated respiratory disease Covid-19 pose major challenges for society as a whole and for individual citizens. In dealing with the crisis, politicians have taken far-reaching measures, which are primarily aimed at containing the epidemic, protecting vulnerable population groups and targetedly increasing or maintaining capacities in health care. These measures include in particular those that serve to limit contacts and thus the possibility of the virus spreading and lead to a lockdown of varying degrees of severity. During the lockdown, numerous public and private facilities, such as schools or care facilities, are temporarily or partially closed. In addition, employers and employees are encouraged to work from home. The measures mentioned reduce the possibility of spread and lead to falling incidence rates. However, they also have potential side effects on people's health and health behaviors. As a result, for example, both adults (Munk et al., 2020; Salari et al., 2020) and children and adolescents (Schlack et al., 2020) appear to have increased anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Data from the GEDA 2019/2020 EHIS study (collection period between April 2019 and September 2020) in Germany indicate an increase for body weight and body mass index, while there is an overall decrease in tobacco consumption (Damerow et al., 2020), suggesting multidirectional developments in health behavior. In general, there are signs of an increase in social inequalities with regard to the development of health behavior (Jordan et al., 2020).
30.03.2021
In February 2020, the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) evolved into a pandemic, with the number of Covid-19 cases increasing dramatically in many countries [1,2]. Television and newspapers reported daily on the spread of the pandemic and quickly triggered fears of an impending economic crisis and recession among the population [3]. As early as February 2020, numerous reports appeared on the Internet stating that the spread of Covid-19 was affecting the global supply of medicines as many of the medicines used worldwide are manufactured in China and India, where production has come to a standstill due to disease outbreaks [4]. The German Minister of Health feared that the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to drug shortages in Europe, although there was no concrete evidence of short-term supply shortages [5]. Reports have been published in various countries that shelf-stable foods such as flour, pasta and canned goods were quickly selling out, leading to shortages [3]. At the same time, pharmacies reported bottlenecks in the antipyretic painkiller paracetamol due to the strong demand during the corona pandemic. The demand for over-the-counter vitamin preparations was also significantly higher than usual in March [6]. So far, no studies have been published on pharmacy sales of various medicines used to treat acute and chronic diseases during the pandemic. It can be assumed that patients will buy larger quantities of medication and request more prescriptions if they fear longer quarantines. The aim of this study was to examine the development of drug purchases during the corona crisis.