Role of repeating quarantine instructions and healthy practices on COVID‐19 patients and contacted persons to raise their awareness and adherence to quarantine instructions

Elgendy, Marwa O.; Abdelrahman, Mona A.; Osama, Hasnaa; El‐Gendy, Ahmed O.; Abdelrahim, Mohamed E. A.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop a model evaluating the role of repeating quarantine instructions and healthy practices among COVID‐19 patients and contact persons at‐home quarantine and to evaluate the instructions' adequacy in decreasing the rate of disease spread with better clinical outcomes. METHODS: A structured questionnaire was distributed to COVID‐19 patients (mild and moderate cases isolated at home) and contacting persons during May and June 2020. Data were collected using a structured online survey collected every five days for three times from each participant. The questionnaire was divided into three sections, consisting of 35 questions for a total possible score of 0 to 35. RESULTS: A total of 150 valid participant's responses out of 304 participants were obtained. Among the150 total participants, 88 were infected with COVID‐19, and 62 were contacting with COVID‐19 patients. The improvement in the score of awareness and adherence to instructions for the infected patients and their contacts was significantly high in the third questionnaire than in the second and the first questionnaire. The people who live in cities followed the instructions provided at the home quarantine better than those who live in the country. The city patients improved in symptoms better than the country patients. Also, patients followed the instructions better than their contacts. City females adhered to the instructions better than city males. Young people had high awareness score than older people. City people are committed to taking both immune boosters supplements as prophylaxis or prescribed medications on time for treatment more than country people. CONCLUSION: This study offers useful insights into factors associated with the role of repeating quarantine instructions and healthy practices to overcome the COVID‐19 pandemic. So, repeating the instructions is important to increase adherence to the instructions, decrease the rate of disease progression and decrease the spread of the infection.