Experiences of COVID-19 Recovered Patients – A Qualitative Case Study from a Hotspot in Saudi Arabia

  1. Abdulrahman Alhajjaji
  2. Ahmad Kurdi
  3. Sultan Faqeh
  4. Safwan Alansari
  5. Akrm Abdulaziz
  6. Moayad Allihyani
  7. Omar Almaghamsi
  8. Ejaz Cheema
  9. Majid Ali

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Abstract

Background

COVID-19 is highly contagious and can have fatal outcomes in the elderly and those with comorbidities. Social distancing is highly recommended by the World Health Organization to prevent the spread of the disease. However, it is difficult to maintain social distancing in highly populated areas where people live in close proximity. Such high-risk areas have the potential to become hotspots for the disease spread, should one person therein contract the disease. Nakkasah is one such area in the Makkah city of Saudi Arabia which has been a hotspot in this pandemic. This study aims to qualitatively explore the experiences of COVID-19 recovered patients residing in this area.

Methods

We employed semi-structured face-to-face interviews with people living in Nakkasah, above 18 years of age, and recovered from COVID-19. An interview guide was developed, validated, piloted, and minor changes were made. Two trained students conducted the interviews in the Arabic language in a semi-private area of the community center. The interviews were audio-recorded, with informed consent from interviewees, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analyzed later.

Results

Eleven eligible COVID-19 recovered people (two female and nine male) agreed to be interviewed, and their verbal informed consent was audio recorded. The mean interview time was 24 minutes. Thematic analysis generated 30 subthemes, which were categorized into seven overarching themes: information about COVID-19; life during COVID-19 illness; spreading of COVID-19; precautionary measures; interventions that helped in recovery; impact of COVID-19 on life; support received during COVID-19 illness.

Conclusion

Experiences of people from the hotspot who had recovered from COVID-19 highlighted how life had been like in the hotspot under lockdown especially with having been afflicted with the infection, factors that facilitated their recovery, and the way their lives were and have been affected due to COVID-19.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.01.21252508: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIACUC: This study was approved by the biomedical ethical committee of Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA.
    Consent: Informed consent was taken from each participant prior to the interview.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    This study had some limitations. One of the limitations was the translation from one language to the other at various stages of the study which could have affected the core meaning and expression. Firstly, the interview guide was prepared in the English language as the study supervisors were English-speaking. The research students, who were native Arabic speakers, then translated the interview guide into the Arabic language in which the interviews were conducted. Some participants could not speak the Arabic language and, therefore, the official translator had to be utilized for communicating with those participants. The interview transcripts were in the Arabic language, which we decided not to translate into the English language to maintain the true essence and expression of the language to some extent. However, the codes, subthemes and themes were developed in the English language to be reviewed with the supervisors. Only the relevant quotes from the interview transcripts, presented in the results section, were translated into the English language.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.03.01.21252508v1 on medRxiv