Indoor Environmental Quality in Dwellings and Lifestyle Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Russian Perspective.

Vladimir Reshetnikov,Valery Royuk,Elena Belova,Ali Alsaegh,Irina Yakushina,Victor Mikhailovsky,Maria Mikerova,Oleg Mitrokhin

doi:10.3390/ijerph18115975

Vladimir Reshetnikov, Valery Royuk + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115975

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Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern, and as a response, public health authorities started enforcing preventive measures like self-isolation and social distancing. The enforcement of isolation has consequences that may affect the lifestyle-related behavior of the general population. Quarantine encompasses a range of strategies that can be used to detain, isolate, or conditionally release individuals or populations infected or exposed to contagious diseases and should be tailored to circumstances. Interestingly, medical students may represent an example of how the COVID-19 pandemic can form new habits and change lifestyle behaviors. We conducted a web-based survey to assess changes in lifestyle-related behavior of self-isolated medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then we analyzed the sanitary-hygienic regulations of the Russian Federation to determine the requirements for healthy buildings. Results showed that during the pandemic, the enforcement of isolation affects medical students’ lifestyle-related behavior and accompanies an increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and healthy buildings are cutting-edge factors in preventing COVID-19 and NCDs. The Russian sanitary-hygienic regulations support improving this factor with suitable requirements for ventilation, sewage, waste management, and disinfection. Herein, assessing isolation is possible through the hygienic self-isolation index.

Highlights

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Lifestyles can be affected by many factors, which include public health measures such as quarantine and isolation
There was no significant differences in the body mass index (BMI) before and after the enforcement of isolation

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2008), lifestyles are essential determinants of health, and the latest studies confirmed this. Lifestyles can be affected by many factors, which include public health measures such as quarantine and isolation. Those measures can affect the social ties and the lifestyle habits of the general population. Many scientific reports proved the effectiveness of these measures in containing outbreaks [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

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