Use of complementary and alternative medicine in general population during COVID-19 outbreak: A survey in Iran / 中西医结合学报

OBJECTIVE@#Some epidemic diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have caused many physical, psychological, and social challenges, despite the existence of treatment strategies. Many people are looking for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to prevent such diseases. The present study was performed to determine how some types of CAM were being used during the COVID-19 epidemic in Iran.@*METHODS@#The present study had a cross-sectional descriptive correlational design. All Iranian residents above 17 years old were eligible to participate in the study. A total of 782 participants completed a demographic information questionnaire, a questionnaire about their use of CAMs and a questionnaire about their satisfaction with the CAMs they used. Web-based sampling was conducted from 20 April 2020 to 20 August 2020.@*RESULTS@#Of the participants, 84% used at least one type of CAM during the COVID-19 outbreak. The most used CAMs were dietary supplements (61.3%), prayer (57.9%), and herbal medicines (48.8%). The majority of the participants (50%-66%) have used CAMs to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 or to reduce anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. CAM use was associated with sex, having children, place of residence, COVID-19 status, and source of gathering information about CAM (P < 0.05). All 32 participants who had been infected with COVID-19 used at least one type of CAM for treatment or alleviation of the disease symptoms.@*CONCLUSION@#During the COVID-19 outbreak, some types of CAM, particularly nutritional supplements, medicinal herbs, and prayer, were commonly used to prevent COVID-19 and reduce pandemic-related anxiety.

Prepregnancy maternal weight and body mass index of children with and without congenital heart disease

Congenital heart diseases are among the most frequent major congenital anomalies. One of the suspected reasons for congenital heart defects is overweight and obesity of mother during prepregnancy and pregnancy. We studied the relationship between maternal overweight and obesity and the risk of congenital anomaly. All of children with congenital heart defect [164 infants with major nonsyndromic heart disease] referred to our pediatric cardiology clinic or admitted to our ward during 2011-2012 were included in this study. Controls were 158 live-born infants without any major malformations and their mothers. Mothers of these infants were studied for weight, height and body mass index [BMI]. The most frequent congenital heart disease was ventricular septal defect [39%], patent ductus arteriosus [11%], complete atrioventricular septal defect [10%], pulmonary stenosis [9.1%], and atrial septal defect [8.5%]. There was no significant difference between maternal age [P=0.1], weight [P=0.8] and height [P=0.3] in the two groups. The mothers had not significantly higher BMI than that of the control mothers. Compared with underweight [BMI <18.5] and normal weight women [OR: 1.24, 95%CI: 0.40-3.89], overweight [OR: 0.98, 95%CI: 0.31-3.10] and obese women [OR: 1.16, 95%CI: 0.34-4.00] were not more likely to have an infant with a congenital heart defect. This study suggests that there may not be a relation between maternal BMI and having a child with congenital heart defect