PROTOCOL: Systematic review of methods to reduce risk of bias in knowledge translation interventional studies in health-related issues.

Background: Review studies have reported on the low quality of study methodologies and poor reporting of knowledge translation (KT) interventional studies. This flaw cause the result of such studies to become misleading. Objectives: The present review is designed to evaluate the effect of methodological factors on the results of interventional studies that aimed to evaluate KT strategies at the policy level. Search Methods: Bibliographic databases and grey literature databases will be searched. The retrieved studies will be recorded in Covidence. After screening titles and abstracts, the full texts of selected studies will be assessed against the inclusion criteria. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion or by consultation with a third author. Selection Criteria: Primary studies are studies that aimed to estimate the efficacy of KT strategies to improve evidence-informed policymaking. Study participants include policymakers and the intervention is a KT strategy. The main outcome is the desired changes in policy-makers towards evidence-informed decision-making. Data Collection and Analysis: The main effect sizes will be expressed as standard mean difference and its variance for the main efficacy outcome of KT strategies in primary studies. Forest plot meta-analysis will be used to synthesize the effect of each group of KT strategies. The contribution of ROB to the efficacy of KT interventions will be assessed via Meta-epidemiology analysis. The overall estimate will be calculated using inverse-variance random-effects meta-analysis with a 95% confidence interval for the estimate.

Incidence of symptomatic COVID-19 in close contacts of patients after discharge from hospital.

BACKGROUND: There is a little evidence about the infectiousness of recovered COVID-19 patients. Considering that the circumstance of the isolation of the COVID-19 patients after-discharge is not always optimal, it is not very unlikely that viral transmission still occurs after hospital discharge. This study aims to investigate the incidence of symptomatic COVID-19 in close contacts of recovered patients after discharge from hospital. METHODS: Four hundred fifty discharged COVID-19 patients discharged from the largest public treatment center in Tehran, capital city of Iran, were followed up. Demographic and clinical data of participants were collected from medical records. Follow-up data were acquired via telephone call interviews with patients or their main caregivers at home. RESULTS: The study's response rate was 93.77% (422 participated in the study). 60.90% patients were male and 39.10% were female (sex ratio = 1.55 male). The most prevalent comorbidities in these patients were hypertension (29.68%) and diabetes (24.80%). The mean of home isolation after discharge was 25.85. Forty-one (9.71%) patients had at least one new case in their close contacts, up to 3 weeks after they were discharged. There was a significant association between having at least a comorbidity with the odds of getting infected in close contacts [OR (CI) 2.22 (1.05-4.68)]. Density of inhabitant per room in a house' and the quality of isolation had significant associations with observing new cases in the patients' close contacts [high to moderate; OR (CI) 2.44 (1.06-5.61], [bad to good; OR (CI) 2.31 (1.17-4.59)], respectively. CONCLUSION: After hospital discharge, COVID-19 transmission can still occur, when a large number of people lives together in a single house. Another explanation can be that the less precaution measures are taken by recovered patients' cohabitants. Such conditions are also likely to happen when the recovered patient has other chronic diseases and requires additional care.

Interventions for adapting health care providers to new situations in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review for developing a policy brief.

The rapid change in the conditions of health care centers following the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to work challenges and role changes and the transfer of staff to new and unfamiliar workplaces. This study aimed to develop policy interventions to adapt health care providers to the new situation in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic literature review was carried out using international databases to identify English-language studies to identify policy interventions. The viewpoints resulting from the observations of the research team and seven health system experts were used to categorize the interventions. Three main policy interventions were identified: creating a flexible and efficient system through modifying personnel roles, adequate training of health care personnel about work conditions when treating COVID-19 patients, and creating a supportive and motivating work environment.