Investigating the predictors of perceived social support to control COVID-19: A qualitative study.

Background: Considering the adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic, the present study aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators of perceived social support to prevent the further spread of the disease. Methods: In the present qualitative study, a content analysis was done. To this aim, 37 Iranian subjects who had active accounts on Instagram were initially invited to participate in the study. The data were collected through face-to-face (n = 25) and telephone conversations (n = 12). A purposive sampling was used and the data collection continued until data saturation. Finally, 41 interviews were held which took 17-48 min. Results: The data analysis led to the extraction of two main categories, the barriers and facilitators of perceived social support, as well as 12 subcategories. Economic issues, familial factors, socio-cultural factors, personal and psychological factors, ineffective quarantine rules, and poor management were the main barriers to perceived social support. The facilitators were divided into six categories, including familial influences, personal factors, government support, and improved occupational, social, spiritual, and emotional condition. Conclusion: The findings showed that a combination of environmental and social variables might influence the COVID-19 disease, either decreasing or increasing its spread. A sound knowledge of these variables, influenced by the social context and real-life experiences during the pandemic, allows to take the right measures and enrich training programs. The prevalence of the disease can be controlled by increasing environmental and social facilitators and decreasing the influence of barriers.

Experiences of the Frontline Healthcare Professionals Amid the COVID-19 Health Hazard: A Phenomenological Investigation.

The highly infectious novel coronavirus (COVID-19), officially SARS-CoV-2, was discovered in Wuhan, China, and quickly spread to the rest of the world in 2020. Frontline workers had frequent interactions with COVID-19-infected and -uninfected patients. Therefore, the study's overarching goal is to investigate the experiences of frontline healthcare professionals in dealing with the COVID-19 health emergency. The study used a qualitative research approach with a phenomenological research design. Using a purposeful sampling approach, the researcher collected data from 24 participants. The MAXQDA program was used to analyze the data, and followed Collaizzi's 7-step technique. All ethical standards were met to perform the study. Four main themes and ten subthemes were derived from the 24 in-depth interviews. The key themes were emotional suffering, intense physical pressure, social connection deterioration, and the inability to manage family obligations. Extensive social, emotional, and organizational aid is necessary to assist individuals in dealing with this unprecedented health crisis. Furthermore, the government and non-governmental organizations must work together to come up with the right policies to limit the COVID-19 burden on frontline health professionals.

Social Determinants of Adherence to COVID-19 Preventive Guidelines in Iran: A Qualitative Study.

INTRODUCTION: Adherence to COVID-19 preventative guidelines may be influenced by a variety of factors at the individual, societal, and institutional levels. The current study sought to investigate the social factors of adherence to those preventive measures from the perspective of health professionals. METHODS: In October 2020, we performed qualitative research in Tehran, Iran, using the directed content analysis method. For the preparation of our interview guide and data analysis, we employed the WHO conceptual framework of socioeconomic determinants of health. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 health professionals and policymakers who were chosen using a purposive sampling approach. MAXQDA-18 software was used to analyze the data. The Goba and Lincoln criteria were used to assess the quality of the results. RESULTS: There are 23 subcategories and 9 categories, which include socio-economic and political context (unstable macroeconomic environment, poor management of the pandemic, media and knowledge transfer), cultural and social values (fatalism, cultural norms, value conflicts, social customs), socio-economic positions (livelihood conditions), social capital (social cohesion, low trust), living conditions (housing conditions), occupational conditions (precarious employment), individual characteristics (demographic characteristics, personality traits, COVID-19 knowledge, and attitude), psycho-social factors (normalization of the disease, social pressure, and stigma), and health system leadership (health system problems, not taking evidence-based decisions, non-comprehensive preventive guidelines, non-operational guidelines, inadequate executive committee) were obtained. CONCLUSION: To limit the new COVID-19 transmission, people must be encouraged to follow COVID-19 prevention instructions. Improving adherence to COVID-19 preventive guidelines necessitates dealing with the complexities of responding to social determinants of those guidelines. Increasing public health literacy and knowledge of COVID-19, informing people about the consequences of social interactions and cultural customs in the spread of COVID-19, strengthening regulatory lockdown laws, improving guarantees for adhering to preventive guidelines, providing easy access to preventive supplies, and strengthening financial support for households with precarious employment are all important.

Lived Experiences and Challenges of the Families of COVID-19 Victims: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study in Tehran, Iran.

Being COVID-19 positive and then dying causes a slew of personal, familial, and social issues for family members. Therefore, the current study was carried out to analyze the lived experiences and issues of COVID-19 victims' families in Tehran, Iran. The phenomenological approach was used in the qualitative analysis of 21 first-degree relatives of COVID-19 victims. From August 22 to October 21, 2020, data was gathered by phone (4 people) and in-person (17 people) using semi-structured interviews. The subjects were chosen through purposeful and snowball sampling. The MAXQDA-2018 program was used to organize the data, and the Colaizzi analytical technique was used to analyze it. Guba and Lincoln's criteria were also used to assess the findings' quality. After analyzing the data, 2 main categories and 14 subcategories were extracted, including (1) challenges in caring for a COVID-19 patient (being rejected, limited access to medical facilities, dissatisfaction with the behavior of medical staff, disruption of family life, the challenge of managing family members' behavior with the patient, and living with doubts and worries (2) challenges after a COVID-19 patient's death (incomplete farewell to the corpse, unbelievability of the death, ambiguity and tension in the burial process, lonely burial, the twinge of conscience, worry about not respecting the deceased, incomplete condolences, and abandonment). The troubles of victims' families can be ameliorated by developing the skills of caring for COVID-19 patients at home, providing medical and psychological services to families before and after the patient's death, appropriately informing the families to guarantee them about dignity and respect and respect of the deceased at the interment, and developing a culture of virtual condolence to provide emotional support to survivors.

The Role of Clerics in Confronting the COVID-19 Crisis in Iran.

Clerics were an authoritative and prominent group in society during the spread of the COVID-19 in Iran. Some of them contributed to social welfare services to assist Iranians. However, others engaged in improper activities, such as calling the COVID-19 pandemic a hoax, standing against the quarantine rules, questioning the scientific methods of preventing COVID-19, and offering incorrect strategies that affected prevention and treatment. Yet, clerics are powerful social assets in Iranian society who have the status to help minimize the spread and effects of pandemics upon Iranian people. As a result, their assistance and influence must be used to combat the COVID-19 crisis. This paper argues that clerics in Iran should motivate people to uphold and obey health norms in four ways: (1) health promotion and encouragement, (2) material and instrumental support, (3) spiritual support, and (4) the mobilization of people to combat the disease. Conversely, it highlights the negative roles of clerics, such as (1) opposing social restrictions and opposing the closure of religious places, (2) countering the scientific-hygienic principles appropriate to COVID-19 prevention, and (3) opposing vaccination.

Psychosocial stress and trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Bangladesh.

The COVID-19 outbreak has become a global health crisis affecting both the physical and mental health of people across the world. Likewise, the people of Bangladesh are going through a menacing mental health catastrophe with the outbreak of coronavirus that resulting in stress and trauma. Hence, this situation is altering people's lifestyles and generating complexities in psychological well-being. The study was based on the review of published articles and media reports related to stress and trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. A total of 10 peer-reviewed articles and 45 newspaper reports were included following an extensive literature search. The contents were searched on Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, local online newspapers, social networking sites, and different webpages and published articles in different journals on COVID-19 from March 5 to October 25, 2020. The review study finds that the mental health of people in Bangladesh has severely been affected by the outbreak of coronavirus. All of the government, voluntary, and civil organizations need to give further emphasis on psychosocial and bereavement counseling in order to support those experiencing mental shocks resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. There is the need to strengthen more consultative and collaborative efforts from all public health experts, social workers, psychologists, and policymakers in doing so. Social workers in this context will be able to make meaningful contributions in supporting those affected people to better adjust to the challenging situation.

Teaching adults how to prevent COVID-19 infection by health workers: The application of intervention mapping approach.

INTRODUCTION: Education is one of the most important approaches to preventing infectious diseases at the time of the pandemic. The purpose of the study was to develop an intervention-training program using an intervention mapping approach (IMA) to prevent COVID-19 infection in adults at the time of the pandemic by health workers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was a study protocol where IMA was used as a planning framework for developing an intervention-training program to prevent COVID-19 infection in adults at the time of the pandemic by health workers in Ardabil city. Six intervention mapping (IM) steps have been described in this protocol. As the first step, needs assessment was performed by reviewing the studies, qualitative evaluation, and interviews. In the second step, the matrix of change objectives was designed from the intersection of performance goals and determinants. Later on, after designing the program and planning the program implementation, the program evaluation plan was developed. RESULTS: IMA guided us in designing and implementing a control-oriented training program with the participation of the participants along with the definition of outcomes, performance goals and determinants, theoretical methods and practical applications, intervention program, implementation, and step by step assessment. CONCLUSION: IM is a control-oriented, systematic, participation-based approach to design and implement targeted and on-going health promotion programs based on the needs of the target group at the time of the pandemic by health workers.