ABSTRACT
Background: Despite the mass vaccination of people in countries, preventive health guidelines of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are still one of the most critical factors for pandemic control. The objectives of this study were to assess the overall use of face masks and investigate the diverse kinds of face masks used among pedestrians in northeast Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was designed in Torbat Heydariyeh, northeastern Iran, from February 19 to May 13, 2020. A total of 223 848 pedestrians were selected from 25 points of the city, using a multistage sampling method in 10 stages. Descriptive statistics were presented with frequencies and percentages. Chi-square test and Fisher exact test were used to assess the association between two categorical variables. Results: The overall percent of face mask usage was 78.68%. Women used face masks considerably higher than men (88.32% vs. 69.02%, P < 0.001). Among the male and female pedestrians who used the mask, 6.27% and 2.04% wore face mask incorrectly, respectively. Surgical masks (73.7%) were the most common face masks worn by pedestrians. Overall, the face mask usage was significantly lower during a.m. (88.34%) compared to p.m. (78.52%) (P < 0.001). Also, the face mask usage was significantly higher in the center sections of the city (86.49%) compared to the outskirts (43.67%) (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Women use face masks significantly more than men. Using educational programs and establishing laws and regulations to prevent pandemics in cities is considered as a key factor. © 2023 The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
Due to our mistake in entering the affiliation and name of Mojgan Sarmadi in our article (Article ID: 110201, DOI: 10.5812/pedinfect.110201), we would like to apologize for any inconvenience made to our author and her affiliated organization, which is "National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Oral Immunity and Infection Unit, Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, US". We declare the correct affiliation of Mojgan Sarmadi is a private practice. © 2022, Author(s).
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become the greatest critical healthcare concern in 2020. The present study investigated the correlation between COVID-19 distribution and the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) among countries. Material and methods: Data were obtained from publicly available data on COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Burden of Disease (GBD). Bivariate correlation analyses were used to investigate the correlation between the variables. Results: COVID-19 cases and death ratio negatively correlated with the prevalence of HIV/AIDS (r = -0.40 and r = -0.38, p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusions: The findings indicated that in countries with high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 cases and death ratio were low, which could be due to the type of therapy or screening system. Nevertheless, further studies are required in this field.
ABSTRACT
Context: In the era of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic, new scoring systems need to be developed to estimate the risk of COVID-19 complications aiding in the accurate prognosis. Improved scoring systems by combining multiple variables allow clinicians to optimize the allocation of limited medical resources for the best clinical outcomes. Methods: Published articles were selected that assessed the relationship between clinical, para-clinical, demographics, comorbidities, and outcomes of COVID-19 patients in a systematic review to develop a novel scoring system. Results: In this study, by summarizing the results of 97 studies and the experiences of experts, prognostic factors were determined and divided into four groups: Age, clinical symptoms, co-morbidities, and tests. Twenty-three published articles met the selection criteria and were included in this study. Accordingly, by the opinion of experts, prognostic factors were categorized into four main groups: Age, clinical symptoms, co-morbidities, and specific test results. Conclusions: This novel scoring model helps physicians to early identify critical COVID-19 patients and optimize patient management based on recent comprehensive data of the most significant predictive factors.