ABSTRACT
Background and Objective: The Covid-19 pandemic doubled the need for creative interventions to prevent cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of intervention based on family empowerment on preventive lifestyle of cardiovascular disease risk factors in middle-aged women. Materials and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial study, 74 middle-aged women covered by comprehensive health service centers in the south of Tehran were selected based on inclusion criteria and randomly assigned to two intervention and control groups and were investigated. The family-centered empowerment program based on the preventive lifestyle of the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases was conducted for the intervention group during 6 sessions and each session lasted for 30 minutes virtually and through the WhatsApp application. After 8 weeks, the questionnaires were re-completed and the data were collected using demographic information, Food Frequency questionnaire, Baecke and metabolic health questionnaires and descriptive statistics methods (frequency distribution tables - index numerical values calculation) and inferential statistics (chi-square test, independent t, paired t and Fisher) were used and analyzed in SPSS statistical software version 20. Results: The findings of this study showed that the average age in the control group was 44.03 ± 2.35 in the intervention group was 46.65 ± 3.29 and the intervention and control groups were homogenous in terms of demographic variables, eating habits, physical activity, and metabolic health, and there were no significant differences (P<0.001). After the intervention in metabolic health (control of blood sugar, blood pressure, blood cholesterol and smoking), physical activity and eating habits, there was a significant difference between the two groups, which indicates the effectiveness of the intended intervention (P<0.001). Conclusion: Family empowerment is one of the most effective methods to prevent modifiable risk factors in chronic diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases. The covid-19 pandemic created a good opportunity for families to participate in the implementation of the above programs. Programs that focus on the foundation of the family leads positive effects in the direction of educating people, especially older people in the family, in relation to changing behavior, and it can be used as a safe and effective method for cardiovascular disease prevention. © 2023 The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
Introduction: It could be beneficial to accelerate the hospitalization of patients with the identified clinical risk factors of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, in order to control and reduce COVID-19-related mortality. This study aimed to determine the clinical risk factors associated with ICU hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. Methods: The current research was a cross-sectional study. The study recruited 7182 patients who had positive PCR tests between February 23, 2020, and September 7, 2021 and were admitted to Afzalipour Hospital in Kerman, Iran, for at least 24 hours. Their demo-graphic characteristics, underlying diseases, and clinical parameters were collected. In order to analyze the relationship between the studied variables and ICU admission, multiple logistic regression model, classification tree, and support vector machine were used. Results: It was found that 14.7 percent (1056 patients) of the study participants were admit-ted to ICU. The patients' average age was 51.25 +/- 21 years, and 52.8% of them were male. In the study, some factors such as decreasing oxygen saturation level (OR=0.954, 95%CI: 0.944-0.964), age (OR=1.007, 95%CI: 1.004-1.011), respiratory distress (OR=1.658, 95%CI: 1.410-1.951), reduced level of consciousness (OR=2.487, 95%CI: 1.721-3.596), hypertension (OR=1.249, 95%CI: 1.042-1.496), chronic pulmonary disease (OR=1.250, 95%CI: 1.006-1.554), heart diseases (OR=1.250, 95%CI: 1.009-1.548), chronic kidney disease (OR=1.515, 95%CI: 1.111-2.066), cancer (OR=1.682, 95%CI: 1.130-2.505), seizures (OR=3.428, 95%CI: 1.615-7.274), and gender (OR=1.179, 95%CI: 1.028-1.352) were found to significantly affect ICU admissions. Conclusion: As evidenced by the obtained results, blood oxygen saturation level, the patient's age, and their level of consciousness are crucial for ICU admission.
ABSTRACT
Aims: Midwives, who manage maternal and their infant’s health in the COVID-19 pandemic, need special attention. The present study was designed to examine the knowledge, attitude and practice of midwives. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional online survey via social media platform of WhatsApp that was conducted in April 2020 on 360 midwives working in the educational hospitals or urban health centers in Mashhad, Iran. Data collection tool was a self-structured questionnaire consisting of two parts of demographic data and another part for measuring midwives’ knowledge, attitude and practice, which was designed electronically and implemented online after evaluating its validity and reliability. Data analysis was performed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods in SPSS. Findings: 188 midwives answered the questionnaire, of which the mean score of knowledge, attitude and practice was 34.35±5.59, 45±4.24 and 16.02±2.57, respectively. Only 44.7% had a good practice in dealing with a pregnant mother infected by Covid-19. The mean knowledge score was not significantly different between the midwives working in different health care wards. However, the highest positive attitude was related to midwives working in urban health centers (73.1%). The highest practice score of practice was assigned to hand hygiene and the use of personal protective equipment for Covid-19. Conclusion: Improving midwives’ awareness through encouraging them to participate in scientific programs and in-service training, using up-to-date guidelines issued by World Health Organization, as well as studying the new evidence are significant approaches to promote midwives’ knowledge and practice during the outbreak of COVID-19. © 2022, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Objectives The present study aimed to review the effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the elderly. In this study, we reviewed topics, such as the causes of COVID-19 severity in the elderly;the psychological problems of the elderly;the relationship between comorbidities and COVID-19 severity, and the comparison of COVID-19 with other pandemics. Methods & Materials This systematic review study was conducted in 2020 by searching in international Internet search databases. Boolean Operator (AND, OR) was used for a combined search without a time limit. The search strategy was limited to Persian and English articles using the following keywords: "older adults, COVID-19, psychological problems, social isolation, elderly abuse, ageism". Finally, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study, the remaining 58 studies were included in the study. Results The results of the studies were extracted and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the elderly were examined in 8 parts, as follows: Why COVID-19 is more common in the elderly and has more complications;what are the mortality and complications of COVID-19 in the elderly;COVID-19 and underlying diseases;psychological problems caused by COVID-19 in the elderly;COVID-19 and abuse in the elderly;COVID-19 and ageism in the elderly;the comparison of COVID-19 with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and influenza epidemics in the elderly, and care for the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic poses serious challenges for the elderly globally. To address these challenges, everyone must work, from government officials to individuals and families. Governments should enact laws that minimize the potential age-related abuse and discrimination and provide equal opportunities for all society members, regardless of age or gender. Families should also be aware of the increasing social isolation of the elderly and keep in touch with them.
ABSTRACT
The effective disinfection of hospitals is paramount in lowering the COVID-19 transmission risk to both patients and medical personnel. Autonomous mobile robots can perform the surface disinfection task in a timely and cost-effective manner, while preventing the direct contact of disinfecting agents with humans. This paper proposes an end-to-end coverage path planning technique that generates a continuous and uninterrupted collision-free path for a mobile robot to cover an area of interest. The aim of this work is to decrease the disinfection task completion time and cost by finding an optimal coverage path using a new graph-based representation of the environment. The results are compared with other existing state-of-the-art coverage path planning approaches. It is shown that the proposed approach generates a path with shorter total travelled distance (fewer number of overlaps) and smaller number of turns.