Prevalence of alcohol consumption in most at-risk groups in Iran: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Many studies have assessed the prevalence of alcohol consumption in Iran. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of alcohol consumption in different groups. We searched international and databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and we searched two main Farsi-language index databases including Scientific Information Database (SID) and the Irandoc. Grey literature search was also performed in Google Scholar, PsycINFO, ProQuest Dissertation and Theses without time limit until June 2020. All studies that reported the prevalence of alcohol consumption among Iranians were included in current study. From 9,038 screened studies, 109 studies with 925,480 participants were included. The pooled prevalence of alcohol consumption was estimated 24% (95% CI: 18.0–31.0), 12% (95%CI: 10.0–14.0), 14% (95%CI: 13.0–15.0), 19% (95%CI: 13.0–26.0), 15% (95%CI: 3.0–28.0) among prisoners, general population, students, drivers, and street children, respectively. This systematic review indicated higher prevalence of alcohol consumption in prisoners, drivers, and street children than the general population and other subgroups. The distribution of the alcohol prevalence studies in different groups and provinces were heterogeneous. The lack of studies among some groups and in regions warrants further, attention.

Food insecurity status and its contributing factors in slums' dwellers of southwest Iran, 2021: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: One major factor causing food insecurity is believed to be poverty. Approximately 20 million Iranians live in slums with a vulnerable socioeconomic context. The outbreak of COVID-19, on top of the economic sanctions against Iran, has increased this vulnerability and made its inhabitants prone to food insecurity. The current study investigates food insecurity and its associated socioeconomic factors among slum residents of Shiraz, southwest Iran. METHODS: Random cluster sampling was used to select the participants in this cross-sectional study. The heads of the households completed the validated Household Food Insecurity Access Scale questionnaire to assess food insecurity. Univariate analysis was utilized to calculate the unadjusted associations between the study variables. Moreover, a multiple logistic regression model was employed to determine the adjusted association of each independent variable with the food insecurity risk. RESULTS: Among the 1227 households, the prevalence of food insecurity was 87.20%, with 53.87% experiencing moderate and 33.33% experiencing severe food insecurity. A significant relationship was observed between socioeconomic status and food insecurity, indicating that people with low socioeconomic status are more prone to food insecurity (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The current study revealed that food insecurity is highly prevalent in slum areas of southwest Iran. The socioeconomic status of households was the most important determinant of food insecurity among them. Noticeably, the coincidence of the COVID-19 pandemic with the economic crisis in Iran has amplified the poverty and food insecurity cycle. Hence, the government should consider equity-based interventions to reduce poverty and its related outcomes on food security. Furthermore, NGOs, charities, and governmental organizations should focus on local community-oriented programs to make basic food baskets available for the most vulnerable households.

Ivermectin-Induced Clinical Improvement and Alleviation of Significant Symptoms of COVID-19 Outpatients: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Although several drugs have been proposed and used to treat the COVID-19 virus, but recent clinical trials have concentrated on ivermectin. It appears that ivermectin can potentially act against COVID-19 and stop the development in its infancy. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of ivermectin on the recovery of outpatients with COVID-19. In this cross-sectional study, we compared the symptoms reduction in COVID-19 disease in two groups of patients by administering ivermectin. A total of 347 mild outpatients in the Iranian provinces of Qazvin and Khuzestan with a confirmed PCR were enrolled. The symptoms of outpatients with COVID-19 were analyzed using SPSS (V23). In this cross-sectional study, the sex ratio was 0.64 (female/male: 37.9/59.8) and most patients were under 50 years old (72.8%). The results of this study demonstrated a significant decrease in several COVID-19 disease symptoms, including fever, chills, dyspnea, headache, cough, fatigue, and myalgia in the group administered ivermectin compared to the control group. In addition, the odds ratio of the above symptoms was significantly lower in patients who received ivermectin than in patients who did not receive the drug (OR = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.09, 0.27).

Predictive factors of Quality of Life in older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Given the vulnerability of older people to COVID-19, it is important to consider their physical and mental wellbeing and quality of life (QoL) in the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the present study was aimed to identify the QoL and its predictive factors among a sample of Iranian older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted on 500 older people residing in Qazvin, Iran, from May 22th to November 21rd, 2021. Multistage cluster sampling method was used for selecting the eligible older adults. Data were collected using the demographic checklist, fear of COVID-19 scale, and Elderly Quality of Life Questionnaire (LIPAD). The multivariate regression model was used for determining the predictive factors of QoL in older people. RESULTS: The mean age of older participants was 69.17 ± 6.75 years old. The results of multivariate regression model showed that fear of COVID-19, age, marital status, level of education, living arrangement, and economic situation were the significant predictors of QoL in the older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended to pay close attention to divorced, lonely, and illiterate older people and those with low economic situation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Family clustering of SARS-CoV-2 in Qazvin, Northwest of Iran.

Background: Human infection affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been recognized as a global health concern. We report the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with a familial cluster of SARS-CoV-2 from Qazvin province (located in the northwest of Iran). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 332 hospitalized patients that were confirmed SARS-CoV-2 diseases with laboratory-based (PT-PCR) test in Qazvin province, Iran. Having family infection transmission and subsequently, family clustering of SARS-COV-2 disease was assessed with the Generalized Estimating Equation model in patients. Results: Crude odds ratio estimates of creating family clustering of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 0.47 times [95% CI: 0.23, 0.98, p=0.045] less for female compared to the males; 2.26 [95% CI: 1.11, 4.58, p=0.024] and 2.69 [95% CI: 1.47, 4.93, p=0.001] for SARS-CoV-2 patients that had digestive and muscle pain in comparison with those did not this mentioned symptoms, respectively. 1.52 [95% CI: 1.05, 2.23, p=0.024] for patients with a longer hospitalization compared with patients that had shorter duration of hospitalization and adjusted odds ratio estimates were 2.13 [95% CI: 1.12, 4.03, p=0.020] for patients who receive public health services in comparison those did not receive public health services. Conclusion: Our findings confirm the person-to-person transmission of this novel coronavirus in family settings and hospitals, and the reports of infected travelers in other geographical regions. Major gaps in our knowledge about the potential factors in creating family clustering of SARS-CoV-2 infection, epidemiology, duration of human transmission and etc. need fulfillment by future studies.

The real-time reproduction number, impact of interventions and prediction of the epidemic size of COVID-19 in the center of Iran.

BACKGROUND: The monitoring of reproduction number over time provides feedback on the effectiveness of interventions and on the need to intensify control efforts. Hence, we aimed to compute basic (R0) and real-time (Rt) reproduction number and predict the trend and the size of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the center of Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used the 887 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from February 20, 2020, to April 17, 2020 in the center of Iran. We considered three scenarios for serial intervals (SIs) with gamma distribution. Rt was calculated by the sequential Bayesian and time-dependent methods. Based on a branching process using the Poisson distributed number of new cases per day, the daily incidence and cumulative incidence for the next 30 days were predicted. The analysis was applied in R packages 3.6.3 and STATA 12.0. RESULTS: The model shows that the Rt of COVID-19 has been decreasing since the onset of the epidemic. According to three scenarios based on different distributions of SIs in the past 58 days from the epidemic, Rt has been 1.03 (0.94, 1.14), 1.05 (0.96, 1.15), and 1.08 (0.98, 1.18) and the cumulative incidence cases will be 360 (180, 603), 388 (238, 573), and 444 (249, 707) for the next 30 days, respectively. CONCLUSION: Based on the real-time data extracted from the center of Iran, Rt has been decreasing substantially since the beginning of the epidemic, and it is expected to remain almost constant or continue to decline slightly in the next 30 days, which is consequence of the schools and universities shutting down, reduction of working hours, mass screening, and social distancing.

Age-standardized mortality rate and predictors of mortality among COVID-19 patients in Iran.

BACKGROUND: To have a thorough understanding of epidemic surveillance, it is essential to broaden our knowledge of death tolls worldwide. This study aimed to determine the age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) and predictors of mortality among coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional design, all COVID-19 patients with a positive polymerase chain reaction test in the population covered by Arak University of Medical Sciences (AUMS) were entered to the study. Data collection was conducted by phone interview. The study variables comprised age, sex, coronary heart diseases, diabetes, and some symptoms at admission. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained by logistic regression. The direct method was applied to calculate ASMR (per 100,000) of COVID-19. The analysis was applied by STATA software 12.0. RESULTS: A total of 208 cases of COVID-19 (out of 3050 total infected cases) were dead and 2500 cases were recovered. The mean age of dead patients was 70 years. The COVID-19 fatality rate in the population equaled 6.8%; in those patients who were 70 years old or more, however, the case fatality rate was 16.4%. The ASMR of COVID-19 was 12.9 (CI 95%: 11.2, 14.8). The odds of COVID-19-related death in the age over 60 were 10.87 (CI 95%: 6.30, 18.75) times than lower 45 years old. Moreover, it was observed that COVID-19 significantly increased the odds of COVID-19-related death in diabetes patients (OR = 1.45, CI 95%: 1.02, 2.06, P = 0.036). CONCLUSION: The ASMR of COVID-19 was relatively higher in males than females. In general, the COVID-19 fatality rate was relatively high. We found that older age and diabetes can have impact on the death of COVID-19, but the headache was found to have a negative association with the COVID-19-related death.

Isolation Compliance and Associated Factors Among COVID-19 Patients in North-West Iran: A Cross-Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has now turned into a public health emergency. Isolation of patients is a possible solution for controlling epidemic infectious diseases. We assessed the compliance of isolation and associated factors among patients with COVID-19. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 320 COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals of Qazvin province. Patients' isolation, self-care health behaviors, reference to public health services and possible related factors were assessed. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: In this study, 320 patients were enrolled, including 175 men (54.7%). Two hundred and eighty-six patients (89.4%) had complete isolation. Factors such as phone tracking by health center (OR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.75) and dry cough (OR = 2.36; 95% CI: 1.09 to 5.09) increased odds of complete isolation in COVID-19 patients, but having a COVID-19 patient in the family (OR = 0.32; 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.71) and symptoms of disease like shortness of breath (OR = 0.39; 95% CI: 0.18 to 0.85) and muscle pain (OR = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.20 to 0.95) decreased odds ratio for these patients. CONCLUSION: Phone tracking by the health center was the most important factor to increase the odds of patient isolation. Thus, the health system should consider improving health workers' knowledge and skills through education.