Mothers' experience of virtual education during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

This qualitative study was conducted with the aim of investigating the experience of mothers in Tehran in the field of virtual education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants in this study were 17 mothers of school children who experienced virtual education in Tehran during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews, over the phone, and lasted for approximately 30-45 min. The interviews were audio recorded with the permission of the participants, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the method of conventional content analysis. For this study, 17 mothers were interviewed. Of those, 7 had one school-age child, 8 had two, and 2 had three. All of the children lived with both their mother and father. The majority of the mothers (16 out of 17) held bachelor's degrees. On average, the students were 11.76 years old. Fourteen of the students attended public schools, while 3 attended private schools. Most of the mothers (14 out of 17) reported their financial status as average. Data analysis led to the identification of 3 main themes and 12 subthemes. The three main categories were family-related factors, student-related factors, and school-related factors. The 4 themes related to family included 1) the role of family as a teacher, 2) the importance of direct and indirect supervision in family education, 3) the cost, and 4) the peace of mind. Factors related to students included 5 themes; 1) the advantages and disadvantages of virtual learning environments, 2) time management in education, 3) the consequences of failing to acquire necessary skills and knowledge, 4) issues of indifference and fraud in education, 5) physical, mental, and social problems affecting students. Factors related to schools included 3 themes; 1) the role of the teacher in virtual teaching and learning, 2) the challenges of lack of prior experience in education, 3) inequality in access to education and opportunities. The findings of this study have several implications for policymakers. Paying attention to technological and educational challenges related to virtual education and providing adequate support to parents are important things that should be prioritized. In addition, psychological support services should be made available to parents so that they can cope with the emotional challenges of virtual education. Finally, the positive experiences reported by mothers suggest that virtual education can be an effective and flexible option for future education, provided that the challenges are adequately addressed. Moreover, no work has been done on this issue comprehensively and the few studies that have followed this method have had some limitations. Therefore, schools, parents, and policymakers should explore innovative ways of integrating virtual education into the educational system to provide flexible and effective learning opportunities for students.

Prevalence of Anemia in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: Anemia is a common public health concern in patients with type 2 diabetes worldwide. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of anemia among patients with diabetes. Methods: Electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Sciences, and Google Scholar, were searched systematically for studies published between 2010 and 2021. After removing duplicates and inappropriate reports, the remaining manuscripts were reviewed and appraised using theNewcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) tool. A random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled estimates of the extracted data using Stata version 17. Heterogeneity of the studies was assessed using the Q statistic. Results: A total of 51 articles containing information on 26,485 patients with diabetes were included in this study. The articles were mainly from Asia (58.82%) and Africa (35.29%). The overall prevalence of anemia was 35.45% (95% CI: 30.30-40.76), with no evidence of heterogeneity by sex. Among the two continents with the highest number of studies, the prevalence of anemia in patients with diabetes was significantly higher in Asia [40.02; 95% CI: 32.72-47.54] compared to Africa [28.46; 95% CI: 21.90-35.50] ( P for heterogeneity = 0.029). Moreover, there has been an increasing trend in the prevalence of anemia in patients with diabetes over time, from [15.28; 95% CI: 9.83-22.21] in 2012 to [40.70; 95% CI: 10.21-75.93] in 2022. Conclusion: Globally, approximately 4 in 10 patients with diabetes suffer from anemia. Therefore, routine anemia screening and control programs every 3 months might be useful in improving the quality of life of these patients.

Teachers and managers experiences of virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

The closure of universities and schools interrupted learning outcomes and deprived students from growth and development opportunities as well as hindering their academic progress. Indeed, the COVID-19 Pandemic changed educational mechanism from traditional method to staying at home and virtual education globally. On the other hand, the educators and student particularly in developing countries faced shortage of necessary software and hardware infrastructures. Accordingly, introduction of virtual education along with some organizational and regional obstacles as well as poor planning caused low-quality online courses. Therefore, the present study extrapolated teachers' virtual education experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study conducted on Iranian teachers using the conventional content analysis method in 2022. To do this, the targeted sampling method with maximum variation continued until data saturation. Hence, a total of 17 teachers (10 women and 7 men) included in the study. Data collected through five focus group discussions on the Sky room platform and two individual in-depth interviews. Male teachers had an average age of 44.42 years, while female ones had an average age of 47.80 years. The qualitative analysis categorized 22 themes as virtual education's pros and cons. Mental, physical, and social injuries; economic problems; insufficient virtual teaching skills; lack of virtual infrastructure; lack of motivation were identified as the main disadvantages of virtual education. Virtual education benefits included familiarity with modern science and education, time management, the durability of video and course topics, and not forcing students to attend class. Removing structural barriers (like creating a good platform for practical education and stopping new restrictive policies) and individual barriers (like economic and family problems, lack of motivation, psychological pressures, and occupational stress) could possibly improve virtual education. Virtual education should be different from face-to-face teaching because it can only meet some students' needs.

Changes in the rate of bacillus tuberculosis infection in health workers in the first year of the COVID-19 epidemic in Kashan- Iran.

Objective: This cohort study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A one-year cohort study was conducted in a referral hospital in Kashan, involving 176 medical, educational, and cleaning personnel. Initial evaluations and tuberculin skin tests were performed, followed by a one-year follow-up period. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 software. Results: Among the participants, 26.1% (46 individuals) tested positive for latent tuberculosis infection. Age was a significant risk factor, with a 3.6% increase in latent tuberculosis infection risk with each advancing year. Men had 2.19 times (1.10-4.35) the chance of having a latent infection compared to women. Hospital staff were 3.7 times more at risk of tuberculosis infection than students. Among the hospital job categories, nursing assistants had the highest chance of tuberculosis infection, 6.77 times higher than medical students, followed by cleaning staff and nurses. The ICU, General, and Obstetrics and Gynecology departments had an infection chance of 2.46 (1.11-5.46) compared to other departments. No new positive cases were detected during the follow-up period. Conclusion: This study contributes to the understanding of latent tuberculosis infection prevalence and its risk factors among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings highlight the importance of infection control measures and targeted interventions to protect healthcare workers from occupational tuberculosis exposure.

Prevalence and risk factors of anemia in first, second and third trimesters of pregnancy in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Anemia is a common health problem during pregnancy worldwide that has many short-term and long-term effects on women. This study examined the Prevalence and Risk factors of anemia in first, second and third trimesters of pregnancy in Iran between 2000 and 2021. PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, and national databases of Magiran and SID were searched for articles, which were then subjected to PRISMA-compliant screening. A systematic review and meta-analysis (using a random-effects model in STATA version 17) were conducted on the 18 eligible cross-sectional studies (published between July 23, 2000 and September 1, 2021) that revealed significant data on the prevalence of anemia in pregnant women. This study included 18 reports with a total of 25,831 individuals in which 15% of study subjects had anemia (95% CI: 12-19%). The pooled prevalence of anemia was 13% in people older than 26 years old (95% CI: 9-17%) compared to 22% in people younger than 26 years old (95% CI: 15-29). It was 18% (95% CI: 11-27%) for pregnant women having their second child in comparison to 20% (95% CI: 11-32%) for women who have had three or more children. Anemia was thought to affect 11% of housewives (95% CI: 2-26%) and 10% of working women (95% CI: 6-16%). Anemia frequency was 22%, 17% and 13% amongst first (22%), second (17%), and third (13%) trimesters, respectively. Nevertheless, it happened much less often after the second trimester. Moreover, poor education, a history of low birth weight in children, and a low socioeconomic level within women were associated with the prevalence of anemia. The pooled prevalence of anemia in pregnant women is marginally lower than in earlier report. However, it seems to be a health problem in developing countries including Iran currently. Therefore, the study suggest that health system should design comprehensive preventive and control measurements such as more effective treatments to minimize anemia in vulnerable segments of society, particularly mothers, and improve their health through increasing access to services for mothers.

Determine the prevalence of gestational diabetes in Ardakan and its related factors.

Gestational Diabetes (GD) is amongst the most common metabolic disorders. Due to the important complications of GD on maternal and fetal health and in order to identify the prevalence of GD in various climate and cultures, the present studies aimed to determine the prevalence of GD in Ardakan and its related factors in 2014-2015. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 3808 pregnant women referring to rural and urban health centers in Ardakan city in 2013-14. Demographic, clinical, and obstetrics history of the subjects was gathered. GD was defined based on Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT). Descriptive and Logistic regression models were applied. The prevalence of GD was estimated to be 7.5% (286) which was higher in 35-39 age group, urban residents, obese mothers, and pregnancies ended with macrosome babies. The odds of GD was higher in obese mothers by 1.62 times (95%CI: 1.18-2.24), in mothers above ages of 40 by 10.53 (95%CI: 3.8-29.3), in mothers with a history of GD by 3.86 (95%CI:1.65-8.93), and in pregnancies ended with a macro some baby by 2.2 (95%CI: 0.97-5.1). The prevalence of GD in Ardakan was similar to other studies in the area. It seems that improvement of GD screening in older mothers and those with a history of GD could be a priority of surveillance system in Yazd Province.

Community health assessment: Knowledge, attitude and practice of women regarding water-pipe smoking in Bandar Abbas.

Based on the results of seventh round of community health assessment (CHA) in suburban areas of Bandar Abbas, "water-pipe smoking in women" was one of the major concerns of community members. Therefore, the present study designed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of women towards water-pipe smoking and related factors. High consumption of water-pipe among women was ranked as a prioritized health problem. To diagnose the problem, for creating action plan, the present cross - sectional study was conducted on 205 women aged over 18 randomly selected from Green-Tree region in suburb of Bandar Abbas city. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 24 software with 5% as the significant level. 205 women with a mean age of 36.9 (standard deviation:12.86) years, and a water-pipe prevalence of 15.1% were analyzed. The significant predictors of knowledge were educational level (ß = 0.182, p-value = 0.037), and being water-pipe smoker (ß = -0.251, p-value < 0.001); while for attitude they were educational level (ß = 0.221, p-value = 0.002), family size(ß = 0.152, p-value = 0.023), and subjective social status(ß = 0.149; p-value = 0.035); and for practice they was smoking waterpipe in parents (ß = -0.276, p-value < 0.001).The development action plans based on "CHA" could improve public health and enhance the performance of the community through improved education, policies and health interventions.