Health Literacy Among University Students in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this systematic review was to assess different studies that worked on university students' health literacy during covid19 pandemic and to make an overview of this issue to recognize possible determinants associated with health literacy. METHODS: This review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA). Four databases (Google Scholar, Web of Science, Pubmed, and Scopus) were used for searching cross-sectional works that assessed the health literacy of university students. We searched papers from December 1st, 2019 up to June 10th, 2022. English language articles were used. Studies were done in countries including; Iran, Pakistan, the USA, Vietnam, China, Colombia, Germany, and Indonesia. RESULTS: The systematic review contains 12 research studies involving 17773 students. There was a relationship between health literacy and some determinants. Positive determinants included age, female gender, Urban background, cognitive maturity, Higher educational qualification, information source (Health workers), number of semesters, and parental education. Some negative determinants were male gender, Rural background, smoking, drinking, being able to pay for medication, lower conspiracy beliefs, and higher fear of COVID-19. CONCLUSION: University students around the world should have courses about health literacy according to university disciplines. These courses should be available for students of different fields to enhance their effectiveness, and training should be associated with students' needs and their subgroup traits.

Use of Digital Games for Educational Purposes Among Medical and Paramedical Sciences Students, Mashhad, Iran.

This study aimed to investigate the use of digital games for educational purposes among medical and paramedical sciences students at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (Northeast of Iran). This cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2018 to January 2019. The research population was all students of the school of medicine and school of paramedical sciences at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (n = 496). The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire based on a literature review. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by its content validity, and the reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated based on the test-retest method (r = 0.82). In this examination of medical and paramedical sciences students' attitudes and perspectives, some novel preliminary insights into the applications, advantages, disadvantages, and features of digital games in education emerge. Overall, the findings showed that the use of interactive digital games can increase students' motivation for learning and make the learning process more attractive for students. This study was approved by the ethical committee of MUMS (approval number IR.MUMS.REC.1397.151).

Occupational exposure to blood and body fluids among prehospital emergency medical services workers in Mashhad, Northeast of Iran.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to assess occupational exposure to blood and body fluids (BBFs) and the use of protective equipment among prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) workers in Mashhad, Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional questionnaire survey-based study was conducted from July 2020 to March 2021 in Mashhad. All prehospital EMS workers of Mashhad were invited to participate in the study using the census technique. The questionnaire was about occupational exposure to BBFs, infection control, protective measures, health program, and demographic information. RESULTS: In total, 442 participants answered the questionnaire (response rate: 82.77%). Based on the findings, 420 (95.2%) and 402 (91.2%) participants had been exposed to BBFs as prehospital EMS workers. Moreover, 31.5% and 38.5% of these exposures were caused by contaminated needles and lancets, respectively. The BBFs incidents have occurred despite 98% of the EMS workers reporting there is a needle safety disposable box in the ambulance. The relationship between awareness of precaution measures after exposure to BBFs and training course completion was significant (P < .0001). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the high prevalence of occupational exposures to BBFs among prehospital EMS workers. Considering the significant relationship between the completion of standard precautions courses and awareness of BBFs' postexposure measures, it is recommended to consider multi-faceted strategies for continuous monitoring, training, and follow-up of prehospital EMS workers.

Telemedicine solutions for clinical care delivery during COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review.

Background: The unexpected emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed mindsets about the healthcare system and medical practice in many fields, forcing physicians to reconsider their approaches to healthcare provision. It is necessary to add new, unique, and efficient solutions to traditional methods to overcome this critical challenge. In this regard, telemedicine offers a solution to this problem. Remote medical activities could diminish unnecessary visits and provide prompt medical services in a timely manner. Objective: This scoping review aimed to provide a map of the existing evidence on the use of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on delineation functions and technologies, analyzing settings, and identifying related outcomes. Methods: This review was conducted following the Arksey and O'Malley framework and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. PubMed and Scopus databases were systematically searched based on specific eligibility criteria. The English publications included in this study focused on telemedicine systems implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide clinical care services. Two independent reviewers screened the articles based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The relevant features of telemedicine systems were summarized and presented into the following four domains and their subcategories, including functionality, technology, context, and outcomes. Results: Out of a total of 1,602 retrieved papers, 66 studies met the inclusion criteria. The most common function implemented was counseling, and telemedicine was used for diagnosis in seven studies. In addition, in 12 studies, tele-monitoring of patients was performed by phone, designed platforms, social media, Bluetooth, and video calls. Telemedicine systems were predominantly implemented synchronously (50 studies). Moreover, 10 studies used both synchronous and asynchronous technologies. Although most studies were performed in outpatient clinics or centers, three studies implemented a system for hospitalized patients, and four studies applied telemedicine for emergency care. Telemedicine was effective in improving 87.5% of health resource utilization outcomes, 85% of patient outcomes, and 100% of provider outcomes. Conclusion: The benefits of using telemedicine in medical care delivery systems in pandemic conditions have been well-documented, especially for outpatient care. It could potentially improve patient, provider, and healthcare outcomes. This review suggests that telemedicine could support outpatient and emergency care in pandemic situations. However, further studies using interventional methods are required to increase the generalizability of the findings.

EEG adaptive noise cancellation using information theoretic approach.

OBJECTIVE: In this paper, an adaptive method based on error entropy criterion is presented in order to eliminate noise from Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. METHOD: Conventionally, the Mean-Squared Error (MSE) criterion is the dominant criterion deployed in the adaptive filters for this purpose. By deploying MSE, only second-order moment of the error distribution is optimized, which is not adequate for the noisy EEG signal in which the contaminating noises are typically non-Gaussian. By minimizing error entropy, all moments of the error distribution are minimized; hence, using the Minimum Error Entropy (MEE) algorithm instead of MSE-based adaptive algorithms will improve the performance of noise elimination. RESULTS: Simulation results indicate that the proposed method has a better performance compared to conventional MSE-based algorithm in terms of signal to noise ratio and steady state error.