Motivations for alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic in Islamic Republic of Iran

Background: High alcohol consumption is an important public health problem, and understanding factors associated with such consumption is essential. Aims: This study aimed to assess individual and social factors associated with alcohol consumption during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Methods: In this qualitative study, purposive sampling was used to select study participants by sharing the survey link on the Telegram application channels with an Iranian audience during COVID-19. The study was conducted from March to June 2020 and reached all Iranian provinces. We used qualitative content analysis to investigate specific concepts in the responses. Results: Of the 116 participants who responded to the survey, 34 (29.3%) were females, and 82 (70.7%) were male. The mean age of the participants was 34.8 years (standard deviation 9.9; range 17–71 years). Most of the participants (75.9%) reported having consumed alcohol, and 56.9% reported having self-medicated for an illness without a doctor’s prescription before the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common reason given for alcohol consumption was to relieve stress during home quarantining (32.3%). Based on analysis of the responses, two themes emerged: coping motivations and coping skills, with five subthemes and 14 basic codes. Coping motivations were more powerful than coping skills in relation to high alcohol consumption. Conclusion: Poor coping skills and strong motivations, combined with misinformation on social media and the internet, appear to have led to new or higher alcohol consumption among survey respondents.

Liver Function in Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

IntroductionThe outbreak of new coronavirus has become a global public health challenge. Given a consequential liver function, and the high risk of death coming from liver disorders, the assessment of Novel Coronavirus Disease on liver function is importance. Hence, we carried out this meta-analysis to heightening insight into the occult features of COVID 19, which is likely to affect liver function. MethodThis study was performed using databases of Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed. We considered English cross-sectional and case-series papers, which reported available findings on the association between liver injury and COVID-19 infection. We used the STATA v.11 and random effect model for data analysis. ResultIn this present meta-analysis, 52 papers, including 8,463 COVID-19 patients, were studied. The prevalence of increased liver enzymes among the patients, including Alanine aminotransferase, Aspartate aminotransferase, were 30% and 21% in non-severe patients, respectively, which were 38% and 48% in severe patients. The prevalence of increasing C-reactive protein, Lactate dehydrogenase, D-dimer, and Bilirubin were 55%, 39%, 28%, and 10% in non-severe patients respectively, which were 78%, 75%, 79% and 17% in sever patients.The prevalence of liver toxicity as a complication of COVID-19 was 20%.Also patients who have severe condition are 5.54, 4.22, 4.96, 4.13 and 4.34 times more likely to have elevated CRP, ALT, AST, LDH, D-dimer enzymes retrospectively. ConclusionElevation of some liver markers were higher in patients with severe COVID-19 infection. All to gather, we assumed that abnormal liver markers could act as a prognostic factor for a better survey of COVID-19.