Mutual Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Recent Earthquakes: A Scoping Review of the Lessons Learned.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to review the articles dealing with the mutual impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the recent earthquakes to elicit the various scopes of the lessons learned including the challenges, the successful measures, and the recommendations. METHODS: To detect the relevant studies published between February 1, 2020, and June 9, 2021, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched. Having considered specific inclusion/exclusion criteria, 18 studies were included. RESULTS: Seven major earthquakes have occurred concurrently or before the pandemic era in Albania, Croatia, Haiti, Great East Japan, Mexico, Nepal, and Utah. Thematic analysis revealed 5 themes for the "challenges" (management inefficiency, increased life-threatening, economic, socially related, and dual psychological challenges); 4 themes for the "efficient response measures" (health-care services measures, government measures, community-based cooperative activities, and disaster management response); and 3 major themes with 7 sub-themes for the "recommendations" including "the mitigation phase" (identifying probable natural disasters), "the preparedness phase" (preparing necessary equipment), and "the response phase" (mental care response measures, health-care-related COVID-19 measures, economic improvement measures, recognizing community-based capabilities, and government-related boosting measures). CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that these scopes of the mutual impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the earthquakes be studied in systematic reviews.

Consecutive Waves of COVID-19 in Iran: Various Dimensions and Probable Causes.

OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has somehow affected the lives of 80% of the world's population. Iran has also experienced numerous outbreaks of this disease. The fifth wave having occurred in August 2021 was one of the most agonizing incidences of the pandemic in the country. METHOD: We reviewed all of publications and govermental statistics about COVID-19 pandemic In Iran between 2019 to 2021. RESULTS: The current study discusses the possible dimensions and causes of successive waves of COVID-19 in Iran, namely, the consequences of a significant delay in vaccination administration in due time, the collective overwhelming fallacy toward immunization, the polypharmacy controversy, inadequate community-based participation in risk reduction, and noticeable decrease in the public's resilience. CONCLUSION: A variety of strategies have been recommended in the article to modify the principal challenges in order to help control the pandemic in the country.

COVID-19 and Alcohol Poisoning: A Fatal Competition.

In March 2020, concurrently with the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Iran, the rate of alcohol poisoning was unexpectedly increased in the country. This study has attempted to make an overall description and analysis of this phenomenon by collecting credible data from the field, news, and reports published by the emergency centers and the Iranian Ministry of Health. The investigations showed that in May 20, 2020, more than 6150 people have been affected by methanol poisoning from whom 804 deaths have been reported. A major cause of the increased rate of alcohol poisoning in this period was actually the illusion that alcohol could eliminate the coronaviruses having entered the body. It is of utmost importance that all mass media try to dismiss the cultural, religious, and political considerations and prepare convincing programs to openly discuss the side-effects of forged alcohol consumption with the public, especially with the youth. It must be clearly specified that "consuming alcohol cannot help prevent COVID-19."

Disaster and Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review.

Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients experience a variety of disease caused disabilities that makes them more vulnerable to the effects of disasters. This study aimed to review all existed studies about disasters and related disaster management planning about MS patients. Methods: The PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science, ProQuest, science direct , and grey literature databases were searched up to the mid of 2021. All obtained titles were assessed by the inclusion criteria. Abstracts of the relevant titles were reviewed and eligible articles/documents were included for full text review and data abstraction. Results: From 24616 Articles/documents, finally 15 documents (13 articles, and 2 books) were selected. In 8 articles (53%) specifically, focused on MS patients and, in the rest focused on them as a member of people with disabilities. Most studies (10, 71.4%), emphasized on the disaster induced stress effect on MS patients. In two books/book sections, the disaster preparedness plan for all types of disabilities was presented in general, and MS patients were mentioned as a member of the group of patients with disabilities. Conclusion: Despite the importance of planning in response to disasters to address specific problems of MS patients, there is a lack of proper planning. This is very important and there is an urgent need to develop appropriate planning protocols for addressing the special conditions of MS patients in response to disasters.

Lessons Learned From the Higher Risk Perception and the Efficient Flood Mitigation in Haji-Abad, Golestan Province, Iran, 2019.

OBJECTIVE: In the present study, the factors inducing the successful immediate mitigation measures and other activities at Haji-Abad village in Golestan Province, Iran, were scrutinized. METHODS: To find authentic data, information was gathered from a variety of sources, including mass media documents and interviews with the related Health House attendant (Behvarz) at Haji-Abad and the disaster liaison at the Rural-Urban Healthcare Center, both of whom were among the residents. A thematic analysis was performed on the transcriptions. RESULTS: The findings showed that apart from the favorable geographical location of the area, appropriate education as well as vast family kinship among the residents were the major causes that induced high-risk perception, adequate collaboration and coordination among the residents and between them and the local authorities, and the women's active participation; these major effects, in turn, helped provide all of the efficient mitigation measures leading to the flood control. CONCLUSION: It is recommended that opportunities for people's collaboration in preparedness, mitigation measures, and resilience during the occurrence of disasters be arranged by means of providing related inclusive operational education prior to the incidents. This can simultaneously generate risk perception and help people assume themselves as the owners of the disasters.

Risk Factors for Suicidal Behaviours after Natural Disasters: A Systematic Review.

Natural disasters have multiple psychological effects including increased risk of suicide among victims. Reviews have shown that suicidal behaviours can be an aftermath of natural disasters. The present study attempted to identify the suicide-related risk factors after natural disasters. This study was a systematic review probing English language articles related to suicide and its risk factors after natural disasters and published between 1 January 1990 and 27 September 2018 in Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, ProQuest and Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases. After reviewing and screening the collected studies by means of specific criteria, only 30 studies were qualified to enter the survey. It was found that most of these studies had investigated suicide after earthquake. Gender, age, serious mental disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), loss of family members, low economic status, low social support, and injury to the person and the family/relatives were identified as the most important risk factors for suicide after natural disasters. Women, adolescents, elderly, people with depression and PTSD, those suffer from low social support and parentless people were found to be among the ones being highly vulnerable to suicide after natural disasters. There is, therefore, a need for providing psychosocial support for these people after such disasters.

Analysis of the Man-Made Causes of Shiraz Flash Flood: Iran, 2019.

Flood is the most common natural hazard in Iran, which annually affects the environment and human lives. On March 25, 2019 in Shiraz-Iran, following a heavy rainfall, the occurrence of a flash flood caused an extensive number of deaths, injuries, and vehicle demolitions in a short time. Evidence suggests that man-made causes of the incident, including unsustainable urban development and lack of early warning services, have played a more influential role compared with its natural causes. This study has attempted to substantiate that understanding disaster risks, as the first priority of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015-2030, directly impacts the decisions and actions of policymakers, local authorities, and the public. To provide more safety, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction, attention should primarily be paid on making a cultural paradigm shift through providing sufficient training in developing appropriate disaster risk perception in the community at large.

Internet of things in medicine: A systematic mapping study.

CONTEXT: The current studies on IoT in healthcare have reviewed the uses of this technology in a combination of healthcare domains, including nursing, rehabilitation sciences, ambient assisted living (AAL), medicine, etc. However, no review study has scrutinized IoT advances exclusively in medicine irrespective of other healthcare domains. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the current study was to identify and map the current IoT developments in medicine through providing graphical/tabular classifications on the current experimental and practical IoT information in medicine, the involved medical sub-fields, the locations of IoT use in medicine, and the bibliometric information about IoT research articles. METHODS: In this systematic mapping study, the studies published between 2000 and 2018 in major online scientific databases, including IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed were screened. A total of 3679 papers were found from which 89 papers were finally selected based on specific inclusion/exclusion criteria. RESULTS: While the majority of medical IoT studies were experimental and prototyping in nature, they generally reported that home was the most popular place for medical IoT applications. It was also found that neurology, cardiology, and psychiatry/psychology were the medical sub-fields receiving the most IoT attention. Bibliometric analysis showed that IEEE Internet of Things Journal has published the most influential IoT articles. India, China and the United States were found to be the most involved countries in medical IoT research. CONCLUSIONS: Although IoT has not yet been employed in some medical sub-fields, recent substantial surge in the number of medical IoT studies will most likely lead to the engagement of more medical sub-fields in the years to come. IoT literature also shows that the ambiguity of assigning a variety of terms to IoT, namely system, platform, device, tool, etc., and the interchangeable uses of these terms require a taxonomy study to investigate the precise definition of these terms. Other areas of research have also been mentioned at the end of this article.

Anatomical Features of the Interscapular Area Where Wet Cupping Therapy Is Done and Its Possible Relation to Acupuncture Meridians.

Although wet cupping has been a treatment for centuries, its mechanism of action is not well understood. Because the anatomical features of the wet-cupping area might play a role in its mechanism, we focus on the features of the interscapular area in which a common type of wet-cupping therapy (WCT), called Hijamat-e-Aam in Iranian medicine, is usually applied and discuss the possible relation of those features to the acupuncture meridians. We gathered and analyzed data from reliable textbooks on modern medicine with a focus on the anatomical features of the interscapular area, topics related to WTC in Iranian medicine, and acupuncture sources obtained by searching PubMed, Google-Scholar, and Science Direct. The interscapular area used for WCT was found to have special features: brown adipose tissue, immediate proximity to sympathetic ganglia, passage of the thoracic duct, two important acupuncture meridians, and proximity to the main vessel divisions carrying blood from the heart and the brain. These features indicate that the interscapular application of WCT not only discharges waste materials through a shifting of blood to the site after application of a traction force but also invigorates the body's metabolism, increases immunity, and regulates blood biochemistry, which are desired therapeutic effects of WCT.

Evaluation of the learning management system using students' perceptions.

Background: Learning Management System (LMS) is a web-based system designed to support teaching and learning at an institution. The capabilities of any LMS are required to be evaluated to detect the room for improvement. This study aimed at discovering the students' perceptions of the functions of the LMS at Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS). Methods: This qualitative study included 15 students of two master programs of Biostatistics and Medical Librarianship during the fall semester of 2015. The participants were asked to write down their perceptions of the experiences they had while using the LMS and classify them based on two categories of "Advantages and Drawbacks". Framework Analysis technique was used to analyze the views. Results: The themes emerging from the 'Advantages' included advantages for the students, advantages for the teachers, and advantages for both; however, those from the 'Drawbacks' were found to be technical and nontechnical problems. Conclusion: The major debated points in the comments comprised the students' positive accounts of the Forum section, and their complaints of the frequent glitches recurring in the system as well as some constructive problems such as inefficient tools for typing in English. Some all-inclusive inferences concerning the methodology of the study have also been pointed out in the final section.

Antecedents and consequences of work engagement among nurses.

BACKGROUND: Engaged nurses have high levels of energy and are enthusiastic about their work which impacts quality of health care services. However, in the context of Iran, due to observed burnout, work engagement among nurses necessitates immediate exploration. OBJECTIVES: This investigation aimed to identify a suitable work engagement model in nursing profession in hospitals according to the hypothesized model and to determine antecedents and consequences related to work engagement among nurses. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a questionnaire was given to 279 randomly-selected nurses working in two general teaching hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (Shiraz, Iran) to measure antecedents and consequences of work engagement using the Saks's (2005) model. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine the model fitness. RESULTS: Two paths were added using LISREL software. The resulting model showed good fitness indices (χ(2) = 23.62, AGFI = 0.93, CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.07) and all the coefficients of the paths were significant (t ≥ 2, t ≤ -2). A significant correlation was found between work engagement and model variables. CONCLUSIONS: Paying adequate attention to the antecedents of work engagement can enhance the quality of performance among nurses. Additionally, rewards, organizational and supervisory supports, and job characteristics should be taken into consideration to establish work engagement among nurses. Further researches are required to identify other probable antecedents and consequences of nursing work engagement, which might be related to specific cultural settings.