The experiences of Red Crescent relief workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran: a qualitative phenomenological study.

BACKGROUND: The daily increase of infected individuals and mortalities related to COVID-19 in Iran increased public fear and anxiety and affected the job performance of many health workers, including the Iranian Red Crescent Society, as one of the organizations responding to COVID-19. METHODS: This study aimed to explore the experiences of Red Crescent rescuers, using a qualitative method with an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), and by conducting semi-structured and in-depth interviews with Red Crescent relief workers from Mashhad in September 2020. Participants were selected by purposive sampling. RESULTS: Rescuers in the Red Crescent Society, had gained different experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experiences were categorized into four main themes. These main themes were: (1) Psychological disorders, (2) Organizational support (3) Mis-management (both structural and human factors), and (4) Opportunities. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 epidemic did create unique opportunities to understand the pitfalls of the Red Crescent aid services. Red Crescent rescue workers suffered from psychological symptoms, and mismanagement was also present. Psychological support and organizational improvements should be implemented.

Developing and validating a measurement tool to self-report pedestrian safety-related behavior: The Pedestrian Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ).

OBJECTIVE: Pedestrians are road users vulnerable to traffic injuries and fatalities. This study aimed to develop and validate a pedestrian behavior questionnaire to be used in Iran. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the initial questionnaire was designed based on the evaluation of previous studies conducted world-wide or in Iran. The initial pack included 127 items. After the assuring the face validity of the questionnaire, 27 experts' opinions in the field of traffic was obtained for assessing/ improving the content validity. To test the reliability of the questionnaire, the test-retest method and internal consistency assessment were used. To evaluate the structural validity, the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using the principal component and the Varimax rotation was applied. RESULTS: After completing the face validity and after summarizing the experts' suggestions, 12 questions were deleted. By calculating the content validity ratio and coefficient, 20 and 17 were removed. Also, the average content validity coefficient regarding relevancy, clarity and overall average were 0.86, 0.88, and 0.87, respectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.84. In the last stage and according to the results of the factor analysis, five factors violations, distraction, positive behaviors (group1), positive behaviors (group2) and Aggressive behaviors) were identified from the 29-items questionnaire, which explained 98% of the total variance. CONCLUSION: Considering the necessity of using a verified and validated tool for planning and evaluating effective interventions for pedestrians is inevitable. The tool designed in the study was found to be valid and reliable for use to measure pedestrian's behavior and planning to modify high-risk behaviors and enhance safe pedestrian behaviors.

The relation between climatic factors and malaria incidence in Kerman, South East of Iran.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Malaria is among the most important parasitic diseases, and is one of the endemic diseases in Iran. This disease is often known as a disease related to climate changes. Due to the health and economic burden of malaria and the location of Kerman province in an area with high incidence of malaria, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of climatic factors on the incidence of this disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data on the incidence of malaria in Kerman province was inquired from Kerman and Jiroft Medical Universities and climatic variables were inquired from the meteorological organization of Kerman. The data was analyzed monthly from 2000 to 2012. Variations in incidence of malaria with climatic factors were assessed with negative binomial regression model in STATA11software. In order to determine the delayed effects of meteorological variables on malaria incidence, cross-correlation analysis was done with Minitab16. RESULTS: The most effective meteorological factor on the incidence of malaria was temperature. As the mean, maximum, and minimum of monthly temperature increased, the incidence rate raised significantly. The multivariate negative binomial regression model indicates that a 1 °C increase in maximum temperature in a given month was related to a 15% and 19% increase on malaria incidence on the same and subsequent month, respectively (p-value = 0.001). Humidity and Rainfall were not significant in the adjusted model. CONCLUSION: Temperature is among the effective climatic parameters on the incidence of malaria which should be considered in planning for control and prevention of the disease.