Quality of life of Iranian and Afghan pregnant women in rural Iran.

Background: Pregnancy is a unique experience in a woman's life, which comes with physiological, metabolic, social, and psychological changes. The combination of these changes along with migration, may reduce the quality of life of pregnant women and mothers. This study aims to determine the quality of life in rural pregnant women. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Three hundred pregnant Iranian and Afghan women who attended the public health centers in regional Tehran, Iran, were systematically selected and included in the study. Different dimensions of health status were investigated using the standard health-related quality of life questionnaire (SF-26) through interviews. SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis. Results: The psychological health subscale (38.00) in the Iranian pregnant women and the physical health subscale (38.83) in the Afghan pregnant women had the highest scores. The lowest score was in social functioning subscale in both groups (20.59 in Iranian and 21.22 in Afghans). In general, Iranian mothers had lower scores compared to Afghan mothers. There was a relationship between the quality of life of Iranian pregnant women, their level of education and family's monthly income (P <0.05), and between the quality of life of Afghan pregnant women with the lesser number of pregnancies (P <0.05). Conclusions: In rural Iran, the quality of life score and its subscales is comparably low in both Iranian and Afghan pregnant women. Interventions are needed to improve the quality of life in this vulnerable population.

The Economic Effects of COVID-19 on the Hospital Industry in Iran and the World.

The new Coronavirus is spreading rapidly around the world these days, and many countries are heavily infected with it. Corona is a large family of viruses that cause respiratory infections, from the common cold to the SARS epidemic that broke out in 2003, and now the newest member of the family (SARS-Cov-2) is present in Iran. Like other countries, it is expanding rapidly. Currently, COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most important health issues in Iran and around the World (1-4). The "Corona crisis" has led to various effects in the World, including economic, political, educational, cultural, lifestyle, and so on. But over time, the Corona outbreak appears to have led to an economic shock in the World. According to economists, there are three types of economic shocks caused by the virus; type L economic shock, in which economic growth slows and never improves; type U economic shock, in which economic growth decreases and subsequently improves, but never returns to its previous state; and type V economic shock, in which economic growth gradually decreases, but gradually returns to normal (5-8). It seems, in Iran, due to COVID-19 crisis, the hospitals as a heart of health services providing system were faced with the L type of economic shock.