Cardiovascular manifestations in COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global population, and one of the major causes of mortality in infected patients is cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we systematically searched Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases for all articles published by April 2, 2020. Observational studies (cohort and cross-sectional designs) were included in this meta-analysis if they reported at least one of the related cardiovascular symptoms or laboratory findings in COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, we did not use any language, age, diagnostic COVID-19 criteria, and hospitalization criteria restrictions. The following keywords alone or in combination with OR and AND operators were used for searching the literature: "Wuhan coronavirus", "COVID-19", "coronavirus disease 2019", "SARS-CoV-2", "2019 novel coronavirus" "cardiovascular disease", "CVD", "hypertension", "systolic pressure", "dyspnea", "hemoptysis", and "arrhythmia". Study characteristics, exposure history, laboratory findings, clinical manifestations, and comorbidities were extracted from the retrieved articles. Sixteen studies were selected which involved 4754 patients, including 2103 female and 2639 male patients. Among clinical cardiac manifestations, chest pain and arrhythmia were found to have the highest incidence proportion. In addition, elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and D-dimer levels were the most common cardiovascular laboratory findings. Finally, hypertension, chronic heart failure, and coronary heart disease were the most frequently reported comorbidities. The findings suggest that COVID-19 can cause various cardiovascular symptoms and laboratory findings. It is also worth noting that cardiovascular comorbidities like hypertension have a notable prevalence among COVID-19 patients.

Burden of Care in Caregivers of Iranian patients with chronic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Caring for patients with chronic disorders can lead to different problems for caregivers in physical, psychological, social, family, and financial domains. High levels of burden of care can make caregivers vulnerable to physical and psychological conditions and influence their quality of life. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to estimate the overall percentage of burden of care in caregivers of Iranian patients with chronic disorders. METHODS: A total of 25 articles published from inception to February 2019 were reviewed. Search for articles was conducted in international (Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed) and domestic (Scientific Information Database (SID) and MagIran) databases, using the following keywords: "Caregiver," "Burden," and "Iran," and their possible combinations. The data were analyzed using the meta-analysis method and the random effects model. All the analyses were performed using STATA, version 14. RESULTS: The overall percentage of burden of care in caregivers of Iranian patients with chronic disorders was 53.28% (95% CI: 46.13-60.43). The highest percentage of burden of care was related to dialysis (62.75; 95% CI: 56.11-69.38), mental disorders (58.69; 95% CI: 49.70-67.69), and Alzheimer's disease (57.07; 95% CI: 46.23-67.92), respectively; and the lowest percentage of burden of care was related to diabetes (34.92; 95% CI: 18.01-51.82). CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers of Iranian patients with chronic disorders experience high levels of burden of care, especially those caring for patients undergoing dialysis, patients with mental disorders, and patients with Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, necessary measures need to be taken by Iranian health care officials to reduce burden of care in caregivers.

Health literacy among Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Health literacy is one of the most important determinants of health. Limited health literacy can leads to reduced adherence to treatment, repeated hospitalizations, and increased diseases complications. Several studies on health literacy among Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes have reported different prevalences of health literacy. The present study is aimed to determine through a systematic review and meta-analysis the prevalence of adequate health literacy in the Iranian population. A total of 8 articles that met the inclusion criteria, published from inception until December 2018, were collected. Articles were searched using the following keywords and their possible combinations: Health Literacy, Illiteracy, Functional Health Literacy, Diabetes, Diabetes Mellitus, and Iran. The data were analyzed using meta-analysis and the random-effects model was used to obtain a pooled prevalence estimate along with its 95% confidence interval. Heterogeneity among the studies was assessed using the I2 statistic. Analyses were performed using STATA software, version 12. The overall prevalences of inadequate and borderline health literacy among Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes were 43.47% (95% CI: 31-55.95) and 26.34% (95% CI: 19.49-33.19), respectively. In addition, the prevalence of adequate health literacy among patients with type 2 diabetes was 29.72% (95% CI: 22.79-36.64). There was no significant relationship between health literacy with year of publication, sample size, and patients' age. Inadequate health literacy is high (43.5%) among Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes. This makes it necessary to provide interventions aimed at improving their heath literacy which will reduce hospitalizations and diseases complications.

Prevalence of metabolic syndrome among Iranian women with polycystic ovary syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder that is associated with an increased the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and hence increased cardiovascular diseases in women. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at examining the prevalence of MetS in Iranian women with PCOS. This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of English and Persian studies, using the following keywords: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Hyperandrogenism, Metabolic Syndrome,"MetSyn", X Syndrome, and Iran in several national and international databases (Scientific Information Database (SID), Magiran, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus from inception to February 2019. Heterogeneity among the studies was assessed using the Cochran's Q test. The random effects model was then used to estimate the overall prevalence of MetS. ALL the analyses were performed using STATA, version 12. Overall, 10 studies were included in the study. The overall prevalence of MetS among Iranian women with PCOS was 26.6% (95% CI: 16.60-31.70). In addition, the mean body mass index (BMI) was 27.47 (95% CI: 25.46-29.48) and the mean waist circumference was 87.94 (95% CI: 84.28-91.60). According the meta-regression results, there were no significant associations between the prevalence of MetS and sample size, year of publication, waist circumference, BMI, and age. One-fourth of Iranian women with PCOS have MetS. Given the overlap between anthropometric and metabolic abnormalities in PCOS and the features of MetS, accurate identification of patients with MetS is important to ensure early diagnosis and subsequent interventions to effectively manage the condition.

Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome among Iranian Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is the major risk factor for development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in different populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of MetS among Iranian population. METHODS: Thirty-four cross-sectional studies were analyzed with a sample of 83227 people. National and international English electronic databases (PubMed, Google scholar, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Scopus) and Persian language databases (SID, Medlib, Iran medex, Magiran, Medlib, and IranDoc) were used to search the articles published on MetS in Iranian population from Jan 2005 to May 2016. The MetS diagnosis was performed according to the ATP-III, NCEP/ATP-III, IDF and WHO criteria. RESULTS: The overall weighted prevalence of MetS was 31% (95% CI: 28-35). According to ATP III criteria, total and gender-stratified prevalence of MetS in women and men were 29% (95% CI: 22-36), 37% (95% CI: 26-48) and 29% (95% CI: 23-36), respectively. Total prevalence of MetS based on NCEP/ATP III criteria was 29% (95% CI: 24-35) that the prevalence was 24% (95% CI: 18-30) and 35% (95% CI: 25-44) in men and women, respectively. According to the IDF and WHO criteria, total prevalence of MetS were 38% (95% CI: 32-43) and 30% (95% CI: 7-53), respectively. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate an emerging high prevalence of MetS in total and in particular among Iranian women population. Therefore, to minimize the risk of cardiovascular events in Iranian population, screening and early detection of risk factors for MetS are required.

Assessing factors related to waist circumference and obesity: application of a latent variable model.

BACKGROUND: Because the use of BMI (Body Mass Index) alone as a measure of adiposity has been criticized, in the present study our aim was to fit a latent variable model to simultaneously examine the factors that affect waist circumference (continuous outcome) and obesity (binary outcome) among Iranian adults. METHODS: Data included 18,990 Iranian individuals aged 20-65 years that are derived from the third National Survey of Noncommunicable Diseases Risk Factors in Iran. Using latent variable model, we estimated the relation of two correlated responses (waist circumference and obesity) with independent variables including age, gender, PR (Place of Residence), PA (physical activity), smoking status, SBP (Systolic Blood Pressure), DBP (Diastolic Blood Pressure), CHOL (cholesterol), FBG (Fasting Blood Glucose), diabetes, and FHD (family history of diabetes). RESULTS: All variables were related to both obesity and waist circumference (WC). Older age, female sex, being an urban resident, physical inactivity, nonsmoking, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hyperglycemia, diabetes, and having family history of diabetes were significant risk factors that increased WC and obesity. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study of Iranian adult settings offer more insights into factors associated with high WC and high prevalence of obesity in this population.