فهرست مطالب masoumeh mortaghy ghasemy

Emergency medical services (EMS) workers are constantly in exposure to intense physical and mental distress secondary to their obligatory at-once attendance to emergency medical situations.

This study’s aim was to compare the effect of foot reflexology with olive oil and peppermint inhalation on job stress and fatigue severity among the workers of EMS affiliated with the Zanjan University of Medical Sciences.

This was a clinical trial conducted on 69 employees of urban and road EMS units. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups. The first intervention group received foot reflexology with olive oil in the stress- and fatigue-reduction regions of the feet for three 20-minute sessions over a 3-month period. For the second intervention group, three drops of 10% peppermint essential oil were poured on a gauze, which was held 10 cm away from the nose. The control group received no intervention. The data were collected using the Esipo and Spokane job stress questionnaire and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). The data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software.

The results of the ANOVA test revealed no significant difference in the overall mean scores of fatigue severity and job stress between the study groups before the interventions; however, the mean scores of fatigue severity (P<0.002) and job stress (P<0.001) showed a statistically significant difference between the study groups after the intervention.

Considering the effectiveness of both interventions, each of the interventions can be used to reduce the job stress and fatigue of emergency medical workers.

Premenstrual syndrome is a set of symptoms that affect the quality of life, family relationships and social functioning of women. One of the recommended methods to control symptoms is lifestyle modification, which is emphasized by Persian medicine. Motivational interviewing helps to modify lifestyle by creating self-care behaviors. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of motivational interview with the content of principles of Hefz – Alsehe in Persian medicine on premenstrual physical and psychological symptoms.

A randomized controlled trial was started on 21/01/2022 in selected medical centers in Zanjan. 50 women who had premenstrual symptoms after obtaining written informed consent were divided into two intervention (25) and control (25) groups with random allocation. The intervention was five individually and virtually sessions of motivational interviews based on the principles of Hefz-Alsehe in Persian medicine. Control group did not receive any intervention. The premenstrual symptoms screening tool was completed by the participants in three stages before the intervention, immediately after the intervention and three months follow-ups. Data were analyzed by independent t-test, chi- squared test, repeated measurement test and Benferroni's post hoc test in SPSS.

In the intervention group, the mean changes (standard deviation) of psychological symptoms in pre-test 22.57(8.053), post-test 16.95(7.406) and follow-up 11.67(5.893) and the effect of symptoms on daily life activities the pre-test 10.05(2.356), post-test 5.24(2.624) and follow-up 4.52(2.694) with (P<0.01) was significant. Changes in physical symptoms were not significant.

According to the findings of the study, motivational interview focused on some principles of Hefz – Alsehe in Persian medicine can be used to improve the psychological symptoms of PMS and the impact of symptoms on daily life activities.

The COVID-19 disease has worse outcomes in individuals with underlying diseases and elderly individuals. Therefore, identifying COVID-19 risk perception and its related factors and outcomes in vulnerable groups is essential for the health system.

This study aimed to determine COVID-19 risk perception, its related factors, and outcomes in vulnerable groups (individuals with underlying diseases, smokers, opioid addicts, the elderly, and pregnant women).

This systematic review was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The search was carried out using the keywords “Risk perception” and “COVID-19” in PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, SID, Proquest, and Magiran databases in the period from 2019 to July 3, 2021. The quality of selected studies was checked by two authors independently according to Newcastle-Ottawa Scale adapted for cross-sectional.

In the initial search, 640 articles were found, of which 56 remained in the screening phase. Then, the full text of 56 articles was studied. Eventually, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the articles, 8 articles were reviewed. This systematic review showed that suffering from an underlying disease, more anxiety, younger age, and female gender are associated with higher COVID-19 risk perception. The outcomes of COVID-19 risk perception were higher COVID-19 risk perception, delayed treatment sessions, increased anxiety and fear, increased ineffective safety behaviors, and greater compliance with health protocols.

Creating sensitivity and proper COVID-19 risk perception is necessary to follow health protocols, but high COVID-19 risk perception can endanger vulnerable groups’ mental and physical health. Besides, reducing the sensitivity of vulnerable groups toward COVID-19 can expose them to the disease