nader alishan karami

Health information‑seeking behavior refers to individuals’ targeted actions to satisfy their health information needs and search for relevant disease‑related information. Nowadays, social media platforms provide a great opportunity for meeting health information needs and delivering preventive education regarding human papillomavirus (HPV). The purpose of this study is the information‑seeking behavior of Iranian young adults (18–28 years old) regarding HPV on social media, a preventive approach to HPV.

The present descriptive‑analytical study was conducted in 2023 among Iranian boys and girls aged 18–28 years. A multistage cluster sampling method was used to select 3840 participants. The data collection tool was Longo’s Health Information‑Seeking Behavior Questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS software.

The results showed that Iranian youth aged 18–28 were more inclined to seek information on social media about the transmission routes and preventive measures for HPV. The primary informational need regarding transmission was “I want to know the main route of HPV transmission is through vaginal and anal intercourse?”, and regarding prevention, it was “Can condoms prevent HPV infection?” Additionally, the findings indicated that young individuals sought information about HPV after their first sexual encounter. Most of the information needs of the youth were fulfilled through YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp, mainly in video format. Approximately 85.10% of the youth were satisfied with the information obtained from social media. The results revealed a significant and positive relationship between the health information needs of young adults (18–28 years old) in the area of HPV and personal factors. Gender, age, marital status, education level, history of HPV infection, and engaging is unprotected extramarital sex were identified as significant influential factors on the level of information needs of young individuals, especially regarding HPV preventive measures (P < 0.05).

Health authorities and disease control and prevention centers need to harness the potential of social media in meeting the informational needs of youth and providing education and awareness, especially concerning the transmission and prevention of HPV.

This study aimed to investigate the attention given to scientific outputs about COVID-19 vaccines worldwide on social media. It utilized scientometrics and altmetrics indicators. A dataset with 12,364 works indexed in the WOS database from 2020 to 2022 was analyzed. Altmetric Scores (AS) and Altmetrics were extracted from Altmetric Explorer. Data analysis was performed using Access, Excel, and SPSS software. The retrieved articles garnered attention on 13 social media platforms.  The highest amount of social attention, accounting for 97% of the total, was related to X (Twitter) and Mendeley. The highest AS (43,765) was for an open-access article entitled "Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer's vaccine trial: Video 1" in the BMJ cited in 14 social media. The most productive countries in COVID-19 vaccine research were the USA, England, and China, while Harvard University, the University of London, and the University of California emerged as the most active research institutes. The findings confirmed a significant, moderate, and positive correlation between the AS and most Altmetrics with the number of citations. Additionally, a positive, substantial, and moderate correlation was observed between citations, the AS of highly-cited papers, and the AS of hot documents. Considering the positive impact of social media on increasing the chance of receiving more citations for articles and improving the impact range of articles from academic users to social users, the activities of researchers in social media are effective in increasing the visibility of scientific works.

This study aims to monitor the scientific productions of the faculty members at Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (HUMS) during the COVID-19 pandemic indexed by Scopus using the citation and altmetrics indexes.

This is a descriptive-analytical study using a scientometric approach in 2023. The study population consists of the articles of the HUMS faculty members during the pandemic (2020-2022) indexed by Scopus. The search was conducted using the affiliation identifier form of the Scopus database with no restrictions on the type of study. The search yielded 956 articles (152 articles related to COVID-19). Altmetrics extension was used in Google Scholar search engine to check the status of works in social networks. Bibliographic information, citations and altmetrics index of the articles were entered in Excel software and then analyzed using descriptive and analytical methods in SPSS software, version 26.

The rate of attention paid to all articles and COVID-19-related articles was 90.27% and 46%, respectively. The attention was mostly paid by capture (68.89%), social media (8.8%) and view (8.4%), according to the altmetric indicators. There was a strong and positive correlation between the citation index and the altmetrics index of the COVID-19-related articles. These articles were mostly visible on Mendeley, followed by Twitter and Facebook.

Information about the visibility of articles in different social networks along with the number of citations can lead to efficient competition among faculty members in social networks.

 This study investigated the impact of individual factors on the Health information-seeking behavior (HISB) of infertile couples undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART).

 This applied study was done using the descriptive-analytical method. The population of the study remains to be infertile couples undergoing ART referred to a public Infertility Center and a private one in Bandar Abbas (capital of Hormozgan province, Southern Iran) in the summer of 2020. Using simple random sampling, 168 people were selected. The data collection tool was a questionnaire extracted from Longo HISB Model, used after validation and reliability. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive and inferential tests.

 The results showed that individual factors (gender, education, income, age, and cause of infertility) affect the HISB of infertile couples. Based on the analysis of variance, there was a significant difference between infertile couples concerning Passive Information Receipt (F = 2.688 and P = 0.048) so the couples with a male cause used Passive Information Receipt more.

 Considering the results, it is necessary for the country's health system to take appropriate measures to provide an appropriate situation for better decision-making for infertile couples and improve the chances of fertility by reducing the existing inequalities to Active Information Receipt and quality health information.

Clinical coding is a complex and error-prone process. Correct clinical coding requires high-quality documentation of medical records. This study aimed to identify the quality of medical records documentation and the accuracy of coding with ICD-10 compared to ICD-11.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2022. The samples were chosen from 11638 medical records of patients admitted at the Shahid Mohammadi teaching hospital with the diagnosis of injury, poisoning, and certain other consequences of external causes. Using Cochran's formula, 500 medical records were evaluated. The research was conducted in two stages to check the accuracy of coding and the defects in the documentation of medical records for coding. The research data collection tools were separate checklists for each stage. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS software.

The number of codes allocated to the studied medical records was 1673 and 1468 codes based on ICD-10 and ICD-11 classification systems, respectively. The majority of records (98%) had at least one type of major or minor error, 23% had only major errors, 46% had only minor errors, and 31% had both types of ICD-10 coding errors. Moreover, 81% and 26% of the medical records contained adequate information to fully or relatively fully describe the codes using ICD-10 and ICD-11 classification systems, respectively.

Compared to ICD-10, there were more defects in the documentation of medical records for coding with ICD-11. Development written documentation guidelines by ICD-11, using templates and reminders, and providing feedback to healthcare providers. Using automated coding support tools, coding audits, and continuous training of coders are essential for coding quality improvement.

Couples undergoing Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) come across various information needs. This study aimed to identify the health information needs of couples undergoing ART.

The methodology of the present applied study was qualitative and the research method was conventional qualitative content analysis performed with the participation of 25 infertile couples under ART. The study took nine months (July 2020 to March 2021). The samples were objectively screened based on the criteria from the couples referred to the infertility center affiliated to Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (Public) and Ome‑Leila Specialized infertility clinic (Private) in Bandar Abbas (Iran). Data collection was performed by semi‑structured interviews. The typical content analysis method was used in this research. Data analysis was carried out based on coding by the use of MAXQDA a software for qualitative and mixed methods data analysis.

Information needs of couples under ART were categorized into three main categories and ten subcategories: 1) main cause of infertility [feminine or masculine cause, and etiology (nature and origin)], 2) treatment of infertility [identifying ART, treatment success rate, complications and risks (outcomes) of the treatment method, and treatment duration], and 3) healthcare [advice on medication, healthy nutrition (diet), sexual relations, and daily routine].

The results of this study emphasize that the country’s health officials, especially those in charge of the healthcare of infertile couples under ART, must necessarily pay more attention to meeting the needs of this group of people in society.

Timely donation of transplantable organs of brain dead patients is the main source for supplying organs needed by patients waiting for a transplant. Training healthcare staff involved in managing brain dead patients is a major priority of the Iranian Society of Organ Donation. This study determined the effectiveness of the training course of organ donation following brain death on the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) of healthcare staff in Hormozgan.

This quasi-experimental (single group pre-post test) study was conducted in Bandar Abbas in autumn of 2018. Totally, 117 staff involved in managing brain dead patients participated in the study. KAP was assessed by a researcher-made questionnaire in three stages: before and after training, and 2 months later. We used t-independent parametric tests for two-group comparison, repeated measurement for a three-step comparison of KAP, and post-hoc analysis for pairwise comparison of the stages

Eighty-five participants (72.6%) returned the questionnaires in all the stages. They included 67% female, 75.3% married, and 88.2% with bachelor degrees. The mean age was 36.95±7.71 years old. KAP assessed in the 2nd and 3rd stages were significantly higher than the 1st stage. The KAP of men and women improved but not significantly. KAP of participants with bachelor degrees improved significantly, but not for those with higher degrees.

The assessment in the three stages proved that the training course effectively improved KAP of the participants

The rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) turned into a global pandemic and has already plunged health systems all over the world into an unprecedented crisis. The start of the third wave in the fall of 2020 is likely to trigger a higher prevalence in the upcoming months. This article analyzed the inpatients’ time series data in Hormozgan province to forecast the trend of COVID-19 inpatients using time series modelling.

To forecast COVID-19 inpatients in Hormozgan province (Iran), this time series study included data related to the daily new cases of 1) confirmed inpatients, 2) suspected inpatients, 3) deaths, 4) alive discharged patients, 5) admitted cases to intensive care units (ICUs), 6) ICU discharged cases, and 7) ICU inpatient service day were collected from 22 hospitals in the province from 20 February to 13 November 2020. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMAX) and Prophet methods were applied for forecasting the trend of inpatient indicators to the end of the Iranian official calendar year. We used the Python programming language for data analysis.

Based on the findings of this study which proved the outperformance of Prophet to ARIMAX, it can be concluded that time series of suspected inpatients, confirmed inpatients, recovered cases, deaths, and ICU-inpatient service day followed a downward trend while ICU-admission and discharge time series are likely taking an upward trend in Hormozgan to the end of the current Iranian calendar year.

Prophet outperformed ARIMAX for inpatient forecasting. By forecasting and taking appropriate prevention, diagnostic and treatment, educational, and supportive measures, healthcare policy makers could be able to control COVID-19 inpatient indicators.

To better manage the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to carefully study information about patients with COVID-19.

To report clinical and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 patients in southern Iran.

This cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted based on data extracted from the COVID-19 registry of Hormozgan. Data from patients with confirmed COVID-19 based on CT-scan results or real-time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results until September 25, 2020, were analyzed for this study (2351 inpatients). We reported demographics, signs and symptoms on admission, comorbidities, and treatments, as well as clinical outcomes, hospital stay, and intensive care unit (ICU) admission.

Most of patients were men (1235/2351; 52.5%) and the most common signs and symptoms included cough (1343/2351; 57.1%), shortness of breath (1224/2351; 52.1%) and fever. The most common comorbidities included hypertension (410/2351 (17.4%), diabetes (343/2351; 14.6%) and chronic cardiac disease (282/2351; 12%). Also, 228 patients (9.7%) were hospitalized in the ICU. The mortality rate was 12.5% (295/2351) among all patients and 64.5% (147/228) in ICU wards, respectively. The number of cases with comorbidities including hypertension, chronic cardiac disease, diabetes, chronic neurological disorders, chronic kidney disease, chronic hematologic disease, malignant neoplasm, moderate or severe liver disease, dementia and fauvism in the ICU was significantly higher than the general wards.

Most characteristics of our patients were similar to those reported in other studies; however, our patients were younger and suffered from a less severe disease. The mortality rate in the ICU was higher than other studies.

Designing information systems will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the system according to the information needs of the stakeholders. The present study examined the effective features of designing the information system of medicinal plants from the perspective of its users as a prerequisite for the design of this system.

This applied research was carried out using survey method and a researcher‑made questionnaire. The study population consisted of two groups of information users (faculty members, students, and researchers of medicinal plants) and information disseminators (librarians), and 308 individuals were selected by cluster sampling from five universities. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS software version 22.

The results showed that in view of the two groups of users, there was a significant difference in the search options in the database of medicinal plants and the displaying characteristics of the search results. On an average, the rank of the two groups in these two domains was largely different. In other cases, the users considered shared features for capabilities and facilities in an information system of medicinal plants.

According to the results, for obtaining the information system of medicinal herbs with better capabilities and facilities, it is essential for designers to pay attention to all elements and objections in the interaction of the human and the system, especially in the field of search.

The rapid outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in a global pandemic in 2020. Information sources such as disease registries through accessing quality, valid, accurate, and timely data empower researchers and health authorities to study and develop appropriate actions. Our study describes the protocol for implementation of regional COVID-19 registry in Hormozgan province (RCovidRH).

We followed approved phases for the development of RCovidRH to cover the population in Hormozgan. Missioned to develop and implement the protocol, the registry’s steering committee was made up of 10 members from subject fields of the registry at the core and 5 subgroups. The main purpose of the registry is to provide a comprehensive information profile of demographic, clinical, laboratory, imaging, and treatment data of confirmed and probable COVID-19 patients in Hormozgan. The data is retrospectively and prospectively collected. Case report form (CRF) was mainly based on International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) CRF. A web-based, 2-language software was also developed to facilitate data collection and storage. Data analysis is to be conducted with collaboration of clinical physicians, data-mining specialists, and epidemiologists after reaching appropriate sample size.

We included data related to demographic and identification, onset and admission, signs and symptoms at hospital admission, admission signs and symptoms, comorbidities, pathogen testing, assessment, laboratory, imaging, complications, treatment and medication, and outcomes. We found this registry was limited by incomplete clinical data for small fraction of outpatients, incomplete or inaccurate address by referred people due to fear of social rejection, delay in data entry at the facilities due to workload.

This registry via organizing clinical and epidemiological COVID-19 data increases the potentiality of joint studies. Recognition and coordination of a registry is highly important to solve its limitations to collect data. Other universities and provinces can apply our model to develop COVID-19 registries or data sets for this disease.

Awareness of sources of information of mastectomy patients has an important role in accessibility of reliable health information sources, thus, when they get information, they can be effective in the treatment and self‑care. The present study aimed to identify the sources of information used by women underwent mastectomy.

The current practical research methodology was qualitative, and research method was conventional qualitative content analysis was performed on 17 patients with breast cancer undergone mastectomy. The sample targeted two hospitals were selected based on criteria of Shaeid Mohammadi and the Persian Gulf and Omid Central chemotherapy in Babdar Abbas. Data were collected by face‑to‑face semi‑structured interviews were conducted in winter 2015. Qualitative content analysis of data was performed at the same time of data collection.

Three themes were seemed (medical, interpersonal, and media) sources for explaining the sources of information searching. Subcategories derived from the content of medical (physicians, surgeons, and health workers of health facility centers), interpersonal sources (Family and friends, peers), and media sources (printed, electronic, and Internet).

Given the importance of information on women underwent mastectomy, and their priority in the use of medical sources, necessitates more attention of health system managers and planners in providing essential information and their accessibility

Ontologies facilitate data integration, exchange, searching and querying. Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry is a solution for creating reference ontologies. In this foundry, the design of ontologies is based on established principles which allow for their interactions as a single system. The purpose of this study is to determine the main features of ontologies developed based on foundry principles. This descriptive cross-sectional study (2017) retrieved data about the ontology components, subject, language and tool from the OBO foundry website, and OntoBee (the default linked data server for the foundry ontologies). The frequency of classes, instances, Object Properties, DataType Properties and Annotation Properties are classified by the use of descriptive statistics. The main subjects of 151 ontologies were Anatomy, Health and Phenotype. Most languages and tools were, respectively, OBO and OBO-edit versions used for the development of ontologies. Five percent of ontologies contained more than 78977 classes, 150 object relations, 39 DataType relations, 110 annotation relations, and 356 instances. Increasing the number of ontologies developed based on OBO foundry principles as well as using OBO language and OBO-Edit is indicative of the fact that ontology developers have accepted the principles and tools.

Women with breast cancer experience various challenges. Prescription of health information provides appropriate information at appropriate time to the appropriate person and plays a role in empowering self‑care and improving health. The current research aims to evaluate the effect of health information prescription on self‑care power of women with breast cancer.

This semi‑experimental quantitative study was done using pretest and posttest method in one group of 61 women with breast cancer selected from the Women’s Cancer Center of Khatamolanbia Hospital using purposive sampling method. Data were collected by an author‑made self‑care questionnaire and patients’ self‑care score was calculated at the first visit (before health information prescription) and the second visit (after health information prescription). Data were analyzed using the SPSS version 23 software and analysis of variance at a statistical significance level of P < 0.05.

Total mean score of self‑care in women with breast cancer was 40.97 and 115.3 before and after health information prescription, respectively. Increase of mean was observed in all subscales of self‑care score from pretest to posttest so that change in posttest was higher in subscales of effective implementation of treatment and prevention from disabilities and personal functioning regulation (39.44), specialized knowledge on breast cancer (30.46), searching medical services and cooperation with treatment group (28.59), and awareness and attention to impacts and results of breast cancer (16.81).

Health information prescription improves self‑care power of women with breast cancer, and it is necessary to provide health information services in order to support women’s self‑care by the health authorities.

Ontologies improve the quality of information retrieval (IR). Therefore, it is important to better know the process of ontology engineering and their application in IR. The aim of this research was to identify the engineering methods of ontologies and also their application in biomedical IR.
This review was done through library research method with an analytical approach. Required information for the review was retrieved from Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science using keywords: "Ontology-based biomedical Information Retrieval", "Information Retrieval", "Biomedical Information Retrieval", "Ontology engineering", "Ontology construction", "Biomedical Ontology" and "Ontology building" without time limit. Five articles addressing an ontology-based biomedical IR system were reviewed.
Studies on ontology based biomedical IR, started in 2004, are not limited to a single country. In general, ontologies are used to manage the semantic metadata. Although most IRs try to develop their own ontologies, reuse of earlier ontologies is a priority. The material for developing ontologies is taken from the literature in the domain. The studied ontologies have been produced by centralized approaches and decentralized approaches and different groups have not been used.
The main purpose of systems for applying ontologies is using them to develop semantic metadata for helping machine reasoning.

To get updated, nurses need to attend in-service training courses. E-learning is a promising solution for providing courses to busy nurses in teaching hospitals. This study aims to evaluate the readiness of teaching hospitals for e-learning implementation specialized for nurse's in-service trainings.
This descriptive-analytical survey was carried out in Bandar Abbas (Iran) teaching hospitals affiliated to Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (HUMS) from March to June 2016. It included nursing staff, trainers, and related hospital and HUMS authorities. Questionnaires and checklists adopted from earlier studies and customized for this study were used for data collection. Appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical formulas were applied using SPSS version 19.
Data showed that HUMS; in general, was in an optimum situation for e-learning implementation regarding manpower, financial support, technical equipment, strategic plan, content authoring and access to the internet. However, access to information resources and digital library was not good. Hospital authorities stated that they had lack of manpower and required infrastructure. Some of them doubted the appropriateness of e-learning for clinical trainings. Apart from knowledge dimension, nurses reported significantly higher than the average on other study dimensions.
To implement e-learning for nurse's in-service trainings, HUMS must hire experts for authoring and producing content; and technical staff for maintenance the infrastructure. Moreover, e-learning knowledge and skills of people involved in e-learning needs to be improved.

Illiteracy in studies on quality of life (QOL) and self-efficacy (SE) of diabetic patients has been ignored. Illiteracy and diabetes have high rates in developing countries. The aim of this study was to identify the effect of literacy level on health outcomes. To achieve this, we studied health outcomes such as SE, self-management behaviors and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in diabetic patients. A cross-sectional study was carried out in an Iranian urban federally-funded diabetes clinic (with 1400 diabetes patients) in Bandar Abbas, a city located in south of Iran. 256 Non Insulin Dependent Diabetic Mellitus patients were chosen during June, July and August 2007. Patients were grouped as illiterates, low-literates and literates. SE and QOL were measured by standard questionnaires. HbA1C was measured by calorimetric method. Data was collected with interview. Data analysis was carried out with one way ANOVA Post Hoc, and bivariate analysis method. Literacy level among the three groups from the view points of age, physical domain, psychological domain, environmental domain and SE were significant. There was no significant difference for the level of HbA1C among three groups. Literacy level does not have any effects on glycemic control. There is a strong relationship between self-efficacy and QOL domains.

In this case study, we describe a 25 year-old male who showed the symptoms of diabetes after a period of heavy drinking. (HbA1c=13%). Treatment was started with 120 units of insulin. After stopping alcohol consumption and taking an appropriate diet, insulin was tapered down. Five months after the start of treatment, insulin was stopped (HbA1c=5%). The results showed that he was in a good metabolic control after 18 months (HbA1c=5.9%).