A glance at one decade of water pollution research in Iranian environmental health journals

Using medical university websites for health education about COVID-19; an effective solution for public education during a pandemic

BACKGROUND

Medical universities use their websites to teach, research, and promote a culture of health. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the performance of medical universities in terms of health information and education regarding COVID-19 by surveying the website of Iranian medical universities.

METHODS

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in June to August 2020 on the websites of medical universities in three categories of universities (type 1, type 2 and type 3). The information of this study was collected from medical universities located in the east, west, north, south and center of Iran. Data were collected according to a checklist. The checklist contained 3 sections; the first part with 8 components regarding general information of the university websites, the second part with 11 components regarding the information and news related to the coronavirus and the third part with 12 components regarding the content of personal health education and environmental health for the prevention of coronavirus. To determine the status of each website in the two areas of health information and education, websites were divided into three categories based on scores (poor, average and good). Data were analyzed by chi-square.

RESULTS

In this study, 1118 web pages related to 48 Iranian universities of medical sciences were reviewed, where 19 were type 1 universities, 21 type 2 universities, and 8 type 3 universities. The mean scores of the websites regarding the information and news related to the coronavirus (8.54 ± 1.750) and the mean scores of the websites regarding the personal and environmental health education related to coronavirus (10.96 ± 1.148) were in a favorable and positive condition. The ranking of medical universities by type showed that the scores in the two areas of health information and education about the coronavirus were in good condition and none of the universities were in bad condition. Chi-square showed that the information status and news related to the coronavirus had a significantly positive relationship with the type of medical universities (χ2 = 10.343, p = 0.006).

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study showed that type1 and type 2 and 62.5% of type 3 medical universities were in good condition in terms of total scores in the two areas of health information and education about coronavirus and none of the universities were in a bad situation. It is suggested that the website of medical universities can serve as a reliable and appropriate source of information not only for academics and students but also for the general public.

Evaluation of SARS-COV-2 transmission through indoor air in hospitals and prevention methods: A systematic review

Hospitals are the places for COVID-19 treatment but on the other hand, they are a dangerous source for SARS-COV-2 transmission. If we assume that the SARS-COV-2 is transmitted by air to hospitals, what are the strategies to reduce the SARS-COV-2 transmission and its removal? Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate SARS-COV-2 transmission through indoor air in hospitals and its prevention methods.This study is a systematic review by searching among published articles in reputable international databases such as Scopus, Google scholar, PubMed, Science Direct and ISI (Web of Science). Data were collected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and by searching for relevant keywords. Qualitative data were collected using the PRISMA standard checklist. Information was entered into the checklist, such as the name of the first author, the year of the study publication, the country, the type of study, the number of samples, the type of air sample, the results, the methods for SARS-COV-2 transmission prevention in the hospital. After reviewing the information and quality of articles, 11 articles were included in this study. An analysis of the articles showed that Asian countries (Iran, China, Singapore) were more concerned with the SARS-COV-2 transmission through hospital air. Four articles did not confirm SARS-COV-2 in the air, but seven articles reported the SARS-COV-2 from air samples. The results of this study showed that many factors could affect the positive or negative SARS-COV-2 detection in the air, such as environmental conditions in hospitals, sampling methods, sampling height and distance from patients, flow rate and sampling time, efficiency and functionality of ventilation systems, use of disinfectants.Therefore, due to the possibility of SARS-COV-2 in the air of hospitals, preventive measures should be taken such as physical distance, personal hygiene, ventilation, and air filtration. We hope that this research will help to reduce the transmission of SARS-COV-2 and cut the airborne transmission pathway of SARS-COV-2 in hospitals.