COVID-19 research progress: Bibliometrics and visualization analysis

Background: Coronavirus primarily targets the human respiratory system, COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) triggered in China in the late 2019. In March 2020, WHO announced the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to analyze and visualize the scientific structure of the COVID-19 publications using co-citation and co-authorship. Methods: This is a scientometric study. Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was searched for all documents regarding COVID-19, MERS-Cov, and SARS-Cov from the beginning to 2020. An Excel spreadsheet was applied to gather and analyze the data and the CiteSpace was used to visualize and analyze the data. Results: A total of 5159 records were retrieved in WoSCC. The structure of the network indicated that the network mean silhouette was low (0.1444), implying that the network clusters� identity is not identifiable with high confidence. The network modularity was 0.7309. The cluster analysis of the co-citation network on documents from 2003 to 2020 provided 188 clusters. The largest cluster entitled, �the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus� had 255 nodes. The coauthorship network illustrated that the most prolific countries, USA, China, and Saudi Arabia, have focused on a specific field and have formed separate clusters. Conclusion: The present study identified the important topics of research in the field of COVID-19 based on co-citation networks as well as the analysis of clusters of countries' collaborations. Despite the similarities in the production behavior in prolific countries, their thematic focus varies so that a country like China plays a role in �Quantitative Detection� cluster, while USA is the leading country in the �Biological Evaluation� cluster. © 2021. Iran University of Medical Science

Variations in Ischemic Heart Disease Research by Country, Income, Development and Burden of Disease: A Scientometric Approach

INTRODUCTION: Ischemic heart diseases (IHDs) are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. However the global burden of IHD has been concentrated on developing countries, where limited research efforts have been made to address these needs. This study aimed to understand the global distribution of IHD research activities by looking at the countries' burden of disease, income and development data. METHODS: As a scientometric study, Scopus database was searched for research publications indexed under the medical subject heading (MeSH) 'myocardial ischemia' including the following terms: coronary artery disease, coronary heart disease, and ischemic heart disease. The number of research publications in Scopus database was recorded for each individual year 2000-2012, and for each country. Data for estimated IHD disability-adjusted life-year's (DALY's), gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and human development index were also included for the analysis. RESULTS: IHD research publications were most likely produced by European and Western pacific countries. High-income countries produced the greatest share of about 81% of the global IHD research. However, no significant association observed between the countries' GDP and number of research publications worldwide (OR = 0.98, P = 0.939). Global IHD research found to be strongly associated with the burden of disease (P < 0.0001) and the countries' HDI values worldwide (OR = 16.8, P = 0.016). CONCLUSION: Our study suggested that global research on IHD were geographically distributed and highly concentrated among the world's richest countries. Estimated DALYs and HDI were found as important predictors of IHD research and the key drivers of health research disparities across the world

A grounded theory study on health information seeking behavior of Iranian diabetic

Background: Diabetes is a chronic and metabolic disease with a steadily increasing prevalence. Patients� higher level of health information has positive effect on self-care and control of conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the information seeking behavior of patients with diabetes in Kerman through applying a grounded theory approach. Method: This qualitative study was conducted through applying a grounded theory approach using Corbin and Strauss (2008) method. To ensure of the accuracy and reliability of the qualitative data, Corbin and Strauss (2008) criteria were used. Eighteen diabetic patients were included in the study based on a purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were done in diabetes and healthcare centers in June 2019. Results: The analysis of the data resulted in 45 primary categories, 17 subcategories and 5 major categories. The five main categories were: 1) recognizing the information needs to live well with disease, 2) acquiring health information literacy (the core variable), 3) information seeking barriers, 4).supportive information directing factors 5) empowerment. The main concern of the patients was �disease management and healthcare�. The main strategy to overcome it was health information acquisition. Information seeking obstacles had caused insufficient information, distrust, and information evasion; while, supportive information directing factors had facilitated the process and increased the patients� health literacy. Finally, the interaction between these variables had led to the patients� empowerment. Conclusion: This study showed that there are various interactive factors centered on �health information acquisition� that influence health information seeking behavior of diabetic patients. The policy-makers can design optimal health information systems and effectively transmit health information to patients to increase their health information literacy, self-care, disease control and healthcare costs reduction. The findings can help diabetic patients to have access to the more proper information they need. © 2021, Kerman University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Research Performance Measures and the Moderating Role of Faculty Characteristics in Epidemiology

Several numeric measures have been proposed to evaluate the individual researchers' scientific performance. Among these measures, h-index is the most common and well recognized measure of research productivity and impact in scientific communities. However, empirical investigations and recent inspections revealed some shortcomings and limitations of this measure. In order to complement these limitations, several variants have been proposed in which g-index and ar-index were among the most discussed measures. The aim of this study was to examine h-index, g-index and ar-index across Iranian epidemiologists to identify the moderating characteristics as well as the distribution of these measures in the field. Using Web of Science Database, a list of Iranian epidemiologists was searched and total number of articles, total citations, and citations per paper, h-index, scientific age, g-index and ar-index were extracted and calculated for any epidemiologist. Descriptive statistics and multivariate linear regression models were used to examine research performance measures of Iranian epidemiologists. According to our findings, research performance measures found to be statistically associated with scientific age and academic ranking of Iranian Epidemiologists. Gender differences were not relevant to research performance across different measures

Attitude, Knowledge and Skill of Medical Students Toward E-Learning Kerman University Of Medical Sciences

&nbsp;Aims: According to the development of e-learning and its high efficiency on the development of Iran&rsquo;s universities, level of knowledge and the attitude of the students to this modern method of education and indeed students&rsquo; skills in using it needed to be assessed to improve the quality and quantity of&nbsp;universities&rsquo; education. This study aimed to determine the attitude, knowledge and skill of medical students toward e-learning at Kerman University of Medical Sciences.&nbsp; Instrument & Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study that was performed in 2013, 196 students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences were selected using proportional stratified sampling method. The research instrument was a valid and reliable questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA and independent T tests by SPSS 19 software.&nbsp; Findings: The level of knowledge and skill of the students toward e-learning was &ldquo;moderate&rdquo; and their attitude was &ldquo;high&rdquo;. There were significant relationships between knowledge and skill (p=0.001 r=0.82) and also knowledge and attitude (p=0.001 r=0.37) but there was no significant relationship between skill and attitude (p=0.35 r=0.82). The scores of knowledge and skill were significantly different according to sex, but attitude had no significant difference with sex.&nbsp; Conclusion: Kerman University of Medical Sciences&rsquo; students have a positive attitude to e-learning but according to their moderate knowledge and skills, performing this method of learning is not welcomed in this university

Posttraumatic growth after earthquake: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Posttraumatic growth (PTG) represents a positive personal change after adverse events, such as natural disasters, including earthquake. However, the association between exposure to earthquake and level of PTG is still unknown. Thus, the aim of this systematic review and meta-analyses (MA) is to assess the level of PTG in people exposed to earthquake. Methods: Studies were identified via Scopus, PsycInfo, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, ProQuest, Cochran Library, Ovid, Google Scholar, OpenGrey, congress, and conferences research papers. The level of PTG was presented as mean and standard deviation. Subgroup analyses were conducted to control for the amount of time that had passed since stressor onset and age of the study population. The meta-regression was used to explore the sources of between-study heterogeneity, including sample size and age. Results: The MA of all 21 studies using no restrictions related to age and time of the PTG measurement since traumatic event showed low level of PTG (41.71; 95CI = 34.26; 49.16, I2: 62.44, p:.000). Subgroup analyses controlled for the age demonstrated that level of PTG was higher in adults (49.47; 95 CI = 42.35; 56.58, I2: 0, p =.466) when compared to children and adolescents (35.38; 95 CI = 23.65; 47.11, I2: 69.09, p &lt;.00). Moreover, the pooled weight mean of PTG measured 1 year and less than 1 year since the earthquake varied between medium (46.04; 95CI = 34.45; 57.63, I2:51.2, p:.037) and high (59.03; 95CI = 41.46; 76.41, I2: 0, p:.990) levels, respectively. Conclusion: The results of our MA showed low level of PTG in earthquake survivors. However, the mean value of PTG in adults was higher when compared to children and adolescents. In addition, the mean PTG was found to decrease over time since traumatic events. © The Author(s) 2021

Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder following the Earthquake in Iran and Pakistan: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common mental disorder following traumatic events. The present study was conducted to understand the prevalence of PTSD after the earthquake in Iran and Pakistan. The review includes all articles published from inception to March 2019. The pooled prevalence for overall PTSD was 55.6 (95 CI: 49.9-61.3). It was 60.2 (95 CI: 54.1-66.3) and 49.2 (95 CI: 39.4-59) for Iranian and Pakistani survivors, respectively. Women experienced higher incidence of PTSD than men. The variation of PTSD based on the clinical interview was lower than the self-report approach. The interval time between the earthquakes and the assessment showed that the prevalence of PTSD decreased over time. The prevalence of PTSD in Iran and Pakistan was higher than the global average, and the rate of the disorder in Iran was higher than in Pakistan. Sex, method of assessment, and time lag between the occurrence of disaster and assessment of PTSD affect the prevalence. © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021