Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) Towards COVID-19 Among General Population of South Khorasan Province, Iran: A Quick Online Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease and a pandemic. Knowledge, attitude, and practice of people about this disease can play an essential role in better accepting executive actions set by health officials and national planners. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of the general population of South Khorasan province about COVID-19 and the influencing factors. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed online on 699 people living in South Khorasan, Iran. The participants were chosen by a convenience sampling technique. The research tool was an adapted questionnaire from researchers that included demographic characteristics, 15 questions on awareness, 12 questions on attitude, and seven questions on practice. Data were analyzed using the independent t test, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The levels of knowledge, attitude, and practice of the participants were 73.13, 80, and 84.85%, respectively. The most common symptoms of this disease were shortness of breath, dry cough, and fever or headache, in sequence. More than half of the participants (56.90%) felt at risk for contracting the disease. Most participants washed their hands (80%) and used a facemask (79.60%). The correlation between awareness and practice was 0.60. Older, divorced, and low-educated people had lower knowledge and practice. Conclusions: Despite that the levels of knowledge, attitude, and practice of people was good regarding COVID-19 in this study, the continuous informing of the people through television, radio, and social media is needed for maintaining the status quo. Besides, new approaches and policies for the poor, rural populations, the elderly, the illiterate, and the unemployed should be adopted by relevant authorities due to their lower level of knowledge and practice.

Inequality trends in the distribution of healthcare human resources in eastern Iran

Background Inequitable distribution of human resources in healthcare is one of the main obstacles to improve any health system. This study aimed to evaluate inequalities in the distribution of human resources in healthcare in South Khorasan Province, Iran. Methods We have investigated three types of health staff (i.e. nurses, general practitioners, and specialists) from 2013 to 2018. Data were collected from the annual reports of the Statistical Centre of Iran. The Gini coefficient and time trend regression were applied to measure the inequality. Results The distribution of specialists and general practitioners were the highest and lowest inequality, respectively. Inequalities in the distribution of nurses and specialists have decreased from 2013 to 2018, while the Gini coefficients of the general practitioners have increased from 0.31 to 0.38. According to the regression analysis, inequality in the distribution of nurses and specialists was decreasing over the time; however, the decline was only significant for specialists. While the coefficient B for general practitioners is positive, this indicates raised inequality, but the observed increase was not significant. Conclusions This study revealed that Iran, similar to several other low- and middle-income countries, is with faced the challenge of inequitable distribution of human resources in healthcare, which in turn indicates the necessity of reforms at national and regional levels to address inequalities in the distribution of healthcare human resources, particularly in South Khorasan Province. Hence, the main policy recommendation is to focus on continuous monitoring and evaluation of resource allocation in South Khorasan Province to reduce inequalities.

Prevalence of Transfusion Transmissible Infections Among Blood Donors in South Khorasan Province, Iran: An 11-Year Study

Objectives: Transfusion transmissible infections are the most frequent complication of blood transfusions. This study was done to determine the prevalence of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and syphilis among blood donors at the South Khorasan Transfusion Center (SKBTC) in South Khorasan Province, Iran. This report is the first of its kind that has been performed in this region. Methods: A retrospective study was carried out on 165,267 blood donors at the SKBTC from 2006 to 2016. Data were analyzed on the metrics of donation status, age, gender, educational level, and serologic results for the infectious markers. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 16.0). Results: The overall seroprevalence rates of HBV, HCV, and HIV infections per 100,000 donations were 247, 21, and 0.6, respectively. There was no positive donor for syphilis. HBV and HCV infections in first-time donors were present at significantly higher rates than in regular and repeat donors (P < 0.001 and P = 0.003, respectively). Although gender was not found to be significantly associated with HBV and HCV (P = 0.32), there was a significant relationship between younger age (P < 0.001) as well as lower educational level and hepatitis agents (P < 0.001). Moreover, being single evinced a significant association with HCV seropositivity (P = 0.001). Conclusions: This report found a decreased prevalence of TTIs relative to the most of previous reports. This decrease may have resulted from public health programs, improved donor selection, improved recruitment of repeat/regular donors, and the use of highly sensitive kits for the screening procedure.

A Comparison of Social Health Components Among the Farmers in the Villages of Saffron and Other Plants in South Khorasan Province

Background: Social health is defined as the individual’s ability to effectively and efficiently play social roles without hurting other people. It is the examination of an individual’s activities and status in society. Saffron cultivation, given its special properties, such as teamwork, cooperation, and social correlation, plays a major role in social health. Thus, the current study was done to compare the social health components among the farmers in saffron villages and the others in South Khorasan Province. Methods: The current study was applied and comparative. The statistical population included the farmers in saffron villages and the others in South Khorasan Province in 2018. The sample consisted of 550 farmers (275 producing saffron and 275 producing other plants) based on the Cochran formula who were selected through multistage sampling. The tool used to collect the data was Keyes’s standard Social Well-being Questionnaire (2004), consisting of 28 questions. After collecting the questionnaires, the data were analyzed using SPSS v. 23 and an independent t-test at a significance level of P<0.05. Results: There was a significant difference between the villagers planting saffron and other plants regarding their social health levels (P<0.000). The obtained t-value for social health, as a dependent variable, was 15.47. The obtained t-value for all the aspects of social health was higher than the acceptable t-value (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that saffron villages had higher social solidarity, compared to other plants. Because cooperation and collaboration are necessary for different stages of saffron production, social cohesion is naturally reinforced

Predict the amount of Cu using the four Ca, Al, P, S Elements by Multiple Linear Regression Method

The study area is located in Sarbisheh city in South Khorasan province, Iran. Copper estimation was performed by multivariate linear regression method to facilitate the use of previous analyses to predict this element in other areas, reduce costs and also reduce the number of samples. For this purpose, by obtaining a basic formula from estimating the amount of Cu with one of the promising points samples, the amount of copper in other parts of the exploration area was investigated. Several analyses were taken from the exploratory area after calculations to validate the regression. The regression results of new and old data were compared and estimation acceptable. These calculations were performed by SPSS software, according to the four elements Ca, Al, P, S, the results obtained and the relationship presented has acceptable validity. Keywords: Multivariate linear regression, Cu estimation, SPSS, Iran.

Investigation of Geochemical Sections in Exploratory Boreholes of Mesgaran Copper Deposit in Iran

Mesgaran copper deposit is located in Sarbisheh city of South Khorasan province of Iran. To investigate the geochemical changes of the elements with increasing depth in the deposit, geochemical sections for important minerals related to mineralization in the area including copper, lead, zinc and cobalt were drawn for 9 exploratory boreholes. In these sections, the trend of changes of different elements versus depth is shown and the resulting diagrams were drawn for different boreholes. As a result, there is a significant relationship between the elements. With increasing the drilling depth, the amount of copper decreased and the amount of copper in each section was determined according to its cause. Keywords: Geochemistry, Copper deposit, Exploratory borehole, geochemical section.

Analysis of the Role of Dispersion of Rural Settlements against Natural Hazards in South Khorasan Province

INTRODUCTION: Identification of the settlements located in high-risk zones in terms of natural hazards is one of the first steps in risk management and development planning. This study aimed to identify villages exposed to earthquakes and floods in South Khorasan province. METHODS: The present study used the Analytic Hierarchy Process method to evaluate the validity and reliability of measuring instruments through exploratory factor analysis. Since the value of the KMO index was 0.879, the number of samples was sufficient for analysis. Moreover, the significance of the Bartlett test was less than 5% and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained at 0.856; accordingly, the questionnaire was reliable. FINDINGS: Based on the spatial analysis of the seismic vulnerability, 214 and 502 villages were in the zone of very high and high vulnerability, respectively. Moreover, the results of flood vulnerability showed that the southern and northwestern parts of South Khorasan province had the lowest vulnerability. The number of villages located in the very high vulnerable zone was very limited and included only seven villages of Chenesht, Kalateh Abbas, Takti Ti, Tangel Behdan, Ebru, Khankuk, and Ostan Siah, which are located in the east of the province. CONCLUSION: Based on the integrated results of two hazards (i.e., earthquakes and floods), it is observed that 523 rural settlements are in a very high-risk zone, which accounts for 14.7% of the total settlements in the South Khorasan province, compared to the total rural settlements. Furthermore, the highest dispersion frequency of rural settlements is in the zone of moderate vulnerability. This zone with 1,344 settlements includes about 37.7% of the total settlements in the province

Effect of the Health Promotion Plan on the Performance of Hospitals: Evidences from East of Iran

Background: Hospitals are considered as the most central and resource-consuming units in the healthcare system. They use from 50 to 80% of public expenditures. As hospitals become more efficient, the better the allocated resources in health sector will be used. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess hospitals’ efficiency in South Khorasan using the Pabon Lasso model. Methods: In this quasi-experimental and time-series study, we investigated the efficacy of South Khorasan hospitals during 2010 - 2018 (before and after the implementation of the health reform plan). All public hospitals in South Khorasan province were enrolled. Data including bed occupancy rate (BER), bed turnover (BT), and patient length of stay (LOS) were collected from hospitals in summer 2018 and analyzed using SPSS, version 21. Results: The means of the Pabon Lasso performance indicators for eight years were 74.4% for bed occupancy rate, 89.9 times for bed turnover, and 3.01 days for the length of stay. The coefficient of occupancy index after the implementation of the health reform plan was 5.7% higher than before, the bed turnover index increased 4.1 times, and the average length of stay increased by 0.08 day. On average, 35% of the hospitals were located in region 1, while 38% in region 2, 21% in Region 3, and 6% in Region 4 in the Pabon Lasso Diagram. Conclusions: Only 21% of the hospitals were in the region 3 of the Pabon Lasso Diagram, which is the desirable region for the efficiency of hospitals. This situation is not desirable and acceptable for hospitals. To increase productivity, interventions are required, and health planners and authorities need to apply economic tools for the improvement of this situation.