مجله دانشگاه علوم پزشکی قم
سال شانزدهم شماره 10 (پیاپی 129، دی 1401)

Occupational stress is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study aims to investigate the occupational stress level of nurses and its related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a systematic review study that was conducted in 2022 by searching for articles in both Persian and English in Web of Science, SID, Scopus, Google Scholar, Cochran, MagIran, IranDoc and PubMed databases without time limit. The used keywords were nurse, Iran, COVID-19, occupational stress, and job stress in Persian and English. Initial search yielded 3860 articles. Of these, 15 articles were finally reviewed.

In the reviewed studies, nurses’ occupational stress during the COVID-19 pandemic was at a high level. The highest score was related to the “demands” dimension and the lowest score was related to “the changes” dimension of the health and safety executive questionnaire. Demographic, occupational, and mental factors and quitting job had a significant positive relationship with nurses’ occupational stress, while low rest, job-related affective well-being, organizational commitment, productivity, organizational climate, and knowledge had a significant negative relationship with their occupational stress.

The occupational stress of nurses is high during the COVID-19 pandemic. Occupational stress is related to demographic, occupational, psychological, and organizational factors. It is recommended to form committees to monitor nurses’ occupational stress in hospitals.

One of the challenges in studies related to measuring patient-reported outcomes (PRO) is the selection of an appropriate measurement tool. In this regard, compliance with standards in design and reporting of psychometric studies is necessity. In addition, researchers should be able to correctly evaluate the methodological quality of psychometric studies. Considering the presentation of the revised forms for the consensus-based standards for the selection of health Measurement instruments (COSMIN) checklist, this study aims to review these checklists.

In this narrative review study, a search was conducted in national and international databases for articles measured the quality of psychometric studies by COSMIN checklist using related keywords in Persian and English with no time limitations. The results are presented in two sections, including the history of COSMIN checklist and the introduction of its revised forms.

There are four COSMIN checklists, including the COSMIN Risk of Bias Checklist, the COSMIN Risk of Bias Tool (by focusing on reliability and measurement error), the COSMIN Study Design Checklist, and the COSMIN Reporting Guideline.

Considering the increasing number of psychometric studies on the PRO measurement tools, the COSMIN checklists can provide comprehensive indicators for designing, reporting, and evaluating these studies.

The prevalence of COVID-19 significantly affected different aspects of the quality of life (QoL) in people, especially the medical staff, who are at the forefront of battle against the disease. This study aims to investigate the QoL of medical residents of hospitals affiliated to Kashan University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 140 medical residents of hospitals affiliated to KUMS in 2021. Their QoL was assessed using World Health Organization quality of life (WHOQOL). The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software, version 22 using Chi-square, Mann-Whitney U test, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson and Spearman correlation tests.

The physical health dimension had a statistically significant relationship with age, marital status, underlying disease, sports/arts activities, and year of residency (P<0.001). The psychological health dimension had a statistically significant relationship with marital status, underlying disease, sports/arts activities, and year of residency (P<0.001). The social relationships dimension had a statistically significant relationship with marital status, underlying disease, and year of residency. The environmental health dimension had a statistically significant relationship with sex, marital status, underlying disease, and year of residence (P<0.05).

Female residents had lower QoL. The residents in pathology, neurology and infectious diseases had higher QoL, while those in psychiatry had higher scores in the psychological health dimension.

Chemical preservatives are commonly used to prevent food from quick spoiling and oxidizing. Despite their effect in increasing shelf life of foods, these compounds can have side effects. Residues of chemical compounds in foods increase microbial resistance. This study aims to investigate the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora L.) ethanolic extract against some gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.

In this experimental study, The soaking method and ethanol solvent was used for extraction. Antioxidant activities of different concentrations of extract were assessed using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity test and compared with butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) as a synthetic antioxidant. Antimicrobial effect of extract on Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria innocua, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhimurium was determined by disk diffusion and well diffusion methods and measuring minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Experimental data were analyzed in SPSS software, version 20 using analysis of variance and the mean values were compared using Duncan’s multiple range test.

The amounts of phenols and flavonoids in the ethanolic extract of were 96.47±0.35 mg of gallic acid/g of extract and 31.07±0.42 mg of quercetin/g of extract, respectively. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration of lemon verbena extract was 11.79±0.76 μg/mL, while it was 10.16±0.29 μg/mL for BHA. In both disk diffusion and well diffusion methods, with the increase of the concentration of extract, the inhibition zone diameter increased. The ethanolic extract of lemon verbena at the concentration of 12.5 mg/mL had no inhibitory effect on gram-negative bacteria growth. In both methods, the extract had the greatest effect on S. aureus. The MIC of ethanolic extract ranged from 8 to 128 mg/mL, depending on the type of bacteria (gram-positive or gram-negative).

The ethanolic extract of lemon verbena has higher antimicrobial effects on gram-positive bacteria. Therefore, it can be used in food and pharmaceutical industries as a natural antimicrobial agent. Considering the increasing resistance of bacteria to chemical antibiotics, more studies on lemon verbena and its antibacterial compounds are needed for treating infections.

Today, one of the goals to improve the quality of life (QoL) of the elderly is to achieve successful aging. This study aims to investigate the determinants of successful aging in Tehran, Iran.

This is a quantitative cross-sectional study. Participants were 637 older people over 60 years of age who were collected using a multi-stage cluster sampling method from 22 districts of Tehran, according to the number of older people in each district. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression were used for analyze the collected data.

Prevalence of successful aging in Tehran was 19.6%. The results of multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that younger people and non-smokers had a higher chance of successful aging (Odds ratio=1.8 and 1.9, respectively). Those with elementary/secondary education and further and higher education (respectively with 2.9 rand 3.4 odds ratio) and daily exercise (odds ratio=2.4) had also a higher chance of successful aging.

Improving the level of education and improving a healthy lifestyle, including not smoking and doing physical activities, leads to a successful aging, which requires long-term planning and special attention.

Chronic kidney disease is a debilitating disease that can also affect the family caregivers of patients. Increasing awareness and empowering caregivers can improve the physical and mental condition of patients and the resilience of caregivers. This study aims to evaluate the effect of an intervention based on the family-centered empowerment model (FCEM) on the resilience of family caregivers of hemodialysis patients.

This is a randomized controlled clinical trial. Sixty family caregivers of patients in the hemodialysis department of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Kermanshah, Iran were selected by a random sampling method using a random number table. Then, they were randomly divided into two groups of intervention (n=30) and control (n=30). The assessment tools were a demographic form and the Connor-Davidson resilience scale. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data in SPSS software, version 18.

The results of independent t-test showed that the mean resilience score at baseline was not significantly different between the two groups (P=0.29). After the intervention, it was significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control group (P<0.001). In addition, there was a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-intervention scores of  resilience in the intervention group (P<0.001), but no significant difference was found in the control group (P=0.17).

The FCEM-based intervention increases the resilience of family caregivers of hemodialysis patients. Therefore, it is recommended that the planners in nursing education should make nurses aware of the importance of providing family-centered care to hemodialysis patients’ families for increasing their resilience.