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Objectives This study aims to estimate the prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the general population of Iran. Methods The target population was all Iranian people aged 6 years and older in the country. A stratified random sampling design was used to select 28 314 people from among the individuals registered in the electronic health record systems used in primary health care in Iran. Venous blood was taken from each participant and tested for the IgG antibody against COVID-19. The prevalence of COVID-19 was estimated at provincial and national levels after adjusting for the measurement error of the laboratory test, non-response bias and sampling design. Results Of the 28 314 Iranians selected, 11 256 (39.75%) participated in the study. Of these, 5406 (48.0%) were male and 6851 (60.9%) lived in urban areas. The mean (standard deviation) participant age was 35.89 (18.61) years. The adjusted prevalence of COVID-19 until 20 August 2020 was estimated as 14.2% (95% uncertainty interval 13.3%–15.2%), which was equal to 11 958 346 (95% CI 11 211 011–12 746 776) individuals. The adjusted prevalences of infection were 14.6%, 13.8%, 16.6%, 11.7% and 19.4% among men, women, urban population, rural population and individuals aged 60 years or more, respectively. Ardabil, Golestan and Khuzestan provinces had the highest prevalence and Alborz, Hormozgan and Kerman provinces had the lowest. Conclusions Based on the study results, a large proportion of the Iranian population had not yet been infected by COVID-19. The observance of hygienic principles and social restrictions should therefore continue until the majority of the population has been vaccinated.

Recently there has been a lot of interest in global warming and temperature variation's effect on health. This study evaluates the impact of Diurnal Temperature Range (DTR) on mortality in Tabriz, northwest of Iran. Distributed Lag Non-linear Models combined with a quasi-Poisson regression were used to assess the impact of DTR on cause, age and gender specific mortality, controlled for potential confounders such as long-term trend of daily mortality, day of week effect, holidays, mean temperature, humidity, wind speed and air pollutants. As the effect of DTR may vary between the hot season (from May to October) and cold season (from November to April of the next year), we conducted analyses separately for these two seasons. In high DTR values (all percentiles), the Cumulative Relative Risk (CRR) of Non-Accidental Death, Respiratory Death and Cardiovascular Death increased in the cold season. In full year and high DTR value (percentile 90), the CRR of respiratory deaths increased as well (CRR, Lag 0-6:1.32(1.006, 1.75). Although there was no clear significant effect in low DTR values, high values of DTR increase the risk of mortality in the cold season, in Tabriz, Iran.

Summary Background Considering the clear association between metabolic syndrome and future cardiovascular disease, early detection of metabolic syndrome is important. This study was conducted to assess the correlation between metabolic syndrome components and within-normal-range of liver enzymes in Iranian adults. Methods This cross-sectional study was comprised of 700 Iranian adults in the districts of East Azerbaijan-Iran in 2015. The levels of lipid profile and glucose were measured by enzymatic colorimetric methods. Weight, height, waist circumferences were measured with standard protocols. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were assessed using the ultraviolet method. The Pearson correlation and Logistic regression were used to for statistical analysis. Results With increasing the number of metabolic abnormalities, the mean ALT level was increased significantly ( P trend = 0.04). In women, the increase in AST and ALT with increasing the number of metabolic abnormalities was statistically significant ( P AST = 0.01; P ALT r = 0.14, P r = 0.16, P r = 0.17, P r = 0.15, P P trend = 0.04). Conclusions Based on the results, the use of ALT and AST:ALT ratio as continuous biomarkers for early signaling of dysmetabolism especially in women could be encouraged.

There are few epidemiological studies about climate change and the effect of temperature variation on health using human thermal indices such as the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) Index in Iran. This study was conducted in Tabriz, the northwest of Iran and Distributed Lag Non-linear Models (DLNM) combined with quasi-Poisson regression models were used to assess the impacts of PET on mortality by using the DLNM Package in R Software. The effect of air pollutants, time trend, day of the week and holidays were controlled as confounders. There was a significant relation between high (30°C, 27°C) and low (-0.8°C, -9.2°C and -14.2°C) PET and total (non-accidental) mortality; and a significant increase in respiratory and cardiovascular deaths in high PET values. Heat stress increased Cumulative Relative Risk (CRR) for total (non-accidental), respiratory and cardiovascular mortality significantly (CRR Non Accidental Death, PET=30°C, lag 0-30=1.67, 95%CI: 1.31-2.13; CRR Respiratory Death, PET=30°C, lag 0-13=1.88, 95%CI: 1.30-2.72; CRR Cardiovascular Death, PET=30°C, lag0-30=1.67 95%CI: 1.16-2.40). Heat stress increases the risk of total (non-accidental), respiratory mortality, but cold stress decreases the risk of total (non-accidental) mortality in Tabriz which is one of the cold cities of Iran.

Objectives: To explore the needs, expectations, feelings and experiences of people with type 2 diabetes for developing quantitative instruments for a questionnaire study of service quality. Methods: Using two focus group discussions (n=33), potential service quality dimensions for type 2 diabetes were assessed for Australian relevance. These included 11 indicators identified from a systematic literature review: communication, autonomy, choice of care provider, continuity of care, quality of basic amenities, dignity, timeliness, prevention and early detection, safety, confidentiality and availability. Results: The focus group discussions supported the importance of the 11 service quality indicators but gave more importance to education, diet, communication, autonomy, choice of care provider and support group and less to confidentiality and availability. Three new themes were generated from the discussions: education, diet and support group. Conclusion: Measuring service quality for type 2 diabetes requires considering health system, culture and disease-specific factors. © 2007 The Authors. Journal Compilation

Objective: To determine the relationship between personal, hormonal and lifestyle risk factors and surgically treated benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Materials and methods: A population-based case-control study was conducted in Western Australia (WA) on men aged 40-75 years who were surgically treated at public and private hospitals for BPH during 2001-2002. Controls were recruited from the WA electoral roll Cases and controls were compared with regard to demographic and Lifestyle factors and proxy measures of hormonal status using logistic regression. Data were available for 398 cases and 471 controls. Results: No associations with BPH were found for family history of prostate cancer in father or brother, serving in the military in a combat area, pattern of baldness, smoking status, obesity, alcohol intake and occupational physical activity. The only inverse relationship was observed with heavy alcohol drinking (>30g/day), however, this was not statistically significant. An increased risk of BPH, not statistically significant, was observed for British-born men compared to Australian born and for history of vasectomy. The analysis was repeated after excluding 28% of controls with moderate and severe symptoms of BPH and 7% of cases with mild symptoms prior to surgery, and our results remained essentially unchanged. Conclusions: The results suggest that there are few risk factors for BPH although perhaps country of birth, vasectomy and heavy alcohol consumption may be considered further. (c) 2007 The Royal Institute of Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.