I holds a professorship at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. I am a scientist in the field of disaster health. Starting from a study in nursing, I qualified in the research area of emergencies and disasters health at the Iran Iran University of Medical Science. As a PhD, he continued my research in the field of emergencies and disasters health at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. I am visiting professor in the department of clinical science and education at Karolinska Institute, at Leipzig University, and at Gdansk University in Poland.My main expertise is qualitative research designing in field of emergency and disaster.M research strongly influences the research in the field of disaster health and strongly influences the established structures and procedures in my country.
International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 2020
Background/aimsOccupational performance coaching is a family-centred approach that helps mothers ... more Background/aimsOccupational performance coaching is a family-centred approach that helps mothers who have children with occupational performance challenges. This study sought to identify the barriers and facilitators to goal achievement and engagement with occupational performance coaching based on the experiences of mothers of children with cerebral palsy who were receiving occupational performance coaching.MethodsThis qualitative study was embedded within a randomised control trial. Twelve mothers of children with cerebral palsy who had received occupational performance coaching were interviewed using a semi-structured interview technique. Their responses were analysed using inductive content analysis.ResultsThe most important barriers to goal achievement and engagement with coaching were societal, family-related and mother-related factors. The facilitators were new resources, family cohesion, mother-related factors and child-related factors.ConclusionsDifferent factors can affect...
BackgroundWith the unprecedented expansion of COVID-19 in the world since December 2019, Iran’s h... more BackgroundWith the unprecedented expansion of COVID-19 in the world since December 2019, Iran’s health system, like other countries, faced various challenges in managing the disease, which led to numerous experiences and lessons learned. This study was conducted to identify these challenges regarding unique political, economic, and cultural issues, which could help other countries with similar situations.MethodsThe present study was performed using a qualitative multi-method approach with a content analysis method. The data were collected through in-depth and semi-structured interviews and focused group discussions with 60 key persons who were selected purposefully, including policymakers, health care workers, and affected people by the disease, and the review of all available national reports between February 21, 2020, and March 22, 2021. The data collection and analysis were done simultaneously.ResultsIdentified critical challenges for the management of COVID-19 in the health syst...
BACKGROUND: Risk perception is an important predictor to mitigate climate change effects which ca... more BACKGROUND: Risk perception is an important predictor to mitigate climate change effects which can produce mental health consequences such as anxiety and depression. For developing policies of climate risk adaptation, awareness of public attitudes, beliefs, and perception is essential. At this study, researchers tried to focus on the often “unseen” psychological aspects of climate change. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A qualitative approach was done with a consistent content analysis method. The study consisted of 33 participants including ordinary people and experts in disasters and climate change. Purposeful sampling was adopted until data saturation. The data collection was performed through in-depth and semi-structured interviews. All interviews were transcribed after listening again and again and reading several times to catch an overall understanding of the interviews. RESULTS: The main theme of the study was “Complexity nature of climate change risk perception” and related categories including “the Mental health dimension,” “the Cognitive dimension” and “Interaction of imposed components.” The structure of the research community strongly reflected effects of cultural and religious factors in all aspects of community life. Participants’ life experiences of extreme events were associated to their perception of climate change. CONCLUSIONS: Risk perception is multifactorial and complicate and should clearly be understood to improve community participation to manage climate change-related risks. We propose that authorities and related managers should pay attention to it as a priority. This may assist in developing research on public mental health practices.
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2021
Objective:This study aimed to investigate the challenges of hospital disaster risk management so ... more Objective:This study aimed to investigate the challenges of hospital disaster risk management so that it can take a step to provide strategies and interventions to remove these barriers and improve the hospital disaster risk management (HDRM) through identifying and introducing them to disaster experts.Methods:This is a systematic qualitative review study. Data sources included Persian and international databases, which were searched using the keywords of hospital, disaster, risk management, risk reduction, disaster and challenge, and the combination of them. The search period ranged from January 2010 to January 2020. Data were extracted by 2 independent examiners for qualitative thematic analysis.Results:A total of 762 articles and documents were recovered. Finally, 12 articles entered the study, including 7 studies from Asia, 2 articles from Europe, 2 articles from the United States, and 1 article about Africa. After thematic analysis, 17 sub-themes were achieved and were classifi...
INTRODUCTION: Disasters occur almost everywhere in the world, and preparation is essential. Prepa... more INTRODUCTION: Disasters occur almost everywhere in the world, and preparation is essential. Preparedness is an effective approach for disaster management, and it is crucial for the health systems, especially the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) agencies. This systematic review will be conducted to assess the preparedness levels of EMS agencies in the world for the response to disasters and explore the key dimensions and strategies to enhance it. METHODOLOGY: This systematic literature review will be conducted to search comprehensively the articles published between 2000 and 2019 to explore the disaster preparedness of EMS Agencies. To this end, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar will be thoroughly assessed. The following terms and expression will be used for searching the databases: “EMS” and other keywords “Disaster Preparedness,” “Mass Casualty Incident,” “Mass Gathering,” “Terrorist incident,” “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” and CBRNE, Disaster, included: ‘Emergency Preparedness, Preparedness, Readiness. DISCUSSION: To the best of our knowledge, no systematic review study has been conducted on disaster preparedness of EMS agencies in the world. This is the first study to address this gape. It will also explore the key dimensions of disaster preparedness in EMS services and the strategies to enhance their preparedness. CONCLUSION: Identifying the key dimensions of disaster preparedness is the first step in designing valid assessment tools to evaluate disaster preparedness of EMS service. This study will provide valuable guides for EMS administrators and researchers in an attempt to enhance of preparedness of EMS systems in disasters.
Introduction The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of occupational performance coa... more Introduction The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of occupational performance coaching in mothers of children with cerebral palsy. Method A randomized controlled trial was used. Thirty mothers of children with cerebral palsy were randomly assigned to an occupational performance coaching group or control group. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and Sherer General Self-efficacy Scale were measured before and after the study. Results Occupational performance coaching had significant effects on participants’ occupational performance and self-efficacy. In child-related goals, there was also a statistically significant difference between two groups ( p = 0.05). Conclusion The results indicated that occupational performance coaching could be an effective intervention to increase the self-efficacy of mothers and improve the occupational performance of children and mothers of children with cerebral palsy. This trial is registered at NCT02915926 at clinicaltrials.gov
Introduction:The use of triage systems is one of the most important measures in response to mass-... more Introduction:The use of triage systems is one of the most important measures in response to mass-casualty incidents (MCIs) caused by emergencies and disasters. In these systems, certain principles and criteria must be considered that can be achieved with a lack of resources. Accordingly, the present study was conducted as a systematic review to explore the principles of triage systems in emergencies and disasters world-wide.Methods:The present study was conducted as a systematic review of the principles of triage in emergencies and disasters. All papers published from 2000 through 2019 were extracted from the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases. The search for the articles was conducted by two trained researchers independently.Results:The classification and prioritization of the injured people, the speed, and the accuracy of the performance were considered as the main principles of triage. In certain circumstances, including chemical, biolo...
Introduction: Despite efforts to increase earthquake preparedness (EP), the level of earthquake p... more Introduction: Despite efforts to increase earthquake preparedness (EP), the level of earthquake preparedness in Tehran is low, even when people acknowledge the risk they face. This problem has its roots in the beliefs of Tehran inhabitants about EP. This study is aimed to elicit the salient beliefs about earthquake preparedness among Tehran citizens. Method: This is a deductive content analysis research. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been applied as the theoretical framework of the study. 132 semi-structured interviews have been conducted with Tehran heads of households and the obtained data have been analyzed. Results: The interviews showed that the belief in the usefulness of the EP and the belief that “the EP can cause anxiety among family members” were the salient behavioral beliefs (the ones influencing the attitude towards a behavior). The main normative belief (which influences the subjective norms), was “my family doesn’t disagree with the EP” although most of the interviewees did not know about their families’ views. Finally, the main control belief (which is the basis of perceived behavioral control), was that “education can facitilates EP”. Conclusion: Tehran inhabitants preparedness behaviors can be influenced by their behavioral, normative and control beliefs about preparedness. Recognition of these beliefs may assist policy makers and executives to develop a better understanding of the origins of the preparedness behaviors. Any interventions to change these behaviors should be made based on such knowledge. Key words: Earthquake; preparedness; salient beliefs; theory of planned behavior
Journal of advances in medical education & professionalism, 2016
Continuing Medical Education (CME) has been considered as a lifelong commitment for doctors to pr... more Continuing Medical Education (CME) has been considered as a lifelong commitment for doctors to provide the optimal care for patients. Despite a long history of creating CME programs, outcomes are far from ideal. The present qualitative study aims to clarify the barriers affecting effectiveness of the CME programs in Iran based on the experiences of general practitioners. Sixteen general practitioners were recruited to participate in in-depth interviews and field observations concerning experiences with CME. The study was performed using a qualitative content analysis method. The codes, categories and themes were explored through an inductive process in which the researchers moved from specific to general. The participants' experiences identified a number of barriers, particularly insufficient interaction with the instructors; additional problems included the teachers' use of an undifferentiated approach; unreal and abstract CME; and ignorance of the diverse reasons to partic...
The growth of the aging population and the increase of age at marriage will result in a rise in t... more The growth of the aging population and the increase of age at marriage will result in a rise in the number of never-married people in the future, although there is not sufficient qualitative evidence on this emerging phenomenon. The present study aimed to explore the lived experience of never-married older adults. The lived experiences of 12 never-married older adults were collected using an in-depth interview. The hermeneutics method of Van Manen was used for identification, description, and interpretation of emergent themes. Reflection on the lived experiences of the participants uncovered six themes, including: feeling of independence, combating loneliness, moving up to self-development, feeling of regret and loss, close relationships with friends and relatives, and being annoyed of stigmatization. The findings of the present study, which illuminate the hidden aspects of never-married older adults’ lives, can be used by healthcare professionals such as psychotherapists, and also ...
International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 2020
Background/aimsOccupational performance coaching is a family-centred approach that helps mothers ... more Background/aimsOccupational performance coaching is a family-centred approach that helps mothers who have children with occupational performance challenges. This study sought to identify the barriers and facilitators to goal achievement and engagement with occupational performance coaching based on the experiences of mothers of children with cerebral palsy who were receiving occupational performance coaching.MethodsThis qualitative study was embedded within a randomised control trial. Twelve mothers of children with cerebral palsy who had received occupational performance coaching were interviewed using a semi-structured interview technique. Their responses were analysed using inductive content analysis.ResultsThe most important barriers to goal achievement and engagement with coaching were societal, family-related and mother-related factors. The facilitators were new resources, family cohesion, mother-related factors and child-related factors.ConclusionsDifferent factors can affect...
BackgroundWith the unprecedented expansion of COVID-19 in the world since December 2019, Iran’s h... more BackgroundWith the unprecedented expansion of COVID-19 in the world since December 2019, Iran’s health system, like other countries, faced various challenges in managing the disease, which led to numerous experiences and lessons learned. This study was conducted to identify these challenges regarding unique political, economic, and cultural issues, which could help other countries with similar situations.MethodsThe present study was performed using a qualitative multi-method approach with a content analysis method. The data were collected through in-depth and semi-structured interviews and focused group discussions with 60 key persons who were selected purposefully, including policymakers, health care workers, and affected people by the disease, and the review of all available national reports between February 21, 2020, and March 22, 2021. The data collection and analysis were done simultaneously.ResultsIdentified critical challenges for the management of COVID-19 in the health syst...
BACKGROUND: Risk perception is an important predictor to mitigate climate change effects which ca... more BACKGROUND: Risk perception is an important predictor to mitigate climate change effects which can produce mental health consequences such as anxiety and depression. For developing policies of climate risk adaptation, awareness of public attitudes, beliefs, and perception is essential. At this study, researchers tried to focus on the often “unseen” psychological aspects of climate change. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A qualitative approach was done with a consistent content analysis method. The study consisted of 33 participants including ordinary people and experts in disasters and climate change. Purposeful sampling was adopted until data saturation. The data collection was performed through in-depth and semi-structured interviews. All interviews were transcribed after listening again and again and reading several times to catch an overall understanding of the interviews. RESULTS: The main theme of the study was “Complexity nature of climate change risk perception” and related categories including “the Mental health dimension,” “the Cognitive dimension” and “Interaction of imposed components.” The structure of the research community strongly reflected effects of cultural and religious factors in all aspects of community life. Participants’ life experiences of extreme events were associated to their perception of climate change. CONCLUSIONS: Risk perception is multifactorial and complicate and should clearly be understood to improve community participation to manage climate change-related risks. We propose that authorities and related managers should pay attention to it as a priority. This may assist in developing research on public mental health practices.
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2021
Objective:This study aimed to investigate the challenges of hospital disaster risk management so ... more Objective:This study aimed to investigate the challenges of hospital disaster risk management so that it can take a step to provide strategies and interventions to remove these barriers and improve the hospital disaster risk management (HDRM) through identifying and introducing them to disaster experts.Methods:This is a systematic qualitative review study. Data sources included Persian and international databases, which were searched using the keywords of hospital, disaster, risk management, risk reduction, disaster and challenge, and the combination of them. The search period ranged from January 2010 to January 2020. Data were extracted by 2 independent examiners for qualitative thematic analysis.Results:A total of 762 articles and documents were recovered. Finally, 12 articles entered the study, including 7 studies from Asia, 2 articles from Europe, 2 articles from the United States, and 1 article about Africa. After thematic analysis, 17 sub-themes were achieved and were classifi...
INTRODUCTION: Disasters occur almost everywhere in the world, and preparation is essential. Prepa... more INTRODUCTION: Disasters occur almost everywhere in the world, and preparation is essential. Preparedness is an effective approach for disaster management, and it is crucial for the health systems, especially the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) agencies. This systematic review will be conducted to assess the preparedness levels of EMS agencies in the world for the response to disasters and explore the key dimensions and strategies to enhance it. METHODOLOGY: This systematic literature review will be conducted to search comprehensively the articles published between 2000 and 2019 to explore the disaster preparedness of EMS Agencies. To this end, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar will be thoroughly assessed. The following terms and expression will be used for searching the databases: “EMS” and other keywords “Disaster Preparedness,” “Mass Casualty Incident,” “Mass Gathering,” “Terrorist incident,” “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” and CBRNE, Disaster, included: ‘Emergency Preparedness, Preparedness, Readiness. DISCUSSION: To the best of our knowledge, no systematic review study has been conducted on disaster preparedness of EMS agencies in the world. This is the first study to address this gape. It will also explore the key dimensions of disaster preparedness in EMS services and the strategies to enhance their preparedness. CONCLUSION: Identifying the key dimensions of disaster preparedness is the first step in designing valid assessment tools to evaluate disaster preparedness of EMS service. This study will provide valuable guides for EMS administrators and researchers in an attempt to enhance of preparedness of EMS systems in disasters.
Introduction The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of occupational performance coa... more Introduction The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of occupational performance coaching in mothers of children with cerebral palsy. Method A randomized controlled trial was used. Thirty mothers of children with cerebral palsy were randomly assigned to an occupational performance coaching group or control group. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and Sherer General Self-efficacy Scale were measured before and after the study. Results Occupational performance coaching had significant effects on participants’ occupational performance and self-efficacy. In child-related goals, there was also a statistically significant difference between two groups ( p = 0.05). Conclusion The results indicated that occupational performance coaching could be an effective intervention to increase the self-efficacy of mothers and improve the occupational performance of children and mothers of children with cerebral palsy. This trial is registered at NCT02915926 at clinicaltrials.gov
Introduction:The use of triage systems is one of the most important measures in response to mass-... more Introduction:The use of triage systems is one of the most important measures in response to mass-casualty incidents (MCIs) caused by emergencies and disasters. In these systems, certain principles and criteria must be considered that can be achieved with a lack of resources. Accordingly, the present study was conducted as a systematic review to explore the principles of triage systems in emergencies and disasters world-wide.Methods:The present study was conducted as a systematic review of the principles of triage in emergencies and disasters. All papers published from 2000 through 2019 were extracted from the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases. The search for the articles was conducted by two trained researchers independently.Results:The classification and prioritization of the injured people, the speed, and the accuracy of the performance were considered as the main principles of triage. In certain circumstances, including chemical, biolo...
Introduction: Despite efforts to increase earthquake preparedness (EP), the level of earthquake p... more Introduction: Despite efforts to increase earthquake preparedness (EP), the level of earthquake preparedness in Tehran is low, even when people acknowledge the risk they face. This problem has its roots in the beliefs of Tehran inhabitants about EP. This study is aimed to elicit the salient beliefs about earthquake preparedness among Tehran citizens. Method: This is a deductive content analysis research. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been applied as the theoretical framework of the study. 132 semi-structured interviews have been conducted with Tehran heads of households and the obtained data have been analyzed. Results: The interviews showed that the belief in the usefulness of the EP and the belief that “the EP can cause anxiety among family members” were the salient behavioral beliefs (the ones influencing the attitude towards a behavior). The main normative belief (which influences the subjective norms), was “my family doesn’t disagree with the EP” although most of the interviewees did not know about their families’ views. Finally, the main control belief (which is the basis of perceived behavioral control), was that “education can facitilates EP”. Conclusion: Tehran inhabitants preparedness behaviors can be influenced by their behavioral, normative and control beliefs about preparedness. Recognition of these beliefs may assist policy makers and executives to develop a better understanding of the origins of the preparedness behaviors. Any interventions to change these behaviors should be made based on such knowledge. Key words: Earthquake; preparedness; salient beliefs; theory of planned behavior
Journal of advances in medical education & professionalism, 2016
Continuing Medical Education (CME) has been considered as a lifelong commitment for doctors to pr... more Continuing Medical Education (CME) has been considered as a lifelong commitment for doctors to provide the optimal care for patients. Despite a long history of creating CME programs, outcomes are far from ideal. The present qualitative study aims to clarify the barriers affecting effectiveness of the CME programs in Iran based on the experiences of general practitioners. Sixteen general practitioners were recruited to participate in in-depth interviews and field observations concerning experiences with CME. The study was performed using a qualitative content analysis method. The codes, categories and themes were explored through an inductive process in which the researchers moved from specific to general. The participants' experiences identified a number of barriers, particularly insufficient interaction with the instructors; additional problems included the teachers' use of an undifferentiated approach; unreal and abstract CME; and ignorance of the diverse reasons to partic...
The growth of the aging population and the increase of age at marriage will result in a rise in t... more The growth of the aging population and the increase of age at marriage will result in a rise in the number of never-married people in the future, although there is not sufficient qualitative evidence on this emerging phenomenon. The present study aimed to explore the lived experience of never-married older adults. The lived experiences of 12 never-married older adults were collected using an in-depth interview. The hermeneutics method of Van Manen was used for identification, description, and interpretation of emergent themes. Reflection on the lived experiences of the participants uncovered six themes, including: feeling of independence, combating loneliness, moving up to self-development, feeling of regret and loss, close relationships with friends and relatives, and being annoyed of stigmatization. The findings of the present study, which illuminate the hidden aspects of never-married older adults’ lives, can be used by healthcare professionals such as psychotherapists, and also ...
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