Background Defining socio-demographic factors, clinical presentations and underlying diseases associated with COVID-19 severity could be helpful in its management. This study aimed to further clarify the determinants and clinical risk factors of the disease severity in patients infected with COVID-19. Methods A multi-centre descriptive study on all patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the province of Tehran from March 2020 up to Dec 2020 was conducted. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, clinical presentations, comorbidities, and the health outcomes of 205,654 patients were examined. Characteristics of the study population were described. To assess the association of study variables with the disease severity, the Chi-Squared test and Multiple Logistic Regression model were applied. Results The mean age of the study population was 52.8 years and 93,612 (45.5%) were women. About half of the patients have presented with low levels of blood oxygen saturation. The ICU admission rate was 17.8% and the overall mortality rate was 10.0%. Older age, male sex, comorbidities including hypertension, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases other than asthma, chronic liver diseases, chronic kidney diseases, chronic neurological disorders, and HIV/AIDS infection were risk markers of poor health outcome. Clinical presentations related with worse prognosis included fever, difficulty breathing, impaired consciousness, and cutaneous manifestations. Conclusion These results might alert physicians to pay attention to determinants and risk factors associated with poor prognosis in patients with COVID-19. In addition, our findings aid decision makers to emphasise on vulnerable groups in the public health strategies that aim at preventing the spread of the disease and its mortalities.

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First admission rates to the psychiatric hospital in Kuwait revealed that foreign housemaids as a whole had about five times the rate of Kuwaiti females. According to hospital diagnoses the housemaids had significantly more acute situational disturbances and mania, and less depressive illness and organic mental disorders. Regarding schizophrenia and paranoid state there was no significant difference between the two groups. It is recommended that good interpreters should be appointed as part of an appropriate staffing of the psychiatric hospital.

Background:The worldwide emergence of future pandemics emphasizes the need to assess the pandemic resilient urban form to prevent infectious disease transmission during this epidemic. According to the lessons of the COVID-19 outbreak, this study aimed to review the current strategies of responding to pandemics through disaster risk management (DRM) to develop a pandemic-resilient urban form in phases of response, mitigation, and preparedness.Methods: The research method is developed through desk study was used to explore the current literature of urban form responded to COVID-19 pandemic and for the text analysis; qualitative content analysis was applied developing a conceptual framework.Results: To create pandemic resilient urban form, this study proposes principles to enhance the urban form resiliency in 3 scales of housing, neighborhoods/public spaces, and cities. These principles focus on the concept of resilient urban form from new perspectives focusing on the physical and nonphysical aspects of resilient urban form, which develops a new understanding of pandemics as a disaster and health-related emergency risks. The physical aspect of resiliency to epidemic outbreaks includes urban form, access, infrastructure, land use, and natural environment factors. Moreover, the nonphysical aspect can be defined by the sociocultural, economic, and political (including good governance) factors. By providing and enhancing the physical and nonphysical prerequisites, several benefits can be gained and the effectiveness of all response, mitigation, and preparedness activities can be supported. Conclusion:As the pandemic's disruptions influence the citizens' lifestyle dramatically, the prominent role of place characteristics in the outbreak of pandemics, policymakers, urban planners, and urban designers should be pulled together to make urban areas more resilient places for epidemics and pandemics.

Introduction: Hospital beds, human resources, and medical equipment are the costliest elements in the health system and play an essential role at the time of treatment. In this paper, different phases of the NEDA 2026 project and its methodological approach were presented and its formulation process was analysed using the Kingdon model of policymaking. Methods: Iran Health Roadmap (NEDA 2026) project started in March 2016 and ended in March 2017. The main components of this project were hospital beds, clinical human resources, specialist personnel, capital medical equipment, laboratory facilities, emergency services, and service delivery model. Kingdon model of policymaking was used to evaluate NEDA 2026 development and implementation. In this study, all activities to accomplish each step in the Kingdon model was described. Results: The followings were done to accomplish the goals of each step: collecting experts’ viewpoint (problem identification and definition), systematic review of the literature, analysis of previous experiences, stakeholder analysis, economic analysis, and feasibility study (solution appropriateness analysis), three-round Delphi survey (policy survey and scrutinization), and intersectoral and interasectoral agreement (policy legislation). Conclusion: In the provision of an efficient health service, various components affect each other and the desired outcome, so they need to be considered as parts of an integrated system in developing a roadmap for the health system. Thus, this study demonstrated the cooperation process at different levels of Iran’s health system to formulate a roadmap to provide the necessary resources for the health sector for the next 10 years and to ensure its feasibility using the Kingdon policy framework.