BACKGROUND: Assessing and evaluating mental health status can provide educational planners valuable information to predict the quality of physicians' performance at work. These data can help physicians to practice in the most desired way. The study aimed to evaluate factors affecting psychological morbidity in Iranian emergency medicine practitioners at educational hospitals of Tehran. METHODS:In this cross sectional study 204 participants (emergency medicine residents and specialists) from educational hospitals of Tehran were recruited and their psychological morbidity was assessed by using a 28-question Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Somatization, anxiety and sleep disorders, social dysfunction and depression were evaluated among practitioners and compared to demographic and job related variables. RESULTS:Two hundreds and four participants consisting of 146 (71.6%) males and 58 (28.4%) females were evaluated. Of all participants, 55 (27%) were single and 149 (73%) were married. Most of our participants (40.2%) were between 30-35 years old. By using GHQ-28, 129 (63.2%) were recognized as normal and 75 (36.8%) suffered some mental health disorders. There was a signifi cant gender difference between normal practitioners and practitioners with disorder (P=0.02) while marital status had no significant difference (P=0.2). Only 19 (9.3%) declared having some major mental health issue in the previous month. CONCLUSION:Females encountered more mental health disorders than male (P=0.02) and the most common disorder observed was somatization (P=0.006).

Background: SARS-CoV-2 a highly contagious virus causing the current global pandemic of COVID -19 is transmitted mainly through close physical contact and airborne transmission of respiratory droplets, and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Objective: The study was carried out aiming to assess knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of university level (medical and nonmedical) students towards COVID-19. Methods: This online cross-sectional KAP study was carried out among university level students. The questionnaire used consisted of two main sections: demographic and knowledge, attitude and practic es (KAP) towards COVID-19 transmission and prevention. Demographic variables included gender, age, religion, marital status, type of education. KAP section consisted of 14 questions for assessment of knowledge regarding clinical symptoms, transmission route, vaccine, prevention and cont rol of COVID-19. The link of the online questionnaire was shared with students of three government and one private medical colleges and 8 universities of which 5 government and 3 private through their faculties with an invitation to participating in the study. Results: A total of 399 students participated in the study, 6 1.9% were non-medical and 38.1% were medical students; males accounted for 62.7% of the respondents. Knowledge and practice scores were significantly higher in females than in males (p< 0.05). KAP scores were significantly higher among medical students compared to non-medical students (p< 0.05). Though about 52.1% of total students had good knowledge, less than 25% had favourable attitude and 48.6% had good practices towards preventive m easures of COVID-19. Conclusion: There is need for more awareness campaign focusing the students to cover their knowledge gaps, motivation for appropriate practices and further improvement of attitude and practices towards preve ntion of COVID-19 transmission. Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2020; 46(3): 154-160

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