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Background: Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Iran, the control and management of the epidemic were headed by the National Headquarter for the Control of COVID-19 Epidemic through setting up different scientific committees, including the COVID-19 National Epidemiology Committee. The present study reviews the missions, structures, achievements, and challenges of the Epidemiology Committee. Study design: A rapid review Methods: All relevant reports, documents, guidelines, published literature, and surveillance data related to the establishment, visions, missions, roles, activities, and outputs of the COVID-19 Epidemiology Committee were critically reviewed in this study. Results: The efforts of the committee’s working groups may have impacted improvements in data registration/usage, provincial data quality at provincial levels, and perception of the epidemic situation in the provinces. The committees have also played role in informing the policies in different stages of the epidemic through routine or problem-based data/evidence analyses, epidemic investigations, and mathematical modeling. Conclusions: The structure and experience gained by the committee can be used in similar situations within and outside the country. To further improve the impacts of our activities, it is essential to have effective interaction, collaboration, and data flow between the committee and a broad range of organizations within and outside the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

Background: Physical activity is affecting every aspect of our life. A sedentary lifestyle can be the risk factor for noncommunicable diseases (NCD) or premature death all over the world. Several studies demonstrate that school-based physical activity promotion is an important solution to make healthy behaviors, especially in children and adolescents. In this vein, the current research evaluates a model for physical activity, which is promoted through a game among high school students. Methods: In this study, 47 high school's 10 th -grade boys from Tehran were requited. The game scenario included the suggestion of some behaviors which can increase daily physical activity by each student, like or dislike each behavior by other students, counting likes, selecting the most-liked behaviors, and rewarding their proposers. After a week, the behavioral recall was assessed and compared with a control group who had been heard these behaviors in the class without gamification. Results: The participants in the game could recall physical activity behaviors significantly more than peers in the control group. Conclusions: The findings show gamification could significantly improve the effectiveness of education for normal behaviors in physical activity.

Background: One billion worldwide population are living in slum areas that mostly accompanied with high rates of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, unhealthy situation, and inappropriate health-care services. The prediction of enormous growth of slums by 2030, led to a raise to address the “plight of slums” in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To address evidence based health related priorities, we conducted a systematic review to summarizing evidences on health situations of slums population in Iran.Methods: Six electronic databases were systematically searched for published studies without any restriction on age, time and language to assess health situations of slums in Iran by following the PRISMA protocol. All identified articles were screened, quality assessed and data extracted by two authors independently.Results: The finding of this systematic review in addition to overall view categorized in five categories: Health System, Reproductive Health, Infectious Diseases, Non-communicable Diseases and Their Risk Factors, Social Issues besides overall situation of Slums.Conclusions: Community-based participatory interventions with socioeconomic approach on modifiable risk factors; active response of health system; establishment new health care centers in slum areas; augmenting the quality of care; active case finding; and elevating health knowledge, attitude, and practice among slum dwellers is crucial to achieving SDGs.

Background: Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in exploring self-compassion as a related and complementary construct to mindfulness. Improved self-compassion may predict clinical outcomes after implementing Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) approach and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT). This pilot study compared the impact of MBSR and CFT on self-compassion in people living with HIV, utilizing implicit and explicit instructions, respectively. Methods: The present quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design was conducted among people living with HIV referred to the Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) center of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran in which 54 patients were selected by convenient sampling. The interventions based on CFT and MBSR were applied to two experimental groups (18 people in each group) while the control group included 18 people who received no interventions and were placed on a waiting list. The experimental groups received the two interventions for 10 weekly sessions. Patients’ self-compassion was assessed at three stages of pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with a self-compassion scale. Descriptive and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance) were used to analyze the extracted data. Results: The results showed that both interventions based on CFT and MBSR were effective in enhancing self-compassion of people living with HIV (p<0.05), and this effect remained consistent even during the follow-up stage (p=0.021). The changes were observable even three months after the treatment (p< 0.05). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that MBSR and CFT can be effective in improving self-compassion among HIV positive patients. Besides, they can be helpful in developing preventive interventions.