Objective:To examine the fauna of rodents as zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis reservoir hosts in Zarqan County, Fars Province, south of Iran, during 2012.
Methods:During 2012, wild rodents from different parts of this region were caught by Sherman traps and checked by the examination of liver and spleen smears, for Leishmania infection, to see which species were acting as reservoir hosts;the slides were then processed to extract DNA for molecular test using PCR assay.
Results:From 108 rodent species caught, 63%were male and 37%identified as female. Meriones libycus was the most abundant species caught (80.5%) and 5.7%of them were found to be smear-positive for Leishmania amastigotes. The other species were Rattus rattus (14.8%) and Mus musculus (4.7%), but none of them were found positive. Leishmania infection was observed in male and female samples microscopically. Moreover, molecular results revealed Leishmania major in three male and two female specimens.
Conclusions:Based on our knowledge, Meriones libycus is incriminated as the main reservoir hosts of Leishmania major in the rural area of Zarqan.

OBJECTIVEInjury is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. The assessment of patterns and severity of injury in high-risk groups is crucial for planning and service development. On a large scale national household survey, we estimated the annual incidence and the patterns of injury, the demographics of the injured people, as well as the service use for all injuries in Iran. The current study aims at assessing the reliability of the questionnaire before carrying out a national survey.

METHODSIn a pilot study using cluster random sampling approach, 73 people were interviewed. The interviewers asked the participants to report all injuries occurred in them and the care provided during the previous 12 months, based on "Short Form Injury Questionnaire 7" About two weeks later, the interview was repeated by another interviewer.

RESULTSIn our test-retest reliability, Kappa score was good for three and moderate for four questions. The question on the injured organ had the highest test-retest reliability with a Kappa score of 0.84.

CONCLUSIONSThe reliability of the questionnaire and the procedure of questioning are confirmed. The ques-tionnire is proper for utilization in large national surveies.

Humans ; Incidence ; Iran ; epidemiology ; Pilot Projects ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Latent class analysis (LCA) is a method of assessing and correcting measurement error in surveys. The local independence assumption in LCA assumes that indicators are independent from each other condition on the latent variable. Violation of this assumption leads to unreliable results. We explored this issue by using LCA to estimate the prevalence of illicit drug use in the Iranian Mental Health Survey. The following three indicators were included in the LCA models: five or more instances of using any illicit drug in the past 12 months (indicator A), any use of any illicit drug in the past 12 months (indicator B), and the self-perceived need of treatment services or having received treatment for a substance use disorder in the past 12 months (indicator C). Gender was also used in all LCA models as a grouping variable. One LCA model using indicators A and B, as well as 10 different LCA models using indicators A, B, and C, were fitted to the data. The three models that had the best fit to the data included the following correlations between indicators: (AC and AB), (AC), and (AC, BC, and AB). The estimated prevalence of illicit drug use based on these three models was 28.9%, 6.2% and 42.2%, respectively. None of these models completely controlled for violation of the local independence assumption. In order to perform unbiased estimations using the LCA approach, the factors violating the local independence assumption (behaviorally correlated error, bivocality, and latent heterogeneity) should be completely taken into account in all models using well-known methods.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Mental Health* ; Methods ; Prevalence ; Self Report ; Substance-Related Disorders ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Objective: Gaming motivations are crucial aspects of healthy and problematic video gaming behavior. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the widely used Motives for Online Gaming Questionnaire (MOGQ). Methods: Test-retest reliability was evaluated in a sample of 66 university students. Data from 791 participants in an online survey of Iranian online gamers were examined to assess convergent validity and construct validity using confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency of MOGQ factors was assessed in both samples. Results: The item content validity index (I-CVI) and the scale content validity index (S-CVI) were between 0.8 and 1.0 for clarity and relevancy. The test-retest reliability of the 27-item questionnaire was 0.85 and internal consistency was 0.94. After incorporating additional error paths, model fit improved to an acceptable level. The MOGQ factors had acceptable correlations with relevant motivational scales such as Gaming Motivation Scale and Player Experience of Need Satisfaction. Recreation motives had the highest average score in the sample and social ones had the lowest, and males scored higher than females across all motivation domains except escape. Conclusion The MOGQ is a suitable instrument for the assessment of online gaming motivations in the Iranian population.

Objective: Gaming motivations are a central aspect of playing video games, and their importance to understanding both healthy and problematic gaming behavior has been increasingly elucidated. In this study, we aimed to translate the 18-item Gaming Motivation Scale (GAMS-18) to Persian and validate it in a population of Persian speaking gamers, specifically for the assessment of online gaming. Methods: After translation from English to Persian, content validity of the questionnaire was assessed by a panel of experts and test–retest reliability was calculated in a sample of 70 students. Data from an online survey of 791 Iranian online gamers were used for the assessment of construct validity using confirmatory factor analysis. Results: The item content validity index and the scale content validity index for clarity and relevance ranged from 0.80 to 1.00. Internal consistency reliability of the GAMS-18 was 0.90 and the test–retest reliability was 0.89. The test–retest reliability of the GAMS-18 was 0.89, and the internal consistency was 0.90. The GAMS factors had acceptable correlation with other motivational scale such as Player Experience of Need Satisfaction. Incorporating the proposed additional error paths improved the model fit to an acceptable level. Conclusion The Persian version of the GAMS can assess digital gaming behavior based on the six self-determination theory motivation types, and measures different aspects of motivation that other instruments. It is also demonstrated to have good reliability and validity and could be used in research on the motivations of online gamers in Persian-speaking populations.

Objective: To determine the diversity of sand flies in different biotopes of mountainous and plain areas of Bam County as the most infected focus of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in southeast Iran, and synanthropic index of Phlebotomus sergenti Parrot, and Phlebotomus papatasi Scopoli as the main vectors of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran. Methods: Sand flies were captured once a month using sticky traps in domestic, peri-domestic, agricultural, and sylvatic biotopes in the plain and mountainous areas. Alpha diversity indices, including richness, evenness, Shannon-Wiener; beta diversity indices (Jaccard's and Sorensen's similarity indices) and synanthropic index were calculated. Results: A total of 2 664 specimens of 9 sand fly species were collected from mountainous (47%) and plain (53%) areas. Species richness, species evenness, and Shannon-Wiener indices were obtained as 9, 0.637, and 1.399, respectively in the mountainous area. Phlebotomus sergenti and Phlebotomus papatasi were constant species with the synanthropic index of-18.463 and-29.412, respectively. In addition, species richness, species evenness, and Shannon-Wiener indices were 4, 0.690, and 0.956, respectively in the plain area. Phlebotomus sergenti and Phlebotomus papatasi were dominant species with the synanthropic index of +9.695 and +36.207, respectively. Similarity indices were low among different biotopes of plain and mountainous areas. Conclusions: A basic knowledge about the diversity of sand flies in various biotopes is essential to design sound control programs. Biodiversity and synanthropic indices of sand flies are different in plain and mountainous areas due to the difference in biotic and abiotic factors between the two areas.

Objective: To evaluate different doses of ivermectin in adult patients with mild COVID-19 and to evaluate the effect of ivermectin on mortality and clinical consequences. Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial was performed at five hospitals. A total of 180 mild hospitalized patients with COVID-19 confirmed by PCR or chest image tests were enrolled and allocated to six arms including hydroxychloroquine 200 mg twice per day, placebo plus hydroxychloroquine 200 mg twice per day, single dose ivermectin (200 μg/kg), three low interval doses of ivermectin (200, 200, 200 μg/kg), single dose ivermectin (400 μg/kg), and three high interval doses of ivermectin (400, 200, 200 μg/kg). The primary endpoint of this trial was all-cause of mortality or clinical recovery. The radiographic findings, hospitalization and low O