Ali Ardalan

• MD, PhD
• Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Background Ensuring public health is crucial in any policy debate on climate change. Paris Agreement on Climate Change is a global contract through which countries have committed themselves to a public health treaty. This study was conducted to identify the challenges that lie ahead for policymakers and provide an evidence-informed framework for po...

Introduction: Given the multitude of climate changes and the varying level of adaptation in different societies, it is necessary to measure the degree of adaptation to climate change in any society, as these aids in planning strategies to promote adaptation. Achieving such a goal requires the use of reliable, stable, and indigenous culture-based to...

Procedural effectiveness relates to the impact assessment; so, the objective of this study is to identify the procedural effectiveness indicators and develop a conceptual mapping of existing impact indicators in the field of International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA). We conducted a literature review and searched the websites of humanitarian assis...

در این پرژوه چالش های و مشکلات ارائه خدمات سلامتی در مراسم اربعین سال 1394 با استفاده از مصاحبه و فکوس گروپ با کارشناسان و مدیران دانشگاه های علوم پزشکی ایلام،اهواز، آبادان مورد تجزیه و تحلیل قرار گرفته است

Purpose This study aimed to determine the role and responsibility of stakeholders in decision-making, research, policy-making, and implementation of an adaptation plan, with a comprehensive view of the position, influence, and power of stakeholders. Methods This descriptive-analytical research was identified and analyzed using the social network a...

Introduction: Increasing firefighters’ occupational resilience promotes their safety and safe performance in hazards. Despite its significance, no instrument has so far been developed to assess firefighters’ occupational resilience. The present study, therefore, aimed to design such an instrument. Material and methods: Firefighter’s occupational re...

Background Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) by refugee women is debatable. Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Reproductive Tract Infections (RTIs) are IPV’s squeals. This study aimed to examine associations between IPV and RTI/STI. Methods This cross-sectional population-based household survey was conducted with 188 reproductiv...

Background: The evidence shows that the need for emergency evacuation in hospitals has arisen. Designing an emergency evacuation decision making tool increases the confidence of hospital managers in the decision made. Therefore, this study was aimed at the development, and the psychometric properties, of the decision-making scale for emergency hos...

Background We aimed to evaluate the impact of heatwaves on daily deaths due to non-accidental, cardiovascular and respiratory causes in the city of Dezful in Iran from 2013 to 2019. Method We collected daily ambient temperature and mortality and defined 2 types of heatwaves by combining daily temperature ⩾90th in each month of the study period or...

Background: We aimed to identify indicators affecting firefighters’ resilience through a systematic review. Methods: International electronic databases, including Web of Science, Medline through PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar, were searched on Dec 23, 2018. The search strategy was developed using main words, including firefigh...

Flood hazard characteristics play a key role in flood-induced mortality. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the associations between these factors and flood fatalities. This case-control study was performed in the flood-prone regions of Iran with recorded flood-induced mortality rates during 2005–2018. In total, 369 subjects completed the survey...

Purpose: Determination of the causes of flood-related deaths is the precondition for effective interventions aimed at the reduction of such deaths. There is a gap in the design and the development of a valid and reliable instrument for measuring underlying factors of death in the flood. Methods: This study was carried out in two phases. In the f...

Background: Various studies indicate that in many cases, fire has broken out in hospitals. Objectives: This study aims to assess fire protection in the selected units of Imam Khomeini hospital located in Tehran, Iran in 2020. Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, first, a researcher-made checklist was developed for the data collection by val...

During the first half of 2019, many provinces of Iran were affected by floods, which claimed the lives of 82 people. The present study aimed to investigate the behavioral, health related and demographic risk factors associated with deaths due to floods. We measured the odds ratio and investigated the contribution and significance of the factors in...

Background Despite the fact that Iran has been exposed to severe dust storms during the past 2 decades, few studies have investigated the health effects of these events in Iran. This study was conducted to assess the association between dust storms and daily non-accidental, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality in Dezful City (Khuzestan Provinc...

Background Disasters may result in mass casualties and an imbalance between health care demands and supplies. This imbalance necessitates the prioritization of the victims based on the severity of their condition. Contributing factors and their effect on decision-making is a challenging issue in disaster triage. The present study seeks to address c...

Background: Determination of the causes of flood-related deaths is the precondition for effective interventions aimed at the reduction of such deaths. There is a gap in the design and the development of a valid and reliable tool for measuring underlying factors of death in the flood. Methods: A complete set of causes of flood deaths was collected....

Introduction: An ethical plan is required to make decisions regarding setting the priority for assisting injured patients through triage. The aim of this study was to explore the measures used to sort patients for ethical decision-making in disaster triage. Method: The participants were 54 clinicians and non-clinicians among the Iranian experts....

Background and PurposeSand and Dust storms (SDS) are meteorological hazards that are increasing due to climate change. Mitigation and adaptation are two main strategies that help to deal with this global concern. In the recent decades, Iran has been prone to SDS. Therefore, this study was conducted in 2018 in order to explore the SDS adaptation exp...

PurposeSendai Framework is an international disaster risk reduction strategy that helps prioritization of disaster risk governance in all policies, strategies, and programs. Considering its geographical location and topographic characteristics, Iran experiences numerous hazards. Natural disasters adversely affect the health of population directly t...

Background Stakeholders are responsible for managing the risks of disasters. Hence, appropriate, collaborative, timely interactions of involved organizations, and having a collective view of these interactions, have an important influence on the operation of the whole system. This study was aimed at social network analysis (SNA) for the implementat...

Purpose Firefighters are exposed to high levels of occupational risk factors, such as safety risks, chemical, ergonomic, and physical hazards that may jeopardize their lives. To overcome these hazards, firefighters must be physically, mentally, and personally fit to work. This study aimed to explore the criteria and factors affecting firefighters’...

Purpose Resilient hospitals have the vital role in reducing mortality, severity of injuries by providing required emergency services during accidents and disasters. This study aims to identify and prioritize key indicators on hospital resilience. Design/methodology/approach This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019. The draft of the indicat...

Background: Recent studies show that heatwaves pose risks to human health. Iran is exposed to heatwaves, but the evidence for the health impact of heatwaves is scarce. We aimed to evaluate the impact of heatwaves on daily deaths from non-accidental, cardiovascular, and respiratory in the city of Dezful in Iran from 2013 to 2019. Method: We collecte...

Background Dust storms and their impacts on health are becoming a major public health issue. The current study examines the health impacts of dust storms around the world to provide an overview of this issue. Method In this systematic review, 140 relevant and authoritative English articles on the impacts of dust storms on health (up to September 2...

Background Kurdistan province of Iran is among disaster prone areas of the country. The Primary Health Care facilities in Iran deliver health services at all levels nationwide. Resiliency and flexibility of such facilities is important when a disaster occurs. Thus, evaluating functional, structural, and non-structural aspects of safety of such faci...

Context: Hospitals usually are at risk of potential hazards, which may necessitate emergency hospital evacuation (EHE). Deciding about hospital evacuation is of the critical task and is affected by numerous factors. Aims: The aim of this study then was to explore the factors behind the decision for EHE in disasters. Setting and Design: This is a qu...

Background: Road traffic injuries (RTIs) pose a disproportionate public health burden in the low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Uganda, with 85% of all the fatalities and 90% of all disability-adjusted life years lost reported worldwide. Of all RTIs which are recorded in Uganda, 50% of cases happen in Kampala -the capital city of Uganda...

Background: Ensuring public health is crucial in any policy debate on climate change. Paris Agreement on climate change is a global contract, through which countries have committed themselves to a public health treaty. The agreement has laid the foundation for mitigation and adaptation. This study was conducted to provide an evidence-based framewo...

Background: Primary healthcare facilities in Iran deliver health services at all levels nationwide. Resiliency and flexibility of such facilities is important when a disaster occurs. Thus, evaluating functional, structural, and non-structural aspects of safety of these facilities is essential. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, using the safet...

Primary Healthcare facilities in Iran deliver health services at all levels nationwide. Resiliency and flexibility of such facilities is important when a disaster occurs. Thus, evaluating functional, structural, and non-structural aspects of safety of these facilities is essential. In this cross-sectional study, using the safety evaluation checklis...

Background: Kurdistan province of Iran is among disaster prone areas of the country. The Primary Health Care facilities in Iran deliver health services at all levels nationwide. Resiliency and flexibility of such facilities is important when a disaster occurs. Thus, evaluating functional, structural, and non-structural aspects of safety of such fac...

PurposeThe number of flood disaster deaths has been on the rise in recent years. The current review investigated and categorized the risk factors of deaths from floods in parallel with preventive and control measures designed to minimize deaths from floods.Methods In a systematic review, International electronic databases including PubMed, Scopus,...

Introduction: An emergency is a serious, unexpected situation which may lead to injury, loss of life and damage to property and often needs urgent interventions. Emergency calls can bring urgent life-saving intervention in such situations. Although access to emergency lines for all persons of a society is one of the effectiveness indexes of this c...

Background: Constructions in informal settlements not respected any applying rules, regulations of urban planning, and building codes with high population density, are the municipality challenge. We aimed to identify level of buildings seismic vulnerability and population at risk in Tehran's Farahzad informal settlement in 2017. Methods: In this...

Introduction In the aftermath of mass casualty incidents, many resolutions need to be made in a fast and influential manner within high pressure environment to assign the limited resources among the numerous demands. This study was planned to rank the criteria influencing casualty’s distribution following trauma-related mass casualty incidents. M...

Background Fires is one of the most important hazards leading to human casualties as well as financial losses in the world, mostly in low- and middle- income countries. This study aims to provide in-depth information on fires in residential buildings and explain the safety process against fires in Iran. Methods This study has a qualitative study d...

Background The consequences of climate change are highly impeding the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) anywhere, especially in low and middle-income countries. While climate change scales up, its health-related risks increase, which in turn leads to cause new challenges for public health. As a second largest country of the Easter...

Objective: To examine all aspects affecting the functioning of the system and the most important factors in its assessment through a systematic review during 1990 to 2017. Methods: This systematic review of the current literature study was conducted during July 2017, and all articles, books, guidelines, manuals and dissertations pertaining to th...

The increase in the number and severity of various disasters has put communities in danger. Hospitals and other health care facilities play an important role in managing patients and their companions. The proper functioning of the hospital's units and infrastructure networks are definitively required and disruption to any of them can threaten the p...

Background: Hospitals play a vital role in disaster stricken regions. The resilient hospitals will be able to provide essential services to affected people and it can mitigate the risk of injuries during and after disasters. This study aimed to obtain the indicators required for the evaluation of hospital resilience. Methods: This systematic rev...

Background: Hospitals play a vital role in disaster stricken regions. The resilient hospitals will be able to provide essential services to affected people and it can mitigate the risk of injuries during and after disasters. This study aimed to obtain the indicators required for the evaluation of hospital resilience. Methods: This systematic review...

سلامت باروری عبارت است از رفاه کامل فیزیکی، روانی و اجتماعی در همه موضوعات مرتبط با سیستم باروری و عملکردهای مرتبط با این سیستم. سلامت باروری یک حق انسانی است که نقش مهمی در امید به زندگی افراد داشته و مشکلات مرتبط با آن منجر به تضعیف سلامتی در زنان و مرگ و میر آنها در سراسر جهان می شود. چهار جزء اصلی برنامه های سلامت باروری عبارتند از: مادری ایمن،...

Background: Hospitals play a vital role in disaster stricken regions. The resilient hospitals will be able to provide essential services to affected people and it can mitigate the risk of injuries during and after disasters. This study aimed to obtain the indicators required for the evaluation of hospital resilience. Methods: This systematic review...

Dear Editor, We appreciate the interest of the authors in our article entitled “A productive proposed search syntax for health disaster preparedness research”. They have rightly emphasized on the standard reporting of systematic reviews. However, as it is clear from the title and objective of the published article, we did not report results of a sy...

Background: Hospitals play a vital role in disaster stricken regions. The resilient hospitals will be able to provide essential services to affected people and it can mitigate the risk of injuries during and after disasters. The aim of this paper was to obtain the indicators required for the evaluation of hospital resilience. Methods: This systemat...

Background: Over recent years, the exposure of people and assets to disasters has been faster than reducing vulnerability in all countries. As a result, new risks have been formed and losses due to disaster are progressively increasing. Suffering from significant losses in the aftermath of disasters every year, Iran is no exception. Governmental an...

Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) is a complex, multi-disciplinary, and culture-dependent concept. This study aims to explore a conceptual definition, the subjective framework of CCA including its domains, attributes, and consequences. The approach of qualitative conventional content analysis was considered for the explanation of the subjective conce...

Objectives Landmines remain a potential public health concern in the western and southern border regions of Iran. The aim of this study was to assess the health-related consequences of landmine explosions in Kurdistan Province during the past 4 decades. Methods This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Kurdistan Province of Iran in...

Objective Heavy rain and flash flooding left behind a trail of disaster in the western and south-western provinces of Iran in April 2016. The purpose of this study is to highlight the response functions that should be undertaken when such disasters strike. Methods Secondary data, such as documents, organizational reports, and forms completed durin...

Background: Hospitals play a vital role in disaster stricken regions. The resilience of hospitals conducts related services without interruption and it can mitigate the risk of the injuries during and after disasters. The aim of this paper was to obtain the indicators required for the evaluation of hospital resilience. Methods: This systematic revi...

Background: Disasters are medically defined as events in which the demands for patients’ care far exceed the available resources. In such situations, triage and rationing of limited resources are inevitable. A decision regarding triage needs not only scientific guidelines but also an ethical framework and supporting policies. This study aims to pro...

Background: Since society is the first respondent to every disaster, it is essential that the community’s ability to cope with such a situation increase. Given the importance of the role of society in the current approach to disaster risk management, the choice of the primary society is important in order to achieve greater success and acceptance i...

Iran as a developing country is experiencing the industrialization process quickly and is thus exposed to different industrial hazards mostly derived from chemicals. In the light of this problem, this study estimated the human vulnerability in chemical accidents using the software simulation of accidental chlorine gas releases. A mixed method (qual...

Objective: To find a proper search strategy to do a systematic review related to preparedness for disasters.Methods: MeSH and Emtree terms were searched to detect synonyms for two main search terms “disaster” and “preparedness”. Expert opinion on the synonyms was examined applying a Google form. The adopted syntax was searched in PubMed and results...

The occurrence of floods as a threat to human life seems to be increasing; thus, all sectors of the community should participate in flood risk management to understand and control the underlying factors affecting flood deaths. This qualitative study used content analysis method with a conventional approach to identify the underlying factors influen...

Introduction:Prehospital emergency care is a vital and integral component of health systems, particularly in resource-constrained countries like Uganda. It can help to minimize deaths, injuries, morbidities, disabilities, and trauma caused by road traffic incidents (RTIs). This study identifies the weaknesses and capacities affecting the prehospita...

Background: Physical rehabilitation, as one of the rehabilitation disciplines, can play a great role in humanitarian reliefs. The effectiveness of physical rehabilitation services is completely dependent on time of intervention, the importance of good timing in providing services during disasters is not well understood. The objective of this study...

Objective: To find a proper search strategy to do a systematic review related to preparedness for disasters. Methods: MeSH and Emtree terms were searched to detect synonyms for two main search terms "disaster" and "preparedness". Expert opinion on the synonyms was examined applying a Google form. The adopted syntax was searched in PubMed and res...

Purpose: Famines and food shortages are one of the most common long time histories of Ethiopia. Hence, malnutrition has been persisted at alarming raters in the country. Moreover, it is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Afar National Regional State of Ethiopia. Specifically, in Amibara and Awash Fentale districts. The anthropometric data...

Background: Occupational chemical accidents have increased in recent years in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In June and August 2015, three large explosions occurred at chemical warehouses in Rey, Tehran Province, and toxic vapours were released. Aims: This study reviewed the three chemical accidents and assessed the extent to which the requireme...

Background: Drought is a serious issue which might be caused by climate change that could create famine and health problems. Drought reduces air quality, increases fungal infestation, reduces people hand washing, affects mental health, leads to malnutrition by decreasing agricultural production, and increases diseases transmitted by insects. This...

Introduction: Triage is a dynamic and complex decision-making process in order to determine priority of access to medical care in a disaster situation. The elements which should govern an ethical decision-making in prioritizing of victims have been debated for a long time. This paper aims to identify ethical principles guiding patient prioritizati...

Background: Every year, a large number of people lose their lives or become injured seriously as a result of fires. Fires in buildings pose a great threat to resident safety. The aim of this systematic review is to identify preventive measures for fire-related injuries in residential buildings, taking into account associated risk factors. Methods...

Introduction: Health care need after a disaster usually is much more than available resources. Given that triage models presented the only basis for decision making about casualties' prioritization. Then, decisions about which injuries should be prioritized is very difficult and can create ethical challenges for triage officers. Although utilitaria...

Background: The Islamic Republic of Iran is at high risk of natural disasters. Households are the basic unit of society and they need to be prepared for disasters. Aims: This study assessed disaster preparedness among Iranian households in 2015. Methods: Using multistage cluster sampling, 2968 households in the catchment area of 53 public heal...

Refugee women are at high risk of experiencing high level of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and its negative impacts. We conducted a cross-sectional population-based household survey with refugees in a settlement in the city of Semnan, Iran, from 2016 to 2017. Afghan refugee women (n = 188) with ages between 15 and 49 years were recruited for the...

In recent years, climate change has been one of the most complicated problems that human being has faced. Climate change adaptation (CCA) is considered to be an important component of risk management. In order to achieve adaptation, it is necessary to determine the indicators influencing adaptation in each community and this requires measurement an...

Background Building fires can be a great threat to the safety of residents, along with economic and social damages. Exploring views of stakeholders is a great source for understanding the factors that affect fires. Objective The purpose of this study is to explore residents’ and stakeholders’ experiences to explain factors affecting injuries from...

در طــول تاریــخ تمــدن بشــر حــوادث و بالیــا بخــش بزرگــی از منابــع ملتهــا و برنامههــای دولتهــا را بــه خــود اختصــاص داده اســت. رســانهها هــر روز، درخصــوص بــروز حــوادث مختلــف در سراســر دنیــا، اطالعرســانی می ّ کننــد. تغییــرات جــوی، دســتکاریهای بشــر در طبیعــت ، رشــد ســریع فنــاوری، افزایـش شهرنشـینی و موتوریـزه شـدن زندگـی...

Factors predicting patient presentation rate in mass gatherings

Background One of the most critical practices in mass casualty incident management is vacating the victims from scene of the incident and transporting them to proper healthcare facilities. Decision on distribution of casualties needs to be taken on pre-developed policies and structured decision support mechanisms. While many studies tried to presen...

Traditional approaches to risk communication ignore the emotional, cognitive and social factors that interact to influence the meaning people attribute to hazards and protective actions. The aim of this study was to investigate the emotional and cognitive factors predicting preparedness intention and community’s preparedness for flood hazards. A cr...

Introduction: Mass casualty incidents impose a large burden on the emergency medical systems, hospitals and community infrastructures. The pre-hospital and hospital capacities are usually bear the burden of casualties large numbers. One of the challenging issues in mass casualty incidents is the distribution of casualties among the suitable health...

Resilience has received increased attention among both practitioners and scholars in recent years. Child resilience has received notable attention in disaster risk reduction (DRR) during the creation of the Sendai Framework 2015–2030 to improve child protection in the event of disasters. As resilience is a subjective concept with a variety of defin...

Children and adolescents are vulnerable in times of disaster and they will suffer more severely if neglected. The concept of resilience differs between cultures, and identifying the components of resilience is essential for decision making and interventions in disasters such as risk management. This study aimed to identify the components of childre...

Introduction: In emergencies, where dispatchers are not directly involved at the incident scene, little attention is paid to the adverse events on them. Caller’s reactions may influence their decisions. Few studies about human aspects of emergency calls have been conducted but none of them was conducted from Iran. Aim: To explore mutual influence b...

Background: By studying job satisfaction, it is possible to understand the current facts and present constructive solutions for any solvable problem. The present research deals with satisfaction of emergency medicine residents and specialists. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in Tehran, Iran. All emergency medicine specialists a...

Objective One of the most important measures following disasters is setting up a communicable disease surveillance system (CDSS). This study aimed to develop indicators to assess the performance of CDSSs in disasters. Method In this 3-phase study, firstly a qualitative study was conducted through in-depth, semistructured interviews with experts on...

During the last quarter century the developing world has been experiencing rapid urban growth. These rapidly changing urban landscapes can create many new opportunities for economic growth but the same processes can also generate spatial inequalities within urban boundaries. Using recent and comprehensive geospatial data we describe, map and examin...

1071/5000 Since acquiring health centers based on accreditation indicators provides the basis for timely and efficient health care provision, the use of indigenous and international scientific evidence can play a significant role in this. . Preparedness is one of the main pillars of accident management and in its simplest form requires planning, tr...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to survey systematically experts' opinion on field hospital site selection (FHSS) criteria in order to identify optimum locations for stockpiling them in preparedness phase of disaster management. Design: A Delphi consensus technique, directed by a systematic review of the published articles on the permanent ho...

Background and aim Chemical accidents cause significant danger for residents living close to chemical facilities. For this reason, this study assessed the impacts of a simulated chemical accident on surrounding residents in the city of Ray, Iran. Methods In this scenario-based case study in 2015, the Areal Location of Hazardous Atmospheres (ALOHA)...

Background Pre-hospital emergency care is a vital and integral component of health systems particularly in the resource constrained countries like Uganda. It can help to minimize deaths, injuries, morbidities, disabilities and trauma caused by the road traffic incidents (RTIs). This study identifies the weaknesses and capacities affecting the pre-h...

Introduction: Emergency physicians should secure Endotracheal tubes (ETT) properly in order to prevent unplanned extubation (UE) and its complications. Despite various available endotracheal tube holders, using bandages or tape are still the most common methods used in this regards. Objective: This study aimed to compare adhesive tape (AT) versu...

Context: Disasters are increasing worldwide, with more devastating effects than ever before. Hospitals must maintain their normal functions or have an evacuation plan due to the rate of damages at the time of a sudden disaster. The present study was conducted to determine the effective determinants and components in hospital evacuation decision- ma...

Introduction Disaster preparedness is defined as actions that ensure resources necessary to carry out an effective response are available before a disaster. Disaster preparedness requires a thorough understanding of the factors that influence performance or nonperformance of disaster preparedness behaviors (DPB). The major aim of this research was...

Exericse guideline for public health emergencies and disasters is issued. This guideline consists of practical notes for planning and conducting exercies in health system. Three typical model of different types of exercises (Table Top- Functional- Full scale) in the annex makes this guildeline unique in its type. Moreover, evaluation check lists fo...

Background One of the most critical practices in mass casualty incident management is vacating the victims from scene of the incident and transporting them to proper healthcare facilities. Decision on distribution of casualties needs to be taken on pre-developed policies and structured decision support mechanisms. While many studies tried to presen...