Seyed Mohammad Riahi

Birjand University of Medical Sciences · Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

There are few theories and little empirical evidence about the bilateral impact of substance use and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), so a logical and accurate picture of this area is required. We investigated the effects of opium use on severity of disease on hospitalized COVID-19 patients in east of Iran. Demographic and clinical characterist...

Background Considering the fact that COVID-19 has undergone various changes over time, its symptoms have also varied. The aim of this study is to describe and compare the changes in personal characteristics, symptoms, and underlying conditions of individuals infected with different strains of COVID-19. Methods This descriptive-analytical study was...

Background COVID-19 pandemic resulted in excess mortality and changed the trends of causes of death worldwide. In this study, we investigate the all-cause and cause-specific deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022) compared to the baseline (2018–2020), considering age groups, gender, place of residence, and place of death in south Khorasan,...

Background There is arguing evidence regarding the association between maternal infections during pregnancy and the risk of intellectual disability (ID) in children. This systematic review and meta-analysis are essential to determine and address inconsistent findings between maternal infections during pregnancy and the risk of ID in children. Meth...

Background Elderly adults are at higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome (MetS). The present study aims to investigate the relationship between lipid ratios and MetS in the elderly population. Methods This study was conducted on elderly population of Birjand during 2018–2019. The data of this study was driven from Birjand Longitudinal Aging S...

Objectives Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of coexisting cardiovascular risk factors. This study aimed to assess the evidence for the association between the apolipoprotein B/A1 ratio, apolipoprotein B, and apolipoprotein A1, and the MetS in children and adolescents. Methods The English electronic databases including PubMed, Embase, W...

Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality around the globe and psychosocial factors are not sufficiently understood. Aim In the current study, we aimed to evaluate the role of different psychosocial factors including depressive symptoms, chronic stress, anxiety, and emotional social support (ESS) on the...

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) consists of a cluster of cardiometabolic risk factors and is an important determining factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We intended to use latent class analysis to classify the study population into several clusters. Methods: The baseline information of 6,814 participants of the Multi-Ethnic Study of A...

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of saffron, crocin, and safranal on serum levels of oxidants and antioxidants in diabetic rats. The authors searched the databases with standard keywords until June 8, 2021. The random‐effects model was used to pool standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals to assess the effects of saf...

Background Universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities is an essential human right, recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals as crucial for preventing disease and improving human wellbeing. Comprehensive, high-resolution estimates are important to inform progress towards achieving this goal. We aimed to produce high-res...

Background and Objective: The immediate spread of life-threatening diseases such as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) can put a great deal of strain on healthcare professionals. Considering the important role of healthcare workers during the epidemic and the impact of life-threatening diseases on them, this study aimed to assess the general healt...

Aim The rapid outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic posed challenges across different medical fields, especially reproductive health, and gave rise to concerns regarding the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on male infertility, owing to the fact that the male reproductive system indicated to be extremely vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infecti...

Previous epidemiologic evidence suggests a protective effect of Toxoplasma gondii infection against multiple sclerosis (MS) development; however, inconsistent findings have been reported in this regard. Therefore, we performed an updated meta-analysis of observational studies to investigate the association of To. gondii infection with MS developmen...

Background Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is an epidemic public health concern with considerable morbidity and mortality. Previous research has shown the association between T2D and vitamin D deficiency. This vitamin significantly affects insulin function, which plays a critical role in T2D development. Aims A prospective double-blinded randomized controll...

Objectives To use data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD 2019) to estimate mortality and disability trends for the population aged ≥70 and evaluate patterns in causes of death, disability, and risk factors. Design Systematic analysis. Setting Participants were aged ≥70 from 204 countries and terri...

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is an important risk factor for some chronic diseases. Some reports suggested that there is an interrelationship between lipids and cholecalciferol. Objectives: This meta-analysis was conducted to summarize the existing evidence of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the effect of vitamin D supplementati...

Background: The contamination of food products by Listeria monocytogenes, as a pathogen bacterium, threatening public health, raised a global concern. Dairy and meat products or ready to eat foods are recognized as the most common carriers of L. monocytogenes. Methods: In this regard, the related citation to prevalence of L. monocytogenes in dairy...

Purpose: The keratinized tissue (KT) around dental implants may be useful to ease plaque control. This meta-analysis aimed to compare peri-implant health parameters based on KT width (≥ 2 mm vs < 2 mm). Materials and methods: A highly sensitive search of five databases was performed up to February 1, 2020. The quality of eligible studies was ass...

Anemia is a globally widespread condition in women and is associated with reduced economic productivity and increased mortality worldwide. Here we map annual 2000–2018 geospatial estimates of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age (15–49 years) across 82 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), stratify anemia by severity and aggregate res...

Background Documentation of patterns and long-term trends in mortality in young people, which reflect huge changes in demographic and social determinants of adolescent health, enables identification of global investment priorities for this age group. We aimed to analyse data on the number of deaths, years of life lost, and mortality rates by sex an...

We undertook a comprehensive, systematic review of observational studies to estimate respective seroprevalences of latent and acute Toxoplasma gondii infections in HIV+ people at the global, regional and country levels; related seroprevalence to socio-economic variables and CD4+ cell counts; and assessed temporal changes in prevalence and risk fact...

Objectives COVID-19 continues to cause devastation throughout the world. Various factors influence the perioperative course and prognosis of COVID-19. This study aims to collate the independent prognostic factors among hospitalised COVID-19 patients in east Iran. Study design In this cohort study, all patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-1...

Background Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 has targeted elimination of preventable child mortality, reduction of neonatal death to less than 12 per 1000 livebirths, and reduction of death of children younger than 5 years to less than 25 per 1000 livebirths, for each country by 2030. To understand current rates, recent trends, and potential traject...

The prevalence of Yersinia enterocolitica in gastroenteritis is often underestimated. It relates considerably to morbidity and medical expenses around the world. Understanding the cause of gastroenteritis leads to making the appropriate treatment decisions. We systematically searched PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, and Scopus to identify all publis...

Background With limited vaccine supplies, an informed position on the status of SARS-CoV-2 infection in people can assist the prioritization of vaccine deployment. Objective Here, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the global and regional SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalences around the world. Data sources We systematically searc...

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have been recommended as promising candidate for cell-based therapeutic applications due to high potentials in tissue repair/regeneration and modulation of immune responses. The gene expression change strategy by natural plant enhancers is an available opportunity to improve the stemness properties of these cells. The...

In this study, we evaluated the effects of geo-climatic parameters and other potential risk factors on the prevalence of chronic toxoplasmosis (CT) in pregnant women. We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus, and SciELO databases for seroepidemiological studies published between January 1988, and February 2021. We performed meta-a...

Background: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) has been considered a significant cause of human reproductive failure in different studies; however, there is a considerable disagreement on the true impacts of HBV on female reproduction. This study has evaluated the impact of HBV infection on pregnancy complications in natural pregnancy and also on pregnancy o...

Probiotics immunomodulatory properties and their beneficial effects for diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are reported by several studies. The current systematic review and meta‐analysis aimed to investigate the favourable effects of probiotics in improving experimental autoimmune/allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) as an animal model of MS. We...

This is a supplementary material for the article entitled "Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective coverage of health services in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019"

Background: One of the most destructive forms of arthritis is knee osteoarthritis (KOA) that leads to disability because of pain in elderly individuals and also increases utilization of health care among them. Through improving local circulation and joint flexibility, and relaxation of muscles, massage therapy is capable of relieving painful muscul...

Objective: Cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania major (L. major) is an endemic disease in Iran. The current reference drugs, including Glucantime, possess high toxicity in addition to some side-effects. Therefore, there is a growing interest in exploring biomedical plants. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the anti-leishmanial...

Knowledge of the vectors of dirofilariasis in the world beside the treatment of infected dog is crucial to establish mosquito vector-based control programs. The current systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted on published studies, documenting the prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis infected/infective mosquitoes from field surveys and labor...

Knowledge of the vectors of dirofilariasis in the world beside the treatment of infected dog is crucial to establish mosquito vector-based control programs. The current systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted on published studies, documenting the prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis infected/infective mosquitoes from field surveys and labor...

Strongyloides stercoralis is a neglected soil-transmitted helminth affects approximately 100-370 million people globally. The life cycle is unusual as only larvae can be found in stool specimens. Thecurrent review and meta-analysis represented the distribution of strongyloidiasis in general population of the world based on published papers. Five En...

Background: Toxoplasma gondii infection is one of the most prevalent opportunistic and life-threatening infections in people living with HIV (PLWH). Here, we undertook a meta-analysis to estimate the global prevalence of latent (LT) and acute (AT) toxoplasmosis in PLWH. Methods: Eligible studies reporting the prevalence of LT or AT in PLWH were sea...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disea...

Background: Substantial experimental studies suggest a role for helminthes infections in the pathogenesis of allergies, but epidemiologic data have been inconsistent. Unlike to asthma, the association between helminthes infection and allergic rhinitis (AR) has been poorly studied. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the association between exposure t...

Background: COVID-19 is arguably the most important public health concern in 2020 worldwide, and efforts are now escalating to suppress or eliminate its spread. Objective: In this study, we undertook a meta-analysis to estimate the global and regional SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence rates in humans, and to assess whether seroprevalence associates with ge...

Background Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) involves all people receiving the health services they need, of high quality, without experiencing financial hardship. Making progress towards UHC is a policy priority for both countries and global institutions, as highlighted by the agenda of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO's...

Summary Background Rigorous analysis of levels and trends in exposure to leading risk factors and quantification of their effect on human health are important to identify where public health is making progress and in which cases current efforts are inadequate. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a sta...

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a rules-based synthesis of the available evidence on levels and trends in health outcomes, a diverse set of risk factors, and health system responses. GBD 2019 covered 204 countries and territories, as well as first administrative level disaggregations for 22 countr...

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publ...

Background Rigorous analysis of levels and trends in exposure to leading risk factors and quantification of their effect on human health are important to identify where public health is making progress and in which cases current efforts are inadequate. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a standardise...

Background: COVID-19 is arguably the number-one public health concern worldwide, and efforts are now escalating to control its spread. Objective: In this study, we undertake a meta-analysis to estimate the global and regional anti-SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence rates in humans and assess whether seroprevalence associates with geographical, climatic and...

Background Lymphatic filariasis is a neglected tropical disease that can cause permanent disability through disruption of the lymphatic system. This disease is caused by parasitic filarial worms that are transmitted by mosquitos. Mass drug administration (MDA) of antihelmintics is recommended by WHO to eliminate lymphatic filariasis as a public hea...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Background Oral rehydration solution (ORS) is a form of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for diarrhoea that has the potential to drastically reduce child mortality; yet, according to UNICEF estimates, less than half of children younger than 5 years with diarrhoea in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) received ORS in 2016. A variety of rec...

Background The authors of this meta-analysis aimed to assess saliva-related caries risk factors, including calcium and phosphate, hydrogen ion concentration, buffer capacity, Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus counts, flow rate, and decayed, missing and filled teeth index in each trimester during pregnancy. Types of Studies Reviewed The author...

Oral rehydration solution (ORS) is a form of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for diarrhoea that has the potential to drastically reduce child mortality; yet, according to UNICEF estimates, less than half of children younger than 5 years with diarrhoea in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) received ORS in 2016. A variety of recommended ho...

Background: The medicinal plant Myrtus communis L. (Myrtle) has been medicinal properties including antiinflammatory and wound healing in Persian Medicine. Objective The objective of this study was to explore the wound healing potential of the local application of a gel containing aqueous extract of the plant berry in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced...

Toxascaris leonina is an ascaridoid nematode of dogs and cats; this parasite affects the health of these animals. This study estimated the global prevalence of Ta. leonina infection in dogs and cats using random effects meta-analysis as well as subgroup, meta-regression and heterogeneity analyses. The data were stratified according to geographical...

Background: Level of evidence (LoE) is a hierarchical system for classifying the quality of studies. Objectives: This study examined the factors affecting the number of citations to clinical articles related to the treatment of human diseases that have included the LoE in their abstracts. Methods: A total of 3,683 therapeutic articles published bet...

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant...

The diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is difficult and poses a significant challenge to physicians worldwide. Recently, nucleic acid amplification (NAA) tests have shown promise for the diagnosis of TBM, although their performance has been variable. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of NA...

Dogs serve as the most important definitive hosts for Toxocara canis—a causative agent of human toxocariasis and one of the most widespread zoonotic helminth worldwide. The present study was undertaken to assess the global prevalence of T. canis infection in dogs. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE and SciELO were searched to identify relevant...

Background: Child mortality rates are considered to be one of the key indicators of child health. Aims: The main objective of this research was to calculate child mortality rates (CMRs) indirectly, using census data, and to investigate using spatial pattern analysis the presence of any clustering patterns among provincial regions. Methods: The...

Background Neonatal sepsis is accounted for 30–50% of annual neonatal deaths in developing countries. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis study to evaluate the national prevalence and identification of the etiological pathogens of neonatal sepsis in Iran. Methods A comprehensive literature search was done on the national and interna...

Background: Toxoplasma gondii infection, if acquired as an acute infection during pregnancy, can have substantial adverse effects on mothers, fetuses and newborns. Latent toxoplasmosis also causes a variety of pathologies and has been linked to adverse effects on pregnancy. Objective: Here, we present results of a comprehensive systematic review...

Introduction: The treatment of nail psoriasis is often difficult and unsatisfactory due to therapy resistance. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of clobetasol 0.05% ointment and photodynamic therapy (PDT) using aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and red light in the treatment of severe nail psoriasis. Methods: This open-trial study included 69 nails...

Background: No behavior as much as the use of a seatbelt affects the reduction of the severity of injuries caused by driving accidents. So far, there has not been sufficient evidence of predictive factors regarding the use of seatbelts in bus passengers. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of seatbelt use in passengers of inte...

Background: Toxocariasis is a worldwide zoonotic parasitic disease caused by species of Toxocara and Toxascaris, common in dogs and cats. Herein, a meta-analysis was contrived to assess the prevalence of Toxocara/Toxascaris in carnivore and human hosts in different regions of Iran from April 1969 to June 2019. Methods: The available online artic...

Introduction The effectiveness of the educational system along with the research development in each country is considered as one of the criteria of development measurement (1), and students are the main customers of the educational system in universities , and measure the quality of educational services with their expectations and perceptions ] of...

Aim: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint degenerative disease in which pathological changes occur not only in the joint cartilage but also in all joint structures. It seems that complementary medicine can help reduce pain and opioid consumption in these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Iranian massage on the symptoms of knee...

Background Human toxocariasis is an important neglected disease. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis study to estimate the global and regional prevalence of anti-Toxocara serum antibodies (referred to as ‘T-seroprevalence’) in human populations around the world. Methods We searched five international databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Web o...

Background Acute Toxoplasma infection (ATI) during pregnancy, if left untreated, can cause severe adverse outcomes for the fetus and newborn. Here, we undertook a meta-analysis to estimate the worldwide prevalence of ATI in pregnant women. Methods We searched international databases for studies published between January 1988 and November 2018. We...

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends....

Objective: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is among the most common infection diseases in children with nephrotic syndrome (NS), resulting in treatment failure and relapse. No systematic reviews have estimated the prevalence of UTI in children with NS on a global scale, therefore, did the first systematic review and meta-analysis study to estimate t...

Objective: Anemia in infants is a common problem, with regular iron supplementation the suggested policy for prevention and control of anemia. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and the determining factors of anemia as well as the benefits of regular iron supplementation in 6- to 12-month-old children. Design/setting/subjects:...

Toxoplasma gondii is a neurotropic pathogen with worldwide distribution. To evaluate the association between Toxoplasma infection and the risk of epilepsy by meta-analysis, observational peer-reviewed studies were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar (up to 10 October 2018) and by reference review. Pooled risk es...

Maternal HIV infection is related to several perinatal adverse outcomes. This study is aimed at establishing whether maternal HIV infection is associated with the development of pre-eclampsia (PE) and eclampsia. We comprehensively searched MEDLINE/PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS and Embase databases for relevant studies published up to 20 November 2...

Introduction: Diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is difficult and poses a significant challenge to physicians worldwide. Recently, nucleic acid amplification (NAA) tests have shown promise for diagnosis of TBM, although performance has been variable. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of NA...

In the past decade, Toxoplasma gondii infection has been recognized as a potential risk for many psychiatric and neurological disorders. We performed this systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the association between Toxoplasma infection and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. PubMed, Web of science, Scopus and Embase databases were sea...