I firmly believe that every experience you have, every choice you make, and every encounter you have with the universe is a chance to grow and learn and this was proven to me more and more up until this moment!
I come from the beautiful country of Iran, where I pursued my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. My academic path took me into the realm of pediatric therapy, particularly focusing on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). For three years, I had the privilege of working mostly with these incredible young minds, helping them find their unique paths to play, learning, and childhood.
My time as a therapist, which began during my master’s studies, was rewarding yet left me with countless questions, serving as a constant reminder of the vast knowledge yet to be uncovered. It was during my master’s program that my academic orientation shifted as I embarked on a six-month internship at a prominent Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) center in the Middle East. This experience not only deepened my fascination with neonatal care but also laid the foundation for my research interests. My current focus revolves around the SENSE program in the NICU and the field of implementation science within this context. I’m particularly intrigued by the development and application of implementation strategies aimed at enhancing the accessibility of interventions within NICUs.
I have a fascination for research. The process of piecing together studies into comprehensive literature reviews gives me a unique sense of fulfillment. Writing the introductory section of a research article, followed by the anticipation of feedback from reviewers, is a thrilling journey of its own.
Hoyt, C., Ghahramani, S., L'Hotta, A., Harris, K., Thornton, K., Han, T., Lipsey, K., Juckett, L., & Geng, E. (2023, December 11). From theory to practice: A scoping review of implementation strategies in pediatric rehabilitation [Poster presentation]. 16th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health, Arlington, VA. Show abstract
Background. Approximately 1 in 5 children experience disability, and require rehabilitation services (i.e., physical, occupational, speech therapy). While pediatric rehabilitation science has made strides in developing and testing effective interventions, there has been limited investigation into their translation into clinical practice. Advancing pediatric rehabilitation and expediting the translation process requires consistent language when describing and deploying implementation strategies in pediatric rehabilitation. The objective of this review was to identify opportunities to improve the reporting of the implementation strategies in pediatric rehabilitation. We anticipate that these findings will enable the field of pediatric rehabilitation to move beyond pre-implementation work and begin to test implementation strategies that ultimately improve the quality of care provided to children with disabilities.
Methods. Our scoping review employed methodology based on the published Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines and adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews. A research librarian supported the search across five databases. Studies were included if they reported the implementation strategies as defined by Powell (2015) or implementation outcomes documented by Proctor (2011). Additionally, all studies described interventions implemented by either occupational therapy, physical therapy, or speech-language pathology practitioners and targeted children between 0-12 years. Implementation strategies, country of origin, and intervention description were extracted.
Findings. We screened 11,365 study titles and abstracts and 559 full texts. Many studies did not describe strategies focused solely on transitioning to adult care in adolescence or described interventions outside of the field of rehabilitation. Implementation strategies that were frequently reported included assessing for readiness, identifying facilitators and barriers, developing education materials, and including consumers. Commonly measured implementation outcomes included acceptability and feasibility. The full results will be summarized by September 2023.
Implications for D&I Research. Though implementation strategies have been developed and tested in the context of pediatric rehabilitation, higher-quality studies are warranted to identify effective strategies that facilitate the use of evidence-based interventions. As implementation research in pediatric rehabilitation continues to grow, investigators are encouraged to use consistent language when reporting implementation strategies and outcomes and to clearly specify the mechanisms that lead to strategy effectiveness.
Ghahramani, S., Hadipour, M., Peymani, P., Ghahramani, S., & Lankarani, K. B. (2023). Health-related quality of life variation by socioeconomic status: Evidence from an Iranian population-based study. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 12(1), 287. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_1031_22 Show abstract
Background. Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) values based on the accurate and reliable European Quality of Life Five Dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire gives health-state utilities as a helpful data set for studying socio-demographic and socio-economic inequalities in health status in the general population. We aimed to do a population-based study to see how HRQoL varies by socio-demographics and socioeconomic status (SES).
Materials and Methods. The study was a cross-sectional population-based study in Shiraz, Iran's southwest. Data was gathered utilizing a personal digital assistant (PDA). A trained interviewer administered the EQ-5D questionnaire to a representative sample of 1036 inhabitants. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to create SES indices. Because of the skewed distribution, quantile regression was utilized to model the quartiles of HRQoL values. STATA 12.0 was used to perform all statistical analyses. P <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results. In 1036 study respondents, women had a mean HRQoL of 0.67 ± 0.28, whereas men had a mean HRQoL of 0.78 ± 0.25. Gender and age remained significant in all quartiles of HRQoL value. Participants with insurance showed 0.14 and 0.08 higher HRQoL values in the first and second HRQoL quartiles than those without coverage, respectively. Education [95% CI: 0.034, 0.111)], economy [95% CI: 0.013, 0.077], and assets [95% CI: 0.003, 0.069] all had an impact on HRQoL value in the lowest quintile.
Conclusion. In all quartiles of HRQoL value, women had lower reported HRQoL than men. Insurance programs aimed at more disadvantaged groups with poorer HRQoL may help to minimize inequity. Education, economics, and assets all had an impact on the lower quartiles of HRQoL value, emphasizing the importance of general policies in determining public health status.
Keywords. Health-related quality of life, Iran, socioeconomic status
Jamali, M., Khosravani, M., Ghahramani, S., Mohammad-Hosseini, E., & Ghahremani, S. (2023). Characteristics of children admitted with moderate and severe brain injury: A three-year investigation in the southwest of Iran. International Journal of School Health, 10(2), 92–97. https://doi.org/10.30476/intjsh.2023.98027.1288 Show abstract
Background. Considering the burden of moderate and severe brain injury on families and society, and that trauma is one of the common causes of death and disability in Iran, this study aimed to investigate the frequency of death from severe to moderate brain injury in children with brain trauma.
Methods. In this cross-sectional study, records of 126 patients under 18 years of age with moderate and severe brain injuries admitted to Namazi Hospital, Shiraz, Iran during 2017-2019 were investigated. The relative frequency of mortality, parents’ education level, day of trauma, types of trauma, age, gender, and length of hospitalization were studied. P values were set at 0.05; Chi-square and T-test were used for variable comparisons.
Results. The study’s male-to-female ratio was almost 2:1, and the mean and standard deviation of the age of all children in the study was 6.84±4.33. The relationship between brain injury severity and hospitalization length was significant (P<0.001). 21.4% of patients with moderate and severe brain injury were Afghan. The highest frequency of trauma was related to accidents, with 69.8%, followed by falling down at 23.8%.
Conclusion. The most common cause of death in children with brain injury was trauma caused by an accident. To decrease the burden of severe and moderate brain injury in children, health policymakers may tailor interventions to two important groups, including parents with a low level of education and Afghan nationals.
Keywords. Child Injuries; Brain; Death
Ghahramani, S., & Fallahzadeh Abarguei, A. (2022). Participation of Iranian stroke patients in life areas: A systematic review article. Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences and Research, 9(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.30476/jrsr.2021.90770.1155 Show abstract
Background. Stroke is considered a common and major problem in the field of healthcare because of its high prevalence and long-term disabilities. The main aim of rehabilitation is to increase the participation of stroke patients in different areas of life. The current study purposed to review the factors influencing the participation of Iranian stroke patients in life areas.
Methods. Databases including ISI-Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus were searched using keywords such as occupational therapy, participation, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), work, play, leisure, education, social participation, sleep, and rest in combination with Iranian stroke patients and CVA. The quality of the studies was evaluated using the PEDro scale. All papers reviewed in this study concerned factors influencing the participation of Iranian stroke patients and were published from 2000-2020.
Results. In total, 178 articles were identified as eligible for an Iranian stroke study. Of these, 104 articles were discarded, and an additional 38 were removed because of repetition and duplication. After careful evaluation of the papers, 34 were selected for final analysis. Most of the included studies concerned the ADL area of participation (N=32), and the lowest number of articles were in the areas of play (N=1), sleep/rest (N=2), and health management (N=3).
Conclusion. In Iran, researchers have not paid enough attention to the participation of stroke patients in areas of life. Most studies focus mainly on patient’s performance components, such as sensory and motor skills.
Keywords. stroke; cerebrovascular accident; participation; life area
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