Health in Disasters Researches Trend in Iran: An Overview of the International Congress on Health and Crisis Management in Disasters

Aims: Since the “International Congress on health and crisis management in disasters and emergencies” has provided a valuable opportunity for researchers to come together from all around the country, its output can be used as one of the indicators of disaster health research development. This article explores trend of original researches in the recent five Congress. Methods: Based on the abstract book of the last five Congress, investigated variables were: number of articles regarding to presentation methods, type of article and methodology of study. Articles were considered as research papers that were based on a defined methodology, data collection and analysis and the results of them were reported. To determine the type of research papers, the first priority was author's opinions. In about the cases that the study types were not explicitly stated, the issue discussed in a meeting and decision make with consensus. Results: At the last five congresses 1866 articles have been presented at all, that 343 Article (18.4 percent) were oral and 1523 Article (81.6%) were posters. 356 (19.1 percent) were original articles and 1510 (80.9 percent) were non original. The trend of original articles show incremental slope from 2012 to 2003 to 18.5 percent rate, but this slope in 2007 up to 2012 is not significant (3.1 percent). Conclusions: The trend of reporting of original researches as an important indicator of development of health in disaster research in the country is increasing, but accelerating of this increase will require: 1) developing and training of research methodology in the disaster, 2) developing educational programs to train researcher in this field and 3) the systematic and financial support of the disaster risk reduction and management research in the country