چكيده لاتين :
Background and Objectives: Lack of comprehensive theses databases in various fields can be a reason for research problems in every field. In Iran, I has been several decades that due to scientific and cultural developments of work, the necessity to train Occupational Safety and Health experts is perceived and for this reason, we have witnessed the increasing development of graduates in this field, especially in graduate courses. However, despite various research activities as theses, no study has been conducted on thematic fields of interest, population under study, and similar cases and these constitute the concerns of experts and policymaking in this field.
According to lack of access to accurate information about theses in the field of Occupational Safety and Health in Iran, this descriptive study aimed to analyze the content of MSc and PhD theses in Occupational Safety and Health in 2017 in a cross-sectional study for a 10-year period from 2007 to 2016 through investigating theses in universities of medical sciences in Tehran to draw the status quo and investigate advantages and disadvantages of studies and research gaps.
Method: Content analysis is a standard method to study and identify the features of registered information in various documents such as theses and the variables of this study included university, gender and grade of the writer, field, location, city, methodology, data collection tool or method, population, and sample.
From 2009 to 2010, we saw the integration of University of Tehran and Iran University of Medical Sciences. Therefore, about theses in this interval, theses that were available in the libraries of these centers were included in the lists of the related university. Sampling was carried out according to census and through investigating all theses that existed in these universities. In order to collect data, the conventional method in the field of scientometrics was used as one of the most common assessment methods for scientific activities and development quantification. Data were collected by direct reference to the theses and entering the information in the pre-prepared list consistent with the objectives and variables of interests and previous studies. It should be noted that in the absence of the main file of the end of the letter in the library , an abstract of the text or full electronic text in the library site of the relevant university was used . the collected data were analyzed using spss software and excel version .
This study was conducted on Occupational Safety and Heath theses in universities of medical sciences in Tehran. The sample included MSc and PhD theses in Occupational Safety and Health available in the libraries of Tehran University of medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, and Iran University of Medical Sciences.
Findings: According to investigating Occupational Safety and Health theses in universities in Tehran city, of 350 published theses in the information database of the libraries of these universities, 336 theses (96.57%) were available and most of them during 2007-2016 were related to the University of Tehran with 134 theses (39.64%). Moreover, frequency distribution of theses according to the publication year indicates that the majority of Master’s and Ph.D. theses with 21 theses (6.21%) belong to 2014 in the University of Tehran. To conduct the study, university and industry or university and hospital as well as industry and hospital were used and the numbers are separately stated in the related section. Different types of studies in the health field studies are divided into descriptive and analytic types. Analytic studies include interventional or observational studies and descriptive studies report the case or are ecological. Here, analytic observational studies had the most uses in all four universities.
Among different topics, chemical and physical factors, safety as well as ergonomics, toxicology, and biological factors and among cities, Tehran and Mahshahr Petrochemical Industry were selected. Industries ranked first as the project site and SPSS showed the highest application. Ignoring the MSc and PhD graduates in Occupational Safety and Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences showed the highest number. The ratio of female students, except Tehran University of Medical Sciences, was higher than males. Among various studies on health sciences, analytical observational study was the most used study among all four universities.
Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that ignoring the graduates of Occupational Safety and Health in country’s universities, Tehran University of Medical Sciences had the highest ratio. The ratio of female students, except Tehran University of Medical Sciences, was more than males. About this aspect, it should be noted that although Occupational Safety and Health needs physical capabilities to be present in various occupational environments, the existing condition for student admission needs more investigation and this should be investigated and analyzed more carefully. However, for graduate courses, the issue of presence in industry can be considered marginally and instead, other aspects such as attracting the graduates in educational centers and universities can be taken into consideration. In this condition, gender inequality and relative and high presence of females can be more justifiable.
According to the importance of Occupational Safety and Health presence in large and small industries, the presence of students in industries and conducting studies required by industries are growing in this context. Nevertheless, for several reasons, Tehran may be selected as the research location but health issues of the workforce in other parts of the country should not be ignored. Although questionnaire and interview have been used as data collection tools in many theses, the share of laboratory tools has been higher. The objectives of Occupational Safety and Health include identification, assessment, and control of the existing harmful factors in the workplace with a series of healthcare services in order to make the workplace healthy and maintain the health of the workforce. Among different data analysis software, SPSS with modified versions is the applied software in this field that seems instruction of this software as an academic course has to be taken into consideration. Allocation of sufficient budget to prepare required equipment for sampling and updating them seems necessary.
The results of this study indicated a positive growth in student recruitment in postgraduate studies in Occupational Safety and Health but the dispersal of the recruited students, subjects, and location as well as samples, tools, and statistical methods address the need for references to announce research needs to universities.
