Risks threatening the health of people participating in mass gatherings: A systematic review

Asghar Tavan; Abbasali Dehghani Tafti; Mahmood Nekoie-Moghadam; Mohmmadhasan Ehrampoush; Mohammad Reza Vafaei Nasab; Hossein Tavangar; Hossein Fallahzadeh

doi:10.4103/jehp.jehp_214_19

Risks threatening the health of people participating in mass gatherings: A systematic review

J Educ Health Promot. 2019 Oct 24:8:209. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_214_19. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Asghar Tavan¹, Abbasali Dehghani Tafti², Mahmood Nekoie-Moghadam³, Mohmmadhasan Ehrampoush⁴, Mohammad Reza Vafaei Nasab⁵, Hossein Tavangar⁶, Hossein Fallahzadeh⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health in Disasters and Emergencies, International Campus, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
² Department of Health in Disasters and Emergencies, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
³ Department of Health Services Management, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
⁴ Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
⁵ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
⁶ Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
⁷ Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.

Abstract

Context: Mass gatherings (MGs) are established for different religious, social, political, cultural, and sport motivations. Many risks threaten the participants' health in MGs for different reasons. One duty of health-care system is to identify the risks and manage them to reduce the participants' injuries in MGs. This study aimed to identify and classify the risks threatening the health of participants in MGs and review related articles systematically.

Subjects and methods: In this study, we investigated electronic databases including Science Direct, PubMed, Ovid, ProQuest, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. This systematic review investigated those health articles which studied MGs published after 2000. Keywords that were searched included (Mass gathering OR Crowd) AND (Assessment OR Evaluation) AND (Disaster OR Emergencies) AND (Injuries OR Stamped). The final full text articles were assessed qualitatively by STROBE article assessment checklist, and then the data extracted from the results of the articles were analyzed and reported.

Results: Initially, a total of 1874 articles were found, qualitative exclusion and inclusion criteria were applied, and finally 29 full-text articles were selected for the analysis. More than forty health-related risks were recognized. In order to better understand the risks and use of the results more efficiently, the risks were classified and reported into the following five domains: environmental risks, individual risks, psychological risks, public health risks, and management risks.

Conclusion: Many risks threaten the health of participants in MGs. Recognizing and managing the risks are considered the primary and basic essentials of health sector for the better management of MGs.

Keywords: Health; mass gatherings; risk assessment; risk evaluation.

Publication types

Review