Thematic Analysis of Persian Documents in the Field of Quran Study and Medicine in National Scientific-Research Journals from 1992 to 2013 "An Opportunity for Evidence Based Decision Making".

Abstract

Several documents have investigated the area of Quran study and medicine from different points of view; the present study has been assessing all the documents about Quran study and medicine, published in Iranian scientific-research journals, to create an opportunity of revising the interventions executed in this areas and targeting the decisions in order to draw a clear and more realistic vision. In this simple review study, scientific-research and general informative websites in the period of 1992-2013 were explored by taking advantage of critical keywords such as Islamic medicine and Islamic lifestyle. After the initial retrieval, 348 articles were finally ready for the evaluation process. Chi-square test was used to assess the significance of patterns differences between years of study. Minimum and maximum numbers of articles were published in 1992 (0.28%) and 2011 (12.35%), respectively. The level of execution of studies by using different methods was as follows: about 3.44% qualitative, 29.59% cross-sectional descriptive-analytical, 30.45% review, 1.14% case-control, 17.52% experimental, 3.73% cohort methods and 12.93% were performed by other methods. The most common subject study was "The effects of fasting and Ramadan on health" (21.83%). The most important journals hosting this field articles were the journals of medicine and refinement (27.01%), as well as the Quran and medicine (12.64%), respectively. Chi-square test showed significant thematic differences during the 21years of study. Based on the available evidences, the number of descriptive papers was yet more than the analytical, interventional and scientific-comparative articles. Also, the most studies had been reviewing the medical-Islamic documents. This reflects the need for revising the search strategies of Quran study and medicine.