Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has been prolonged and healthcare workers have become exhausted. The purpose of this study was to investigate burnout and its relationship with mental health in COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers. Method: This cross-sectional study was carried out in all hospitals where patients with COVID-19 were admitted in Hamedan, Iran. With the census method and considering the inclusion criteria, 924 COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers participated in this study. Data were collected using a web-based survey consisting of demographic characteristics, GHQ-28, and Maslach Burnout Inventory. Statistical analysis was performed using Stata 14. Results: The results showed that the main cause of concern and stress in employees was that it was not clear how long this situation would continue. The results regarding burnout and mental health showed that 29.33% of participants were high in emotional exhaustion (EE), 10.93% were high in depersonalization (DP), 34.31% were low in personal accomplishment (PA), 50.4% had physical symptoms, 50.2% had anxiety and insomnia symptoms, 62.2% had social dysfunction and 17.5% had depression symptoms. The results of the multivariate logistic regression showed that EE had the greatest role in reducing mental health of employees with OR = 6.92 for moderate EE and OR = 39.42 for high EE (P < 0.001). Conclusion: COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers are at risk for burnout and poor mental health. Health policies should be implemented to help reduce burnout in healthcare workers. Also, person-directed and organizational-directed interventions to rejuvenate these employees seem necessary.

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Background: Drivers play a crucial role in accidents. By paying attention to brake lights, a driver may find out about danger and react adequately. Rear-end collision accidents are caused by the driver's inattention or slow reaction. This study aimed to determine the effect of dynamic flashing brake lights (7 Hz) on drivers' brake reaction time using the driving simulator. Materials and Methods:This experimental study was done on 46 volunteer drivers (10 females and 36 males). After verification of drivers' vision health by an optometrist (10/10 complete and non-color blindness) and responding to a demographic questionnaire, the participants were subjected to drive for an hour during day and night using a driving simulator system with the standard and dynamic flashing brake lights. Results:The results indicated that for each 1 year increase in the drivers' age, the brake reaction time decreased 11.585 ms. Women had slower brake reaction time than men (75.52 ms). No significant relationship was found between the driving condition and brake reaction time. Computer driving gamers had shorter mean reaction time compared with non-game players. The time elapsed since taking a driving license had no significant effect on reaction time. Using flashing brake lights reduced the brake reaction time of drivers (323.42 ms; P<0.001). Conclusion:The current research using dynamic flashing brake lights with a flashing frequency of 7 Hz showed that flashing brake lights significantly reduced the brake reaction time. This reduction was equivalent to 10.78 m at a speed of about 120 km/h or 7.19 m at 80 km/h.

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