Jundishapur Journal of Chronic Disease Care
Year:2014 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:8

Introduction: Children with autism may experience unique adverse effects, which result in social restrictions and high stress in the parents, especially the mother. This research aims to determine the effectiveness of group training program relevant to stress management on improvement of quality of life and its dimensions (mental health, physical health, social adjustment, and environmental health) in the mothers of children diagnosed with autism in educational centers in Ahwaz.Materials & Methods: This research is a quasi-experimental kind of study with both pre-test and post-test stages. The research sample consisted of 24 mothers of children with autism. The sample was selected using available sampling method. Randomly the individuals in the sample were categorized into two experimental and control groups. The research tool was Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS), Demographic Check List of World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BRFEF). The experimental group participated in 8 sessions of group training program whose duration lasted for 2 hours. Then, they were assesses by the Quality of Life Questionnaire. Then, the data were analyzed by analysis of covariance using SPSS software version 16.Results: The results indicated that group-training program relevant to stress management has positive effects on quality of life and its dimensions (including physical health, mental health and social communication) in mothers of children with autism. However, this program had no effect on improvement of environmental health, which is one dimension of quality of life.Conclusion: Group-training program relevant to stress management is effective on improving the quality of life of mothers of children with autism by increasing their knowledge and controlling the stressful situations.

Introduction: Infertility as the bitterest life experience can affect sexual function. Infertility is a reproductive health problem and many studies have showed agitation, stress, and depression, marital and sexual dissatisfaction as the psychological outcomes of infertility. This study aimed to compare sexual satisfaction in fertile and infertile women referring to Peymanieh Hospital in Jahrom, 2012.Materials & Methods: In this descriptive-comparative study, 100 fertile and 100 infertile women were selected through simple random sampling and compared regarding sexual function. The data were collected using a questionnaire including three parts: demographic characteristics, fertility, and Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). The data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software (v. 11.5) to estimate mean and frequency. Besides, T-test was used to compare the two groups.Results: The results showed that the mean score of fertile and infertile women’s sexual function was 23.85±4.34 and 24.83±4.72, respectively. However, no significant difference was found between the two groups regarding the domains of sexual function (p>0.05).Overall, 71.4% of the infertile women had the experience of unsuccessful treatment. Furthemore46.4%had primary infertility, while 53.53% had secondary infertility. A negative correlation was observed between sexual desire and women’s age (p=0.02, r=0.224), partner’s age (p=0.005, r=0.28), and infertility duration (p=0.03, r=0.304) in infertile women.Conclusion: No significant difference was found between fertile and infertile women regarding their sexual function. Thus, infertility has no effects on women’s sexual function.

Introduction: Outcomes of care, treatment and management of people with MS have a high priority in health care, today. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of care and treatment’s challenges of MS diseases.Materials & Methods: Qualitative approach, based on a thematic analysis, was used to achieve the aims of the study. Information collected simultaneously through in-depth unstructured interviews with 31 patients, nurses, and family caregivers from Ahvaz in Iran.Results: Two major themes were extracted from the analysis of the transcripts: “Comprehensive caring commitment” and “Patients’ medication grudge”.Conclusion: According to the findings, the nurses are in a unique position to care for people with MS; therefore they should be ready to provide high-quality patient care in MS patients. Patients must be encouraged to study about their condition and medications to know the specific details of their health care coverage.

Introduction: Premenstrual syndrome is considered as one of the most common gynecological diseases and is also one of the most common disorders at fertility ages. Regarding the global expansion of using traditional medicine as complementary medicine and keeping the midwives along with modern methods and also considering the many advantages and low side effects of reflexology, the researcher decided to study its effect on reducing this syndrome among students at Tehran University of Medical sciences.Materials & Methods: This research is a single blinded clinical trial which was done on 120 volunteer students in the University of Tehran. Having diagnosed the above syndrome by registering the form of daily status and having the requirements for entering the study during two menstrual cycles as randomly and using Rand List software, the research units were divided in to two groups of real and unreal reflex zone therapy (intervention and control group) and received this treatment for eight continuous weeks, for 30 minutes once a week. The data were statistically analyzed by Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test for comparing the qualitative variables and by mean difference test and repeated measurement of ANOVA for comparing the quantitative variables with SPSS.15 software.Results: The results of research in the two treatment groups show that real reflex zone therapy can reduce the behavioral symptoms by 20% though such reduction does not show a statistically significant difference (p=0.16).Conclusion: According to the results, although the effect of this method of the behavioral part of this syndrome was not significant, regarding the results of other researches for the effectiveness of this method of decreasing the PMS, it is hoped to use for reducing the symptoms by more researches in this area of complementary medicine together with other common treatments in gynecological areas like other advanced countries.

Introduction: Tuberculosis is a contagious disease and a main cause of mortality in humans thus the World Health Organization has declared it as a global emergency. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of tuberculosis and involving factors in patients referring to the diagnosis laboratory of tuberculosis in Ahvaz East Health Center.Materials & Methods: The present study is a retrospective and descriptive - analytical investigation that 1173 people referring to East Health Center of Ahvaz in 2009 in term of tuberculosis were studied, After Ziehl Neelsen stained sputum samples, 97 patients with tuberculosis were diagnosed. Finally, individual and social variables were collected from patients’ records and analyzed.Results: Prevalence of tuberculosis was about 8.3% which 67% of them were males and 33% were women. Prevalence of factors such as smoking, drug addiction, and prison history was 72, 50 and 33 respectively. The highest prevalence was found in the age group 25-34 years. And 80 percent of patients were rural and 20 percent were urban.Conclusion: These studies showed that the risk of TB have been influenced by two important factors including individual factors in addition to social factors, and Smoking, history of prison and drug addiction are the most important factors affecting tuberculosis.

Introduction: Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases. It is not curable but it can be controlled. The study aimed to determine the effect of family centered empowerment model on the treatment regime of school age children.Materials & Methods: A clinical trial study was carried out on the school age diabetes children and their Families. Considering ethical matter a total of 50diabetics patients along with the parents who referred to the Golestan Hospital Diabetes Clinic have been contributed to the present study. They were divided randomly into two groups. Data were collected applying questionnaires, included demographics, physical activity, knowledge, adherence to dietary and medication before the intervention in the both groups and immediately after the intervention and 2 months after the intervention. The case group was completed and the data evaluated with SPSS software applying descriptive and analytical statistical tests.Results: The study was completed and the extracted results for the case group, before and after intervention were obtained compiling, knowledge, (7.5,16.4) with the (p=0.0001), medication adherence (31.48, 41.2) with the (p=0.0001), the dietary regimen (31,45) with the (p=0.0001), sporting activities (13, 22) with the (p=0.0001) and parents knowledge (8.32,14.32) with the (p=0.0001).The statistical calculation indicated a significant difference in the control group however, there was no difference in control group (p=0.2).Conclusion: Teaching children with diabetes and their families regarding compliance with the treatment regimen through family-centered empowerment model can increase adherence of treatment regimens and better control diabetes through it and helped make possible delayed complications of diabetes.

Introduction: Sleepiness refers to drowsiness, feelings or strong will to sleep, and decreased functional outcomes. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between sleepiness, physical activity, and functional outcomes of sleep in Iranian patients with type II diabetes.Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study 220 outpatients with type II diabetes were selected through a simple sampling method in 2010. Data collection measures included a demographic questionnaire, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire. Physical activity was based on mean self-reported minutes walked per week, the American Diabetes Association's recommendation of 150 minutes activity per week was used to dichotomize participants as sedentary or active.Results: A total of 33.6 % of participants were sleepy. For physical activity, 72.6 % had a sedentary lifestyle. There was no significant relationship between physical activity and sleepiness. 57.7 % of subjects had functional outcomes of sleepiness scores greater or equal to 67. There was seen significant difference (p<0.001) between functional outcomes and sleepiness.Conclusion: Although the majority of subjects were not sleepy. The mean score of functional outcomes in the non-sleepy group were higher than the sleepy group. It can be concluded that sleepiness is effective in decreasing functional outcomes. Although there is no significant correlation between sleepiness and physical activity, physical activity and exercise share an important part of peoples’ lives that can be affected by sleepiness. Sleepiness is considered as a major barrier in executing daily activities in patients with diabetes type II.

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that causes lack of insight into the disease and the drugs will experience episodes of relapses. In addition, it is a progressive disorder effect on the individual and involved their family. This study aimed to determine the effects of family-centered empowerment model on the attitude and medication compliance of patients with schizophrenia.Materials & Methods: This study is a randomized controlled trial study in which 71 patients with schizophrenia and their families referred to IbnSina hospital of Shiraz who met inclusion criteria were divided randomly into control and study groups. The study group received education through 6 training sessions every which last 90 minutes. This training was planned on the basis of family-centered empowerment approach. In the contrast, the control group just received routine care. Both groups were evaluated by assessing questionnaire. To analyze the data chi square, t test and fishers were used in this study.Results: The findings showed that a statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the attitude to medication in the one month after the intervention (p<0.01) and in the drug compliance after intervention (p<0.01). On the other hand, no significant relation was seen about attitude to medication between two groups after intervention (p>0.12).Conclusion: Family-centered empowerment model can increase drug adherence of patients with schizophrenia but cannot effect on the attitudes of these patients in the short period.