Payesh
Year:2014 | Volume:13 | Issue:5|Papers Count:13

Objective(s): The aim of this paper was to assess the relationship between income inequality and life expectancy in Iran from 1971 to 2010.Method: The Johansen-Juselius method was used for theoretical analysis.Results: The results indicated that the coefficients of all variables are significant based on theoretical foundations. Findings showed that, in the long run, 1% increase in the income inequality decreases the life expectancy by 0.24% and 1% increase in the number of doctors, literacy and GDP per capita lead to respectively, 0.08, 0.08 and 0.007 percent increases in the life expectancy. Also, the results based on error correction model indicated that to achieve long-term balance, about 0.01 adjustment of short-run imbalance was needed for each period.Conclusion: The study indicated that income inequality adversely was associated with life expectancy. Indeed the economic policy makers and government should strive to reduce income inequality.

Objective(s): The NGOs act as a potential system for public health promotion. These voluntary organizations are non-profitable and independent from state (self-governing), but serving people. In this way they are called public voice. The NGOs are considered to be the symbol and intermediary of public contribution; while public contribution is a main branch of health promotion, poverty and inequity decline in public health. This study was carried out to review the role and operation of Iranian NGOs in provision, maintenance and promotion of public health in order to design an interaction model of the NGOs with health sector trustees in the state.Methods: Of 10000 registered NGOs in Iran with interest in health, 1000 NGOs were chosen. Of these 97 NGOs were selected as the study sample. Data were collected through random selection from all provinces using a questionnaire by 9 trained examiners.Results: The results obtained from analysis in function and capacity showed that NGOs knew needs of target group but in most cases discovering these needs has been based on the group meetings or founding board ideas and hardly followed scientific principles of assessment. Most NGOS offered third level prevention care. Most NGOs believed that success in training and providing health care, prevention and advisory interventions were more satisfactory than working governmental sectors (working with the state, participation in jurisdictional and legal trend).Conclusion: The result while revealing capabilities of NGOs to deliver educational and advisory services, warns the public sector decision makers (the state) that inexploiting the potential capacity of those systems retards developing process of the country.

Objective(s): The aim of this study was to assess educational environments of outpatient clinics in teaching hospitals affiliated to a medical university in Tehran, Iran.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in four clinics (internal medicine, gynecology, pediatric and surgery) of teaching hospitals by an ACLEEM questionnaire. Data were analyzed by performing correlation, t-test, and ANOV.Results: In all 157 residents participated in the study. The total means score was 110.9 out of 200 indicating that residents were positive (according the interpretation guide of the ACLEEM). There were significant differences between male and female residents on information, communication and technology domain scores. In addition we found that there were significant differences among teaching hospitals on 4 domains: Quality of Clinical Teachers, Protected Time for Non-Clinical Activities, Information, Communication & technology, and Clinical supervision.Conclusion: The overall results showed that residents were positive about teaching environment. Thus, it is recommended that the focus in teaching hospitals should be on factors that make positive influence on residents’ evaluation.

Objective(s): This study aimed to assess the extent to which family physicians are satisfied with ‘Rural Insurance’ in Hamedan province in Iran.Methods: A triangulation approach was applied to collect data., quali-quanti and cross-sectional study, in which were used interview and questionnaire techniques. The performance of rural insurance program and and physicians' satisfactions was assessed.Results: Physicians' satisfaction was lower than acceptable level. They indicated several reasons that contributed to their dissatifaction including issues related to referral process, limitations for precription, difficulties in using health records for patients, and intersectoral problems.Conclusion: The study findings showed that physicians' were unhappy with rural insurance program. Indeed this not only might damage the program, but also may cause problems for pbulic’s health. Therefore, it is essential to find and reduce the causes of dissatisfaction, prior to expanding the program.

Objective(s): To describe women’s perceptions of factors influencing their fear of child bring and choosing a birth method; that are normal delivery or cesarean section.Methods: This was a qualitative study. Eighteen pregnant and postnatal women (4 pregnant and 14 postnatal) were recruited using a purposive sampling method in 3 hospitals and 2 healthcare centers in Ahvaz, Iran. Participants were interviewed and were asked why they choose a given method for childbirth. The data analysis was conducted concurrently and interviews were continued until data saturation was achieved. Content analysis was performed to explore the data.Results: The main theme emerged was ‘fear of childbirth including two categories: fear of childbirth process and concern about normal delivery complications. Fear of childbirth process included the following subcategories: general fear of childbirth, fear of labor pain, fear of a difficult vaginal delivery, stressful atmosphere of labor room, fear of being caught unaware during the labor and concerns of being called back by husband in choosing a normal delivery; and concern about normal delivery complications included the following subcategories: fear of fetal- neonatal adverse effects, concerns about body shape deformity after a normal delivery.Conclusion: Fear of childbirth plays important role in selection of a given birth method, that is cesarean section, by Iranian women.

Objective(s): Health literacy has been defined as ‘the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make basic health decisions’. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically evaluate a measure for health literacy in Iranian adults.Methods: A review of literature on all measures of health literacy was conducted in order to generate an item pool. Then, based on a definition of health literacy and the most important public health issues in Iran, a framework was identified in order to develop the initial questionnaire. The initial questionnaire contained 66 items. Accordingly 15 specialists from different disciplines were approached to carry out content validity. Consequently 19 items were removed and a provisional version of the questionnaire with 47 items was provided. Finally, a random sample of adults living in Tehran completed the questionnaire.Psychometric properties of the instrument were assessed performing exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency.Results: In all 336 adults aged 18 to 65 years old completed the questionnaire. When performed the exploratory factor analysis, 33 items were loaded indicating a 5-factor solution for the questionnaire namely: access (6 items), reading (4 items), understanding (7 items), appraisal (4 items), and decision (12 items) that jointly explained %53.2 of variance observed.Additional analysis for internal consistency showed satisfactory results with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.72 to 0.89.Conclusion: The findings suggest that the Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring health literacy in Iran.

Objective(s): The objective of this study was to translate and to test the reliability and validity of the Persian version of Multiple Sclerosis Intimacy and Sexuality Questionnaire-19 (MSISQ-19).Methods: Using a standard “forward-backward' translation procedure, the English language version of the questionnaire was translated into Persian (Iranian language). Then a sample of 226 women with multiple sclerosis aged 18-65 years completed the questionnaire. To test reliability the internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Validity was evaluated using face validity, content validity, convergent validity and discriminant validity.Results: The mean age of respondents was 35.7 (SD=8.07) years. Reliability analysis provided evidence for high internal consistency for the total MSISQ-19 (0.90) and for the primary (0.85), secondary (0.90) and tertiary (0.78) subscales. The MSISQ-19 had convergent validity with measure of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). The results from Known group’s comparison (discriminant validity) indicated that older women with MS were significantly scored higher than younger women and the questionnaire was able to discrimiate these groups as expected.Conclusions: In general, the findings suggest that MSISQ-19 is a reliable and valid measure of sexual dysfunction in women with MS.

Objective(s): This study aimed to assess the impact of an educational intervention on nutritional preventive behaviors in osteoporosis among adolescent girls in Chabahar, Iran.Methods: This was a quasi-experimental research conducted on two groups of 90 female students, selected randomly from two schools of Chabahar, Iran in 2012-2013. The samples were divided into two groups randomly: control group and intervention group (n=45). Data were collected using a 31-item food frequesncy questionnaire (FFQ). Respondents completed the questionnaire at three points in time: before, and immediately and 3 months after educational intervention. The educational program was offered in 4 sessions in a 10-day period of time to intevention group only.Results: There were no significant differences between two groups concerning the demographic variables. Similarly there was no significant difference between the two groups concerning their scores on FFQ at baseline (P>0.05). However after intervention, meaningful differences between the two groups was observed for the FFQ scores on awareness, attitudes, behavior intent and facilitating behaviors (P<0.001), but not for preventive behaviors (P=0.057).Conclusion: The findings indicated that the educational intervention had positive effects on the students' nutrition pattern in prevention of the osteoporosis. Also, the intervention was efftive in students' awareness, attitudes, and behavior intent and nutrition behaviors.

Objective(s): Puberty is the most important milestone of change in teenage life. This is a time to become adult with reproductive ability. Girls experience a wide variety of physical, emotional, social and sexual changes in this period. Lack of information, skills and preparations endanger their health. Puberty health includes principals and cares to promote and maintain individuals’ physical, emotional, social and sexual health that can be achieved by education. This paper reviews evidence for puberty health education in Iran.Methods: A review of Iranian articles related to knowledge, attitude and practice of adolescent girls about puberty and menstruation was carried out using the following databases: PubMed, Elsevier, SID, Medlib, Magiran, Iranmedex, Irandoc and Google Scholar. Search strategy included using key words adolescent, puberty, puberty health, female and girls.Results: Challenges related to puberty health education can be categorized to 6 main themes: insufficient knowledge, lack of appropriate attitude and practice; lack of attention to influencing factors; limitation of adolescents’ informational sources [mothers, peers and health educators]; disagreement about the right time to start teaching different aspects of adolescent health; Lack of appropriate educational content and disuse of appropriate methods of health education.Conclusion: The findings suggest that there is need for skills-based training and interventional strategies for the teaching of physical and specially sexual, emotional and social maturity and socially-culturally suitable educational content for mothers and daughters in Iran.