Payesh
Year:2014 | Volume:13 | Issue:4|Papers Count:17

Objective(s): Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women and possesses the highest rate of death among women all over the world. This study aimed to investigate on sexual functioning among breast cancer patients.Methods: A random sample of breast cancer patients attending a referral center was recruited for the study. A designed questionnaire was developed to collect data on sexual functioning Results: In all 52 women suffering from breast cancer were studied. There was a meaningful difference in sexual satisfaction before and after breast cancer diagnosis. There was also a meaningful correlation between age and sexual functioning after diagnosis. Also, there was a meaningful and direct relationship between type of surgery and sexual satisfaction. The results show that disease and treatment have a considerable influence on marital relationship.

Objective(s): The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an educational package on attitude, self efficacy and tobacco use preventive behaviors of adolescents in Zarandieh, Iran.Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study. A sample of high school male students was randomly divided into two groups: cases (n=80) and controls (n=80). All cases received an educational intervention in 6 sessions while the controls did not. Data were collected using a questionnaire containing items on attitude, self-efficacy and preventive behaviors at two points in time: before intervention and at 6 months follow-up.Results: The mean age of respondents was 16.3 (SD=1.4) years. Before the intervention, there were no significant differences between cases and controls on smoking and knowledge, attitudes, self-esteem, self-efficacy and preventive behaviors (p>0.05).However, there were significant differences between cases and controls on all measures including tobacco use after the intervention (p<0.05).Conclusions: The designed educational package had a good impact on the prevention of smoking behavior among adolescents.

Objective(s): Due to the urgent nature of emergency situations and the need for timely access to the required information for providing services outside of health care institutions, pre-hospital emergency information system was developed to meet information needs and support the delivery of emergency services. Given the similarity of pre-hospital emergency information system in other countries to one of the America and England’s systems, the current study aimed to compare the pre-hospital emergency information system in America and England to identify the structural and operational features.Methods: A literature search was carried out using Science Direct, Scirus and PubMed database. The search strategy included keywords on EMS, Pre-hospital Emergency Services, Ambulance Services, Information System, and Information. The retrieved articles were then assessed for relevance and then were examined.Results: In all 172 articles were identified. Of these 65 articles were found relevant. Minimum dataset of pre-hospital emergency information system included 51 elements in America and 28 elements in England. More comprehensive and analytical reports were being created in the America’s pre-hospital emergency care than those of in England. In addition, information management and communication systems were mainly electronic-based in America compared to England. In terms of people, software and hardware equipments involved in the management of information both systems were similar.Conclusion: The effectiveness of pre-hospital emergency information system depends on the capabilities of the system, as well as its interoperability with other information systems. The pre-hospital emergency information system benefited from more capabilities in America compared to those in England, and this might be due to more robust information and communication technology infrastructures in America.

Objective: Hospital performance in the utilization of resources can be assessed using the specified criteria. The Pabon-Lasso provides a realistic assessment of the current situation and gives a strategy for a more efficient use of health care services. The present study aimed to evaluate the performance of teaching hospitals affiliated to TUMS using the Pabon-Lasso Model.Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional and retrospective study; and eight general hospitals of TUMS were evaluated in year 2012. We used three indicators (bed occupancy rate, average length of stay, and bed turnover rate), which are gained from statistical database of TUMS. The data were analyzed by excel software and Pabon-Lasso graph.Result: There were 4 (50 percent) hospitals in quadrant 4, one (12.5 percent) hospital in quadrant 3, three (37.5 percent) hospitals in quadrant 2 and there was no any hospital in quadrant 1.Conclusion: Pobon-Lasso chart help us to compare the three key indicators of hospital performance simultaneity in addition to assessment of centers performance in respect of governance.

Objective(s): Iron deficiency is one of the most common nutritional disorders in pregnant women. Adequate iron intake during pregnancy is critical for maternal and fetal health and because of this, Iron supplementation is recommended during pregnancy. This study evaluates the intake of supplement in pregnant women in Semnan, Iran.Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in health centers of Semnan, in which 400 pregnant in the second half of their pregnancy were randomly selected and studied. The evaluation included starting time and the consumption of Iron. The favorable time for iron prescription was considered as 4th month or the beginning of 16th week of pregnancy. Besides, by appropriate intake of iron, we address taking the supplement during the week before the study commences.Results: 53.5% of the participants were considered in a good condition considering the time span they started taking the iron supplement and 85.3% of them consumed the supplement during the week before tests. There was a significant relationship between the knowledge of iron consumption and appropriate intake (P<0.05). In addition, the time to start consuming the supplement was related to the history of anemia (P=0.027), as well as husband’s job (employed P=0.043, worker P=0.011, selfemploymed P=0.030). On the other hand, there was no significant association between taking the supplement and mothers’age, literacy, husbands’ literacy, mothers’ job, number of children, nationality and the frequency of referring to health centers.Furthermore, the main reason of missing supplement intake was forgetfulness (45.6%).Conclusion: The findings showed that a great percent of pregnant women do not have a desirable condition in case of taking the supplement and especially the time span of beginning to intake. As a solution to this problem, we suggest educating women about the necessity of using supplements, providing an easy access to supplements, organizing practical sessions with help of mothers and reminding them to consume the supplements at each visit in health centers for mothers especially those with anemia.

Objective(s): Most women, over the life cycle, experience an unintended pregnancy. A substantial proportion of unwanted pregnancies are resolved by abortion worldwide. The issue that abortions do not occur in a social vacuum, highlight the importance of understanding the reasons why women seek abortion especially in different socio-cultural contexts. The main focus of this study was to provide a better understanding why Azeri women (in Tabriz, Iran) facing unintended pregnancy seek abortion.Methods: The data were collected through 31 semi-structured in depth interviews from April to November 2012 and were analyzed using content analysis. The participants were 23 women seeking for abortion selected through purposeful sampling.All interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was conducted using the MAXQDA 2007 software.Results: Findings fell into two main themes: perception and expectation of negative impact on life and violation of childbearing norms. Perceived threat, that is women facing unintended pregnancies, was found to be the central theme and was related to their circumstances, including their individual characteristics, socioeconomic and health status experience the spectrum of concerns and threats.Conclusion: Although pregnancy and childbearing mean life and regeneration but when occur untimely and unexpectedly, for most women it means threat that could result in seeking an induced abortion. Women facing unplanned pregnancy need more family and social supports.

Objective(s): Obesity is a major public health problem worldwide. This study aimed to investigate on relationship between body image and depression, anxiety and stress among obese adolescent girls in Tehran, Iran.Materials: This was a cross-sectional study of 837 teen girls aged 13 to 18 years old in Tehran, Iran. Data were collected a three part questionnaire including questions on sociodemograhic information, the Multidimensional Body-self Relations (MBSRQ), and depression, anxiety and stress standard questionnaire (DASS-21). Pearson correlation coefficient was used for investigation of the relationship between body image and depression, anxiety and stress.Results: The findings showed that there was significant negative relationship between obesity and body image in adolescent girls with depression (P=0.001), anxiety (P=0.035) and stress (P<0.001).Conclusion: Obesity might have negative impact on mental health in adolescent girls.

Objective (s): Functional dependence in physical activities is one of the most important health problems among elderly people. This study aimed to examine functional independence level of physical activities among elderly people living in Bandar Abbas, Iran.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 421 old adults aged over 60 living in Bandar Abbass, Iran. Using multi-stage sampling method, the participants were randomly selected and completed two valid questionnaires of the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and the Instrumental Activities Daily Living (IADL). Data were analyzed using SPSS17 software.Results: The mean age of participants was 66.7±6.9) and %49.9 was male and % 50.1 was female. According to the results, 1.9 % of elderly (n=8) and 22.1% (n=92) were dependent while doing their daily and instrumental activities respectively.There were significant differences between different groups of participants in terms of doing daily activity due to their age, marital statu, education level and socio-economic factors (P<0.05).Conclusion: The results showed that majority of participants could do their daily activities without help. However, high percentage of elderly need help to do the instrumental activities.

Objective(s): The “Perceived Stress Scale” (PSS) is one of the most widely used instruments for measuring psychological stress in a range of clinical and nonclinical settings. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the all three versions of the PSS (PSS-14, PSS-10, and PSS-4) among asthmatic patients in Iran.Methods: A total of 106 asthmatic patients referring to several clinics in Sanandaj were selected by convenience sampling for this study. The PSS-14 and the short-form version of the “Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale” (DASS-21) were administrated to all participants. The psychometric properties of the PSS were examined: construct validity using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), convergent validity by evaluating the relationship with DASS-21 and internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha.Results: The findings of CFA revealed that a two-factor model for all three versions of PSS, containing both negative and positive factors, fit the data significantly better than a one-factor model. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the PSS-14, PSS-10, and PSS-4 were 0.90, 0.90, and 0.77, respectively. All three versions of the PSS were significantly positively correlated with the DASS-21 and its subscales, indicating an acceptable convergent validity. Moreover, women scored higher than men on the PSS.Conclusion: All three versions of the PSS demonstrated adequate psychometric properties for measuring psychological stress among asthmatic patients.

Objective(s): The effect of crystal meth abuse is hallucination. This study aimed to explore the experiences of hallucination in drug users in Ahwaz, Iran.Methods: This was a qualitative investigation. The data collected by semi-structred in-depth interviews. Data collection was carried out until the data saturation Content analysis was used to explore the data..Results: In all 38 drug users were interviewed.. Of these 35 participants used both crack and crystal meth, one participant was addicted to crack, crystal meth and marijuana and 2 participants were crystal meth addicted only. About 65% of drug users were single, 10% were married and the rest were separated and 85% had a prison record. Six major categories emerged from analysis including visual hallucination, audile hallucination, cognitive hallucination, increase empathy, phobic and murder guilt hallucination, and concentration on something.Conclusion: Due to negative effects of hallucination on physical and mental health of participants and their family and that crystal is produced in extensive quantities by illegal labs and is introduced to the market, it seems necessary to giving widespread education especially through mass media to all social groups especially the youth and teenagers.

Objective(s): To determine the predictors of condom use intention among Iranian men with history of addiction.Methods: This was a cross sectional study of a sample of 128 men with history of addiction attending to slef-hep groups in Qom, Iran. Data were collected through a valid structured questionnaire based on the health belief model.Results: The results showed the perceived benefits and perceived barriers were the strongest predictors of condom use intention. According to the results, the most important perceived benefit of condom use was HIV prevention and for the perceived barrier it was sexual pleasure reduction.Conclusion: This study indicated that perceived benefit and perceived barrier could predict intention of condom use.

Objective(s): To evaluate the impact of training programs based on BASNEF model on blood pressure.Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study that carried out on primary hypertension. The sampling method was multi-stage sampling. In the first stage 20 public health centers were randomly selected and randomly divided in two control and interventional groups. Then in each group based on age and sex 96 patient (n=96) were randomly selected. Data collection tool was a questionnaire. The intervention group received an educational program based on BASNEF model. Data were collected at baseline and 2 months after educational intervention.Results: There was a significant difference between two groups regarding means of scores of self-care behaviors, subjective norms, and enabling factors after intervention. Also in interventional group mean score of systolic pressure was reduced from 138.9 to 125.4 and diastolic pressure was reduced from 85.15 to 80.57.Conclusion: The findings showed that training based on BAZNEF model was useful in promotion of preventive behaviors and decreased systolic and diastolic pressure in hypertension.

Objective(s): To evaluate accuracy of writing of published papers in biomedical scientific journals in Tehran, Iran.Methods: In this cross sectional study, all original articles published in two scientific journals in 2010 were evaluated.Different topics of articles, including abstract, introduction, methods and materials, results, discussion and references were assessed. Totally, 52 items were evaluated and classified as 3 categories of “correct”, “relatively correct” and “incorrect”.Results: Seventy-seven original articles were evaluated in two journals. Accuracy of writing were as follows: 47% correct, 50.5% relatively correct, and 2.5% incorrect. Inaccuracy among incorrect writing articles were: abstract 31.65%t, introduction 35.5%, methods and materials 44%, results 21%, discussion 68.6%, and references 41.35%.Conclusion: The findings suggest that there is considerable inaccuracy in published articles of scientific research journals.Implementation of measures to prevent such scientific mistakes seems necessary.

Objective(s): The potential adverse effect of satellite jamming, as an environmental factor on people’s health has been a question and a cause of concern in recent years. This article is aimed to shade light on some scientific and practical aspects of the topic.Methods: In view of the nature of the question, scientific sources regarding how to investigate causal relationship between an exposure and health damage and related research principles were examined.Results: The necessity for safety of the exposures, the type of studies required to answer the question, the principles that should be considered, doing scientifically accepted studies on the subject and existing problems, diversity of potential outcomes, the possibility that some outcomes being neglected, necessity of the exposure, the scope of the exposure, the duration and intensity of the exposure, the age of those who are exposed, and the need to comply with the principles of research ethics concerning exposures and related studies are discussed.Conclusion: There is need to provide evidence for the “safety” of satellite jamming. Otherwise deciding to continue satellite jamming might have severe adverse effect on people’s health.