Payesh
Year:2006 | Volume:5 | Issue:2|Papers Count:9

Objective (s): With increasingly sophisticated chemotherapy regimens being prescribed the quality of life of cancer patients have become a key outcome measure. Little has been reported concerning the experience of patients with hematological malignancy receiving chemotherapy. The objectives of this study were to analyze current levels of health-related quality of life in individuals with leukemia and lymphoma and predicting some prognostic factors.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of quality of life carried out in the hematological clinic at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran. Quality of life was measured using the SF-36 questionnaire. Then the results were analyzed using the logistic regression model.Results: In all 94 patients were studied. The mean survival time for patients was 40.1 months (SEM = 4.3). The analysis showed that predicting factors for Physical Component Summary (PCS) scores of the SF-36 were: type of diagnosis (OR= 16.32, 95% CI= 4.03-55.71), education (OR= 0.88, 95% CI= 0.01- 0.749), and gender (OR= 10.25,95% CI= 2.65-39.6). For the Mental Component Summary (MCS) scores of the SF-36 predicting factors were: type of diagnosis (OR= 4.75, 95% CI= 1.76-12.77), education (OR= 0.13, 95% CI= 0.02-0.89) and income (OR= 5.01, 95% CI= 1.69-14.82). Conclusion: We found that having non-aggressive disease and being low educated and male are as good prognostic factors to predict the PCS, while having high income, non-aggressive disease and low education predict better for the MCS scores.

Objective (s): In recent years, many studies have been conducted on drug use among university students in Iran. The objective of this study was to review the findings on prevalence and patterns of drug use among these groups.Methods: To systematically collect data and analyze the information available on the prevalence and patterns of drug use among university students in Iran since 50 years ago. The review included papers published in both international and national journals, theses, presentations in seminars and reports. The findings of studies about three indicators including "life time use", "current use" and "daily use" on opioids, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, hallucinogens, and amphetamines use have been reviewed.Results: This review shows that almost all studies (n=16) have been conducted after year 1997. Many studies have methodological problems that limit their utility. Nevertheless it can be concluded that alcohol followed by opium and cannabis are the most common illegal drugs used by this population. In Iran, the number of students that are dependent to one of the illegal drugs and the number of students using an opioid drug in a month has been roughly estimated to be more than 50,000 and 150,000, respectively.Conclusion: Provision of an accurate monitoring system, as well as continuous updated drug use prevention, counseling and treatment interventions are recommended.

Objective (s): The main purpose of this research was to study the health services utilization among households in Kerman province from1996 to 2002.Methods: This was a descriptive study. Data were extracted Iran documents of the Iran Statistic Center and the Iran Central Bank.Results: The analysis showed that total health cost has increased without considering effect of the price in urban and rural areas of Kerman in 1996-2002. This included increase in drug cost and general practitioner visit cost in the past seven years. The cost of specialist visits has decreased in rural areas, and the cost of other services has increased in some years and has decreased in other years.Study of health costs in households with low income (first group), with average income (second group), and with high income (third group) showed that average health costs have significant differences only in the (first and second) groups in urban areas, while in the (first and second) groups, (first and third) groups, and (second and third) groups significant differences were observed in rural areas.Conclusion: The increase of total health costs among households is a serious problem. There is need to more insurance coverage and increasing government's share in providing health services for people with low income.

Objective(s): The goal of this research was to study epidemiology of accident referrals to an emergency department.Methods: A descriptive study of 2584 persons that injured in accidents was carried out at the Ali-ebn-e Abitaleb emergency center of Rafsanjan, Iran. A stratified random sample was selected over a total of 120 days (360 work shifts) spanning all seasons of the year. Data were gathered through interviews, examination and questionnaires administered by the staff (physicians and nurses) at the emergency ward.Results: Seventy-six percent of the patients were male, 75.5% were under 30 years of age and 63.47% were single. About 40% of the accidents had occurred in the morning. Motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of injury (36.22%), while 20.36% of the injuries were caused by falls. Eleven percent of all injuries were categorized as occupational accidents, 6.89% were due to dispute and 5.72% were bums. Eighty-four percent of the cases were treated as outpatients and 16%were hospitalized. The proportion of deaths was one percent.Conclusion: The high prevalence of injuries from motor vehicle accidents (especially in younger cases) emphasizes the importance of educating the youth in traffic regulations and safe driving. The great number of accidents due to falls and workplace accidents shows the need for promoting house and workplace safety measures.

Objective(s): The aim of this study was to measure night shift nurses attention rate.Methods: 60 nursing personnel of Damghan Hospitals were randomly selected. Between 4-5 a.m at the work location of nurses, the level of attention was measured by the Bonardel Test. The test was repeated for 3 times at one-month intervals.Results: The results showed that the mean attention rate of nurses at first time was 0.23, at the second time 0.30 and at the thired time 0.30. There were no significant association between the attention range and either gender or educational level of respondents. Conclusion: The mean attention rate in night work nursing personnel is poor. There is need to increase attention rate in night work nursing personnel.

Objective(s): Measuring the demand for medical services is necessary not only for organizing tertiary preventive care but also in planning first- and second-level intervention programs. This study aimed to determine:-The medical demand-The load of medical service utilization-The medical demand and medical service utilization in different districts of Tehran and in people with different characteristics.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out in Tehran. We used random, multi-stage sampling and a total of 5973 subjects were selected for the study. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire. The data included demographic information, medical complaints and utilization of medical services.Results: We studied a total of 5973 individuals, who came from 1416 different families.The result showed that for every 100 people in Tehran, there were 122 demands for medical service and 102 cases of service utilization in one year. The remaining 20 demands did not lead to service utilization. We also detected statistically significant differences in demand between different age groups and between men and women. Other notable findings included:-Significant differences in demand, utilization and accessibility among different districts in Tehran.- After influenza and common cold, the following groups of illnesses most frequently led to demands for medical services: musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and neuropsychological diseases.Conclusion: In this study, every 100 people had 122 demands for medical services per year, 102 of which had received related services. After common cold and influenza, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neuro-psychological diseases were the most important diseases groups in terms of services demands. In light of the relationship between demands and factors such as age, sex and place of residence in Tehran there is a need for effective planning of preventive, treatment and rehabilitation services (3 levels of prevention). This is especially true for the more common diseases and in groups considered to be at high risk. This could contribute significantly towards achieving greater health equity. Moreover, using demand rates, the health sector can calculate workload and estimate the number of health providers required for the people of Tehran.

Objective (s): Social skills are those behaviors that enable everyone to interact effectively. Developing such skills is one of the most important training objectives in childhood. Inadequate skills lead to weak school performance, isolation, rejection and psychological problems (anxiety, depression).Methods: This study investigated social skills scores in 8 randomly selected male/female orientation schools (grade3) and high-school (grades 1-3) in Karaj, Iran. Social skills were measured using the Gresham & Elliot standard questionnaire (Parents version).Results: In all, 1544 parents of students responded to the questionnaire and the social skills scores were acquired for 1410 students. The mean age of the students was 15.7 (SD=±1.3) years and most were at high school grade (%73.3).Overall the mean score of social skills was 52.3 (SD=±27.8) and 65% of students were equal or less than 50thpercentile of social skills.Statistical. analysis showed significant differences between social skills scores and sex and grade (p. Value =0.002 and 0.04 respectively). Also there was a statistical significant relation between students' school performances with social skills (p. Value < 0.02 and < 0.001).Conclusion: The findings suggest the need to renew the familial and cultural training styles. Using social health promotion approaches in schools would prevent weak school performance and improving cognitive problems.

Objective(s): To determine the incidence and also the types of oral and non-oral microbial contamination in dentures manufactured by dental laboratories in Shiraz city.Methods: Twenty-two laboratories were randomly selected for this study.We chose two completed dentures from each laboratory and sampled them with sterile swabs. The samples were placed in sterile tubes of transport medium and were then transferred to special culture media for isolation of different types of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and fungi.Results: The bacterial species detected in this study were: Peptostreptococcus SPP, Neisseria SPP, Staphylococcus, a-hemolytic Streptococcus, E. coli, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella pneumonia, Acenitobacteria, and Entrobacter SPP. The fungi that have been observed were: Candida SPP, Aspergillus niger, Pencillium, Saccharomyces, and Rhodotrolla.Conclusion: The result of this survey showed that dentures manufactured in dental laboratories were heavily contaminated with different kinds of bacteria and fungi.