Shiraz E-Medical Journal
Year:2018 | Volume:19 | Issue:1|Papers Count:6

Background: Old age is one of themost important and longest periods of life in human beings. Identifying the effective factors in maintaining and promoting health in the elderly can prevent chronic diseases in this age group. Objective: This study aimed at presenting traditional Persian medicine (TPM) measures for maintaining the elderly’ s health. Methods: This review article was conducted on traditional Persian medicine textbooks and Noor software to investigate the viewpoints of Iranian and Islamic scholars concerning maintenance of elderly’ s health. Results: The elderly’ s age range has been expressed differently in the traditional medicine. However, in most cases, those aged 40 to 60 years and above 60 have been considered as middle-aged and old aged, respectively. Temperament of both age groups are cold and dry, but the elderly suffer from the predominance of wetness in their main organs, which is the sign of attenuating their innate heat compared with the middle age groups. The elderly should use hot and wet foods and drink more frequently and avoid cupping and bloodletting. They should not be isolated and rest alone for long times. Visiting the elderly regularly warrants their mental and physical health; however, frequent and long-time visits may disturb their privacy and should be prohibited. Also, they are recommended not to omit their dinner and sleep early. Frequent intercourses may jeopardise their health and are not recommended. At last, a regular moderate physical activity to maintain their stamina and physical conditions in addition to a healthy diet and good relationship with family and friends should always be considered for this group. Conclusion: Health recommendations cited in traditional Persian medicine sources are usually safe, useful, and practical; thus, using them in everyday life routines of the elderly seems to be beneficial and improve their quality of life. However, rigorous and well-designed clinical trials should be tailored to prove the real efficacy of the aforementioned health measures in quality and life span of the elderly.

Background: Sexual assertiveness is one of the criteria for examining sexual relationships, responding to sexual needs, and expressing sexual preferences. Objectives: The present study aimed at determining the effect of sexual enrichment counseling on sexual assertiveness in married women. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 60 married women aged 18 to 45 years, who referred to one of the health centers in Karaj, were recruited purposefully. Then, they were randomly allocated into 2 groups of intervention and control. Hulbert’ s Sexual Assertiveness Index was used for data collection. The intervention group received six 90-minute group counseling sessions and the control group received 1 educational session after the study. Data were collected 1 week and 1 month after the intervention. Analyses were performed using mean and standard deviation, inferential statics of Pearson correlation coefficient, paired t test, and ANOVA with repeated measure. Results: The mean score of sexual assertiveness before the study was 45. 51 8. 85 in the intervention group and 46. 21 10. 43 in the control group (P = 0. 55). One week after the intervention, the mean score of sexual assertiveness was 68. 44 6. 12 in the intervention group and 46. 42 10. 07 in the control group (P < 0. 001). The results of data analyses demonstrated that sexual enrichment counseling contributes to augmentation of sexual assertiveness of married women. Likewise, education has a significant relationship with sexual assertiveness (P = 0. 000). Conclusions: Considering the current findings, it seems that the desired educational counseling courses on sexual issues and the way of its expressiveness based on Iranian culture could be effective in increasing sexual assertiveness ability in married women. Conducting similar quantitative and qualitative studies with larger sample sizes and in similar populations are highly recommended for designing gender and cultural based sexual education.

Background: Cyclophosphamide (CP) is one of the most popular bifunctional alkylating agents, which is utilized in the treatment of numerous cancer diseases and has toxic side effects such as nephrotoxicity, hematotoxicity, mutagenicity, and immunotoxicity. In this study, Elaeagnus angustifolia fruit extract (EAFE), a natural plant extract, was examined for its antioxidant activity against CP-induced renal oxidative damage in mice. Methods: In this experimental study, 30 male Swiss albino mice (25-30 g) were separated into five groups. Group 1 received normal saline for 5 days; group 2 was treated with CP 200 mg/kg single intraperitoneal (i. p) dose only on the 5th day; groups 3 to 5 received EAFE at doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg, respectively, administered orally during 5 days, and CP on the 5th day 1 hour after the last dose of extract administration. Then on the 6th day, the mice were sacrificed. Blood samples were collected to determine serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr) levels. Levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) in kidney tissue were also examined. Histological assessment was undertaken on kidney samples taken from all groups. Results: The results obtained from our study showed a significant increase in the levels of MDA, Cr, and BUN and a decrease in GSH following CP injection. Pre-treatment with EAFE showed a decrease in the levels of MDA, Cr, and BUN and an increase in GSH in all doses; however, the most significant reduction was observed at doses of 200 and400mg/kg. In addition, the nephroprotective effect of EAFE was confirmed by histological evaluation of the kidneys. Conclusions: Our results indicate that EAFE has protective effects against CP-induced renal damage possibly by amelioration of biochemical indices and oxidative stress parameters.

Background: Sufficient levels of physical activity are an issue for health, quality of life, and more importantly for healthcare providers. This study aimed to determine the status of physical activity and its relationship with perceived wellness in healthcare workers. Methods: This study included about 254 health personnel who work in urban health centers in Shiraz. The IPAQ and PWS selfadministered questionnaires were used to collect information. This study was approved by the ethic and council committee of the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Additionally, moral considerations (confidentiality and informed consent) was observed, and data were analyzed with SPSS V. 19. IBM. Results: About 46% of the participants had moderated to severe physical activity. The results indicated a strong relationship between physical activity, perceived health and all its dimensions, except for social health and mental health. Furthermore, perceived health was significantly associated with age ( = 0. 039,  = 0. 61) and gender ( = 0. 002,  = 9. 33). Conclusions: Regarding the staff’ s insufficient physical activity, the strong relationship between physical activity and health. Their impact on the organization’ s direct and indirect costs, health promotion programs and policies have to be designed focusing on the staff’ s physical activity.

Background: Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is considered a chronic renal disease and the most prevalent glomerulonephritis throughout the world. In order to model a large number of extracted biomarkers and identify the most effective biomarkers on IgAN disease, the researchers implemented 2 methods of penalized regression, known as LASSO and MCP logistic regression versus random forest method, which are appropriate for high dimensional and low sample size problems. Methods: Urinary protein profiles for both groups were composed of 493 proteins. Data were obtained in the case group (13 patients) using an experiment on urinary protein profile of patients with IgAN and in the control group (8 healthy individuals) using nanoscale liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Mann Whitney test as univariate analysis, and LASSO, MCP and random forest as multivariate analysis were used to evaluate the simultaneous effect of biomarkers on IgAN in a high dimensional and low sample size setting. All the statistical analyses were performed in the R 3. 3. 2 software. Results: Although Mann Whitney test showed that 144 out of 493 proteins were significantly different between the 2 groups, LASSO, MCP, and random forest showed only 7, 3, and 5 biomarkers as effective factors in IgAN diseases, respectively. The most effective biomarker was SULF2 (OR = 0. 28) and ALBU (OR = 2. 66) in LASSO, A1AT (OR = 73. 7) in MCP, and GOLM1 and IBP7 in the random forest method. Conclusions: Because all the 3 models were able to truly differentiate all the IgAN patients from the control groups, the researchers suggest the proposed model for high dimensional and low sample size datasets.

Background: Today, the prevalence of Internet Addiction (IA) is increasing among college students and the mental health of students is reduced with the increasing severity of IA. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate IA and mental health among medical sciences students in the southeast of Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 417 students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Southeast of Iran, during year 2016. The participants were recruited through a two-stage stratified sampling method. The data collection was done using Young Internet Addiction Test (YIAT) and Goldberg General Health (GHQ) standard questionnaires. Data analysis were performed by ANOVA, Pearson correlation, chi-square, and logistic regression tests using SPSS software for Windows version 16. Results: The overall prevalence of IA in students was 27. 56% (95% CI: 21. 3 to 30. 8). The prevalence of IA was 15. 82% (95% CI: 11. 3 to 19. 7) in male and 11. 74% (95% CI: 8. 5 to 14. 6) in female students. Mean mental health was 39. 90 1. 34 and 48. 17 2. 56 in normal and addicted users, respectively. There was a significant difference between IA and male gender (P = 0. 001), major (P = 0. 019), GPA (P = 0. 001), college year (P = 0. 013), time of using the Internet (P = 0. 003), residency (P = 0. 013), time (P = 0. 011), location, and reason for using the Internet (P = 0. 023). In addition, there was a positive correlation between IA and mental health (P = 0. 02, r = 0. 36). Conclusions: The overall prevalence of IA was high and effects the mental health of medical sciences students in the southeast Iran. Overuse of the Internet by students may cause depression, and decreased mental health and academic performance. Creating psychological support and the provision of various fun programs could reduce the willingness to overuse the Internet and may prevent from IA complications among students.