Journal of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences
Year:2024 | Volume:22 | Issue:12|Papers Count:7

Background and Objectives: The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, consisting of 17 main goals, serves as a roadmap for addressing the most pressing global issues. Given the critical role medical sciences universities play in accomplishing sustainable development goals, this study aims to identify the opportunities and challenges that medical sciences universities are facing towards achieving these goals. Materials and Methods: The current qualitative study was conducted in 2021 at Iran's medical sciences universities in an exploratory approach. Up to the saturation point, 38 managers and specialists from various vice departments participated in targeted, semi-structured interviews. The traditional content analysis method developed by Graneheim and Lundman was used to analyze the data. Results: The universities of medical sciences have 25 opportunities to accomplish the goals of sustainable development in four areas: investment, human resources, service provision, and communication and coordination. The 35 challenges are divided into five categories: human resources, service delivery, monitoring and control, cooperation and interactions, and financing. Conclusion: According to the results of the current study, investing enough in primary health care (PHC), utilizing modern systems and equipment, particularly in data recording, hiring and retaining experts in a variety of fields, using appropriate and sufficient incentives, and fostering relationships between vice-chancelleries and medical sciences universities and other organizations are all recommended to meet the goals of sustainable development.

Background and Objectives: Procrastination has many negative consequences on both physical and mental health and the ability of people to achieve goals. Therefore, it is reasonable to study to know the related factors. The present study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the path of predicting academic procrastination of students based on their perfectionism and self-efficacy, considering the mediating role of metacognitive beliefs. Materials and Methods: The current research is a descriptive-correlational study. The statistical population included undergraduate psychology students of Kerman Islamic Azad University in the academic year 2022-2023, and 227 students were selected by convenience sampling and completed the scales of Savari et al. ’s Academic Procrastination, Sherer and Maddux’s General Self-Efficacy, Hill et al. ’s Perfectionism, and Wells and Cartwright’s Metacognitive Beliefs. Data were analyzed using structural equations modelling. Results: The results indicated that self-efficacy has a direct, positive and significant effect on positive metacognitive beliefs (β=0. 39, p<0. 01) and an inverse, negative and significant effect on negative metacognitive beliefs (β=-0. 42, p<0. 01) and academic procrastination (β=-0. 32, p<0. 01). The results also showed that perfectionism has a direct, positive and significant effect on positive metacognitive beliefs (β=0. 83, p<0. 01) and negative metacognitive beliefs (β=0. 51, p<0. 01). Conclusion: The results of the current study showed that metacognitive beliefs can play an important role in the relationship between self-efficacy and perfectionism and academic procrastination. Considering the negative consequences of procrastination on the academic health of students, it is recommended that intervention programs be prepared to appropriately change the variables affecting procrastination

Background and Objectives: Slow-paced disorder causes a decrease in students’ hope for life and the quality of academic life. Positive psychotherapy is one of the interventions that improves mental health in people, including students. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy on the hope and quality of academic life of slow-paced students. Materials and Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research was all the slow-paced students of Zahedan City in the academic year 2022-2023 (69 people). The sample members consisted of 40 students who were willing to cooperate and met the inclusion criteria, who were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into experimental (n=20) and control (n=20) groups. The experimental group received positive psychotherapy intervention for 10 sessions and the control group did not receive any intervention. The research tools were Williams and Batten’s Quality of School Life Questionnaire (1981) and Miller’s Hope Scale (1988). Multivariate analysis of covariance was used for data analysis. Results: The findings indicated that positive psychotherapy is effective on hope (F=92. 55) and on all scales of the quality of academic life of slow-paced students (p<0. 001). In other words, positive psychotherapy slowly increased the hope and quality of academic life of the students. Conclusion: The results showed that positive psychotherapy is effective on the hope and quality of academic life of slow-paced students. Therefore, the use of this treatment method is recommended in the growth of hope and quality of academic life of slow-paced students.

Background and Objectives: Social anxiety disorder is considered one of the most common psychiatric disorders. Considering the role of various factors in its creation and continuation, the current research was conducted with the aim of determining the relationships between emotional schemas and cognitive fusion and social anxiety symptoms with the mediating role of anxiety sensitivity. Materials and Methods: In terms of methodology, the current research was a descriptive-correlational type of structural equations. The statistical population in this research consisted of all secondary school students of Qazvin City who started studying in the academic year 2023-2024. Four hundred of them (200 girls and 200 boys) were selected using a multi-stage cluster random sampling method and answered the questionnaires on emotional schemas, cognitive fusion, social people, and adolescent experiences. The analysis of research data was done through structural equations modeling. Results: The results of structural equations modeling showed that emotional schemas with a path coefficient of 0. 35 and cognitive fusion with a coefficient of 0. 20 have a significant direct relationship with the symptoms of social distress (p<0. 001). Also, emotional schemas with a path coefficient of 0. 19 and cognitive fusion with a path coefficient of 0. 09 have a significant indirect relationship with social anxiety symptoms with the mediation of anxiety sensitivity (p<0. 001). Conclusion: The results of the present study indicated that emotional schemas and cognitive fusion can be risk factors for the symptoms of social anxiety disorder in adolescents. These variables can also intensify social anxiety by increasing anxiety sensitivity. It is recommended that mental health professionals pay attention to these factors in order to improve the quality and speed up treatment in their treatment plans.

Background and Objectives: The development of the mental health scale among students requires the use of efficient screening tools that are compatible with the society's culture. Since every evaluation tool such as a questionnaire must have adequate validity and reliability, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the validity and reliability of the questionnaire used to determine suicidal thoughts and actions among the students of an Iranian university of technology in 2021. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in 2021 on 8440 students of an Iranian university of technology. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, whose content validity was checked using the content validity ratio (CVR) and the content validity index (CVI). The internal reliability of the questionnaire was checked by Cronbach's alpha and Kuder-Richardson method. Results: Since 10 experts checked the questions, the acceptable CVR for this questionnaire was 0. 62, and 39 questions were within the acceptable range. In examining the CVI of the questions, 40 questions had an acceptable CVI (higher than 0. 79). Cronbach's alpha and kuder-Richardson's coefficients in measuring the internal reliability of this questionnaire were calculated as 0. 93 and 0. 87, respectively, indicating that this questionnaire has good reliability. Conclusion: Based on the results of the current study, the students’ mental and social health questionnaire has relatively appropriate validity and reliability, but it seems necessary to change and replace some questions that did not have favorable content validity ratio and content validity index.

Background and Objectives: Ureteral obstruction is one of the causes of kidney damage. Troxerutin is one of the strong natural antioxidants. The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of oxidative stress and inflammation in the right kidney tissue after the left ureteral obstruction in male rats. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 18 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=6 in either group) including control, ureteral obstruction, and ureteral obstruction+troxerutin. After the left ureter occlusion for 3-day, rats received troxerutin (100 mg/kg) daily 1h after occlusion for three days. Then, the right kidney weight and the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level were measured. The malondialdehyde concentration, the glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase enzyme activity levels, as well as the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) expression level, were measured in the right kidney tissue. One-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test were used to analyze the data. Results: Left ureteral obstruction caused a significant increase in the right kidney weight, malondialdehyde concentration, and TNF-α expression level (P=0. 002) and a decrease in the activity levels of glutathione peroxidase (P=0. 005) and superoxide dismutase (P=0. 009) enzymes of ureteral obstruction group versus the control. Troxerutin was able to ameliorate these indicators in the ureteral obstruction+troxerutin group compared to the ureteral obstruction group (P<0. 05). Blood urea nitrogen level mean did not show significant differenceacross the groups (P>0. 05). Conclusion: Left ureter obstruction induces inflammation and oxidative stress in the right kidney, and troxerutin consumption reduces inflammation and oxidative stress levels.