Koomesh
Year:2010 | Volume:11 | Issue:2 (34)|Papers Count:13

Introduction: Smoking is a known cause of systemic disorders such as bronchogenic carcinoma and cardiovascular diseases. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to estimate prevalence of smoking (cigarette, water pipe and pipe) in women aged 30-70 years in Semnan province in Iran.Materials and Methods: This epidemiologic cross-sectional study was conducted among 2104 women who were 30-70 years old in province of Semnan, Iran between October 2005 and February 2006. Multistage cluster sampling was performed and subjects were selected from rural and urban populations. Data were analyzed by Chi-square test and p-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The overall prevalence of smoking in women aged 30-70 was 2.0% (95% Confidence Interval: 1.4-2.6%). 2.5% of rural and 1.8% urban were smokers (P=0.270). Prevalence of smoking in under 40, 40-49, 50-59 and ³60 years were 0.4, 2.4, 2.8 and 4.2, respectively (P= 0.001). 4.1% of illiterates, 1.6% of primary, 1.5% of intermediate, 0.4% of high school were smokers (P=0.001). Prevalence of smoking in Semnan, Damghan, Garmsar and Shahrood were 1.3, 3.2, 0.7 and 2.4% (P=0.034), respectively. None of them were pipe smokers. 26.9% non-cigarette smokers were passive smokers. Overall, 28.9% of Semnan province adults, aged 30-70 years, were active smokers or passive cigarette smokers.Conclusion: The findings showed that prevalence of active or passive smoking in Semnan province in women adults aged 30-70 years is high. Given the strong positive relationship between smoking and various diseases, a comprehensive community-based health educational and interventional program is essential for reducing smoking and its detrimental consequences among woman population in Semnan province. Given the essential information about the harmful effects of passive and active smoking to woman with old ages and low educational levels, particularly who living in Daemghan, would be a valuable way for reducing destructive consequences of smoking.

Introduction: Overweight and obesity are the most important factors in the development of chronic diseases and have a great impact on the health and quality of life of individuals. World Health Organization (WHO) encourages the countries continually for calculation burden of diseases at national level as the best guideline for take policy in health system. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the attributable burden of risk factors in non-contagious diseases in Markazi providence of Iran.Materials and Methods: Death registered data in Markazi providence were applied for calculation years of life lost (YLL) based on comparison risk assessment (CRA) method of WHO. Attributable burden of obesity and overweight was calculated by multiply the impact fraction of any risk factors by YLL of any diseases in counterfactual analysis method.Results: From 7176 registered death, 252214 years lost from preterm death. The total of YLL in female and male were 102245 years and 149969 years, respectively. In this study, the most important causes of YLL were attributable obesities to brain stroke, and cardiovascular diseases and attributable overweight to cardiovascular diseases in females, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed the importance and necessity of diagnosis for obesity and over weight as one of the most important risk factors in non-contagious diseases, especially in women. Therefore, it seems there is a necessity for developing and conducting comprehensive intervention programs about these risk factors and then assessing the programs.

Introduction: Effects of Kangaroo mother care (KMC) has been shown for pre-term infants, however KMC has not been studied adequately in term newborns. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of Kangaroo contact (KC) on some physiological parameters in term neonates and pain score in mothers with cesarean section (C/S) in Fatemiye hospital of Shahrood (Iran).Materials and Methods: In a randomized clinical trail, 160 mother-infant dyads divided in two KC and routine care (RC) groups. KC was done three 60 min/day for two consecutive days. After cesarean section, pain intensity was determined with verbal numeric analog scale (0-10 score). Temperature was observed in four sets for each neonate. Infant’s reflexes scores, neonatal jaundice and urine cortisol of neonates were compared between two groups. Mother’s satisfaction was recorded before discharge of hospital by checklist.Results: Both groups were similar regarding to all baseline variables. A significant increasing in temperature was observed in half an hour (36.8 vs 36.6oC, P<0.05) and just before discontinuing KC (an hour after initiating KC) (36.9 vs 36.6oC, P<0.001). Pain score in mother after C/S (6 vs 7.8, P<0.001), number of sever crying (5.6 vs 12.3, P<0.05) in hospital and urine cortisol before discharging were lower than RC group (388.4 vs 471.3 m/24 hours, P<0.05) There was no significant differences in jaundice and mean of reflexes score in neonates. Overall, perception of mothers was positive toward KC.Conclusions: This study provides evidences showing that using KC had beneficial effects for both mother and infant. In addition, in order to prevention of the complications due to separation of neonates from their mothers in C/S, skin to skin contact as a routine care is recommended in cesarean section unites in Iran.

Introduction: Physical activities are as one of the basic element for curing diabetes. Walking can be considered as one of the physical activities, which it doesn’t need any special equipments and can be part of daily life of those have diabetes. Therefore, the aim of this research was to examine the effects of walking training on haemoglobin glucosile and fasting blood sugar levels in women with type 2 diabetes.Materials and methods: This quasi-experimental interventional study was carried out on 88 women who suffered from type 2 diabetes. The data was collected using a questionnaire including demographic information, performance regarding the appropriate or correct walking and also a checklist about the amount of walking and also levels of fasting blood sugar (FBS) and hemoglobin glycosides (HbA1c) of the patients. The data was collected prior to starting interfering training. Then the interfering training was applied for the intervention group in 4 educational sessions and each one for 60 minutes during one month. Three months following the training, the data and levels of FBS and HbA1c were again collected and measured from the patients.Results: Before training, the intervention and control groups scores of cooest walking performance was less than average and the most part of their walking was a type of light walking (%77.86 and %74.4 in intervention and control groups, respectively). In addition, the levels of FBS and HbA1c in the patient were higher than the normal levels. Following the intervention, mean of correct walking performance and also the times spent on walking with average and heavy extents were significantly increased in the intervention group as compared with control one (P<0.0001). Moreover, levels of of FBS and HbA1c of the intervention group group were significantly reduced as compared with the control group (P<0.0001).Conclusion: Our findings indicate that walking education is an important method for control of FBS and HbA1c levels in paients with type 2 diabetes.

Introduction: Zoonotic cutaneous leishmanianisis is one of most important health problem in the world and the disease has been reported from more than 88 countries with 350 million people at the risk of it .The disease has been widespread in several parts of islamic republic of Iran. Sand flies (phlebotominae) are the vectors of the disease that transmit of parasites from the infected rodents to human. Knowledge on ecology of Sand flies can help us to design of disease control program. Determine of fauna and monthlyonthly activity of Sand flies was the main objects of this study.Material and Methods: This survey was performed as an experimental and practical study. It was carried out in Damghan district of Semnan province during 2008. Sand flies were collected from indoors and outdoors using sticky traps twice in month from early April to late November. Results: Totally 6110 sand flies (6 species of Phlebotomus and 2 species of Sergentomyia) were collected and identified from indoors (2146) and outdoors (3964). Activity of sand flies were started in April and ended in October with two peaks in May and September. The dominant species were Phlebotomus papatasi.Conclusion: High density of Phlebotomus papatasi as the dominant specimen indicates that, this species can be the main vector of disease. Collection of P. caucasicus, P.mongolensis and P. ansarii from rodent burrow show that they can play as the secondary role to transmitting of disease among rodent reservoirs. Dissection of sand flies for finding of parasites and following of them by molecular methods is necessary to confirmation of proven vector(s). Control of rodents, environmental sanitary as well as personal protections and insecticide impregnated bed nets was suggested to prevention of disease.

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is followed by higher incidence of cardiovascular disorders. There is some evidence on protective and antidiabetic effects of Vaccinium myrtillus (VM). Thus, the endothelium-dependent and–independent effect of oral administration of VM for 6 weeks on contractile and relaxatory response of thoracic aorta from diabetic rats was investigated.Materials and Methods: Male rats were divided into control, VM-treated control, diabetic and VMtreated diabetic groups. Treated groups received VM-mixed pelleted food at a weight ratio of 5%. Body weight and serum glucose levels were measured before the study and at weeks 3 and 6. At the end of study, contractile reactivity of thoracic aortic rings to KCl and phenylephrine and relaxatory response to acetylcholine (with endothelium) and sodium nitroprusside (without endothelium) was determined using isolated tissue setup.Results: Serum glucose levels significantly decreased in VM-treated diabetic group versus untreated diabetics (p=0.04). In addition, endothelium-intact VM-treated diabetic group showed a significantly lower contraction to KCl and phenylephrine (p=0.04) as compared to diabetic group and endothelium removal reduced this difference. Meanwhile, relaxation response of endothelium-intact rings to acetylcholine was significantly higher in VM-treated diabetic group as compared to diabetics (p=0.02). Conclusion: Chronic oral administration of VM through affecting synthesis and release of endothelial vasoactive agents and also via direct effects on vascular smooth muscle could decrease contractile and enhance relaxatory responses in aortic tissue of diabetic rat. These effects may have the beneficial  effects in prevention of some long-term vascular complications of diabetes.

Introduction: Phonological awareness skills are referred to awareness and manipulation of linguistic phonemes without semantics. One of important phonological awareness subtest is "phoneme awareness" that is evaluated by many tasks. The aim of this study was to development two sections of phoneme awareness (diagnosis of a word with different first phoneme and expressing word with same first phoneme) and then comparison of them in 5 to 6 year-old Persian-speaking children in Tehran.Materials and Methods: In this study, 100 normal 5 to 6 year-old Persian-speaking children (50 girls and 50 boys) were selected randomly. Children were mono linguistic and normal. Diagnosis of a word with different first phoneme and expressing word with same first phoneme was selected as a tool. Results: The results showed that both sections have appropriate validity and reliability. Mean of two sections was significantly different (diagnosis of a word with different first phoneme=1.09 and expressing word with same first phoneme=4.67) (P=0.000). In addition, the mean scores of girls and boys were not statistically different.Conclusions: Both sections for assessment of first phoneme of word have good validity and reliability and the ability of children were different in two tasks, but girls and boys were same in performing of these tasks.

Introduction: Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. The classical methods such as Cox regression and parametric models are used in most medical researches that their aims is the survival distribution survey, although the Bayes models have some advantages in compared with the classical models. The present study was performed to analyze the survival rate of patients who had gastric cancer and were under treatment in the gastroenterology ward of Taleghani hospital, in Tehran using Bayes models. Weibull distribution was used for modeling in the study.Material and Methods: This study was a cohort study and performed in the gastroenterology ward of Taleghani hospital by using gastric cancer patient's data from January 2003 to December 2007.178 patients were enrolled to the study and their information was collected through telephone contacts. The survival rate of patients were analyzed using Bayes Weibull models by considering variables such as age of diagnosis, gender, tumor size, metastasis of other lymph. For determining of the risk factors on the survival of patients, was used Weibull model in the case that interval censoring. Data analysis was carried out using Winbugs software and significant levels were considered 0.05.Results: The results showed survival rate are dependent on the age of diagnosis and tumor size. Those patients who had early diagnosis, the rate of survival was greater. In addition, he patients who had smaller tumor size, their survival rate was greater.Conclusion: Considering to classical models are based on normal approximation and applicable for big samples, Bayes methods are emphasized for small to medium samples. The results of this study showed that the Bayesian Weibull model is a suitable model. This study also showed that age of diagnosis and tumor size of patients is important factors in regard to the survival rate of these patients. As a result, if gastric cancer is diagnosed early, the relative risk of death would reduce.

Introduction: The beneficial effects of physical activity and exercise on brain functions such as improvement in learning and memory are well documented. In a recent study, we have found that blockade of beta-adrenergic receptors by propranolol attenuates an improvement of learning and memory by exercise. However, the anatomical sites of propranolol actions are not known. The aim of this study was to determine the role of the Basolateral amygdala (BLA) in the inhibitory effects of propranolol on the beneficial effects of exercise on learning and memory.Material and Methods: In order to block the beta-adrenergic receptors, male mice were received the beta-antagonist propranolol (10 mg/kg), before each night of five consecutive nights of exercise. The BLA lesion was made by electrolytic lesion (2mA, 2 s). Learning and memory were tested on the Morris water maze task using a two-trials-per-day for five consecutive days. A probe trial was performed two days after the last training day.Results: Our results showed that propranolol reversed the exercise-induced improvement in learning and memory in rat. This effect was not blocked by the BLA lesion. However, lesion of the BLA alone blocked exercise-induced enhancement of learning and memory.Conclusion: These findings indicate beta-adrenergic receptors located outside the BLA may mediate the effects of exercise on learning and memory. Also, the BLA play an important role in the mediating the effects of physical activity on learning and memory.

Introduction: Several factors as learning styles can influence the learning process. The aim of this study was to determine learning styles, which are used by nursing and allied health students in Semnan University of Medical Sciences.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 199 nursing and allied health students of Semnan university of medical sciences (2007, Iran). Students were selected using a simple sampling method. The assessment instrument was the last version of Kolb learning style inventory (KLSI V.3.1).Results: Generally, the learning styles of students were divergent (%27.1), accommodations (% 26.6), convergent (%23.6), and assimilation (%22.6). The preferred learning style in nursing students was convergent (%31.9), and in allied health students was divergent (%36.1). There was a significant relationship between the type of learning styles with academic courses (P=0.006) married status (P=0.004) and average score (P=0.031), but there was no correlation between the type of learning styles and gender.Conclusion: Considering the predominance of convergent and divergent learning styles in these students, the usage of some educational methods such as problem -based learning, group discussions, brain storming, role playing, computerized simulation and demonstration are recommended in theoretical, clinical and skill laboratory fields, so that; the students in the new and objective situations can apply their visualization for more earning knowledge and professional skills.

Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease. The main pathologic manifestation of disease is local destruction of cartilage in diarthrodial joint. New bone formation in marginal surface of the joint is a sign progressive disease.Many systemic and local factors are introduced in initiate and progression of osteoarthritis include: age, sex, weight, race, genetic background, bone densitometry, sex hormones, endocrine and metabolic disease, nutrition status, major and frequent minor trauma to joint, occupational or exercise over stresses to joint, congenital or developmental defect in joint and previous infectious or inflammatory joint diseases.Early clinical manifestations often are intermittent mild pain in joint, frequently after joint use, mild stiffness with vague pain in periarthicular muscle.Diagnosis of osteoarthritis is simply with history, physical examination and X-Ray. At now there isn’t definitive laboratory test for diagnosis. Overall osteoarthritis is destructive joint disease without cure, but we must be following the patients and don’t leave them until complete cartilage destruction. Careful approach of physician with these patients can prevent more damage or at least delay it.