JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY HEALTH RESEARCH
Year:2014 | Volume:3 | Issue:2|Papers Count:9

Health; as a basic right of the people and essential demand; should be considered as a joint responsibility of the government and people of a community. As much as the people of a community aware and involved in the individual health promotion and problem solving of their community in all dimensions, the probability of reaching to favorable health measurements is also increased. Community assessment is considered as a foundation for health improving and promoting the community members. The main objectives of community assessment are; to identify factors that affect the health of a population and determine the availability of resources within the community to adequately address these factors. In this Vera, community leaders, public health agencies, businesses, hospitals, private practitioners, and academic centers have each one a defined role.

Introduction: The early detection of breast cancer is directly relevant to women's knowledge about breast cancer and its screening methods. The knowledge, attitude, and behavior of women in Yazd have not been examined yet; however breast cancer is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Health. The objective of this study is to examine the knowledge, attitude, and practice of women referring to Yazd city health centers regarding breast cancer screening and its relationship with socio-demographic variables.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 438 women referring to health centers of Yazd city in 2010 by using cluster sampling. A standard questionnaire was designed to elicit socio-demographic data, and knowledge, attitude and practices of these women towards breast cancer. The data were analyzed by statistical tests of SPSS software.Results: 380 (86.8%) participants had moderate to poor knowledge of breast cancer screening methods. There was a significant relationship between the knowledge and educational level and age. 310 (70.8%) participants had moderate attitude. There was a significant relationship between the attitude, age and job. 288 (65.8%) participants had poor practice. There was a significant relationship between the practice and all variables other than familial history. The main reason (184 (59.4%) participants) for not practicing breast self examination is reported to be "not being aware of the correct practice of breast self-examination". The most important source of information was television.Conclusion: With respect to the results of this study, we recommend the establishment of institutes and guidelines that will spread information about breast cancer screening.

Introduction: Intestinal parasitic infections are very common in developing countries and affect mostly children. Day care centers are places where children are more susceptible to acquire intestinal parasites.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites among children who attend to day care centers in Yazd city. One hundred and eighty children under six years old were selected by cluster sampling. Fresh faecal samples were collected from each child and examined by direct wet mount and formalin-ether techniques. Demography data and anthropometric indicators of children were also recorded. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software and the significance was tested using the chi-square test.Results: In total 10% of children harbored at least one type of intestinal parasite. The rates of infection were as follows: Blastocystis hominis 2.8%, Giardia lamblia 2.8%, Entamoeba coli 1.1%, Chilomastix mesnili 1.7%, Dientamoeba fragilis 1.1.%. Infection rate was 12.9% and 6.9% in males and females respectively. The relationship between sex, age, anthropometric indicators, and parasitic infection was not statistically significant. A statistically significant difference was observed between infection, parents’ education and mothers' job (P<0.005). Conclusion: The results of this study, showed a considerable decrease in the rate of intestinal parasitic infections in comparison with other studies. This may be owing to the improvements in personal environment and health which have occurred through public education campaigns, health information raising, sanitation .facilities improvement, proper waste and wastewater disposal, control of drinking-water, and food safety.

Introduction: A high concentration of fluoride causes health problems in man. How to remove excess fluoride from water is the objective of this project. The study focuses on an evaluation of the performance of activated bauxite mines in Yazd province in order to remove fluoride from drinking water.Materials and Methods: This study was an experimental one conducted on synthetic samples and water from May to November of 2013 in Kuhbanan region at the Environmental Health Engineering Research Center. Bauxite was taken from Sadr Abad and Shomal-e-Yazd mines. Bauxite analysis was performed using X- Rey Fraction and X-Ray Diffraction. The effects of pH, contact time, adsorbent dose and different concentrations of fluoride on defluoridation were determined. The optimal conditions were performed on real samples. In order to better understand the processes of absorption, synthetic and adsorption isotherms were studied. Fluoride content was determined by the SPADNS method and data analysis was performed by Excel.Results: The maximum removal efficiency for synthetic solution was obtained by 25g/L bauxite of Sadr Abad mine and 30g/L bauxite of Shomal-e-Yazd mine at pH 7, with the contact time of 180 minutes as 75.31% and 59.90%, respectively and the removal efficiency of actual samples in optimum conditions was 51.21% and 36.68%. Freundlich isotherm with a correlation coefficient greater than 99% showed better results for both types of bauxite.Conclusion: bauxite from Sadr Abad mine is more efficient than that from Shomal-e-Yazd mine.

Introduction: Pregnancy is a natural process that can lead to fatal accidents and serious injuries to the mother and fetus. When there is no possibility of vaginal delivery for the mother and there is a possible risk to the mother and children, Cesarean delivery is performed.Materials and Methods: This was an experimental study that was done on pregnant women who were referred to health centers of Yazd city. The samples were 130 first pregnant mothers who were divided into two groups by random sampling (65 case groups and 65 control group). The data were collected by a researcher making a questionnaire including 4 sections. At first, two groups completed the questionnaires and then the intervention was conducted for the case group based on the Health Belief Model. About 2 months after intervention, two groups completed the questionnaires twice. The data were analyzed with SPSS18 using Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square tests.Results: In this study, the mean age of women was 24.36±3.73 and the mean gestational age 31.53±2.35. The results showed that there was a significant difference between case and control groups after intervention in perceived susceptibility (p=0.001), perceived threat (p=0.001), perceived benefit (p=0.01), perceived barrier (p=0.01) and knowledge (p=0.001).Conclusion: In this study educational intervention based on health belief model increased the awareness of pregnant women, but, it has not been effective on their performance because many factors other than knowledge are involved in the choice of delivery method.

Introduction: Working at an early age can have adverse consequences on health. Working children due to their occupational hazards are at risk of communicable and non-communicable diseases such as malnutrition, anemia and growth retardation. This study aimed to determine the nutritional status and prevalence of anemia in working and non-working children.Material and Methods: This case-control study was carried out as cross-sectional, on 90 working and 90 non-working 8-18 year-old boys in Kermanshah. The data gathering tools were demographic and food frequency questionnaires (FFQ). Anthropometric parameters were measured using standard tools. 5 ml blood for blood biomarkers test was collected from the participants. Results: Average height and weight of the working children were respectively 3.7 cm and 5.7 kg less than of those of the non-working children (P=0.02). Prevalence of iron deficiency in working children was more than double in non-working children (28% vs 11.3%, P=0.01). Hemoglobin concentration in working children was significantly less than that in non-working children (p=0.05). Except for bread and cereals, the working children’s consumption of all food groups was significantly less than that of non-working children (P<0.001). Conclusion: Working children are at the risk of developing anemia and malnutrition so they need emergency nutritional supports.

Introduction: In 2000 World Health Organization (WHO) announced fairness in financial contribution to health care costs as one of the three goals of health systems. However, conducted studies in Iran reflect the dire situation of health equity in terms of financing health care costs. The aim of the present study is to determine disparities in health expenditures by means of different approaches.Materials and Methods: The present study is a cross sectional health survey. The sample consisted of 792 households residing in 22 districts of Tehran. The data were collected by WHO questionnaire. Indices of FFC, CI in health expenditure, Lorenz curve and catastrophic health care expenditure were used for measuring inequality in the distribution of health expenditures. Excel software was used to perform the mathematical calculations.Results: FFC index was 0.57 by optimized method and was equal to 0.62 by ordinary formulas. Concentration index in outpatient services was -0.105, CI in inpatient services was 0.015 and for total health expenditures was equal to -0.044. Also, 7.2 present of households were faced with catastrophic health expenditures. Moreover, the results showed that insurance can be a reason for catastrophic expenditures by itself (45.6 percent of all households facing catastrophic costs).Conclusion: The results indicated that there is a deep gap between the status of equity which is outlined in the 4th and 5th national plans of development and our current situation. So reforming financial, insurance and structural policies is crucially needed.

Background: Ionizing radiation has long-term risks, including cancer in particular. Since physicians request radiological examinations for patients, they need to be aware of its benefits and also risks. The aim of this study was to assess the overall knowledge of physicians in Yazd province about the radiation risks associated with diagnostic imaging procedures.Material and Methods: In this descriptive study, a questionnaire containing 25 questions was used to evaluate physicians’ knowledge of radiation doses received from radiological procedures and risks of cancer from diagnostic imaging. Their demographic characteristics such as age, sex, specialty and experience (years of practice) was also asked. Normality of data distribution was assessed using the Shapiro-Wilks test and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. A t-test was used for continuous variables and comparison of mean differences in scores for dichotomous variables. Spearman's correlation coefficient was carried out to look for any relationship between variables of age and experience with the knowledge of the physicians.Results: The overall mean knowledge score was 14±3.15 out of 25 questions, or 56%±12.6%, and the scores ranged from 11.5% to 81%. The total mean score did not correlate with age and experience, but there was a significant difference (P value=0.001) between men and women and also among the two main respondent groups, general practitioners and specialists (P value=0.012). Physicians’ knowledge about detrimental effects of radiation including both deterministic and stochastic effects was very weak.Conclusion: The awareness of physicians about radiation is generally inadequate. Adequate training to practicing physicians about risks of radiological examinations seems necessary, and revision of the curriculum of medical students in this area is recommended.

Introduction: Humic acid (HA) is the original disinfection byproduct produced in processors in water treatment. So, removing it is necessary before water chlorination. In the present study, photodegredation of humic acid in water using Ag/ZnO nano particle under UVc irradiation in batch system was investigated.Material and Methods: Photocatalytic study was carried out to evaluate the effect of UVc (15w), irradiation time of (10-40min), pH (5-9), initial humic acid concentration of (10-50 mg/L) and Ag/ZnO dosage of (0.2-0.8 g/L) on humic acid removal. HA concentration was monitored spectrophotometrically by measuring the HA absorbance at 254 nm.Results: HA removal efficiency was obtained 88% at pH 7, Ag/ZnO dosage 0.6 g/L, initial humic acid concentration 25 mg/L and irradiation time of 40 min. The removal of HA from aqueous solution increased by increasing irradiation time and decreasing initial HA concentration. Also, the kinetic study was consistent with pseudo-first order reaction.Conclusion: The results showed that photocatalytic degredation process using Ag/ZnO nanoparticles can be used efficiently for HA removal from aqueous solutions.