Epidemiology and Health System Journal
Year:2016 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:11

Background and aims: Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease which may cause some laboratory symptoms in infected individuals. One of the main ways of transmition this organism is placenta to fetus pathway. If this transmission occurs in the 3th month of pregnancy, the abortion, central nerve system and ocular disorder will happen. Because of this issue, the precise technique for detection of Toxoplasma Antibody such as IgG and IgM is important, that contains ELISA to detect Toxoplasma Antibody such as IgG and IgM and AFP.Methods: This was a cross sectional study. In this study, the main sample was serum that was randomly collected from 255 pregnant women infected with toxoplasma Gondi in Avesina center. Then, It was detected the serum concentration of AFP in toxoplasmosis pregnant women with high level of IgG and IgM toxoplasma antibody by ELISA assay.Results: The results of this survey showed that the infection in these pregnant women by toxoplasma gondii was occurred and 13% of them (13% of 255 infected mothers) had high levels of AFP in their serum. The statistical analyses was done by SPSS consisted of t-test, case number, comparative study, and Q-Q plot evaluations.Conclusions: In some pregnant women with high level of IgG and IgM toxoplasma antibody was observed in high levels of AFP in their serum and this index correlates with NTD in their fetus.

Background and aims: Cardiac surgery patients are at high risk of pressure ulcers. In the present study, we determined the incidence of pressure ulcer in patients who were admitted to open heart cardiac surgery intensive care unit and related risk factors.Methods: With using convenience sampling all the eligible patients who were admitted to Boali cardiac surgery during June to August 2015 were invited to participate in this study. Patients’ skins were assessed using pressure ulcer staging system developed by National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) and Braden scale before operation, after operation (in time of cardiac intensive care unit admission) and one times per day to patients discharge for sign of pressure ulcer development. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation test and independent t-test in SPSS 20.0 statistical software.Results: During 3 months, 70 patients who were eligible were admitted to cardiac intensive care unit. From all, in 32 (45.7%) patient’s pressure ulcer was seen. From those, 41.4% were in stage I and 4.3% were in stage II. Mean score of Braden score in time of ICU admission was 11.1±2.3 and 15.1±2.3 in patients with and without pressure ulcer development (P<0.001). Factors such as lower Braden Scale score (P=0.001), diabetes (P=0.01), hypertension (P=0.001), NPO time after surgery (P=0.006), mean time of surgery (P=0.007), mean time of need to mechanical ventilation after surgery (P=0.003), low ejection fraction (P=0.006) and lower level of hemoglobin after surgery (P=0.012) increased the risk of pressure ulcer development significantly.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that patients who were admitted to open heart cardiac surgery intensive care unit are at high risk of pressure ulcer development. Medical and care-giving teams in the cardiac intensive care unit need further education about risk factors of pressure ulcer development to prevent this.

Background and aims: Normal pregnancy and its successful outcome require intake of sufficient food. Undesirable nutrition is directly associated with pregnancy outcome, therefore, its prevention is the best strategy to maintain maternal and fetal health. The present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of malnutrition during pregnancy and associated factors in women of Ardal County.Methods: The present study was a descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study conducted in 2012-2013 and investigated 435 pregnant women referring to healthcare center of Ardal, who were enrolled by census method. The instrument of data gathering was a form which was filled out with reference to the registered data in household medical file. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16 using Chi square and Fisher’s exact test.Results: Of the total of 435 women, 31.7% had diploma education and 98.2% were housewives. Chi square test indicated no significant association between the women’s and their spouses’ education level and occupation, and weight gain throughout the whole pregnancy (P>0.05). The highest prevalence of malnutrition (51.3%) was derived in the first trimester.Conclusion: In view of the prevalence of underweight pregnant women, the training of healthcare centers’ personnel is important. Consider the proper implementation of healthcare schedule during pregnancy, particularly monitoring of mothers’ weight gain and training of appropriate nutrition.

Background and aims: In order to plan for preventing and decreasing the rate of nursing errors, understanding of nurse’s perception of nursing errors could be very helpful. This study was thus designed to examine the critical care nurses perception of nursing errors from view point of critical care nurses.Methods: This study was conducted in 9 hospitals in Qazvin province located in north of Iran. Using convenience sampling, all registered nurses who worked in critical care units were invited to participate in the study. Data were collected between January and March 2015 with using "predisposing factors of nursing errors questionnaire".Results: Of 379 nurses participated in this study, 77.8% (N=213) were women. The mean age of participants was 34±2.2 years and mean years of experience was 8.1±1.5 years. Totally, from view of nurses, most and lowest common cusecs of nursing errors were related to "management aspect" and "Team coordination" items respectively.Conclusion: Nursing educational systems should pay more attention to nurses’ perception to nursing errors and may consider their view during planning and education towards decreasing nursing errors in critical care setting.

Background and aims: Life skills involve a big class of socio-psychological and interpersonal skills which help a person to take conscious decisions, communicate effectively and improve self-management skills. Preparing a plan for all the above mentioned programs, need awareness about life skills level of different groups such as students in universities. Present study was aimed to reveal the predictors of life skills level of Students in Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in southeast of Iran.Methods: This cross-sectional study carried out on 380 medical students of Zahedan in 2015. The subjects were selected using stratified random sampling method. The data were collected using reliable Life Skill Dimensions Score questionnaire. The data were analyzed in Stata software using ANOVA, Independent t-test and multiple linear regression with Hosmer-Lemshow method.Results: The mean of total score regarding life skills score was 280.8±45.8. The linear regression analysis indicated that gender (b=11.15, 95% CI: 5.03-17.27), socioeconomic status (b=6.78, 95% CI: 1.76-11.8) and average grades (b=15.3, 95% CI: 9.11-21.49) were associated with life skills score. However, the life skills score was not associated with the age, semester, residential area, smoking, marital status and school of education (P>0.05).Conclusion: The level of life skills scores of medical students in southeast of Iran is low in all dimensions especially in communication skills. Thus, promoting life skills in university students is too important. However, the life skills training programs should be implemented with respect to socioeconomic status, gender and average grade and male students with low socioeconomic status and average have priority.

Background and aims: Paper-pencil tests have always its own problems in the mental disorders evaluation, including learning questions, bad or good blazon are the problems with this methodology. This study aimed to propose a new alternative method of measuring mental disorders without paper-pencil test using EEG.Methods: The research society involved depressed patients referred the psychiatrist clinics in Tabriz.107 patients were selected as samples using a convenient sampling method. The Beck test was conducted. The EEG was recorded from the F4 point concurrent with displaying the film of 5 animated emotional images from Normed Images database (IAPS). The specialized screen of this recording was designed by the author in the Biograph Infinity software of device. Other software was written by the author in order to separate the αpeak frequency average associated with any image of the recorded EEG. Then the research variables α 1peak, α 2peak, α 3peak, α 4peak, α 5peak of each patient were analyzed with SPSS. After all, another 26 patients were selected to measure the Golden Standard, sensitivity, Positive predictability, Negative predictability and ROC.Results: The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that α 1peak associated with αpeakfrequancy of image 1 had more explanatory power with a beta value of 0.289 compared with other variables. Then α 3peak had a high explanatory power. The regression equation for the predicting the score based on his/her EEG was found in terms of αpeak frequency.Conclusion: This research showed that Beck's depression score was predictable without using any questionnaire but according to EEG with a high sensitivity (100%), specificity (30.8%), PPV (59.1%), NPPV (100%), and ROC (57.4%).

Background and aims: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are common among housewives. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of MSDs and its predictors among a group of Iranian housewives.Methods: This cross-sectional study carried out on 600 Iranian housewives in 2014 that were selected using multistage random sampling from three cities including Karaj, Kashan and Yazd. The data were collected using Nordic questionnaire and were analyzed in SPSS software using chi-square and multiple linear regressions with Hosmer-Lemshow method.Results: The total prevalence of MSDs was 53% and was not different in three cities (P>0.05). The highest prevalence of pain was found to be in the back region (51.33%), followed by neck (51%) and shoulder (41.5%) and least at wrist (40.5%). The possibility of pain in neck was related to husband’s job (governmental compared to self-employed OR=1.6, CI 95%: 1.09-2.63), older age (OR=1.06, CI 95%: 1.01-1.11), higher height (OR=1.09, CI 95%: 1.03-2.09), and more marriage duration (OR=1.08, CI 95%: 1.01-2.05). The possibility of pain in back was related to educational level [guidance (OR=0.38, CI 95%: 0.15-0.95) and high school (OR=0.31, CI 95%: 0.13-0.94) compared to primary school] and heavier weight (OR=1.07, CI 95%: 1.04-2.19), and finally the possibility of pain in shoulder was related to dominant hand [right hand compared to both hand (OR=4.6, CI 95%: 1.2-17.8)].Conclusion: Present study showed that the prevalence of MSDs in Iranian housewives is high and the educational level, height, weight and having husband with governmental job are as important predictors of MSDs among housewives. However, ergonomic training and informing the housewives about the risk factors of MSDs could prevent and postponed the occurrence of these disorders.

Background and aims: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent disorder in children. Due to the importance of the disorder in children and its complications, this study aimed to assess the relation of the disorder with demographic factors in students of schools located in the Hamadan city, west of Iran.Methods: In this study, 1000 students were selected through randomized cluster sampling from Hamadan elementary schools in 2014. Data were gathered using Conners questionnaire. Conners questionnaire completed by teachers and parents. Results were analyzed using SPSS statistical software through Chi-square, Pierson correlation coefficient, and T-test.Results: The overall ADHD prevalence rate in this sample was determined to be 11.3%. For boys, this prevalence rate of ADHD was 19.4% and had significant difference with girls (P<0.01). The prevalence of ADHD in families with 1-3 children was 8.7% while it was 15.8% in families with 4 children and more. The difference was statistically significant (P=0.003). There was also higher prevalence among children of parents with lower level of education.Conclusion: ADHD is prevalent in community of Iran. Results indicated that diagnosis must be based on exact and persistent psychological symptoms. It is necessary that schools authorities in region 1 and 2 of Hamadan city take steps to find the cases and manage them.

Background and aims: Vitamins are essential constituents of our diet that Longley have been known to influence the immune system. Vitamin D3 and B9 have received particular attention in recent years as these vitamins have been shown to have an unexpected and crucial effect on the immune response.1, 25 (OH) 2D3 metabolizing enzymes and vitamin D receptor (VDR) are present in many cell types including various immune cells such as antigen-presenting-cells, T cells, B cells.Methods: In this mini review, we study 30 novel articles since 2009 to 2015 about the essential roles of vitamins in modulating a broad range of immune processes, such as lymphocyte activation, T-helper-cell differentiation and regulation of the immune response.Results: 1, 25 (OH) 2D3 has direct effect on CD4+T (T-helper) cells for suppressing various cytokines such as IFN-g, IL-17, IL-21 and IL-22, while enhancing the regulatory Tcells. In vitro studies show that Treg cells could be differentiated from naive T cells in vitamin B9-reduced condition.Conclusions: These findings provide a new link between diet and the immune system, which could maintain the immunological homeostasis and clarify the beneficial roles of vitamins in informing the design of vitamin analogs as pharmacologic agents for the generation and maintenance of a healthy immune condition.

Background and aims: Scabies is a common worldwide parasitic contagious disease caused by Sarcoptes scabiei of the order of Astigmata of the family of Sarcoptidae. Therefore, this review is to determine the exact status of scabies in Iran in order to manage it better.Methods: On the whole, out of the 120 articles and books, 56 ones were covered based on items such as study purpose, date of publication, journal’s credibility, indication of the subject in them, transmittance, way of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.Results: Due to the non-uniform geographical distribution of scabies in Iran, diagnosis and treatment of the disease is different. Studies show that scabies is on increase in Iran. Thus, scabies is a burden to the economy and the health care system. Prevalence of this disease has been rather high in Iran during war, prisons, and geographical humid areas which are variable in different provinces due to various climates.Conclusion: By regular monitoring and controlling the way the disease spreads, health of the population at risk can be maintained in order to bring health to the society that is among the main aims of every organizations and health providing institutions. This review focuses on scabies in Iran and other countries the entire world over to find ways for preventing and giving health care to control the disease.

Background and aims: Diabetes is a major killing recognized as a silent epidemic globally problem. India has the highest number of diabetes cases in the world causing huge morbidity and economic losses to the country. There were 66.8 million adults suffering from with diabetes in India in 2014, which is expected to rise by 63% to 109 million by 2035. Diabetes led to at least USD 612 billion in health expenditure worldwide in 2014 (11% of total spending on adults). Indian diabetic population is expected to reach 70 million by 2025. The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives on diabetes awareness and care in India.Method: This paper is based on secondary literature review and authors experience some studies on disease and diabetes in India.Results: There are three levels of awareness and care: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. Once, an optimum level of awareness across the three levels is achieved, it would be translated into optimum level of care.Conclusions: Diabetes is a major challenge for India’s health care system. An optimal mix of awareness levels is required at primary, secondary and tertiary levels in India for a Whole Society Approaching to Diabetes care.