Journal of Military Medicine
Year:2016 | Volume:18 | Issue:3|Papers Count:11

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PTSD is one of the consequences of exposure to war. Due to stressful events in war, veterans may face mental health problems which seriously affects the quality of their lives, families and communities. So, consequently reducing stress and improving the health and quality of the life of veterans and the society is very important. The goal of the present research was to investigate the conceptual and practical principles in designing healing gardens for veterans with PTSD by focusing on reducing stress. This research is a narrative review study based on investigating the theoretical foundations, reviewing test results and the case studies which have been conducted throughout the world. Using healing gardens for veterans, has a positive effect on their health by reducing blood pressure, heart rate, stress, depression and so on. The most effective use of healing gardens for veterans is when the design of the garden is based on stress reduction. In this context, the use of the stress-reduction theory Ulrich and Kaplan is extremely efficient.

Background and Aims: Consequences of war traumatic events are not limited to the victim but often affect significant others in the victim’s environment that named secondary trauma. The purpose of the present study was to investigate some standardization characteristics of the Secondary Trauma Questionnaire (STQ) in Iranian warfare victims’ children.Methods: Among the warfare victims’ children living in Yazd, Esfahan, Shiraz, and Ahvaz studying at Shahed and Isargar Schools, 641 subjects were selected by cluster sampling method. They afterwards answered the Secondary Trauma Questionnaire (STQ), Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS), Mississippi PTSD Scale, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Finally, the gathered data were analyzed by confirmation factor analysis, Pearson correlation, and independent samples t-test.Results: The findings revealed that the Farsi version of STQ, similar to the one approved by the developers of this scale, has a one factor structure in Iranian samples. Face and content validity of the STQ were confirmed. It can be said that the STQ has a significant convergent validity with STSS, PTSD, and DASS scales. Investigations on the discriminant validity show that the STQ was able to discriminate the group of subjects with high mental health from those with low mental health. Test-retest reliability and Cronbach alpha of the STQ were 0.78 and .88 respectively.Conclusion: Regarding the results, it can be concluded that the Farsi version of STQ has a favorable validity and reliability in a sample of Iranian warfare victims’ children and could be used to measure secondary trauma symptoms.

Background and Aim: The effect of exercise training on Thyroid hormone secretion is a controversial topic. This study aimed to investigate the effect of a period of selected aerobic training on thyroxin (T4), Triiodothyronine (T3) and cortisol hormone levels in athlete and non-athlete women after exhaustive exercise sessions was performed.Methods: In a quasi-experimental study with pre and post, among the female volunteers, 20 women whom of which qualified were randomly selected and divided into two athlete (n=10) and non-athlete (n=10) groups. Subjects of both groups did exhaustive exercise (Bruce test) before and after eight weeks of progressive aerobic training (increasing running and climbing stairs with 45 to 85% of maximum heart rate and 3 times in a week). Blood samples were collected immediately after each session of exhaustive exercise and analyzed with a specific kit of the hormone and radio-immunoassay method. In order to compare the means, the paired t-test and one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s test was performed.Results: Results indicated that following eight weeks of aerobic training in the athletes group, the T3 (P=0.01) and T4 (P=0.002) hormones’ levels in response to exhaustive activity significantly increased but these changes were not significant in non-athletes. On the other hand, the amounts of cortisol in response to this activity significantly decreased in both groups (P=0.04).Conclusion: Overall, results showed that regular aerobic exercise training can adjust cortisol response to physical stress in female athletes and non-athletes. This is while no considerable effect was seen on thyroid hormone levels T3 and T4.

Background and Aim: There are burnouts among nurses due to high exposure to multiple stressors among nurses in military environments for various reasons. Basically due to the military nature of the environment and less flexibility these nurses experience more burnouts. This study was conducted in order to evaluate the rate of burnout in military nurses.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the studied population included the nurses and assistants in all medical wards which were randomly selected from a military hospitals in Tehran in June 2015. Data collecting instruments were demographic questionnaire and Maslach Burnout Inventory. Data were analyzed by SPSS 19 software and descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency) and inferential statistics, including Pearson correlation coefficient and chi-square.Results: In this research, 400 patients were studied. The average age of the military nurses were 36.45±8.34 years and 69 percent of the participants were male. Burnout in the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization dimensions were respectively, 22% and 38% and in the personal achievement dimension was 100%. Also, a significant relationship was observed between the dimensions of burnout and some demographic information such as age, gender, work experience, employment status and marital status (P<0.001).Conclusion: The high rate of burnout in military nurses in the dimension of personal achievement in this study indicated the need for paying more attention to the factors affecting burnout, such as lack of job stability, excluding nurses in decision-making, and low welfare and supportive services.

Background and Aims: Blood transfusion is commonly used for patients in intensive care units (ICU), and physicians usually decide to order blood transfusion according to the hemoglobin (Hb) level. In this regard, various strategies for blood transfusions, including liberal and restrictive transfusion strategies, are presented on the basis of Hb level threshold. Considering the importance of blood transfusions in the ICU, the current study aimed to appraise blood transfusion practices in the ICU of Imam Hossein hospital in comparison with international strategies during 2010-2014.Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in the ICU of Imam Hussein hospital. The medical files of all patients older than 18 years admitted to the ICU during 2010-2014 were examined. Patients' demographic and clinical information and data about the blood transfusion were collected in the checklist. Finally, by using appropriate statistical analysis, the patterns of blood transfusion in the ICU were determined and compared with international strategies.Results: In this study, 654 patients were hospitalized in the ICU, of which 327 patients did not receive any blood transfusion and 327 patients received blood transfusion. Among the 327 patients who received blood transfusion, 62 patients (19%) had a hemoglobin (Hb) less than 7, and were indeed transfused by restrictive strategy. Also, 220 patients (67.2%) had Hb between 7 and 10, and 45 patients (13.8%) had Hb more than 10. Patients who received blood transfusion were hospitalized significantly for more days in the ICU and had significantly more days under mechanical ventilation (p=0.001). In this study, 58 patients had anemia, all of whom had Hb less than 7. The death rate recorded in the study showed no significant difference between groups according to Hb level (p=0.56), although a higher percentage of deaths were recorded in patients with Hb less than 7.Conclusion: In this study, 19% of the patients who received blood transfusion had Hb less than 7, and were transfused by the restrictive transfusion strategy. This is while the clinical outcomes of blood transfusion in patients with different Hb levels was not significantly different. Therefore, it seems that blood transfusion in Imam Hossein hospital is not according to the international strategy of blood transfusion. Given the importance of blood transfusions in the ICU, measurements to comply with standard strategies is necessary.

Background and Aim: Nowadays, military medicine is an authentic and scientific academic field which is widely used among professionals in military centers. It is also essential to preserve the health and effectiveness of the armed force and their families in individual and social terms. Journals of military medicine have been considered as a context to present the latest scientific research worldwide. This study has been conducted aimed to assess the descriptive of military medicine journals in Iran and the world.Methods: This cross-sectional study was implemented by cross-sectional analytical method on all military medicine journals in Iran and the world. Three authentic scientific databases of Scopus, PubMed, and Thomson Reuters and also a number of Islamic Scientific Centers (ISC) were referred in order to retrieve the scientific journals of military medicine in Iran and the world. After retrieving the titles of the journals, the main page of every journals was referred and necessary information was recorded and was eventually reported.Results: By searching the ISC, four Iranian journals of Military Medicine, Ebnesina, Teb-e-Janbaz (Iranian Journal of War and Public Health), and Police Medicine were found. These journals have been published as quarterly in Persian with English abstracts. The most authentic (Scopus index) and oldest (17 years of experience in print) of them is the Journal of Military Medicine affiliated to Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences. By evaluating the military medical journals in the world and by searching the databases including Scopus, PubMed, and Thomson Reuters, 68 Journals of military medicine were retrieved, one of which was published in Iran (Journal of Military Medicine). Among these 68 journals, the publication of 45 journals (67.2%) was stopped and 23 journals were published (32.8%). Among these journals, 23 publishing journals were related to 9 countries including USA (52.5%), UK (13%), China (8.7%), Iran (Journal of Military Medicine), India, Germany, France, Belgium, and Australia. As observed, 91% of military medical journals are now being published in English. The Military Medicine journal of USA was known as the most authentic (IF: 0.9), and the oldest (124 years of publication history) journal in the field of military medicine. The newest journal was related to UK with the title of “Disaster and Military Medicine” which has been initiated to publication from 2015 and is now indexed in PubMed.Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, it can be stated that today presenting researches of military medicine is extremely important in a few countries (9 countries), especially in USA. On the other hand, considering that the Journal of Military Medicine (Iran) is indexed in Scopus along with 23 other journals, it indicates the appropriate status of military medicine in Iran.