JOURNAL OF MILITARY MEDICINE
Year:2016 | Volume:18 | Issue:2|Papers Count:8

Global concerns about devastating effects of possible influenza pandemic in the close future are conveniently known. Health organizations are worldwide assigning more money and force for anticipating such events. Antigenic shifts and drift in influenza virus increases the need to annual studies in domains of influenza vaccine and medication. So preventing, controlling and treatment methods are constantly provided by health organizations.Battlefields have always been challenging for healthcare workers, especially for armed forces. Veterans have to do unpredictable missions abroad during their service which increases the possibility of infection by various types of influenza virus. Influenza infection is one of the most common causes of out-patient treatment and hospitalization in armed forces. According to the high importance of health and the availability of veterans and that influenza is an altering factor for armed forces, identifying diagnosis, treatment, prevention and controlling methods is of high priority.By using different combinations of keywords such as influenza, armed forces, vaccine, treatment and control on valid scientific databases PubMed, Medline and Scopus, relevant and valid papers were retrieved. Afterwards, the influenza infection’s history in military systems was attempted to get reviewed. Also, preventing and treatment methods for this disease has been provided in health organizations

Aims: Every staff member has a period called retirement which causes many changes and developments. The current study has aimed to determine the mental health among the military retired forces based on organizational and humanistic variables.Methods: In this study which was a description-correlational research, the population included the military staff forces in all the provinces of the country. Accordingly, 5265 retired staff were selected by Quota sampling method. The Mental Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was completed by the subjects. Data were analyzed using SPSS, descriptive statistics (Mean and Deviation Standard) and correlation.Results: No differences were observed between the mean of mental disorders among the retired men and women. Results showed that demographic variables (age, education, employee status, Housing status, economic status) have direct statistical effects on mental disorders. In other words, demographic variables (age, Education, Employee status, housing status, economic status) could predict mental disorders among the retired. In general, 13 percent of mental disorder‘s variance could be explained by demographic variables.Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that the demographic variables have a significant effect on the mental disorders of the retired. Due to the importance of the retired as intellectual forces, besides from benefiting from their capabilities, it is absolutely vital to reduce the mental damages caused during retirement by having strict planning during the staffs' career and even before their career in order to reduce these damages.

Aims: Drinking water pollution with trivalent arsenic [As (III)] is one of the most important health concerns in several countries. This research investigated the electrocoagulation process (EC) performance for As (III) elimination from water.Methods: This process was performed using a monopolar arrange of Al-Steel electrodes in which the effects of reaction time (5, 10, 15 min), initial pH (5, 7, 9), current intensity (0.2, 0.4, 0.8 A) and initial concentration of As (III) (0.25, 0.5, 1, 5, 10 mg/l) were studied.Results: The results revealed that elevation of pH from 5 to 7 and 9 led to decreasing the residual concentration of As (III) from 0.195 to 0.145 and 0.115 mg/l, respectively. Increasing of current intensity from 0.2 to 0.4 and 0.8 A led to decreasing of residual concentration of As (III) from 0.148 to 0.147 and 0.044 mg/l, respectively. The optimum operation status was determined as: pH=7, current density=0.8 A and contact time 10 min, thus energy consumption was determined as 0.9423 Kwh/m3 of treated water. One-Way Analysis variance implied that initial concentration has significant effect on residual concentration of As (III) (p<0.05). So, in optimum status and initial concentrations of 0.25 and 0.5 mg/l of As (III) the process can meet the Iranian and WHO drinking water guidelines values.Conclusion: The EC process without oxidation can eliminate As (III) from water, up to the Iranian recommended guidelines.

Aims: The aim of the present study was to compare between psychological resiliency and defense mechanisms in military and non-military individuals.Methods: This research is a case-control study. The study sample is consisted of 100 members (50 military and 50 non-military) which were randomly selected by cluster sampling method. After the selection and random assignment into 2 groups, Conner-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC) and defense style questionnaire (DSQ-40) were used in one stage for 2 groups. For the analyses of the data, multivariate analysis of covariance and SPSS software were used.Results: The results showed that non-military individuals had a higher mean in four immature defense mechanisms; rationalization, devaluation, acting out and autistic fantasy than the military individuals. In the mature defense mechanisms, the military individuals had a higher mean than the non-military. In the neuroticism defense mechanisms, the difference between the two groups was statistically significant only in the pseudo-altruism. Also, the military individuals were higher in Psychological resiliency than the non-military individuals (p<0.05).Conclusion: The results showed that military individuals with more psychological resiliency generally tend to use more efficacy, mature and adaptive mechanisms for coping.

Aims: Retained bullet or shrapnel fragments are suggested as a possible cause of lead poisoning. The present study was designed to assess the problem among devotees of Iran-Iraq war (1981-1988) compared to control group.Materials and Methods: In the present case-control study, 30 devotees of Iran-Iraq war (1981-1988) were randomly selected after obtaining informed consent. They were assessed for symptoms and signs and lab finding of lead toxicity included blood lead level, CBC, BUN, creatinine, U/A for phosphate and glucose, FBS, AST, and ALT, compared to controls.Findings: 30 persons in the case group and 30 persons in the control group were assessed. The mean blood lead level was 10.73±4.73 and 10.01±5.82 microgram per deciliters in case and control group, respectively (P=0.533). The mean serum MCV, creatinine and FBS levels had statistically significant differences between the groups (P-value 0.009, 0.022, and 0.023, respectively). The other variables (hemoglobin, TG, cholesterol, and liver enzymes) had not statistically significant difference between the case and control groups.Conclusion: Results of the present study was demonstrated that individuals with retained shrapnel or bullet fragments have higher but not statistically significant level of lead in their blood compared to control. However, no clinical or lab findings of lead poisoning were found in them.

Aims: Effective leadership is a requirement in every research institute in order to create and sustain an optimized level of conflict. The aim of the present research was to study the relationship between conflict level and leadership style in the employees of a military medical research center.Methods: This study was a cross sectional study. Data was gathered by three questionnaires (demographic, fielder's least preference co-worker (LPC) and Rahim conflict inventory-I questionnaire) from 42 managers and faculties of a military medical research center in 2015. Data was analyzed with Independent T-Test, Spearman Coefficient and linear regression using SPSS version 18.Results: No significant difference was seen between conflict level and also leadership style with demographic variables including sex, age, and the duration of working years (P Value>0.05). Linear regression showed that leadership score had a negative and significant difference with intrapersonal conflict level (r=0.377 and P Value< 0.01) and also with group conflict level (r=0.459 and P Value<0.01). A Negative but not significant relationship was also observed between leadership score and intragroup conflict level (r=0.377) (P Value>0.05).Conclusion: Empowering managers for improvement in relation-oriented leadership styles has an effect on decreasing organizational conflict levels. In order to optimize conflict levels, planning to decrease Intrapersonal conflict levels and increase intergroup conflict levels is recommended.