Journal of Research and Health
Volume:7 Issue: 2, Mar-Apr 2017

Smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death in the world. And its disadvantages imposes heavy financial burden on the health system. Due to the great advances in health education, health care approach to identify factors associated with smoking cessation changed and models of health education emphasized, and most useful of them are transtheoretical model (TTM). This study examined predictors of smoking cessation among male staff in the hospitals. This study included a convenience sample of 200 current and former smokers staff employed at four hospitals. The instruments included decisional balance scale, self-efficacy scale, processes of change scale (behavioral and experiential), and stages of change which self-reportly completed. The results showed that 66.5% of participant were located in earlier stage of change, self-efficacy and processes of change and decisional balance significantly correlate with stage of change, and experiential processes of change (β=0.067), self-efficacy (β=-0.059) and behavioral processes (β=0.027) were the strongest predictor of stage of change respectively. The results revealed that increases in readiness to quit smoking were significantly predicted by mechanisms of self-efficacy and experiential process of change such as environmental reevaluation and behavioral process of change such as stimulus control and counter conditioning, which can lead to positive progress in stage of change in smokers. These results support the application of TTM for smoking cessation interventions and indicate that the procedure was very effective in improving intention to quit smoking among hospitals staff.

Hypertension is epidemic disease which post-exercise hypotension (PEH) is useful strategies for hypertension. The aim of present study was to investigate the effects of resistance exercise leading to failure (REF) and resistance exercise not to failure (NREF) on PEH phenomenon in trained men. Eight trained men (age: 22.12±1.81 yr; height: 179±3.44 cm; weight: 73.82±4.29 kg; BMI: 23.01±0.84 Kg/m2 body fat 12.91±1.15%) by using the counter-balanced crossover design and in randomized order performed REF and NREF protocols by leg press machine and one session rested as control session. participants performed REF in 5 sets with 10 repetitions and NREF in 10 sets with 5 repetitions with the same load (10RM) and one min rest intervals between sets. Blood pressure was measured before and for 60 min post-resistance exercise protocols and control test. Based on the results of provided by repeated measures analysis of variance, blood pressure did not change significantly during the control test. But a significant decrease in the systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure was observed after REF and NREF protocols when compared with the baseline values. However, duration and magnitude of PEH after REF was significantly higher in comparison of NREF protocol. The present study indicated that PEH was influenced by failure; because duration and magnitude of PEH were provided by REF was higher in comparison of NREF protocol. Therefore, REF can be more effective strategy to prevent prevalence of hypertension.

However, having a baby brings positive emotions such as happiness, sense of maturity and proud, parenting's issue could cause high level of stress and child's characteristics was a detrimental factor which can effect on parent's stress, so the aim of this research was comparison of stress of caring in mothers of children with developmental, external, and internal disorders and normal children. The study population included all mothers of children with developmental, emotional, and disruptive behavior disorders, and mothers with normal children in Hamadan (a city in Iran). 240 mothers (4 groups include 60 mothers) were chosen based on simple random sampling. Family inventory of life events and changes Mc Cubbin, Patterson & Wilson was used for assessing participants. The results showed that maternal stress in mothers with children who have diagnosis of disruptive behavior disorders were significantly more than of mothers of children with developmental disorders, emotional and mothers of normal children. The present study showed that disruptive behavior disorders in children have a greater impact on their mothers. So, we suggest approved psychological interventions for helping mothers of children with psychological problems, particularly children with external disorders.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease of the central nervous system, and is cause of motor deficits and physical disability in young adults. This study aimed to determine the effect of combined mental and physical training on the targeting accuracy of patients with MS. This study was conducted on 41 patients with MS (31 women and 10 men) aged 20-50 years, the members of the MS society. The participants were selected through purposive sampling and were randomly divided into four groups of mental training (n=10), physical training (n=11), combined (mental-physical) training (n=11), and the control group (n=9). Dart throwing test was used to evaluate the targeting accuracy of the participants. Expanded disability status scale was used to measure the degree of disability in patients and vividness of movement imagery questionnaire-2 was used to assess the movement imagery ability. Training was performed for 8 weeks (three 15-minute sessions per week). Before and after 8 weeks, the participants. were tested on dart-throwing ability. The targeting accuracy of all training groups was significantly improved compared with the control group. A significant difference was observed in the level of improvement between the combined training group and other groups, but no significant difference was observed between the mental training group and the physical training group. Compared to other methods, combined mental and physical training can be more effective in improving the dart-throwing accuracy of MS patients.

Health is regarded as one of the basic rights of each person in society; so governments are obligated to provide it equally for everyone. The best way to achieve this goal is the establishment of health insurance with the orientation of family physician and the strategic referral system. Yet, such programs will not be successful without encouraging people to participate and changing social behaviors. The aim of the present study was to investigate the administrative obstacles and problems to family physician program in urban areas of Iran. This study was a qualitative research conducted. A purposive sampling method was employed and the data were gathered via semi-structured interview with open-ended questions and document examination. All the interviews were recorded digitally and immediately transcribed verbatim. They were finally analyzed based on framework analysis. The participant's detailed descriptions showed that systemic, environmental, and human related factors were the main obstacles to the implementation of family physician plan. Since the success and performance of each program effectively cannot be obtained without people’s acceptance and collaboration, the necessity of training and giving information rapidly and timely to the residents in urban areas is felt more than ever. Also, making authorities aware of the obstacles expressed by people can be helpful in harmonizing the program with people’s requests; and can result in overcoming the challenges and obstacles facing the program.

Life quality of diabetic patients is always affected by psychosocial problems, physical disorders, and life style changes. It seems that the perceived social support could intervene in improving the life quality of these patients. The present study was carried out aiming to examine the relation between family social support and life quality of female patients with diabetes. This was a cross-sectional study. The statistical population included 173 diabetic females who were randomly selected from patients referred to Kermanshah diabetes research center. Data were collected using life quality questionnaire (Short Form-36) as well as perceived social support scale. The data analysis indicated that there is a significant correlation between family support and life quality of patients. Furthermore, concerning the components of life quality, there is a significant correlation between family social support and physical performance, physical limitation, tiredness, emotional health, social performance, pain, and general health of patients. However, no significant relation was found between family support and limitation of patients. Results showed that there is a direct relation between family support and the life quality in females with diabetes. Hence, it can be concluded that giving the family support to the female diabetic patients can increase their quality of life.

In Islamic teaching, the communication with God and remembering Him is considered a factor for mental unlocking and transcendence, which causes much psychological and health effects; religious and Islamic teachings particularly affect people's health. The present study was conducted with the aim to determine effect of Islamic-based spiritual therapy on mental health and self-esteem in addicts. This is an experimental pretest-posttest study with trial and control groups. This is an experimental pretest-posttest study with trial and control groups. Study population consisted of addicts from a methadone-therapy addiction treatment center. The sample size initially included 90 randomly selected addicts from the mentioned center, of whom 40 were chosen from those that scored the lowest in self-esteem questionnaire and highest in mental health questionnaire, and were then randomly divided into trial and control groups. The trial group received nine 2-hour sessions of spiritual therapy, but the control group received no intervention. Data were collected using the goldberg's general health questionnaire-28 and coopersmith's self-esteem inventory, and analyzed using covariance analysis. The results obtained confirmed effectiveness of spiritual therapy with emphasis on Islamic teachings in improving self-esteem and mental health of addicts.

Tension headaches and migraines are the most common types of headaches that severely decline the daily functioning of patients. It seems that drug therapy is not useful by itself for most of these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on the acceptance of pain and psychological inflexibility among women with chronic headache. It was a quasi experimental study using pretest- posttest with control group. The study population included women aged 20 to 40 who were suffering from chronic headaches and referred to a pain clinic in Tehran. In the study, 30 patients were selected and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (each group 15 members). Acceptance and Commitment therapy was implemented for eight one and a hours half sessions, once a week. Data collection tool in this study consisted of the questionnaire of pain acceptance and psychological flexibility. The results of this study showed that there was a significant difference in the variables of pain acceptance and psychological inflexibility between the experimental and control groups after the intervention .The results emphasized on the importance of this intervention in psychosomatic diseases to provide new horizons to clinical interventions.

High prevalence of iron deficiency anemia is the most common nutritional problem worldwide, which also is reported among Iranian adolescent girls. This problem results from the inadequate intake of dietary iron or low iron intake in diet. Regarding the application of health education models, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of educational program based on Information–Motivation–Behavioral skills (IMB) model in relation to preventive nutritional behaviors against iron deficiency anemia. In this study, 120 participants were selected among Iranian high school girls. The participants were equally allocated to experimental and control groups. The educational intervention was performed as a four-hour workshop designed based on the IMB model constructs for the experimental group. The data were collected using a standard questionnaire based on the IMB constructs, measuring body mass index, and determining average heme iron consumption. The data were gathered before and 3 months after the intervention. The experimental group after the intervention showed a significant increase compared to the control group in the mean scores of IMB with regard to nutritional iron deficiency anemia. In the experimental group, the average daily intake of dietary heme iron increased by 0.10±0.52 mg. Regarding the positive effect of education in promoting iron-rich diets in high school girls, workshops based on the IMB model are suggested to be held in schools aiming at preventing iron deficiency anemia.

The most important issues of psychology is psychosomatic disease. This study aimed to compare spiritual intelligence and emotional expression in patients with irritable bowel syndrome, coronary heart disease and asthma. This research was a post-event descriptive study. The statistical population included patients with coronary heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome and asthma that attended Imam Khomeini hospital, Tehran. The participants consisted of 150 participants (86 women, 64 men) with irritable bowel syndrome (n=50), coronary heart disease (n=50) and asthma (n=50). They answered King and Emmons’ emotional expressiveness questionnaire and King’s spiritual intelligence questionnaire. The results showed a significant relationship between spiritual intelligence and emotional expressiveness subscales and a low level of spiritual intelligence and emotional expressiveness in all three groups of patients. Comparing the three groups showed that spiritual intelligence and emotional expression were low in all of them and coronary heart disease was the lowest in three group of patient.

Iron deficiency anemia is one of the most common nutritional problems during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of education based on health belief model to promote preventive behaviors against iron deficiency anemia among pregnant women. The study was performed on 80 pregnant women that were randomized equally into the experimental and control groups. A self-administered questionnaire based on health belief model constructs was applied to gather data. The experimental group received two educational sessions. The mean age of women was 27.96±5.6 years and mean gestational age was 16.6±1 weeks. Before the intervention, no significant differences in terms of demographic characteristics and health belief model constructs were found between the groups, while after the intervention, the scores of health belief model were different significantly between the control and experimental groups . Since the results of the study indicated the applicability of health belief model to promote nutritional behavior in regard to anemia in pregnancy, implementing health belief model based educational sessions in health centers is suggested to reduce complications of this problem.

Compliance with preventive behaviors is essential to control hypertension among suffered patients. This study aimed to assess the effect of a designed educational program on nutrition behaviors among patients with primary hypertension referring to the hospitals in Qazvin, Iran. In this study, a number of 68 eligible patients suffering from primary hypertension was recruited from an intervention hospital (N=34) and a control hospital (N=34). Before the intervention, data on demographic characteristics and main variables including knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and behaviors of the participants were gathered through the questionnaires. Then, the intervention group was provided by the educational program. The same data were collected 4 weeks after the intervention. The mean age was 53.59±7.33 for the intervention group and 52.15±8.68 for the control group. The two groups were equal in terms of all demographic and main variables except for attitude before the intervention. The results showed all variables such as knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, and behavior were improved in the intervention group compared to the control group. In conclusion, this study verified the educational program could improve knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy as well as behaviors regarding nutrition behaviors among patients suffering from hypertension.

Obesity disrupts glucose homeostasis by metabolic disorders. Probiotics are nutritional and medicinal potential to control obesity and its related disorders. This study was aimed to investigate effects of synbiotic supplementation on weight, Body Mass Index (BMI) and blood sugar in type II diabetic patients. This clinical double-blind trial study was done on 43 (15 males and 28 females) type II diabetic patients who reffered to diabetes clinic in Sabzevar. The patients in the study were randomly divided into two groups Synbiotic and the control. The synbiotic group received 1 tablet synbiotic and placebo group received 1placebo for 8 weeks. At the beginning and end of the study, all of patient's weight and height and fasting plasma glucose levels were measured according to standard protocols. Before and after study, 24-hour dietry recall was taken and food intake and calorie consumption were calculated throughout day. Mean age and duration of disease was 54.88 ± 11.10 and 7.33 ± 5.4 years. Synbiotic supplementation leads to weight loss. BMI and blood sugar in intervention groups patients in comparison of control group. The results showed that Synbiotic supplementation reduced weight, BMI and blood glucose in type II diabetic patients and its intake can be usefull for diabetics.