Journal of Occupational Health and Epidemiology
Volume:7 Issue: 4, Autumn 2018

Dear Editor,
Death indicators and causes of death are both closely associated with socio-cultural, economic, and structural factors and determinants of health, with all of which being at the core of the planning, monitoring, and assessment of intervention programs in any healthcare system (1). In Iran, the diagnosis and official registration of deaths are carried out by two independent organizations. These two organizations are medical universities, which are under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME), and the Forensic Medicine Organization (FMO), which is under the supervision of the Judiciary. The death registration system (DRS) managed by the MoHME suffers from several shortcomings, including inconsistency in DRS administration, the duplicate recording and misclassification of deaths, geographical misalignment, the incompleteness of records, and missing values (2). Given the shortcomings mentioned, the inaccuracy and duplication of the official statistics of the mortality rate throughout the country are probable on the part of different official sources.
In this review, an outline of some of the cases with considerable differences between the mortality statistics registered by the MoHME and by the FMO has been presented. Because of the importance of death events and the respective consequences, the legislator has assigned tasks, such as the issuance of death certificates and the determining of the causes of some deaths, to the FMO, under the following conditions: For all cases mentioned in Table 1, a death certificate will be issued by a forensic physician.
For the cases of death that occur less than 24 hours after the admission of the patient to the hospital, the forensic physician issues a death certificate.
For the cases of death occurring more than 24 hours after the admission of the patient to the hospital, the hospital physician issues a death certificate after consulting with the forensic physician.
The Cemetery Organization shall only accept the certificates issued, signed, and sealed by hospital physicians or forensic physicians and shall refrain from accepting other certificates. Regarding the deaths occurring outside hospitals and health centers, especially in remote rural areas, verbal autopsy questionnaires are used in order to improve the quality of information about the causes of deaths, being performed by physicians (1, 3). In such cases, hospital physicians are not authorized to issue death certificates, since it can lead to incompatibility between the two official datasets. The possible solution to the problem could be establishing an effective and accurate relationship between the MoHME’s dataset and that of the FMO. In fact, based on the instructions of the Judicial System of Iran, the causes of deaths must be written in Persian on the death certificate issued by the forensic physicians; codes or English words not allowed to be written. In other words, the causes of deaths cannot be written in abbreviated forms by forensic physicians (4). To improve this relationship, closer cooperation between provincial health administrations and provincial forensic medicine centers is required so as to update and correct death statistics to address the underestimations of the mortality data. In addition, there is a need for organizing a technical team from the two above-mentioned organizations to check the statements related to the causes of deaths on death certificates against the ICD-10 codes for higher accuracy. Another possible solution could be the use of the FMO’s data in cases where the researcher intends to study the deaths whose certificates are issued by the FMO. This solution prevents the underestimation of the cases of deaths, however, researchers’ authority is limited in this case in terms of the variety of deaths. However, death registration by the FMO’s dataset does not provide full coverage of the deaths throughout the country (1)

  Obesity leads to a wide range of problems. Hence, this research was conducted to compare the trait-state anxiety as well as positive and negative affect in obese and normal women. This descriptive study was performed in eight sports clubs within the time period of 2017 to 2018 in Ahvaz. To do this, a sample of 200 women, who referred to sports clubs was selected by the convenience sampling method. The tools included the positive and negative affect scale and the Spielberg’s state-trait anxiety inventory. The data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 23), the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), and the Pearson's correlation coefficient. According to the results, the multivariate analysis of variance at the level of P<0.001 showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the obese and normal women. The difference was in terms of trait anxiety (normal, 39.27±9.23; obese, 46.73±8.73), state anxiety (normal, 38.20±8.62; obese, 47.07±8.01), positive affect (normal, 42.15±6.12; obese, 38.40±7.69), and negative affect (normal, 23.35±5.98; obese, 30.12±7.04). In this study, the data analysis showed that negative affect and positive affect were different in the two groups. Moreover, the obese women had a higher negative attitude than the normal women. In addition, the results demonstrated that trait-state anxiety was different in obese and normal individuals. Our results indicate that obese people are more anxious than normal people.

  Suicide attempts, being considered from among psychiatric emergencies, are under the category of social and health problems that affect the individual, the family, and even the community. This study was conducted to determine the characteristics of people who attempted suicide referred to the emergency ward of Ali Ibn Abi Taleb hospital in the city of Rafsanjan, Iran in 2016. This descriptive study was conducted using a census on 347 individuals who had attempted to suicide and were referred to the emergency ward of Ali Ibn Abi Taleb hospital in the city of Rafsanjan, in 2016. Data collection was conducted on a monthly basis using the checklist of the suicide prevention plan provided to the emergency wards by the health department. The data were analyzed using SPSS and Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were applied. 347 cases of suicide attempts were occurred, with three cases (0.9%) leading to death. The mean age of the individuals who attempted suicide was 26.15 years, with the standard deviation of 8.81 years. Among those individuals, 268 individuals (77.2%) had attempted suicide only once, 54 individuals (13%) twice. About 190 individuals (54.8%) were women, and 138 individuals (73.4%) carried out suicide using drugs. It can be concluded that considering the easy access of the people to drugs, the most prevalent method of suicide was using drugs. Besides, having the highest percentage of suicide, women are leading in suicide attempts.

  After all efforts made to introduce a valid and reliable tool for measuring the health of patients, such as MS sufferers, the concept of “participation and autonomy”, which might be affected by the disease, has been introduced. An efficient health measurement should consider all different aspects of a patient’s life. This research was conducted aimed at introducing a new aspect of the individual’s life that seems necessary to be added to the health measurement scale of Persian-speaking MS patients. In a comprehensive study, 10 specialists and 360 MS patients were recruited to help measure the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the impact on participation and autonomy (IPA) scale. More details are provided in the published paper. An important section of the findings derived from the data collected from experts and patients has been presented in this paper. Further to the previous reports, the results showed that about 70% of the experts and 80% of the patients who responded to the relevant items stated that some questions should be added to the scale about the patients’ ability to do their religious affairs. Based on what the experts (specialists) and respondents (MS patients) stated, it seems that at least a religious domain must be added to the Persian version of the IPA (IPA-p) scale if a more comprehensive IPA scale is required to be developed for the use among Persian-speaking patients.

  Cigarette smoking is considered a public health problem. Much research has been conducted on smoking and respective factors, but little research has addressed the prediction of the smoking rate based on various psychological variables. The present study was conducted aimed at predicting the smoking rate in the non-clinical population of Shiraz, Iran, in 2016, based on resilience and cognitive emotion regulation. In the present descriptive study, 250 female and male smokers of the non-clinical population of Shiraz, Iran, in 2016, were selected through random sampling. The research instruments included a demographic scale and smoking patterns, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Scale. The obtained data were analyzed by the Pearson correlation and linear regression, using SPSS (Version 20(. The results showed a negative correlation between the subscales of resilience and cognitive emotion regulation, age, and education with the cigarette smoking rate (P<0.01). In addition, the values of R and R2 were 0.39 and 0.15, respectively. The daily smoking rates can be predictable with resiliency, cognitive-emotional regulation sub-scales, age, and education variables (0/015). Some psychological variables, such as resilience and cognitive emotion regulation probably affect the tendency to cigarette smoking, so considering these variables could be efficient in the interventions for preventing and stopping cigarette smoking.

Job back pain is of the most common occupational injuries in the world that affects people's physical and mental health. The purpose of this study was to assess back compressive force (BCF) in manual handling tasks among workers of a chemical manufacturing company using the UTAH method. This descriptive study was carried out on a group of 35 workers doing manual handling tasks in a chemical factory that were selected through simple random sampling in April and May 2018. The data collected by UTAH method and Cornell questionnaire, were analyzed in SPSS 19. Descriptive and inferential statistics methods including analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied. The average BCF value calculated using the UTAH method showed that the load pressure on back for the jobs of repair unit (400 kg), discharge and loading unit (460 kg), and warehouse unit (370 kg) exceeded the standard limits. Moreover, the results of the Cornell questionnaire indicated that 68 percent (N = 24) of the workers in the mentioned occupations were suffering from lower back pain. The findings of this study showed that the UTAH method is useful for estimating the BCF in manual handling tasks. Interventions should be conducted and measures should be taken to reduce these disorders.

  Due to its professional nature, nursing is a very difficult, stressful, and phobia-orienting occupation. Social phobia, after depression, is the most important mental problem in today's world, and it affects the quality of life of nurses. The present study was conducted to determine the mediator role of social phobia in the association between resiliency and job performance among nurses of Ali Ibn Abi Taleb hospital of Rafsanjan in 2017. The present study is a descriptive and an applied study. According to Cochran formula, 174 nurses were selected by random sampling method; three standardized questionnaires (resiliency, job performance and social phobia), all of which had acceptable validity and reliability, were used to collect required data. Structural equation modeling of minimum squares method, Smart PLS and SPSS (version 20) were used to analyze the data. Results showed that resilience had a significant effect on job performance (p <0.05), however, the effect of social phobia on job performance was not significant. Therefore, social phobia does not mediate the association between resilience and job performance. Resilience could lead to a significant decrease in social phobia; on the other hand, it increases job performance. Therefore, it seems that strengthening different psychological aspects in nurses, such as flexibility and controlling social

  With the spread of nanotechnology, various nanoparticles with new and emerging properties have been produced and the potential toxic effects of the majority of these particles remains still unknown. The present study was conducted to determine the toxicity of Molybdenum Trioxide nanoparticles in blood and body tissues of male Wistar rats. Thirty Wistar rats with an average weight of 200±10 g were included in the present experimental study; the rats were divided into three groups of control, low dose intervention and high dose intervention. Nano-trioxide molybdenum was injected at 5 and 10 mg/kg body weight for 28 days; then, blood samples and rats organs were collected to measure the molybdenum content. Molybdenum concentration was measured by atomic absorption method. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 20) and appropriate statistical methods including one-way ANOVA were used in order to compare the mean of blood variables among the groups. The results showed that decreasing hematocrit (p <0.001), hemoglobin (p <0.001), and red and white blood cells (p <0.01) in rates receiving 10 mg of Molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles was significantly higher than that among rates in the other two groups. The mean degradation of molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles in the liver and kidneys was significantly higher than the heart and stomach (p <0.05). The results of the study showed that molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles at high concentrations had a more toxic effect on blood and serum parameters in comparison with the low concentrations.

  Occupational health is a sensitive field in many countries where occupational exposure needs attention due to the lack of awareness. Several businesses, including leather, textile, iron, steel, and dyeing industries use a variety of mutagenic and genotoxic chemicals. Exposure to these chemicals may pose serious health risks, including genetic damage to workers. Comet assay is a technique that has been extensively used in assessing DNA damage in such workers. The literature search was done using PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Some studies were found reporting the use of comet assay as a sensitive and useful technique in assessing genetic damage in occupationally exposed workers. These studies have been presented in this paper to emphasize the importance and propriety of comet assay in assessing the genetic impact of hazardous exposures. Having gone through the available reports, the author of this paper found comet assay as a useful biotechnological technique in the field of occupational biomonitoring. This technique is a sensitive and cheap method for assessing genotoxicity. Comet assay can be used as a reliable technique to quantify the impact of genotoxicants in the form of DNA damage at a single-cell level. This assay can be considered as a sensitive parameter whenever health assessment studies are to be designed.