Journal of Research in Health Sciences
Volume:19 Issue: 4, Fall 2019

We aimed to perform a cluster analysis on sleep quality and insomnia severity in addition to predicting the clusters based on personality traits, experiential avoidance, stress, anxiety, depression, and dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep. Study Design: A cross-sectional study.

This study was conducted on earthquake victim in Kermanshah (western Iran) in 2017. Data collection began 15 d after the earthquake and lasted for 2 weeks. First, 1002 copies of the questionnaire were distributed and, finally, analyses were performed for 778 individuals. Data analysis was conducted using cluster analysis.

Based on sleep quality and insomnia severity, four clusters were formed, and a correlation existed between some personality traits, psychological distress, experiential avoidance, and dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep with unhealthy clusters (P<0.05). The summary of the model showed the sufficient fit of the model (P<0.0005) and that it could predict 22.8%-42.4% of the variance of unhealthy clusters.

Dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep, experiential avoidance, stress, anxiety, depression, and personality traits could contribute to sleep problems and reduce sleep quality in earthquake victims.

Passive smoking prevalence is high in Bangladesh. We aimed to explore the association of the theory of planned behavior constructs to reduce the exposure of passive smoking among children in the rural area of Bangladesh. Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Overall, 410 adults had been taken at random following a self-administrative questionnaire. Data had been collected from six villages of Munshiganj district of Bangladesh from Jul to Oct 2018. Descriptive statistics were applied to describe socio-demographic characteristics. Inter correlations coefficient was done to observe the correlation, differences between demographic and dependent variables were assessed for significance using the Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test as appropriate. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between the theory of planned behavior constructs and exposure of passive smoking among both smoker and nonsmoker groups. All results were presented as unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A P-value ≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Attitude (OR 0.681, 95% CI: 0.498, 0.931) among smoker and intention (OR 0.226, 95% CI: 0.081, 0.633) was found statistically significant constructs (P<0.001) among non-smoker to reduce the exposure. Additionally, the prevalence of passive smoking exposure was found 36.6% (95% CI: 0.32%, 0.41%) on average 40% among males and 28.33% among females.

The theory of planned behavior constructs is useful to reduce the exposure of passive smoking among children, which may be useful in the future to design interventions of controlling passives smoking exposure.

First year of university is a critical life transition period with an increased probability of taking risky behaviors. We aimed to examine the transitions in risky behaviors in the first year of college in the northwestern Iran using latent transition analysis (LTA). Study design: A longitudinal study.

A random sample of 1406 freshmen enrolled in three universities in Tabriz City (the capital city of East Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran) were evaluated twice in November 2014 and 2015. A multiple-choice self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on risky behaviors and demographic characteristics of students. LTA was performed to examine the prevalence and changes in risky behaviors (cigarette and hookah smoking, illicit drug use, alcohol consumption and risky sexual behaviors) among the students.

The LTA model revealed four interpretable statuses. The prevalence data showed that 77.1%, 12.3%, 8.3% and 2.3% of students were “risk-free”, “tobacco user”, “sexual risk-taker” and “multiple risk-tacker”, respectively in the first assessment. Over the period of one year, 4.2% and 6.1% of risk-free students became tobacco user and sexual risk-takers, respectively, and 22.4% of tobacco user students, transfer to the multiple risk-taker group.

The prevalence of risk-taking behaviors increased during the freshman year. Tobacco smoking was  predispose acquiring more risky behaviors. Probability of transition to the multiple risk-taker group was higher among tobacco users.

Environmental factors are interrelated, and human comfort is a complex state that is under the influence of all these factors perceived by a person. We aimed to investigate the effects of noise on human cognitive performance and thermal perception under different air temperatures. Study design: An experimental study.

This study was conducted on 24 volunteers (12 males and 12 females) aged 18-30 yr old. All the experiments were carried out in a climate chamber located in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in 2018. The subjects were exposed to ten different conditions set by a combination of three different air temperatures (14, 18, and 22 °C), three different noise levels (55, 65 and 75 dBA), and one irrelevant speech level in the climate chamber. The n-back, CPT, and PVT tests were employed to evaluate different aspects of cognitive performance. Thermal comfort and thermal sensation were measured with subjective questionnaires.

With increasing noise under different air temperatures, working memory (P=0.001), sustained attention (P=0.001), and simple reaction time (P=0.001) were significantly disturbed. The combined effects of noise and low air temperature on working memory, sustained attention, and reaction time were higher than the effect of each of them individually. As compared with air temperature, noise has a larger effect on working memory, sustained attention, and reaction time in the test configurations.

The cognitive performance effects from noise has one veto power over these effects from low air temperature. Speech sound had more negative effects on subjects’ cognitive functions than the typical noise caused by office equipment. The subjective thermal perceptions were also influenced by noise at lower air temperatures.

Pediculosis capitis is one of the most common contagious diseases in overcrowded places, especially in schools. We aimed to determine the overall and seasonal prevalence of Pediculosis capitis (head lice infestation) among Iranian students. Study design: A repeated cross-sectional study.

The present study was conducted among all students, aged 6-18 yr, from urban areas of 31 provinces of Iran from 2014 to 2018. The student’s hair and scalp were examined by trained school health instructor. The prevalence (95% Confidence Interval) of pediculosis were estimated overall and stratified by gender. Linear and Poisson regression models were used for data analysis.

Results showed an upward trend of pediculosis from 1.7% to 3.42% during four years of study (P for trend=0.006). Overall, the prevalence of this infestation was significantly higher in girls than boys (P-value<0.05). The relative risk of head lice infestation in autumn was 2.42 times higher than spring (RR: 2.42, 95%CI: 1.35 to 4.32).

Pediculosis is still a health issue among Iranian students, especially in girls. This infestation had upward trend in recent years and was more common in southern Iran. Increasing the awareness of students regarding symptoms and complications of pediculosis and using accurate diagnosis methods can be effective in reducing the prevalence of pediculosis and its consequences.

Violence among adolescents is a global public health concern. There is limited evidence on the effectiveness of anti-bullying interventions in Iran. Weaimed to examine the effectiveness of social cognitive theory (SCT)-based intervention on reducing bullying and victimization in elementary school students. Study design: A randomized controlled trial.

Eight elementary schools (consisted of 280 students in 5th and 6th grade) from deprived and semi-deprived areas of Kermanshah (west of Iran) were randomly assigned to intervention and control group from 2018 to 2019. Anti-bullying training content appropriate for SCT and sociocultural characteristics were provided to the intervention group including students, parents, teachers and school staff. The measures included SCT constructs, bullying, victimization, and social competence of students.

At baseline participants of two groups were homogenous in terms of demographic factors except for the type of living with the parent (P=0.040) and outcome variables including SCT constructs and bullying behaviors. The interventions significantly improved SCT constructs, reduced bullying and victimization and increased social competence in the intervention group compared to the control group (P<0.001). The difference between outcome expectations in both groups was not significant (P=0.137).

Interventions based on sociocultural characteristics and focuses on SCT theory reduce bullying and victimization behavior. Given the effectiveness and feasibility of these interventions, this theory can be effective to break the bullying cycle and improve social competence.

Brucellosis is known as the major zoonotic disease. We aimed to compare the performance of some data-mining models in predicting the monthly brucellosis cases in Iran. Study design: Population-based cohort study.

Three data mining techniques including the Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS), and Random Forest (RF) besides to one classic model including Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) was used to predict the monthly incidence of brucellosis in Iran during 2011-2018. We used several criteria (root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), coefficient of determination (R2) and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for appraising the accuracy of prediction and performance of our models. All analysis was done using free statistical software of R3.4.0

Overall 118867 cases (with a mean age of 34.01±1.65 yr) of brucellosis were observed and seven-year incidence rate of brucellosis in Iran was 21.78 (95% CI: 21.66, 21.91). The majority of patients (58.84%) were male and 25-29 yr old. The first three provinces with the highest incidence rate of brucellosis included the following; Kurdistan (71.39 per 100000), Lorestan (68.09 per 100000) and Hamadan (56.24 per 100000).

Brucellosis was more common in males, 25-29 aged yr, western provinces and spring months. The disease had a decreasing trend in the last years. MARS model was more appropriate rather than data mining models. For prediction of monthly incidence rate of brucellosis.