Epidemiology and Health System Journal
Volume:6 Issue: 4, Autumn 2019

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) whichinvolves the rectum and colonic mucosa, and is often constantly expanding. Few data are available onrisk factors in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigatethe association between potential risk factors and UC in Shahrekord. A case-control study was conducted on patients diagnosed with UC. Overall, 27 new casesof UC and 54 healthy controls in the age range of 20–80 years were studied. Participants were recruitedfrom Pathologic Centers in Shahrekord in 2018. Chi-square test and t test and were used. Logisticregression model was employed to analyze the association between risk factors and UC disease. The mean age at diagnosis was 41.74 years (SD: 7.16 years) and 44.94 years (SD: 6.67years) for case and control subjects, respectively. Moreover, univariate and multiple odds ratio (OR)showed that there was no significant association between UC and any of the risk factors includinggender, marital status, education, diastolic blood pressure, history of diabetes, history of hypertension,permanent use of piped water, night shift work, history of thyroid diseases, depression, history of fattyliver disease, history of kidney stones, and sleep time and wake-up time in the morning. Generally, no significant association was observed between UC and the variables in thepresent study. Thus, further studies with larger sample size are necessary to better understand the otherrisk factors and environmental determinants of UC.

Entamoeba histolytica is an intestinal parasite and a causative agent ofamoebiasis which is a common life-threatening parasitic disease. This study was intended to determinethe prevalence of E. histolytica and to provide the primary data about its infections among the patientsattending Nyanza District Hospital in Rwanda. Bottles were used to collect 138 stool specimens from patients. All the samples were physicallyanalyzed based on their colors, states, and the presence of blood or mucus. The wet preparationmethod and zinc sulphate floatation technique were used to concentrate the parasites. Microscopicanalysis was done to examine the presence of cysts and trophozoites. Data were statistically analyzedby SPSS using chi-square test and independent t test. The prevalence of E. histolytica was 15.94%. The sex distribution of infections revealed thatmales (21.54%) were more infected than females (10.95%). The highest prevalence of E. histolyticawas found in the age group of 1-19 years old (27.11%) and the lowest prevalence was observed in theage group of 20-39 years old (6.89%). A prevalence of 33.33% was reported among the people whodirectly drink tap water and 40% of infections among the patients who did not wash their hands beforeeating and after using latrines. Overall, E. histolytica is still considered as a health burden in Nyanza District Hospital.Therefore, it is vital to control direct exposure to its risk factors for mitigating the occurrence ofamoebiasis.

Color blindness is a disease that remains undiagnosed in some cases. Thediagnosis of the disease during schooling is necessary to take the required measures for the future lifeof adolescents. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of color blindnessamong the students of secondary schools in Shahrekord. In this descriptive study, 4074 students of secondary schools across Shahrekord wereincluded by the cluster sampling method. Ishihara color blindness test plate was used to diagnosecolor blindness. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and percentage) by SPSS 18. In general, 362 (88.8%) patients had color blindness. Out of 2052 male students and 2022female ones, 343 (16.71%) and 19 (0.93%) cases were diagnosed with color blindness, respectively. Inboth genders, most students had deuteranopia or deuteranomalia, while other types of color blindness,including tritanomaly, were not detected in the students. The results of this study showed that the number of color blind people in the studied regionwas higher compared to the results of studies in the other regions of Iran. Moreover, the prevalence ofcolor blindness was more in males compared to females. In addition, the prevalence of other kinds ofcolor blindness mainly belonged to deuteranopia or deuteranomalia.

Having a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may havean impact on the quality of life of his/her parents, particularly his/her mother. However, very limitedstudies have addressed this issue in Iran and the world. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examinethe quality of life in the mothers of children with ADHD and its effective factors. The present descriptive-analytic study was carried out in Tehran from April to September2016. A total of 110 mothers of ADHD children were enrolled in the study through a conveniencesampling method, who referred to psychiatric centers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Aninformed consent form was obtained from all the participants as well. In addition, a researcher-madechecklist for demographic characteristics and the 36-item Short Form of Health Survey Questionnaire(SF-36) were utilized for data collection. The collected data were then entered into SPSS 16 statisticalsoftware. Finally, descriptive tests (mean and median) and statistical tests including Pearson correlationtest, independent t test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. The mean age of participated mothers was 39.5 years and most children were males (76.4%).The mean overall score of the quality of life was 60.6 ± 20.4. Among the eight dimensions of thequestionnaire, participants achieved the lowest score regarding the dimension of “the role limitationsdue to emotional problems” with the mean score of 52.43, while the highest score was observed interms of “the physical function” dimension with the mean score of 77.30. No significant relationshipwas observed between any of the demographic characteristics and the mean overall score of thequality of life (P > 0.05). In the present study, the quality of life of the mothers was not significantly differentfrom the quality of life of normal mothers. However, the healthcare team should pay more attentionregarding some dimensions of the quality of life. Eventually, similar studies are recommended to beconducted due to the lack of sufficient evidence regarding this issue among the mothers of ADHDchildren.

Obesity and hypertension are the major threats to health in a sedentary lifestyleand stressful jobs. The bank employees have sedentary jobs with high mental stress. The aim of thisstudy was to determine the prevalence of hypertension and obesity and related factors among bankemployees in Zahedan, located in Sistan and Baluchistan province, Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 350 employees aged 23 to 57 years were randomly selectedout of 15 bank branches from December 2016 to February 2017. An information form includingdemographic data (i.e., age, education levels, experience years in the banking profession, andphysical activity) was completed for each participant. Body mass index (BMI) was assessed for thedetermination of general obesity. In addition, waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio(WHtR) were measured for the evaluation of abdominal obesity. Two recordings of blood pressure(BP) were obtained in a sitting position. Finally, a multivariate logistic regression analysis was used toexamine the independent predictors of hypertension. The prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension were 33.1% and 61.1%, respectively.Further, the rates of overweight and obesity were 49.1% and 10.3%, respectively. Furthermore, elevatedWC and high WHtR were 20.9% and 59.4%, respectively. Based on the results, the prevalence ofobesity and hypertension increased significantly by aging. In general, the results of the study showed that the prevalence of overweight andhypertension among bank employees was high compared to the general population. Thus, periodicscreening is recommended for an early determination of hypertension.

The elderly living in nursing homes have different motor situations comparedwith their peers, which can affect different motor functions. Investigating the characteristics of balancehas always been of interest to researchers due to its importance in the functional independence ofthe elderly. Thus, the present research aimed to investigate the effect of cognitive and sensorimotorexercises on the functional balance of the elderly. This quasi-experimental study was performed with the intragroup comparison design, aswell as pre- and post-test measurement stages in Iran during 2017. A total of 60 elders were chosenthrough the convenience sampling method. Accordingly, the subjects were matched in four groupsafter performing the pretest with demographic, physical activity readiness, and Mini-Mental StateExamination questionnaires and Tinetti test. Each group performed eight exercise situations lastingfor 5-10 seconds by taking the overload principle into account throughout 24 sessions. The statisticalpopulation of this research consisted of the elderly living in nursing homes under the supervision ofthe Welfare Organization of Shiraz, including 875 individuals. In general, 60 subjects were chosenthrough a voluntary method (age: 61.7 ± 7.6 years old, weight: 65.2 ± 16.2 kg, and height: 157.7 ±6.7 cm). During the data collection, 14 subjects left the study for different reasons. The balancecharacteristics were measured by the Tinetti test. Finally, statistical analysis was performed throughthe difference of the scores of measurement stages and by one-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests. The comparison of cognitive, sensorimotor, and combined groups with the control groupregarding the dependent variables of the research indicated that cognitive exercises have no significanteffect on balance (P = 0.103), while the sensorimotor (P = 0.002) and combined (P = 0.002) exerciseswere effective on balance. In general, the significance of the balance following sensorimotor and combined exercisescompared to the insignificance of cognitive exercises can highlight the importance of sensorimotorexercises in the balance of the elderly living in nursing homes.

Toxocariasis caused by the larvae of Toxocara spp. is a zoonotic infectionwith global distribution that is considered an important health problem in the humans. The soil isregarded as the main source of the transmission of Toxocara infection to susceptible hosts. This studyinvestigated the existence of Toxocara spp. ova in rural and urban public areas of Chaharmahal andBakhtiari province. A total of 180 soil samples were randomly collected from 74 public places from urban andrural areas of nine counties of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province during May to September, 2017.The samples were examined for Toxocara spp. eggs by the modified sucrose flotation method. The contamination rate of the soil samples with Toxocara spp. ova varied within 0%-18.1% indifferent counties. Overall, 9 (5%) out of 180 examined soil samples were found positive for Toxocaraspp. ova. Of nine investigated districts, Toxocara spp. ova were observed in four counties and thehighest rate of soil contamination was found in Farsan county with 18.1%. Finally, the prevalence ofToxocara spp. eggs was more in the rural areas (6.7%) compared to the urban ones (3.3%). This study was the first investigation regarding the contamination of Toxocara spp. eggs inthe soil of public places in rural and urban areas of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. Accordingto the results, the rate of soil contamination in this region was lower compared with the other parts ofIran. Therefore, a further study is required to determine factors that may be involved in the distributionof Toxocara spp. in different areas of this province.

The purpose of this study was to revalidate the Persian version of the WHOquality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) instrument to determine the quality of life status in the ShahrekordCohort Study (SCS) in the southwest of Iran. This study was designed to serve as one of the sources ofthe Prospective Epidemiological Research Studies in Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 2000 people were randomly selected from thestudy population of the SCS. The reliability and internal consistency of the WHOQOL-BREF weremeasured using Cronbach alpha coefficient and Pearson’s correlation. construct validity and factorsmeasured using Pearson’s correlation matrices with each of its domains. To measure the face, content,and construct validities, the views of the panel of experts and exploratory factor analysis were used. Inaddition, the validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using linear regression. All domains of the questionnaire met the minimum reliability standards (Cronbach alphaand intra-class correlation >0.7), except for social relationships. The results of comparison analysisindicated that the questionnaire discriminated well between subgroups of the study samples differingin their health status. Regarding validity, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was 0.94 and the valueof Bartlett’s test was 1699.01 (P≤0.001). The findings suggested that WHOQOL-BREF is a reliable and valid measure of healthrelatedquality of life among SCS population.