Journal of Research in Health Sciences
Volume:20 Issue: 1, Winter 2020

Violence against women (VAW) is a major global public health problem with serious consequences. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of VAW aged 18-45 yr in a slum area in Helwan, Cairo, to assess their knowledge and perspective regarding VAW, and to assess their help-seeking practice in response to violence. Study design: Cross-sectional design.

This community based survey was carried out among 657 women in a slum area in Helwan, Cairo, Egypt in 2018. Data about the women’s knowledge about VAW, exposure to different forms of violence and their frequency, women’s perspective towards violence, and their healthcare-seeking behavior on exposure to violence were collected using an interviewing questionnaire.

The prevalence of exposure to at least one type of intimate partner violence (IPV) was 59.1% with psychological violence ranking 1st followed by physical violence. Most women exposed to IPV reported that they have never asked for healthcare upon exposure to violence. One third had good knowledge. Most had favorable perspective against VAW.

Most women suffered some kind of violence. They, however, did not seek help most of the time.

Regular cancer screening is the best way for early detection of breast cancer, but studies showed the low participation rates of screening in Iran. We aimed to determine breast cancer screening among married women and related factors in North of Iran. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

This cross-sectional study was carried out from Jan to Mar 2017 among 1472 married women in an urban population in Rasht City, North of Iran. Data were collected using a questionnaire included socio-demographic information and breast cancer screening behaviors. Descriptive statistics, chi-square and logistic regression were used for data analyzing with SPSS.

The mean age of women was 35.1 ±6.5 years. Majority of women never performed clinical breast examination (70.7%) and regular monthly breast self-examination (52.2%). Only women over 40 yr performed mammography. Mammography performance was associated with health insurance (OR=4.99; 95% CI: 1.10, 22.53) and family history (OR=1.60; 95% CI: 1.19, 2.19), clinical breast examination was associated with age of women (OR=2.87; 95% CI: 1.90, 4.32) and breast self-examination was associated with age and occupation of women [OR=1.67; 95 % CI: 1.16, 2.39, OR=1.65; 95% CI: 1.19, 2.29) respectively].

The rate of breast cancer screening was low among married women. Therefore considering the structural and cultural barriers, effective health education is essential to reduce inequality and increase the efficiency of screening programs.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has become one of the serious public health concerns among adolescents. Factors like family and social environment of adolescents may be important determinants of the NSSI. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between family psychological function and perceived social support with the NSSI experience among adolescents. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

Overall, 4216 high school students (15-18 yr old) of Tabriz City, northwestern Iran were selected using multi-stage cluster random sampling method in October and November 2017. Participants completed survey including demographic characteristics, NSSI status, Iranian family psychological function, and perceived social support. After six months, NSSI status was reassessed. The data were analyzed using logistic regression model.

8.5% of the students had NSSI experience. In addition, the weak family psychological function increased the odds of experiencing the NSSI by 13 times compared to the strong psychological function (OR = 13.15, 95% CI: 7.19, 23.80). Besides, the low level of perceived social support increased the odds of experiencing the NSSI by about 7 times compared to the high perception of social support (OR= 6.67, 95% CI: 4.01, 11.11).

Low levels of psychological functioning of the families and perception of social support significantly can increase the odds of experiencing the NSSI among adolescents. Therefore, special attention should be paid to these factors in the development of relevant preventive programs in adolescence period.

Human error is one of the major causes of accidents in the petrochemical industry. Under critical situation, human error is affected by complex factors. Managing such a situation is important to prevent losses and injury. This study aimed to develop a dynamic model of human error assessment in emergencies in the petrochemical industry. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

Fuzzy Bayesian network was used to improve the capabilities of the method for determining the control mode. Fuzzy-AHP-TOPSIS method was also used to prioritize emergency scenarios and human error assessment was applied for the most important emergency condition.

Fire in a chemical storage unit was recognized as the most important emergency condition. Common Performance Conditions (CPCs) were determined based on the opinions of a panel of 30 experts and specialists and 7 CPCs were selected for emergencies; then, based on the results of AHP method the relative weights were determined. Finally, membership functions, inputs, and outputs of fuzzy sets, CPC values in 8 emergency response tasks, and the probability of control modes were determined using Bayesian Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM) method.

This method could be applied to overcome the weaknesses of traditional methods, provide a repeatable method for human error assessment, and manage human error in an emergency.

We aimed to investigate the suicide rate led to death in the elderly population of Iran between 2008 and 2014. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

The present study was conducted on all suicide-related deaths in elderly people (≥65 yr) during the years 2008 to 2014 reported to the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization. For data collection, legal medicine standard form was used and the cases were classified by age, gender, suicide way and time (year). The incidence of death from suicide was calculated by age and sex. Statistical soft-ware stata12 was used to analyze data. The significance level has been considered to be 0.05.

Overall, 1,601 suicide-related deaths were investigated throughout the country. The mean age was 70.36 ± 0.17 years. The incidence trend (per 100,000 people) of the elderly suicides in Iran indicates that successful suicides have been on the rise, rising from 3.7 in 2008 to 4.37 per 100,000 people in 2014.

It is necessary to identify and treat suicidal important predisposing factors of suicide such as psycho-social illnesses including depression and also implement prevention programs and policies for this fast-rising population age-group.

Sexual violence (SV) against women is one of the most important issues in women's health. We aimed to investigate the related variable for SV against women with HIV spouse and its relationship with mental problems in them. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

This study was performed on 143 women referred to Hamadan and Malayer Risky Behavior Related Disease Clinic (Triangular Clinic), located in Comprehensive Health Service centers, Iran in 2019. SV and mental problems were assessed using standard questionnaires, based on interview. All analyses performed using SPSS. The significance level of all analyses was considered 0.05.

Totally, 407 HIV+ patients were diagnosed from 1998 to 2018, in Hamadan and Malayer cities. We assessed the wives of survivors who allowed about SV. Mean of SV in women with HIV positive spouse was significantly higher than control group (P=0.004). Among all variables, unsafe sex, extramarital relationship, smoking, alcohol, multi-partner and suicide were significantly related to SV; but age, living area, educational status, income and job in both men and women had not statically significant relationship with SV.

SV besides its complications and mental problems in women with HIV positive spouses must be considered in interventional programs in order to improve sexual rights in this vulnerable group in the future.

Access and the use of information and communication technology, especially mobile phones, have expanded significantly in recent years; therefore, we aimed to rank the potential applications of mobile apps in the Iranian health system. Study Design: A multi-attribute decision making design.

First, the main applications of apps and also the related attributes for prioritization were extracted from a systematic and comparative review of studies. Then, the weight of these attributes was extracted using the Shannon Entropy method. The values of attributes for each application were questioned by the 11 experts. By having the decision matrix and the weight of attributes, the applications were separately weighted and ranked using four MADM techniques. Finally, using the Copeland technique, the results of different techniques were combined, and a final ranking was achieved.

Based on the results extracted from the studies and the opinions of experts, 8 main applications, and, 14 attributes were determined and entered into the modeling phase. The most significant weight obtained was related to “the feasibility of monitoring activities” (weight=0.220), and the least was related to “the feasibility of access to apps in any location” (weight=0.017).

The apps related to the physicians' access to patients’ health information had the highest priority, and the apps related to the selection of proper health behavior patterns had the least priority.

Measles is in elimination phase in Iran. Following occurrence of two cases of measles in two children under six years old with the history of measles immunization in one of the villages affiliated to Bahar District, west of Hamadan Province, northwest of Iran, this study was conducted to determine the immunity status of people living in the village affected by the measles outbreak in spring of 2018. Study design: A cross-sectional (descriptive-analytical) study.

Overall, 272 populations of 0-40 yr old in the village affected by outbreak were enrolled. Multistage sampling was used for choosing participants. The data collection tool was a researcher-made checklist used to collect epidemiological data including demographic characteristics and vaccination status. Blood samples were taken from them and sent to the measles reference laboratory for IgG testing. The amount of optical density (OD) greater than 0.2 was considered as positive and less than 0.1 negative, respectively.

The mean age of the study population was 17.4 ±11.8 yr and the sex ratio was almost the same. Levels of antibodies against measles were positive in 63.24%, intermediate in 12.5% ​​and negative in 24.26%. There was no significant difference between the immunity status of the subjects with gender (P=0.236) and age group (P=0.113). Pearson correlation results showed that in males there was a significant positive correlation between the age of the participants and the serum IgG level (r = 0.26, P=0.003).

Measles immunity in communities is not sufficient to prevent outbreaks and small epidemics, and it is recommended that periodically, serological assessments carried out at community level and especially at high-risk groups.