International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health
Volume:3 Issue: 4, Autumn 2015

The present study was planned to assess the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among nurses.

This descriptive-analytical study was done on employed nurses in Birjand in 2011. At first, complete clinical examinations were done; including height, weight, waist circumference, and blood pressure in standard ways. Then, 5cc blood of each subject, after a 12 hour fasting, was taken in order to measure FBS and lipid profile. A questionnaire inquiring demographic information and history of previous cardiovascular risk factors was filled out. At the end data were analyzed by T test in SPSS software (V.15).

The mean age of the subject was 40.6±7.2 yrs. The most prevalent risk factor were dyslipidemia, overweight, and central obesity (70.4%, 40%, and 37.7% respectively). Dyslipidemia and smoking in men, and obesity in women were more prevalent.

The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors were high in nurses despite the adequate specialized knowledge about these risk factors.

There are little attention about health spending and public health outcomes especially in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. This  paper  presents  an  overview  on  health  spending  and  public health  outcomes  in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean countries during 1995-2011.

This study conducted in 2013 use of health expenditure and public health outcome of 19 WHOs Eastern Mediterranean Region countries during 17 years (1995-2011). Data were including: Per capita health expenditure in current US dollar, Life expectancy at birth, Infant Mortality Rate per 1,000 live births, Under-5 years Mortality Rate per 1,000 live births. Data collected from the latest World Bank published data until 2013. The Descriptive statistics were used to study by using Excel 2007.

In this region, the minimum spending on health (by Pakistan) was about 60 times less than maximum spending (by Qatar). Maximum amount of infant and children mortality rate were respectively 9 and 10 times more than the minimum. Also a decreasing returns to scale of health spending seen between countries. So that countries with better public health status need to pay much more than countries with poor public health status to increase 1 year life expectancy or to save 1 infant or child from premature death.

There is a large inequality among countries of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region in both health spending and public health outcomes. Due to a decreasing return to scale, allocation financial aids to countries with poor health status can help converging health status in the region and decrease inequalities.

Diabetes is a disease which occurs by lack of insulin production or its inappropriate function.  Patients with diabetes who take insulin suffer from high blood sugar and face unique challenges while travelling as their schedules for insulin dosage and blood sugar regulation change. Therefore they need to organize carefully how they have to travel, instruments they should take, the actions they must accomplish and vigilances they have to regard. Patients with diabetes have to prepare a list consisting of the type and dosage of medications they should take and tools them must carry which their doctor advice. Although there are general advices for all patients with diabetes, every single one needs specific observations according to his/her physic and health level. Patients with diabetes must gather information about the destination and draw a whole image of their trip in order to take the stress out as much as possible. Meanwhile, they should take all kinds of vaccinations according to their destination at least four weeks before travelling. Special diets and physical actions have to be considered as well and patients must match the taking of insulin with the destination time and also mind the direction of traveling (north, south, west or east).

Main thyroid disorders are hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, all kinds of swellings and tumors. Generally, thyroid disorders increase the risk of obesity, heart and vessels disease, anxiety, hair dye, sexual disability and infertility clearly. Patients with these diseases have to be aware of appropriate actions for short or long land, air and sea travels in order to prevent side effects of thyroid disorder. Patients with thyroid disorders are advised to prepare a list of needed medications with help of their physician prior the travel including the dose of the medications and how to bring them, traveling schedule and proper diet planning. Additionally, it is advised to avoid allergens such as fresheners and pathogens such as microorganisms. Taking advantage of destination’s treatment insurance during international travels or special tours for specific patients could diminish the probable costs and increase the quality of treatment services.

Iran has considerable potentials for growth of health tourism. However, they have not been properly realized towards national development.This paper has attempted to prioritize the development strategies of health tourism in Iran which has been conducted on the hospitals of Tehran.

This study is a descriptive-analytical research. It was carried out in 2013 and the sample size was determined through snowball non-probability sampling. A questionnaire was administered to 29 participants and the development strategies were formulated by SWOT.

The findings of the research showed that the weakness points of the health tourism industry override the strength points. This is while the opportunities of development are more than threats.

One may conclude that Iran’s health tourism is in a weakness opportunity (WO) situation and needs strategies which have been specially designed for such situations. Therefore, the improvement strategies (WO) have been located in priority for the development of health tourism in Iran.

In today's world, having principle and targeted management is one of the progress and development factors of any organization. Effective use of time for each manager is the most important base for managing current affairs and controlling daily activities. The present study aimed to investigate and analyze the relationship between factors affecting time management among the senior, middle and first-line managers of the hospitals in Kermanshah in 2015.
This was a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2015 in ten hospitals of Kermanshah. The study population consisted of all senior, middle and first-line managers of the studied hospitals (N=240) which were selected using census method. The required data were collected using a researcher-made pair-wise comparison questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using the DEMATEL technique through Matlab8.1.0.604 software.
The results showed that, from the studied managers’ viewpoints, the variables of goal setting and prioritization of objectives and activities were certainly affecting variables and located in the cause group. Also, the variables of planning, delegation, communication management, and meetings management were affected variables and located in the effect group. Furthermore, in the hierarchy of affecting and affected variables influencing time management, goal setting and meetings management with the coordinates (1.23, 1.23) and (1.06, -1.05) were identified as the highest and lowest priorities and were considered as the most affecting and most affected variables, respectively.
The results of the present study showed that among the studied variables influencing time management, goal setting was the highest priority and most affecting variable, and meetings management was the lowest priority and the most affected variable. It is recommended to increase the hospital managers’ knowledge about time management and the need for accurate goal setting through providing management and time management courses, and requiring them to develop a time management plan in order to improve their time management.

Finding the factors affecting patients’ tendency to a hospital, can improve the health system. The purpose of this study was to recognize the factors affecting primigravidas’ preferences to select a public hospital, in order to determine the correlation on these preferences. In this cross-sectional study, 220 primigravida women who had admitted for delivery or cesarean in the Kamali public hospital in Karaj were selected using random sampling in 2014. Data collected by semi-structured questionnaire were analyzed by using structural equation modeling method and Lisrel Software. Among the six studied indicators (services, processes, providers, cost, advertisements, and place), the most effective factor was the type of service (regression weight 0.89), and the lowest effective factor was services’ cost (regression weight 0.64). Moreover, providers and services had the most correlation and processes and services cost had the least correlation.  The clients’ requests must be considered to improve the quality and quantity of services and processes. Authorities should try to solve medical problems and provide medical facilities and welfare in hospitals in order to attract clients’ confidence.

Development of Complementary Health Insurance (CHI) benefit packages has always been one of the main challenges of Health Insurance Organizations in Iran. Records related to developing a health insurance package in Iran show that there is no specific criterion for developing such packages.  This study aimed at developing criteria for providing CHI benefit packages presented by the Medical Service Insurance Organization in Iran.

The current research is a qualitative and applied research which has been conducted in 2014. The sample size included 24 authorities in the domain of CHI, and a semi-structured interview was used for collecting data. Data analysis was based on framework method applying Atlas-Ti 5.2 software.

Nineteen main themes and 53 sub-themes and finally 20 criteria were identified for four main dimensions of the benefit package including the insured, commitments of insurance services, financial resources and Medical Service Insurance Organization special priorities.

In this study, various criteria were identified for developing CHI. It seems that applying important criteria such as equity, clinical guidelines, effectiveness, and efficiency of CHI benefit package presented by Medical Service Insurance Organization can decrease the shortcomings of the current system and using standardization can lead to targeting the service benefit package, removing its defects and improving the health of insured people.

The present study aims to compare general health and life expectancy between students with favorable and unfavorable socioeconomic status.
The statistical population in this study consists of all the students of Lamerd city in the second semester of the academic year of 2013-2014. The sample of this study consists of 200 male and female students. A hundred of them are in the favorable socioeconomic status and the other 100 are in the unfavorable socioeconomic status which were selected by multistage random sampling.
The results of the analysis of MANOVA on the mean of life expectancyand general health scores indicated that there is a significant difference between the two groups regarding the investigated variables.
In general, given the vulnerability of people who are in low socioeconomic status compared to the other segments of the society, more attention should be paid to this issue by the authorities.

Prison, as the most important place for the transmission of infectious diseases, has particular importance, and prison populations are at high risk for infectious diseases like Hepatitis B & C. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B & C among male inmates in six prisons of different provinces in Iran in 2012.

In this cross-sectional study, 2120 male prisoners from six prisons of Tehran (n=408), Kermanshah (n=400), Khorasan Razavi (n=400), Kerman (n=312), Isfahan (n=300) and Fars (n=300) were examined. Blood samples were tested for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) by ELISA.

The mean age of the prisoners was 37±13 years with a range of 25–59 years. In total, 73 (3.4%) prisoners were anti-HBc positive and 273 (12.9%) prisoners were anti-HCV positive. The lowest prevalence of Hepatitis B and C was observed in Kerman (respectively, 2.52% and 3.2%) and the highest prevalence was seen in Isfahan (respectively, 6.3% and 33.6%).

We found that the prevalence of Hepatitis B and C among prisoners is considerable. Nevertheless, prisoners routinely are not evaluated and screened for these infections. It is recommended that those who are responsible should apply some policy for reducing and preventing such transmissions in prisons.