Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume:7 Issue: 5, Oct 2017

Previous studies showed that family caregivers of hemodialysis patients have low level of quality of life. However, these caregivers are mostly neglected, and no studies are available on improving their quality of lives. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of supportive educative program on the quality of life in family caregivers of hemodialysis patients.

A randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 76 family caregivers of hemodialysis patients referred to Shahid Hasheminejad Hemodialysis Center in Tehran, Iran in 2015. The subjects were equally allocated into two groups of 38. Caregivers of patients were randomly assigned into the intervention group and the control group. The intervention group received six training sessions on supportive educative program. Both groups answered demographic information and short form‑36 questionnaires before and 6 weeks after the intervention. Descriptive statistics, Chi‑square and Fisher exact tests, independent samples t‑test, and t‑couple, was used to analyze the data.

No significant difference was found between the baseline mean scores of “quality of life” of the intervention and the control groups (P = 0.775). However, the mean scores of quality of life of the intervention group increased at the end of the study, and the two groups were significantly different in this regard (P < 0.001).

Supportive educative program improved the quality of life in caregivers of hemodialysis patients. Therefore, it is suggested that health system managers encourage their staff to implement such programs for improving the health status of the caregivers.

Cancer and its treatments have been shown to have a negative psychological effect on many cancer patients. One of these effects is often described as body image disturbance. Due to the limited number of studies in this area, this study was performed to assess body image in cancer patients and its association with clinical variables.

This was a descriptive and correlational research that was designed in Sayyed‑Al‑Shohda Hospital affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2013. Two hundred and ten adult patients who had been suffering from cancer were selected and completed the personal/demographic/illness questionnaire and the multi‑dimensional body‑self relations questionnaire that contained 64‑items with appearance orientation, appearance evaluation, fitness evaluation, fitness orientation, health evaluation, health orientation, illness orientation, body areas satisfaction, self‑classified weight and overweight preoccupation sub‑scales. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Pearson correlation with a significance level of P < 0.05.

The mean (standard deviation (scores of body image in cancer patients was 184.40 (43.68) indicating that 58.3% of them had negative body image. In addition, most of patients had negative health evaluation (60.2%), negative appearance evaluation (63%), negative illness orientation (61%), and negative fitness orientation (56%). Furthermore, there were no significant correlations between type of cancer (P = 0.5, f = 0.3), kind of treatment (P = 0.8, f = 5.2) and duration of illness with body image (P = 0.6, r = −0.2).

In this study most of the cancer patients had body image disturbances. Also, body image in this group wasn’t associated with the type of cancer, kind of treatment and duration of illness. Totally, these results underscore the importance of assessing and treating body image disturbance in cancer patients.

Maintaining and improving the health situation of children requires them to become more aware about personal hygiene through proper education. Based on several studies, teachings provided through informal methods are fully understandable for children. Therefore, the goal of this study is to compare the effects of creative drama and storytelling education methods on increasing the awareness of children regarding personal hygiene.

This is an applied study conducted using semiempirical method in two groups. The study population consisted of 85 children participating in 4th center for Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Isfahan, 40 of which were randomly selected and placed in storytelling and creative drama groups with 20 members each. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire created by the researchers whose content validity was confirmed by health education experts. The gathered information were analyzed using both descriptive (average and standard deviation) and analytical (independent t‑test and paired t‑test) statistical methods.

The findings showed that there was a meaningful difference between the awareness score of both groups before and after intervention. The average awareness score of storytelling group was increased from 50.69 to 86.83 while the average score of creative drama group was increased from 57.37 to 85.09. Furthermore, according to paired t‑test results, there was no significant difference between average scores of storytelling and creative drama groups.

The results of the current study showed that although both storytelling and creative drama methods are effective in increasing the awareness of children regarding personal hygiene, there is no significant difference between the two methods.

This study was aimed at developing and studying the scale of self‑efficacy in adherence to treatment in Iranian patients with hypertension.

A mix‑method study was conducted on the two stages: in the first phase, a qualitative study was done using content analysis through deep and semi‑structured interviews. After data analysis, the draft of tool was prepared. Items in the draft were selected based on the extracted concepts. In the second phase, validity and reliability of the instrument were implemented using a quantitative study. The prepared instrument in the first phase was studied among 612 participants. To test the construct validity and internal consistency, exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha were used, respectively. To study the validity of the final scale, the average score of self‑efficacy in patients with controlled hypertension were compared with patients with uncontrolled hypertension.

In overall, 16 patients were interviewed. Twenty‑six items were developed to assess different concepts of self‑efficacy. Concept‑related items were extracted from interviews to study the face validity of the tool from patient’s point of view. Four items were deleted because scored 0.79 in content validity. The mean of questionnaire content validity was 0.85. Items were collected in two factors with an eigenvalue >1. Four items were deleted with load factor <0.4. Reliability was 0.84 for the entire instrument.

Self‑efficacy scale in patients with hypertension is a valid and reliable instrument that can effectively evaluate the self‑efficacy in medication adherence in the management of hypertension.

Teaching of clinical pathology to medical students has been ignored in many countries such as Iran. We aim to introduce a practical brief course and its proper timing.

Three groups of medical students from consecutive years of entrance passed a 1.5 working day practical course on the field. Their level of knowledge was assessed by pre‑ and post‑tests. Their idea and satisfaction were gathered by questionnaires.

Knowledge of students became significantly higher after the course. Their satisfaction was high. Students in later year of education got significantly higher marks. Most of the students wished such a course should be away from basic sciences period and as near as possible to internship.

Due to overloaded curriculum of general medicine in Iran, we decided to run a brief practical course of laboratory medicine education for medical students. Although the course was practical, the knowledge of students became higher. Students with more clinical experience and knowledge absorbed more. Being actively involved in the classes lit the enthusiasm of students and made them satisfied with the course. It seemed that the course should be placed in later years of clinical training to get the best uptake and results.

Breast periodic pain is the most common disorder of the breast which leads to consultation with knowledgeable people like a midwife. The aim of this study was to compare the therapeutic effect of flaxseed, evening primrose oil, and Vitamin E on the duration of the period of breast pain.

This study is a quasi‑randomized clinical trial conducted in 2015 on ninety patients complaining of breast periodic pain referring to Gynecologic Clinics of Ghaem Hospital or residents living in dormitories of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Randomization was conducted based on the study environment. The first group received 30 g of powdered flaxseed, the second group received two 1000 mg capsules of evening primrose, and the third group received 1 capsule of 400 IU Vitamin E, daily and for two menstrual cycles. Cyclical breast pain was measured at the beginning and end of both intervention periods by daily subscription form of pain duration. Data analysis was performed by SPSS 16 software and Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Chi‑square, Friedman, Fisher’s, and one‑sided ANOVA tests. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05.

The mean duration of breast pain in flaxseed group within 2 months of intervention decreased significantly (confidence interval [CI] =95%, P = 0.006), but despite reducing the duration of pain in evening primrose oil group (CI = 95%, P = 0.058) and Vitamin E (CI = 95%, P = 0.306), this reduction was not significant. In overall, the average duration of breast pain in all three flaxseed, evening primrose oil, and Vitamin E groups was not significantly different before the intervention (CI = 95%, P = 0.286), 1 month after the intervention (CI = 95%, P = 0.195), and 2 months after the intervention (CI = 95%, P = 0.667).

The use of flaxseed, evening primrose oil, or Vitamin E may reduce breast pain, and this is a significant reduction in flaxseed.

Adolescence is a period of life that is a bridge between childhood and adulthood. India has the world’s largest adolescent girl’s population, and adolescent girls are an important vulnerable group of population. Perceived health is a predictor of morbidity and mortality in adults and has been an important marker of the health status in population health studies for decades. The aim of the study was to describe adolescent’s perception of health and association between some factors such as nutrition status, socioeconomic status (SES), and health status. As their perception of health discomfort affects their health behavior and self‑care, therefore, their health status is an important matter to discuss.

A cross‑sectional study was conducted in urban areas from a major city in South India. Six hundred and fifty adolescent female students aged 10–19 years formed the study population. Standardized self‑reporting questionnaires were used to obtain relevant data regarding demographic features, SES, and health status. BMI calculated for each individual. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.

About 83.3% of participants ranked their health status as good to excellent. A majority of the girls had one or more problems related to their menstrual cycles. The most common occurring problem was headache (45.3%). 47.8% of participants exhibited symptoms of mild insomnia. Strong significant association between nutritional status and SES was found. Higher percentage of undernourished adolescents belonged to low SES.

Adolescents are expected to enjoy good health, but this does not seem to be the case in the developing countries like India, where poverty, malnutrition, and repeated infection are rampant. Majority of the problems such as healthy nutrition and self‑care can be solved by community‑based programs, health education, and food fortification.

Test anxiety is one of the most disabling disorders and annual school academic performance will affect millions of students. Hence, it needs attention and treatment. Therefore, this research aimed to examine the effectiveness of a mindfulness‑based stress reduction (MBSR) therapy on emotion regulation and test anxiety of students and test the remaining effect of this treatment after 3 month.

Sample size of fifty participants randomly divided into experimental (MBSR) and control groups. The MBSR training interventions were implemented to the experimental group, in eight weekly sessions using MBSR manual by John Kabat‑Zinn (2013). Participants in both groups were evaluated using the Test Anxiety Scale and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The study findings were analyzed using analysis of variance with repeated measures.

The result shows that the MBSR program has had continuous significant effects on test anxiety (P < 000) and emotion regulation (P < 000) but was not significant only for the self‑blame subscale (P = 0.126).

The study results indicated that the effects of MBSR lasted through the follow‑up, for both of these variables. Using the results of this study may be proposed school counselors use mindfulness to reduce the anxiety of their pupils.may be proposed school counselors use mindfulness to reduce the anxiety of their pupils.

Preconception care is a set of interventions that aim to identify and repair the factors that can affect the outcome of pregnancy. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of receiving preconception care, its relation with recipients’ individuality, fertility, and determining the reason for lack of checkup.

This was a descriptive cross‑sectional study that was conducted based on simple stratified random quota sampling on 702 women who gave birth in hospitals of Isfahan (Iran) from April to June in 2016. The tool of collecting data was researcher‑made questionnaire. The data were analyzed by the SPSS software version 18 using the mean, standard deviation, relativity, and independent Chi‑square tests.

The results showed that 47.7% of participants had received preconception care. There was a significant relationship between educational levels, income, wanted pregnancy, number of pregnancies, and previous individual delivery with preconception care (P < 0/05). The main reason for the lack of preconception care was unplanned pregnancy.

Results of this study indicated that the quantity of preconception care is not desirable. Therefore, notifying and sensitizing women of childbearing age is essential to refer to service centers and receiving preconception care and planning to present it to all eligible women before pregnancy care. The main causes of the lack of preconception care can be adjusted through health programs.

Hospital care transformation plan (HCTP) was implemented, in 2014, with the aim of ensuring all Iranians have fair access to hospital care, mainly in the public sector. It was assumed that HCTP would lead to increased quality and effectiveness of health care in public hospitals. To explore whether HCTP has achieved its aim, this study has investigated the impact of this plan on performance indicators (PIs) of the public hospitals.

This cross‑sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2016. The study population included all hospitals in the Isfahan City. Data (10 selected PIs) were collected through formal reports which were available at the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 17). The statistical significant level analysis was 0.05.

After HCTP, it was shown an increase of (1) Bed occupancy, bed turnover, occupied bed‑days, inpatients visits, and number of surgeries in all types of hospitals, (2) Outpatients’ visits in all hospitals except private ones, (3) Emergency visits in public and social security hospitals, and (4) Natural deliveries in public and semi‑public hospitals. Furthermore, the average length of stay and hospital mortality rate has decreased in all types of hospitals after HCTP implementation. DISCUSSION AND

Although, improving PIs of hospitals were not directly stated and known objectives of HCTP implementation, it seems HCTP could improve the performance of all hospitals, including involved and noninvolved ones.

Due to consumption of various forms of tobacco in large amounts by Indian population, it has become a cause of concern for major oral diseases. In 2008, the WHO named tobacco as the world’s single greatest cause of preventable death. It is also known that certain amount of carbohydrates are incorporated in processed tobacco to make it acceptable for consumption. Thus, its role in oral diseases becomes an important question at this point of time. Through this study, it is attempted to find out the carbohydrate content of various forms of tobacco by phenol‑sulfuric acid method.

Tobacco products selected for the study were Nandi hookah tambakhu (A), photo brand budhaa Punjabi snuff (B), Miraj (C), Gai‑chhap tambakhu (D), Hanuman‑chhap Pandharpuri tambakhu (E), and Hathi‑chhap Bidi (F). The samples were decoded and transported to laboratory and tested at various concentrations by phenol‑sulfuric acid method followed by ultraviolet spectrophotometry to determine their absorbance.

The present study showed Hathi‑chhap bidi/sample F had a maximum absorbance (1.995) at 10 μg/ml which is a smoking form of tobacco followed by rest all smokeless forms of tobacco, i.e. sample C (0.452), sample B (0.253), sample D (0.077), sample E (−0.018), and sample A (−0.127), respectively.

As the concentration of tobacco sample increases, their absorbance increases which in turn is suggestive of increase in its carbohydrate concentration. Carbohydrates in the form of sugars, either inherently present or added in it during manufacturing can serve as a risk factor for higher incidence of dental caries.

Caregiver burden threatens the psychological, emotional, functional and even physical health of caregivers. The aims of this study were to determine caregiver burden and family distress and the relationship between them, also to explore predictors of caregiver burden in a sample of Iranian family caregivers of cancer patients.

This is a cross‑sectional study with correlational design. A total of 104 family caregivers of cancer patients were asked to respond to the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI) and the Family Distress Index (FDI) together with a sociodemographic questionnaire. For evaluating the relationship between CBI and FDI scores, the Pearson’s product‑moment correlation was used. In addition, multiple linear regression analysis was applied to explore the predictive factors of caregiver burden.

A high burden was experienced by almost half of the caregivers (48.1%). The FDI mean score was 9.76 ± 5.40 ranged from 0 to 24. A strong positive correlation was found between the caregiver burden and family distress (r = 0.76). Multiple linear regression results showed the predictive role of FDI score (β = 0.71, P = 0.001), patient’s gender (β = −0.25, P = 0.001), and early cancer diagnosis (β =0.13, P = 0.027) in caregiver burden. They could explain 65% of variance in the level of burden in family caregivers.

Family nurses should consider the caregivers burden and vulnerability of families with cancer patient, especially if the patient is a male or has a new diagnosis. They should also design special programs for the whole family as a system that family can adapt to the new situation.

Worldwide, i.e. in Iran, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is one of the most common and expensive surgeries. This study was designed to explore the demographic and psychological factors which predict the recovery process in CABG patients.

During a prospective correlational study, 250 CABG patients, in two public and private hospitals, investigated for indexes of recovery during hospital stay and 4 weeks after discharge. Demographic and psychological variables were collected through checklist and Farsi validated and reliable versions of type D personality, the multidimensional scale of perceived social support, revised illness perception questionnaire (IPQ‑R). Data were analyzed through statistical tests through SPSS version 20.

Considering the total recovery index, 91.2% of CABG patients have not been recovered 4 weeks after surgery. Furthermore, 99% of them reported high scores of depression and anxiety. Marital and insurance status, and perceived personal control, showed significant difference between recovered and unrecovered patients based on total recovery index (P < 0.05); however, in regression analysis, they did not identify as predictor variables. Age, gender, insurance status, and perceived personal control were the most frequent variables identified as predictors of recovery indexes, separately.

The correlation between depression, anxiety, perceived personal control, and recovery status among our patients reveals the importance of considering psychological and mood assessment in developing guidelines for CABG patients. Our findings will assist clinicians for designing of psychological interventions for promotion of perceived personal and illness control and better recovery post‑CABG.

Pregnancy is one of the high‑risk periods for women’s health that the lack of attention to healthy behaviors such as weight control behaviors can lead to adverse consequences on the health of women and also the fetus. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to explore the determinants of weight control self‑efficacy among pregnant women using Health Belief Model (HBM).

In this cross‑sectional study were enrolled 202 pregnant women referring to Health Care Center in Isfahan city, Iran. Sampling method was multistage random. A researcher‑made instrument based on HBM structures was used after confirming the valid and reliable. Data were analyzed by software SPSS 21 and descriptive statistics were represented with (frequency, mean and standard deviation) and analytical (Pearson correlation, independent t and liner regression) at the significant level of <0.05.

The average age of participants was 27.80 ± 5.08. HBM structures were able explained 31% of variance of weight control self‑efficacy. Also, of the studied structures, perceived benefits, perceived barriers were statistically significant predictors of weight control self‑efficacy, within which perceived barriers (β = 0.391) was the most significant predictor.

The findings of current study showed that the HBM model could be as a suitable framework to identify effective factors for designing educational intervention to improve weight control behaviors among pregnant women.

 Fresh Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery graduates (FMGs) are responsible for the majority of prescription errors and irrational use of medicines. Little research has explored their knowledge on rational prescribing practices.

The present study aimed to evaluate the awareness of rational use of medicines (RUMs) among the FMGs. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A multicentric, cross‑sectional, and questionnaire‑based study was conducted among 308 FMGs during the internship orientation program. SUBJECTS AND

The structured and prevalidated questionnaire consisted of 35 statements on important aspects of RUM. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24.0 at 95% level of significance with Fisher’s exact test.

Nearly 31% of FMGs did not know that the generic drugs are equally efficacious as branded drugs whereas 53% were in support of pregnant female should not consume any drug. Nearly 58% of FMGs were confused about deciding the dose in children and 18% were in favor of using antibiotics in common cold. Almost 55% of FMGs were disagree for adjusting the dose of antidiabetic drugs by patient depending on the meal taken whereas 12% were not aware of the importance of compliance of antihypertensive drugs and 40% were supporting the safety of fruits in chronic renal disease. The FMG from government colleges answered more correctly than that of the private colleges.

The awareness of RUM among FMG is not satisfactory, and also there is a gap in its implementation. Thus, they should be supervised during the initial phase of their medical practice.

Drug abuse influences the quality of life significantly. Thus, the present study is designed to compare the quality of life of adolescents and young adults who have voluntarily referred to addiction treatment centers at different time slots of upon admission, and 1, 4, and 8 months after maintenance therapy.

The present paper is a longitudinal study on 141 of adolescents and young adults who had referred to various addiction treatment centers throughout Isfahan voluntarily. The population was selected through convenience sampling method and 137 of adolescents and young adults continued the research until the end. The results were analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistics (frequency, mean, standard deviation, repeated measure test, and post‑hoc test) in SPSS 17.

Results showed that the average of quality of life total score was sequential and not the same in the 4 times slots under study. The total quality of life score upon admission was significantly different from 1, 4, and 8 months after maintenance treatment. However, quality of life at 1‑month was not significantly different to that at 4 and 8 months after the treatment; quality of life at 4 months after the treatment was not significantly different to that at 8 months after.

According to the present study, it can be concluded that the quality of life of adolescents and young adults referring to addiction treatment centers increases 1‑month after the treatment; nevertheless, it is worth to note that the degree of quality of life increase in 4 and 8 months after the treatment is not as much as that in 1‑month after the treatment