Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume:3 Issue: 9, Sep 2013

In the hot weather, overweight and obesity are considered as significant risk factors for the incidence of cardiac strain in workers. This study is aimed at comparing the cardiac strain among overweight and normal‑weighted workers, in the hot, humid conditions of the south of Iran.

This cross‑sectional study was conducted on 71 workers in the south of Iran, in the summer of 2010.The heart rate was measured at rest and at actual work. Cardiac strain based on the working heart rate (WHR), the relative cardiac cost (RCC), the net cardiac cost (NCC), the load relative cardiovascular (CVL), and heart rate reduction were analyzed in 35 normal weight people (BMI <25) and 36 people who were overweight (BMI >25), using descriptive statistics and t‑ tests.

In 42% of the total workers, the body mass index was more than 25. The average temperature of the two groups was not significantly different. The mean WHR in these two groups was 101 ± 20.3 and 112 ± 18.9, respectively (P = 0.026). Percentages that exceeded the acceptable limits in parameters of NCC, RCC, WHR, CVL, and the Brouha index, were significantly higher in overweight people than those in people with normal weight.

Based on the study results, the severity of cardiac strain was higher in overweight workers when compared with normal weight workers. Hence, in order to decrease the cardiac strain, selecting overweight individuals for these jobs should be avoided, as also some vital intervention for losing weight, such as, nutrition education and encouraging them to increase their physical activity, should be implemented.

The achieve uses 7 variables: ability; clarity; help; incentive; evaluation; validity; and environment, to provide leaders and staffs with the necessary tools to improve performance, and help managers to determine cause of performance problem. And create change strategy for solving those problems. We try to determine factors affecting the performance of nurses, base on this model in selected hospital of Isfahan (Iran).

This was a descriptive‑correlation survey. The population of study was 85 nurses of 9 hospitals in Esfahan. Data gathering was done via achieve questionnaire. Reliability was calculated by Cronbach’s alpha (r = 0.85). Data analysis was done by using SPSS 16.

The ability and help variables were the most important factors in improving performance of nurses and validity and evaluation were less important.

Today, staff effectiveness is one of the important problems in health care organization. In fact, performance improvement is the most important step for organization improvement.

Nowadays, cesarean section rate is increasing in Iran and throughout the world. Cesarean section is one of the major surgical procedures, which carry serious and rarely fetal risk for mother and child. This study was conducted to determine the effects of health education on husbands of pregnant women in reducing elective cesarean section.

This study was a trial study, in which 88 pregnant women between 28‑32 weeks of pregnancy, who referred to the private clinics in Isfahan, were randomly assigned into case and control groups. The husbands of the women within case group were educated about cesarean and vaginal delivery. At the beginning of study and 4 weeks after an educational intervention, the knowledge and attitude of 3 groups (cases, controls, and husbands of case group) were determined. The type of delivery was determined by phone call.

Educational intervention on husbands caused a significant increase in the knowledge and a positive attitude in mothers within case group towards vaginal delivery. Elective cesarean section in case group was significantly lower than that of the control group (29.5% vs. 50%, P < 0.05).

The results of the present study showed that husbands’ education can effectively increase the knowledge and improve the attitude of their wives, and reduce the rate of elective cesarean section.

Medical tourism for any study area is complex.

Using full articles from other databases, Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Science Direct, Emerald, Oxford, Magiran, and Scientific Information Database (SID), to examine systematically published articles about medical tourism in the interval 2000-2011 paid. Articles were obtained using descriptive statistics and content analysis categories were analyzed.

Among the 28 articles reviewed, 11 cases were a kind of research articles, three cases were case studies in Mexico, India, Hungary, Germany, and Iran, and 14 were case studies, review documents and data were passed. The main topics of study included the definition of medical tourism, medical tourists’ motivation and development of medical tourism, ethical issues in medical tourism, and impact on health and medical tourism marketing.

The findings indicate the definition of medical tourism in various articles, and medical tourists are motivated. However, most studies indicate the benefits of medical tourism in developing countries and more developed countries reflect the consequences of medical tourism.

Marriages and establishing a family is one of the most important events in the life of each person. It has significant effects on personal and social health, if it occurs with sufficient knowledge in the proper conditions. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of pre‑marriage instruction on the knowledge and health attitudes of the couples attending the pre‑marriage counseling classes.

This pre and post quasi‑experimental study was conducted on 250 couples attending the pre‑marriage counseling classes. The required information was collected using an autonomous questionnaire designed based on the research objectives. The questionnaire included three parts: Demographic information, knowledge (27 questions) and attitude (18 questions. The questionnaire was filled out before and after the pre‑marriage counseling program, which was presented as lectures. The effect of the instructional program was analyzed using a statistical test.

The results showed that 83.2% of the couples had poor knowledge, 16% average, and 0.8% had good knowledge before the intervention. After the intervention, 60.4% of couples had poor knowledge, 31.6% average and 8% had good knowledge. The results also revealed that that the difference in mean scores of knowledge and attitudes regarding reproductive health, family planning, genetic diseases and disabilities was statistically significant (P < 0.001).

Despite the mean scores of knowledge and attitude of the couples had increased after the instructional intervention, the increase in knowledge level was not very high. So the knowledge score of the couples increased just 4.3%, and only 8% of the couples had good knowledge after the instructional intervention. Therefore, to achieve a relatively stable behavior change in individuals and improving the health level of the young couples, it is recommended that more attention pay to the quality of the instructional classes.

Assessment for practical skills in medical education needs improvement from subjective methods to objective ones. An Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) has been considered as one such method. This study is an attempt to evaluate the feasibility of using OSPE as a tool for the formative assessment of undergraduate medical education in pharmacology.

Students of second year MBBS, at the end of the first term, were assessed by both the conventional practical examination and the Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE). A five‑station OSPE was conducted one week after the conventional examination. The scores obtained in both were compared and a Bland Altman plot was also used for comparison of the two methods. Perceptions of students regarding the new method were obtained using a questionnaire.

There was no significant difference in the mean scores between the two methods (P = 0.44) using the unpaired t test. The Bland Altman plot comparing the CPE (conventional practical examination) with the OSPE showed that 96% of the differences in the scores between OSPE and CPE were within the acceptable limit of 1.96 SD. Regarding the students’ perceptions of OSPE compared to CPE, 73% responded that OSPE could partially or completely replace CPE. OSPE was judged as an objective and unbiased test as compared to CPE, by 66.4% of the students.

Use of OSPE is feasible for formative assessment in the undergraduate pharmacology curriculum.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel intelligent model for AIDS/HIV data based on expert system and using it for developing an intelligent medical consulting system for AIDS/HIV.

In this descriptive research, 752 frequently asked questions (FAQs) about AIDS/HIV are gathered from numerous websites about this disease. To perform the data mining and extracting the intelligent model, the 6 stages of Crisp method has been completed for FAQs. The 6 stages include: Business understanding, data understanding, data preparation, modelling, evaluation and deployment. C5.0 Tree classification algorithm is used for modelling. Also, rational unified process (RUP) is used to develop the web‑based medical consulting software. Stages of RUP are as follows: Inception, elaboration, construction and transition. The intelligent developed model has been used in the infrastructure of the software and based on client’s inquiry and keywords related FAQs are displayed to the client, according to the rank. FAQs’ ranks are gradually determined considering clients reading it. Based on displayed FAQs, test and entertainment links are also displayed.

The accuracy of the AIDS/HIV intelligent web‑based medical consulting system is estimated to be 78.76%.

AIDS/HIV medical consulting systems have been developed using intelligent infrastructure. Being equipped with an intelligent model, providing consulting services on systematic textual data and providing side services based on client’s activities causes the implemented system to be unique. The research has been approved by Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education for being practical.

A student under optimal stress does bring out his or her best; however, extreme stress can result in mental health problems and deteriorates their academic performance. Students who esteem themselves low are most likely to engage in destructive and self‑destructive behaviors. Moreover, excessive stress is harmful to academic performance and may lead to dropping out in student. Can Yoga be of benefit in students for improving their attention and self‑esteem (SE)?

To assess attention and SE in girls undergoing Integrated Yoga Module (IYM).

Sixty low‑income high school girls with 15.17 + 0.64 years of mean age participated in this single group pre‑post study. The data was collected before and after 5 days of IYM. Statistical Analysis: Means, standard deviations, Kolmogorov‑Smirnov test, and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to analyze the data with the help of SPSS 16.

The data analysis showed 9.04% increase (P = 0.001) in SE scores, whereas d2 test for attention revealed 10.12% increase (P < 0.001) in total number of symbols processed scores and 44.73% decrease (P < 0.001) in total number of errors.

The present study suggests that of IYM can result in improvement of attention and SE among students and thereby enhancing their mental health and can help them in improving their academic achievement. Efforts aimed at reducing mental health problems among students may focus more on implementing effective and culturally acceptable interventions, such as Yoga, counseling, and social support. Additional well‑designed studies are needed before a strong recommendation can be made.