مجله تحقیقات سلامت در جامعه
سال نهم شماره 1 (بهار 1402)

Following respiratory problems, musculoskeletal disorders are the second leading health concern in the world. The present study aimed to explore ergonomic posture and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in workshop employees in the west of Isfahan province.

This descriptive analytical study was conducted on 74025 people working in 9 different industrial group in the workshops of the West of Isfahan province in 2019. The samples were selected by census sampling method. In order to investigate the ergonomic condition and muscular-skeletal disorders of the workers, after taking photos of different tasks, RULA, REBA and QEC, WISHA, and OWAS methods were used to evaluate the posture of the workers. Finally, the collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 26) using descriptive statistics and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.

This study indicated the high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in back pain (2,806 people). Moreover, there was a statically significant relationship between people with back pain and those who push and lower the load (P<0.05). Furthermore,  improper posture and repetitive work were the most frequent risk factors.

Determining the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders and evaluating the ergonomic status of employees using posture assessment tools in western industries of Isfahan province revealed that ergonomic problems are high in employees' working environment. To reduce the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and minimize their effects in the studied community, it is necessary to reduce the risk level of ergonomic factors from risk level 4 to risk level 1. Therefore, ergonomic training and intervention programs should be considered for the employees of these industries to prevent possible and serious injuries in the future.

The spread of the COVID-19 disease and the increase in healthcare costs have made health care providers look for a solution to evaluate the performance of the healthcare delivery system. One of the effective indicators for determining the optimal use of hospital resources is the length of stay (LOS). This study was conducted to determine the effective factors on the LOS of patients in Zahedan hospitals, in Iran, before and after the outbreak of COVID-19.

The present descriptive study was conducted by examining the records of patients admitted to four general hospitals in Zahedan from 2018 to 2021. To analyze the data, independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used.

Out of 1600 examined patients, 59.2% were female and 40.8% were male. The mean and standard deviation of the patients’ LOS in general hospitals of Zahedan city was 3.4±3.5 days. It was found that LOS decreased after the outbreak of COVID-19 (3.5±3.7 days before the COVID-19 outbreak, 3.2±3.2 days after the COVID-19 outbreak). In general, LOS in terms of demographic characteristics, management factors, type of disease, history of underlying disease, and type of hospital had a significant difference (P<0.001).

Based on the findings of the present research, the average LOS of patients in general hospitals of Zahedan was favorable (less than 3.5 days). However, due to the lack of hospital resources, it is recommended to improve hospital processes and pay more attention to the variables affecting them.

Goal orientation is one of the determining variables in the quality of the learning process and academic progress of people. Therefore, this study was designed and implemented to investigate the relationship between goal orientation and academic achievement among the students of Abadan University of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran.

The present study was a descriptive-analytical correlational research that was conducted cross-sectionally in 2022-2023. The sampling method was stratified and clustered. The study sample consisted of 259 students from Abadan University of Medical Sciences. The data collection tool was the Academic Goal Orientation Questionnaire of Buffard et al. (1998), and the students' grade point average (GPA) in the last semester was used as the measure of their academic status. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26 and AMOS 24 software.

The average age of the students was 24.3 (±2.4) years and their average last semester GPA was 16.57 (±1.25). The average score of the failure avoidance component was 20.32 (± 4.11), performance 14.08 (± 5.58), and goal-mastery 9.43 (± 3.82). The correlation coefficient showed that although there was a positive relationship between goal orientation components and academic achievement, it was not significant. The correlation coefficient also showed that the academic semester had a positive and significant relationship with the components of performance orientation and mastery orientation; however, it had a negative relationship with failure avoidance.

According to the results of this study, no significant relationship was found between the three components of goal orientation and academic achievement. It can be suggested that educational planners provide and improve educational conditions in such a way that students move towards mastery and performance goals and move away from avoidance orientation.

An awareness of the pattern of using household insecticides in order to determine the type of damage caused by them, how to use household insecticides, the necessary safety measures in using insecticides, determining strategies to reduce the harmful effects of insecticides are of utmost importance. This descriptive study investigated the consumption pattern of household insecticides in Mazandaran province in 2022.

For this purpose, 380 subjects living in Mazandaran province were selected via random sampling from people who had access to social networks. In order to assess the consumption pattern, a standard questionnaire was used whose validity and reliability were checked and confirmed.

The results demonstrated that the most widely used household insecticide in Mazandaran province was Halak (Samsaline). Moreover,  the reason for using household pesticides (0.17), the frequency of using pesticides (0.20), the intensity of using pesticides (0.04), and the advertisement of pesticides (how to get acquainted) (0.07) had a positive and significant effect on the amount of pesticides consumption (P<0.05). The most common use of insecticides in the Mazandaran province was to control mosquitoes (33.7%), and 41.7% of household insecticides were used as sprays.

As evidenced by the results of this study, an awareness of the harms and chemicals present in these pesticides for the health of humans and pets and the safety measures required during use are among the most important factors that affect the consumption pattern of household pesticides in Mazandaran province.

Providing mobile-based cognitive-behavioral interventions reduces physical complications and enhances the quality of life in diabetic patients by improving physical activities. The present study aimed to determine the effect of a model-based intervention based on the health action process approach model (HAPA) on physical activity in the elderly with type 2 diabetes in Qazvin.

The current study was a randomized controlled trial, and using a simple random sampling method, 120 elderly people with type 2 diabetes participated in experimental and control groups. The educational intervention consisted of six virtual training sessions with the aim of promoting the psychological constructs affecting physical activity through short lectures, group discussions, and individual counseling associated with educational pamphlets, audio files, and educational SMS. The scales related to the HAPA model and international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQs) were completed by two groups before and three months after the educational intervention. The data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 25.0), and a significance level of less than 0.05 was considered.

The mean age of the participants was 60.7 ± 9.23 years, and 64.17% of cases were female. The results of covariance analysis demonstrated that by controlling the effect of the pre-test, the mean of HAPA constructs as perceived risk, outcome expectancy, social support, action self-efficacy, maintenance self-efficacy, recovery self-efficacy, action planning, coping planning, behavioral intention, and the level of physical activity improved in the experimental group (P<0.001).

As evidenced by the obtained results, the provision of mobile-based cognitive-behavioral interventions led to an increase in the level of physical activity in diabetic patients by improving the psychological variables related to the HAPA model.

Outsourcing strategy is a simple and economical approach that can help managers of organizations to undertake executive tasks effectively. In practice, the application of this approach at any organization is not easy and usually presented with many problems. The present study aims to investigate the viability, strengths, and weaknesses of outsourcing strategy in the health system.

This qualitative study was conducted with the content analysis approach at Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in 2020. The sampling method was purposeful, and sampling was continued until data saturation. Data analysis was performed manually using contract content analysis.

The data analysis indicated six main categories (including legislative challenges, executive challenges, manpower, regulatory challenges, and financial challenges) and 13 sub-categories.

The outcomes of this study revealed that outsourcing is one of the basic needs to advance organizational goals. Nonetheless, its current implementation method is not very appropriate. Challenges identified as obstacles to the proper implementation of the partnership plan with the private sector in the field of health are sometimes an integral part of such plans. These challenges must be resolved before the implementation of the plan and during planning by conducting studies and reviewing the project background. This will help to prevent further problems during the execution.

Patients with diabetes face many problems, especially in the field of health hardiness, self-compassion, and behavioral emotion regulation. As a result, the present research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of health-promoting lifestyle training in health hardiness, self-compassion, and behavioral emotion regulation in patients with type 2 diabetes.

This study was conducted based on a semi-experimental pretest and posttest design with a control group. The statistical research population was patients with type 2 diabetes who were members of Ahvaz Diabetes Association in the winter of 2021. After reviewing the inclusion criteria, 50 people were selected as a sample with the available sampling method and randomly assigned to two equal groups (n=25 in each group). The experimental group underwent eight 90 minutes sessions of  Alijani et al. health-promoting lifestyle training (2015), and the control group remained on the waiting list for training. Data were collected with the demographic information form, revised health hardiness inventory (Gebhardt et al., 2001), self-compassion scale (Neff, 2016), and behavioral emotion regulation questionnaire (Kraaij and Garnefski, 2019) and analyzed in SPSS software (version 19) using chi-square, independent t-test, and multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results demonstrated that the experimental and control groups did not significantly differ in terms of gender, education level, and age (P>0.05). The other findings pointed out that health-promoting lifestyle training led to increased health hardiness (F=575.597, P<0.001), self-compassion (F=283.882, P<0.001) and behavioral emotion regulation (F=633.967, P<0.001) in patients with type 2 diabetes (P<0.001).

As evidenced by the results of the present study, health professionals and therapists can use the health-promoting lifestyle training method along with other training methods to improve the psychological characteristics of patients with type 2 diabetes, especially increasing health hardiness, self-compassion, and behavioral emotion regulation.

Although childbirth and having children are considered a turning point and a pleasant event for women, the characteristics of the postpartum period are associated with unpleasant consequences and events that lead to numerous changes in mothers. For this reason, the need to care for mothers during this period and accurately identify the features of this period is undeniable. This study aimed to compare mental pain, catastrophic pain, and fear of childbirth in nulliparous women with and without postpartum depression.

This research was a descriptive-cross-sectional study conducted based on a causal-comparative design. The statistical population included all primiparous women in Kermanshah who referred to Motazedi Medical Center between February 2022 and April 2022. From the members of the community, 243 people were selected as a sample based on Cochran's formula. Sampling was done using the non-probability convenience method. The required data were collected using questionnaires, namely Edinburgh’s Postpartum Depression Inventory (2004), Orbach and Mikulincer Mental Pain Scale (2003), Sullivan, Bishop, and Pewick Pain Catastrophizing Scale (1995), and Harman's Childbirth Attitude Questionnaire (1998). Data were analyzed in SPSS28 using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), at a significance level of 0.05.

The results indicated that the mean scores of mental pain (M=66.49, F=60.65), pain catastrophizing (M=46.85, F=66.40), and fear of childbirth (M=50.22, F=65.01) were significantly higher in primiparous women with postpartum depression disorder than their counterparts without postpartum depression disorder (P<0.05).

Based on the results of the present study and in line with the research literature, it can be stated that emotions such as fear, cognitive distortions (e.g., catastrophizing and individuals' mentality in perceiving pain), and vulnerability are effective in depression after delivery.

Nurses' fatigue is defined as a mental and multidimensional feeling of fatigue that is physically and mentally penetrating and may even remain despite periods of rest. In addition to fatigue, nurses suffer from lack of sleep and its poor quality more than other occupational groups. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between occupational fatigue and sleep quality in nurses.

This was a correlational and cross-sectional descriptive study that was conducted at Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Golestan, in 2021. A total of 277 nurses were included in the study after random stratified sampling and obtaining the code of ethics. The required data were collected by Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and analyzed in SPSS-23 software using descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

The mean scores of the nurses' age and work experience were obtained at 28.75 ± 4.8 years and 5.66 ± 4.6 years, respectively. In total, 68.6% of the nurses were women. The mean of the total occupational fatigue score was 53.18 ± 22.5, which was evaluated at a lower-than-average level. The mean of nurses' sleep quality was 18.14 ± 1.77, which indicated poor sleep quality in nurses. There was an inverse and significant relationship between the score of occupational fatigue and all its dimensions and sleep quality.

The level of occupational fatigue in nurses was lower than the average and their sleep quality was poor, and with the increase in occupational fatigue, the quality of sleep decreased. It is suggested to implement individual and organizational solutions to reduce and eliminate occupational fatigue and improve sleep quality.