Journal of Research and Health
Volume:2 Issue: 1, 2012

Social development undoubtedly requires people participation in different domains. It seems without participation, we cannot achieve a people-centered, inclusive and sustainable social development. In the social development process, all citizens with various ethnic and religious interests are able to affect on all the social phenomena and variables, based on their competencies and mental capacities. It is indicated that community members should be permanently involved in all steps of developmental projects including planning, financing, implementation and evaluation. They could create such designs with their behaviors and decisions and understand its achievements as products of their behaviors and attitudes. In social development, community participation is more emphasized than individual participation. So, grassroots organizations and public institutions are main participants in the developed process. On the other hand, social development requires participation of different ethnic groups based upon acceptance of their cultures. In other words, attention to recognize ethnic groups, respecting their cultures, and strengthening their participation would be necessary in social development process. One of the people participatory forms of people in social development process is membership in Informal Institutions. This approach should provide conditions to facilitate the ethnic groups’ participation in these institutions and various types of local civil society. Achieving social development goals, we should consider a human-oriented approach to development, away from any kind of discrimination.

Models are considered as frameworks for design, implementation and evaluation of programs which are implemented by health educators. The main purpose of this study was to survey the effect of applying the Better Life Options and BLOOM Model to promote life skills in third grade high school girls. The quasi-experimental study performed on the groups in two phases. In need assessment phase, we used multi-stage cluster sampling method to select 200 samples among the students, their parents with high school degrees, their teachers and counselors. In training phase, we selected 45 samples for each of the trial and control groups among the students. Data collection tools were three researcher-made need assessment questionnaires, for three respondents groups, and a questionnaire to assess knowledge, attitude, performance and advocacy of the samples about the self-awareness, effective communication with others and decision making skills. After need assessment and pre-test, the intervention as skills training in the form of lecture, slide show, group discussion and role playing for case group students and a lecture session for parents were conducted. One month after the educational intervention, case and control groups, were evaluated again. The mean difference scores of knowledge, (P=0.03), attitude (P=0.04), performance (P=0.03) and environmental support system (P=0.002) of the three skills mentioned in the case and control group were statistically significant. Using BLOOM empowerment model with components such as strengthening support system in the family, school environment and community in addition to training students, can be effective on life skills promotion.

The survey of smoking as the most toxic, common and cheapest addiction, and its psychological and demographic variables among specially the youth who are efficient and constructive persons of the society is of high importance. For this reason, this study has been done to determine the prevalence of smoking and to compare self-esteem on smoking and nonsmoking students of Azad University of Gonabad. At this descriptive-analytic study, 279 students from Azad university of Gonabad were selected through stratified random sampling. They completed demographic questionnaire and Coopersmith self-esteem inventory. The data were analyzed using SPSS-11. The result showed that 9.8 percent of the students were smokers (14.4 % males and 4.1% females), smoker student's parents (33.3% vs. 12.7%) and brother and sisters (14.8% vs. 4%) smoked more cigarettes than nonsmoker student's parents and brothers and sisters. greatest rate of daily smoking has been 1-5 cigarette in the entire sample and on male and female groups. Also, the findings showed that there were not any significant relationship between the mean of smoker and nonsmoker student's self-esteem (P=0.87).In accordance with the lack of relationship between smoking and self- esteem as a basic component in mental health, it seems that student's smoking is related to other factors such as modeling with their parents, brothers and sisters.

Numerous studies show that dietary behavior and the risk of various cancers (30 to 40%) are directly related, so changing dietary behavior could play an important role in preventing different cancers. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the education of cancer preventing nutrition to the mothers of the students. In this quasi- experimental study, samples were 80 mothers of the students from two high schools of Tehran. They were divided into two groups with 40 persons in each group. They were selected by a multistage cluster sampling method. The data were collected in the control and intervention group by a self-administered questionnaire containing demographic and dietary behaviors parts (food frequency, purchasing, preparing and cooking, eating habits, health, and keeping behaviors) at base line (pre-test) and 3 months later. Educational content about dietary behaviors in order to prevent cancer has been presented by three sessions of lecture and question and answers in the intervention group, followed by the distribution of educational booklets and telephone follow up. The data were analyzed using SPSS-11.5. Based on the pretest results, the mean score of cancer preventing dietary behavior was low in both groups. Three months after educational intervention, the mean score of cancer preventing dietary behavior showed a statistically significant increase in the intervention group compared with the control group (P<0.001). The results showed that education of cancer preventing behavior could be effective in improving mother's dietary behavior.

No investigations have been performed about rational-emotional training especially for the gifted students on the prominent cognitive characteristics so far. Consequently, the aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of rational- emotional group training on self- esteem and anxiety of gifted male students of Gonabad high schools. The research method is an experimental one accompanied by post-test and pre-test phases with control group. The sample includes 40 students in two groups (experimental and control). They were chosen and sampled by using simple random sampling method from the center for gifted students. Primarily, pre-test was performed for both groups by Coopersmith self-esteem and Spielberger test anxiety inventories. Next, the experimental group underwent rational and emotional training for 12 sessions. At the end of the training, post-test was performed for both groups. The data were analyzed by SPSS-11.5 and the independent T test was performed. The results showed that the differences between the mean scores of self- esteem in proportion to the control group significantly increased (P=0.01). Furthermore, the difference between the mean scores of anxiety in the experimental group in comparison with that of the control group decreased significantly (P=0.04). Given the above-mentioned results, group rational and emotional trainings are recommended for the gifted students especially those who have experienced more anxiety or those having low self-esteem.

Urinary infection is one of the most frequent difficulties in women and because of the changes in the body, pregnant women are more susceptible. This study aims to determine the effect of health education based on health belief model on behavioral promotion of urinary infection prevention in pregnant women. In this experimental study, 110 pregnant women referred to the health centers in Behbahan city were chosen. They were divided randomly into case and control groups. The data were collected through a questionnaire. After the initial tests, the results were analyzed with Chi-square, t-student and correlation tests. Then, educational contents were designed and executed. One month later, the post test was conducted and data were analyzed with the use of SPSS-16. The pregnant women’s age average was 25. Among the pregnant women who were employed or housekeepers, there was a meaningful difference considering knowledge (P=0.02). Also, among the average of awareness points of pregnant women, there is a meaningful difference (P=0.001). The average regarding scores for knowledge and other components of health belief model before and after intervention, there has been a meaningful difference (P=0.00). The scores for knowledge and other components of health belief model in experimental group after intervention compared to control group significantly increased. This study indicated that health education program designed for advancement in prevention behaviors from urinary infection has been effective. Therefore, this model can be used as a framework for designing and executing educational intervention for prevention of urinary infection.

According to WHO estimation, physical inactivity causes around 1.9 million deaths in the world annually. Also, regarding the importance of physical activity in chronic disease prevention, we decided to assess the effect of education on the physical activities knowledge, attitude and behavior of Kerman Health Canter's staff. This is a semi experimental study in Kerman Health Canter's staff province. 78 staff was chosen randomly. The educational intervention lasted 6 weeks employing a researcher-made questionnaire, the data were analyzed before and 6 weeks after the intervention by SPSS-16. The findings revealed that after educational intervention there was a significant increase in the mean knowledge (P<0.001) and attitude scales (P=0.02), but there was not found any significant effect on behavior (P=0.13). Although our findings revealed the effect of educational intervention on knowledge and attitudes physical activity, the education of physical activity had no effect on the behavior of the participants.

Psychological capital is a new concept that today is discussed. Introducing this approach is indicative of its importance and role to psychological well-being and social capital. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between psychological capitals with social capital in Tabriz university students. The research method was descriptive-correlative and the sample includes the entire student of Tabriz university who were 15000 students and 400 people (200 males and 200 females). They were selected by using cluster sampling. The data were collected by the Luthans inventory capital psychological and Delaviz scale social capital. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and regression using SPSS software V.16. The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between psychological capital and its components with the social capital. On the other hand, the results revealed that the psychological capital and its components can predict changes in social capital significantly. Also, the people who have better psychological capital have better and higher and social capital.

Food safety is an important principle to prevent human from catching diseases and it also protects environment from contamination. The purpose of this study is to investigate the knowledge and attitude of students regarding health and food safety. This cross-sectional-analytical study was performed on 300 students at Tehran university of medical sciences students by using a self-administered questionnaire consisting of demographic information and awareness and attitude towards health and food safety questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS-16. The results showed that 68 percent of students had good knowledge and 31 percent had average knowledge about health and food safety. The students had good attitude towards health and food safety. There was a significant difference between women and men in terms of awareness (P=0.002). Also, There was a significance difference among students of different schools of knowledge (P=0.001). But no statistically significant difference was observed between age groups. Having awareness towards health and food safety is considered an important issue. Although the students had good knowledge, the inclusion of a course offered to promote their knowledge in this regard seems necessary.

Cousin marriage appeared to have a significant role in the birth of disabled children. This is a comparative study on the frequency of cousin and non-cousin marriage among the parents of disabled children and parents of normal children in Kermanshah. In this Ex Post Facto research, employing simple random sampling, 250 parents of disabled children were selected, and the same sample size for parents of normal children was selected, applying simple cluster sampling. A checklist made by Afrouz in 2008 was utilized for collecting data. Chi-square was applied for data analyzing in SPSS-11.5 program. The findings showed that frequency of cousin marriage was higher among the parents of disabled children (64%) compared to the parents of normal children (26%). There was also significant difference between disabled child’s birth and type of parent’s marriage (P<0.001). Furthermore, the frequency of type of disability (blind, deaf, mental retarded, handicap) varied in different types of cousin marriage of parents. The study showed that cousin marriage is an important factor in the birth of disabled children. Therefore, proper actions should be taken in order to decrease the prevalence of disability amongst newborns including promotion of knowledge of youngsters and families about the risks of cousin marriage, and genetic consulting before and after marriage.