[Smoking prevalence and associated factors to quit among Tabriz Dormitory university medical students, Tabriz, Iran]

Cigarette smoking as a major public health problem contributes extra health costs, and smoking cessation among youths is a priority for any prevention program. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of smoking and examined factors associated with having attempts to quit smoking and the motivations to quit among medical university students. A cross-sectional survey using a random sampling was carried out among 523 [293 male, and 246 female, aged 22.48 +/- 3.33 years] students in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected by using a self-administered questionnaire. The data were analyzed by t-test, chi-square test and Fisher exact tests. The overall prevalence of smoking was 8.9%. [male 18% and 1.4% female]. There were significant relationships between smoking status with male gender and alcohol consumption [p<0.001]. The reasons for smoking initiation were: satisfying their curiosity, new experience [37.76%], pleasure and entertainment [17.48%], mental, emotional problems and sedation [16.08%], smoker friends [15.38%], inexperience and ignorance [4.89%]. 54.16% of the current smokers had a history of smoking cessation. Regarding the higher prevalence of cigarette smoking in students, especialy in male and attempting to quit smoking in majority of them, preventive interventions in younger age and providing cigarette smoking cessation services for students seem necessary

[ effects of improvement plan on the emergency services in Kashani and Hajar Hospitals of Shahrekord]

Due to importance of the emergency wards the ministry of health and medial education introduced a plan for the improvement of emergency wards. This plan has been executed since 2002 in Kashani and Hajar hospitals of Shahrekord. The aim of this study was to find the effects, pros and cons of the plan. This descriptive and analytical study was performed on 264 patients before and after the execution of the plan. According to the ward of service donor 35-60 cases were selected for evaluation of the services. Data was collected by observation and three types of questionnaires during the first six months of the years 2002 and 2003. Execution of the plan caused a structural advancement of 13.98% and 16.67% in Kashani and Hajar hospitals respectively. Likewise, the educational condition for the emergency wards have a good improvement towards average condition of 14.29% in Kashani and 10.72% in Hajar hospital. The mean interval between the time of entrance and the first visit of the patients suffering from cerebral ischemia and stroke was 9 minutes. The mean interval between the time of entrance for the patients suffering from stroke to CT scan was 56 minutes. The mean interval between the time of entrance for the patients with neurosurgery and first visit was 9 minutes that decreased significantly [P<0.01]. The results showed that the mean interval between the time of entrance for the patients with acute myocardial infarction and first visit to the patients was 6 minutes and 48 seconds that decreased significantly [P<0.01]. The results showed that the performance of improvement plan on the emergency services has improved these services but still is far from the ideal