[Application of information technology by Iranian dentists: assessment of knowledge and performance]

Advances in medical sciences have increased the volume of medical records and documents. In order to solve this problem, the information technology [IT] is now being applied to improve health care. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of dentists about IT and its application by them. In this analytical cross-sectional study, a validated questionnaire was distributed among 220 dentists participating in the 52[nd] International Congress of Iranian Dental Association and 120 dentists working in Tehran and included 7 questions about knowledge, 8 questions about background, 10 questions about general use of IT and 3 questions about the professional use of IT. The data were entered into SPSS version 18 software and the statistical analyses were performed by regression modeling. Of a total of 340 general practitioners, 30.4% were males and 11 dentists [3.6%] stated that they had no access to a personal computer. Some of the most popular sites visited by dentists were Google [94.3%] and Facebook social networking site [69.8%]. Among the participants, 64.5% were not familiar with any website related to their special field of work. The mean knowledge score was 5.3 [SD= 2.5]. The application of professional IT was more common among men and among those with higher general use of IT. Most dentists participated in this study had insufficient knowledge about professional IT. The general and professional use of IT was poor by dentists and further instruction and training seem necessary in this respect

[ artificial neural network model to predict the service quality of academic libraries]

Introduction: Commonly libraries and information centers use LibQual to measure their quality of services. Although analysis of Libqual done with classical statistics, it is possible to analyze it through Artificial Neural Network with lower error rate. This research try to introduce an Artificial Neural Network that is able to predict service quality of university library

Methods: In this applied cross-sectional study, all of Shiraz university of medical science students were assessed. LibQual questionnaire was the instrument of data collection and MATLAB software was being used to analyze data. In addition an algorithm was written to automatic selection of the best network architecture based on lower error rate and higher adaptation rate

Results: for 5 categories of input data and with running of the written algorithm, 5 ANN was created and their matching ratio is 0.77059, 0.6828, 0.81089, 0.79161 and 0.83273 respectively

Conclusion: By comparing the ANNs, it was found that ANN with 20 hidden layer, %80 training data, %16.667 testing data and %3.3333 validation data that be fed with fifth input data, is the most appropriate ANN in quality evaluation of university libraries

Oral health of drug abusers: a review of health effects and care

Oral health problems, among the most prevalent comorbidities related to addiction, require more attention by both clinicians and policy-makers. Our aims were to review oral complications associated with drugs, oral health care in addiction rehabilitation, health services available, and barriers against oral health promotion among addicts. Drug abuse is associated with serious oral health problems including generalized dental caries, periodontal diseases, mucosal dysplasia, xerostomia, bruxism, tooth wear, and tooth loss. Oral health care has positive effects in recovery from drug abuse: patients' need for pain control, destigmatization, and HIV transmission. Health care systems worldwide deliver services for addicts, but most lack oral health care programs. Barriers against oral health promotion among addicts include difficulty in accessing addicts as a target population, lack of appropriate settings and of valid assessment protocols for conducting oral health studies, and poor collaboration between dental and general health care sectors serving addicts. These interfere with an accurate picture of the situation. Moreover, lack of appropriate policies to improve access to dental services, lack of comprehensive knowledge of and interest among dental professionals in treating addicts, and low demand for non-emergency dental care affect provision of effective interventions. Management of drug addiction as a multi-organ disease requires a multidisciplinary approach. Health care programs usually lack oral health care elements. Published evidence on oral complications related to addiction emphasizes that regardless of these barriers, oral health care at various levels including education, prevention, and treatment should be integrated into general care services for addicts

[Dietary and fluid adherence in hemodialysis patients]

Adherences to fluid restriction and dietary and medication guidelines are essential for adequate management of hemodialysis patients. The aim of this study was to assess the blood urea nitrogen [BUN], serum potassium [K] and serum phosphorus [PO[4]] levels and interdialytic weight gain [IWG] accounted for adherence of uremic patients on hemodialysis. It was a descriptive - correlational study in which 200 patients with renal failure and on hemodialysis, being treated at teaching hospitals of Iran University of medical sciences, participated in the study. The subjects were selected by census sampling method. Blood urea nitrogen, serum potassium and phosphorus levels and interdialytic weight gain of uremic patients were collected from medical charts and were analyzed by SPSS, version 14. Most of the patients [56%] had non-adherence with fluid restrictions. The levels of phosphorus, potassium, and blood urea nitrogen were higher than expected levels in 25.5%, 5.5% and 4.5% of patients, respectively. In addition, there were relationships between blood urea nitrogen, serum potassium, serum phosphorus levels and interdialytic weight gain with educational status [p _ 0.05], however, there were no statistically significant correlation between the levels of these variables with gender, age, financial status, marital status and duration of dialysis [p > 0.05]. According to the findings, most patient had adherence to dietary and medication regimen and educational level of patient was associated with adherence. Dietary compliance may be improved by dietary counseling and education may motivates patients to change and comply with dietary recommendations. Therefore, another study to evaluate effect of dietary counseling techniques on adherence in dialysis patients is suggested

Relation between school's stressor factors and physical-psychological complaints in high school students of Yasouj City, 2003-2004

Human being is usually facing a series of stressor factors in each step of his life. Specially in case of students whom stimulation will be arise in reaction with school's environment in order to prepare them to promote their psychological hygiene or psychological and behavioral disorders. In this respect, the present study was done in order to determine the school's stressor factors and their relation with student's physical complaints which was also measured according to age, sex, last year's average, etc variables. This is a correlation type of study in which 340 students [girls and boys] from pre-university level of Yasouj city with simple way based on objective were selected. The tools of data collection is a three section questionnaire consisting of information regarding personal characteristics, questions about stressors factors of the school [34 cases] and questions about physical complaints [19 cases] in students, which was done by questionnaire presenting at schools. Then, with the use of SPSS software descriptive and deductive statistics the data were analyzed. Results showed that, 50.3% of cases were boys and 49.7% of them were girls. The mean age and last year's average of samples was 17.54 +/- 1.11 and 16.25 +/- 2.03 respectively. The most stressor factors was anxiety for their future's studying and business, less average comparing with last year's average, to be deferred from studying, etc respectively and the most prevalent physical complaints of students was fast angriness, angst, headache, forgetting of lesson, etc. Also Pearson's correlation coefficient between school's stressor factors and students physical-psychological complaints showed significant relation [r=0.43, P<0.01]. Meanwhile, girls were facing stressor factors and physical complaints more than boys [t=-2.94, P<0.01, t=-3.15, P<0.01 respectively]. As it was mentioned in findings, there was a significant relation between school's stressor factors and student's physical complaints. Therefore stressor factors can be introduced to the students by teaching, helping them to select the ways of facing those factors. So that, an efficient step can be take up to promote the physical and psychological hygiene of this group of society

Causes of violence against women referring to Tehran legal medical center in 2003

In most societies, violence against women exists in which, economical problems, alcohol, marriage related, familial and cultural problems are among effective factors. This study is done to determine the effective causes of violence against women referred to Tehran legal medical center. This is a descriptive study performed in 2003 at Tehran Legal medical center. The sample consisted of 171 subjects and data collecting instrument was a questionnaire which was completed by researcher was consisting of demographic information of samples and their strikers and causes of violence. Results were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive statistical methods. Out of 171 subjects, 40.4% were in age group of 26-30 with mean age of 29.58 +/- 10.15 and 47.4% had high school education, 5.8% were illiterate and 0.6% gave no response. 29.8% of strikers had high school education and 3.5% of them were illiterate. The most effective cause of violence [27.0%] in married women was husband's skepticism and among singles [38.23%] was street clashes. Since most of violence causes in married samples are husband's suspicion which is a psychological problem, therefore more studies should be done to eradicate such problem. Street clashes are also a social difficult which is the most violence cause in single samples. These problems originated from our social and cultural disorders which should be considered deeply

[Nosocomial bacterial infections of clean-contaminated wounds of operated patients in Shahid Beheshti hospital surgical ward-Yasuj 2004]

Nosocomial infections are our of the most important medical problems which cause the diffusion of infectious diseases in society, increase of hospitalized period, additional treatment charges and mortality of affected persons. Since wound infection, after urinary infection, is the most prevalent nosocomial infection, present study has been done with the purpose to determine the rate of nosocomial bacterial infections of clean-contaminated wounds of operated persons. Present research is the descriptive cross-sectional study, in which 300 samples of patients were used who had gone under operation in general surgery ward and were hospitalized for more than 48 hours and had clean-contaminated wound .Data regarding wound infection by wound culture which was done before change dress and according to the variables of age, sex, surgery service, surgical site and surgery type were collected and with the help of SPSS11 software were analyzed. Results showed that, in total 53% of surgery wounds was suffered from nosocomial bacterial infection, which according to the wound culture result, Ecoli and klebsiella [26.4%each], pseudomonas [25.2% and staphilococus [22.01%]were reported. In general, negative gram bacteries were supposed to be the cause of nosocomial bacterial infection of surgery wound [77.4%]. In terms of type of surgery service, the most cases of infection was belong to the neurological surgery service [60.9%] and general surgery service [55.4%].Also, in respect of the type of surgery of burned patients who were grafted, they were having. The maximum infection percentage [90.9%] and significant relation between wound infection and type of surgery [P<.05] was obtained. Pelvic, genital and anus regions are the most prevalent places in which infection growth was there. According to the study findings, of seems that, managers should have proper control on nosocomial infection so that, to reduce the mortality as well as extra charges. This will be achieved only by having implemented infection control committees, infection control nurses and ongoing surveillance of nosocomial infection

[ causes of child plurality from women's viewpoint referred to the gynecology and obstetric wards of Emam Sajjad Hospidal Yasouj 2004 -5]

It is anticipated that, the population of our country will reach to 100 million till the year 2011. Preparing food for such population whom majority are consumers will put great load on society and will threat hygienic and economical matters. This study is done to determine the causes of child plurality from women's view point referred to the gynecology and obstetric wards of Emam Sajjad hospital Yasouj 2004-5. This is a descriptive -cross sectional study. The number of samples were 325 and sampling method was convenient. The instrument of data collection was questionnaire. To analyze data, SPSS software and descriptive statistics methods were used. Out of 325 samples, 153[47.0%] were at age group of 26-35. 183 [56.0%] had high school education and 253[78.0%] of them were housewives. The husbands of majority of them [156 or 48.0%] were businessmen out of which 217 [67.0%] of them had diploma or lower than with monthly income of 200-300 thousand Toman. Among samples, 169[52.0%] of them had four children and majority of the samples [207 or 63.7%] mentioned the cause of child plurality to have son. The viewpoint of most samples were in such a way that, they prefer son and having a son was their wish and that is why by multiple deliveries they wanted to fulfill their wish. Such viewpoint, may be because of culture weakness and existence of chief - man meditation which have long antecedent and needs to be analyzed deeply and carefully