Periconceptional care and offspring health at birth and long term, from the perspective of Avicenna / 中西医结合学报

Periconceptional care such as lifestyle plays an important impact role in offspring health. The aim of the present study was to clarify the perspective of Avicenna on periconceptional care. Avicenna (980-1037 A.D.) was one of the outstanding Persian physicians, who made great contributions to the field of medical sciences, in particular, obstetrics. In advance, Avicenna's book, Canon of Medicine, was considered to find his perspectives on periconceptional care. Then, his ideas and theories were compared to the current findings by searching the keywords in main indexing systems including PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus and Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science as well as the search engine of Google Scholar. Current investigations show that gamete quality, pregnancy outcome, and offspring health at birth and long term depend on both parents' lifestyle in pre- and periconceptional period, as well as the intrauterine environment. Avicenna believed that seminal fluid, sperm, ovum, and developing conditions in utero were influenced by the stages of food digestion and the function of some organs. On the other hand, food digestion and function of the organs also depend on each parent's lifestyle and environmental factors. He mentioned 6 principles of healthy lifestyle: exercise, nutrition, sleep and awareness, excretion of body wastes and retention of necessary materials, psychic features, as well as air and climate. Thus, a multicomponent healthy lifestyle should be considered by parents of child-bearing age in an appropriate period before and in early pregnancy as well as elimination of any disorders in parents, to give birth to more healthy offspring.

Understanding Female Students’ Needs to Develop Health Promoting School Programme: An Exploratory Qualitative Analysis

Background: This study was carried out on Iranian female adolescents to understandhealth needs for the purpose of designing health promoting intervention in schools.Methods: In this exploratory qualitative study, two focus group discussion (15 teachers)and 30 individual in-depth interviews were conducted among female adolescents in the eighthgrade in Zahedan, Iran. Qualitative content analysis was used for data evaluation.Results: The views of students and teachers demonstrated nine of needs including:informing students about the schools’ health project aims, education and training all dimensionsof health with an emphasis on mental health, use of experts in various fields for education fromother organisations, employing capable and trusted counselors in schools, utilisation of a varietyof teaching methods, activating reward systems for encouraging students’ participation in groupactivities, teaching communication and the ability to establish good relationships with parents andstrategies for resolving family conflict, teaching parents and students high-risk behaviours andstrategies for handling them as well as reforming wrong attitudes and indigenous sub-culture.Conclusion: This study found the different needs of Iranian female students comparedto other cultures about a health promoting school programme. Therefore, their contribution canprovide an insight for formulating policies and intervention in schools.

Is the process of media production and educational intervention in Iran standard?

Background: It is important to know media and educational intervention and also produce them according to standards. Thus, media and health educational interventions should evaluate to improve education quality

Methods: The study sample were whole produced media and interventions in all medical universities, deportments, offices, and centers affiliated to ministry of health in 2008 and in the first half of 2009. Sampling took a census. The evaluating tool was a checklist which made in four domains including pre-media, media and intervention specifications, production, and implementation, evaluation

Results: 7.1% percent of media and interventions achieved 50 percent score in pre-media. The other results were respectively in media specification 63.7% percent, implementation and production 15.7% percent, and also evaluation 2.9% percent.Intervention just evaluated in pre-media

Conclusion: The results of the evaluation in health education media indicate that the IEC cycle [Information, Education, Communication] in health care system is an incomplete process. Meanwhile regardless of prerequisite the scoped phase will implicate and lead to educational budget dissipation

[ effect of peer education based on health belief model on nutrition behaviors in primary school boys]

Dietary habits and patterns form in childhood and remain until the end of life. Children need nutrition education to obtain necessary skills to select the correct food. The research was performed the effects of peer education based on Health Belief Model on nutrition behaviors in primary school boys in Zahedan city in 2011-2012. In the quasi-experimental study, 217 male students at the fourth grade of elementary school were selected via simple multi-stage random sampling and divided into two intervention and control groups. A questionnaire in pre-testing was completed by two groups. Based on these results, need assessment was done and educational intervention was performed through questions and answers technique by trained peers on intervention group. The training meeting was 45 minutes. Post-test was conducted 2 months later. The collected data were inserted in SPSS software and analyzed by the statistical independent t-test, paired t-test, Pearson Correlation test, and regression analysis. The results showed that before intervention, mean scores of knowledge, perceived benefits, barriers, susceptibility and severity, and self-efficacy were not significantly different between the two groups. After training, scores of all variables in intervention group significantly increased. Regression model, including behavior as the dependent variable and awareness, perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers, and self-efficacy as predictors, was significance. The results showed that the model-based nutrition education through peers has a positive impact on the nutrition behavior of students. Therefore, designing training programs based on the model can be effective on students' nutritional behavior with emphasis on perceived benefits.

[ effect of health education according to the theory of planned behavior on malaria preventive behavior in rural men of Chabahar]

A total of 6000 people are infected with Malaria in Iran annually. Sistan and Baluchistan province is ranked in the first place in the country. A before-after intervention was conducted in 2011 in Chabahar city, Iran. Eleven questions were used to assess cognitive skills, 8 questions were to assess attitude skills and 6 questions were used for measuring behavioral skills. Three hundred participants were enrolled from three districts of Chabahar regional area. Chi-Square, independent and paired T-test and one-way ANOVA were performed for data analysis using SPSS software. The cognitive skills were increased significantly from 6.04 to 8.8 after intervention. The attitude skills were increased significantly from 15.8 to 18.2 following intervention. Among the behavioral skills, all of them [Using anti-mosquito net at nights, referring to the health facilities once the fever occurred, receiving all the medications if infected, sleeping under anti-mosquito net when infected, trying to dry the waste water and attending the malaria-related training courses] improved after the intervention. Perceived behavioral control was increased from 10.4 to 12.1 significantly. Subjective norms were enhanced significantly from 10.4 to 12.4. Mean behavioral intense was increased significantly from 10.4 to 12.1. The findings demonstrated that implementing educational intervention programs can increase the level of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of community regarding malaria preventive initiatives.

Noise pollution in zahedan and residents' knowledge about noise pollution

Noise is considered one of the most pervasive and harmful agents in crowded cities. The aim of this study was to determine the exposure rate to noise pollution of residents on the main streets of Zahedan city in southeastern Iran and the knowledge and attitudes of these residents concerning noise. Noise was measured for three consecutive weeks in the October-November areas of the city in 31 test locations, using a CEL-440 Classic sound level meter and analyzer during the noisiest hours of the day [07:00 to 22:00]. Using a validated questionnaire, data were collected from 400 subjects to estimate their knowledges and attitudes about noise pollution. The average noise level in the main city streets during the day was 75 +/- 2.96 dB. The mean age of participants was 31.9 +/- 11 years. Approximately 82.3% of the subjects tested reported that street noise pollution was too high, and 48% suggested that the best way to decrease city noise pollution was to enhance people's knowledge of the problem. Furthermore, 65.8% of the subjects stated that street noise is a cause of stress. There was a significant association between noise levels and subjects' sleepiness [P < 0.05]. In addition, noise pollution in Zahedan city streets was found to be higher than standard levels. It was concluded that appropriate traffic management and a health promotion program are essential for increasing the residents' understanding about how to improve the current noise pollution situation

Reasons for elective cesarean section amongst pregnant women; a qualitative study

A qualitative study was carried out on 200 pregnant women attending obstetric offices and Imam Ali Women's Clinic in Zahedan, Iran during January 2010 to August 2011. Twenty-nine focus group discussions [FGDs] with 5-8 participants in each group were formed. The study included women in the third trimester of pregnancy with the intention or decision to undergo elective cesarean section. The women's views were explored and analyzed in group sessions. Subsequently, the responses were divided into four major categories. The majority [50%] of the opinions expressed were psychological in origin, or stemmed from low perceived behavioral control, improper subjective norms, or wrong attitudes about vaginal delivery. Twenty-nine focus group discussions [FGDs] with 5-8 participants in each group were formed. The study included women in the third trimester of pregnancy with the intention or decision to undergo elective cesarean section. The women's views were explored and analyzed in group sessions. The responses were divided into four major categories. The majority [50%] of the opinions expressed were psychological in origin, or stemmed from low perceived behavioral control, improper subjective norms, or wrong attitudes about vaginal delivery. It is necessary to hold psychological skills training classes for pregnant women and their husbands to persuade them attend group discussion sessions to increase their control on perceived behavior, highlight their positive attitudes and direct them toward natural vaginal delivery

Effective health education program on reduction of tinea capitis; a quasi-experimental study on primary school-aged children

This study intends to evaluate the effect of health education program on healthy behavior and tinea capitis in Chabahar primary school-aged boys. For this quasi-experimental [case-control] study, two primary schools were randomly selected in Chabahar, south-eastern of Iran. Initial data of 115 students were gathered using a well-prepared questionnaire, by means of a check list and a thorough clinical examination. Meanwhile, scalp and hair samples [direct slide exam and culture] were assessed. Subjects of the experimental [case] group had received necessary educations for one month after which both groups were evaluated 2 months later. Totally, 20% and 18.3% of cases and controls were infected before conducting the educational program, respectively, however, following the education only 5.5% of cases were remained infected [p=0.008]. pre- and post-education infection rate did not differ significantly. Our results showed that health education program had a positive effect on reduction of tinea capitis among prepubescent boys

Spectrum of clinical disease in a series of hospitalized HIV-infected patients from southeast of Iran

To determine the pattern of opportunistic infections [OIs] and non-infectious opportunistic diseases in hospitalized HIV-infected patients in Zahedan, southeast of Iran. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 52 HIV-infected patients [47 male, 5 female; age range, 21-54 years] who were admitted to Boo-Ali Hospital, Zahedan, Iran for evaluation and management of an HIV-related disorders from April 2000 to December 2005. Tuberculosis [TB] was the most common opportunistic infections [53.8%] followed by hepatitis C [11.5%], typhoid [9.6%], amebiasis [9.6%], candidal esophagitis [5.7%], acute bacterial pneumonia [3.8%], and cerebral toxoplasmosis [1.9%]. Most of the cases of TB were pulmonary [36.5%]. Apart from other well-recognized OIs, 2 cases of HIV-associated lymphoma were encountered. Only 12 patients [23.07%] received antiretroviral therapy. Five patients [9.6%] died during hospital stay due to tuberculosis [4 cases] and typhoid [1 case]. The findings show that opportunistic infections are common in HIV-infected patients in Zahedan, southeast of Iran. Tuberculosis remains the most common OIs and is the most common cause of death in these patients