ABSTRACT
Objectives@#Police officers may be at a greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) than the general population due to their highstress occupation. This study evaluated how an educational program based on the health belief model (HBM) may protect police officers from developing CVD. @*Methods@#In this single-group experimental study, 58 police officers in Iran participated in a 5-week intervention based on HBM principles. Outcomes included changes in scores on an HBM scale, time spent on moderate to vigorous physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), body mass index (BMI), blood lipid profile, blood glucose, and blood pressure. The intervention consisted of 5 HBM-based educational sessions. Follow-up was conducted at 3 months post-intervention. The paired t-test was used to examine differences between baseline and follow-up scores. @*Results@#All aspects of the HBM scale improved between baseline and follow-up (p<0.05), except the cues to action subscale. Self-efficacy and preventive behaviors improved the most. BMI decreased from 26.7±2.9 kg/m2 at baseline to 25.8±2.4 kg/m2 at follow-up. All components of the lipid profile, including triglycerides, cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein, showed significant improvements post-intervention. Blood glucose and blood pressure also decreased, but not significantly. Nearly 25% of participants who were not physically active at baseline increased their physical activity above or beyond the healthy threshold. @*Conclusions@#A relatively brief educational intervention based on HBM principles led to a significant improvement in CVD risk factors among police officers. Further research is needed to corroborate the effectiveness of this intervention.
ABSTRACT
Healthy lifestyle habits during adolescence can prevent many of the diseases and disabilities in adulthood and later. The aim of the study was to examine the role of education in improving lifestyles among Iranian adolescents. This group randomized controlled trial was conducted during October 2010 until January 2011 in Tehran. Participants for this study were selected through a random sampling method and divided into intervention and control groups. The intervention group received a six session course on healthy lifestyles and the control group received no intervention. The Adolescent Lifestyle Questionnaire [ALQ] was used for collecting data. Data were collected before the intervention, at a two week after participation time point, and a three month follow-up was conducted. Overall, 365 [male: 173, female: 192] adolescents participated in the study. There were significant differences between boys and girls in terms of physical activity and social support [P<0.001]. The boys had higher levels of physical activity than girls. Girls received more social support than boys. There were significant differences in the lifestyle scores between the intervention and control groups at follow-up [P<0.001]. The educational intervention indicated an improved total lifestyle score [from 123.7[SD.16.1] at baseline to 131.8 [SD.16.7] at two weeks and to 130.5[16.5] at 3 months after education] among the intervention group. Adolescents' behaviors may be different in some dimensions among boys and girls. Unhealthy lifestyle habits are prevalent among adolescents. Therefore sex-specified lifestyle education can bring promising results. Further research in the field can reveal the importance of lifestyle intervention programs
ABSTRACT
Considering the importance of sufficient physical activity in military personnel, this study was designed to determine the levels of this activity and factors influencing it among personnel of a military center in Iran. This cross-sectional method on 191 individuals randomly selected from entire staff working in a military center. A self-report valid and reliable questionnaire was applied to collect the data. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS software, descriptive and analytical statistics. According to the findings of the study prevalence of low, moderate and high levels of physical activity by study population was 35.1%, 19.4% and 45.5% respectively. A significant positive association was seen between levels of physical activity with both knowledge [P=0.001] and gender [P=0.022]. However, the association between, physical activity, with other studied factors such as age, job, and level of formal education was not significant. The most important factor of physical inactivity among participants was lack of enough free-time. On the other hand, accessibility to facilitates, organizational exercise, providing physical equipment's in job settings, and having free-time were the most important factors to promote the levels of physical activity, mentioned by the subjects. On the basis of the findings, especially considering the prevalence of the low level activity, 35.1%, and other documents supported this finding, one may conclude that performing educational program about to physical activity among military personnel seems necessary. To develop and promote enough equipment's and facilitates to increase the chance of sufficient physical activity among personnel is very important.