Prevalence of flat foot: comparison between male and female primary school students

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of flat foot in a population of 7-12 year old students and to investigate the relationship between flat foot and age and sex. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 945 students [460 girls and 485 boys] were examined. The presence of flatfoot and the degree of its severity according to Tachdjian's system of grading for flatfoot was assessed. The data showed that the overall prevalence of flat foot was 74% out of which 23% were mild, 34% were moderate and 17% were severe. The prevalence of flat foot in girl and boy students were 75.2% and 72.6% respectively, but this difference was not significant. Moreover, no significant relationship was observed between the prevalence of flat foot and age. This study showed that flat foot is a common problem among primary school students and should be addressed by responsible organizations

Quality of developmental screening of 3-12-month infants through comparing with screening by Bayley infant neurodevelopmental screener II

Monitoring development in infancy results in early detection of developmental delay, and early intervention can prevent sever complications of developmental disorders. The purpose of this study was to determine quality of developmental screening of 3- 12 months infants referred to Tehran Health Centers, through comparing with screening by Bayley Infant Neurodevelopmental Screener II [BINS II]. This was a cross- sectional study. 155 infants of 3-12 months old, recourse to Tehran Health Centers, screened developmentally with BINS II and its results was compared with results of routine clinical examination of Tehran Health Centers. Kappa agreement between results of BINS II and results of routine developmental screening of Tehran Health Centers' clinical examination of 3- 12- month old infants was poor [0.18]. Routine clinical examination in Tehran Health Centers, in compare with applying standard screening tools, cannot screen all infants at risk of developmental delay and ignores many of them which should be considered either for follow up or for receiving early intervention services

[Knowledge and attitude of university students about ecstasy in Gorgan-Iran]

The compound of MDMA or 3,4methyl deoxy met amphetamine, so called ecstasy, is a new narcotice compound. Ecstasy tablets have a temporary exciting and deteriorating side effects. This study was done to determine the knowledge and attitude of University students about ecstasy tablets in Gorgan, Iran. This descriptive - analytic study was done on 300 university students in Gorgan during 2006. The tools of data collection were questionnaire. This questionnaire developed by authors, consists of demographic, knowledge and attitude questions respectively. The data were analized by SPSS software and Kruskal- Wallis and Mann- Whitney tests. 3% of subjects had previous usage of ecstasy. The 27.3% of students had poor knowledge about ecstasy; also 52.3% and 12.7% of students had middle and high knowledge about ecstasy respectively. There was significant relation between knowledge and attitude with educational level, family income, parents occupation and previous usage of ecstasy [P < 0.05]. But there was not any relation between knowledge and attitude and age, gender, and filed of education and source of information enquiry. There was a positive correlation between knowledge and attitude of students [P < 0.001, r=0.243]. This study showed that knowledge and attitude of University students about ecstasy is low. Therefore an educational program about ecstasy is necessary to increase the knowledge and attitude of university students