ABSTRACT
Oral diseases are the extensive human diseases, especially among children and more than 99% of people suffer from this disease. Oral and dental education by peers provides a good condition to form the health behaviors before adulthood. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of oral and dental education by peers on knowledge and behavior of first grade female students in Zabol, Iran. In this quasi-experimental study conducted in 2012, 287 female primary students were randomly selected and studied in Zabol. Pre-test and post-test performed with the completing a questionnaire that was designed to assess knowledge and behavior of brushing and using sodium fluoride mouthwash. The validity of the results was determined through expert panel and the reliability was determined by Cronbach`s alpha (N=30, =0. 77). One person from each class in the intervention group was selected as a peer educator and was educated via an education plate. The post-test was performed after one month of education. For data analysis, descriptive and analytical tests (paired and independent t-test) in SPSS 18 software were used. There was a significant difference between the mean scores of two groups in knowledge and behavior after education, so that the mean score of knowledge and behavior of students who were educated by peers were higher than that of them before education (P<0.001). Oral and dental education of students by peers is a simple, inexpensive, and effective method which can be used by health system, truly.
ABSTRACT
Background: On average, 40% of the gross income of each country is devoted to the health care with medication expenditures accounting for 19% of the total expenses. Less than ¼ of the medication expenditures is allocated to the inpatients department. The measures taken regarding the management of expenditures when selecting and implementing the strategies for managing medication expenditures have made the pharmacists to take the quality issues as well as the safety of the patients into account. Methods: The present research intends to explore the expenditures of effectiveness of Pharmacy Information System (PIS) for the medication services as far as effectiveness of delivered services is concerned in some selected hospitals in the city of Isfahan, Iran. The present research of applied and descriptive-analytical nature was conducted in the hospitals in the City of Isfahan, Iran. Instruments used for collecting data included self designed checklist conforming to the guidelines of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) the validity of which was assessed based on the viewpoints of the expert professors. The data gathered by interview and observation methods. Then, they were analyzed using non-parametric tests of Mann-Whitney and the Wilcoxon tests and SPSS software (11.5 version). Results: The highest rate of the expenditures of the effectiveness of the pharmacy information system belonged to the teaching hospitals with a mean score of 48.5%, while the lowest rate was found to be for private hospitals with a mean score of 28.1%. Based on the findings of the Wilcoxon test, no statistically significant difference was observed among the hospitals in terms of effectiveness-related expenditures. Conclusions: Given the results of the study, it can be noted that a successful plan for managing the medication-related expenditures must be information-based.