[Association between life style and hypertension in rural population of Gorgan]

Introduction: Lifestyle refers to peoples' behavior and pattern that has affected their health. This aim of this study was to determine the association between lifestyle and hypertension in rural population in Gorgan

Material and methods: In this case-control study, 200 hypertensive subjects and 200 controls in Gorgan rural population were selected via two stage sampling method. Data was collected using a questionnaire consists of demographic questions [20 questions] and health promotion lifestyle profile questions [52 questions]. Lifestyle profile questions, contains total life style score and six dimensional physical activities of stress management, interpersonal communication skill, health responsibility, nutrition and spiritual growth. The content validity and reliability [Cronbach's alpha: 87%] of questionnaire was approved. Data were analyzed using Chi Square, T tests and Logistic regression in SPSS version 16. A P-value less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant

Findings: The mean onset of hypertension was 53.2. Twelve percent of cases and 20.5% of controls were smokers. Also, 57% of cases and 51% of controls had family history of hypertension, 63% of cases and 61.1% controls had BMI of 25 that is higher than normal. In addition, Logistic regression test showed that the association between hypertension and total lifestyle score, physical activity, spiritual growth, interpersonal communication skill, stress management was statistically significant [P-value <0.05]. The results of T-Test showed that the association between health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal communication skill, stress management in case and control group was statistically significant [P-value <0.05]

Conclusion: The results showed that unhealthy behaviors particularly in nutrition, stress and physical activity has a relationship with hypertension; therefore it is necessary to implement educational programs for people in order to have a healthy life style and healthy behaviors

Evaluating of the disinfection and water quality effects on UV application in the primary stage of water treatment

Irradiation of water by UV has been considered as an attractive alternative for disinfection because its low-impact, pathogen killing capacity shows tremendous promise for meeting today's drinking water regulatory requirements. This study has been performed with the objective of utilizing medium pressure lamp in the preliminary stage of municipal water treatment, namely prior to water clarification and filtration. Raw water samples were irradiated for 30 s in a lab-scale closed reactor. Disinfection results showed nearly 2 log reduction in HPC for all the samples without formation of nitrite in excess of its MCL. As in a few previous works the formation of nitrite as an objectionable DBP had been reported, this study was extended by preparing synthetic water samples having different amounts of nitrate and turbidities. As far as the initial nitrate concentration dose not exceed 10 mg/L N-NO3, there would be no risk of nitrite increasing in excess of the MCL. Meeting the goal of at least 90% disinfection for water samples with turbidity levels of as high as 750 NTU is possible by utilizing medium- pressure UV lamp

Prevalence of cigarette smoking among male high school teachers in Rasht, 2004

Smoking is a major public health problem worldwide and a formidable barrier to development in many developing countries. Most studies show that the beginning of smoking is under the age of 18 and teacher's smoking is highly associated with student's smoking. Hence, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the prevalence of cigaraette smoking among male high school teachers in Rasht in 2004. In this cross-sectional study, six hundred male high school teachers were surveyed through anonymous self-reported questionnaire in Rasht from February 2004 to July 2004. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: background information and pattern of cigarette smoking. For data analysis SPSS version 11.5 software and X[2] test and Multivariable Logistic Regression were used. Out of 582 studied subjects 119 [20.4%] were current smokers and 55 [9.4%] were ex-smokers. 70.5% of the smokers smoked over one cigarette per day. Mean age of starting smoking was 19.4 +/- 6.5. No significant association was observed between smoking and marital status, educational level, subject of study, smoker coworkers, regular exercise and observation of physicians' or health workers' smoking. However there was a significant relation between cigarette smoking behavior and sideline [P=0.03], having smoker friends [P=0.0001], observing other teachers' smoking during high school course [P=0.04] and starting smoking [P=0.0001]. In logistic regression effective determinants were having smoker friends [odds ratio: 2.75, CI: 1.2 to 6.1] and starting smoking under the age of 15 [odds ratio: 5.34, CI: 2.38 to 11.95]. Present study shows that cigarette smoking is prevalent among high school teachers and prevention programs should be started as soon as possible. More studies are recommended