comparison between two health education methods on diet: lecture versus videotape

Diet is one of the most important components of life style and its improvement is very related to appropriate educational methods. The main objective of this research was a comparison between two health education lecture and video tape presentation among volunteer health workers. This was a quasi experimental study on 160 volunteer health workers who were under coverage of south Tehran health center. They randomly assigned into 2 groups with the same size. One group recieved a short time lecture about good diet and other group received education by video tape presentation. Data were collected by questionnaire as pretest and post test and was analyzed using chi 2, Mcnemar, t-test [paired-independent] statistical tests. Knowledge and attitude was found to be significantly improved by both methods [P<0.0001], however the lecture method had a greater effect [P<0.0001] on improvement of knowledge and attitude of participants. Most participants also reported mass media as prior information source about good diet. This research showed that both educational methods namely lecture and video tape presentation can be effective ways to increase knowledge and improve attitudes about good diet but lecture was a more proper method

[Affecting factors on survival of patients with gastric cancer using frailty model]

In survival analysis because are still unknown some of the important factors related to disease, it is too difficult or impossible measure all the appropriate factors and related diseases. Not consider these common unknown risk factors causes dependence among survival times, the results from Cox proportional hazard model and parametric models are not reliable. In this case, we use to confront the above problem of frailty models. The purpose of this study was to examine factors affecting survival of patients with gastric cancer using the log-logistic parametric model with gamma frailty and to compare these results with Cox model. This study includes Information of 110 cases with gastric cancer was collected from Babol cancer registry during 1990 through 1991, who were followed up for a period of 15 years by the year 2006. In order to explore factors affecting survival of patients, Cox model and also parametric model Log-logistic with gamma frailty were examined and the Akaike information criterion [AIC] was considered as a criterion to select the best model [s]. For the statistical analysis, the statistical softwares SAS 9.1 and STATA 8.0 were used. All P<0.05 were defined as statistical significance. Sample of subjects encompassed 75.4% men and 24.6% women. The mean age at diagnosis was 60.2 yr for men and 57.5 yr for women. The median survival time reached 8.6 months, and survival rates in 1, 3, and 5 years following diagnosis were 25%, 18%, and 17%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that family history of cancer might increase significantly the risk of death from cancer according to Cox and parametric models by including and not including heterogeneity effect. According to AIC criterion and the nature of the data [hazard rate is non-monotonic], parametric model [with and without gamma frailty] had better performance when compared to Cox model. And among, log logistic model with gamma frailty seemed more appropriate. In this model, age and family history of cancer were significant predictors. Results indicated that early preventative care for patients with family history of cancer might be of importance to decrease the risk of death in patients with gastric cancer, and being younger, on the other hand, would cause a potential decline in the corresponding risk of death. According to our findings, based on the Akaike criterion and also the nature of the data [the hazard rate is hump-shaped], log logistic model with gamma frailty could be considered as a useful statistical model in survival analysis of patients with gastric cancer rather than Cox model

Investigation for mycobacterium in cases of granuloma

Granuloma Annulare [GA] is a granulomatous inflammatory lesion with unknown etiology. The etiologic relation between this disease and mycobacterium is still controversial. In this descriptive-Cross sectional study, specimens of GA have been assessed for mycobacterium infection. Paraffin embedded specimens of GA from archive of Pathology department of Emam Reza hospital, during 2001 to 2005, have been selected Multiplex PCR were done on them, with primers of 162bp and 123bp for mycobacterium in general and tuberculosis respectively. A total of 38 cases [31 female and 7 male] with the mean age of 42 years were found. The lesions were most commonly on upper extremities and the most common histological feature was lymphohistiocytic granulomatous inflammation of interstitial type [incomplete form of GA]. With Zeil Nelson staining all cases were negative for acid fast bacilli. PCR In one case detected amplification of both 123 bp and 162 bp segments which were compatible with M. tuberculosis infection. This case had extensive lesions all over the upper extremities and back of the trunk and in histology it had a lot of giant cells which is not a usual finding in GA. Mycobacterium may cause some types of GA lesions