[Evidence-based care in Iran: a systematic review]

Background and Aim: Evidence-based care is defined as combining research findings with caring skills. The current study aimed at a systematic review of obstructions, facilitators, awareness, knowledge, function, perception, and results of interventions in evidence-based care in Iran

Materials and Methods: In the present survey different data base searching methods and manual search were applied using the key words of "evidence-based", "evidence-based medical", "evidence-based nursing", "evidence-based practice", "evidence-based care", "evidence-based activity", "evidence-based education", "applying research results", "research application", and their combinations with the key words of "obstructions", "facilitators", "awareness", "knowledge"," function", "perception", and" Iran" and their English synonyms in data bases of PubMed, Medlib, Magiran, SID, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and Iranmedex to collect articles

Results: Out of 819 articles, finally 25 articls were used for this study. The most important barriers of evidence-based practice were lack of facilities, lack of time, and lack of expertise in research methods. The rate of familiarity with evidence-based practice specific terms was low [44.22%]. Reference books were considered as the most important information sources. Awareness, knowledge, function, and usage of evidence-based practice was low [<50%]. Main concepts of evidence-based practice from providers' point of views were scientific and professional care, patient-oriented and considering service quality. Interventional studies had a positive effect on the improvement of evidence-based practice

Conclusion: Weak knowledge, weak attitude, and time shortage are among the most significant barriers of evidence-based care in Iran. These problems require more accurate planning and more favorable policies on the part of medical science authorities

Antenatal micronutrient supplementation relationship with children's weight and height from birth up to the age of 18 months

Maternal nutritional is the most important environmental factor influencing pregnancy outcome. While studies showed association between maternal iron-micronutrient deficiencies with pregnancy outcome, data examining impact of micronutrient supplementation on growth rate beyond birth are sparse. Present study examined the relationship between iron and multivitamins supplementation on growth rate of babies up to age of 18 month. This study was a statistical analysis on data recorded through a routine procedure in health houses from 1994 to 2007. Subjects were selected by a two-stage randomization method and required data extracted from the records. Analyses were performed using STATA 10 software. Data was collected for 3835 pairs of mother-baby. Mothers received 61.7 +/- 5.4 and 115.6 +/- 53.8 multivitamins and iron tablets, respectively. Analyses showed significant relationship between children's weight and height at birth with iron supplementation and children's height at 6, 12 and 18 month with multivitamins supplementation. Mechanisms of these effects are unclear but it is safe to suggest supplementation during pregnancy is necessary

Quality of life in cardiovascular patients in Iran and factors affecting it: a systematic review

Cardiovascular diseases are always one of the major causes of mortality in the world affecting all aspects of patients' lives. Therefore, this study was conducted to summarize and provide a clear view of quality of life in these patients in Iran through a systematic review on the results of previously conducted studies. In a systematic review, required information was collected by searching keywords of Iran, quality of life, heart failure, cardiac, heart, and their Persian equivalents in databases of Science Direct, Pubmed, IRAN doc, SID, Medlib and Magiran. The selected time period for searching articles was since 2000 to 2012. Inclusion criteria were: releasing of article during 2000 to 2012, articles reporting patients' quality of life in any domains of heart diseases, and articles published in Persian and English. Extracted results first were summarized in Extraction Table, and then analyzed manually. Finally 18 of 1592 found articles were included in the study. A total of 3,797 cardiac patients' quality of life was measured using six different tools, the most important one of which was SF36 questionnaire. Among eight dimensions of SF36 questionnaire, the highest mean was for social role functioning with average score of 58.37 and the lowest for physical limitation [physical role functioning] with score of 42.95. Overall, mean of eight dimensions was 53.19. Among 4 general domains of quality of life, physical activity had the lowest average of 43.63 and average of general dimensions of quality of life was 47.65. The most important factors affecting quality of life were sex, age, education, marital status, occupational status, suffering duration, number of hospitalizations etc. The results of the studies showed relatively low quality of life of cardiovascular patients in general. Therefore, according to the introduced effective factors in this study, it is necessary to consider regular programs for improving quality of life in these patients and providing suitable and qualitative services