[ study of male involvement in prenatal care in Shahroud and Sabzevar, Iran]

Male involvement like women empowerment and maternal health is one of the main strategies in achieving millennium development goals. To prepare the theoretical grounds necessary for male involvement, this descriptive study specifically aims to understand the prevalence and the forms of male involvement in maternal health. This is a descriptive-analytic study. Subjects consisted of women hospitalized for delivery in Shahrood and Sabsevar hospitals, Iran. Inclusion criteria were alive and healthy fetus. Exclusion criteria were illegal pregnancy. The questionnaires were completed by 507 women and 420 husbands. Data were analyzed using t-test, Pearson correlation and descriptive tests. 17% of men didn't attend at the time of woman's admission at the hospital. Low level of husband's companionship to health centers, low male involvement in household tasks and receiving low health recommendation by husbands were reported by 25%, 33% and 61% of the women, respectively. 77% of men had a low level of knowledge concerning pregnancy complications; however, 93% of them were aware of their wives' problems in pregnancy. The observed awareness of men of their wives' problems in pregnancy and their companionship in receiving prenatal care indicates their high level of interest in pregnancy health; however, their low level of knowledge concerning pregnancy problems, women's physical and psychological needs is an important barrier to male involvement in maternal health. Designing and providing reproductive health education programs for men seems to be necessary

[Evaluation of BIS alteration and pupil dilatation after arterial unclamping following vascular anastomosis in kidney transplant surgery]

Renal transplantation is the best method of treatment for renal failure and anesthetic management during this procedure is of great importance. Proper dosage of the anesthetic drug for maintaining the respective depth is crucial as well. Arterial unclamping following anastomosis between the donor and recipient's kidney vessels, during which the functional kidney is inserted in the recipient's circulation, is a critical step in transplantation. To investigate the changes in Bispectral number and pupil dilatation as confirmed and probable markers of anesthesia depth have been investigated. This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on 25 patients undergoing renal transplantation in Razi hospital. Alteration in the depth of anesthesia was analyzed using BIS [Bispectral] index [at unclamping moment and its highest value within five minutes following unclamping] as well as pupil dilatation [5 minutes after unclamping]. All the patients underwent identical method of general anesthesia. Data were analyzed using SPSS version16, paired t- test and Mann-Whitney U test. Mean and SD value of the maximum BIS number within 5 minutes after arterial unclamping [68/32 +/- 9/13] and its value at unclamping moment [59/48 +/- 10/65] were significantly different [P<0.0001].The pupil became wider in 84% of the patients immediately after unclamping. No significant relationship was found between the pupil size and BIS change. Considering the present findings, it seems that the depth of anesthesia declines after arterial unclamping following vascular anastomosis of the transplanted kidney. We also found a new sign in kidney transplantation anesthesia, introduced as "PUPIL SIGN", that happens prior to urination from the transplanted kidney, which could have clinical implications for early prognosis of transplantation success

Estimation of birth weight by measurement of fundal height and abdominal girth in parturients at term

In a prospective descriptive study, the usefulness of symphysis-fundal height and the product of abdominal girth and fundal height in predicting birth weight < 2500 g and > 4000 g were examined. Fundal height and abdominal girth were measured at the time of admission on a sample of 795 parturient women at a teaching hospital in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis was used to select the best cut-off points. The product of abdominal girth _ fundal height with the cut-off at 3900 g performed better for predicting birth weight > 4000 g, but for low birth weight, the regression model of fundal height with cut-off at 3000 g was a better predictor

relationship between diet and development of gestational hypertension

Background and Purpose: Gestational hypertension is one of the factors leading to maternal hospitalization during pregnancy. Studies have so far focused on the role of gestational diet in the occurrence of preeclampsia. The present study is conducted to evaluate the relationship between gestational diet and gestational hypertension

Methods and Materials: In a case-control study, 100 pregnant women suffering from gestational hypertension disorders and 100 women with no history of hypertension during pregnancy and before that but being hospitalized in the same hospital after labor, were compared. The sample size was calculated on the basis of the study objectives as well as = ? 0.05 and beta=0.80. Data were collected through interview, food frequency questionnaire and a 24-hour diet recall form. In order to analyze the data, the consumed food substances were converted into gram scale and then the Food Processor software rendered the data on diet. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS using chi-square and logistic regression model

Results: The participants' mean age was 26.7 +/- 6 years. Calcium [p= 0.004], magnesium [p=0.037], phosphorus [p= 0.001] and potassium intakes [p= 0.007] were higher in cases than the controls. Having controlled all variables affecting hypertensive disorders, the logistic regression revealed that fiber and calcium were significantly dominant in the development of gestational hypertension

Discussion: The results of the study showed that calcium and fiber played a more direct role in the development of gestational hypertension

[ effect of video-based instruction versus demonstration on learning of clinical skills]

Background and Objective: one of the most important principles in education is adopting a teaching method in concordance with objectives, contents and learners. Teaching and learning clinical skills is a challenging aspect of education in field of medicine and allied health profession. Some of the new researchers have shown that video-based instruction has many advantages in comparative to others. But in the domain of the psychomotor learning there is not enough evidence to show that video-based instruction is an effective teaching method. The current study has compared students learning in video-based and demonstration methods

Materials and Methods: an experimental study was conducted on 40 first year nursing and midwifery students. The students were randomly assigned to case [N=20] and control [N=20] groups based on the their course. The data were collected from a pre-test, a post-test and a questionnaire for demographic information. Pre-test was given 24 hours prior to the presentation sessions. Then each group has received one skill with video-based and another skill with demonstration. Skills included the dressing changing and surgical hand washing. After 24 hours post-test was taken with previous criteria. The differences between the pre-test and post-test scores were considered as they are at learning level

Results: the overall learning in the demonstration method was higher than the video-based method [P<0.05]. However the scores of students in 2 methods was at acceptable level. The scores of students in the cognitive domain of hand washing by the demonstration were 16.20+/-1.5 and by the video-based method were 15.25+/-1. The scores of students in the psychomotor domain of hand washing by the demonstration was 16.85+/-1.4 and by the video-based method was 15.94+/-1.4 [P<0.05]. The scores of students in the cognitive domain of dressing change by the demonstration was 25.60+/-1.8 and by the video-based method was 15.50+/-1. The scores of students in the psychomotor domain of dressing change by the demonstration was 16.78+/-1.3 and with the video-based was 16.12+/-1 [P<0.05]

Conclusion: the results indicated that demonstration method is more effective in the students learning. However, both video-based and demonstration have led to the high level of cognitive and psychomotor learning. It could be concluded that video-based instruction can be an effective method for replacing the demonstration, especially when there is not access to demonstration, in addition according to the findings, video-based education is a effective methods for transporting knowledge, information and other topics in the cognitive domain. Therefore, considering the cost-effectiveness of video-based instruction and its ease of use, this method can facilitate education in where lack of experienced instructors and equipment is most pronounced

[ effect of Atropine, Hyoscine and Promethazine on the duration of labour stages and rate of labour progress in multiparous women]

In most cases, labour is accompanied with pain. Thus, decreasing labour pain is viewed as an important duty of midwives. In this regard, decreasing the duration of labour can be of value. Customarily midwives use drugs to shorten the duration of labour, but the effectiveness of some of the drugs has not been studied systematically. Among such widely used drugs are Atropine, Hyoscine and Promethazine. In this interventional research, the effects of these drugs on labour duration were studied. 160 multiparous women in active phase of labour were selected. 120 of the above women had been administered only one of the above-mentioned drugs and no drug had been administered to the remaining 40. According to the type of drug administered, the women formed three groups, with the women with no drugs administered making the fourth groups. The four groups did not have any statistically significant difference with regard to variables such as age, occupation, education, infant sex, gestational age, infant birth weight, parity, fetal head position, and cervical dilatation at the beginning of our observation. The main result was that, the mean rate of cervical effacement [P<0.05] and descent of fetal head was not significantly different in the 4 groups. But the mean rate of cervical dilatation [P<0.05] was significantly different in four groups. In women who had been given these drugs, the mean rate of cervical dilatation was lower than the women who had not been given any drugs. The mean duration of the first stage of labour was significantly different in four groups [P<0.05]. With regard to the mean duration of the first stage of labour, it was also longer in women who had been given these drugs. The mean rate of second stage of labour and third stage of labour was not significantly different in 4 groups. The use of these drugs can reduce the rate of labour progress and increase the risk of complications, it may also be a waste of prescribed drugs