[Validity and reliability of the Persian version of measurement of the quality of life of people with disabilities]

Improving disabled quality of life is considered as one of the goals of rehabilitation and maintaining and ameliorating quality of life has become an important aim of medical systems. This study aims at investigating psychometric properties of measurement of the quality of life of people with disabilities, which is developed by World Health Organization [WHO]. The questionnaire was translated based on the International Quality of Life Assessment Project [IQOLA]. 160 individuals over 18 years old with disability in Tehran [age average=50] performed in this study. Socio-demographic inventory, SF12 inventory, and finally WHOQOL-D were given to participants respectively. Validity, concurrent validity with quality of life questionnaire [short form 12] by using correlation coefficients pearson, face validity, content validity and discriminant validity with spearman correlation coefficients of internal consistency and stability by calculating Cronbach's alpha and determining the intraclass correlation coefficients [ICC] was assessed. Version 19 SPSS was used to perform statistical tests. Face and content validity of the questionnaire, simplicity, and clarity were approved phrases. Over 90% of scores with a correlation of each question with the scores of related subtest was significant and positive. These results indicate an appropriate discriminative validity of the test items. Estimating Cronbach's alpha [0.90] confirms high internal consistency of the inventory with the exception of social communication area [0.61]. The results of evaluating reliability using within subject correlation coefficient estimation show that there is a high correlation coefficient between different subtests of the inventory. Results indicate reliability and validity of Persian-version of mentioned inventory. Therefore, its utilization in research studies is highly recommended

Cost effectiveness of anemia screening: a systematic review

Background: Anemia is the most common blood disorder observed in vulnerable groups and affects their efficiency in their everyday activities. Possible complications of the disease may be reduced or prevented by screening of patients. Screening programs impose certain costs upon the health system, which may offset their positive effects. Whether the positive impacts of screening outweigh its costs is a subject of debate among policy-makers. In this research, we have conducted a systematic review of the cost-effectiveness of anemia screening

Methods: The Pubmed, Science Direct, SCOPUS, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases were searched for relevant results dating between 1962-2010 using key words. The references of the related articles were gone over manually. In the end, Persian databases were also examined for results

Results: Using data from the four mentioned databases, a total of 722 articles were elected, which, after evaluation, were narrowed down to 4. Of these, 3 focused on newborns and infants. Disparity existed among obtained results, such that no two articles were similar, and this made making comparisons between them cumbersome and sometimes even impossible. Only one study evaluated cost-effectiveness of anemia screening in vulnerable target groups

Conclusions: Research findings show that there is not enough evidence of cost-effectiveness of screening for decision-making. Bearing in mind the importance of the matter to health policy-makers, due to high prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in low-and middle-income countries, conduction of research in this field seems necessary

Cost effectiveness of breast cancer screening using mammography; a systematic review

Breast cancer is the leading cause of malignancy among women. Screening using mammography is proposed as an effective intervention for reducing early deaths due to breast cancer. We conducted a systematic review to assess the cost-effectiveness of such screening programs. We searched Medline, Scopus and Google Scholar and complemented it by other searches using sensitive search terms from 1993-2010. We screened the titles and abstracts, assessed the full texts of the remaining studies, and extracted data to a pre-designed data extraction sheet. Studies were categorized according to the age groups of the target population. We used narrative synthesis approaches for analyzing the data. Twenty-eight articles met the minimum inclusion criteria, mostly from high income settings. All studies used secondary data, and a variety of modeling techniques, age groups, screening intervals and outcome measures. Cost per life year gained, ranging from [dollar sign]1,634 [once at the age of 50 in India] to [dollar sign]65,000 [extending the lower age limit of screening to 40 Australian study], was the most commonly used outcome measure. Biennial screening test for those aged 50-70 years seems to be the most cost-effective option [[dollar sign]2685]. Biennial screening for aged 50-70 years is the most cost-effective option among alternative scenarios. Screening those aged less than 50 is not recommended. Further studies in low-income and middle-income countries, and cost effectiveness studies along with randomized trials are required. To improve the comparability of the findings, future studies should include biennial screening in 50-70 age groups as an alternative strategy

Health emergency mass notification: lessons learnt from the H1N1 pandemic in Tehran

Timely notification is of great importance in health emergencies. So identifying the most important sources of information used by people in emergencies seems necessary. The objective of this study was to assess peoples' level of awareness concerning the symptoms, routes of transmission, prevention, and treatment of H1N1 at the time of the pandemic and also to identify their most important source of information. Two telephone surveys were performed at the beginning of levels five and six of the pandemic at a four-month interval on two populations. Using a questionnaire, random phone numbers were called and 662 and 701 individuals from Tehran were surveyed at the two phases. Peoples' level of awareness concerning the disease, symptoms, its routes of transmission, prevention, and treatment of H1N1 had increased in the second phase of the study. At the same time, people were less afraid of the disease in the second phase. The most important sources of information used were TV, newspapers, and radio, respectively. Mass media including TV and newspapers were recognized as the most important sources of information used by the people in emergencies. It seems that designing educational programs and synchronizing the media's policies with health authorities can help fight future health emergencies and prevent delays in notifying people

Challenges and success factors in university mergers and academic integrations

There are different reasons for mergers among higher education institutes. In October 2010 the Iran University of Medical Sciences [IUMS] merged with two other medical universities in Tehran in this study, we aim to review the literature on academic integrations and university mergers to call the attention to challenges and reasons for the success or failure of university mergers. We searched for studies that pertained to university or college mergers, amalgamation, dissolution, or acquisition in the following databases. PubMed, Emerald, Web of Science, Scopus, and Ovid, without any limitations on country, language, or publication date. Two reviewers selected the search results in a joint meeting. We used content analysis methodology and held three sessions for consensus building on incomptabilities. We reviewed a total of 32 documents. The "merger" phenomenon attracted considerable attention worldwide from the 1970s until 1990s. The most important reasons for merging were to boost efficiency and effectiveness, deal with organizational fragmentation, broaden student access and implement equity strategies, increase government control on higher education systems, decentralization, and to establish larger organizations. Cultural incompatibility, different academic standards and geographical distance may prevent a merger in some countries, geographical distance has caused an increase in existing cultural, social, and academic tensions. The decision and process of a merger is a broad multi-dimensional change for an academic organization. Managers who are unaware of the fact that mergers are an evolutionary process with different stages may cause challenges and problems during organizational changes. Socio-cultural integration acts as an important stage in the post -merger process. It is possible for newly-formed schools, departments, and research centers to be evaluated as case studies in future research

Policy brief on promoting physical activity among adolescents

Regular physical activity [PA] is an underlying factor since childhood and adolescence for having a healthy and active future for life. The I-aim of this stud y was to review the evidence on increasing the youth PA to develop the national program at country level. At first, the databases were searched using the sensitive keywords, and systematic reviews of the relevant databases were extracted. The studies were evaluated in terms of relevance and methodological quality for effective interventions that were detected. These cases were also identified in the effective interventions: disadvantages, benefits, costs, methods, and limitations of early studies, which were based on systematic review of the studies. Three interventions were identified as physical education curriculum reform, the creation of extra-curricular activities, as well as approaches to environmental and social support. Evidences showed that the relative impact of these interventions were not high. Thus, a combination of all three options of integrated approach is recommended for reducing the sedentary lifestyle of youths