[Assessing the effectiveness of cholera prevention campaign in students]

Introduction: cholera is an acute diarrheal disease that can cause severe dehydration and death within hours of its onset. The disease has rapid spread and is high mortal. It is mostly due to the lack of proper knowledge about prevention strategies as well as lack of personal hygiene. The Campaign also includes a series of educational activities that will be used to transfer specified information purposes. The aim of this research is to design and implement cholera prevention campaign and evaluate its effectiveness on knowledge, attitudes and practice of students

Method: 282 students were participated in this interventional study. The campaign was conducted for a period of four months using the following methods: pamphlets, banners, video playback, and training classes. After data entry into SPSS v.16, t-test and Mann-Whitney were used to analyze the data

Results: after the campaign, knowledge, attitudes and practice showed a growth of 44.6, 11.8 and 20.6 percent respectively. This study did not show a significant relationship between family size and knowledge of the students. However, there was a significant relationship between parents' level of education and their level of knowledge

Conclusion: cholera prevention campaign had positive effects in knowledge, attitude and practice of the students and prevent health related problems in the society

[Perceived benefits and barriers of preventive behaviours of relapsed myocardial infarction]

Cardiovascular diseases are among 46% of deaths in Iran. Changing lifestyle is very important for the disease control. If the patients perceive the benefits of preventive behaviours, the barriers to those behaviours will decline and the probability of engaging in the behaviours will increase. This study carried out to determine perceived benefits and barriers of preventive behaviours of relapsed myocardial infraction. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 patients with a history of myocardial infraction referred to Yazd Cardiovascular Research Center during 2007. A questionnaire was used for data collection which measured perceived benefits of, barriers to preventive behaviours of myocardial infraction relapse and status of those behaviours. Data was analyzed using SPSS-13 and Pearson coefficient and regression tests. Subjects earned a mean score of 30.24 [out of 36] in perceived benefits and 22.07 [out of 68] in perceived barriers and 24.48 [out of 37] in preventive behaviours. Preventive behaviours was positively correlated with net benefit and negatively with perceived barriers. This study showed that in spit of suitable level of perceived benefits of myocardial infraction, but still the perceived barriers are significant enough and therefore removal of barriers to such behaviour are essential

[ relationship between perceived benefits/barriers of self-care behaviors and self management in diabetic patients]

Diabetes is the most common disease due to metabolism disorder with long term complications. Self-care is a basic factor in control of the disease. If diabetic patients perceive the benefits of self-care behaviors, then the perceived barriers will decrease [net benefit] and the likelihood of engaging in self-care behaviors will increase. This study was carried out with the aim of determining perceived benefits/barriers to self-care behaviors and it's relation with practicing self-care behaviors among diabetic patients referred to Yazd diabetes research center. This is a cross-sectional study. Study subjects [n=120] were selected among patients referred to Yazd diabetes research center. Data were collected using a two-section questionnaire. The first section was to assess demographic characteristics of the subjects and the second section was to assess perceived benefits and barriers and self care behaviors constructs. Perceived benefits score among the patients was 88 per cent and perceived barriers score was 27.75 per cent. Self-care behavior was done by 62.79 per cent of the patients. There was a significant relationship between perceived benefits and diabetes duration. Perceived benefits was also positively correlated with self care behaviors [P=0.01]. There was also a negative correlation between perceived barriers and self-care behaviors [P=0.01]. Net benefit also had a direct correlation with self-care behavior with P=0.01. Perceived benefits and perceived barriers also had a negative correlation with each other with P=0.01. Perceived benefits and barriers accounted for 28.2 percent variance of self-care behaviors. Perceiving benefits of self-care behaviors by diabetic patients will cause an increase on practicing self-care behaviors and this will be more possible if the barriers to self-care behaviors be minimized. Therefore, for promotion of diabetic patients' quality of life, attention to these important factors is recommended