Does spousal support can increase the women's physical activity?

Background: Numerous benefits of physical activity are well-known for the prevention and treatment of various diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and cancers. However, the status of physical activities among women remains noticeably less than the recommended level. Considering the importance of the spouses' participation in the promotion of women's health, this study examined the impact of spousal support on women's physical activity

Methods: This semi--experimental study was done in February 2015 on 100 couples in reproductive age referred to health centers of Falavarjan city. The participants were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. The information related to women's physical activity in both groups was collected by aquestionnaire in two steps, before and three months after the intervention. The spouses of women in the intervention group were trained in the field of the importance of physical activity in women's health in two sessions. The data were analyzed by the software SPSS21 and suitable statistical tests [Independent t, paired t, and Chi-square]

Results: The mean and standard deviation of women's age in the both groups were 28.76+/-5.51 and 30.38+/-5.31, respectively. The prevalence of obesity and overweight in the women under the study was generally estimated 44%. Physical activities of women in the intervention group were significantly increased after the intervention [P<0.0001]. Also, the Body Mass Index in the intervention group was significantly decreased compared to before the intervention and control group [P<0.001]

Conclusion: Spouses could encourage women to perform physical activities. It is recommended that the health care system should implement educational sessions for men to encourage women to exercise

effects of education on spirituality through virtual social media on the spiritual well-being of the public health students of Isfahan university of medical sciences in 2015

Background: The role and effects of people's spiritual well-being have received more attention in recent years. Knowing the factors related to spiritual well-being, especially in students as the educated class and future builders of society, is too important. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of education on spirituality through social media in the spirituality well-being of public health students of Isfahan University of medical science

Methods: A semi-experimental, pre-test, post-test study was conducted on 50 under- graduate public health students [3 men, 47 women; age range 18-30 years] of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences through convenience and purposive sampling. The educational content of spirituality education was used to promote and improve spiritual well-being, being sent by using one of the mobile phone applications. Using spiritual well-being questionnaire, the level of the individuals' spiritual well-being before and after the educational was evaluated. To analyze the data in this study, descriptive statistics and t-test were use SPSS software was used to analyze the data and the significance level was considered lower than 0.05%

Result: In total, 50 students including 3 men and 47women participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 22.02 +/- 3.78. About 68% of the students were single and the remaining were married. The score of the participants' spiritual well-being was 96.5 before the intervention and it promoted to 103.3 after the intervention. The result of the analysis by t-test on the two groups showed that spirituality education can cause a significant increase in peoples' spiritual well-being [P<0.001]

Conclusion: After the educational intervention, the level of people's spiritual well-being increased significantly. As a result, spirituality education causes conditions to improve the peoples' spiritual well-being

Effect of educational intervention on self-efficacy for choosing delivery method among pregnant women in 2013

Nowadays, there has been a growing trend of caesarean sections in Iran. One reason would be the mother's desire. Increased maternal self-efficacy can be an important step to reduce percentage of cesarean. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of training-based strategies to increase the self-efficacy for choosing delivery method among pregnant women in Shahrekord city. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 130 pregnant women who attended urban health centers in Shahrekord city in 2013. Intervention was applied in the experimental group in three sessions in about 60-90 min while control group did not receive any intervention. Fear of childbirth and self-efficacy questionnaire was completed before and after training. While mean scores of the fear of childbirth, expectations and childbirth self-efficacy before the intervention between the two groups were not significantly different [P > 0.05], mean scores of childbirth in intervention group was reduced and expectation and childbirth self-efficacy had a significant increase after intervention [P < 0.05]. In this study, 71.4% of mothers in intervention group and 53.8% of control mothers naturally delivered their children. Most of intervention group mothers desired to deliver through cesarean and had more fear [P < 0.001] but lower childbirth expectation [P> 0.05] and self-efficacy [P < 0.001] than those who chose normal method. Our findings showed that training-based self-efficacy procedure has been effective in encouraging mothers to choose natural childbirth. Therefore, the design and implementation of curriculum-based strategies for increasing self-efficacy is suggested for pregnant women

effect of education on women's practice based on the health belief model about pap smear test

Cervical cancer is the most common gynecological cancer in Iran. The single most effective tool in reducing death due to cervical cancer is the use of pap smear as a screening tool. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of education based on Health Belief Model about giving pap smear in women. This quasi-experimental study was performed on 70 women who referred to two health center in Kouhdasht [Lorestan- Iran]. The samples were randomly divided in two groups [35 in intervention group and 35 in control group]. The data were collected by a validated and reliable questionnaire. Interventions were run based on Health Belief Model during three sessions only for intervention group. Each educational session was for 45-60 min. The independent t-test and paired t-test were used to analyze data. A two-tailed P value lower than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. According to results, the mean scores of knowledge were significantly different between two groups after intervention [P < 0.001]. The mean scores of the model variables [perceived susceptibility and severity, perceived benefits, and barriers] had no significant difference in the two groups before intervention, but after intervention had significant difference between the two groups [P < 0.001]. Designing and executing health education programs based on health belief model can promote the practice of women regarding to pap smear tests