Tehran dentists' self-reported knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and observed willingness to treat simulated HIV-positive patients

Dentists' self-reported attitudes towards patients with HIV/AIDS might not reflect their actual behaviour. In this study 2 observers posed as HIV-positive patients and directly evaluated the behaviour of 300 dentists in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. Two months later another observer interviewed the same dentists at their offices regarding AIDS-related knowledge and self-reported attitudes. Only 14.9% of dentists agreed to treat the simulated HIV-positive patients, 78.5% referred and 6.6% rejected them. Older age, longer work experience, graduation from a non-Iranian university and not having additional degrees were significantly related to adverse behaviours. Mean scores were 8.3 [SD 9.7] [out of 18] for knowledge and 17.5 [SD 7.1] [out of 39] for attitude. There were no significant correlations between dentists' knowledge and attitude or between knowledge and behaviour, but there was a weak positive correlation between self-reported attitude and observed behaviour

[Evaluation of the relationship between ferritin levels and pregnancy outcome]

Introduction: Prenatal care is performed in order to diagnose high risk cases, their special caring and prevention of pregnancy complication. Recent researches show a relationship between serum ferritin level and some complications like preterm delivery, and premature rupture of membranes etc. This study evaluates the relationship between serum ferritin level and outcome of pregnancy

Methods: This study was a descriptive and analytic prospective research which covered 267 pregnant women who refered to selected health centers of Isfahan. Data collection has been done by quesionnaires and interviews, prenatal documents and results of serum ferritin levels. Sampling was done by cluster random method. Samples of serum ferritin concentration were taken in 28-30 weeks of pregnancy. Data were analyzed with descriptive and analytic tests [T-test and variance analysis]

Results: Data analysis showed serum ferritin concentration [in 28-30 weeks of pregnancy] according to 10, 25, 50, 75, 90 percentile as 8.6, 20.6, 12, 30.2, 42.5 ng/ml respectively. Samples were divided into six groups. Mean of serum ferritin levels in premature rupture of membrane cases were more than those with no PROM. On the basis of these results, a significant relationship between serum ferritin levels and PROM was seen

Discussion: The findings showed a relationship between serum ferritin level and PROM. So eventually high risk mothers exposed to PROM include mothers who suffer from asymptomatic genital tract infections can be recognized by detection of serum ferritin level within their pregnancy