The relationship between health literacy and the adoption of COVID-19 preventive behaviors: A cross-sectional study in Iran.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Health literacy (HL) is one of the effective factors in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic. Considering the high prevalence of COVID-19 disease, the present study aimed to determine the relationship between HL and the adoption of COVID-19 preventive behaviors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a descriptive-cross sectional study conducted on 214 students selected by simple random sampling method in Esfarayen Faculty of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2022. The data included demographic and background characteristics, health literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA), and a valid and reliable questionnaire to measure COVID-19 preventive behaviors. The data were analyzed using SPSS 23, descriptive statistics, and ordinal logistic regression tests. RESULTS: The mean and standard deviation of the scores of adoption of COVID-19 preventive behaviors and HL among students were 18.18) 4.02(out of 25 and 72.14) and 12.75 (out of 100, respectively. The results of the logistic regression test showed that the HL (P = 0.003), gender (P<0.001), mother's education (P = 0.039), educational level (P = 0.031), smoking (P = 0.032), and physical activity (P = 0.007) were effective factors in adopting preventive behaviors. CONCLUSION: Adopting preventive behaviors against COVID-19 was lower among students with lower levels of health literacy, male students, students with less physical activity, students with illiterate mothers, undergraduate students, and finally smokers. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to these students in designing educational programs. It is suggested to carry out more extensive studies to clarify the effect of HL on the adoption of COVID-19 preventive behaviors.

Overload of anxiety on postural control impairments in chronic stroke survivors: The role of external focus and cognitive task on the automaticity of postural control.

BACKGROUND: Despite the high prevalence of anxiety among chronic stroke survivors and evidence of its negative effects on postural control in healthy subjects, it is unclear whether anxiety also affects postural control in these patients. Recent evidence of improved postural control of healthy subjects by distracting the attention using an external focus (EF) or cognitive task, raises the question of whether similar benefits would be observed in stroke survivors. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate the effects of anxiety and distracting the attention on postural control of chronic stroke survivors in terms of both postural sway measures and neuromuscular regulation. METHODS: Postural sway measures and ankle muscle activity of chronic stroke survivors with the high and low level of anxiety (HA-stroke (n = 17), and LA-stroke (n = 17), respectively) and age-, sex-, height-, and weight-matched healthy subjects (n = 17) were assessed while standing on rigid and foam surfaces under following conditions: baseline, internal focus (IF), EF, simple and hard cognitive tasks (SC and HC, respectively). RESULTS: Stroke survivors, particularly HA-stroke participants, showed greater postural sway measures (i.e. postural instability) and enhanced co-contraction of ankle muscles (i.e. stiffening of the neuromuscular system) compared with healthy subjects. As opposed to baseline and IF conditions, postural instability and neuromuscular stiffening significantly reduced in EF condition and decreased more in cognitive task conditions, particularly HC condition. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that anxiety enhances stroke-induced postural instability promoting improper neuromuscular control of posture with stiffening strategy, which can be alleviated by EF and cognitive tasks.

Correlation between Sleep Disorders and Function in Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to explain the correlation between sleep disorders and function in children with spastic cerebral palsy (4-12 year). MATERIALS & METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 62 children with spastic CP (8.98±1.46 yr) recruited from rehabilitation clinics of Tehran, Iran in 2017. The Activities Scale for Kids, The Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children and the cerebral palsy Quality of Life questionnaire for Children were utilized in this study. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Children with sleep disorder and arousal disorders had lower family health, lower quality of life and lower level of independence in their activities (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION: These results emphasize on the necessity of more attention about sleep disorders and family health problems in children with cerebral palsy.