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BACKGROUND: In order to improve the quality of education in universities of medical sciences (UMS), and because of the key role of education development centers (EDCs), an accreditation scheme was developed to evaluate their performance. METHOD: A group of experts in the medical education field was selected based on pre-defined criteria by EDC of Ministry of Health and Medical education. The team, worked intensively for 6 months to develop a list of essential standards to assess the performance of EDCs. Having checked for the content validity of standards, clear and measurable indicators were created via consensus. Then, required information were collected from UMS EDCs; the first round of accreditation was carried out just to check the acceptability of this scheme, and make force universities to prepare themselves for the next factual round of accreditation. RESULTS: Five standards domains were developed as the conceptual framework for defining main categories of indicators. This included: governing and leadership, educational planning, faculty development, assessment and examination and research in education. Nearly all of UMS filled all required data forms precisely with minimum confusion which shows the practicality of this accreditation scheme. CONCLUSION: It seems that the UMS have enough interest to provide required information for this accreditation scheme. However, in order to receive promising results, most of universities have to work intensively in order to prepare minimum levels in all required standards. However, it seems that in long term, implementation of a valid accreditation scheme plays an important role in improvement of the quality of medical education around the country.
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BACKGROUND: To explore the trend and composition of post-graduate Iranian students who received governmental scholarship during the last two decades. METHOD: Detailed information about the awarded scholarships and also about the number of post graduate students in clinical and basic sciences in domestic universities were collected from the related offices within the ministry of health and medical education and their trends were triangulated. RESULTS: A sharp drop was observed in the number of awarded scholarships, from 263 in 1992 to 46 in 2009. In the beginning, almost all of scholarships fully supported students for a whole academic course; while in recent years most of scholarships supported students for a short fellowship or complementary course (more than 80%). Students studied in a wide range of colleges within 30 countries; more than 50% in Europe. Although one third of students studied in UK in the first years, only 4% of students selected this country in recent years. conversely, the number of scholarships to Germany and sweden have increased more than 10 and 3 times during this period. In parallel, the capacity of domestic universities for training of post-graduate students has been expanded dramatically. CONCLUSION: Although expanding post-graduate education has been one of the main strategic objectives of the ministry of health and medical education in last two decades, it was obtained using different approaches. By time, more attention was to expanding the capacities of Iranian universities, and choosing less but more targeted students to continue their studies abroad.
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BACKGROUND: This article was to present the sampling and measurements methods and the main preliminary findings of the KERCADR cohort study (first round) in an urban and peri-urban setting, Kerman, southeastern Iran 2009-11. METHOD: 5900 (3238 female) people aged between 15 to 75 years were recruited in the household survey by non-proportional to size one-stage cluster sampling. Trained internal specialists, general practitioners, clinical psychologists and dentists have assessed the study subjects by person-assisted questionnaires regarding different NCD risk factors including cigarette and opium smoking, physical activity, nutrition habits, anxiety, depression, obesity, hypertension and oral health. Blood samples were also collected for determining FBS, HbA1c, cholesterol and triglyceride. Weighted standardized prevalence estimates were calculated by STATA 10 survey analysis package. RESULTS: The participation rate was more than 95% in all subgroups. Cigarette smoking (18.4% vs. 1.2%), opium use (17.8% vs. 3.0%) and triglyceridemia (16.1% vs. 12.0%) were significantly higher among men than women. In contrast, women were presented with higher level of sever anxiety (29.1% vs. 16.7%), obesity (16.8% vs. 9.2%), low-physical activity (45.1% vs. 39.2%) and uncontrolled diabetes (60.2% vs. 31.0%). More than 68% of all subjects have presented with moderate to severe gingival index scores. CONCLUSION: The first round of the KERCADR cohort with sufficient sample size and response rate provided precise estimates for the main clinical and para-clinical NCD risk factors. These evidences need to be translated into public health interventions and monitored in the next rounds of the cohort.
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BACKGROUND: A successful malaria elimination program calls for enough attention to parasite carriers, especially asymptomatic malaria, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of clinical cases. Asymptomatic malaria is an infection that patients do not show any symptom; thus, these patients play critical role in the concept of an elimination program. The current investigation was conducted to evaluate the presence of these cases in Bashagard District, formerly a high malaria transmission area in Hormozgan Province, Iran. METHODS: Blood samples (n = 500) were collected from symptomless individuals residing in Bashagard to evaluate Plasmodium infection by using microscopic, serological and nested-PCR techniques. RESULTS: Regarding the microscopic and nested-PCR analysis, no asymptomatic infection was detected among studied individuals. Totally, 1% of the studied population (5 of 500) had anti PvMSP-1(19)-specific IgG antibody; however, only 0.2% (1 of 500) of the individuals was seropositive to recombinant PfMSP-1(19), using ELISA. CONCLUSION: This study showed no asymptomatic malaria infection in the studied population; hence malaria elimination is feasible and can be successfully carried out in this region.
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BACKGROUND: We estimated the prevalence of HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and risky behaviors among female sex workers (FSW) in Kerman City, Iran. METHODS: Women, 18 years or older, who reported selling sex for at least 6 months during their lifetime and had at least one sexual contact with a client in the recent 12 months were sampled using Responding Driven Sampling (RDS). Participants were interviewed about their sexual behaviors and provided whole blood for HIV, syphilis, and Herpes simplex type 2 (HSV2) testing. Data were analyzed using RDSAT Version 6.0 software. RESULTS: Among samples of 177 FSW, we did not find any HIV positive cases. The weighted prevalence of syphilis and HSV2 were 7.2% and 18.0%, respectively. The reported STI syndromes for the proceeding year of the survey were 36%. Unprotected sexual contact was about 17-22% and link to injecting drug users through injection was about 18%. CONCLUSION: While this survey found no HIV, there were findings of risky sexual behaviors and STI, markers for potential infection for HIV. The prevalence of STI and sexual risk behaviors for HIV is considerably high in this subpopulation that alarming for an urgent public health preventive measures and national control-plan to be developed and implemented.
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The Islamic Republic of Iran is in the pre-elimination phase of malaria control, but malaria epidemics are still a concern in the south of the country. This retrospective study presents the epidemiological characteristics and predisposing factors of 60 of the malaria epidemics reported in Sistan va Baluchestan province during 2005-09. A zero-truncated negative binomial model was used to investigate the relation between predictor variables and the total number of malaria cases. Malaria epidemics occurred mainly in the southern part of the province, mostly between July and October, peaking in August. Most malaria epidemics were small-scale [8.3% were < 100 cases] and short [51.7% lasted < 1 month]. Plasmodium falciparum was present in 46.7% of the epidemics. An increase in the rainfall rate as well as population movements were the most significant predisposing factors. The results may help inform an epidemic investigation and reporting system as the country approaches the malaria elimination phase
Subject(s)
Epidemics , Retrospective Studies , Plasmodium falciparum , Causality , MalariaABSTRACT
The Islamic Republic of Iran is in the pre-elimination phase of malaria control, but malaria epidemics are still a concern in the south of the country. This retrospective study presents the epidemiological characteristics and predisposing factors of 60 of the malaria epidemics reported in Sistan va Baluchestan province during 2005-09. A zero-truncated negative binomial model was used to investigate the relation between predictor variables and the total number of malaria cases. Malaria epidemics occurred mainly in the southern part of the province, mostly between July and October, peaking in August. Most malaria epidemics were small-scale [68.3% were < 100 cases] and short [51.7% lasted < 1 month]. Plasmodium falciparum was present in 46.7% of the epidemics. An increase in the rainfall rate as well as population movements were the most significant predisposing factors. The results may help inform an epidemic investigation and reporting system as the country approaches the malaria elimination phase
ABSTRACT
We estimated the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the Islamic Republic of Iran by systematic review of all available studies in the country between 1996 and 2004 and aggregation of the data using meta-analysis and meta-regression methods. In those > 40 years the prevalence was 24% and it increased by 0.4% with each year after 20 years of age. The risk of type 2 diabetes was 1.7% greater in women than men [P < 0.001]. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes appears higher in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in other developing countries but because of differences in age pyramids, the crude prevalence is not an appropriate indicator and age-adjusted or age-specific prevalences should be used
