Explaining nutritional habits and behaviors of low socioeconomic status women in Sanandaj: a qualitative content analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Health and behavior are closely related subjects because disease is typically rooted in individuals' unhealthy behaviors and habits. This study aims to identify women's nutritional habits and behaviors in order to design interventions to promote nutritional literacy. METHODS: This qualitative research is part of a mixed method (quantitative-qualitative) study, conducted based on content analysis. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, group discussions, and in-depth interviews with married women, aged 18-50 years, who were referred to four health care centers in Sanandaj in 2013-2014. RESULTS: Nutritional habits and behaviors of participants were classified into two categories: representation of nutritional behavior based on consumption pattern and representation of nutritional behavior based on consumption method. For the former, eight consumption pattern subcategories were formed: meat, dairy, fast food, local foods, fruits and vegetables, soft drinks, and oils. The latter (representation of nutritional behavior based on consumption method), included two subcategories: consumption method in line with health and consumption method inconsistent with health. CONCLUSION: Results of this qualitative study provide a solid foundation for development and designing interventions to nutritional literacy promotion based on needs. The designed intervention to healthy nutritional behavior should be based on empowering women and providing facilitator factors of a healthy diet. While designing this study, with a holistic perspective, individual and social aspects of a healthy diet should be taken into account.

Health-related Quality of Life Among People Participating in a Metabolic Syndrome E-screening Program: A Web-based Study.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is the clustering of risk factors for developing the disease. Strong evidence exists for the efficacy of screening for MetS. However, the potential of novel web-based studies for MetS and online assessing of the quality of life (QOL) for these high-risk participants have not been explored. METHODS: This was a web-based, cross-sectional study. Participants were recruited through online registering on the study website. Then, those who met the study criteria (waist circumference [WC] ≥90 and blood pressure [BP] ≥130/85) were contacted and invited for the clinical assessments, if they wish. Baseline measurements were MetS risk factors (weight, WC, body mass index and BP, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting blood glucose) and health-related QOL (HRQOL) that was measured using the short form-36 (SF-36). RESULTS: There were 1436 (male: 928, female: 508) registration data on the study website. Reviewing the data, of 317 eligible participants that were invited to the study, 229 persons were responded to invitation in the screening program. The mean age of participants was 43.8 (standard deviation [SD] = 9.9) years. MetS was more frequent in male and married persons. In addition, participants with MetS had lower mean (SD) scores than participants without MetS for the following subscales of HRQOL as: role-physical (with MetS 51.1±35.2; versus without MetS 65.3 ± SD = 40.1), vitality (with MetS 65± 21; versus without MetS 75.3 ± 21.1), mental health (with MetS 49.5±30.1; versus without MetS 34.1±17.2)(P < 0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: People with MetS experienced lower HRQOL than without MetS. Internet as a powerful medium offers a novel setting for delivery health information. It seems that high BP and abdominal obesity are associated with lower HRQOL in the participants with MetS. A web-based prevention program could make people aware for their vulnerability to MetS and its complications.

Coping With Stress Strategies in HIV-infected Iranian Patients.

Stress has significant adverse impacts on health outcomes of HIV-infected patients. Our study explored coping with stress strategies by HIV-infected Iranian patients. A qualitative content analysis study was conducted at the Consultation Clinic of HIV at the Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran in 2012. Twenty-six semi-structured in-depth interviews were done. Participants were asked about coping strategies for stress. After the first interview, continuous analysis of data was started and continued up to data saturation. Results showed that participants used two categories of strategies (emotion-based coping and problem-based coping) to cope with stress. Emotion-based coping had two sub-themes: adaptive and maladaptive. The problem-based coping category had three sub-themes: participation in education sessions, adherence to medication, and efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Explanations of different strategies available to HIV-infected patients to cope with stress may help develop tailored interventions to improve the psychological conditions of people living with HIV.

Health-promoting lifestyle and quality of life among undergraduate students at school of health, Isfahan university of medical sciences.

BACKGROUND: Health promoting lifestyle (HPL) focuses on life promotion through lifestyle which consists of six aspects of "physical activity", "nutrition", "health responsibility", "spiritual growth", "interpersonal relations" and "stress management". This lifestyle promotes health and welfare and induces satisfaction, self-persuasion and self-improvement. Considering the importance of the way a new behavior affects "life quality" as a motivational factor for starting and continuing that behavior, this study aimed to determine the relationship between health-promoting lifestyle and its aspects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on undergraduate students at School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, using a census method. Health promoting lifestyle was measured by Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile two and life quality was assessed by the Persian version of QLQ-C30 questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive and inferential statistical tests in SPSS. RESULTS: Mean age of the participants was 21.12 years old. From among six aspects of health promoting behaviors, spiritual growth and responsibility with the means of 22.01 ± 2.224 and 20 ± 2.31 had the highest and physical activity with the mean of 17.58 ± 2.9 had the lowest scores, respectively. General life quality of 40.7% students was good and only 19.8% of them had an average global life quality. The highest and lowest frequencies of health-related life quality belonged to very good (58.6%) and excellent (9%) health, respectively. Except for stress management (P = 0.05) and gender of the students, there were no significant relationships between other HPL aspects and gender. There was no statistically significant relationship between global life quality of students and nutrition, physical activity, self-health responsibility and stress management while there was a significant relationship between global life quality and spiritual growth of the students. Health-related life quality and stress management were significantly related to each other; however, no statistically significant relationship was observed between health-related life quality and nutrition, physical activity, interpersonal relations and spiritual growth. CONCLUSION: There is a significant relationship between adopting health promoting lifestyle and aspects of spiritual growth and stress management on the one hand and general quality of life on the other, at least among students.

Correlates of physical activity in adolescence: a study from a developing country.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity is important for adolescent health. The current study aimed to explore factors that predict physical activity among adolescents. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of physical activity among a sample of adolescents in Tabriz, Iran. Information on physical activity was collected using a modified version of the Adolescent Physical Activity and Recall Questionnaire (APARQ). In addition, a self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic characteristics, perceived family support, and self-efficacy. Both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between physical activity and independent variables including gender and psychosocial predictors. RESULTS: In all, 402 students were studied. The mean age of adolescents was 12.93 (SD=0.49) years; 51.5% were female. The mean time of moderate and vigorous physical activity for all adolescents was 44.64 (SD=23.24) Metabolic Equivalent (MET) min per day. This figure for female adolescents was 38.77 (SD=19.94) MET min per day and for males it was 50.87 (SD=24.88) (P<0.001). The results obtained from multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that female gender (OR=2.59, 95% CI=1.46-4.57, P=0.001) and poor family support (OR=1.10, 95% CI=1.03-1.20, P=0.038) were the most significant contributing factors to low level physical activity in adolescents. Other variables studied did not show any significant results. CONCLUSION: The findings from the current study indicated that female adolescents were at risk of lower level of physical activity. In addition, it was found that the lack of family support represented an increased risk for low-level physical activity. It seems that family support should be an integrated part of any health education/promotion programs for improving physical activity among young adolescents in general and for female adolescents in particular.

The effects of education based on extended health belief model in type 2 diabetic patients: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Type II diabetes and its complications impose a large economic burden on health care systems. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of educational intervention based on extended health belief model on type 2 diabetic patients. METHODS: 120 patients with type II diabetes referring to randomly selected hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were enrolled in this educational intervention study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups (intervention and control). Data were collected using a questionnaire including demographic information and extended health belief model constructs. Two face to face educational sessions were conducted for each patient. Data were collected in two groups at three stages of the study; before the educational sessions and at 3 months and 6 months intervals. Analysis was performed by SPSS (17.0) and STATA (11.0) using independent T-test, Chi-square, Fisher's exact test, analysis of covariance and Generalized Estimating Equation. A p value of less than 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. RESULTS: The educational program had a positive and significant impact (p < 0.0001) on extended health model belief constructs (including perceived susceptibility, perceived intensity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and self-efficacy) in experimental group, 3 and 6 months after the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study showed the importance of extended health belief model based education in improving the model constructs and increasing self-efficacy in patients with type-2 diabetes.

Evaluation of self-care practices and relative components among type 2 diabetic patients.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess self-care practices and their relative components among type 2 diabetic patients. We hypothesized that some sociodemographic and health-related factors, high diabetes distress, and low self-efficacy would be associated with poorer self-care practices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of 6 months in 2011. Study population was type 2 diabetic patients referring to Omolbanin center, an outpatient diabetic center in Isfahan. One hundred forty diabetic patients met the inclusion criteria and were all included in the study. Patients' self-care practices were measured by Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities (SDSCA) self-report scale that includes items on the following aspects of the diabetes regimen: General diet, specific diet, exercise, blood glucose testing, foot care, medications, and smoking. Diabetes distress measured by Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS) scale and Stanford diabetes self-efficacy scale was used for scoring this issue. Collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software version 11.5. RESULTS: Participants were between the ages of 37 and 75 years, with a mean of 53.23 years (SD=7.82). Fifty-four percent (n=76) were females; 97.1% were married (n=136), and 53.6% had education lower than diploma (n=75). Mean of duration of diabetes was 7.1 (SD=5.63) years. "Medications" subscale was considered as the most important one in measuring diabetes self-care practices (5.24 ± 2.38 days/week). Study findings revealed that general diet had significant relation with comorbidity, type of treatment, body mass index (BMI), fasting blood sugar (FBS), (Blood Sugar) (BS), waist circumference, diabetes distress, and self-efficacy. Specific diet had significant relation with comorbidity, education, triglyceride (TG), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and low density lipoprotein (LDL). Exercise showed significant relation with history of diabetes, education, type of treatment, disease duration, TG, BMI, and BS. Also, blood glucose testing showed significant relation with disease duration, self-efficacy, TG, DBP, BS, LDL, and high density lipoprotein (HDL). On the other hand, foot care was related to age, diabetes distress, TG, BMI, HDL, and diabetes complications. Medications subscale as the most important subscale of self-care practices was relevant with age, disease duration, diabetes complications, type of treatment, FBS, HDL, and self-efficacy. The last subscale, smoking, had significant relation with sex, diabetes complications, diabetes distress, self-efficacy, TG, total cholesterol, BS, and HDL. CONCLUSION: This information should be used in clinical practice when targeting and designing educational and care plan for patients with type 2 diabetes.