Psychometric Properties of the Iranian version of Champion's Revised Health Belief Model Scale for Breast Cancer screening.

BACKGROUND: Women's beliefs regarding breast cancer and its screening approaches were considered antecedents of their behavioral changes. Understanding of these beliefs in women requires a valid and reliable instrument. The present study seeks to translate the English version of the Champion's Revised Health Belief Model Scale (CRHBMS) into the Persian language and assess its psychometric properties. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted on 334 students at Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Iran, 2016. The 57-item CRHBMS was translated to Persian language, back translated, and tested. To test the face and content validity of the Persian version; item analysis, Content Validity Ratio (CVR), and Content Validity Index (CVI) were applied, respectively. Construct validity of the Persian scale was performed by Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (EFA, CFA) using Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett's tests in SPSS 16 and LISREL8.72 software. The reliability of the translated scale was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha and test-retest approaches. RESULTS: In the EFA, eight factors were extracted concerning breast cancer screening, and each item was loaded on its specific factor. These factors were self-efficacy, health motivation, benefits-mammography, benefits-Breast Self-Examination (BSE), barriers-mammography, barriers-BSE, susceptibility, and severity. The final 42-item scale was confirmed by the CFA, and all goodness of fit indices showed a proper fit of the model. Cronbach's alpha coefficient and test-retest correlation of the subscales ranged from 0.72-0.89 and 0.67-0.93, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that the Persian version of CRHBMS is a feasible scale for evaluating women's health beliefs regarding breast cancer and its screening behaviors.

Ten Years' Survival in Patients with Cervical Cancer and Related Factors in West Azerbaijan Province: Using of Cox Proportion Hazard Model

Objective: There are two basic ways to analyze survival data including nonparametric and parametric methods. Considering that cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women, this study was conducted using a suitable regression model for survival data for patients with cervical cancer in Urmia. Material and Methods: In this historical retrospective study, all patients with cervical cancer who referred to Motahhari Hospital of Urmia during 2004 and 2015 were included in the study and consisted of 109 women with cervical cancer. The data were collected using checklist which filled with records of patients. The data were described with percent, mean and standard deviation. The survival function was computed with the Kaplan-Meier method. The adjusted Hazard Ratio for variables were estimated after fitting the Cox proportion hazard model using Forward Stepwise Likelihood Ratio method with PE=0.1, PR=0.15. Results: Of the 109 patients, the mean (SD) time of diagnosis was 50.1% (11.7) years. The mean (SD) and median of follow-up time was 38.23 (32.50) and 27.1 months (Mim:2 months and Max:132 months). Ninty-Three of patients (88.7%) were in urban area. Using Log-Rank test, the mean score of survival in patients with recurrence of 38.8 months was significantly lower than those without recurrence (102.5 months) (P <0.001). The results of the COX model showed that the adjusted relative risk of mortality with a diagnostic age of 50 years or more compared to those under 50 years of age was 1.978. The risk for marriage under age 20 was 3.189 compared to the marriage age of 20 years or more. Conclusion: According to results, the low age of marriage increases the occurrence of advanced stages of cancer in older ages and as a social and cultural factor has a significant effect on the survival of patients with cervical cancer.

Long-term ethanol consumption promotes changes in ß-defensin isoform gene expression and induces structural changes and oxidative DNA damage to the epididymis of rats.

Chronic alcohol ingestion causes sexual dysfunction, impairs sperm motility and fertility, and changes semen quality. Considering the key role of epididymis in sperm development, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of long-term ethanol consumption on epididymis changes, including alterations in ß-defensin isoform gene expression, oxidative stress, and pathological changes, such as cell proliferation and fibrosis in the epididymis of rats. In this study, male Wistar rats were equally divided into control and ethanol (4.5 g/kg BW) groups. After six weeks of treatment, the results revealed the proliferation of epididymis cells, fibrosis in the epididymis tissue, and a significant rise in the level of 8-OHdG and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase in the ethanol group, compared with the control group. Moreover, the ethanol group showed an increase in the gene expression of epididymal ß-defensin isoforms 15 and 21 and a reduction in the gene expression of ß-defensin isoforms 27 and 30, compared with the controls. These findings indicate that ethanol-induced epididymal damage and sperm abnormalities might be partly associated with changes in ß-defensin isoforms and epididymal structure, mediated by the increased activities of 8-OHdG and NADPH oxidase.

The effects of legumes on metabolic features, insulin resistance and hepatic function tests in women with central obesity: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The effect of high-legume hypocaloric diet on metabolic features in women is unclear. This study provided an opportunity to find effects of high-legume diet on metabolic features in women who consumed high legumes at pre-study period. METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial after 2 weeks of a run-in period on an isocaloric diet, 42 premenopausal women with central obesity were randomly assigned into two groups: (1) Hypocaloric diet enriched in legumes (HDEL) and (2) hypocaloric diet without legumes (HDWL) for 6 weeks. The following variables were assessed before intervention and 3 and 6 weeks after its beginning: Waist circumference (WC), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting serum concentrations of triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood sugar (FBS), insulin, homeostasis model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). We used multifactor model of nested multivariate analysis of variance repeated measurements and t-test for statistical analysis. RESULTS: HDEL and HDWL significantly reduced the WC. HDEL significantly reduced the SBP and TG. Both HDEL and HDWL significantly increased fasting concentration of insulin and HOMA-IR after 3 weeks, but their significant effects on insulin disappeared after 6 weeks and HDEL returned HOMA-IR to basal levels in the subsequent 3 weeks. In HDEL group percent of decrease in AST and ALT between 3(rd) and 6(th) weeks was significant. In HDWL group percent of increase in SBP, DBP, FBS and TG between 3(rd) and 6(th) weeks was significant. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicated beneficial effects of hypocaloric legumes on metabolic features.

Vasoprotective effect of vitamin E: rescue of ethanol-induced atherosclerosis and inflammatory stress in rat vascular wall.

Chronic ethanol consumption increases the incidence of cardiovascular disease. The mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced susceptibility to cardiovascular disease continue to be defined. This study examines the hypothesis that chronic ethanol consumption plausibly induces vascular wall abnormalities via inflammatory reactions. In addition, it intends to find out whether vitamin E inhibits the abnormalities induced by ethanol in rats' vascular wall. Twenty four male Wistar rats were divided into three groups (n=8): Control ©, ethanol (E), and vitamin E treated ethanol (VETE) group. After 6weeks, the aortic and coronary wall changes, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), alpha-1 glycoprotein and haptoglobin amounts in plasma, C-reactive protein levels(CRP), as well as the amount of aortic IL-6 were evaluated. The results revealed the elevation of polymorphonuclear (PMN) leukocyte in the vascular wall, disorganization of endothelium with ballooning of cells, proliferation of vasa-vasorum with an increase in the IL-6, CRP, as well as a decrease in VEGF and an increase in alpha-1 glycoprotein and haptoglobin in the ethanol group compared to the control group. Significant amelioration of aortic and coronary wall changes, along with the restoration of elevated level of IL6, CRP, and the decreased level of VEGF compared to that of the controls were found in vitamin E-treated animals. These findings strongly support the idea that heavy and chronic ethanol consumption initiates atherosclerosis by inflammatory stress, and that these effects can be alleviated by vitamin E as an anti-inflammatory agent.

Prevalence, influencing factors and control of food insecurity: a model in the northwest of Iran.

Food insecurity is frequent in both developed and developing countries, affecting from 5% to 25% of the general population. The aim of this study was to assess food insecurity, its influencing factors and control measures in the northwest of Iran. A total population of 15,070 (2,911 households) were studied. A short questionnaire was used for the screening of food insecurity and energy intake in this study. After the screening programme, those families identified as having food insecurity were recruited for the second part of the study which was a community trial. We organized small training campaigns (through peer education) for target households. Six months later, the same techniques were applied again to assess the impact of educational intervention in reducing the rate of food insecurity. Total prevalence of food insecurity in the study population was 59.3 percent (95% confidence interval: 57.4-61.3). Logistic regression showed that apart from the mother's age and smoking status of the head of the family, there was a significant association between household food insecurity and other variables in the model (mainly economic factors). The prevalence of food insecurity reduced by 7.3 percent after the intervention (p>0.10). The high prevalence of food insecurity in this study indicates that there is an urgent need for a close collaboration between governmental, international and local leadership to identify and implement the key interventional programmes to overcome this ever increasing health problem. According to our findings, a special attention should be paid on the economic improvement in the region.