Determining appropriate strategies for improving women's health promoting behaviours: using the nominal group technique

Women's health constitutes a major aspect of development in societies and is considered a health-related priority. The aim of the present study was to determine appropriate strategies for improving health promoting behaviours in women of reproductive age in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Using the nominal group technique, a panel discussion was held in October 2011 with 12 health specialists who were selected through purposive sampling. In the first round, panel members generated 81 strategies; after eliminating irrelevant items and merging items with similar concepts, 44 strategies remained. After group discussion and voting, the following 4 items had the highest scores: improving physical activity, with a social support approach; empowering women; promoting and improving men's role in women's health; and promoting social support. The strategies presented in this study may be utilized by policy-makers, managers and health care providers to improve women's health promoting behaviours, and thus contribute to their wellbeing

Effect of lidocaine gel on pain from copper IUD insertion: a randomized double-blind controlled trial.

CONTEXT: Insertion pain or fear of it may make women hesitate to use the intrauterine device (IUD); a long-term, reversible, highly-effective contraception method. Further study has been recommended on the effects of lidocaine (xylocaine) gel on IUD insertion pain in the recent Cochran review. AIMS: To determine the effect of lidocaine gel on pain from TCu-380AIUD insertion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: At a health center in Tabriz, Iran, 96 women were allocated into 3 groups using block randomization with 6 and 9 block sizes considering allocation concealment. In 1 st group, lidocaine 2% gel and in the 2 nd , lubricant gel was placed in the cervical canal 1 minute before an IUD insertion, and the 3 rd group got no intervention. Immediately after IUD insertion, pain during the insertion was measured using 0-10 cm visual analogue scale. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Kruskal-Wallis and linear regression in SPSS-13 were used to identify effect of lidocaine gel on the pain. RESULTS: Overall, the mean pain score was 3.5 ± 1.8. In univariate analysis, there was no significant difference in pain scores between the 3 groups. Also, results of linear regression model by controlling effect of the possible confounding showed no significant effect of lidocaine gel on the insertion pain. The mean pain score in the lidocaine group was 0.39 less than the no intervention group, but it was not significant (CI 95% of the difference: -1.3, 0.57). CONCLUSIONS: Use of 2% lidocaine gel into the cervical canal has no effect on reducing overall pain during IUD insertion.