Acceptability of Global Positioning System technology to survey injecting drug users' movements and social interactions: a pilot study from San Francisco, USA.

BACKGROUND: Despite potential applications for improving health services using GPS technology, little is known about ethical concerns, acceptability, and logistical barriers for their use, particularly among marginalized groups. OBJECTIVES: We garnered the insights of people who inject drug (PWID) in San Francisco on these topics. METHODS: PWID were enrolled through street-outreach (n=20) and an ongoing study (n=4) for 4 focus group discussions. Participants also completed a self-administered questionnaire on demographic characteristics and their numbers and types of interactions with other PWID. RESULTS: Median age was 30.5 years, majorities were male (83.3%) and white (68.2%). Most interacted with other PWID for eating meals and purchasing drugs over the last week; fewer reported interactions such as sexual contact, drug treatment, or work. Participants identified several concerns about carrying GPS devices, including what authorities might do with the data, that other PWID and dealers may suspect them as informants, and adherence to carrying and use. Most felt concerns were surmountable with detailed informed consent on the purpose of the study and practical ways to carry, charge, and hide devices. CONCLUSIONS: PWID felt data collection on their movements and social interactions with other PWID using GPS can be acceptable with addressing specific concerns. The technology is now in hand to greatly expand the ability to monitor health conditions with respect to the environment and improve the location of prevention, care, and treatment facilities to serve hard to reach, mobile, and hidden populations.

Coronary Artery Disease Risk Factors in an Urban and Peri-urban Setting, Kerman, Southeastern Iran (KERCADR Study): Methodology and Preliminary Report.

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.

HIV, HSV2 and Syphilis Prevalence in Female Sex Workers in Kerman, South-East Iran; Using Respondent-Driven Sampling.

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.

The prevalence of honorary and ghost authorships in Iranian bio-medical journals and its associated factors.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to detect the prevalence of ghost and honorary authors and its determinant factors in bio-medical journals of Iran. METHODS: The study was done in 2009-10 in Tehran, Kerman, and Iran Medical Universities, Iran. We contacted the first or corresponding authors of the papers had published papers in the recent two issues of Iranian Journal of Public Health, Journal of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, and Tehran University Medical Journal. They explored the role of each coauthor and others who had done mouthing for the paper. Then, according to ICMJE criteria, we counted how many of them are real, honorary or ghost author. For the analysis, we utilized two databases. One included articles as the records and the other included authors as the records. RESULTS: From 124 articles, with 536 authors, 301 (56.1%) were honorary authors. Each article had 4.35 authors on average, while 2.4 of them were honorary authors. The percentage of honorary author in basic science articles was about 6% more than the articles of clinical sciences. Moreover, 89% of articles had at least one honorary author. About 20% of all articles had more than three honorary authors. Besides, 25 (21.43%) authors confessed they had colleague(s) omitted from the authors list, while only one (0.81%) of them met the authorship criteria. The percentage of agreement between the corresponding and the remaining authors on the number of honorary of the authors was about 47.4% (Kappa= 0.27, P= 0.01). CONCLUSION: It seems that the present data might assist the authorities to make a decisive decision on amending the process of authorship in Iran.

Housewives' obesity determinant factors in iran; national survey - stepwise approach to surveillance.

BACKGROUND: Women suffer more from obesity than men in Iran do. In this study, we compared obesity risk and its contributors regarding the job categories as housewives (HWs) or employees to deeply explore the risk of obesity in housewives in Iran. METHODS: Based on WHO stepwise approach, in 2005, 33472 women aged 15 to 65 years old (excluding all men) were examined for the major risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Obesity was determined by Body Mass Index>30kgm(-2) in adults (>20 years) and by girl BMI percentiles according to WHO 2007 Growth Reference 5-19 years in adolescents. We modeled obesity by logistic regression and entered all the known/potential predictors, including job categories. RESULTS: The participation rate was more than 99%. The weighted prevalence of overweight and obesity in HWs were 34.5% and 24.5% respectively. Employed women were about 4% and 10% less overweight and obese than the HWs, respectively (P< 0.01). HWs vs. employed women had the adjusted OR 1.39 (CI95%, 1.18-1.63) for obesity. Older women, with higher educational level and socioeconomic status, lower physical activities and those living in urban areas were at risk of obesity. In comparison to HWs, working as an Official Clerk (OR=0.66) associated with a decrease in odds of obesity significantly, while others did not. CONCLUSION: Being as HW is an independent significant factor for obesity in women. Preventive health care programs to reduce risk of obesity in women should be applied, considering their occupation for achieving more effectiveness.