Effect of Face-to-Face Education on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward "Traffic Light" Food Labeling in Isfahan Society, Iran.

Emerging noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) with premature mortality are one of the major concerns in health supervising organizations of the world. High intake of energy, salt, sugar, fat, and trans fatty acids are introduced as dietary risk factors of NCDs. The status of food risk factors is presented in Traffic Light (TL) food labeling through colors of red, yellow, and green as the signs of stop, wait and watch and go, respectively. This stepwise interventional study examined whether TL education can result in choosing healthier food via assessing the impact of face-to-face educational sessions on knowledge, attitudes, and practices of 673 respondents toward TL food labeling through a self-administered and structured questionnaire. Paired t test or alternatively Wilcoxon test was used to evaluate the influence of education in total scores of knowledge, attitudes, and practices in test-retest. Results indicated that before education, the average of the scores for the knowledge, attitudes, and practices was 1.003 ± 0.69, 10.97 ± 1.86, and 1.60 ± 1.84, respectively. After education, the scores were increased to 8.72 ± 3.11, 15.95 ± 2.64, and 8.42 ± 1.69. Significant differences in the scores of the respondents were observed before and after education (p < .05). This study revealed that the intervention of education had positive effect on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the studied population. Even though general awareness about the food risk factors of NCDs existed, special education is required to make public TL and food labeling information usage as an actual guidance for every food item in Iran.

Seasonality and Physician-related Factors Associated with Antibiotic Prescribing: A Cross-sectional Study in Isfahan, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Irrational antibiotic prescribing as a global health problem has a major influence on medical care quality and healthcare expenditure. This study was aimed to determine the pattern of antibiotic use and to assess the seasonality and physician-related factors associated with variability in antibiotic prescribing in Isfahan province of Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on all prescriptions issued by general physicians from rural and urban areas in 2011. Associations between season of prescribing and physician-related variables including gender, practice location and time since graduation with antibiotic prescriptions and also the pattern of antibiotic prescribing were assessed using Chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression models. RESULTS: Of the 7439709 prescriptions issued by 3772 general practitioners, 51% contained at least one antibiotic. Penicillins were the most frequently prescribed antibiotics, followed by cephalosporins and macrolides. Over-prescription of penicillins was associated with female gender (odds ratio [OR], 2.61; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.13-3.19) and with moderate duration of time in practice (10-20 years) (OR, 1.42; 95% CI 1.14-1.76). Higher rates of cephalosporins prescription were observed in urban areas than rural areas and by male physicians. Seasonal peak was detected for penicillins and cephalosporins prescriptions in autumn. CONCLUSIONS: These findings showed the widespread use of antibiotics by general practitioners that was associated with the physicians' gender, time since graduation and practice location and also season of prescribing. More researches are needed on other factors related to the overprescribing of antibiotics and they could be used to project educational programs for improvement of antibiotic prescribing quality in our country.