Original Articles
vijay kautilya; shruti Hegde; Prithika Chendrashekaran; Khatija begum
Volume 4, Issue 4 , October 2016, Pages 158-166
Abstract
AbstractBackground: Hazardous pesticides continue to be used in thefarming industry purely because of economic reasons. Farmersneed to understand this risk. Pesticide labels and pictograms wereenforced to propagate this risk information to the farmers in asimple way. However, their effectiveness has ...
Read More
AbstractBackground: Hazardous pesticides continue to be used in thefarming industry purely because of economic reasons. Farmersneed to understand this risk. Pesticide labels and pictograms wereenforced to propagate this risk information to the farmers in asimple way. However, their effectiveness has not been evaluated inIndia. This study attempts to evaluate the efficacy of these labelsand pictograms to help farmers understand the pesticide risks.Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey wasconducted among 172 paddy farmers in Kancheepuram districtof Tamil-Nadu, India. Their interpretation of four pesticidelabels and fifteen pesticide safety pictograms were analyzedusing (SPSS version 20) for descriptive statistics. Chi-squaretest was used for dichotomic variables. A p value of < 0.05 wasconsidered significant.Results: Of the 172 farmers interviewed, 93% were unawareof the pesticide regulations and 72.6% had never attempted toread the labels. Only, the red color in the label was identifiedcorrectly by 66.1% of farmers. Four out of fifteen pictogramswere interpreted correctly by more than 60% of the farmers.Educational status had a significant influence on the way thelabels and pictograms were interpreted.Conclusion: We need to consider restructuring these labels ina more scientific way. Instead of a top-down approach, we needto start working at the grass root level if we tend to have betterappreciated labels. It is recommended that plans and strategiesshould be devised to educate the farmers about the labels andpictograms.
Original Articles
Aliyar Ahmadi
Volume 4, Issue 4 , October 2016, Pages 167-173
Abstract
AbstractBackground: Prenatal care consists of a series of clinical visitsand services offered to pregnant women throughout the antepartumperiod. Despite advances in the extent of prenatal careuse in Iran, some women still avoid using these services. It is,therefore, very important to investigate the ...
Read More
AbstractBackground: Prenatal care consists of a series of clinical visitsand services offered to pregnant women throughout the antepartumperiod. Despite advances in the extent of prenatal careuse in Iran, some women still avoid using these services. It is,therefore, very important to investigate the prevalence of prenatalcare use, and to identify the factors associated with it. This studyanalyzes prenatal care use in Fars Province between 2000 and2010, identifying the associations between women’s demographicand socio-economic characteristics and prenatal care use.Methods: The study is quantitative and based on secondarydata drawn from IDHS 2000 and MIDHS 2010. The sampleconsisted of 765 individuals from Fars Province. The datawere weighted to reflect the characteristics of the rural-urbanpopulation. Statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS-18.In the inferential analysis, bivariate and multivariate logisticregressions were applied.Results: It was indicated that both the quantity and quality ofprenatal care increased during 2000–2010. Obstetricians andgynecologists became the primary reference point for womenaccessing healthcare during this period. Our study indicatesthat, in the final analytical model, the educational attainment(OR=1.32, P=0.035), urban place of residence (OR=10.49,P=0.003), sanitary and health status of households (OR=5.04,P<0.001), and knowledge of family planning (OR=1.14, P<0.001)were significantly related to the use of prenatal care.Conclusion: Women who do not have access to prenatal careare mainly from families with low socio-economic status.Thus socially vulnerable groups receive deficient prenatal care,indicating the need for government investment and planning ina comprehensive insurance system.
Original Articles
Madineh Rafatpanah; Diba Seif; Mousa Khosravani; shahla alborzi
Volume 4, Issue 4 , October 2016, Pages 174-180
Abstract
AbstractBackground: Gifted individuals have exclusive personalitytraits and need various experiences to achieve more informationabout themselves and their ability into developmental process fromgiftedness to talent. Also, they can increase mental experiencesand obtain greater self- actualization with ...
Read More
AbstractBackground: Gifted individuals have exclusive personalitytraits and need various experiences to achieve more informationabout themselves and their ability into developmental process fromgiftedness to talent. Also, they can increase mental experiencesand obtain greater self- actualization with recognition of thelevel of challenges, values and their personality traits. The aimof this study was to assess the relationship between personalitytraits, self-awareness and self-actualization dimensions.Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in Shiraz cityamong 239 gifted students from high schools during 2013. TheBig Five Personality Questionnaire (BFPQ), Self-ConsciousnessScale (SCS) and Measure of Actualization of Potential (MAP)were used to gather the data. Validity and reliability of thesetools were acceptable. Data were analyzed by regression testusing SPSS v19 statistic software.Results: The finding showed that agreeableness (r=0.34)and conscientiousness (r=0.41) factors (from five factors ofpersonality) had a positive relationship and neuroticism (r=-0.21)had a correlation with self-actualization negatively. Moreover,the privative self-awareness (r=0.41) and public self-awareness(r=0.15) showed a positive correlation and social anxiety revealeda significant negative relationship (r=-0.27) with general selfactualization.On the other hand, privative self-awarenessand agreeableness predicted that 23% of the scores belong toopenness to experience dimension (self–actualization) positively.In addition, conscientiousness and privative self-awarenesspredicted self-reference dimension positively, and neuroticismpredicted it negatively. These variables determine 40% of thescores of self reference dimension. Also, conscientiousness,agreeableness and privative self-awareness predicted that 36%of the scores belong to general self-actualization.Conclusion: Based on our study results, conscientiousnessand agreeableness factors (personality traits) had a significantrelationship with self-actualization and predicted the scores ofself-actualization. It was noted that privative self-awareness (selfawarenessdimension) had a significantly positive correlationwith self-actualization and predicted its scores.
Original Articles
Masoumeh Akhlaghi; Majid Kamali; Farideh Dastsouz
Volume 4, Issue 4 , October 2016, Pages 181-188
Abstract
AbstractBackground: Vitamin D deficiency is implicated in a wide rangeof pathological situations including cardiovascular diseases.This study aimed to investigate the association between serum25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) and risk factors of metabolicsyndrome and cardiovascular diseases.Methods: The ...
Read More
AbstractBackground: Vitamin D deficiency is implicated in a wide rangeof pathological situations including cardiovascular diseases.This study aimed to investigate the association between serum25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) and risk factors of metabolicsyndrome and cardiovascular diseases.Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on 169adults (88 males, 81 females) aged 19-52 years living in Shiraz,Iran. Anthropometric characteristics and blood pressure weremeasured using standard methods. Blood samples were collectedin fasting state for determination of blood glucose, lipids, and25(OH)D. Data were analyzed with one-way analysis of varianceand linear regression using SPSS software.Results: Serum 25(OH)D concentrations were considerablyhigher in males. One third of females had vitamin D deficiency(25(OH)D <10 ng/ml) while one third of males exhibited25(OH)D levels >50 ng/ml. In males, systolic and diastolicblood pressure, triglycerides, and metabolic syndrome scoreincreased and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesteroldecreased across tertiles of serum 25(OH)D. On the contrary,in females body mass index (BMI) and metabolic syndromescore decreased and HDL cholesterol increased across tertilesof 25(OH)D. Linear regression, after controlling for confoundingfactors, showed that diastolic blood pressure (B=0.07; 95% CI:0.02, 0.11; P=0.006), triglycerides (B=0.54; 95% CI: 0.22, 0.85;P=0.001), and metabolic syndrome score (B=0.01; 95% CI: 0.001,0.01; P=0.02) positively and HDL cholesterol (B=-0.05; 95% CI:-0.09, -0.01; P=0.02) inversely associated with tertiles of 25(OH)D concentrations in males. In contrast, BMI (B=-0.06; 95% CI:-0.11, -0.02; P=0.01), waist circumference (B= -0.12; 95% CI:-0.23, -0.01; p=0.04), and metabolic syndrome score (B=-0.02;95% CI:-0.03, -0.01; P=0.01) were inversely and HDL-C (B=0.16;95% CI: 0.02, 0.31; P=0.02) positively associated with 25(OH)D tertiles in females.Conclusion: The results suggest that both low and uppernormal levels of 25(OH)D are associated with increased risk ofcardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome.
Original Articles
Mohammad Esmaeili; Fahimeh Dehghani; Zahra Chabokinezhad
Volume 4, Issue 4 , October 2016, Pages 189-193
Abstract
AbstractBackground: Studies have shown that some personalcharacteristics such as perfectionism are associated withcardiovascular diseases. Hence, this study was designed withthe aim of doing a comparative evaluation of perfectionism incoronary heart disease patients and healthy individuals referredto ...
Read More
AbstractBackground: Studies have shown that some personalcharacteristics such as perfectionism are associated withcardiovascular diseases. Hence, this study was designed withthe aim of doing a comparative evaluation of perfectionism incoronary heart disease patients and healthy individuals referredto Shahid Faghihi Hospital in Shiraz.Methods: This is a case-control study carried out on 80cardiovascular patients and 80 healthy people who referred toShahid Faghihi Hospital. The sampling was done through theconvenience sampling method. The Frost MultidimensionalPerfectionism Scale (FMPS) was used to collect the information.Besides, t-test was applied to analyze the data in the SPSSsoftware, version 16.Results: The mean ages of the participants in this study were48±12.2 and 34±9.6 in patients and normal subjects, respectively.Negative perfectionism among the people with cardiovasculardisease was higher than the healthy individuals (69.5±12.8 and64±15.5, respectively, with P=0.03) and there was a significantdifference between these two groups. In terms of perfectionismsubscales, there was a significant difference between thetwo groups regarding personal standards (P<0.00), parentalexpectations (P=0.02), and uncertainty in acts (P=0.04).Conclusion: In general, our study results showed that there wasno significant difference between patients with cardiovasculardisease and normal subjects in terms of perfectionism, but asignificant difference was seen between some subscales ofperfectionism in the two groups.
Original Articles
Mahtab Hadadi; Yalda Malekzadegan; Hamid Heidari; Hadi Sedigh Ebrahim-Saraie; Mohammad Motamedifar
Volume 4, Issue 4 , October 2016, Pages 194-198
Abstract
AbstractBackground: Escherichia coli, known as a clinically significantbacteria, can cause a wide range of infections, including urinarytract infections (UTIs), blood stream infections (BSIs), andcan frequently be isolated from various clinical specimens.Evaluation of antimicrobial resistant pattern ...
Read More
AbstractBackground: Escherichia coli, known as a clinically significantbacteria, can cause a wide range of infections, including urinarytract infections (UTIs), blood stream infections (BSIs), andcan frequently be isolated from various clinical specimens.Evaluation of antimicrobial resistant pattern is a necessaryaction, especially about such bacteria which are frequent andlife threatening. The aim of this study was to determine thefrequency and antimicrobial resistance pattern of E. coli isolatesobtained from various clinical specimens.Methods: This retrospective study was performed within a sevenmonth period from January 2015 to August 2015 at a specializedwomen and children hospital in Shiraz, Iran. E. coli isolates wereobtained from various clinical specimens and identified usingstandard microbiological procedure. Antimicrobial susceptibilitypatterns were determined using disk diffusion method inaccordance with CLSI recommendation.Results: Of the total 130 positive cultures, the majority of E.coli isolates were obtained from urine (96=73.8%) and blood(11=8.5%) specimens. Overall, gentamicin (70.8%) was theeffective antibiotic for the tested E. coli isolates. E. coli isolatesobtained from urine specimens showed the highest resistancerates against ampicillin (84.4%) and nalidixic acid (61.5%);while they showed the most sensitivity to gentamicin (79.2%),nitrofurantoin (70.8%) and ciprofloxacin (66.7%). Moreover,the highest antibiotic resistance rates belonged to the isolatesrecovered from endotracheal tube (ETT).Conclusion: The results showed that gentamicin was the mosteffective antibiotic against E. coli infections. However, inaddition to the gentamicin, we can recommend nitrofurantoinand ciprofloxacin as the other effective agents for UTIs.
Original Articles
azar nematollahi; Farideh Vaziri; Nasrin Asadi; Mona Doracvandi; Mehrab Sayadi
Volume 4, Issue 4 , October 2016, Pages 199-204
Abstract
AbstractBackground: Sleep disorders like snoring, mouth breathing, andinsomnia are frequent in pregnancy and studies have shown thatpoor sleep is linked to obstetric complications. Muscle relaxationtechnique is an effective method used for improving sleepquality. The purpose of this study was to determine ...
Read More
AbstractBackground: Sleep disorders like snoring, mouth breathing, andinsomnia are frequent in pregnancy and studies have shown thatpoor sleep is linked to obstetric complications. Muscle relaxationtechnique is an effective method used for improving sleepquality. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectof muscle relaxation technique on fetal outcomes in complicatedpregnancies with sleep disorders.Methods: This study was performed as a clinical trial on 160pregnant women who suffered from preeclampsia and gestationaldiabetes. The participants filled the Pittsburgh Sleep QualityIndex (PSQI) in order to measure the quality and patterns oftheir sleep. The participants with the total score of 5 or morewere included in the present study. Intervention group were askedto use muscle relaxation technique twice a week at home for 8weeks alongside the routine care. Study variables included sleepquality, Apgar scores, birth weight, levels of Interleukin- 6 (IL-6), as well as umbilical cord PH and PO2.Results: The mean score of PSQI before the intervention was9.28±4.16 and 9.18±3.06 in the intervention and control groupswithout a significant difference (P=0.6), respectively. However,PSQI global score of the experimental group was smaller than thecontrol group at the end of the study (P<0.001). Also, birth weight(P=0.04), Apgar score (P=0.01), and umbilical cord blood po2(P=0.03) and PH (P=0.01) were higher, and IL-6 (P=0.04) wassmaller in the experimental group compared to the control group.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that musclerelaxation, as a simple, inexpensive and safe method, canimprove the fetal outcomes such as birth weight, Apgar score,cord blood po2, and cord blood PH, and also it leads to lowerIL-6 in complicated pregnancies.
