Journal of Research in Health Sciences
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2009

There are great interests in photocatalytic oxidation of contaminants using titanium di oxide in recent years. The main objective of this research was to study photocatalytic disinfection of Coli form bacteria as water microbial pollution index using TiO2 and a low pressure UV lamp in a batch re actor. The polluted water was prepared by adding a colony of Coliform in raw water and in sepa rate stages was contacted with UV, TiO2 and combination of them and various parameters such as con tact time, pH and amount of TiO2 were studied in terms of their effect on reaction progress. The results showed that in simultaneous presence of both UV ray and TiO2, there was the most effective disinfection of Coliform. This study showed that 100% of Coliform was killed by irra diation for 60-75 min. in the presence of 0.8 gr l-1 TiO2 in pH=7.0. Based on the results, UV/TiO2 process may be effectively applied for disinfection of pol luted water and can be suggested as a effective purifying method for water disinfection.

Occupational injury is related to personal characteristics. This phenomenon is a controversial issue. This paper presents the relationships of certain occupational and individual characteristics with frequency of occupational injuries. A standardized injury questionnaire was completed for 199 employees in a big Iranian industrial company (MAPNA Group) by the researcher in the presence of the subjects. The data were analyzed using zero-inflated Poisson regression with random effects. We demonstrated a significant relation between the marital status (P< 0.001) and score of injures (P < 0.001) with number of injuries by employees. Technicians and supervisors have high chance of "not to be injured at all" relative to workers (P< 0.05). Technicians and supervisors have less number of injuring than workers have (P< 0.05). In addition, increasing assessment score decreases the number of injuring of employees (P< 0.001). Due to being aware of the risks and remedial measures, married employees and workers should be assisted by occupational specialists.

Suicide has constituted a critical public health problem for many decades. The number of completed suicide is traditionally high in Iran. The objective of the present study was to describe the patterns of methods of suicide among registered deaths due to suicide in Hamada, western Iran In this cross-sectional study, all completed suicide cases (n=146) were included from March 2004 through March 2005 based on Hamadan''s Forensic center registered deaths because of suicide. Supplementary data were gauged through a questionnaire from the attempters’ relatives. All statistical analyses were performed using version 13 of the statistical software package SPSS and an alpha level of. 05 for all statistical tests. Prevalence of completed suicide was 8.3 per 100,000 in Hamadan, Iran. From 146 cases, the male-to-female ratio was 7.1:1. Average age of cases was 33.9 yr (Min=10, Max=94) across all age groups, males show consistently higher completed suicide rates than females. Of the 69.2% were from urban population versus 30.8% form rural population. The most common method of suicide was hanging (78.1 %). Other common methods were poisoning (11.6%), and self-burning (6.2%). Suicide rate in Hamadan is high among males through hanging which can be due to substance dependency and unemployment

This study explores the level of Occupational Stress and main sources of occupational and personal stress among Rural Health Workers (RHW) of the health network of Mashhad district. The first part of the Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI) (called the Occupational Roles Ques tion naire (ORQ)) was used to measure the Rural Health Workers occupational stress (N=172). A num ber of extra questions were also added to measure their specific sources of stress. The question naires were distributed among RHW in a meeting held in the Health District Center in the city of Mash had. The mean score of stress for the investigated subjects on OSI and all of its dimensions was within the normal range. On some dimensions such as role overload and role ambiguity however, about 40% of the Health Workers had middle to sever stress. Type of employment, distance of the vil lage to the nearest city, number and combination of Health Workers in rural health clinics showed to have a significant impact on the RHW stress as well. As the RHW Job is concerned, role overload and role ambiguity are the main sources of stress, which may have an adverse effect on the quality of their services. Type of employment, dis tance of the village to the nearest city, number and combination of Health Workers at the health cen ter also put pressure on RHW that need to be taken under consideration in planning for improv ing RHW qual ity of work Life

This study investigated the relationship between people''s attitudes towards the safety cul ture and comparing its perceptions among three levels of refinery Personnel: top management, su pervisory staff and frontline workers by conducting safety culture survey. A questionnaire comprising general information and 59-safety attitude statement were dis tributed among 237 workers, 53 supervisors and 12 managers in Isfahan Tar Refinery in Iran. The 10 testable factors, including organizational and management commitment to safety and com munication, Rule breaking, Training and competence, Pressure for production and safety, Com munication, Personal involvement in health and safety, Accident/Incidents/Near misses, Organiza tional/management commitment to health and safety, Supervisors/Immediate bosses/Line managers, Health and safety procedures/Instructions/rules, Workforce view on state of safety culture, have high in ter-correlations and the three groups of respondents hold quite different attitudes regarding safety cul ture. These findings can give invaluable indication to the managers to have better understand ing of safety culture in this industry.

Adequate self-care in diabetes causes quality of life promotion and decreases the num ber of inpatient cases. The health locus of control theory is used to assess adherence to diabetes regi men in some studies in developed countries. The purpose of this study was to determine the status of diabe tes locus of control in a sample of diabetic patients in Iran and investigation of it''s relationship to adher ence to diabetes regimen. This analytical and cross-sectional study was carried out on 120 patients referred to Yazd Diabe tes Research Center. The Iranian versions of Diabetes Locus of Control scale and Diabetes Self-care Activities scale were used for data collection. Men were more internal locus of control and women were more chance locus of control. The attri butions of external locus of control increased by age, while the internal locus of control increased by education level and chance locus of control decreased by education level. A positive association be tween internal locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen was found and there was a negative asso ciation between chance locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen. Findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving internal locus of control may im prove adherence to diabetes regimen but different diabetic patients have different attribution styles and inter ventional programs to enhance diabetes self-care will be more successful if patient’s locus of con trol is addressed.

Head lice infestation caused by Pediculus humanus var capitis (Pediculus capitis) is a worldwide pub lic health concern that affects mostly school aged children. This descriptive, analytical study was carried out in 2008 to determine the prevalence of pediculosis capitis and some risk factors among primary-school pupils in Bahar, Hamadan Province, Iran. We selected 900 pupils (50% girls and 50% boys) from 18 primary schools by multistage, systematic ran dom sampling. Their hair was examined for head louse infestation. The results and demographic information re corded in the questionnaire and then were analyzed by SPSS software. Twelve students (1.3%) were infected with lice, 10 (2.2%) girls and 2 (0.44%) boys. The rate of infection was 0.66% in urban and 1.66% in rural areas. The results showed significant variations in head lice infestation, and factors such as sex, level of parent education and habitat (P<0.05), while there was no significant variation between school grade, members of family and the frequency of hair washing (P> 0.05). The prevalence of pediculosis was less than average percentages observed in other stu dents inside and outside Iran. We recommend that the parents and teachers should receive training about the danger of infection and its distribution in family and school in order to prevent it.

This study was conducted to determine the causes and outcomes of burn in patients referred to Shahid Mohammadi Hospital in Bandar Abbass, southern Iran, in which 212 burned patients were assessed from March 2007 to March 2008. Mean age of patients was 22.14 yr. Heat contact was the main cause of burn with 92.5%. 49.1% of total burns occurred among less than 20 yr old people. Mortality rate was 10.4%. Most of burns occurred at home. An educational program is necessary to prevent thermal burning at home.