Health and Development Journal
Volume:1 Issue: 1, 2012

Needle injuries are one of the most important hazards threatening the health of medical personnel, which can transmit more than 20 infectious pathogens. This study was conducted in order to evaluate the knowledge and practice of the medical staff at Ali-ebne-Abitaleb Hospital of Rafsanjan, Iran, in regard to the hazards of needle injuries. This cross sectional study was conducted by enrolling 186 medical staff members in an educational hospital of Rafsanjan. The research tool was a researcher designed questionnaire which included question about the diseases transmitted through blood, their practice after needle injury and history of vaccination against Hepatitis B. The maximum score of knowledge and attitude in this questionnaire was 10 and 7 respectively. The average knowledge and practice score of the participants was 6.2 (± 2.4) and 4.5 (± 1.3) respectively, 93% had received complete vaccinations against Hepatitis B, 54.1% of the participants had a history of needle injury and the most prevalent situation in which needle injury happened was venopuncture (36%) and injection (36%). The most frequent reason for needle injury was the heavy work load (33%) and time constrains (30.6%). In people injured by needles, the most frequent practice after injury was blood-letting from the injured site (97.8 %) and washing the site (95.7%). The high prevalence of needle injury on one hand and the relatively low knowledge on the other hand is a serious alarm for medical personnel. Therefore practical education and encouraging the report of all injured cases is recommended.

Statistical control is one of the tools in performance assessment and comparison of hospitals. In this regard the Pabon Lasso graph is used as a technique in hospitals. The current study aimed to compare the performance of teaching hospitals of Kerman and Shiraz Universities of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2007 using the Pabon Lasso tools. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Eight teaching hospitals in Kerman and Shiraz were selected through purposive sampling. The data gathering instrument was the standard data form for hospital activities that had been verified by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Three indicators related to Pabon Lasso chart including Bed Occupancy Rate, Average Length of Stay and Bed Turnover Rate were calculated using the Excel software. Finally, the Pabon Lasso graph was used to rank the performance of the selected hospitals in terms of the indicators. Two out of the 8 hospitals (25%) including Shafa and Khalili fell in the second quarter and 4 out of the 8 hospitals (50%) including Shahid Bahonar, Shahid Faghihi, Namazi and Afzalipour were placed in the third quarter of the chart. Also 2 out of the 8 hospitals were positioned in the fourth quarter. Overall, a separate comparison of the three indicators showed that Shiraz teaching hospitals have better efficiency and performance than Kerman teaching hospitals. Pabon Lasso graph can be used as a suitable tool in the performance assessment of hospitals. Also, it is recommended that these functional indicators be prioritized in the annual evaluation of hospitals.

Obesity is one of the most common health problems in the world and its prevalence is increasing in both developed and developing nations with changes in dietary habits and activity levels. The present study aimed to provide population-based data on the prevalence of obesity and some demographic factors associated with obesity. A community-based, cross-sectional survey was done on 3,000 individuals in Tehran province, Iran, From May 2006 through December 2007. Respondents were asked about their height and weight in the questionnaire. Body mass index was assigned as the measure of overall obesity and was calculated as body weight (kg) divided by height squared (meters). The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was 38.3% and 17.5%. The combined prevalence of both overweight and obesity was 51.7% in males and 58.3% in females. The mean BMI ± SD for the total population studied was 26.1 ± 4.7 and it was higher in women than in men (P < 0.05). The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was 39.7% and 12.0% in men, and 37.4% and 20.9% in women. The multivariate analysis showed that there was a higher percentage of obesity among older individuals, females, married and less educated subjects. Our results indicate that the prevalence of overweight and obesity are relatively high in Tehran and must be considered as a significant public health problem especially among women.

Although notable advances in disease prevention have been accomplished, communicable diseases are still important at the international scale. Many epidemiologic studies have been conducted about the epidemiology of communicable diseases in Iran, but less attention has been paid to generating an atlas of all disease. Some experts believe that mapping diseases such as malaria is the first step toward establishing early warning systems and managing disease control. In this manuscript, we tried to gather information about the communicable diseases of Iran in a geo-database, and draw maps with high accuracy. Initially reportable cases of diseases were gathered from the Iranian communicable disease control center. Then, these data were arranged in a geo-referenced database in the Arc-GIS software and then the related maps were generated. Twenty five maps of communicable diseases were created in 2008. Some diseases like malaria had considerable foci and some other disease according to their condition did not have a considerable dispersion. Although the history of preparing an atlas of diseases goes back to the 19th century, papers about mapping diseases in Iran are restricted to single diseases or these atlases are not easily accessible. The present article is unique in this regard in Iran.

Congenital hypothyroidism is one of the most prevalent endocrine disorders. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism in the Kerman Province, Iran. This cross sectional study was conducted using existing documents in District Health Centers covered by Kerman and Jiroft Universities of Medical Sciences. According to the National protocol all neonates should be screened for TSH between days 3 to 5 after birth. Cases with TSH values of ≥ 5 mu/L are considered abnormal and will be referred for diagnosis and treatment. In total 48553 neonates (including both Iranian and Afghani neonates) were born in areas covered by the two Medical Universities and 48277 were screened. 1689 cases (3.5%) were suspicious, and finally 166 cases, or 0.34% (CI95%: 0.29-0.40) were diagnosed as having congenital hypothyroidism. There was no relationship between the prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism and sex or nationality (P > 0.05). But the prevalence was higher in the rural areas (P < 0.001). Although our results are compatible with findings of some local studies (i.e., Yazd and Kashan), it seems there is some discrepancy with the mean country level and also the rates of other countries. Further supervision on the program implementation in this province is warranted.

Efficiency is related to doing things right in the organization; this means making decisions to reduce costs, increase production, and to improve the quality of products. Since efficiency plays an important role in an organization’s effectiveness and outcomes, identifying the effective factors is important. The present study aims to determine the effective factors in improving hospital performance indicators and prioritizing them. The present descriptive –analytical study was carried out as a cross sectional study. The study population consisted of top, middle and operational managers of Zabol hospitals, Iran, including hospital managers, nursing managers, supervisors, and all in charge of the therapeutic, administrative, and financial units, who all participated in the study on a census bases. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and mean weight. Bed occupancy rate (mean = 31.32), average length of stay (mean = 23.89), bed day cost (mean = 23.16) and bed turnover rate (mean = 23.14), were respectively the most important and influential factors on efficiency. Most mangers emphasized the necessity of more attention being paid to human resources (i.e. employing skillful and committed human resources and recruiting experienced managers) and organizational resources (accessibility and proper use of facilities) as indispensable factors in improving hospitals efficiency.

Three decades after the incidence of the first cases of AIDS in the world, this problem is still attracting world attention. No problem has been as complex or controversial and unexpected as AIDS in the recent decade. This study was conducted to survey the effect of education through lectures on the knowledge and attitude of high school students regarding AIDS.

This quasi-experimental study was performed on 400 high school students of Faruj, in the Northern Khorasan Province, Iran, who were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Information was collected using questionnaires that were completed in two stages (pre-test and post-test) by the research units. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and analytical tests such as paired t-test.

The results showed that the mean score of knowledge before education was 2.60 and after education was 2.70 (P < 0.05), it also showed that the average attitude score increased from 2.55 to 2.66 (P < 0.05). The increase in both cases was significant.

Education is effective in improving the knowledge and attitude of students regarding AIDS. Therefore, choosing suitable educational strategies to raise awareness among students and providing new and updated information is among the most efficient and cost-effective measures in preventing AIDS.

There is very Iittle information on the rate of occupational and environmental exposure to lead in Iran, as this information is important for planning preventive interventions in the future, it seemed necessary to conduct a review about this issue. The aim of this article is to summarize the status of lead exposure in different sections of the Iranian society according to published articles. Databases: All accessible electronic databases including Google Scholar, Science Direct, Iranmedex, SID, Magiran, Web of Knowledge and Pubmed were searched with phrases about lead contamination in humans in Iran and in both Persian and English languages. Among the 45 articles that were retrieved, 43 papers about measuring lead contamination in humans were selected. According to the selected studies, the average amount of lead in Iranian adults is higher in comparison to other developed countries, and in some studies the amount is above standard. The blood lead level was also high in workers of industries related to lead. This review shows that the average amount of the blood lead level in Iranian children was above the standard 10 mgr/dl threshold in all studies It seems like lead contamination is high in Iranians and the reason may be the continuous use of leaded gasoline in the past, contamination of food, and occupational exposure. The result of this study highlights the importance of conducting screening programs in children and workers of special occupations in order to diagnose people at risk of lead exposure and prevent their further contamination.