Journal of Research in Health Sciences
Volume:20 Issue: 4, Fall 2020

The residents’ perceptions of the crime and lack of safety with their neighborhood environment, associated with stress that confers risk for drinking. While many studies have focused on adult drinking, less is known about how subjective neighborhood crime influences drinking during adolescent. We aimed to determine the association of perceived neighborhood crime and youth alcohol use. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

This study was conducted on 1087 university youths from 30 neighborhood clusters in Northeastern Thailand from May 2019 to Mar 2020. The data were collected by self-administered questionnaire. A multilevel logistic regression model was applied to examine the effect of perceived neighborhood crime on hazardous alcohol use.

Most of youths were female, approximately 60.7% reported hazardous alcohol use, and the average perceived neighborhood crime score was 65.1 (standard deviation, 2.1). The perceived neighborhood crime was associated with hazardous alcohol use; a 1-unit increase in the scores for perceived neighborhood crime corresponded to a 20% increase in hazardous alcohol use. The role of perceived neighborhood crime on alcohol use varied among males, but not females.

The perceived neighborhood crime plays a role in the increase likelihood of hazardous alcohol use. The consideration of neighborhood crime context is important to design the alcohol preventive and intervention strategies.

The financial burden of cigarette smoking on households’ budget is not well documented in Iran. We aimed to identify the determinants of cigarette consumption and its financial burden among households in Iran. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

A total of 39,864 Iranian’s households from 31 provinces were included in the analysis. Data on sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics (age, sex, household size, education level, employment status, income and wealth index), living area, number of cigarettes smoked and cigarette expenditures for households were extracted from the 2016 Household Income and Expenditures Survey (HIES). Tobit model was used to identify the determinants of cigarette smoking frequency and expenditures among Iranian households.

The average number of cigarettes smoked and cigarettes expenditures by all household members was 85.25 cigarettes and US$ 2.64 per month. Living in urban areas, wealth index of households, household income, household size and low educational attainment of household members were positively associated with frequency and expenditures of cigarette smoking. Results also indicated increasing patterns in the number of cigarettes smoked and cigarettes expenditures from east to west of the country. East Azerbaijan, Hamadan, Markazi and Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari provinces had higher cigarette smoking frequency and expenditures in Iran.

Tobacco control interventions in Iran should focus more on households living in urban areas and low-educated households. As the frequency of cigarette smoking was higher in the western region of Iran, comprehensive tobacco control policies should be adopted in western provinces.

Frequency, severity, and duration of attacks are some major parameters in headache management, affected by some other factors. Ignoring these factors in headache-related studies can lead to incorrect results. We aimed to model both socio-demographic characteristics and headache-associated symptoms related to frequency, severity and duration of headache attacks. Study design: A longitudinal panel study.

Overall, 275 migraines or tension Type Headache (TTH) patients were visited at three different times in 2012 in Isfahan, Iran. On the first visit socio-demographic characteristics and headache symptoms of the patients were asked. In all of the visits, headache frequency, severity and attack duration were recorded.

Frequency of headaches was influenced by headache type, age, job status, working hours, residency, disease duration, laterality, and type of pain onset. In terms of intensity, headaches were more severe in patients with migraine-type; those suffering from longer headache history; and those who suffered from vomiting, photophobia, and phonophobia. On the other hand patients with migraine, married people, women and patients suffering from vomiting experienced longer headache attacks.

Headache type (migraine/TTH), age, job status, residency, years of headache, laterality, type of onset, nausea, vomiting, photophobia, and phonophobia were the factors to be considered in the studies that would apply frequency, severity, and duration of headache attacks in order to evaluate headache management.

We aimed to determine the relation of different sources of academic stress and adolescents´ mental health through mediator variables on the student and school levels. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

Overall, 1724 students aged 12-19 yr were selected from 53 high schools in Qazvin City, central Iran through stratified cluster sampling. The sources of academic stress include family conditions, education system, future concerns, academic competitions, interaction with teachers, school disciplines, peer pressure, parental involvement, and financial problems. Academic self-efficacy and self-concept were the mediator constructs. The students and schools´ information were considered on levels 1 and 2, respectively. A Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM) analysis was done.

High value of academic stress was associated with reduction of mental health. On the student level, the academic stress caused by the families 0.31 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.34), peers 0.29 (95% CI: 0.27, 0.32), and the education system 0.21 (95% CI: 0.18, 0.24) had the highest impact on the adolescentsˊ mental health, respectively. There was a direct and indirect relation between academic stress and mental health through the self-concept. On the school level, only family conditions stress had a relation with mental health (P=0.015, b=1.08). Academic self-efficacy showed no significant relation in the model.

The stress from the family is the most important source of stress associated with adolescent mental health. Self-concept unlike academic self-efficacy had an important mediating role in the relation between different sources of academic stress and adolescents' mental health.

Identifying survival modifiable factors and additive interaction between them could help in prioritizing the clinical care of Hemodialysis (HD) patients. We aimed to examine the survival rate and its predictors in HD patients; and explore the additive interaction between survival modifiable factors. Study design: A retrospective cohort study.

The present study was performed on 1142 HD patients in Hamadan Province, western Iran from 2007 to 2017. Data were collected through a researcher-made checklist on hospital records. Laplace regression was used to evaluate differences in 40th survival percentiles in different levels of predictors as well as exploring the pairwise additive interactions between variables.

We observed significantly higher survival in nonsmoker patients (40th percentile difference = 5.34 months, 95% CI: 2.06, 8.61). Survival was shorter by more than 3 years in CRP positive patients (40th percentile difference=36.9 months, 95% CI: 32.37, 41.42). Patients with normal albumin (40th percentile difference =24.92, 95% CI: 18.04, 31.80) and hemoglobin (40th percentile difference = 18.65, 95% CI: 12.43, 24.86) had significantly higher survival (P<0.001). There was superadditive interaction between being CRP negative and nonsmoker (β3 = 9.42 months, 95% CI: 3.35, 15.49 (P=0.002)).

High CRP and low serum albumin and hemoglobin were associated with the increased risk of death in HD patients. The results of this study support the presence of super-additive interaction between CRP status with serum hemoglobin and also CRP status with smoking, resulting in excess survival in HD patients.

Given the increasing trend of Water pipe (WP) smoking in adolescent females, it is necessary to use effective educational strategies in preventing WP smoking in developing countries. We aimed to determine effectiveness of e-learning program in preventing WP smoking in adolescent females west of Iran using prototype-willingness model. Study Design: A randomized controlled trial.

This study was performed on 221 adolescent females in Kermanshah City, Iran during 2019-2020. Multistage random sampling was used. Data collection tool included a researcher-made questionnaire based on prototype-willingness model. E-learning-based intervention program included 5 training sessions. Participants were followed up for 3 months after the intervention. The data were analyzed using SPSS software.

The mean scores of attitude, subjective norms, prototype, intention, and behavioral willingness structures were similar in both experimental and control groups before the educational intervention. However, after educational interventions, mean scores of structures of positive attitude towards WP, subjective norms about WP smoking, positive prototype about WP smokers, intention, and behavioral willingness towards WP smoking were decreased in the experimental group. Moreover, frequency of WP smoking was decreased in the experimental group compared to the control group after the educational intervention (P=0.003).

The use of e-learning-based interventions is an educational strategy for reducing WP smoking in adolescent females.

Preventive measures on the COVID-19 pandemic is an effective way to control its spread. We aimed to investigate the effect of control measures and holiday seasons on the incidence and mortality rate of COVID-19 in Iran. Study design: An observational study.

The daily data of confirmed new cases and deaths in Iran were taken from the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 database. We calculated weekly data from 19 Feb to 6 Oct 2020. To estimate the impact of control measures and holiday seasons on the incidence rate of new cases and deaths, an autoregressive hidden Markov model (ARHMM) with two hidden states fitted the data. The hidden states of the fitted model can distinguish the peak period from the non-peak period.

The control measures with a delay of one-week and two-week had a decreasing effect on the new cases in the peak and non-peak periods, respectively (P=0.005). The holiday season with a two-week delay increased the total number of new cases in the peak periods (P=0.031). The peak period for the occurrence of COVID-19 was estimated at 3 weeks. In the peak period of mortality, the control measures with a three-week delay decreased the COVID-19 mortality (P=0.010). The expected duration of staying in the peak period of mortality was around 6 weeks.

When an increasing trend was seen in the country, the control measures could decline the incidence and mortality related to COVID-19. Implementation of official restrictions on holiday seasons could prevent an upward trend of incidence for COVID-19 during the peak period.

This survey was conducted to determine the level of aggression among the Iranian adult population and underlying predisposing factors. Study design: A cross-sectional study.

This cross-sectional study included 10,957 participants, involving 23 out of the 31 provinces of Iran in 2019. The outcome of interest was aggression, evaluated by the Buss & Perry aggression questionnaire. The association between aggression and 34 demographic, behavioral, social, and cultural characteristics was assessed using simple and multiple linear regression.

The overall mean (SD) score of aggression was 77.10 (22.53). Based on the severity of aggression, the participants were categorized into four groups as follows: 2,464 (23.1%) nonaggressive, 4,692 (43.9%) mild, 3,071 (28.8%) moderate, and 454 (4.2%) severe aggressive. Aggression was more likely to occur in people with the following characteristics: younger ages, having several siblings, lower ranks of birth, having an intimate friend of the opposite sex, having an aggressive father/mother, history of parental divorce, interest in watching action/porn movies, listening to music, history of escape from home/school, using neuropsychiatric drugs, using illicit drugs, history of suicidal thoughts/attempt, and family conflict and hostility. Aggression was less likely to occur with the following characteristics: reading, regular physical exercise, the ability to control anger, regular prayer, adherence to avoid lying, respect to other people's rights, sexual satisfaction, and attachment to parents.

A majority of the population has some degree of aggression. Aggression is a multifactorial behavior corresponding with several demographical, social, cultural, and religious factors, some of which back to early childhood events.