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سال چهاردهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 59، زمستان 1402)

The prevalence of obesity has increased globally due to improved living standards, posing a significant public health challenge. This review aims to explore the potential of probiotics in managing the weight of obese individuals.

This review was conducted following the Prisma guidelines for review studies. Relevant studies published between 2010 and 2023 were collected from databases such as ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and PubMed using keywords like "obesity, weight loss, overweight, probiotic bacteria, Lactobacillus spp., and Bifidobacterium spp." Selected studies were analyzed, categorized, and discussed.

Findings suggest that probiotics can effectively control weight, with Lactobacilli showing higher effectiveness compared to other probiotics. Combining other probiotics with Lactobacilli also demonstrated a positive impact on weight control. Overall, studies indicate that adjusting the intestinal microbial flora with probiotic supplements can influence weight management.

Probiotic supplements appear to be a promising strategy for treating obesity in the future. However, further evidence from human trials is necessary to confirm the beneficial effects of probiotics on obesity.

Since 2019, the spread of the coronavirus has caused an epidemic worldwide, and the transmission of the disease through respiratory droplets has been declared as the primary method of transmission in 2020. However, in this study, the indirect transmission of the virus through sewage has been investigated.

Wastewater related to hospital and urban wastewater treatment plants in 5 regions of Ardabil province (northwest of Iran) were investigated. A total of 22 samples were kept in pre-test conditions (temperature -20 degrees Celsius) and were used to identify the viral genome. Specific primer and chain reaction probes targeting ORF1ab and N (nucleoprotein gene) genes were used.

In this research, out of all the samples collected, the result of 3 samples was positive. All three positive samples are related to incoming sewage.

The results of this research showed that sewage epidemiology (WBE) can be considered a cost-effective method for diagnosing and predicting pathogenic agents and an effective method for making decisions to protect citizens' health.

Resilience and professional commitment are crucial factors in an individual's ability to maintain biological and psychological balance in stressful professional situations, especially in the medical field. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has presented numerous psychological challenges to healthcare personnel working in active COVID-19 centers, leading to symptoms of fear, anxiety, depression, and burnout. This study aims to examine the levels of resilience and professional commitment among healthcare workers in COVID-19 centers and their relationship.

This cross-sectional-analytical study was conducted in 2019 on the care workers working in the COVID-19 centers of Mashhad. The link of the standard electronic questionnaire of Davidson's resilience and Klikman's and Henning's professional commitment was published in the virtual Telegram groups of the personnel of the Covid centers in Mashhad, and available sampling was done and the data was analyzed by SPSS-20 software.

The study included 220 participants with an average age of 36.85±8.69 and an average work experience of 11.7±8.36 years. The average score for professional commitment was 52.15±7.35, indicating high professional commitment, while the average resilience score was 69.05±13.04, indicating high resilience. There was a positive and significant correlation between professional commitment and resilience (r=0.379, sig= 0.0001).

The resilience and professional commitment of COVID-19 center employees in Mashhad are in a good state, with a positive and significant relationship between the two. Strengthening the resilience of medical staff during crises may enhance their professional commitment.

Snakebites and scorpion stings are significant health concerns that often require emergency medical attention. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological patterns of these injuries in Shahroud.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted over two years, from April 2017 to March 2019. The data collection tool was the Department of Disease Control trauma registration form, affiliated with the Ministry of Health of Iran. The form collected information such as age, sex, region, accident site, mechanism, and outcome. Data was obtained from the emergency departments of three hospitals. Chi-square and t-tests were used to analyze the data. The significant level was considered 0.05.

During the study period, 334 patients with an average age of 34.1±18.02 years were referred to the emergency departments of the three hospitals. Among them, 67.1% were males. The highest frequency occurred in the age group of 30-40 years for males and 20-30 years for females in August. There was a statistically significant difference in the age distribution of injuries between males and females (p= 0.003).

This study highlights that snake bites and scorpion stings are more prevalent in working-age males and during the summer. Educating the at-risk community and ensuring accurate registration of cases by the National Trauma Registration Program and WHO guidelines is recommended to develop effective preventive strategies.

In recent years, many organizations have been searching for the best method to estimate the number of required staff in their organizations. However, since the basis of these methods is forecasting, their results are likely to be challenging, especially in healthcare organizations. Recently, approaches to estimating required staff based on real workload have become very popular in many organizations. In this research, the required number of family health care providers in outskirt comprehensive health service centers has been calculated using the WISN method.

The current survey is a qualitative-quantitative study. In the first stage, effective and important factors for estimating the required personnel in organizations were obtained by reviewing related articles. In the second stage, through the holding of focus group meetings, the micro-activities of the process of providing services by health care providers were extracted. In the third stage, by using the WISN, the difference and the ratio of the available to the desired staff were obtained, and finally, the norm of health care providers required in comprehensive health service centers was calculated.

In the first stage, from the review of related articles, four implicit factors that should be taken into consideration while analyzing the results of using WISN as factors affecting the number of required personnel were obtained. In the next step, the analysis of the results of the focus group meetings led to the identification of 16 main activities, nine supporting activities, and nine additional activities of health care providers. In the third step, by using the standard of main activities, group and specific allowance, ratio, and difference of WISN were obtained. This ratio was more than one and the difference was positive, indicating the lack of staff and the pressure of work on healthcare workers working in outskirts comprehensive health service centers.

Article reviews show that much research has been conducted in the field of hospitals to estimate the required staff. Unfortunately, despite the great importance of the health sector, the distribution of personnel is still carried out using the ratio of area population. Therefore, the necessity of conducting more studies in this broad and important field is evident. The data was collected from the country's ten regions or poles of medical sciences universities. Therefore, the obtained information can be used to estimate the required number of healthcare workers countrywide, taking regional differences into account.

Reproductive health literacy provides the ability to understand and act on reproductive health information and has many benefits beyond health. Infertility is a reproductive health problem in the world. Since reproductive health literacy plays an important role in people's adherence to self-care programs and treatment and in solving health-related issues, the present study aimed to study reproductive health literacy and its related factors in infertile women.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 240 infertile women referring to the infertility centers of Rasht City in 2022 who had the inclusion criteria. The data collection tool was a questionnaire, the first part of which included demographic-fertility characteristics, and the second part was the reproductive health literacy questionnaire for infertile women, which the women completed independently. The data was analyzed using SPSS statistical software.

According to the results, women with infertility obtained 60.2% of the total score of the reproductive health literacy questionnaire, and based on the cut-off points (50.1 to 66), they needed more reproductive health literacy. According to the multivariate linear regression model, the woman and husband's education, socio-economic status, and the cause of infertility were significant predictive variables that were independently related to reproductive health literacy in infertile women. In addition, reproductive health literacy in infertile women was significantly associated with age, pregnancy history, the number of pregnancies, and abortion (p≤0.05).

Infertile women need reproductive health literacy. The results of this study can be a step toward designing appropriate interventions and providing programs to improve reproductive health literacy.

Recognizing the increasing prevalence of mental health issues among the elderly, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between the psychological well-being of elderly individuals and their dignity and social skills.

In this cross-sectional study, 240 elderly individuals were randomly selected from health centers in Sarab City. Data was collected using Goldberg's psychological well-being, Jacqueline's social dignity, and Riggio's social skills questionnaires. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 21 software, with descriptive and analytical tests performed at a significance level of p<0.05.

The initial hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated that demographic variables could predict 33% of the variance in psychological well-being. Except for education level and housing status, all demographic variables were significant predictors of psychological well-being (p<0.05). In subsequent steps, demographic variables, social skills, and social dignity predicted 45.5% and 52.8% of changes in psychological well-being, respectively. Overall, social dignity emerged as the strongest predictor of psychological well-being (β=0.336).

The study findings suggest that social skills and social dignity are modifiable factors that can significantly impact psychological well-being among the elderly. It is recommended that policymakers and healthcare providers prioritize enhancing social skills and social dignity to enhance psychological well-being among the elderly.

Prevention and control programs for hypertension have been integrated into the health system and implemented for many years in Iran. However, executing such programs often faces challenges in practice, and requires continuous promotion. This study aims to share the experience of promoting hypertension prevention and control processes at the Alzahra Healthcare Center in Marand.

This quantitative-qualitative study utilized an action research approach. Initially, the performance of the control process was assessed at Alzahra Healthcare Center in Marand. The nominal group method and semi-structured interviews were then used to identify challenges in the process from the perspective of purposefully selected stakeholders. Suggestions for promotion were generated through focus group discussions and finalized using priority matrices. The interventions were implemented, and the process performance was reassessed.

Implementation of the interventions led to improvements in indicators related to the percentage of newly identified patients, care for patients with high blood pressure referrals and visits to physicians for the thirty-year-old and older population, and referrals to specialists for patients with hypertension.

While the prevention process for patients with high blood pressure at the selected healthcare center showed relatively good performance, there was still a need for promotion. This study provided solutions to enhance aspects of the process. To ensure continued improvement, the action research cycle should be sustained.