مجله تحقیقات سلامت در جامعه
سال نهم شماره 4 (زمستان 1402)

The education system of any country is subject to fundamental change according to the wishes of society. The need for change in the health care system, medical education and other related sciences, including environmental health, has become increasingly evident in this country in recent years. In the present study, we investigated the revision of educational content in environmental health and the answers to the fundamental questions related to it.

The current study was cross-sectional and comprehensively evaluated at the national level with the participation of professors in the field of environmental health. The study involved 78 distinguished professors of environmental health, and a checklist was prepared and a survey was conducted to obtain their opinions. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS-22 software. The Friedman test was used to compare different areas.

The survey results show that 69.3% of the professors believe that the educational content in the field of environmental health in Iran is fundamentally different from that in developed countries. 89.8% of the distinguished professors believed that the aspects and conditions of environmental health in the country are significantly different from the first year of determining the content and curriculum in the field of environmental health. 96.2% of the distinguished professors of environmental health in the country thought that the expected skills included in the curricula of different levels of the field of environmental health should be revised. At the same time, 85.9% of the professors agreed that the monitoring of environmental pollutants that affect health is one of the most important topics in environmental health.

Based on the survey conducted among the professors of the country ‘s health faculties, it is necessary and useful to revise the definition of environmental health and its educational content to meet the needs of society, given the new conditions in the field of environmental health.

Occupational hearing loss is mainly caused by exposure to high noise levels, and many individual and environmental factors playing a role in its development. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the mediating role of personality traits on the relationship between the perception of noise risk and the degree of occupational hearing loss.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 200 workers exposed to noise levels above 85 dB in a manufacturing industry. Risk perception was assessed using a risk perception questionnaire, while personality traits were measured using the HEXACO personality questionnaire. The degree of hearing loss was measured using a MEVOX-SA900 audiometric device. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25 software, which included calculations of means, standard deviations, Pearson correlation coefficients and structural equation modeling using AMOS version 24.

The average total hearing loss was 8.61 dB, and 79% of workers had normal hearing. The average score for workers' overall risk perception was 73.95±6.19. Among the personality traits, emotionality had the highest score, while honesty had the lowest score. Two components of general risk perception, including risk perception and attitude, as well as the personality trait emotionality, showed a positive and significant correlation with hearing loss. However, personality traits did not show a significant correlation with risk perception.

Higher risk perception does not necessarily mean less hearing loss, therefore other variables such as employee personality traits should also be considered when planning hearing protection programs.

Diabetes (silent death) is one of the problems in the field of health and public health all across the globe. The most important factor in the control of diabetes and its complications is self-care behaviors. The leading cause of death in diabetic patients is a lack of self-care behaviors. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess self-care behavior and its influential factors in people with type 2 diabetes.

In this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study, 308 diabetic patients who were registered in the Sib system between 2015 and 2021 were selected and included via a multi-stage cluster method. The data collection tool was the self-care behavior questionnaire, and the demographic information was obtained from the electronic file (Sib system). Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16) using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency percentage), Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis.

The mean self-care score of the patients was 48.07, and their self-care status was average. Self-care behavior score demonstrated a significant relationship with age, job status, education level, marital status, economic status, smoking, hospitalization history, and disease complications (P<0.05).

As evidenced by the results of the present study, the self-care status of the patients was reported at an average level, and it was affected by various factors, such as education level and job status. Therefore, in order to promote self-care behavior, health policymakers should formulate appropriate programs according to the needs of society, and health educators should perform the necessary educational interventions according to effective factors.

Considering the impact of work stress on nurses' quality of life, stress management is of great importance. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between these two factors in the teaching hospitals of Shahid Sadougi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd in 2023.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the statistical population comprised working nurses, 123 of whom were selected using proportional stratified random sampling. 1981), frequency, mean and standard deviation as well as Pearson correlation test, t-test and ANOVA were used for data analysis with SPSS version 26 software.

Among the dimensions of job strain, nurses had the highest stress (8.38 ± 4.97) and the lowest (2.31 ± 2.09) in the dimension of suffering and death of patients. In the dimensions of quality of work life, the highest mean score was in desire and motivation to work (15.28 ± 2.21) and the lowest in problem solving (8.65 ± 2.54). According to the results of the present study, there is a statistically significant relationship between occupational stress and the quality of nurses' work life (P-value<0.001 and rs=0.399).

Considering the impact of stress on the quality of work life of nurses, managers and responsible officials should take measures to reduce stress. In addition, the existing knowledge can serve as evidence for the relevant managers and officials so that they can take action to eliminate the influential problems with the knowledge of the current situation.

Medications are the most common therapeutic intervention, and the safe use of medication and the existence of processes to improve the safety of medicine are of prime importance. Since nurses have a major role in implementing medication orders, they play a vital role in promoting safety and reducing medication harm to patients. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the barriers to reporting medication errors by nurses of teaching hospitals affiliated with Gorgan, Iran, in 2021.

In this cross-sectional study, 340 nurses from Gorgan teaching hospitals were selected by a randomized stratified method in 2021. The data collection tool was a demographic information checklist and a valid questionnaire of barriers to reporting medication errors. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS software (version 16). Moreover, descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, Spearman, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis correlation coefficients were used.

The average age of the nurses was 33.11 ± 7.36 years, and 290 (85.3%) participants were female. The average score of reporting obstacles in the area of "fear of management factors" was higher than other areas (3.20±0.50), followed by the areas of "fear of reporting consequences" (3.17±0.35) and "factors related to the reporting process" (2.87±0.63) were in the next ranks. The highest average in the areas of "fear of the consequences of reporting", "factors related to the reporting process" and "fear of managerial factors", were respectively related to "fear of legal issues" (3.94±1.11), "unclear definition of medication error" (3.54±1.05), and "disproportionality of the officials' reaction with wrong hierarchy of importance" (3.75±0.96). The service sector had a significant relationship with the overall score of barriers to reporting medication errors (P=0.020) and the area of fear of managerial factors (P=0.017) in a way that the barriers to reporting medication errors by the nurses of the Emergency Department were higher than the other parts.

Among all reporting barriers, "fear of legal issues" had the highest score. Due to the existence of factors such as fear of judicial issues and the inappropriate reaction of hospital officials, it is suggested to define the error reporting process and how to handle medication errors and train hospital managers on how to deal with the person at fault.

Self-compassion is a psychological concept that refers to the ability to understand the pain, suffering, and emotions of others and to show empathy and support them. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the impact of self-compassion training on self-esteem and risky behaviors of adolescents.

This experimental research had two experimental and control groups that were examined before and after the intervention.  The population of this research consisted of all high school adolescents in Minoodasht, Iran, in 2022-2023, who were randomly selected. The sample size for this study was consisted of 50 individuals (25 in the experimental group and 25 in the control group). The tools used in this study included three questionnaires: a demographic information questionnaire, Cooper Smith Self-esteem Inventory, and a risky behaviors questionnaire. Three months after the intervention, a post-test was administered to both groups. The collected data was entered into the SPSS statistical software (version 22) and was analyzed using independent samples t-test, Chi-square test, and ANCOVA.

The findings indicated that the mean age of individuals in the control and experimental groups was 14.04 ± 0.84. The independent t-test before the intervention showed no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in some dimensions, such as tendency to dangerous driving and relationship with the opposite sex (P>0.05). After the intervention, the independent t-test showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in all areas of the Iranian adolescent risk-inventory Scale (IARS) as well as the IARS total score (P<0.05). The independent t-test before the intervention showed no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory (SEI) scales and also the SEI total score (P>0.05), while the independent t-test after the intervention showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in all scales of SEI as well as the SEI total score (P<0.05).

The obtained results indicated that self-compassion training might lead to increased self-esteem and reduced risky behaviors among adolescents. It is suggested to utilize the intervention method used in this article in the process of reducing risky behaviors among adolescents.

Critical thinking and progress orientation are effective in developing entrepreneurial traits in undergraduate students. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between critical thinking tendency and progress goal orientation with entrepreneurial traits among students of Abadan University of Medical Sciences.

The present study was a descriptive-analytical study. The statistical population of the study was the undergraduate students of Abadan University of Medical Sciences in 2022and 139 respondents were randomly selected. The research instruments included three questionnaires on critical thinking tendency, goal orientation of progress and measurement of entrepreneurship characteristics. To analyze the data from descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and analytical statistics (two-sample t-tests (Mann-Whitney), analysis of variance (Kruskal-Wallis), correlation coefficient according to Pearson or Spearman) , the software SPSS. 26 was used with a significance level of 0.05.

A statistically significant correlation was found between the variables of entrepreneurial characteristics and goal-progress (P-value<0.001). In addition, a statistically significant correlation was found between the variables of the entrepreneurial characteristics and the tendency to think critically (P-value<0.001). The components performance avoidance (P-value <0.001) and performance-orientation (P-value = 0.002) from the variable goal-progress orientation with the components of the entrepreneurial characteristics, the components mental involvement (P-value < 0.001) and maturity (P-value < 0.001) from the variable tendency to critical thinking variable had a statistically significant correlation with the entrepreneurial characteristics.

The results of this study show that tendency to critical thinking and goal-progress orientation are significantly related to entrepreneurial traits. Therefore, students with critical thinking characteristics discover and pursue economic and social situations in a more creative way and have the ability to innovatively choose the best and most effective ways to achieve entrepreneurial goals.

Exercise and diet are two major interventions that control obesity. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of high-intensity interval training during the ketogenic diet (HIIT-KD) and moderate-intensity continuous aerobic training during the ketogenic diet (MICT-KD) on the appetite, appetite hormones, and body composition in overweight and obese females.

In this semi-experimental research, 36 overweight or obese inactive women participated in this study and were randomly divided into three groups, including ketogenic diet (KD), MICT-KD, and HIIT-KD. The training groups exercised six weeks and three sessions per week interval running with 85-95 % HRmax or continuous running with 60-70 % HRmax along with following KD. Fasting blood sampling was performed before and after the intervention to measure hormones. Body composition was measured by the electrical bioimpedance method, and appetite was measured by visual analog scale. The mixed two-way ANOVA test, Bonferroni’s test, and paired t-test were used for statistical analysis.

No significant differences were observed in the serum level of leptin, acylated ghrelin, and leptin to ghrelin ratio between the three groups (P>0.05). The feeling of hunger, satiety, and fullness did not differ significantly between the three groups (P>0.05). The Prospective food consumption in the MICT-KD group showed a significant decrease compared to other groups (P=0.001). There was no significant difference in body weight, body fat percent, body water, and muscle volume between the groups (P>0.05).

There were no differences between the two types of exercise during a ketogenic diet on appetite hormones and body composition in overweight or obese women. Furthermore, both types of exercise during a ketogenic diet had no superiority over the ketogenic diet alone. Prospective food consumption was reduced in the MICT-KD group compared to the other two groups.

Greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants are major challenges facing humanity today, mainly due to the consumption of energy sources. Industry makes an important contribution to the development of a country, but also contributes to increased energy consumption, which is unavoidable. To address this issue, the use of energy and emissions modeling can be very helpful in understanding the processes involved in reducing energy consumption, identifying emissions patterns and assessing the social costs associated with these emissions.

In this study, a systemic dynamics model was developed to calculate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants in the industrial sector of Isfahan province. The model considers industrial energy consumption for the years 2011-2020 and estimates the social costs associated with these emissions. Various development scenarios were applied to the model and the reduction in social costs was calculated.

The social costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants were between 2.58 and 3.79 million dollars (based on 2002 USD). The highest social costs occurred in 2012and the lowest in 2014. Carbon dioxide was found to be the largest contributor to these social costs.

Mazut fuel and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions are the main contributors to social costs in the study area, and industry and power plants are known to be the main consumers of this fuel. Therefore, the scenario in which mazut fuel is banned from industry has the greatest impact on reducing social costs. Furthermore, despite the higher efficiency of combined cycle power plants compared to gas-fired power plants, the scenario of converting gas-fired power plants into combined cycle power plants is recognized as the last proposed scenario to reduce social costs.

Despite recent efforts to identify microplastics in the aquatic environment worldwide, identifying the various sources of its release remains a challenging task. Understanding and identifying the different sources of aquatic pollution and the processes affecting them is essential for a comprehensive description of the quality of water resources. The aim of this study is therefore to introduce statistical methods to determine the sources of microplastics in aquatic environments.

This review article first identifies the pathways of microplastic entry into the aquatic environment, followed by an examination of four commonly used multivariate statistical methods Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA), Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF).

Multivariate statistical analysis can be used to determine different variables such as size, shape, color, and density of microplastics. It can also determine the sources of microplastics (domestic wastewater, industrial effluents, agricultural activities, surface runoff, air currents, etc.). It also identifies which variables have the greatest impact on pollution and suggests the best solutions to reduce pollution.

the study of pollution based on multivariate statistical analysis can provide important information on the main sources of microplastic pollution and the relative contribution of different sources in the aquatic environment, which can help to improve environmental management and reduce pollution.