مریم بهلگردی

Happiness and vitality are among the most important and effective components in the process of human life, without which activity, creativity, initiative, invention, and healthy life cannot be created. Happiness is a valuable tool for improving the personality and job performance of employees; meaning that happy people are more successful in the workplace. The creation of social vitality is the priority for comprehensive intervention in South Khorasan Province, Iran, for comprehensive intervention. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the individual and organizational factors related to the social vitality of women working at the Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.

This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was performed on 214 females working at Birjand University of Medical Sciences selected using a systematic random sampling method in 2019. The 29-item Oxford Happiness Standard was used to collect data to measure social vitality.

The mean score of the femaleschr('39') happiness was estimated at 73.55±12.32 and the majority of the subjects had moderate happiness (60.3%). Moreover, most of the cases had not participated in happiness courses before (85.6%). The results also showed that happiness had no significant relationship with age, educational level, marital status, education level of the spouse, and occupation of spouse among the women (P>0.05); however, happiness showed a significant relationship with income and place of residence (P<0.05).

It seems that the social vitality of working women was moderate; in this respect, it is recommended to officials and planners implement educational interventions to improve the vitality of employees.

Research self-efficacy is the main factor influencing successful administration and pursuing of research by postgraduate students. This study aimed to determine research self-efficacy among postgraduate students at Birjand University of Medical Sciences (BUMS) in 2015-16. This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 master and PhD students at BUMS in 2015-16 academic year who were selected by census method. Data were collected by means of Phillips and Russell’s research self-efficacy questionnaire whose validity and reliability had already been confirmed. The collected data were analyzed using independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression. A total of 154 questionnaires were analyzed. The average age of students was 30.51±6.3 years. The mean score of research self-efficacy was 180.43±53.1 (out of 297) and showed a significant difference in terms of education and marital status being significantly higher in PhD students (223.24±18.84) and single students (189.45±33.52). However, no significant difference was found in research self-efficacy scores in terms of gender, residential status, and faculty. There was a significant direct relationship between grade point average and research self-efficacy (r=0.290, p=0.0001). The results showed that the research self-efficacy of the postgraduate students at BUMS was at an average level and appropriate educational interventions are required to enhance research self-efficacy.

Introduction and Researchers pay more attention toward mental health status of elderly due to increased life expectancy and aged population. Therefore, this study aimed to identify prevalence of mental disorders and its related factors among elderly at the Birjand city.
This cross sectional study was conducted among 389 elderly at Birjand city using multistage sampling method. Data were collected using Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28). We used SPSS version 18 to analyze data using t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient.
Findings: Participants in the present study aged 63.65±3.74 years old in average. Slightly more than half (51.2%) of elderly was suspected to mental disorders, 3.3% had depressions, 14.1% had anxiety, 15.2% had physical dysfunction and 14.1% had Social dysfunction. Prevalence of mental disorders among older age, female, low education, unemployed and disabled elderly was significantly (p=0.001) higher than their counterparts.
Our findings indicated high prevalence of mental disorders among elderly. Therefore, it is recommended to utilize screening tools for early diagnosis of mental disorders especially among women, low education, unemployed and disabled elderly.

Given to increasing of life expectancy and population of older people, consideration to mental health and its related variables in older people has been more important. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between religious orientation and mental health in older people. This cross sectional study was conducted on 389 older people in Birjand at 2014 that were selected by multistage sampling. In addition to questionnaire of demographic information, data collection was carried out by using general health questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) and religious orientation questionnaire of Allport. Data were analyzed using SPSS (V: 18) by the Mann-Whitney test and Spearman correlation coefficients in 0.05 significant level. The mean age of participants was 63.65 (± 3.74) year. Based on the results of the study, score of religious orientation was significantly higher in people without mental disorders, and there was a significant relationship between religious orientation and mental health (r=-0.589) and its subscales includes physical symptoms (r=- 0.605), anxiety (r=-0.587), social function (r=-0.484) and depression (r=-0.642) (p<0.001).Discussion & Results indicated a significant relationship between religious orientation and mental health in older people so that increasing and more internalization of religious orientation can be improved mental health. Given to the aging population and the importance of mental health in the older people more attention to the role of religious orientation in planning interventions for the aging population seems necessary.

Smoking is a global problem and is the most important cause of death due to non- communicable diseases. This study was conducted to evaluate smoking and its correlates in male students in South Khorasan. This descriptive-analytical study was undertaken in South Khorasan on high school male students. A sample of 2371 cases was selected through cluster multi stage sampling. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software using chi-square and logistic regression tests. The prevalence of smoking was 12. 3 per cent (285 cases). The most important motivating factors for smoking for the first time were curiosity، joy. The most important predictors of smoking were hookah consumption، the presence of a smoker in or outside the living place، and a negative attitude to smoking. Working father and education regarding smoking risks were preventive factors. Special education and public awareness about the risks of smoking and establishment of consultation centers for adolescents can be major steps toward the prevention and control of smoking among students.