fahimeh bagheri

The Isfahan COVID Cohort (ICC) study was designed to investigate the short? and long?term consequences of patients with COVID?19 in Iran. This report presents the rationale, methodology, and initial results of ICC.

ICC is a 5?year multicentric prospective cohort study that is ongoing on two groups including 5000 patients hospitalized with moderate or severe and 800 nonhospitalized patients with mild or asymptomatic COVID?19 in Isfahan. The ICC  ndpoints are morbidity, mortality, incident cases, or worsening of  nderlying noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors. In the current analysis, we examined the persistent symptoms and incident  CDs or risk factors in 819 previously hospitalized patients who completed 1?year follow?up.

The two most common symptoms were joint pain/myalgia (19.7%) and dry cough/dyspnea (18.7%). Around 60% of patients had at least one symptom which was more common among  omen than men and in middle aged than younger or older patients.  emale (odds ratio [OR] =1.88, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.39–2.55) and highly?educated patients (OR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.56–3.04) had higher risk of having any symptom in 1?year follow?up. New cases of hypertension followed by diabetes then coronary heart disease (CHD) were the most common incident NCDs.

During 1?year follow?up after hospital discharge, about 60% of patients experienced persistent symptoms. Incident hypertension, diabetes, and CHD were the most common events seen. Close monitoring and extensive health  ervices with integrative approaches are needed to improve the health status of these patients.

Introduction: Defining the opacity of urinary stones by Kidney -Ureter-Bladder (KUB) imaging in the selectionof treatment modality is considered necessary by many urologists. This imposes more radiation to patients andadditional health costs. The objective of this study is evaluation of the capability of Computed Tomography (CT)imaging in predicting the opacity of urinary calculi. Methods: In this prospective study, the appearance of stonesand the body characteristics of all our patients were recorded and analyzed. The setup for reviewing the imagingwas as follows: first: CT-scout, then KUB and finally CT scan. The sensitivity and specificity of the CT-scoutand Hounsfield unit in detecting stone opacity was calculated. The effect of stone size and body parametersin CT on predicting non-opaque stones were then analyzed. CT scout-negative KUB-positive urolithiasis wereanalyzed separately. Results: Among 197 participants, all opaque calculi in CT scout were also visible on KUB.Among scout-negative urinary stones, twenty-eight (14.21%) were KUB opaque. For predicting the opacity byCT scan parameters, the most desirable HU cut-off was 504 HU and 510 HU in KUB and CT scout, with 80.8%and 86.5% sensitivity, respectively. The overall sensitivity of CT-scout was 86.27% and specificity was 64.29%.Stone diameter≥5mm and subcutaneous fat width of≤25.40 mm augmented the sensitivity in our study groups.Conclusion: All opaque calculi on scout imaging are also opaque on KUB and this could obviate the necessityof KUB imaging in this group of patients. HU above 504 in scout-negative stones has the best sensitivity andspecificity in foretelling the opacity of stones and size≥5mm and subcutaneous fat width of≤25.40 mm augmenttheir predictability potential.

This study was designed to construct and assay the psychometric properties of a scale in order to recognize sexual information, motivation and behavioral skills of Iranian couples. Study design: a mixed method study. This was an exploratory mixed method investigation conducted in two stages from Sep 2017 to Jun 2018 in Isfahan, Iran. First, qualitative methods (individual interviews with 22 couples) were applied to generate items and develop the questionnaire. Second, psychometric properties of the questionnaire were assessed. Reliability was evaluated by composite reliability, Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and internal consistency. Moreover, Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) were carried out to examine construct validity. To evaluate content validity were performed CVI and CVR. An item pool comprising 107 statements related to couple 'sexual information, motivation and behavioral skills were generated in the first stage. In the second stage, item reduction was exerted and the final issue of the questionnaire including 51 items was expanded. The evaluation of the psychometric properties of the final version displayed that the scale had good reliability and structure. The results from exploratory factory analysis demonstrated a 9-factor solution for the scale that jointly reported for the 39.5% of the observed variance. The mean scores of the CVI and CVR were 0.92 and 0.90, respectively. Additional analyses indicated acceptable results for composite reliability for the subscale of instrument ranging from 0.78 to 0.95. The sexual information, motivation and behavioral skills scale is a reliable and valid instrument that can be used in future studies on Iranian couples.

Iron deficiency anemia is the most common nutritional deficiency throughout the world, and young girls are among the most vulnerable groups. The quasi-experimental study was conducted on randomly selected 190 junior high school girls to determine the effect of PRECEDE-based health education program in prevention of iron deficiency anemia. The intervention was carried out in three 90-minute sessions, and data were collected immediately and three months after the intervention using PRECEDE–based questionnaires. A significant improvement was observed in the case group compared to the control after the intervention in mean scores of predisposing factors (knowledge and attitude), empowering factors (holding and participation in educational classes and use of educational resources), reinforcing factors (peers’ and teachers’ encouragement) and iron deficiency preventing behaviors. The present study showed the positive effect of PRECEDE-based educational intervention in increasing iron deficiency anemia preventing behaviors.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the causes of death in the world and Iran. Screening reduces the risk of CRC mortality. The rate of CRC screening is low among Iranian adults.
The aim of this study was to identify factors influencing Iranian adults’ decision about CRC screening.
This qualitative study was conducted in Hamadan, Iran, between January and April 2015. The data were collected through 10 focus group discussions with 61 people, who had not undergone screening tests. The purposive sampling method was used in this study. We audiotaped and transcribed the interviews and extracted major themes from the data.
The mean age of the participants was 54.92 ± 8.21 years old. We identified 6 themes across the focus groups, including 1, awareness and knowledge; 2, financial problems; 3, low priority of health concerns; 4, fear of detection of cancer; 5, problems related to the nature of CRC screening tests; and 6, mistrust in the health care system.
The findings of this study provide insight into the factors influencing CRC screening among Iranian adults and can help policy makers and health planners in designing effective interventions for increasing CRC screening rates.

Diabetes is one of the most common health problems with remarkable outcomes. Treatment and management of diabetes is mainly related to self-care status. This study aimed to analyzing self-care behaviors and its related factors in diabetic patients.
In this descriptive study, 131 diabetic patients referred to the Tuyserkan Diabetes Clinic in 2014, were studied by census method. Self-care behaviors data were collected by self-care scale of Toobert and Glasgow. Background information of diabetic patients, were investigated using pre-designed checklists based on forms in patients` records. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman’s correlation coefficient tests. The significance level was considered to be 5%.
Out of total 131 diabetic patients, 66 persons (50.4%) were male and 65 persons (49.6%) were female. Their mean age was 51.8 years. Eight patients had heart disease complications. The mean self-care scores of the patients was 25.6 and was indicative of average level of self-care. Self-care behaviors were significantly associated with education level, employment status, type of treatment, and body mass index. There was a significant relationship between self-care components (including diet, physical activity, blood glucose testing and foot care).
Considering the self-care status of patients and the importance of self-care training for diabetics, more attention should be paid to self-care in diabetic patients in health education and health promotion programs.