fateme atoof

 Parents' understanding of how to prevent diseases and treat them promptly is an influential factor in a child's development. Thus, adherence to health-related behaviors depends on the awareness and performance of mothers. In any society, mothers and children require much more health care than other age groups because of their vulnerability. As a result, they draw special attention to themselves. Paying attention to children in a community is an investment in its long-term future. Therefore, it is particularly important to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases in childhood. In addition, one of the most important aspects of disease prevention for children is observing a mother's behavior with regard to the health of her child. Mothers and children are always a priority group in any society. This is because they are not only the primary consumers of healthcare services but also a large group of vulnerable individuals. This implies that healthy behaviors are essential to maintaining and improving the health of children, families, and society. Furthermore, mothers play a significant role in maintaining and enhancing the health of their children. In order to examine the behaviors associated with the health of hospitalized children and related factors among mothers of hospitalized children, the researchers conducted the present study.

This study was a cross-sectional study conducted by observing the behavior of 216 mothers with children who were hospitalized in children's wards of educational hospitals affiliated with Kashan University of Medical Sciences from November 2018 to March 2019. Based on the preliminary study results, the sample size was calculated by taking the average score of the questionnaire, 20.3 ± 4.75, the first type error of 5%, and the estimation error of 0.5 based on the formula of 216 people. In this study, sampling was continuous. After obtaining permission from the hospital and department officials, the second author visited two educational-therapeutic centers' children's departments. Then, among the hospitalized patients (children), he selected those children whose mother was at the hospital as the primary caregiver. They were then apprised of the objectives of the research, and their hygiene behavior would be observed in the following stages. Afterward, they were asked to provide written consent for participation in the study. In the next stage, the first author (who was a member of the children's department in both study centers) observed the mothers' health behaviors toward their children indirectly. As soon as the observer saw the mother's intrusive behavior in the ward, he immediately went to the nursing station to document it. Due to the fact that the observer was a member of the nursing staff, the possibility of altering the mother's behavior was reduced. Each mother observed the behaviors for nearly 8 hours. In most cases, data collection took place during the morning and evening shifts. The first researcher informed the second researcher of the presence of the mother at the child's bedside by asking the mother of the child. It is likely that the first researcher will also be on shift if a mother is present at the child's bedside during the evening or night shifts.Two parts of a demographic and clinical information questionnaire were used in this study. In order to assess the child's health behaviors, a checklist was used. Data were collected and then analyzed using SPSS v16 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). We used descriptive statistics, pearson correlation, one-way ANOVA, independent t-test and linear regression analysis to analyze the data.

This study examined 216 mothers of children in the children's ward, 11 of whom were excluded as more than one-third of the items related to the child's health-related behavior questionnaire (more than 11 items) did not apply to them. As a result, they were removed from the data, and the analyses presented here were conducted on 205 individuals. According to the present study, the average age of the mother and father of hospitalized children was 29.27±5.60 and 33.61±6.03 years, respectively. Bachelor's degrees are most common among mothers (31.7%), while diploma degrees are most common among fathers (37.6%). About 91% of mothers are homemakers, and 43% of fathers are workers. The average age of children was 12.16±6.43 months, and more than 80% of them were born first or second. Fever and gastroenteritis accounted for 30.7% of all children who were hospitalized. Based on the study's results, the mean score for observing the health behaviors of mothers of hospitalized children was 16.73±5.55. According to the study, the items "use fresh and safe water for the child to drink" (97.5%), "wash hands with soap and water if they become contaminated with clear water" (95.6%), "Change clothes and bedding as soon as they become contaminated with diarrhea, vomit, blood, and other contaminants" (90.7%), and "Wash hands after changing the child's diaper" (87.3%) had the highest compliance rates. It was found that the items "washing hands before changing a baby's diaper" (8%), "keeping the mobile phone covered with a plastic cover to prevent contamination" (8.8%), "washing hands after contact with the surrounding environment" (15.8%) and "hand washing before breastfeeding the child" (16.7%) had the lowest level of compliance by mothers. Moreover, the results of the multiple linear regression test showed a positive and significant correlation between the average child's health-related behavior compliance score and the mother's age (P=0.000; r=0.157).

The results indicate that mothers failed to comply with behaviors such as washing their child's hands regularly and washing their own hands before feeding their children. It is necessary to educate and inform mothers regarding the observation of behaviors related to the child's health upon entering the hospital in order to ensure their child's safety. In hospitals, it is, therefore, necessary for educational supervisors, patient education supervisors, and children's department supervisors to devise and implement special programs aimed at informing mothers of the importance of protecting their children during hospitalization by educating them about health behaviors.

During education, self-regulation strategies of motivation maintain and improve motivation. Undergraduate anesthesia students employ motivation regulation strategies due to their challenging academic conditions. This study endeavors to determine the extent undergraduate anesthesia students use motivation regulation strategies as well as the relationship between these strategies with age, gender, marital status, academic year and number of completed online semesters.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 358 students in the 2022 academic year. Convenient sampling was used and data gathered using Norouzi et al.'s (2020) questionnaire. As to descriptive analysis of data and the relationship of strategies with demographic variables, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test and Spearman's correlation coefficient were used. The correlation between strategies was measured with Spearman's correlation coefficient, the mean score of the subscales was standardized, and the difference between the means was shown by analysis of variance with repeated measurements.

The results revealed that Spearman's correlation coefficient between all subscales was above 0.3. Gender, number of online semesters with regulation of situational interest strategy, and marital status variables with preventive situational awareness strategy and relational strategy, respectively (p<0.05) were related. However, the age variable had an inverse correlation with the environmental organization and situational interest regulation subscales (p<0.05), the standardized score of undergraduate anesthesia students in most of the subscales were significantly different p< .001.

The results of this study suggested that undergraduate anesthesia students do not use motivational regulation strategies to the same extent. Besides, some motivational regulation strategies are related to demographic variables.

Developing a chronic disease, like heart failure in older adults disrupts the foundations of the family and imposes a heavy burden on family members. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the Family-Centered Empowerment Model (FCEM) on the care burden of family caregivers of older adults with heart failure.

It was a quasi-experimental study with a controlled before and after design, which was conducted on 80 primary caregivers of older adults with heart failure referring to health centers affiliated with Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran. The subjects were non-randomly assigned to either the control (n=40) or intervention (n=40) groups. The program was implemented based on the concepts of the model (perceived threat, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and evaluation) in eight 2-hour sessions, twice a week for four consecutive weeks. Both groups answered the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) in the beginning, in the end, and one month after the study. The data were analyzed by Chi-square, t-test, and the repeated measures ANOVA using SPSS 16 software. 

There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the pretest mean score of care burden (P>0.05). However, the groups’ mean score of care burden was significantly different immediately after the intervention (P<0.05) and one month after the study (P<0.05). The repeated measures ANOVA illustrated a significant difference between the mean scores of care burden in the three measurement time points (P<0.0001).

Implementation of the FCEM model reduces the burden of care in caregivers of older adults with heart failure. It is suggested that this model be used in training programs for older adults with heart failure and their caregivers.