jamileh amirzadeh-iranagh

Osteoporosis is a common problem in menopausal women, and adopting preventive behaviors is crucial in addressing this issue. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of an educational intervention based on the health belief model (HBM) on promoting osteoporosis-preventive behaviors in menopausal women.

Methods & Materials:

 This quasi-experimental study with a control group was conducted on 64 menopausal women referred to Urmia urban health centers in 2023. Participants were selected using random sampling and then randomly allocated into two groups: control (32) and intervention (32). The data collection instruments included questionnaires comprising demographic information, knowledge assessments, Health Belief Model constructs, food frequency, and physical activity items. Following pre-test evaluations and needs assessment, a training program was designed and delivered to the intervention group. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software version 26.

The mean scores for knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived self-efficacy, and cues to action in the intervention group significantly increased compared to both the pre-intervention assessment and the control group. Conversely, there was a significant decrease in the mean score for perceived barriers (P<0.05). These changes resulted in a significant increase in the mean score for osteoporosis preventive behaviors within the intervention group (P<0.05).

Education based on the HBM has been effective in shaping the knowledge and health beliefs of menopausal women concerning osteoporosis and its preventive behaviors. Therefore, it is recommended that health educators incorporate the approaches and findings of this study when developing educational interventions related to osteoporosis.

This study aims to assess the effect of music therapy (MT) and sleep hygiene (SH) education on sleep disorders of the elderly in Urmia, Iran.

This is a randomized controlled clinical trial. Participants were 150 older adults referred to health centers in Urmia, Iran. They were divided into three groups of SH+MT, SH, and control using the block randomization method. To measure their sleep quality, the standard Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) was used. The intervention was conducted for two months. Data analysis was conducted in SPSS software, version 21. To know the baseline difference in the qualitative variables among the three groups, chi-square test was used. Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used to check the normality of data distribution and then one-way ANOVA test was used to compare the seven dimensions of PSQI among the three groups.

The comparison of seven PSQI dimensions showed that subjective sleep quality (F=14.34, P=0.0001), sleep latency (F=10.05, P=0.0001), sleep duration (F=21.91, P=0.0001), habitual sleep efficiency (F=24.98, P=0.0001), sleep disturbances (F=15.37, P=0.0001), use of sleep medication (F=1.840, P=0.04) and daytime drowsiness (F=1.181, P=0.02) were significantly different among the three groups. The combination of SH education and MT improved the sleep quality of participants more than the SH education alone.

It seems that sleep disorders of the elderly can be reduced by teaching sleep hygiene and listening to favorite music before going to sleep.

Identifying the factors affecting the lifestyle related to reducing PMS symptoms can help to reduce the health problems of women and girls. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the "predictors of lifestyle related to reducing the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms  based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs  among the first-grade high school female students in Urmia".

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 410 first-grade high school female students in Urmia who were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling in 2021. The data collection tools included demographic characteristics, Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST), and a researcher-made questionnaire based on HBM constructs and knowledge. Face validity and Content validiyt methods were used for determine validity and Cronbach’s alpha was used for determine reliability. Data analysis was performed in SPSS 16 using Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Spearman correlation, and Multiple linear regression. The results were considered statistically significant at the level of p <0.05

Perceived self-efficacy (P <0.001, β = 0.250), perceived barriers (p <0.001, β = -0.162), perceived severity (p <0.05, β = 0.155), and perceived benefits (p = 0.019, β = 0.130), were significant predictors of lifestyle related to reducing PMS symptoms. HBM constructs and knowledg explained about 28.2% of the variance of lifestyle related to reducing PMS symptoms among the studied students.

HBM constructs are valuable and appropriate to identify the factors affecting the lifestyle related to reducing PMS symptoms among high school female students and to design and implement educational interventions in this field.

The particular condition of retirement causes the elderly to experience it as a stressful life event of individual and social characteristics. One of the main challenges in retirement is the issue of quality of life (QOL). Therefore, the purpose of this article was to determine the predictive components of QOL among retired men in Urmia.

In this descriptive-analytical study, 140 retired men living in Urmia were selected by cluster sampling method. The instrument used in this study was the Lipid quality of life questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS v.21 statistical software and descriptive and analytical statistical tests (mean and standard deviation, frequency and percentage, Pearson correlation coefficients, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression) at the significance level of p <0.05.

According to the results of this study, the mean and SD of total QOL was 71.21±10.27. Also backward multiple linear regression model revealed that variables of life satisfaction, marital status, retirement length, and sleep disorder predicted 28.8% of the variance of QOL. Moreover, age, marital duration, childchr('39')s number, and education level were removed from the regression model.

According to the results of the present study and other similar studies, it can be concluded that the negative factors in reducing the QOL among retired adults should be carefully identified and policymakers should try to develop appropriate programs to improve the QOL of retired older adults.

Many people suffer from burn injuries annually. Epidemiologic studies are necessary to reveal the prevalence and related factors of burns to assist in designing an appropriate plan to reduce its mortality and morbidity. This study aimed to analyze the epidemiology and etiological factors of 1938 burn patients admitted to a burn unit in Qazvin, Iran. This was a retrospective study of medical records of patients admitted to the burn unit of Shahid Rajaee Hospital from March 21, 2014 to March 20, 2016. The collected data included age, gender, percentage of burns, etiology, date of admission, date of discharge, and total burn surface area (TBSA). Descriptive statistics were used to describe the basic features of the studied variables. The mean age of the 1938 burn patients was 29.08±20.52 years. The results showed that more males (n=1391, 71.8%) than females (n=547, 28.2%) were involved in burn injuries. Fire flame (n=1019, 52.6%) and scald (n=529, 27.3%) were major etiological factors of burns. Adult males (n=458, 23.6%), and preschool boys (n= 407, 21.0%) were at the highest risk for burn through the study period. The mean total body surface area (TBSA) was 13.34 (SD ±12.40) ranging from 1% to 9%, and burns of less than 20% TBSA represent the large majority of burns (n=1653, 85.3%). This study indicates that the majority of burn injuries were of the fire flame and scald types. Preventive programs targeting the population under higher risk of burns are needed to reduce the burden of burns.

Given to the high prevalence of  impaired vision in aging population and importance of their quality of life, this study was aimed to evaluate the association between quality of life and vision rehabilitation needs in elderly patients with low vision referring to Bu Ali Sina Hospital, Qazvin, Iran.
 
A total of 94 elderly patients with visual acuity less than 6/18 participated in this cross-sectional study. Visual functioning questionnaire -25 and vision rehabilitation needs questionnaire were used to assess the quality of life and rehabilitation needs, respectively. Data were analyzed using Pearson and Spearman correlations, Independent t, and ANOVA tests.
 
The prevalence of rehabilitation needs ranged from 29.8% (telling time with a watch or clock) to 76.4% (reading). The results also showed significant associations between the quality of life, age, marital status, and total rehabilitation needs (p < 0.05).
 
These results highlight that addressing the rehabilitation needs of elderly patients with a visual impairment may be an effective means to improve their quality of life.

Premarital education and counselling programs are considered as an important factor to promote the quality of married life. This study was performed to determine satisfaction of premarital couples about the quality of the premarital education and counselling program provided by Urmia health centers.
This descriptive analytical cross sectional study was performed on 50 couples referring to health centers in Urmia during 3 months. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire containing 2 parts. The first part included demographic questions and the second part included 22 questions related to dimensions of satisfaction of quality containing tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The data were analysed by the path analysis method by Mplus-5 software.
Mean age of marriage for men was 26.48.55 and 21.91.29 for women. The results indicated that education level (β2 = -0.292), location (β2 = -0.075), and sex (β2 = -0.106) had indirectly a negative effect on the satisfaction of couples. It also showed that responsiveness (β1 = 0.404), assurance (β1=0.316), reliability (β1= 0.312), and tangibility (β1=0.0207) had a direct and positive effect on the satisfaction of pre -marriage couples about the quality of premarital education and counselling program respectively.
According to the results, couple’s viewpoints should be considered in designing the premarital program. It is also recommended that all dimensions of quality of the premarital counseling and training program particularly empathy dimension should be identified and improved.

Physical inactivity is one of the most important reasons of chronic medical diseases in the elderly. Regarding to the importance of modifying physical activity behavior in elderly women and to produce proper educational and interventional strategies, this study was aimed to assess the effect of Health Belief Model (HBM) based on education intervention on the physical activity among elderly women.
Two hundred elderly women from Urmia City participated in this interventional study. They were chosen using the multistage sampling method. SPSS 21, and Smart PLS 3.5 soft wares were used for structural equation modeling and to test the hypotheses and the model's fitness.
The results indicated that the education intervention had a positive effect on improving elderly women knowledge and behavior for physical activity. Generally, physical activity knowledge had a direct and increasing effect on the behavior through education intervention program, before intervention (β =0.168, p=0.01) to three months (β =0.180, p=0.01) and six months after intervention (β =0.232, p The results of the current study indicated that the HBM was a proper model for education intervention for the elderly women. In addition, HBM based education program for physical activity improved elderly women behavior.