k. etemad

The World Health Organization Package of Essential Noncommunicable Disease Interventions (WHO-PEN) enables the prevention, early detection, and management of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer. Ira-PEN is the adapted WHO-PEN program for the Iranian population, which started in 2015 as a pilot program in four cities (Naghadeh, Maragheh, Shahreza, and Baft). Then, it was implemented throughout the country. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in men and women referred to the health centers.

This study used data for people over 30 years old in the pilot areas in 2016 and 2017. The 10-year cardiovascular risk was determined with SIB software, as an integrated health information system, using the WHO/ISH risk chart. Individuals were classified into four risk categories: low (<10%), medium (10-20%), relatively high (20-30%), and high (>30%).

Among 160,223 subjects (58.1% female), the prevalence (95%CI) of diabetes in men and women was 8.5% (8.3-8.8) and 12.9% (12.7-13.1), respectively, and about one-third of diabetes cases were unknown. The prevalence of hypertension in men and women was 15.6 (15.3-15.9) and 23.2 (22.9-23.5), respectively. The unknown hypertension cases included 40% and 20% of men and women, respectively. Around 9% of men and 15.7% of women had hypercholesterolemia. More than 4% of men and around 5% of women had a risk of ≥10%.

Women are referred to the health centers more than men, and it seems that high-risk women refer to these centers for their diseases. Considering the high risk of morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular diseases in men, we recommend encouraging and following men to control their risk factors.

Immune deficiency syndrome is an epidemic disease. During immunodeficiency caused by HIV, infections such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C may occur. Given that the transmission of these infections is similar to that of HIV, the risk of HIV infection with these infections is high. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of common HIV infections and the related risk factors in HIV positive individuals.

This study was conducted as a retrospective cohort study performed on 3047 HIV patients at Imam Khomeini Counseling Center in Tehran who have been admitted in 2004 -2018.Required data were extracted from patient records and entered into Excel software. For data analysis, SPSS version 21 was used.

The mean age of the patients was 44.24 ± 9.46 years and 77.3% of them were male. Of them, 98 (3.2%) were co-infected with hepatitis B, 961 (31.5%) were co-infected with hepatitis C, and 415 (13.6%) were co-infected with tuberculosis. According to the results, hepatitis B and hepatitis C had a significant  association with age, marital status, gender, education, prison history, history of injection, history of addiction, and needle sharing.

Due to the common route of HIV transmission and these infections, there is the possibility of co-infection. The demographic variables and behavioral factors are the most effective risk factors for developing co-infections.

One of the causes of neonatal death and death in children under the age of five is premature birth of infants. The purpose of this study was to identify the risk factors associated with preterm infant birth in pregnant women.

This is a case-control study on mothers referring to comprehensive health centers in the provinces of the country. Descriptive analysis of variables was reported as percentage and frequency. In data analysis, logistic regression analysis was used at a significant level less than 0.05.

In this study, 2463 pregnant women (668 cases as cases and 1795 as controls) were examined. There was a significant relationship between the place of residence (OR=0.702, P=0.002), level of maternal education (OR=1.920, P=0.027), degree of twin (OR=4.953, P=0.001), interval between pregnancies (OR=1.821, P=0.009), specific disease (OR=1.694, P=0.010), nutritional status of the mother (OR=1.420, P=0.024), physical activity (OR=1.591, P=0.001), Sleep patterns (OR=0.634, P=0.008) and history of stillbirth (OR=0.247, P=0.001) associated with the birth of premature infants.

Preterm infant birth is one of the main causes of neonatal death. Therefore, some of the birth defects of the premature baby can be prevented. It is possible to reduce the risk factors for the birth of a premature baby by improving the quality of pregnancy care and changing the lifestyle of the pregnant mother, and by raising awareness and creating a healthy and safe environment for the mother.

Stillbirth is an important economic, cultural, and health index that has a higher prevalence in developing countries.

The present research was conducted to determine the pre-pregnancy risk factors of stillbirth in Iran.

This research is a national population-based case-control study on the risk factors of stillbirth in Iran. A total of 3,085 women presenting to public healthcare centers of ten provinces/cities of Iran entered the study, including 1,459 women who their last pregnancy ended in a stillbirth as the case group and 1,626 women who their last pregnancy ended in a live birth as the control group. Data were collected with a researcher-made questionnaire and were then analyzed by SPSS-19 using the chi-square and the logistic regression tests. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

The results revealed a relationship between the last pregnancy ending in a stillbirth and a previous history of stillbirth (OR = 2.64, CI: 1.81 - 3.85, P = 0.001), miscarriage (OR = 1.57, CI: 1.21 - 2.03, P = 0.001) irregular menstruation (OR = 1.29, CI: 1.02 - 1.64, P = 0.029), age over 35 (OR = 1.58, CI: 1.17 - 2.14, P = 0.001), low level of education (OR = 3.50, CI: 2.30 - 5.33, P = 0.001), and the use of oral contraceptives.

There are several risk factors for stillbirth, including a previous history of stillbirth, miscarriage or irregular menstrual cycle, most of which can be controlled through pre-pregnancy training. Educational interventions are, therefore, required to improve the knowledge of women at childbearing age and preventive measures should be taken to reduce the number of stillbirths in pregnant women.

The prevalence of HBV infection among injection drug users (IDUs) is higher than the general population due to high-risk sexual behaviors and the needle sharing. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HBV infection and its effective factors among IDUs of Kermanshah Province in 2016.
  This ia descriptive-analytic study was performed in 606 male IDUs in Kermanshah Province in 2016. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. HBV was also evaluated through blood tests using the rapid test. Simple and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to investigate the factors affecting HBV infection. Data were analyzed using STATA-12 software.
  The prevalence of positivity HBV antibody was 3% (95% CI: 1.61- 4.32) among male IDUs. According to the results of unit-variable logistic regression analysis, the duration of drug injection (OR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.02-1.15) and the number of daily injections (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.05-1.81) were risk factors for HBsAg positivity but there were no significant associations in the multivariate regression model.
  The prevalence of HBV is much higher among IDUs than in the general population. These populations are at risk for viral infections such as HBV; therefore, it is recommended to provide necessary education about the prevention methods as well as the necessary screening for them.