فهرست مطالب mahnaz ashoorkhani

Falling can have significant negative consequences on the health and quality of life of older adults. This study aims to assess the effect of online self-care education on the knowledge, attitude and practice of older adults in preventing falls at home.

This is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test/post-test/follow-up design that was conducted on 120 people aged ≥65 years referring to comprehensive health centers in the south of Tehran, Iran, in 2021. A researcher-made questionnaire was completed by the participants before, immediately after, and three months after the intervention. The intervention was a virtual self-care educational program for fall prevention at home. Data analysis was done in SPSS software, version 26 using descriptive statistics (such as Mean±SD) and analytical tests including independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, and chi-square test.

About 22% of the elderly had a history of falling in the past year. Immediately after the intervention, the mean scores of knowledge, attitude, and practice were 18.39±2.86, 14.99±2.51, and 13.76±3.1, respectively, which were significantly higher than the pre-test scores (P<0.001). Three months after the intervention, the mean scores of knowledge, attitude, and practice were 18.18±1.14, 14.91±1.57, and 9.06±2.78, respectively, which were significantly higher than the pre-test scores (P<0.001).

Online self-care education for fall prevention at home can significantly increase the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the elderly and reduce the risk of falling.

Population aging is accompanied by an increase in the elderly's demand for long-term care, which is mainly provided by family caregivers. Providing quality elderly care, while maintaining the health of caregivers, requires recognition of facilitators and the educational needs. Therefore, this study aims to investigate facilitators of elderly care at home and the educational needs of the family caregivers of older adults in the south of Tehran, Iran.

This is a qualitative study using the conventional content analysis method. To collect data, we conducted semi-structured telephone interviews. Seventeen family caregivers aged ≥18 years with at least one month of caregiving experience and at least six hours of caregiving per week were selected using purposive and snowball sampling methods until data saturation from January to April 2021. After transcribing the recorded interviews, the data were entered into the MAXQDA 2018 software and analyzed.

Personal factors included personal characteristics of caregivers, Capability in caregiving, perceived benefits of caregiving, and self-care activities of caregivers. Interpersonal factors included proper relationship with older adults, older adults’ partial  dependence on caregivers, cooperation and support of family members, and receiving others’ support. Supportive environments included physical environment, receiving support from work environments and organizations providing elderly care services. The most important educational needs of family caregivers were the needs to learn how to prepare nutritious foods for the elders, the way to nourish older adults with dysphagia, and how to move the physically disabled older adults.

Family caregivers of older adults in the south of Tehran should have access to affordable elderly care and home care services based on their educational needs that require planned support from service providers.

 Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) pose a significant global health concern and are the most common cause of death and disability, necessitating preventive interventions targeting modifiable risk factors. Recently, mobile-health technology has been developed to improve the delivery of cardiovascular prevention by risk factor modification. The “Green Heart” mobile application (app) was designed to aid in risk factor control among coronary artery disease (CAD) patients.

 This parallel-group, single-blinded randomized controlled trial enrolled 1590 CAD patients, including 668 current smokers, randomly assigned to control (paper-based education) and intervention (application-based) groups. The app encompassed three modules targeting smoking cessation, dyslipidemia control, and blood pressure management. This study evaluated the impact of the smoking cessation module on behavioral change among current smokers. Green Heart assesses nicotine dependence, offering personalized quit plans, educational content, motivational messages, and automated progress tracking. The odds of smoking behavior changes during the 24-week follow-up underwent assessment.

 The intention-to-treat analysis highlighted significantly elevated rates of smoking cessation and reductions in the intervention group versus the control group. Adherence to the app (per-treatment analysis) also demonstrated significantly more favorable smoking behavior changes among the application users. Logistic regression emphasized higher odds of quitting and reduction in smoking in the application group, showing an odds ratio of 2.14 (95% CI: 1.16–3.97) compared to those not using the app (P=0.015).

 Our results confirmed that complete adherence to the app for at least 24 weeks was linked to alterations in cigarette smoking behavior among CAD patients.
Trial Registration Number: IRCT20221016056204N1

Stress is an overwhelming feeling in patients with breast cancer (BC). However, The effect of virtual education has not been fully regulated. Hence, this study intends to compare the impact of 2 virtual education methods on perceived stress and stress coping in women with BC.  

A 3-armed randomized clinical trial was conducted among 315 women with BC who were referred to the Cancer Institute in Tehran. They were randomly assigned to 3 groups: (a) Family-based, receiving family-based training package; (b) peer-support, receiving peer-support educational package;  and (c) control, receiving routine hospital care. Data were collected through demographic and disease characteristics, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14), and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS-21) questionnaires before and 3 months after the intervention.   

The effect of the group factor after controlling the before-intervention scores in perceived stress, problem-oriented, emotion-oriented, and avoidance-oriented strategies were P < 0.0001, P = 0.015, P < 0.0001, and P = 0.111, respectively. Also, the effect of the confounding factor of BC disease stage in the dependent variables was P = 0.527, P = 0.275, P = 0.358, and P = 0.609, respectively. The effect size test showed that before the intervention, the mean scores of perceived stress, problem-oriented, emotion-oriented, and avoidance-oriented strategies were 32.00 ± 7.03, 19.36 ± 4.68, 25.10 ± 5.90, and 17.65 ± 6.64 respectively, but after the intervention showed a decrease in mean scores of perceived stress, emotion-oriented, and avoidance strategies.   

What is vibrant in virtual family-based education is far more effective than peer support when problem-oriented coping increases. Conversely, reducing perceived stress in women with BC receiving enough information and family support should be considered.

health practices of pregnant women affect the maternal and neonatal health and pregnancy outcomes. We aimed to determine the effect of virtual childbirth preparation education on improving the health practices of pregnant women.

A quasiexperimental study was conducted in three phases on 633 pregnant women covered by health centers in the south of Tehran in 2019. Since the number of eligible individuals were close to the sample size, sampling was not done and the census method was used. In total, 310 of individuals were placed in the intervention group and 323 individuals in the control group. In the pre-test phase, the health practices of pregnant women questionnaire were completed by women in both intervention and control groups. Then women in the intervention group participated in virtual childbirth preparation education. In the post-test phase, the questionnaire was completed again by women in the 34th to 38th week of pregnancy. We used the SPSS 26 software for data analysis and the effectiveness of educational intervention was evaluated by Generalized Linear Model.

The mean scores of participants in the intervention group in the aspects of nutrition, special health care for pregnant women and correct pregnancy information were significantly higher than the control group (P < 0.001) and the overal mean scores of health practices of pregnant women in the intervention group (90.53±9.71) were significantly higher than the control group (83.86±10.58) (P<0.001). Among the participants charactristics, nationality had an effect on the relationship between virtual education and health practices of pregnant women (P=0.03).

virtual childbirth preparation education had a positive effect on the health practices of pregnant women. When it is not possible to hold face-to-face childbirth preparation education, virtual education is a suitable alternative.

Healthy ageing is beyond the presence or absence of disease, and is affected by a variety of factors. The aims of present study was to determine the rate of healthy aging in the older adults of Amol and to predict it based on individual, psychological and social factors.

In this descriptive-analytical study, 378 elderly people aged 60-74 years who refer to urban comprehensive health service centers in Amol city in 2020 were studied by simple random sampling. For data collection, demographic questionnaire, healthy ageing instrument, health self rating, ego integrity scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale and participation in leisure activities questionnaire were used. Data were analyzed in SPSS software version 26.

The mean total score of healthy ageing was 137.3±15.7 and 74.3% of the samples were at the high level of healthy old ageing. Among the various factors, participation in leisure activities was 79.6% of the samples at the average level and the lowest participation was related to the cultural activities dimension. The results indicate that the rate of participation in leisure activities, self-esteem and gender were predictors of healthy aging, respectively (P<0.05).

Participation in leisure activities, self-esteem and gender are effective components of healthy aging. Therefore, educating the older adults and encouraging them to participate in leisure activities, especially cultural activities, as well as developing and implementing programs to increase the self-esteem of the older adults can help promote healthy ageing.

COVID-19 pandemic obligated applying population-level behavioral modifications to effectively prevent the spread of the disease. This necessitated investigating those measures that determine population behavior. Herein we have studied risk perception and information exposure that are among those determinants in Iran. 402 cases from medical sciences students were enrolled during the last week of September 2020. Using an online questionnaire, risk perception and sources of information about COVID-19 were investigated. Although most students considered COVID-19 preventable, merely a few considered the disease curable. A higher risk was perceived concerning the families compared to themselves. Moreover, most of them believed the prognosis good even in high-risk patients. Social media was the most informative source used; however, health professionals were considered the most reliable. The risk perception was equal between those diagnosed with COVID-19 or had a family member diagnosed compared to those without such exposure in most questions. Also, no significant difference was observed in risk perception between those students with serious underlying medical conditions and those without one regarding most items. Lastly, major and grade were the most significant demographic contributors to the risk perception. Moderate risk was perceived overall among the cases in which major and grade were the only remarkable demographic contributors. Unexpectedly, underlying medical history was not significantly correlated with the perceived risk. Lastly, previous COVID-19 exposure merely altered the curability and preventability perception.

Developing an educational parenting skills package for parents with substance abuse may be effective in preventing the same problem in their adolescents. Social marketing is one of the approaches facilitating the preparation of educational content for this purpose. Social marketing is a regular and planned process focusing on customers and their needs for encouraging a target group to exhibit a particular behavior or adopt a specific idea. This study protocol aims to use the social marketing approach to prepare an educational parenting skills package for the parents undergoing substance abuse treatment to prevent addiction in their adolescents.

An educational parenting skills package will be designed and validated by a combination of qualitative research (descriptive phenomenology), scoping review, and Delphi study based on social marketing approach (4 Ps = product, price, place, promotion). The package will be prepared in four phases including educational need assessment, ranking the identified educational needs, determining the suitable health education constructs, and modeling and developing the educational content based on the identified constructs. The designed educational package will be validated from the perspective of the target group (parents undergoing substance abuse treatment) and experts.

Developing educational packages based on a scientific health education approach and mainly the Social Marketing Assessment and Response Tool (SMART) model with an emphasis on market analysis or marketing mix (4 Ps = product, price, place, promotion) can prove effective in attracting the audience and promoting the target activities

The Covid-19 epidemic is a great threat to human health. Countries have taken several measures to control the disease, as well as dealing with infodemics. In a situation where the infodemics makes it difficult to distinguish correct and scientific information from incorrect ones, the preparation of evidence-based content has been an effective measure, recommended by World Health Organization.In this regard, the school of Public Health at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, in collaboration with the Iran National Institute of Health Research formed a specialized committee for public education to provide evidence-based answers to public questions. The achievements of this collective efforts were providing useful and practical educational content based on the most credible evidence. In this editorial, we will look at the actions taken and the achievements of this experience.

The current study aimed to evaluate the experiences obtained from the 4030 telephone system from the perspective of managers and consultant operators.

In this qualitative content analysis, we examined the views of operator consultants (n=21) and executive managers (n=5). The interviews were conducted by telephone one month after the launch of the 4030 system in two weeks. Interviews were audio-recorded after receiving the approval of interviewees. Data were analyzed in OpenCode version 4.2 using the CFIR framework.

A total of 220 semantic codes were extracted and then categorized into five themes of program characteristics, inner setting, outer setting, characteristics of individuals involved in the program, and implementation process.

Initial planning, recruitment process, initial evaluation and training, and in-service training are of particular importance, which were not performed properly due to the hasty launch of the program. Internal interaction (between individuals, managers, and system administrators) and interactions with other target organizations were identified as weak. From the perspective of executives, participation (i.e. at all levels of planning, implementation, evaluation, and decision-making) has not been achieved properly, which has created a major obstacle for several mid-level management and executive processes and actions. It seems that with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in China and the possibility of its expansion to other countries, the precision of initial planning, expanding infrastructure, human resources, and other processes has increased.

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an educational intervention on the quality of health research-based news, given the sensitivity of disseminating incorrect information.

An uncontrolled before-after study was conducted among health news producers in Tehran from November 2011 to March 2012. The intervention that included educational content in the form of a workshop was evaluated in advance. The outcome of measuring the scientific quality of news extracted from medical and health research results was considered for authenticity and accuracy. The health research-based news quality assessment tool was used. In this study, 32 individuals voluntarily entered the program, and their produced news was collected in 4 stages. To determine the effectiveness of the educational intervention, paired t-tests were used. SPSS version 17 was used for statistical analysis and p<0.05 was considered significant.

The mean score (±SD) of the participants' produced news was 0.40 (±0.089) before and 0.61 (±0.086) after the intervention, which increased by 0.21±0.09 (p<0.001). Of the news collected from the participants as baseline data, 544 (65%) articles aimed at increasing public knowledge and awareness. Almost all the news had been gathered from interviews, and only 41 (4.8%) news articles were based on health research results.

The educational intervention proved effective in promoting the quality of health research news. Only a few health journalists participated in this study, and thus the need to educate health news producers is felt. Since interviews with health researchers and experts were the largest source of news, interventions need to target other groups who affect the quality and accuracy of the news.

Complex nature of health and disease, the impact of various socioeconomic factors on the health system arrangements and health of the society, and also the impact of health on the social and economic conditions of the society require a social approach to health. This necessity has led to the creation of new policies and programs, under the name of socialization of health, to strengthen the social approach to health in the health system of Iran. However, there must be more convergence between various stakeholders about the definition, conceptual framework, and different dimensions of this term (socialization of health). Using the experts' opinions and scientific evidence, we clarified the concepts and different dimensions of socialization of health to be used by healthcare policymakers and managers.