p. yavari

Correct and timely detection of the outbreaks of diseases with a short incubation period is of great importance in the health system. The aim of this study was to determine the detection of dysentery outbreaks using the cumulative sum method.

This time series study was conducted using the data of the National Surveillance System between 2014 and 2017. The outbreak alert threshold of each season and province was determined separately using the average of three years (1393 to 1395) in the same season and province. The dysentery outbreak in each season was exclusively predicted for Isfahan, Khuzestan, and Hamadan provinces in 2017 using the CUSUM method.

In Isfahan Province, the outbreak alert was higher in the spring and summer and lower in the autumn and winter using the current method compared to the CUSUM method. For Khuzestan Province, the current outbreak alert was significantly higher in all seasons compared to the CUSUM method, while the current outbreak alert was lower than the alert predicted by the CUSUM method in Hamadan Province in all the seasons.

Compared to constant threshold-based methods, using the CUSUM method seems to be a better way for reporting outbreaks, especially in areas with a high incidence.

Studies investigating life skills and general health have mainly focused on some skills or parts of health. In this study, ten components of skills and three components of general health were examined in patients presenting to veterans’ health and counseling centers in Tehran and the relationship between each skill and multiple levels of general health was assessed.

this cross-sectional study was performed on 600 randomly selected service users. Data were collected using two standard questionnaires and analyzed using t-test, one-way ANOVA, Tukey post hoc and multivariate regression. Lisrel-8 path analysis and software were used to investigate the causal relationships between variables and the way a skill affected general health.

The highest mean scores of skills were related to emotion management, critical thinking, social support and creative thinking, decision making, stress management, self-awareness, empathy and effective communication and problem solving. The results of path analysis showed a strong link between overall life skills and general health. The effect of skills on social performance was more than other components of health.

The contribution of emotion management, creative thinking, effective communication, and stress management skills to the prediction of general health was more than other life skills. Considering the importance of general health, it is recommended that educational programs be implemented with focus on these population subgroups to improve their skills and general health level.

Golestan province in Iran has been known as a high risk area for esophageal cancer (EC). This study was conducted to assess the population-based survival rate in EC patients in Golestan province of Iran.

In a longitudinal study، 223 EC patients registered in Golestan population-based cancer registry in 2007 and 2008 were recruited. Kaplan-Meier method was performed to calculate median survival and log rank test was also used to compare survival rates between subgroups of variables. Multivariate Cox regression model was employed to determine adjusted hazard ratios (AHR) for different variables.

From 223 patient، 129 (57/8%) were male. The mean age of participants was 64/3 years. The median survival in our study was 11/08 months. Survival rates for 6، 12 and 36 months were 69%، 47% and 14%، respectively. The results of Cox regression analysis showed that the AHR for patients with metastasis stage (compared to those with localized stage) was 13. 89 (95% CI: 7/93-24/32) and the AHR for workers (compared to clerks) was 2. 4 (95% CI: 3/8-1/47).

Our results showed that survival rate of EC patients were higher than the rate reported in a previous study from this region. However the survival rate from this region seems still lower than those reported from developed countries. Implementation of appropriate screening programs in this region will result in early diagnosis of EC and consequently will increase survival rate in EC patients.