raziye sadat hosseiny

Scientific journals are one of the most important tools for knowledge transition and translation in the word. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate these journals with the aim to control the research published in them. The study aimed to conduct a content and citation assessment of articles published in the Iranian Journal of Ageing.
Methods & Materials: A descriptive bibliometric analysis design was employed in this study. All available manuscripts published from 2006 through 2015 were reviewed. A valid researcher instrument was constructed and employed for data collection. SPSS version 23 was used for analysis.
Of the 298 published manuscripts, the most common field of publication were physical activity with 18.5%, followed by mental and physical area with 12.4% and 10.4%, respectively. The most popular method used in these published papers (67%) was descriptive-analytic, and the least method (7.1%) was clinical trials. The analysis of the geographical distribution of published papers revealed that the majority of the papers originated from Tehran, but no articles were published from the five provinces of North Khorasan, Kurdistan, Kohgiloyeh and Boyerahmad, Hormozgan, Hamedan. The average of editorial time (speed from submission to publication) was 284 days (SD=143). Approximately 22% of the papers were cited at least once. The mean number of citations per document was 2.26 (SD=1.95). Results of the inferential statistics revealed that research setting and published time were significantly associated with citation.
According to the findings from the present study, in order to improve the quantity and quality of the Journal, it is suggested that the editorial board of the Journal take up measures to reduce editorial time. It is also suggested that they should focus on the scope of the Journal and consider appropriate geographical distribution of the published papers.

Renal stone can cause many physical and psychological problems for older patients. The aim of present study was to assess prevalence of depression among older adults with renal stone. In this descriptive - analytic study, prevalence of depression among all of patients aged more than 64 years (51) who were admitted to lithotripsy unit of ayatollah Kashani hospital in Shahrekord in 2013 were assessed with using Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Data were analyzed with using descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation), independents t test and one way ANOVA in SPSS 18. Mean of total depression score was 6.1+3.6. In total, fourteen patients (34.2%) obtained score between 0 to 4, sixteen patients (39.1%) obtained score between 5 to 8, seven patients (17%) obtained score between 9 to 11 and four patients (9.7%) obtained score between 12 to 15. The results of present study also showed that existence of chronic illness such as diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia with renal stone in older adults increase prevalence and severity of depression among this group of patients. Prevalence of depression among older adults with renal stone is high. This problem should be considered in health and treatment programs that conducted for older adults by health care systems.

Long term delivery of care to patients with Alzheimer disease is associatesd with increase of physical and mental health problems for caregivers. Lack of necessary trainings has increased the caregiver's health problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of educational- counseling program on general health of women as caregivers of patient with Alzheimer disease. In this study, 150 women (18-60 years old) who were close relatives to the elderly patients with Alzheimer disease were selected by simple sampling method. These women had been working as direct caregivers for a period of six month, at least. Women were enrolled for a pre-test in which they filled out demographic information questionnaire and Goldberg general health questionnaire. Then, they were randomly allocated to control and experimental groups. The experimental group participated in educational- counseling program which was consisted of a group discussion session, educational pamphlet and 2 telephone consultations. Six weeks after the program, post-test questionnaire was carried out for both groups. Data were analyzed using independent T-test, paired t-test, chi-square and one-way ANOVA. Findings showed that 17.3% of samples had weak general health before the intervention. After the educational- counseling program, the mean of general health in experimental group decreased from 39.68±15.3 to 19.09±10.03 (P<0.001), which showed an increase in general health care. In the control group general health mean increased from 37.43±15.68 to 43.9±14.9 (P=0.001), which shows decreased general health. According to the results of this study and unfavorable general health in women who work as caregivers of patients with Alzheimer disease, effective educational methods are suggested for improving the caregiver’s health.

The purpose of this study was to explore the general health status in women as care givers of the elderly people with Alzheimer who attending to the Iranian Association of Alzheimer’s Disease. In this descriptive –cross sectional study as a introductory stage of a randomized controlled field trial, 150 women were recruited with a consecutive sampling method. The study population of this study included the women as family care givers attending to the Iranian Association of Alzheimer Disease. In this study, the inclusion criteria was consisted of women who had 18-60 years old, be a close relative to elderly patients with Alzheimer disease, as well as they have had direct caring with the duration of at least six months. Data collection regarding assessment of general health of the women was a questionnaire including 28 items of Persian version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). For data analysis, descriptive statistics and chi square were used in the study. The study findings showed that only 24% of the subjects had a good level of general health, but 58.7% and 17.3% of them had a moderate and weak general health respectively. There were significant relations between general health of the women as care givers and the variables such as age (p= 0.016), occupation (p= 0.008), type of relative (p=0.013), and economic status (p= 0.049). However, there were not any significant relation between general health and the other variables of marriage situation (p= 0.5), education (p= 0.07), and duration of caring the elderly patients with Alzheimer (p= 0.205). According to the findings, the considerable percentage of the female care givers of elders with Alzheimer disease did not pose optimum level of general health. As Care givers’ gender centered studies have seldom conducted in Iran, future researches should focus on different dimensions of health promotion among both male and female care givers.