Journal of Health Scope
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Feb 2020

 While child health inequality is emerging as one of the main issues in child health policies, the identification of factors which intensify this kind of inequality via the qualitative method has attracted little attention.

 The aim of the study was to identify the equality issues in child health policies in Iran.

 Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 19 key informants from July 2015 to December 2016. A purposeful and snowball sampling method was used to select participants. Using MAXQDA 12, the recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed.

 Four themes and fifteen subthemes were extracted in terms of equality issues in child health policies, including: (1) implementation of child health policies (rational distribution, addressing rural and underserved regions and full access), (2) strengths of child health policies (comprehensive and integrated healthcare, educating mothers, and targeting programs based on the burden of disease), (3) challenges of child health policies (health information system and faults in data registration, complications in child health education, traditional beliefs and believing in fate, and ignoring social determinants of health), and (4) priority actions (improving fathers’ health literacy, promoting socio-economic and cultural status, enhancing health information system, suburban and rural areas, and regional planning).

 Reliance on comprehensive and integrated care, health education and targeting program and diminishing challenges and weaknesses can be considered as a policy guide aiming to reduce inequality in child health outcomes. Also, besides addressing executive issues, challenges, and strengths; priorities as policy entry points should be considered simultaneously.

 Depression is one of the most common issues among mental health related issues amongst Iranian students; a topic that has thus far been the area of research by lots of researchers with the medical and psychological origins. These researches are mainly conducted using a quantitative approach.

 The main purpose of this study was to achieve qualitative understanding of depression experience and the representational implications of this phenomenon among those depressed. In this study, the question is how individuals experience and perceive depression.

 This is a qualitative study with directed approach to content analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews. Therefore, the findings were obtained through interviews with 15 female students and analyzed using the thematic analysis technique.

 The collected narratives represent depression as an unpleasant experience with damaging consequences for body, soul, and social relationships. However, after reflecting on these narratives, it was found out that depression is a process and not an immediate occurrence; this process was followed using the following six main categories or themes that have been derived from interviews: (1) underlying family conditions; (2) underlying education and university conditions; (3) underlying dormitory and environmental conditions; (4) fear of the future and imagining a tomorrow full of darkness; (5) cyberspace, experience of depression and feeling of isolation; and (6) failed emotional attachment, experience of depression, and feelings of grief. According to the findings, the “situation in jeopardy” seems to be the best concept through which “experience of depression” can be brought to an anthropological understanding.

 Therefore, discussions have been made on the need to form a framework for broader support networks and the rethinking of socio-cultural and economic policies at the meso and macro levels of the society. It seems that the present research also implicitly opens a way to explore and understand the inter-subjectivity of students as an important part of Iranian society.

 Discharge colored wastewaters without treatment is the main source of aquatic pollution, which will cause considerable impacts to the environment.

 The main objective of this study was the investigation of electrocoagulation merged with advanced oxidation (UV/persulfate) as a novel treatment method in reactive blue 52 removal from aquatic environments.

 This work was an experimental study that was done in a glass beaker coupled with two electrodes made of iron, which had an effective total surface area of 60 cm2 as an electrocoagulation reactor and other cylindrical reactor equipped with 2 UV-C lamps (6 W) as an advanced reactor for reactive blue 52 removal. The parameters affecting the electrocoagulation process such as pH, current density, initial concentration of reactive blue 52, and reaction time was studied. Then, waste obtained from the previous stage exposed to the persulfate process and effect of operating parameters such as pH; sodium persulfate dosage was investigated.

 Obtained results illustrate that reactive blue 52 was removed with 82.4% efficiency in the below optimal condition: pH = 7, density of current = 10 mA/cm2, and time of reaction = 30 min, respectively. In the hybrid process of electrocoagulation and UV/persulfate (pH = 7 and Na2S2O8 = 15 mM/L), the process efficiency in removal of dye was achieved at about 98.86%.

 Based on the obtained results, combination of two mentioned processes is an efficient and effective method for reactive blue 52 removal from aqueous environments.

 Nutrition literacy can be defined as the degree to which people have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic nutrition information.

 The aim of this study was to apply a social marketing model in order to improve nutrition literacy and healthy eating habits in women.

 This was a mixed method sequential exploratory study. The first phase of the study was the qualitative study conducted based on content analysis within the framework of the social marketing model. Based on the extracted concepts from qualitative studies, two questionnaires were obtained. The nutrition literacy questionnaire and eating behavior questionnaire were implemented by applying public health approach and the structures of social marketing model, respectively. Validity of the nutrition literacy questionnaire was 0.7 and the results of R-test were P = 0.012, r = 0.75. Validity of the eating behavior questionnaire was 0.8 and 0.78 for Cronbach’s Alpha. The second phase of the study was an experimental trial with a control group. The study population included 752 married women. The interventions for nutrition literacy improvement were administered based on the Harvard Dietary Pyramid and social marketing model. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and by the application of chi-square, paired t-test, t-test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.

 In the qualitative phase of the total interviews and discussion groups, 350 initial codes were obtained and based on the structures of social marketing model, they were grouped into two categories. during the analysis process four main themes and eight sub-themes including product (product/behavior, product/demand, product/benefit), price (individual barriers and social barriers), place and promotion (overcoming individual barriers, overcoming social barriers, the best way to send a message) were extracted. The results indicated a significant difference between the two groups in nutrition literacy score (P < 0.05) and nutritional behavior (P < 0.01) after the intervention.

 The concept of exchange in healthy diet social marketing was helpful in reducing the barriers to healthy diet and boosting the advantages of healthy eating from the customers’ viewpoint. Finally, the studied women were empowered through gaining healthy diet skills which led to healthy eating habits.
 
Keywords

 The recovery of rare-earth elements (REEs) like toxic lanthanides from contaminated waters is vital because of their irreversible effects on humans and the environment.

 In the present research, a chitosan-imprinted nano zero-valent iron (CS@nZVI) nanocomposite was fabricated and utilized to the successful separation of Lanthanum as a model lanthanides.

 The morphological and structural properties of the composites were studied through BET, FTIR, SEM, TEM, and XRD techniques. The adsorption process was modeled and optimized by methodology of response surface (RSM). Then, its four important models were validated by data fitting. Afterward, they were affirmed using ANOVA test.

 According to the outputs of the models, the reduced model was obtained as an appropriate model. Based on RSM plots, the adsorption rate at preliminary pH is low and gets better with increasing the pH value. At lower pH, there is a high concentration of H+ ion with smaller ionic radii and higher adsorption possibility, which makes it difficult to adsorb lanthanum ions by creating a competition between the excess of protons in the solution and cationic metal ions. This competitive adsorption and saturation of adsorptive sites on the surface of CS@nZVI sorbent with hydrogen ions together with repulsion forces are responsible for the La (III) less sorption. The optimum CS@nZVI removal efficiency of La (III) was 88% under the following conditions: pH = 8, 1.2 g/L CS@nZVI dosage, 5 mg/L initial La (III) concentration, and 180 min shaking time. Based on uptake kinetic models, the pseudo-second-order model is optimum in describing the rate equation of the adsorption process.

 Successfully regeneration of CS@nZVI along with its good performance for Lanthanum separation provide a promising and feasible method in order to contaminated streams purification.

 The current study aimed at examining the association of mental health with family relationships and high-risk behaviors among female students in Iran.

 The current cross sectional study was conducted on 457 10th-grade students from four public female high schools in South-Eastern Iran. Information was collected using the General Health questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) of mental health and Self-report questionnair of family relationships and high-risk behaviors with good content validity and reliability (α) 0.71. Data were analyzed by linear and binary logistic regression using SPSS version 15.

 The mean scores of mental health and high-risk behaviors of the subjects were 31.06 ± 16.44 (of maximum 84), and 18.03 ± 3.72 (of maximum 78), respectively. The most prevalent problems were associated with social performance scale. Binary logistic regression showed a statistically significant relationship between mental disorders and communication with parents, as well as relationship with opposite gender and sleeping time. A significant correlation was also observed between mental health, family behaviors, relationship with opposite gender, nighttime sleep, being abused by parent, and high-risk behaviors (P < 0.01).

 The results suggest that parent the education and counseling programs should be designed and implemented to protect adolescents and prevent socio-mental problems and high-risk behaviors in them. Such program should also be used as a basis for healthy growth of students.

 Equitable health care utilization is a pillar of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and is also a concern to policymakers. Measuring and quantifying the inequalities are essential in assessing the progress toward achieving the UHC goals. Several studies have focused on overall measures of unfair inequality in health care utilization. The overall approaches to outpatient and inpatient services are not representative of the differences in health care usage in public and private sectors in a mixed healthcare system, like Iran. A few studies have assessed inequality measures for general practitioners (GPs), specialists (SPs), and hospital admission services in different sectors, separately.

 This study aimed at measuring health care utilization inequalities in outpatient and inpatient health services in public and private sectors in Iran.

 In this study, national representative data derived from the utilization of health services survey (UHSS) in 2014 was used. The concentration curve (CC) and concentration index (CI) were applied to assess inequalities in health care utilization services, including the number of GP visits, SP visits, and admission in hospitals. We used ADePT software to produce a nonlinear estimation of CI for these count variables. The indirect standardization method was used to standardize the services for differences in needs by age and gender. The inequality in health care utilization was examined in both public and private sectors, separately.

 Based on the results, public and private outpatient settings, except for the private GP visits, followed a pro-poor pattern. Inpatient admission in the public sector had a pro-poor model, but it showed a pro-rich pattern in the private sector. GP visits in the private sector changed in favor of the poorer people and SP visits in the public sector changed toward a pro-rich pattern after standardization for differences in needs. CI for family physician (FP) and GP visits in public and private sectors, and also SP visits in public and private sectors was -0.089, -0.086, -0.010, 0.025, and -0.018, respectively. CI for the inpatient admission in public and private sectors was -0.126 and 0.157, respectively. GP, SP and hospital services utilization showed a pro-poor pattern.

 The results of this study showed that most of the health care utilization followed a pro-poor model in the mixed health care system in Iran. SP visits in the public sector changed toward a pro-rich pattern after standardization for differences in needs. Although public outpatient services need more attention to maintain their pro-poor distribution, SP visits in the public sector should be more considered to follow a pro-poor pattern. Health policymakers are recommended to take measures to eliminate barriers to access this service. This may lead to reduce a gap between the poor and rich people in the utilization of the health care and moving toward the UHC.

 The sedentary lifestyle violates health status and has negative impacts on the quality of life with subsequently numerous diseases.

 The current study aimed at evaluating the quality of life outcomes of Iranian traditional medicine (ITM) health protection measures instruction (traditionally named Hefzalsehe meaning that the essential lifestyle recommendations to maintain health and well-being based on ITM).

 The current randomized, controlled trial aimed at examining the quality of life outcomes of ITM health protection measures instruction (Hefzalsehe) in individuals in Tehran, Iran in 2017. At the same interval, the experimental group was trained virtually and traditionally for the ITM health protection measures; whereas the control group was not. Subsequently, the Persian version of the short-form 12 quality of life questionnaire (SF-12) standardized in former studies was applied to measure the effect of Hefzalsehe instruction on the quality of life of 101 subjects randomly assigned to two demographically-matched groups.

 Significant improvement was observed in physical functioning (19.12 vs. -20.5; P < 0.001), role constraints due to physical problems (42.16 vs. -34; P < 0.001), bodily pain (16.67 vs. -11; P < 0.001), general health (14.71 vs. -12.5; P < 0.001), vitality (12.55 vs. -2; P < 0.001), social functioning (18.14 vs. -12; P < 0.001), role constraints due to emotional problems (35.29 vs. -16; P < 0.001), and mental health (14.51 vs. -4.2; P < 0.001) in the experimental group compared with the control group.

 The current study indicated positive effects of education and Hefzalsehe instruction on the quality of life parameters.
 
Keywords

 This study aimed at measuring the mental and physical workload and its association with the prevalence of wrist disorders.

 This cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 female workers working in the assembly line of a porcelain company. The mental and physical workloads and also the prevalence of wrist disorders were measured using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) questionnaire, the OCRA method, and the Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire for wrists and hands, respectively.

 The results showed that 63.3% of the participants had discomfort in their wrist and hands. The Mann-Whitney test results showed that OCRA risk levels were significantly higher in those with wrist pain than those without. The NASA-TLX results revealed that the physical demands and effort (78.79 ± 19.562 and 78.37 ± 20.002, respectively) had the higher scores among the 6 subscales of NASA-TLX, which were significantly higher in those with wrist pain.

 The findings suggested a high rate of physical and mental workloads and also the wrist disorders in the assembly line workers of the porcelain company. It seems that mental workload is one of the risk factors associated with the incidence of MSDs. Therefore, the high amount of mental workload should be considered as a risk factor.
 

 Neurogenesis is the process by which nervous system cells, known as neurons, are produced by neural stem cells.

 This survey aimed to evaluate the effect of long-term aerobic activity on the nerve growth factor (NGF) in diabetic rats.

 We divided 84 rats into four groups: (1) healthy control (HC), (2) healthy practice (HP), (3) diabetic control (DC), and (4) diabetic practice (DP). They practiced for 12 weeks in three sessions per week.

 Based on the outcome of the survey, there was no difference in the level of NGF after one step of exercise (P = 0.860), but there was a significant difference in other steps of practice (P = 0.001). Also, there was a significant difference in all steps (4th, 8th and 12th weeks of practice) (P = 0.001), while the eighth weeks and 12th weeks did not differ significantly (P = 0.198).

 In the whole steps (all weeks of practice), the level of NGF was lower in the healthy control and diabetic control groups than in the control practice and diabetic practice groups. In other words, the higher incidence of diabetes mellitus, and the more time gone (from 4th to 8th and then 12th week), the higher decrease in the level of NGF occurred, so that continuous aerobic exercise could increases the NGF levels.

The potential toxicity of diazinon and malathion byproducts had been poorly studied. This study aimed to determine the toxicity of malathion, diazinon, and their byproducts generated through the UV/nano-Zn process. Diazinon and malathion samples were prepared at 1, 5, and 10 mg/L concentrations. In this study, the UV/nano-ZnO process was used for the degradation of these insecticides. The contact times in reactors were 0.5, 1, and 2 h and pH was set at 6, 7, 8, and 9. The dehydrogenase enzyme assay using Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas bacteria was used for malathion, diazinon, and their byproducts. All tests were prepared in triplicate. The probit analysis in SPSS Ver. 16.0 software was used for the calculation of EC50 (50% effective concentrations). According to the results, byproduct analysis and toxicity assessment were performed in the following situation in the UV/nano-ZnO process: pH 8, contact time of 2 h, initial concentration of 5 mg/L, removal efficiency of diazinon and malathion of 95.4% and 97.5%, respectively. The EC50 values using Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas were 0.35 and 4.26 mg/L for diazinon and 173.3 and 279.82 mg/L for malathion, respectively. The EC50 values using Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas were 2.24 and 2.82 mg/L for diazinon byproducts and 28.10 and 197.92 mg/L for malathion byproducts, respectively. This study showed that in some cases the byproducts of diazinon and malathion produced through the UV/nano-ZnO process are more toxic than diazinon and malathion (primary forms). Therefore, it can be suggested that their removal in photo-catalyst processes should be under special caution.