journal of Social Behavior and Community Health
Volume:4 Issue: 2, Nov 2020

Several pandemics such as the Spanish flu; and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome have come and gone with similar consequences felt after they were contained. It can be suggested that a critical study of events after past pandemics can help one make an informed guess about what to expect after the current pandemic. Therefore, this paper aimed to examine the post-events of past pandemics to predict events after Covid-19. Published articles were collected and reviewed from scholarly literature, Web search engines, and citation databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus. Information gathering for this study was largely done in the second quarter of 2020 on mainly Google Scholar with the final inclusion criteria word search being pandemic, epidemic, plague, disease, crises, infection, viral, and outbreak whiles the final exclusion criteria word search being science, scientific, environment, biology, chemistry, law, and political. Peer-reviewed articles were sorted and reviewed to contribute to understanding and developing a perspective in assessing past pandemics and Covid-19. Other authentic non-peer-reviewed online sources were also searched, and their required information was also considered. Literature was reviewed on historical pandemics, which killed many people up to percentages of the whole population. Although all of them were deadly, the three recent outbreaks were checked in-depth, namely the 1918 Spanish Flu, Ebola, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The current pandemic, as declared by the World Health Organization, is Covid-19. This study makes several predictions under different categories including: social, psychological, economic, and global conditions, as well as the possible benefits of Covid-19. The findings encompass fear and paranoia among people, the psychological need of survivors, stigmatization, growth in religious fanaticism, stock market returns, increment in unemployment, higher cost of doing business, impact on the global financial system, temporary dysfunction of global supply chains, the cost to the world economy, increased interest in infectious disease prevention, stronger bonding between humans and nations, and advancement in clinical research.

The emergence of generalized anxiety disorder in the students causes creation of other psychological and cognitive damages. Therefore the present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of cognitive therapy according to Dougas model on Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Emotion Regulation in the students with generalized anxiety disorder.

The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest and control group design the statistical population included students with generalized anxiety disorder in academic year 2017-18 in the city of Isfahan. 30 students with generalized anxiety disorder were selected from the statistical population purposive non-random sampling method and were randomly replaced into experimental and control groups (15 students in the experimental and 15 in the control group). The experimental group received twelve ninety-minute sessions of therapy interventions related to cognitive therapy based on Dougas model during three months once a week while the control group didn’t receive any intervention during the study. The applied instruments included generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire, emotion-regulation questionnaire and meta-cognitive beliefs questionnaire. Data analysis from the study was done via SPSS23 software through Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance) method.

The results of data analysis showed that cognitive therapy based on Dougas model has significantly influenced Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Emotion Regulation in the students with generalized anxiety disorder (p < 0.001) in that this therapy could lead to the increase of Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Emotion Regulation in the students with generalized anxiety disorder. The effect size of this treatment on metacognitive beliefs and emotional adjustment was 0.72 and 0.80, respectively.

According to the findings of the present study it is suggested to apply cognitive therapy based on Dougas model as an efficient method in order to increase Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Emotion Regulation in the students with generalized anxiety disorder.

Moving away from family can cause psychological and emotional trauma for the elderly. Accordingly, the present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of spiritual therapy on loneliness feeling among the elderly in a nursing home in Isfahan.

The method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The population of this study included all of the elderly in Sadeghieh nursing home in Isfahan in 2018. The sample of this study included 30 elderly people being selected by purposive sampling and then randomly included in the experimental and control groups (15 elderly people in each group). The experimental group received the therapeutic interventions related to spiritual therapy at eight sessions of 90 minutes every week for two months. Then, the subjects in both groups were re-tested. The used instruments included Russell’s loneliness questionnaire (1996). After collecting the questionnaires and extracting the raw data, the data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and analysis of covariance by SPSS23 statistical software at 0.05 error level.

spiritual therapy had a significant effect on loneliness among the elderly in the nursing home (p < 0.001). In this regard, this therapy could reduce loneliness among the elderly in the nursing home. The effect of spiritual therapy on loneliness among the elderly in the nursing home was 53%.

Based on the research findings, spiritual therapy can reduce loneliness among the elderly by the techniques such as taking responsibility, assigning cases to God, strengthening the intention, and deleting negative thoughts.

Divorce, as a consequence of family disruption, is a common phenomenon within all communities. Considering the increased frequency of divorce cases in Yazd city during recent years, this study was conducted to investigate the distribution of divorce causes and aimed to design an efficient program to deal with it.

This descriptive cross-sectional analytic study was conducted on the data collected from 118 male and female individuals referring to Yazd courts with divorce requests during  12 months. The participants were randomly selected and asked to complete a researcher-made questionnaire about the divorce. one of which include the participantschr('39') general information The second section contain 18 sub-scales and dealt with different causes of divorce. The collected data were analyzed by ANOVA using SPSS version 17.

The most effective divorce factor was misunderstanding and disagreement (44.9%), while the least important factor was friends (1.7%). Based on the results, the involvement of friends had the lowest effect on the incidence of divorce (1.7 %), while misunderstanding and disagreement were among the most frequent causes of divorce (44.9 %). Causes of divorce included addiction, unemployment, delinquency and infidelity, mental illness, violence, insults, and immorality. In terms of gender differences and economic conditions, a significant difference was revealed in the divorce rate in this respect, as well as other factors of divorce. The findings also representea a significant difference in the divorce rate with respect to education status (p = 0/6).

The findings showed that disagreement was the main underlying cause of divorce. Disagreement includes various moral, cultural, and religious aspects. Infidelity was also another most frequent cause of divorce in Iran and other countries. Considering different factors that affect the incidence of divorce, some strategies should be seriously consider before and after marriage to prevent and decrease its frequency within the society.

Stress can effect all aspects of life, including eating and dressing behavior. These changes impact the health and wellness of individuals. With less known research on men, the purpose of this study was to report preliminary findings using an original research instrument to assess the perceived effects of stress on eating and dressing behaviors among undergraduate college males.

The sample included 32 male undergraduate students enrolled at a Midwestern University in the United States in 2017 completed the survey. The participants completed the survey two weeks apart. The instrument, Male Stress Dressing and Eating Survey, included 42 questions divided into four sections: 1) demographics, 2) effort put forth to control dressing and making healthy eating choices, 3) patterns of dressing and eating when stressed, and 4) clothing items worn and foods eaten when under non-stressful and stressful conditions. Cohen’s Kappa (κ) was used to analyze test-retest reliability. The Wilcoxon signed ranks test, a nonparametric, paired sample test, was used to ascertain preliminary results pertaining to eating and dressing during perceived conditions.

Kappa values for these dressing question ranged from κ = -0.01
to κ = 0.60. All Infraclass Correlation Coefficient test-retest coefficients were statistically significant (p < 0.05), with the median being .66 demonstrating good reliability. Descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests indicated that men under perceived stress were more likely to choose mixed dishes, salty-crunchy foods, sweet foods, and modify their diet. When under perceived stress, these men used fewer accessories and did not dress formally, were not engaged in hair maintenance behaviors, were less likely to use scent enhancer, and did not enhance their appearance.

This survey has the potential to be reliable and useful in research related to stress, food, and dressing. Specifically, the instrument appears to be a useful tool for practitioners and researchers in the applied and academic areas associated with this age group and gender.

The concept of Healthy City has been widely accepted globally and has been established in all six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. Community involvement, empowerment, and leadership are embedded core principles in the Healthy Cities initiative and pillars to achieve the health and health-related sustainable development goals. This article aimed to present the findings of the recent evaluation of eleven healthy cities in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR).

The  evaluation was based on the 80 indicators of a WHO/EMRO Healthy City. It included eleven cities (Al-Dariyah, Jalajil, Al-Jamoum, Unaiza, Riyadh Alkhubra, Sharoura, Al-Madina, Al-Taif, and Al-Mundaq in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Al-Yarmouk in Kuwait, and Manama in Bahrain).

The findings revealed that eleven cities were peculiar in demonstrating community involvement, empowerment, and leadership in real terms. All had proper mechanisms for their communities to voice themselves and participate in decision-making, assessing the needs, setting priorities, planning better for their cities, and monitoring. Their community engagement was based on voluntarism with a high sense of loyalty. This feature has been well demonstrated in their community organizations, such as women and youth groups, health volunteers, community-based organizations, etc.

Although community participation and empowerment remain at the heart of the healthy cities initiative, to be more meaningful, the government-related sectors must foresee this as an integral part of long-term strategic development. Moreover, a paradigm shift towards a more integrated approach to promote health and well-being would accelerate the achievement of health-related sustainable development goals and reduce health inequities in urban settings which would require multi-stakeholder collaboration, including public, private, and community civil societies.

The emergence of chronic physiologic diseases such as diabetes damages the childrenchr('39')s psychological, cognitive, communicational, social and emotional processes. Therefore, the present study was aimed to compare executive functions in normal and diabetic children.

The research method was cross-sectional. The statistical population included healthy and sick children in 2019 in Isfahan. The statistical population of the study included diabetic children and 150 healthy children who were selected through convenient sampling method. The applied questionnaires focused on their executive functions. The data from the study were analyzed through t method.

There was a significant difference between diabetic children and healthy ones in the variable of executive functions (p < 0.001), in a way that diabetic children got lower mean scores in executive functions. The mean scores of executive functions of children with diabetes were 233.63 and the mean scores of non-diabetic children were 192.64.

According to the findings of the present study it can be concluded that diabetes causes the decrease of executive functions due to being chronic and this process emphasizes the necessity of applying child-oriented psychological interventions for these people.

People and communities’ reaction to cancer disease, much like any other diseases, can be due to their cultures, norms, and values. At the personal and family level, the unfamiliarity with the disease can cause many issues for a person. These conditions alter the patientchr('39')s daily functions, roles, and emotions. Efforts to manage emotions and form behaviors become processes of bonding between the patientchr('39')s body and social experiences. The aim of this research was to explore the emotions of cancer patients by discovering their understanding and interpretation.

This research employed a qualitative approach utilizing the grounded theory method. Semi-structured interviews were done with 17 cancer patients and their caregivers. Participants were selected through purposive sampling method (snowball), and the data provided from the interviews after implementation were analyzed using the theoretical coding method.

The findings were classified into 5 main categories including: helplessness in notification, expectation of continuous empathy, admission delay, desire for emotional retrieval, and social distress. Ultimately, "suspense of emotions" was proposed to be regarded as the major phenomenon that was experienced by cancer patients.

Based on the findings of the research, patientschr('39') confusion in the face of cancer and their special conditions can create a condition of coping with the situation which prevents the achievement of stability at early stages, and before reaching relatively established conditions, the patients and those close to them are suspended for some time. This condition puts their emotions in a volatile situation, which brings the experience of suspending emotions.