مجله اپیدمیولوژی ایران
سال دهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 36، زمستان 1393)

Influenza is an acute، contagious، and zoonotic viral disease. It is caused by a virus of the Orthomyxoviridae family. This very infectious is caused by different subtypes of type A influenza virus in the poultry، turkey، and many other birds. In this study، the serum status of rural domestic poultry was investigated for influenza subtype H9N2. This cross sectional study was done from August to October in 2013 in Iranian villages through sampling domestic poultry. The sampling was accidental and was done based on the GIS 11-digit code. In each village، blood samples were taken from at least 28 birds from different species. Then، ELISA was used for screening followed by the HI test. A total of 397 villages and 11546 birds (10145 chickens، 1413 ducks، 397 turkeys، 10 pigeons، and 175 other species) were sampled. Three hindered and forty nine (88%) out of 397 villages were positive on ELISA. In addition، 341 villages (86%) were positive and 56 (14%) were negative on the HI test for antibody titers. Also، among the considered variables، weather was a risk factor and the prevalence was significantly lower in villages near the rivers، lagoons and lakes (up to a radius of 3 Km). The high seroprevalence of influenza H9N2 in rural domestic poultry indicates that the disease is becoming endemic. As there is no eradication policy for influenza H9N2 in Iran، using effective vaccines can reduce the infection with influenza virus in domestic and rural poultry.

I In the classification proposed by Holmes and colleague, the stress of divorce has been identified as the greatest one among all types of stresses in the world. This global stress is on the rise in Iran so that Iran is the fourth country in this regard. The purpose of this study was to present a comprehensive and systematic model of the factors affecting divorce in the country. The method used in this study was qualitative and a type of meta-study known as meta-synthesis. The study population consisted of all relevant papers with research topics. In order to perform the research, after designing research questions, a systematic search was carried out based on relevant key words (divorce, spousal conflict, separation) from the databases Science Direct, IEEE, Emerald, ISC, IRANDOC, SID, Civilica, Scopus and also Google Scholar between 1365 to early 1392. By reviewing 61 articles out of 8477 primary ones, both foreign and domestic, researchers identified 15 dimensions and 64 components as the factors affecting divorce. Based on these factors, the final integrated model was presented and validated. The results of this study can be used as a basis for planning pre-marriage counseling programs by identifying factors affecting divorce on the basis of all available resources in the years 1365 to 1392.

Awareness of the cancer incidence is essential for cancer prevention and control programs. Capture-recapture methods have been recommended for reducing bias and increasing the accuracy of cancer incidence estimation. This study aimed to estimate the incidence of gastric cancer by the capture-recapture method based on Ardabil population-based cancer registry data. All new cases of gastric cancer reported by three sources, i.e. pathology reports, death certificates, and medical records, reported to Ardabil population-based cancer registry between 2006 and 2008 were enrolled in the study. The duplicate cases based on the similarity of the first name, surname, and father's name were identified among sources. The estimated incidence was calculated by the log-linear method using the Stata 12 software. A total 857 new cases of gastric cancer were reported from three sources. After removing duplicates, the reported incidence rate was 35.3 and 32.5 per 100,000 population for the years 2006 and 2008, respectively. The estimated incidence rate calculated by the log-linear method for these years was 96.2 and 90.4 per 100,000 population, respectively. The results showed that none of the sources of pathology reports, death certificates, and medical records, individually or collectively, fully covered the incidence of gastric cancer. We can obtain more accurate estimates of the incidence rate using the capture-recapture method.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among Iranian women. The peak age of breast cancer in Iran is one decade lower than the global estimates. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to estimate the burden of breast cancer in Iranian women in the country level. In this study, the CANMOD software was used for the calculation of DALYs as the sum of YLL and YLD. The required data was the population of the Iranian women, mortality due to breast cancer, incidence cases of breast cancer, and mean time of the stages of breast cancer that was obtained from the Mortality Registry System, Cancer Registry System, and expert panel views. In this study, the total burden of breast cancer in Iranian women was 75811 years in 2009. Moreover, the years of life lost (YLL) was 54938 years while years lived with disability (YLD) was estimated 20873 years. The rate of DALYs per 100000 female population was 220.9 years. The peak age of breast cancer burden was in the age group 45-59 years. The incidence to mortality ratio was 3/2. The incidence rate, mortality rate, and the burden of breast cancer in Iranian women increased in 2009 when compared to a previous study in 2003. The findings of this study may provide Iranian health managers with some information on the determinants of the burden of breast cancer in order to design preventive measures as well as screening programs for early detection of breast cancer.

Knowledge transition is an important issue in social epidemiology. Taking into account the importance of knowledge translation network among vulnerable young people in closed environments, this study was conducted to recognize and survey knowledge transition in school lessons. The study aimed at teenagers residing in orphanages in the city of Kerman, using social network analysis. The study samples of this cross-sectional study were all teenagers aged 12-18 years old residing in orphanages. Data was collected via a checklist. In order to study the structural cohesion of social networks and the position of teenagers, density and centrality indices were calculated. Local structure of networks was studied using the triad census method. Finally, the effects of independent variables on indegree index were investigated using a mixed model. The mean density in knowledge transition was 0.34 (0.42 and 0.27 in girls and boys, respectively. (P=0.2)). Completely null and completely mutual triads were 17.1% and 11.2% in girls and 33.7% and 0.09% in boys, respectively. Indegree increased with an increase in age (P<0.001), the average of the scores in school exams (P=0.002), and studying non school materials (P=0.04). Age, average score of school exams, and studying non school materials were important factors in indegree. In general, density of social network was rather low. The rate of knowledge transition was small. Therefore, activities are required to enhance knowledge sharing and transition.

Brucellosis is a zoonosis disease that is important in humans and animals. Since the disease is important in ranchers and veterinarians, we conducted this study to estimate the seroprevalence of the infection in these groups in Kerman. In this descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study, 187 industrial and semi-industrial dairy personnel and veterinary network staff of Kerman in 2012 were recruited. Rose Bengal, Wright and 2-Mercaptoethanol were done on serum samples. Demographic and occupational characteristics of the participants were recorded. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Poisson regression via the Stata software. The prevalence of brucellosis was 3.2%. In this study, the history of brucellosis in the family, working in the veterinary network, and working in semi-industrial versus industrial dairy farms were the risk factors of the disease. Although the prevalence of the infection was lower than other studies, it was still considerable in these groups; therefore, it is necessary to improve preventive measures in these groups.

Failure to gain weight (FTG) is one of the predominant health issues in children. The aim of this study is application of longitudinal transition model in determining the prognostic factors for failure to gain weight in children under two years. In this study, 363 children under 2 years that were visited at the health centers in the east of Tehran were studied. Samples were selected using the two stage clustering method. The study variables were measured repeatedly in 18 consecutive times. Since the data was longitudinal and are dependent, first order transition model was used to determine the risk factors of failure to gain weight. All analyses conducted in R. The mean (±sd) birth weight was 3057gr(± 838) and 6.9% of the children weighed less than 2500gr at birth. Moreover, 231 children (63.6 %) had no FTW until 2 years of age while 23 (6.3 %) had three or more episodes of FTW. Diarrhea (P<0.001), weaning (P<0.001), catching cold (<0.001), and teething (P<.001) were significant risk factors of failure to gain weight. To measure the association between weight loss and the weight in the previous visit, the logarithm of odds ratios was used that was significant (P=0.039). The association between two consecutive measurements showed that any failure in weight would affect weight gain in the next period of time and the effect of weight deficiency remains for at least one month.

Previous studies have reported contradictory results regarding the association of Shift Work (SW) and Blood Cholesterol (BC). In this paper, we studied the relationship between SW and BC. The data of this historical cohort study was extracted from annual observations of the workers of Esfahan’s Mobarakeh Steel Company selected through cluster random sampling between 1996 and 2011. In this research, we assessed the effect of SW on BC with controlling BMI, age, work experience, marital status, smoking, and educational status. Five hundered and seventy four male workers participated in this study with a mean (SD) age of 41.89 (7.51) and mean (SD) work experience of 16.75 (7.16) years. In this study, after controlling confounding factors, we found no significant relationship between SW and BC. Because our study showed no relationship between SW and BC, we can state that this relationship does not exist with more certainty.

In the current age, due to the increasing growth of knowledge and competition therein, evaluation of scientific products by means of scientometric methods has become a very important and necessary subject. Scientometrics, in simple words, is the science of measuring the knowledge. Scientometric indices are divided into three categories: productivity metrics that measure the productivity of the researchers or research groups, impact metrics that assess the quality (or performance) of journals, researchers, or research groups, and hybrid metrics that are used to summarize both productivity and effect metrics in one index. Scientometric studies help policy makers and managers of universities and heads of research centers in allocating budget, creating a balance between the budget and costs, making appointments, and promoting the researchers and institutes, and results in better recognition of weaknesses and strengths of their affiliated groups by evaluation of priorities, perspectives, and capacities. Meanwhile, this new knowledge can help with systematic evaluation and ranking of universities and research centers. This paper provides a review on scientometric concepts and its applications and discussed scientometric indices.

Health is the most common outcome in health research. In addition to the physician’s examinations as the gold standard, there are many questionnaires to assess objective and subjective health. One of the health indicators is the Self-Rated Health (SRH) which can evaluate health through one question. The use of this indicator is very easy and efficient; therefore, it has become very common in health research. In this review, the biases and controversies in the interpretation of the SRH have been elaborated. In this narrative review, Medline and Iran-Med databanks were searched using self-rated or self reported health in the title in December 2013. The titles and abstracts of 1106 article were assessed and 106 articles were recognized as relevant articles. Some of the references of these articles were assessed and 16 articles were added to the list of relevant articles. There are different types of the SRH questions; five or seven item questions, and comparative or non-comparative ones. However, the findings of these types of questions are similar and none is preferred over the others in the literature. On the other hand, the validity of this indicator is not similar in different socio-economic and ethnic groups. Thus, the estimated health difference between these groups is rated with bias. T his question still works in the research and clinical setting evaluations. The main point is paying attention to the socio-economic and cultural status of the study groups in SRH interpretation.