A Review of Alcohol-Related Harms: A Recent Update

In the early decades of the 20th century, discussions regarding alcohol were dominantly directed toward itstherapeutic uses, but authorities now state that any level of alcohol consumption poses negative effects onhealth. Over recent months, increased attention has been devoted to disease burdens attributable to alcoholuse worldwide. As more and more studies are conducted to illuminate the harmful effects of alcohol ondifferent body systems, the mounting evidence generated requires documentation and publication. Thecurrent review was aimed at providing an overview of the recent literature on the adverse consequences ofalcohol consumption

The Effect of Educational Intervention based on the Health Belief Model on Diabetes Screening Behavior in over 30 Years Old men in Shahr-e-Babak

Background: Diabetes is one of the major health problems in the world and half of the affected patients are unaware of it. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the Health Belief Model on the behavior of male subjects attending diabetes screening. Methods: This interventional study was performed on 180 men over 30 years of age. The intervention group (90 ones) underwent educational intervention conducted over four 60-minute sessions. Data were collected using a questionnaire (including 51 questions) filled out through direct interview before the intervention and two months after that. Fisher's exact test, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests were used for data analysis. Results: After the intervention, knowledge scores increased in both intervention and control groups. This was due to the implementation of routine training at the centers. But, significant increase in the attitudes and practice was observed only in the intervention group. Also, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action, after the intervention, showed significant increase in the intervention group compared with the control group (P <0.001). Conclusion: Health Belief Model was effective in education of people over 30 years old for participating in diabetes screening programs. Therefore, it is recommended to use this model alongside traditional methods

Social Capital and its Relationship with Drug Use among Southeast Iranian Adolescents

Background: Social capital (SC) is one of the most important assets and a vital determinant of sustainabledevelopment of any country. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and the relationshipbetween SC and substance use (SU) in Southeast Iranian adolescents.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among high school students in three cities located in southeast of Iran. We recruited 600 adolescents (329 girls and 271 boys) through multistage sampling duringSeptember to November 2018. The data collection instrument was a self-administered standardizedquestionnaire that included basic demographic characteristics, SC constructs items, and questions about SUbehavior in the participants.Findings: The mean SC score among boys and girls studied was 3.46 and 3.33, respectively (from 5 score).Among the SC constructs, respectively, the lowest and highest score belonged to social trust and [2.84 in girlsand 2.98 in boys with 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.06-0.21, P < 0.001] and bonding to family (3.92 ingirls and 4.25 in boys with 95% CI of 0.22-0.44, P < 0.001). The ever use prevalence of at least one substanceabuse was 55.9% (n = 181) for boys and 36.6% (n = 68) for girls. Hookah (41.8%) and alcohol (16.9%) were themost substances abused by participants. One-point increase in score of the constructs of social participation,social cohesion, bonding with family, and bonding with schools was associated with a reduce of 17%, 22%, 26%,and 46% in the probability of ever SU, respectively.Conclusion: There was a strong relationship between SU and SC. Thus, rising SC as an effective communitybased and indirect approach can help policy makers and professionals in preventing SU in Iran. However, priorto any intervention, identification of more causality may be require

The Application of Social Cognitive Theory on Mothers’ Feeding Practices for Children Aged 6 to 24 Months old in Iran

Background Complementary Feeding between 6 and 24 months of age underlies nutritional habits in adulthood which can be formed by mothers through these habits. This study was conducted in Kerman aiming to apply the social cognitive theory (SCT) in feeding practices of mothers for their children aged 6 to 24 months. Materials and Methods This quasi-experimental study, controlled before and after, was conducted in Kerman health centers on 170 mothers with children aged 6 to 24 months, who were selected by multistage random sampling. The data collection tool was a valid and reliable questionnaire which was completed by mothers before and one month after the intervention. Interventions were implemented for 45 days through four sessions. In the intervention program; presentations, booklets, pamphlets, focus group discussions, role playing, demonstrations, and self-control cards were used. Also, bean sprouts were given to mothers and individual counseling was provided. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22.0. Results: Social cognitive theory constructs including knowledge, outcome expectations, outcome expectancies, situational perception, the environment, self-efficacy and self-control could have significant effect on feeding practices of mothers for children (

Factors affecting Cardiovascular Patients’ Adherence in the hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Sciences based on the Health Belief Model

Background: Medical adherence is one of the most important behaviors in the care of cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to determine the factors affecting cardiovascular patients’ adherence based on the Health Belief Model in 2016. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 420 cardiovascular patients admitted to Kerman University of Medical Sciences educating hospitals were chosen via convenience sampling, and data was collected by a researcher made questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model about factors effective on medical adherence. The data were analyzed using Chi-square, ANOVA, and t-test in SPSS software 21. Results: In this study, 40.5% of participants had a low level of adherence. There were significant relations between health belief model constructs together, and between adherence with perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, and self-efficacy (p<0.001). The Health Belief Model predicted 33.7% of the variance in medical adherence (p<0.001). Conclusion: According to the findings of this study the health belief model can be used in planning and intervening to improve medical adherence in cardiovascular patients. Developing an educational intervention based on the Health Belief Model is suggested for enhancing medical adherence among patients. Keywords: Cardiovascular Patients, Health Belief Model, Adherence, Kerma

Pattern of Substance Use and Related Factors in Male Prisoners

Background: Prisoner’s addiction is one of the major problems in many countries which imposes very high medical costs and social harm to communities. This study investigated the pattern of substance use and related factors in male prisoners in one of the prisons in southeastern Iran.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2016. The study population was inmates of a prison in southeast Iran. Sampling was carried out randomly according to the list of prisoners. Data were collected using a form and were analyzed with statistics software SPSS.Findings: More than four-fifths (75.3%) of the subjects consumed at least one substance (alcohol, tobacco and other drugs), 74.4% were smoking, 73.2% used a narcotic substance, and about one-fifth (19.3%) reported drinking alcohol. With a frequency of 62.0%, opium was the most frequently utilized narcotic substance. Poppy juice (31.6%), cannabis (29.8%), crystal (16.9%) and tramadol (16.9%) were the next frequent substances used. A percentage of 41.5% subjects reported using two or more drugs. A percentage of 80.7% subjects reported substance use among their friends, 39.2% by siblings and 37.2% by father. Regression analysis showed predictor variables of substance use were education, substance use by prisoner before being imprisoned, substance use by father, friends and siblings.Conclusion: This study showed a remarkable prevalence of substance use in prisons, which was more than general population. Therefore, it is necessary to consider alternative penalties of imprisonment due to the factors associated with substance use. Screening of people at high risk for substance use should be considered on admission to prison, and primary prevention measures should be focused on them

Bibliometric and Content Analysis of Scientific Outputs Relevant to Health Education and Promotion in Iran during 1998-2011

Background: Since the aim of health research is to improve the quality of community life, the results obtained from these research could be used in health policies and practices. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the bibliometric and content analysis of research relevant to health education and promotion performed in Iran during 1998-2011. Methods: This is a descriptive content analysis study. Data were collected from online databases (IranMedex, Medlib, SID, ISI, and PubMed), and all published articles relevant to health education and promotion in Iran up to the end of March 2011 were included in this study. In order to do content analysis a researcher-made checklist approved by experts was used for identifying the variables. Data was entered into SPSS 21 and descriptive statistics and percents were calculated. Results: From 1227 documents retrieved, 817 were published in Persian and 410 in English. A great share of retrieved documents belonged to the articles published in the scientific journals (87.4%). Mental health (10.7%), family planning and reproductive health (10.2 %), and chronic non-communicable diseases (10.2%) were the most frequent subject areas in research relevant to health promotion, respectively. Most of the studies were cross-sectional (52.1%), the most widely used method was simple random sampling (27.7%), and most of the studies were performed locally in provinces (83.7%). Conclusion: Doing more studies by outlining the exact perspective of health promotion research in Iran and comparison of the current status of Iran with that of other countries are recommended

Development and Psychometric Properties of Risk and Protective Factors of Substance Use ‎Scale in Iran: An Application of Social Development Model

Background: Substance use is a growing public health problem among adolescents. In the lack of a valid and reliable instrument based on social development model (SDM), this study aimed to develop risk and protective factors of substance use scale based on SDM to determine risk and protective factors influencing substance use among adolescents. Methods: A total of 235 male students from 9th and 10th grade (14-18 years old) of public high schools in Kerman, Iran, selected through multistage cluster sampling. Items pool extracted from the literature and focus groups with male adolescents. Face validity of the questionnaire assessed for readability and clarity of items. Then, an expert panel evaluated the items for content validity. Consequently, construct validity of questionnaire confirmed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Known group validity is determined by the degree to which the instrument shows different scores between two groups of those who had an experience in drug use and those who did not have such an experience. In addition, reliability assessed via internal consistency and test-retest. Results: About 10 factor solution (containing 38 items) emerged as a result of EFA entitled adolescent’s “beliefs on hookah and alcohol,” “bonding to parents,” “family rules on substance use,” “drug resistance skills,” “adolescent’s beliefs on hard drugs,” “situational perception on hookah and alcohol,” “rules of school,” “situational perception on hard drugs,” “attachment to school,” and “perceived opportunity at school.” The first four emerged factors explained 46% of the total variance observed. Among these factors, adolescent’s beliefs on hookah and alcohol explained a more than 25.3% of the total variance. Results indicated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach¢s alpha ranging from 0.71 to 0.85) and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) (ranging from 0.48 to 0.81). Conclusion: The risk and protective factors of substance use questionnaire are the first instrument based on the SDM. The findings showed that this questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing determinants of substance use which can be used by researchers and policymakers in preventive initiatives