Investigation of spiritual health in staff of one Medical Sciences University in Tehran

For downloading the full-text of this article please click here.Background Objective: Spiritual wellbeing is considered as an important aspect of human health which provides a coordinated and integrated relation between the internal forces, and by creating meaning and purpose in life is thought as an important approach to promote general health. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim to assess the Spiritual wellbeing of the staff of one University of Medical Sciences in Tehran city. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 503 university employees (including the three covered hospitals and the faculties’ staff) with a multi-stage sampling (based on the percentage of the employed people in each department/ administrative or medical staff),  during  2012. The data were collected through Ellison and Paloutzian 20-item Spiritual wellbeing questionnaires and after determining their validity and reliability by self report, then were analyzed with SPSS software version 16, One way-ANOVA and correlation tests. Results: According to the results, 57.3% of the staff were women, 61.8% were married and 26.4% had a work experience between 3 to 5 years. In this study, a total of 61.4% of the staff had a good Spiritual wellbeing score. Spiritual wellbeing had significant relationship with age, work experience, history of psychiatric disorders, moderate physical activity, housing conditions and participation in the rites of Hajj association.Conclusion: Planning to promote physical, psychological, social and occupational health in staff is a top priority. Regarding the promotion of the income, welfare, physical activity and lifestyle is recommended for  the employee. Keywords: Spiritual Health, Staff, UniversityFor downloading the full-text of this article please click here

بررسی وضعیت سلامت معنوی در کارکنان دانشگاه علوم پزشکی

Background Objective: Spiritual wellbeing is considered as an important aspect of human health which provides a coordinated and integrated relation between the internal forces, and by creating meaning and purpose in life is thought as an important approach to promote general health. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim to assess the Spiritual wellbeing of the staff of one University of Medical Sciences in Tehran city.  Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 503 university employees (including the three covered hospitals and the faculties’ staff) with a multi-stage sampling (based on the percentage of the employed people in each department/ administrative or medical staff),  during  2012. The data were collected through Ellison and Paloutzian 20-item Spiritual wellbeing questionnaires and after determining their validity and reliability by self report, then were analyzed with SPSS software version 16, One way-ANOVA and correlation tests.  Results: According to the results, 57.3% of the staff were women, 61.8% were married and 26.4% had a work experience between 3 to 5 years. In this study, a total of 61.4% of the staff had a good Spiritual wellbeing score. Spiritual wellbeing had significant relationship with age, work experience, history of psychiatric disorders, moderate physical activity, housing conditions and participation in the rites of Hajj association. Conclusion: Planning to promote physical, psychological, social and occupational health in staff is a top priority. Regarding the promotion of the income, welfare, physical activity and lifestyle is recommended for  the employee.سابقه و اهداف: سلامت معنوي، يکي از ابعاد مهم سلامت در انسان محسوب مي­ شود و به عنوان رويكردي مهم در ارتقای سلامت عمومي در نظر گرفته مي­ شود. با توجه به اهميت سلامت معنوي و نقش آن در ارتقای سلامت رواني، پژوهش حاضر با هدف بررسي سلامت معنوی در کارکنان یکی از دانشگاه­ های علوم پزشکی شهر تهران صورت گرفته است. مواد و روش­ ها: این مطالعه­ ی مقطعی، بر روی 503 نفر از کارکنان یکی از دانشگاه های علوم پزشکی شهر تهران (دربرگیرنده­ ی سه بیمارستان تحت پوشش و دانشکده­ ها)، به روش نمونه­ گیری چند مرحله­ یی مرکب (برحسب درصد افراد شاغل در هر بخش/کارمند اداری یا درمانی)، در سال 1391 انجام شد. اطلاعات از طريق پرسش­نامه­ هاي سلامت معنوي 20 سئوالی   Paloutzianو  Ellison بعد از تعیین روایی و پایایی آن­ ها به صورت خود ایفا تکمیل و جمع­ آوری و توسط نرم افزار SPSS16 و آزمون­ های ANOVA و  همبستگی تجزیه و تحلیل شد. یافته­ ها: میانگین نمره­ ی سلامت مذهبی و وجودی در کارکنان به ترتیب 97/52 و 09/48 بود. در مجموع 4/61 درصد کارکنان از نمره­ ی سلامت معنوی خوبی برخوردار بودند. بین سلامت معنوی و سن، سابقه­ ی خدمت، سابقه­ ی بیماری­ های اعصاب و روان، متوسط فعالیت جسمانی، وضعیت مسکن و شرکت در مناسک حج، ارتباط آماری معنی­داری مشاهده شد. نتیجه­ گیری: برنامه­ ریزی برای ارتقای سلامت جسمی و به خصوص روانی، اجتماعی و حرفه­ یی کارکنان در اولویت قرار دارد. برای ارتقای سلامت در کارکنان توجه به ارتقای شغلی، سطح رفاه و درآمد، فعالیت جسمانی و سبک زندگی  توصیه می­ شود. واژگان کلیدی: سلامت معنوی، کارکنان، دانشگا

Detecting global and local hippocampal shape changes in Alzheimer's disease using statistical shape models

The hippocampus is affected at an early stage in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). With the use of structural magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, we can investigate the effect of AD on the morphology of the hippocampus. The hippocampal shape variations among a population can be usually described using statistical shape models (SSMs). Conventional SSMs model the modes of variations among the population via principal component analysis (PCA). Although these modes are representative of variations within the training data, they are not necessarily discriminative on labeled data or relevant to the differences between the sub-populations. We use the shape descriptors from SSM as features to classify AD from normal control (NC) cases. In this study, a Hotelling's T-2 test is performed to select a subset of landmarks which are used in PCA. The resulting variation modes are used as predictors of AD from NC. The discrimination ability of these predictors is evaluated in terms of their classification performances with bagged support vector machines (SVMs). Restricting the model to landmarks with better separation between AD and NC increases the discrimination power of SSM. The predictors extracted on the subregions also showed stronger correlation with the memory-related measurements such as Logical Memory, Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and the memory subscores of Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS). Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved