Cigarette smoking Prevalence and causes among students of Kerman universities

Introduction: Cigarette smoking is one important worldwide healthily dilemma، especially in students of universities. Hence identification of tendency factors is very effective in order to prevention of tobacco consumption. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of tendency to cigarette smoking and its reasons among universities students. Method: In a descriptive cross-sectional study، 460 male students responded to researcher made questionnaires. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and SPSS software. Results: 52/8% of students were experienced cigarette smoking and 12/1% (n = 56) were permanent smokers، 54/4% initiated at under 20 age for cigarette smoking. important factors with tendency to cigarette smoking were : suggestion of others، to acquire experience and comfortable، encourage of friends and others، bigness sense and beauty، and obstinacy against parents. Conclusion: cigarette smoking rate among students of present study was lower than other studying، but in attention to 52/8% them were experienced cigarette smoking and average age of onset smoking was under 20 age، hence، we recommended educational programs for adolescents، having relationship with perfect persons، to select suitable patterns from no smoking behaviors، comfortable facilities، and consultation to students in order to decrease prevalence of smoking. Keywords: Cigarette, Tendency Factors to Cigarette Smoking, Student

A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study of Morbidity and Mortality of COVID-19 Disease in four Cities of Northern Khorasan Province using Ratio of Coefficient of Variation

Background: In December 2019, the spread of a new infectious disease was reported in Wuhan, caused by a new coronavirus named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. This study aims to compare the dispersion of COVID-19 disease among four Iranian cities in North Khorasan named Bojnord, Farooj, Jajarm, and Shirvan. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study includes information about the daily morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 in 1124 patients from March to May 2021. The analysis of variance method, Scheffe post hoc technique and Leven's test are used to compare the means and the variances of daily morbidity and mortality of these cities. Finally, the coefficients of variation (CVs) of the morbidity and mortality are compared. Results: The means of daily morbidity in Bojnord, Farooj, Jajarm, and Shirvan cities are 6.387, 0.946, 1.150, and 2.193, respectively. Furthermore, the means of daily mortality in Bajnourd, Farooj, Jajarm, and Shirvan are 0.763, 0.193, 0.161, and 0.290, respectively. The means and the variances of both daily mortality and morbidity are significantly different in all four cities (P < 0.05). Furthermore, CVs of daily morbidity in the cities of Bojnord, Farooj, Jajarm, and Shirvan are 0.665, 1.026, 1.032, and 0.787, respectively. The CVs of daily mortality in these cities are 1.196, 2.052, 2.468, and 1.728, respectively. The CVs of both daily mortality and morbidity are significantly different in all four cities (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The ratio of CVs is a good option for comparing the spread of COVID-19 in different regions with different means and variances

Prevalence and intensity of catastrophic health care expenditures in Iran from 2008 to 2015: a study on Iranian household income and expenditure survey

Abstract Background Households exposure to catastrophic health expenditure is a valuable measure to monitor financial protection in health sector payments. The present study had two aims: first, to estimate the prevalence and intensity of catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) in Iran. Second, to investigate main factors that influence the probability of CHE. Methods CHE is defined as an occasion in which a household’s out-of-pocket (OOP) spending exceeds 40% of the total income that remains after subtraction of living expenses. This study used the data from eight national repeated cross-sectional surveys on households’ income and expenditure. The proportion of households facing CHE, as a prevalence measure, was estimated for rural and urban areas. The intensity of CHE was also calculated using overshoot and mean positive overshoot (MPO) measures. The factors affecting the CHE were also analyzed using logistic random effects regression model. We also used ArcMap 10.1 to display visually disparities across the country. Results An increasing number of Iranians has been subject to catastrophic health care costs over the study period in both rural and urban areas (CHE = 2.57% in 2008 and 3.25% in 2015). In the same period, the overshoot of CHE and the mean positive overshoot ranged from 0.26% to 0.65% and from 12.26% to 20.86%, respectively. The average absolute monetary value of OOP spending per month has been low in rural areas over the years, but the prevalence of CHE has been higher than urban areas. Generally put, rural settlement, higher income, receiving inpatient and outpatient services, and existence of elderly people in the household led to increase in CHE prevalence (p < 0.05). Interestingly, provinces with more limited geographical and cultural accessibility had the lowest CHE. Conclusions According to the findings, Iran’s healthcare system has failed to realize the aim of five-year national development plan regarding CHE prevalence (1% CHE prevalence according to the plan). Therefore, revision of financial health care protection policies focusing on pre-payments seems mandatory. For instance, these policies should extend the interventions that target low-income populations particularly in rural areas, provide more coverage for catastrophic medical services in basic benefit packages, and develop supplementary health insurance