Public expenditures on HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support services in Iran, 2004

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Reliability and validity study of Persian modified version of MUSIC (musculoskeletal intervention center) – Norrtalje questionnaire

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a major health problem in the world. Self-reported questionnaires are a known method for estimating the prevalence of MSDs among the population. One of the studies concerning MSDs and their relation to work-related physical and psychosocial factors, as well as non-work-related factors, is the MUSIC-Norrtalje study in Sweden. In this study, the research group developed a questionnaire, which has been validated during its development process and is now considered a well-known instrument. The aim of this study is to validate the Persian version of this questionnaire.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The first step was to establish two expert panel groups in Iran and Sweden. The Focus Group Discussion (FGD) method was used to detect questionnaire face and content validity. To detect questionnaire reliability, we used the test-retest method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Except for two items, all other questions that respondents had problems with in the focus group (20 of 297), had unclear translations; the ambiguity was related to the stem of the questions and the predicted answers were clear for the participants. The concepts of 'household/spare time' and 'physical activity in the workplace' were not understood by the participants of FGD; this has been solved by adding further descriptions to these phrases in the translation. In the test-retest study, the reliability coefficient was relatively high in most items (only 5 items out of 297 had an ICC or kappa below 0.7).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings from the present study provide evidence that the Persian version of the MUSIC questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument.</p

Home Based Training: Main Strategy in Community Based Rehabilitation in Iran

Objective: Study of effectiveness of “home based training” in community based rehabilitation program on disabled people, under supervised of 21 pilot cities health and medical networks, who were trained and evaluated at the end of the course. Materials & Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 614 disabled people who had participated in “home based training” were selected with stratified random sampling method. They were evaluated according to function progress level variables by community based rehabilitation programme experts. Age, sex, disability groups, employment state and teacher’s relation variables were studied from their files and recording datas. Statistical analysis was performed with Chi-square test. Results: There was a relationship between age group and disability group with functional progress level (P = 0.014 & P <0.001). Low age groups, visional disabled group, epileptic patients and individuals with learning problems had the best results. High age groups, mixed disability group and individuals with verbal and hearing problems had the least results. There was a relationship between teacher’s relation with progress or nonprogress state (P = 0.038). Individuals that they were own teachers had the best results and individuals with teachers other than first or second relation or health worker had the least results. Conclusion: Home based training in community based rehabilitation programme is an effective method for improving disabled people in some selected groups

The effect of L-Arginine on the brain tissue of stressed rats

  Abstract  Introduction: This study was conducted to determine the possible beneficial results of L-arginine on prefrontal cortex of rats which impressed by immobilization stress to define the synchronous impression of stress and nitric oxide (NO) on evolution of prefrontal cortex of rats after birth. Methods: Forty-eight one month, male Wistar rats were divided into two groups: stressed and non-stressed. L-Arginine (200 mg/kg) as a NO synthase (NOS) inducer and L-NAME (2O mg/kg) were injected intraperitonealy (IP) and 7- nitroindazde (25 mg/kg) as non-specific was injected subcutaneously (S.C.) for 4 weeks. The kind of stress was immobilization for 4 weeks, every other day. The brain was removed after this period and each brain divided into two parts in a coronal section manner. Anterior part used for histological studies with H&amp;E staining and posterior part used for measurement of NO production using spectrophotometer at 540 nm wavelengh. Results: Statistical analysis of microscopic and light microscopic finding showed that thickness of prefrontal cortex and NO production were significantly decreased in stressed rats and especially in groups which received 7- nitroindazole and L-NAME and L-arginine could reverse these results. Discussion: According to this research, we could say that L-arginine decreases the cortical damages in stressed rats and 7-nitroindazole and L-NAME increase this damage in non-stressed group. Although in non stressed groups, L-arginine, L-NAME and 7- nitroindazole were all non-protective and damaging