Chest Injury Evaluation and Management in Two Major Trauma Centers of Isfahan Province, IR Iran

Background:: Chest trauma is responsible for 50% of deaths due to trauma. This kind of death usually occurs immediately after the trauma has occurred. Objectives:: The aim of this study was to evaluate the various aspects of chest trauma in patients admitted to two main trauma centers located in the Isfahan Province, Iran. Patients and Methods:: During a six month period, a cross-sectional study of 100 patients who had sustained a chest injury was carried out. Data, including; age, sex, time of accident, trauma mechanism, organ injury, hospitalization length, complications, and patient outcomes were recorded and analyzed. Results:: The mean ages of the patients were 24.7 ± 3.1 years. Men were injured four times more often than the women. Blunt trauma was the most common type of injury. The incidence of hemothorax was 38% in blunt traumas, and 45% (P = 0.01) in penetrating ones. The incidence of pneumothorax was 43% in blunt traumas and 20% in penetrating ones (P = 0.03). The length of hospitalization was 7.2 ± 3.2 days for blunt and 10.1 ± 3.1 days for penetrating chest traumas. Five patients (5%) died during hospitalization, three of those deaths were due to arterial injuries and two cases were due to lung contusions. Conclusions:: Since hemothorax is the main complication of blunt chest trauma in young men, we recommend that special consideration needs to be made to any case of chest trauma, especially blunt chest injuries

Factors predicting the physical activity behavior of female adolescents: A test of the health promotion model

Objectives: Physical activity behavior begins to decline during adolescence and continues to decrease throughout young adulthood. This study aims to explain factors that influence physical activity behavior in a sample of female adolescents using a health promotion model framework. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was used to explore physical activity behavior among a sample of female adolescents. Participants completed measures of physical activity, perceived self-efficacy, self-esteem, social support, perceived barriers, and perceived affect. Interactions among the variables were examined using path analysis within a covariance modeling framework. Results: The final model accounted for an R2 value of 0.52 for physical activity and offered a good model-data fit. The results indicated that physical activity was predicted by self-esteem (β=0.46, p<0.001), perceived self-efficacy (β=0.40, p<0.001), social support (β= 0.24, p<0.001), perceived barriers (β=-0.19, p<0.001), and perceived affect (β=0.17, p<0.001). Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that the health promotion model was useful to predict physical activity behavior among the Iranian female adolescents. Information related to the predictors of physical activity behavior will help researchers plan more tailored culturally relevant health promotion interventions for this population. © Copyright 2014 The Korean Society for Preventive Medicine

Predictive value of interleukin-6 (IL6) in term neonates with early sepsis during 2010-2011

Background: Neonatal sepsis is one of the main causes of neonatal mortality and morbidity. It breaks out in one to ten cases per 1000 live births with a mortality rate of 10 to 50 percent. However, the rate of hospital admission for neonates suspicious to systemic infections is more than that for neonates with sepsis which is due to the nonspecific signs and symptoms in the neonatal sepsis. Objectives: This study was conducted to measure interleukin 6 (IL-6) plasma level as a sign for early detection of neonatal infection. Materials and Methods: The level of plasma IL-6 and blood culture were checked in all the term neonates suspicious to sepsis admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of Shahid Beheshti hospital of Kashan during 2010-2011. Positive blood culture was considered as definite sepsis and negative blood culture as suspicious sepsis. Then, the level of IL-6 was compared with the state of blood culture. Premature neonates with low APGAR score, ages more than seven days old, and history of previous admission were excluded from the study due to the probable effect on plasma IL-6 level. Results: Seventy four cases were male and 68 were female. The prevalence of early neonatal sepsis was reported to be 7. The etiologic bacterial agents were streptococcus in Group B (GBS) and staphylococcus Epidermis (SE). The most common symptom observable in the patients was respiratory distress (38.6). The average level of IL-6 was 1545.65 pg/mL for the first group (admitted with sepsis signs and symptoms and positive blood culture) and 14.79 pg/mL for the second one (admitted with sepsis signs and symptoms and negative blood culture), while in the control group, it was 11.04 pg/mL. Conclusions: A comparative test indicates that there is a significant difference between the levels of interleukin-6 in three groups (P value = 0.001). This result, not only omits all the probable confounding factors in plasma level of IL-6, but also emphasizes the role of this useful inflammatory marker in detection of neonatal sepsis. © 2013, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Reliability and construct validity of the Iranian version of health-promoting lifestyle profile in a female adolescent population

Background: Health-promoting lifestyle is receiving increasing attention concerning its prominent role in healthcare. This study examined to adapt the health-promoting lifestyle profile II culturally and to assess its psychometric properties. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, content validity was established using translation and back-translation procedures, pilot testing of the instrument, and getting views of the expert panel. Concurrent validity was estimated with Pearson's correlation between the HPLP II, the quality of life (SF-12), self-efficacy variables, and demographic variables. Construct validity was evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Sample size for CFA included 500 people. HPLP II reliability was estimated with Cronbach's alpha coefficients. Results: The content validity Index (CVI) surpassed 0.80 for the HPLP II and for four subscales. The CFA four-factor model represented an acceptable fit. Their factor loadings was more than 0.40. Correlations between the HPLP II and the subscales were acceptable. The relationships between the HPLP II, self-efficacy, SF-12 domain scores, and demographic variables were also significantly positive. Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.86 for the HPLP II and for the subscales ranged from 0.70 to 0.77. Conclusion: The shortened HPLP II had satisfactory psychometric properties. The revised 34-item four-factor model had perfect fit. It can be used to measure health-promoting lifestyle in the Iranian female adolescents' population