Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) rate of women employees of education organization about breast self-examination, Shahrekord, 1998

سرطان پستان شایع ترین سرطان عضوی زنان است و بهترین راه حل مبارزه با آن شناخت به موقع و سریع می باشد که منجر به درمان 90 آنان و کاهش مرگ و میر ناشی از سرطان پستان به میزان 30 می گردد. مناسب ترین و موثرترین روش غربالگری سرطان پستان، خودآزمایی پستان می باشد. هدف این مطالعه، تعیین وضعیت آگاهی، نگرش و عملکرد زنان شاغل در آموزش و پرورش شهر شهرکرد در زمینه خودآزمایی پستان بود. در یک بررسی توصیفی تحلیلی 340 نفر از زنان شاغل در آموزش و پرورش شهر شهرکرد به روش نمونه گیری تصادفی خوشه ای انتخاب گردیده و مورد مصاحبه قرار گرفتند. پرسشنامه بکار رفته شامل سوالاتی در زمینه ویژگی های دموگرافیک و نیز آگاهی، نگرش و عملکرد آنان در زمینه خودآزمایی پستان بود. اعتبار این پرسشنامه قبل از انجام مطالعه تعیین گردید (بیش از 85). برای تجزیه و تحلیل داده ها از آزمون های آنالیز واریانس یک طرفه و دوطرفه استفاده گردید. از نظر سابقه فامیلی سرطان 14 و از نظر سابقه شخصی سرطان 89 سابقه مثبت داشتند. از نظر آگاهی 8.24 ضعیف و 17 آگاهی خوب داشتند که با وضع تاهل، تحصیلات، سابقه فامیلی و سابقه شخصی سرطان اختلاف معنی داری مشاهده گردید. در مورد نگرش، 10.95 ضعیف و 13.53 خوب بود که بجز وضع تاهل با تحصیلات، سابقه شخصی و سابقه فامیلی سرطان اختلاف معنی دار آماری داشت. از نظر عملکرد، 61.17 ضعیف و فقط 4.41 خوب بود که بجز وضع تاهل با تحصیلات، سابقه شخصی و سابقه فامیلی سرطان تفاوت معنی داری داشت. آزمون آنالیز واریانس چند طرفه نشان داد که مهمترین عوامل موثر بر آگاهی، نگرش و عملکرد زنان عبارتند از: سابقه شخصی سرطان و سابقه فامیلی سرطان. آگاهی و نگرش اکثر زنان تحت مطالعه در سطح متوسط و خوب بود ولی از نظر عملکرد در سطح پایینی قرار داشتند که عوامل اجتماعی متعددی چون، عدم اعتقاد به اهمیت موضوع، خجالت کشیدن، آشنا نبودن به روش انجام معاینه و غیره را می توان مدنظر قرار داد

Kernel smoothing for ROC curve and estimation for thyroid stimulating hormone

Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curves are frequently used in biomedical informatics research to evaluate classification and prediction models to support decision, diagnosis, and prognosis. ROC analysis investigates the accuracy of models and has ability to separate positive from negative cases. It is especially useful in evaluating predictive models and compare to other tests which produce output values in a continuous range. Empirical ROC curve is jagged but a true ROC curve is smooth. For this purpose kernel smoothing were used. The Area Under ROC Curve (AUC) frequently is used as a measure of the effectiveness of diagnostic markers. In this study we compare estimation of this area based on normal assumptions and kernel smoothing. This study used measurements of TSH from patients and non-diseased people of congenital hypothyroidism screening in Isfahan province. Using the method, TSH ROC curves from Isfahani's infants were fitted. For evaluating of accuracy of this test, AUC and its standard error calculated. Also effectiveness of the kernel methods in comparison to other methods showed

Estimation of the parameters in the truncated normal distribution when the truncation point is known

In various fields of science, such as biology, economics and medicine, scientific data frequently follow a truncated normal distribution. Measurement of variables in some parts of the population present difficulties. Because of the importance of this distribution, many statisticians have been involved with the estimation of the relevant parameters.The problem with the estimation of the parameters is that the method of maximum likelihood gives rise to two equations which cannot be explicitly solved and, further, the results obtained are not acceptable due to the biases being large. Cox &amp; Hinkley (1974) have presented an approximation formula based on a Taylor expansion, which can be used to find the expected value and variance of the maximum likelihood estimators. An alternative approach for estimating the parameters is by application of Shenton &amp; Bowman's formula (1977).In this thesis the method of Shenton &amp; Bowman is extended to the two-parameters case to give the means, variances and covariances of the maximum likelihood estimators of the truncated normal distribution simultaneously.The maximum product spacing method, which is asymptotically as efficient as the maximum likelihood and in some cases hyper-efficient, is used for the truncated normal distribution.Finally, a comparison is made between the above methods and also with the method of estimation by means of simulation.</p

Study of Phonological Awareness in Children with Phonological Disorders

Objective: The relationship between phonological awareness and phonological disorders has been considered in recent decades. Phonological awareness deficits in children with phonological disorders could be due to a deficit in phonological abilities. The present study attempts to study the phonological awareness deficits in children with phonological disorders.  Materials & Methods: This was a comparative and cross-sectional study. The research sample consisted of 25 children with phonological disorders and 25 normal children. Children with phonological disorders were selected by convenience sampling method and normal children were selected by matching with the disordered group. The research instruments consisted of the “phonetic information test” to determine the phonological disorders and the “phonological awareness test” to assess phonological awareness. The awareness of syllable blending and syllabification, rhyme and alliteration was also studied. The data were analyzed using SPSS-13, based on paired t-test, independent T-test and Chi-square. Results: The mean score of phonological awareness in children with phonological disorders was significantly lower than normal children (P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of awareness of syllabification (P=0.073) and syllable blending (P=0.189). But there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of awareness of rhyme (P<0.001) and alliteration (P<0.001) Conclusion: The findings showed that children with phonological disorders are at a lower level than normal children in terms of phonological awareness. According to the results of this study, it can be recommended that the speech-language pathologists should consider phonological awareness when treating children with phonological disorders

Intestinal parasitic infections in renal transplant recipients

The impact of intestinal parasitic infection in renal transplant recipients requires careful consideration in the developing world. However, there have been very few studies addressing this issue in Iran. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in renal transplant recipients in Iran. Stool specimens from renal transplant recipients and control groups were obtained between June 2006 and January 2007. The samples screened for intestinal parasitic infections using direct smear, formalin-ether sedimentation, Sheather's flotation and modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining methods. Out of 150 renal transplant recipients, 33.3% (50), and out of 225 control group, 20% (45) were infected with one or more type of intestinal parasites. The parasites detected among patients included Entamoeba coli (10.6%), Endolimax nana (8.7%), Giardia lamblia (7.4%), Blastocystis spp. (4.7%), Iodamoeba butschlii (0.7%), Chilomastix mesnili (0.7%) and Ascaris lumbricoides (0.7%). Multiple infections were more common among renal transplant recipients group (p < 0.05). This study highlights the importance of testing for intestinal parasites among Iranian renal transplant recipients. Routine examinations of stool samples for parasites would significantly benefit the renal transplant recipients by contributing to reduce severe infections

The efficacy of hepatitis B vaccine in Iranian population: A systematic review and meta‑analysis

Introduction: Hepatitis B infection is an important health problem all over the world, and according to the studies, Iran is a country with intermediate prevalence, so vaccination is a cost‑benefit approach. In this study, evidence about the efficacy of hepatitis B vaccine was collected by systematic review methods and its amount was estimated by a meta‑analysis. Materials and Methods: In this study, documents and literature search were performed using valid key words in Information Sciences Institute, PubMed, Scientific Information Data base, and Iranmedex databases from 1997 to 2010 in different regions of Iran. All cross‑sectional studies about the efficacy of hepatitis B vaccine in Iran which fulfilled the inclusion criteria entered the study. Antibody titer (Anti‑hemoglobins > 10 IU/L) was considered as the desired efficacy. In order to present the results, prevalence and Forest plot were used and for evaluation of the inconsistency meta‑regression model and I2 index were used. We used R.15.3.2 software for analysis. Results: Totally 64 studies (52 studies in general population and 12 studies among specific populations) including 12,575 subjects with age range from 8 months to 55 years entered the meta‑analysis. The efficacy was 86.3% (confidence interval [CI]: 83.9‑88.7%) in the general population and 59.62% (CI: 47.9‑71.29%) in specific patient populations. Also the efficacy was significantly related to the year of publication, age and gender (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Prevention is an important issue in general health. Hepatitis B vaccination is one of the methods used to prevent hepatitis B infection. According to this study, the efficacy of hepatitis B vaccination was more than 80% in general population, so injection of full course of hepatitis B vaccinationis enough and booster dose is not required

The mortality and response rate after FLANG regimen in patients with refractory/relapsed acute leukemia

Background: Oncologists today are greatly concerned about the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute leukemia. FLANG regimen, combination of novantron, cytarabine, fludarabine, and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, has been used in treatment of refractory/relapsed acute leukemia since 1990s. The present study has evaluated mortality and response rate of this regimen. Materials and Methods: In this study, 25 patients with refractory/relapsed acute leukemia aged 15-55 years underwent FLANG regimen at Seyed-Al-Shohada Hospital, Isfahan, Iran during 2008-2009. One month later, bone marrow samples were taken to evaluate the responsiveness to treatment. Participants were followed for a year. The data was analyzed by student-t and chi-square tests, logistic, and Cox regression analysis, and Kaplan-Meier curves in SPSS 19. Results: Out of the 25 patients, 8 patients (32%) had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (5 refractory and 3 relapsed cases) and 17 subjects had acute myeloid leukemia (7 refractory and 10 relapsed cases). According to the bone marrow biopsies taken one month after FLANG regimen, 10 patients (40%) had responded to treatment. Five patients of the 10 responders underwent successful bone marrow transplantation (BMT). On the other hand, 13 patients (52%), who had not entered the CR period, died during the follow-up. Logistic regression analysis did not reveal any significant associations between disease type and responsiveness to treatment. Conclusion: This study indicated higher rates of unresponsiveness to treatment while its mortality rate was comparable with other studies. Overall, according to limitations for BMT (as the only chance for cure) in Iran, it seems that FLANG therapy is an acceptable choice for these patients