Effects of counseling on lifestyle of menopause women and their spouses: a randomized, controlled trial study (RCT)

Background: Menopause is a part of the normal aging process, but considerably affect the different aspects of women and their spouse lifestyle. Stabilizing a healthy lifestyle is important way to control predisposing factors of disease conditions in menopause women, thus counseling may have a major role for improving lifestyle in women and their spouse. Objective: The present study aimed to assess the influence of counseling on lifestyle of menopause women and their spouses. Methods: An interventional trials study was performed on 120 consecutive Iranian couples (menopause women and their spouses) who were resident in Hamadan. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive counseling service as intervention group or did not receive this service as control group. The lifestyle assessment was performed before counseling, and also after the first session (2 months later) and second session (2 months after the first session) of counseling. The control group did not receive any counseling. In total, five sessions were programmed for one hour as couple Counseling at home. Results: The scores of nutritional habits and physical activity level at baseline were significantly similar between the two groups. However, both nutritional habit and physical activity scores were significantly increased after regular counseling in the intervention group, while these scores remained unchanged in the control group. Conclusion: Counseling has beneficial effects on lifestyle modification in both menopause women and their spouses regarding improvement of nutritional habits and physical activity

Paternal postnatal depression: prevalence and the associated demographic and maternal reproductive factors among Iranian fathers

BackgroundPaternal postnatal depression (PPND) is a critical mental health issue that may harm family members' health and relationships. The Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) is the most common self-reported questionnaire for postnatal depression screening among mothers and fathers worldwide. However, identifying fathers with postnatal depression and determining the related factors have been neglected in some countries.AimsThe present study aimed to determine the prevalence of PPND and then to identify its predictive demographic and reproductive factors. Two cut-off points (10 and 12) for the EPDS were used to detect PPND.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 eligible fathers selected via multistage sampling. Data were collected using a demographic checklist and the EPDS.ResultsNone of the participants had previously been screened for PPND. The mean age of the participants was 35.53 +/- 5.47 years, and most of them were self-employed and had university degrees. The prevalence of PPND was 24.5 and 16.3 using the EPDS cut-off scores 10 and 12, respectively. An unwanted pregnancy and an abortion history were the predictors of PPND at both EPDS cut-off scores, with gravidity and the number of abortions also being associated with PPND at the cut-off score of 10.ConclusionIn line with the related literature, our results revealed a fairly high prevalence of PPND and its related factors. This indicates the need for a screening program for fathers during the postnatal period to detect and adequately manage PPND and prevent its adverse effects