Designing and Development of an Oral Health Educational Game and Evaluation of Its Effect on 8-12-Year-Old Children’s Oral Health: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Objectives Health education for school-age children is a specialized component of the oral health promotion program. This study aimed to design and develop an oral health educational game and assess its effect on the oral health of children aged 8 to 12 years. Methods In this experimental study, 40 patients aged 8-12 years referring to a private dental clinic were selected by using convenience sampling and were then randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received oral health training by using a game; while, the control group received oral hygiene instructions. The simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) with two components of debris index (DI-S) and calculus index (CI-S) was measured before the intervention, and at one week, and one month after the intervention to assess the effect of oral health skills. Data were analyzed by the Chi-square test, independent sample t-test, and Fisher's exact test. Results The DI-S scores in the experimental group at one week and one month after the intervention were significantly lower than the values in the control group (P=0.003 and P=0.001, respectively). The OHI-S scores in the experimental group at one week and one month after the intervention were significantly lower than the values in the control group (P=0.012 and P=0.007, respectively). No significant difference was noticed in the follow-up CI-S scores at one week and one month after the intervention (P>0.05). Conclusion The game designed in this study would improve the children's oral health skills; hence, it can be used to promote oral health in children

Evaluation of Digital Library Services at Virtual Faculties of Universities in Iran from the Perspective of Graduate Students

This paper was conducted to evaluate digital library services of virtual faculties of Medical Universities in Iran from the perspective of graduate students of e-learning. This study was an applied survey conducted among graduate students studying in the virtual centers in Ministry of Health and Medical Education and Ministry of Science Research and Technology in 2017-2018. The instrument of the study was a questionnaire, the inter-item reliability of which was measured, by Cronbach\u27s alpha coefficient (0.90). The reliability was measured by using Pearson correlation coefficient (0.79). A sample size of 378 students was selected through Cochran formula and Morgan table. The data were collected through email, online and in-person. The study was performed in 9 months (June to February 2018) and 257 completed questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS software version 18. The findings indicated 63.3 % and 36.2 % of participants belonged to MOHME and MOSRT .There were 44.7% of women and 54.9% of men. 79.3% of the virtual education centers of MOHME and 45.2% of the centers of MOSRT have been affiliated with the Central Library.The most used sources of information, in MOHME with 48.8% and in MOSRT with 63.4%, were databases. In MOHME with 31.1%, the main problem was the excessive amount of unrelated information on Internet sites, and in MOSRT with 53.8%, it was the limited availability and lending of resources from libraries with a significant level (pvalue\u3e0.001). Students in both groups used library resources aimed at doing homework assignments (MOHME was 76.8% MOSRT 57.3%), and theses (MOHME with 57.9% and MOSRT with 51.6%. Considering the results, specific measures should be taken to improve the access to online library resources and services for students. Resources such as textbooks, theses, relevant websites and required information of virtual students should be taken into consideration

A Probabilistic Finite Temporal Logic for Policies and Intentions

We propose a new probabilistic temporal logic for Markov decision processes allowing us to reason about finite histories and policies. We comment on how the logic can express statements important for a theory of intention revision, show that it possesses the finite model property, and show that the model checking and satisfiability problems for the logic are both decidable

Comparative Study on Adding Pioglitazone or Sitagliptin to Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Insufficiently Controlled With Metformin

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a progressive disorder that often requires combination therapy.AIM: This study aimed to compare and study of add-on sitagliptin versus pioglitazone in patients with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled with metformin.METHODS: This 12-week, randomised, open-label and single centre study compared sitagliptin (100 mg daily, n = 80) and pioglitazone (30 mg daily, n = 80) in type 2 diabetic patients whose disease was not adequately controlled with metformin.RESULTS: The mean change in HbA1c from baseline was -1.001 ± 0.83 with sitagliptin and -0.75 ± 1.20 with pioglitazone, and there were no significant difference between groups (P = 0.132). The mean change in fasting blood sugar (FBS) was -18.48 ± 33.32 mg/dl with sitagliptin and -20.53 ± 53.97 mg/dl with pioglitazone, and there were no significant difference between groups (P = 0.773). Sitagliptin caused 1.08 ± 2.39 kg decrease in weight, whereas pioglitazone caused 0.27 ± 2.42 kg increase in weight, with a between-group difference of 0.81 kg (P < 0.001). On the other hand, in sitagliptin group, there was greater improvement in lipid profile than pioglitazone group.CONCLUSION: Sitagliptin and Pioglitazone demonstrated similar improvements in glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients whose diabetes had been inadequately controlled with metformin. Nevertheless, sitagliptin was more effective than pioglitazone regarding lipid and body weight change

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in acute viral respiratory tract infections : An updated systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Favorable association between Mediterranean diet (MeD) and DASH with NAFLD among Iranian adults of the Amol Cohort Study (AmolCS)

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an emerging cause of chronic liver diseases and a major health problem worldwide. Dietary patterns may play a critical role in controlling and preventing this disease, but the available evidence is scarce. The current study aims to ascertain the association of adherence to the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and Mediterranean diet (MeD) with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among Iranian adults of the Amol Cohort Study (AmolCS). In a cross-sectional analysis among 3220 adults (55.3% men), age ≥ 18 years (46.96 ± 14.67), we measured usual dietary intake with a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and then calculated dietary pattern scores for DASH and MeD. Sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were collected by a structured questionnaire. The presence and degree of NAFLD were also determined by abdominal sonography. Multiple regression models were used to estimate NAFLD odds across tertiles of DASH and Mediterranean dietary scores. Dietary DASH and Mediterranean components were adjusted for total energy intake, based on the residual methods. After adjusting for multiple potential confounders, we found an inverse association of DASH and MeD with NAFLD (Ptrend = 0.02, and Ptrend = 0.002, respectively). Those in the highest tertiles of adherence to the DASH and MeD had the lowest risk for NAFLD (OR = 0.80, 95%CI = 0.66–0.96, OR = 0.64, 95%CI = 0.52–0.78, respectively). The results of logistic analysis of MeD, stratified by gender and abdominal obesity, revealed the favorable association was more pronounced in women (OR = 0.42, 95%CI = 0.29–0.61, Ptrend = 0.004), and in participants with or without abdominal obesity (OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.47–0.81, Ptrend = 0.03, OR = 0.64, 95%CI = 0.475–0.91, Ptrend = 0.04, respectively). Similar results were obtained for the adherence to DASH diet score with the prevalence of NAFLD patients with abdominal obesity (OR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.57–0.97, Ptrend = 0.04). The findings suggested the favorable association between DASH and MeD with NAFLD in Iranian adults, especially women and subjects with or without abdominal obesity. Further prospective investigations are needed to confirm the integrity of our findings

Systemic Amyloidosis in a Teenage Boy With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Systemic amyloidosis is a very rare complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The reported cases of secondary amyloidosis in children with IBD are much fewer than those reported in adults. Herein, a teenage boy with Crohn’s disease is presented who developed nephrotic syndrome due to renal involvement secondary to amyloidosis, whereas the patient was under treatment with corticosteroid and 6-mercaptopurine. To our best knowledge, this is the first reported case of secondary amyloidosis in a teenage Iranian boy with Crohn’s disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is not independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease event : a cohort study

There are no consistent results between previous studies for an independent association between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. To determine if there is an independent association between NAFLD and CVD events. In the present study, valid outcome data of 4808 subjects were available for phase 2 of our cohort study. These subjects had been followed up for seven years from phase 1, beginning in 2009-2010 to phase 2 during 2016-2017. Simple and multiple Cox proportional models were used to determine the association between NAFLD in the primary phase of the cohort and subsequent fatal and non-fatal CVD events during follow-up. The incidence of non-fatal CVD events in males with NAFLD was significantly higher ( = 0.004) than in males without NAFLD. A positive association was demonstrated between NAFLD and non-fatal CVD events in males (Hazard ratio = 1.606; 95%CI: 1.166-2.212; = 0.004) by the simple Cox proportional hazard model, but no independent association was detected between these in the multiple Cox models. No independent association was detected between NAFLD and CVD. It is likely that diabetes mellitus and age may be the principle mediators in this regard. [Abstract copyright: ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.