The Effectiveness of Psychological Empowerment Intervention on Personal Growth Initiative and Marital Boredom in Divorce-Asking Women

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of women's psychological empowerment package on personal growth initiative and marital boredom in divorce-asking women. The research design was quasi-experimental and pre-test-post-test with a control group. The population of the present study was women applying for divorce who referred to the Dispute Resolution Council in 2020. Participants were 30 women who were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental groups (psychological empowerment, 15 people) and control group (15 people). Data were collected using marital boredom and personal growth initiative questionnaires in pre-test and post-test. Participants in the experimental group received 10 sessions of psychological empowerment training intervention, while participants in the control group did not receive the training program. Multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that psychological empowerment training has increased personal growth initiative and reduced marital boredom in divorce-asking women. Accordingly, the use of this intervention is recommended to couples therapists and family therapists to reduce marital problems

Is There a Relation between ABO Blood Groups and Clinical Outcome in Patients with Pemphigoid? A Case-Control Study

Background. Relationship between blood groups and dermatologic diseases remains controversial and was not yet fully elucidated nor explained clearly. The aim of this study was to examine if any relation exists between different types of pemphigoid diseases and ABO blood group. Methods. In this case-control study, 159 pemphigoid patients and 152 healthy matched-controls were evaluated. All blood group (including Rh status) data for the study was obtained from the hospital medical records. Statistical comparisons were completed with chi-square test and logistic regression. Results. Blood group “O” was found in 32.9% of patients and 38.2% of control group. Blood group “A” was found among 30.8% of patients and 34.2% of control group, while group “B” was reported in 27.4% of cases and 21.1% of controls and “AB” was identified among 8.9% of patients and 6.6% of control group. 84.9% of patients were Rh positive, while in the control group 86.2% of patients were Rh positive. No significant differences were found regarding ABO blood groups (P=0.46) or Rh (P=0.76) between pemphigoid patients and control group. Also, older females had the higher risk of developing bullous pemphigoid. Conclusion. We found no relationship between ABO blood groups and pemphigoid disease

Seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus: The first population-based study from Iran

Objective: Early studies on blood donors point to a seroprevalence of approximately 0.25% for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Iran. However, the true prevalence in the general population is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of HCV infection in the general population of Iran. Methods: We randomly selected 6583 subjects from three provinces in Iran for inclusion in the study. Subjects were aged between 18 and 65 years. Anti-hepatitis C antibody was tested by a third-generation ELISA test. A recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) test was used to confirm the results. Risk factors were recorded and a multivariate analysis was performed. Results: A total of 5684 plasma samples were tested. After confirmatory tests, we found 50 cases of HCV. The overall weighted prevalence of anti-HCV was 0.5%. The rate was significantly higher in men (1.0%) than in women (0.1%). In multivariate analysis, male sex, history of intravenous drug abuse, and imprisonment were significantly associated with anti-HCV. Conclusions: We found the prevalence of HCV infection in Iran to be higher than previous estimates. It appears that the rate is rising, and in the future, hepatitis C will replace hepatitis B as the most common cause of chronic viral liver disease in Iran. © 2010 International Society for Infectious Diseases