Health promoting Behaviors Among Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Health maintenance and promotion are the fundamental prerequisites to community development. The best time for establishing healthy lifestyle habits is during adolescence. Objectives: Due to importance of health promotion behaviors in adolescents, this study was conducted to investigate health-promoting behaviors and its associated factors among high school students in Rasht, Iran. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 424 students during the first semester of the year 2012. We employed the multistage sampling design to recruit from private and public high schools in Rasht, Iran. The data collection instrument was a self-report questionnaire consisting of two parts. The first part of instrument was consisted of demographic questionnaire and the second part was adolescent health promotion scale (AHPS) questionnaire. AHPS questionnaire was consisted of six dimensions (nutrition, social support, health responsibility, life appreciation, physical activity, and stress management) to measure health promoting lifestyles. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 16 software employing ANOVA (analysis of variance) test, t-test, Mann-Whitney, and the Kruskal-Wallis. Results: The score of total Adolescent Health Promotion Scale were 3.58 ± 0.52 (possible range was 1-5). The highest score was in life appreciation dimension (3.99 ± 0.068) and the lowest score was in health responsibility dimension. Moreover, Significant associations were found between the adolescent health promotion Scale with age (P < 0.001), gender (P < 0.003), school grade (P < 0.011), father’s educational level (P < 0.045), mother’s educational level (P < 0.021), and mother’s occupation (P < 0.008). Conclusions: Female and older students are at higher risk of developing unhealthy lifestyle. Consequently, healthcare providers, health instructors, schoolteachers, and families must pay more attention to these students. Moreover, as most of lifelong healthy and unhealthy lifestyle habits are established during adolescence, developing effective health promotion and disease prevention strategies for adolescents seems crucial

Hepatoprotective effect of Acantholimon bracteatum (Girard) Boiss. on formaldehyde-induced liver injury in adult male mice

Background and objectives: Acantholimon bracteatum (Girard) Boiss (Plumbaginaceae) is used in variety of diseases including hepatic ailments in the west regions of Iran. In the present study, the hepatoprotective effect of the methanol extract (ME) of A. bracteatum on formaldehyde (FA) induced liver injury has been investigated in adult male mice. Methods: Fifty six adult male mice were divided into 8 groups. The control group received normal saline. Group II (E2) was treated with formaldehyde 10 mg/kg. Group III to VIII (E3-E8) were treated with both FA (10 mg/kg) and the metanol extract at doses of 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 and 100 mg/kg, respectively. All animals were treated for 2 weeks (once every other day). At the end of the morphology, histopathology of liver and serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were evaluated. Results: Formaldehyde induced liver damage both in histology and function. The levels of ALT, AST and ALP enzymes had significantly increased in FA treated group. Administration of ME in all experimental groups significantly reduced serum levels of ALP (p= 0.02); however, AST was reduced significantly just in groups III (E3) and IV(E5) (