Iranian Journal of Public Health最新文献

Background: Assessment of quality of life (QoL) during pregnancy can be a starting point for streamlining and promoting the humanization of evidence-based healthcare. We aimed to determine the life quality in pregnant women and its predictors.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on pregnant women from Slovakia from March 2020 to January 2021. A method of purposive sampling was used. The research sample consisted of 393 women (age 29.11±4.65) with physiological pregnancy. Questionnaire method was used. The first part of the questionnaire consisted of a set of questions focused on identification items, which also represented the investigated predictors. The second part was the standardized questionnaire "Quality Of Life-Gravidity Questionnaire"(QOLGRAV), with Cronbach's alpha value of 0.74. The received data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The average life quality score was 18.79±5.04, which oscillates at the level of very good life quality. The lower life quality was recorded in connection with physical changes, satisfaction with social life, concerns about childbirth management failure and a need for physical activity reduction. Education (P=0.008), course of pregnancy (P=0.001), support from healthcare professionals (P=0.003) and concerns about COVID-19 (P=0.001) were the predictors of life quality.

Conclusion: The proven significant predictors of life quality of pregnant women have shown that healthcare professionals should pay increased attention to the pregnant women with higher education and with problematic pregnancy, positively support and motivate pregnant women and be even more attentivedue to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Syphilis remains a major public health concern in China. We aimed to construct an optimum model to forecast syphilis epidemic trends and provide effective precautionary measures for prevention and control.

Methods: Data on the incidence of syphilis between 1982 and 2020 were obtained from the China Health Statistics Yearbook. An exponential smoothing model (ES model) and a BP neural network model were constructed, and on this basis, the ES-BP combination model was created. The prediction performance was assessed to compare the MAE (Mean Absolute Error), MSE (Mean Squared Error), MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage Error), and RMSE (Root Mean Square Error).

Results: The optimum ES model was Brown's linear trend model, which had the lowest MAE and MAPE values, and its residual was a white noise sequence (P=0.359). The optimum BP neural network model had three layers with the number of nodes in the input, hidden, and output layers set to 5, 11, and 1, and the mean values of MAE, MSE, and RMSE by five-fold cross-validation were 1.519, 6.894, and 1.969, respectively. The ES-BP combination model had three layers, with model nodes 1, 4, and 1. The lowest mean values of MAE, MSE, and RMSE obtained by five-fold cross-validation were 1.265, 5.739, and 2.105, respectively.

Conclusion: The ES, BP neural network, and ES-BP combination models can be used to predict syphilis incidence, but the prediction performance of the ES-BP combination model is better than that of a basic ES model and a basic BP neural network model.

Background: A good family environment and rearing mode play important roles in children's physical and psychological growth. This study aims to clarify the specific influence of early family nurturing environment on children's emotional and social development through longitudinal observation to provide theoretical reference for promoting the healthy development of children's bodies and minds.

Methods: Overall, 1320 parents of children aged 2 to 6 yr old in Xinyang City, Henan Province in 2021, were selected by stratified sampling. The children's physical and mental development, family rearing environment and emotional and social development were investigated by questionnaire.

Results: 58.03% family rearing environment is good, 27.95% normal, and 14.02% bad. There were significant differences in positive rates of adaptive ability, social behavior, language, developmental quotient score and emotional sociality among children in different families (all P<0.05). Language/cognition was significantly positively correlated with adaptive ability, social behavior, language and developmental quotient (all P<0.05), and social adjustment/self-care was significantly positively correlated with adaptive ability, social behavior, language and developmental quotient (all P<0.05). Emotional warmth/environmental atmosphere was negatively correlated with implicit behavior and disorder and positively correlated with ability (all P<0.05). Language/cognition was positively correlated with explicit behavior and ability (all P<0.05). Social adjustment/self-care was negatively correlated with explicit behavior and positively correlated with ability (all P<0.05); Neglect/punishment was significantly negatively correlated with explicit behavior, implicit behavior and disorder and significantly positively correlated with ability (all P<0.05).

Conclusion: The early family environment affects children's physical, mental, emotional and social development.

Background: Considering the necessity of health risk management, the present study conducted to provide a comprehensive model for identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing occupational health risks in an oilfield.

Methods: We conducted this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study in 2022 at the North-Azadegan oil field in Iran. The occupational health risk was assessed using the "Harmful Agents Risk Priority Index" (HARPI) method.

Results: Among the employees for the office section in all job groups, ergonomic risks due to people's posture while working has the highest risk score and is the most critical risk for implementing corrective actions. In the operational section, for the HSE group, benzene, the production group, Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), and other groups, undesirable lighting has the highest risk score, and exposure to Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylenes (TEX) has the lowest risk score. In this oil field, controlling exposure to benzene, correcting ergonomic conditions, and controlling noise exposure, with scores of 81.3,74.85 and 71.36, have the highest priority, respectively. Sequentially, Toluene, Xylene, and ethylbenzene, with scores of 10.25,11.61, and 11.61, have the lowest control priority.

Conclusion: The proposed model can prioritize the workplaces' harmful agents based on the HARPI score due to exposure to chemicals, physical factors, and analysis posture.

Background: Stigma is a sociological concept that is important in medicine and health because it threatens health as much as the disease itself. We aimed to explore the causes, stigmatizers, consequences and coping strategies related to the stigma of diseases by systematically analyzing relevant literature.

Methods: This systematic review examined 65 articles on Disease-Related Stigma by searching Noormags, Magiran, SID, Google Scholar, and PubMed databases. The articles were published in Persian and English between 2001 and 2022 and conducted in Iran. We used a three-step systematic review process to select articles that met the research criteria.

Results: Conflict in society, lack of knowledge, specific characteristics of the disease, and the contagious nature of disease are the main causes of stigma, leading to stigmatization by different groups such as significant others, generalized others, institutional others, and macro others. Patients experiencing stigma face various psychological, physical, and social complications, and they may use concealment as a coping strategy, which can pose a potential threat to society's general health.

Conclusion: By knowing the causes and stigmatizers of disease-related, it is possible to reduce stigma with less cost and time.

Background: Traditionally, mortality rates are used to estimate public health problems and determine the relative significance of different causes of mortality, but they cannot necessarily determine the burden of premature death. We aimed to investigate the 16-year trend of burden of premature mortality in Southern Iran.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all deaths due to various causes of death in Fars Province from the electronic population-based death registration system (EDRS) were obtained. Crude and age-standardized mortality rate, Years of Life Lost (YLL) and YLL rate data were calculated and to examine the trend, joinpoint regression was used.

Results: During the study period, 281,903 deaths occurred, of which, 59.85% (n=168,735) occurred in men. Also, 42.18% of these deaths (n=118,610) occurred due to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The total number of YLLs due to premature death was 4,154,828 years. Of these, 2,591,564 years (62.37%) were in men. The highest number of YLL was due to CVDs, external causes of death and cancer. Trend of YLL rate due to premature mortality was decreasing: the annual percent change (APC) was -2.1% (95% CI -2.6 to -1.6, P<0.001) for males, -0.9% (95% CI -1.4 to -0.4, P=0.002) (P=0.002) for females.

Conclusion: Although the trend of premature death has been decreasing during the years of study, but the seven major causes of premature death in 2004 to 2019 were non-communicable diseases, especially ischemic heart diseases, stroke, external cause of morbidity, and cancer. Furthermore, our findings indicate a change in the role of non-communicable diseases in premature mortality in recent years.

Background: Professional driving is associated with overworking, lack of physical activity, and high stress, which are susceptible to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We aimed to determine the prevalence of hypertension and obesity in Iranian professional drivers.

Methods: Overall, 132,452 drivers were included by census sampling methods and those who did not pass periodic examinations were excluded. Demographics and anthropometric data, including height and weight and the driver's blood pressure, were recorded. The criteria for hypertension assumed as the systolic blood pressure ≥ 130 mm and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 80 mm, and the criteria for prehypertension assumed as 120-129 systolic and < 80 mm Hg. In addition, body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 is assumed as overweight, and BMI ≥ 30 is assumed as obesity.

Results: Overall, 113,856 male drivers were included in the final analysis. The prevalence of HTN, pre-HTN, and abnormal blood pressure (HTN + pre-HTN) was calculated to be 14.2%, 57.4%, and 71.6%, respectively. Khuzestan, West Azerbaijan, and Yazd had the most prevalence of abnormal blood pressure. The prevalence of overweight, obesity, and abnormal weight (overweight + obesity) was calculated to be 50.9%, 22.6%, and 73.5%, respectively, and the northwest provinces had the highest prevalence of abnormal weight.

Conclusion: Professional Iranian drivers have a high prevalence of abnormal blood pressure and weight associated with job-related risk factors. Preventive measures should be taken to confront a possible outbreak of CVDs in this population.