Journal of Education and Health Promotion最新文献

Background: The Transtheoretical model (TTM) is one of the most commonly used theories in assessing behavioral change and designing more effective interventions. The study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire based on the TTM to assess the behavioral change of adolescent girls related to dietary micronutrient intake.

Materials and methods: A TTM-based questionnaire (Items 36) was validated through 150 adolescent girls aged 13-18 years. The questionnaire is made on four constructs: stages of change, processes of change, self-efficacy, and decision balance. The content validity and face validity were assessed by expert panels and participants, respectively. The confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to test construct validity. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were used to analyze the internal consistency and stability of the questionnaires.

Results: Results showed that all content validity Index values of items in questionnaires were within the range (0.8-1). Based on face validity results, most of the items were clear, easy, and understood by participants. The CFA results included a comparative factor index of 0.99 for all constructs; a goodness of fit index ranging from 0.88 to 0.951, and a root mean square error of approximation ranging from 0.039-0.069, suggesting good model fit indices. The reliability analysis with Cronbach's alpha of 0.737-0.953 and ICCs of 0.737-0.845 was acceptable.

Conclusion: These psychometric analysis results provided evidence for the appropriateness, reliability, and validity of the developed questionnaire. Hence, this questionnaire may help to develop customized nutrition intervention programs based on behavioral changes in the context of micronutrient intake.

Background: Heart and liver diseases are among the leading causes of mortality globally. Their early detection can prevent complications, reduce costs, and ensure healthy lives and well-being for everyone. Machine learning-based predictive models, such as logistic regression (LR) and decision tree (DT) are commonly used in health science for prediction. Even though LR and DT are effective, they have major drawbacks. DT assigns the same class to all observations in a branch which can lead to overfitting, while LR model often produces high misclassification rates and overfit when dealing with high-dimensional data. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a hybrid classification model combining the strengths of DT and LR.

Materials and methods: Monte Carlo simulation and empirical study are conducted to compare the predictive performance of the proposed model with LR, DT, Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest Neighbors, and Random Forest. For the empirical study two datasets namely, heart disease prediction dataset (balanced, 303 observations, 14 variables) and Liver disease dataset (imbalanced, 583 observations, 11 variables) are used.

Results: The simulation results indicate the hybrid model outperforms other classification models considered, across various sample sizes. These findings are consistent with the empirical data, showing predictive accuracy of 91% for heart disease and 95% for liver disease data.

Conclusion: The developed hybrid model has enhanced prediction accuracy irrespective of sample size and effectively handles both balanced and imbalanced data, reducing the need to identify suitable balancing techniques. Improved efficiency can help with early detection, better decision-making, and improved health systems.

Background: The poor oral health in terms of dental caries and periodontal involvement significantly affects the lives of autistic children. Hence, parents of these children must be educated through preventive programs for improving their oral health. The present study aimed to assess the role of oral health-related educational and preventive programs in improvement of oral health of autistic children.

Materials and methods: This prospective questionnaire-based study was conducted following Institute's ethics committee approval at clinic specially treating children with special needs. Totally, 50 autistic and 50 healthy children were selected on a random basis. Informed consent from parents or caregivers and assent from participating children were obtained before beginning of data collection. All children were rated for behavioral modification using the Frankl's rating scale. Saliva was tested for improvement in oral hygiene using the Cariogram model. A pre-validated questionnaire was circulated among parents at first examination and was repeated at 6 months interval. The oral cavity along with teeth was examined under natural light conditions by a single trained examiner. The oral health status was examined using dft/DMFT indices. Descriptive statistics was recorded as "mean ± standard deviation"scores.

Results: Statistically significant improvements in oral health as well as knowledge of children and their parents were found through the intervention of education tools such as use of models, pictures, live demonstrations, and verbal communication.

Conclusion: Imparting knowledge to the parents regarding oral hygiene practices and importance of dental visit is important as it can significantly improve the oral health of children, especially one who suffer from autism.

Background: The aim of this research is to explore the perceptions of an attractive smile among dentists and nonprofessionals by analyzing digitally altered smile images.

Materials and methods: The study involved two evaluation groups: 50 dental students from Shahid Beheshti Dental School ranging from the 6^th to 12^th semester and 50 laypeople with varying educational backgrounds. Using Adobe Photoshop CS6, smile esthetic factors such as crown length, width, gingival display, midline diastema, midline deviation, smile arc, buccal corridor, tooth color, and occlusal plane were adjusted in the images. Participants rated each image on a scale of 0 to 10 through a questionnaire.

Results: The majority of evaluators preferred the ideal smile in each category. Both groups perceived significant differences in the altered images, but there was no significant variance between them in understanding smile esthetics. Interestingly, factors like age and gender did not impact individuals' ability to identify an attractive smile.

Conclusion: The study found that asymmetrical changes negatively impacted the perceived attractiveness of smiles, not only among dental professionals but also among laypeople. The results indicated a strong alignment between laypeople and dental students in Iran in assessing smile esthetics.

Background: The pentavalent vaccine is considered one of the most important vaccines in the routine immunization schedule because of its great importance in preventing five deadly and infectious diseases in children's lives.

Materials and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the level of parents' knowledge regarding the pentavalent vaccine. The nonprobability (convenience) was used with selected 140 parents visiting primary health care centers in Diwaniyah City. The study extended period was from November 2023 to September 2024. The study instrument consists of two part: The first part asked seven demographic questions, and the second part asked 15 questions that assessed parents' knowledge about pentavalent vaccine. The study's data were analyzed using SPSS "Statistical Package of Social Sciences" version 25.

Results: The results of this study showed that 59% of parents reported a poor knowledge level about the pentavalent vaccine, followed by those who reported fair levels (34%) and good levels (7%), respectively, with an mean of score (1.23). According to the study, there is a significant correlation (P < 0.05) between the knowledge levels of parents and certain demographic information (educational level, child's caregiver). Therefore, we discovered that most people in society have false beliefs, whether they are social, cultural, or religious.

Conclusion: The study concluded that level of knowledge of parents about pentavalent vaccine is unacceptable and below the required level.

Background: Memorization involves storing and retrieving learned information, and effective teaching methods are crucial for this process. This study compared the effects of storytelling and interactive lecturing on the long-term memory of Anesthesia Technology students, highlighting the importance of memory in medical science education.

Materials and methods: This quasi-experimental study used a pretest and two post-test designs. An immediate post-test followed weekly teaching sessions for 1 month to evaluate short-term retention, while a delayed post-test assessed long-term memory 3 weeks later. In 2023, a study with 52 undergraduate Anesthesia Technology students at Iran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences compared two teaching methods: storytelling (n = 31) and interactive lecturing (n = 21). Three tests were conducted: a preliminary test, an immediate post-test for short-term evaluation, and a delayed post-test for long-term evaluation 3 weeks later. This study utilized descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency) to summarize demographic data and applied inferential tests (paired t-tests, independent t-tests, repeated measures tests) to evaluate research hypotheses and relationships between variables.

Results: Statistical analysis revealed no significant demographic differences between groups. The findings indicated a significant difference in long-term memory retention, with the storytelling method leading to higher scores in delayed post-tests compared to the interactive lecturing approach (t = 3.388, P < 0.001). These results demonstrate that storytelling is more effective in enhancing long-term memory retention among students.

Conclusion: The storytelling approach greatly improves long-term memory retention among Anesthesia Technology students in comparison to the interactive lecturing method. It is recommended to implement this approach to promote meaningful learning and improve patient management in both medical and paramedical disciplines.

Infertility affects both men and women and is recognized as a significant global health concern. It remains highly stigmatized and often disproportionately attributed to women in low- and middle-income countries such as India. To systematically review and synthesize evidence on the influence of cultural and socioeconomic factors on infertility treatment-seeking behavior across diverse populations. This review followed PRISMA guidelines. Conducted Comprehensive database searches and included studies published between January 2018 and April 2025. 21 studies met the inclusion criteria. Financial constraints, absence of health insurance, low fertility literacy, and social stigma emerged as consistent barriers, particularly for women in rural and socioeconomically disadvantaged settings. Cultural beliefs often led couples to seek traditional or religious healing prior to biomedical interventions. Geographic location, educational attainment, occupation, and income significantly influenced treatment initiation and continuation. Disparities were also evident among ethnic minorities in high-income countries. Addressing these disparities requires integrated public health approaches, including equitable reproductive health policies, targeted financial support, and culturally sensitive care models.

Background: The Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) is a frequently used instrument for assessing resilience. However, its psychometric properties have been less studied among employees who care for people with disabilities.

Materials and methods: This study aims to examine the structural validity and measure gender invariance in a Romanian sample of healthcare workers from residence centers for people with disabilities (Mean _age = 44.65). Structural validity was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and multi-group CFA was used to demonstrate gender invariance. Convergent validity was evaluated using the average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR). Divergent validity was assessed by correlating BRS scores with measures of depression, anxiety, and stress-tension (DASS21-R). Reliability was calculated using McDonald's ω and Cronbach's α coefficients.

Results: The two-factor uncorrelated structure model of the BRS demonstrated the best-fit indices (χ²/df = 2.26; CFI = 0.97; RMSEA = 0.064; SRMR = 0.017) and the gender invariance (ΔCFI < 0.01). The model suggests that BRS has two distinct dimensions of resilience that do not interact directly. The internal consistency shows adequate levels (the values of α and ω are between 0.74 and 0.79). Both BRS factors correlate significantly negatively with the dimensions from DASS21-R.

Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the BRS support its applicability for assessing resilience in Romanian healthcare workers.

Background: The increasing usage of smartphones by students has caused awkward ergonomic postures which have led to musculoskeletal pain and disabilities, especially in the neck and shoulder, the purpose of the current study is the reduction of neck and shoulder pain and disability, via an educational intervention, according to comprehensive ergonomic principles.

Materials and methods: The current study, which was an educational intervention, has been implemented with both intervention and control groups in the form of pre-test and post-test, including intervention group control group, in the years, 2023 and 2024 in Iran. Participants from both separate schools of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences completed the NDI (Neck Disability Index), DASH (Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand) questionnaires, and VAS (Visual Analog Scale) to determine the disability and pain indices in both neck and shoulder, and then, the educational intervention was conducted, for the ergonomic usage of smartphone, during three consecutive days, after two months (eight sessions for reminding which considered one session per week) of implementation of the program by the volunteers. Participants completed the mentioned questionnaires again, and then, data analysis was conducted by statistical software SPSS version 23.

Result: The findings depict more NDI, compared to DASH and more Neck-VAS, compared to Shoulder-VAS, as well as, NDI (P = 0.003), DASH (P = 0.001), Neck-VAS (P = 0.000), and Shoulder-VAS indices (P = 0.041) have statistically been decreased significant, among the post-test intervention group, compared to the pre-test intervention group, in addition to, the four last mentioned indices have statistically been reduced significant, respectively (P = 0.005), (P = 0.043), (P = 0.04), and (P = 0.006) among the post-test intervention group, compared to the post-test control group.

Conclusion: The training in the ergonomic principles of Stanford University can reduce neck and shoulder pain and disability indices among smartphone users.