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Total fertility rate relates to the number of children that a woman bears in the fertility period of her life. Fertility function is one of the most important health and population indicators. This indicator affects social, health, economic and cultural factors. This study is an ecological or correlative one. Factors affecting total fertility rate in Iran in the year 2000 are studied in this paper. The factors include coverage of women with focus on higher education, infant mortality rate (under 1 year), women’s occupation rate, urbanity ratio, mean age in the first marriage of women in the age group 15 to 49 years as per the last census in Iran in 2000 in 26 provinces. The direct and indirect effects of these factors on total fertility rate, with emphasis on path analysis have been determined. Data analysis shows that women's occupation rate is the most important factor in decreasing total fertility rate. Higher education of women is also an important element in this regard. Therefore increase in the number of women with university education not only decreases the total fertility but also increases the occupation of women.

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Background & Aim: Improving the quality of life is generally one of the main goals in caring of the patients with congestive heart failure, so identifying factors affecting it is significantly important. This study was conducted to determining the quality of life of these patients.

Methods & Materials: 184 of patients congestive heart failure who referred to clinics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were chosen by goal-based sampling method. Data collection was done by questionnaire, which was consisted of 4 parts: individual factors, factors related to disease, patient knowledge and quality of life. Data analysis was done by SPSS computerized software.

Results: Most of the researching samples in fallowing dimensions had undesirable quality of life: physical activity dimension (44.6%), Psychological dimension (47.3%), Economical/Social dimension (49.5%), total Quality of life (46.7%) and had fairly desirable quality of life in general health dimension (42.4%). There is a significant statistical relationship between quality of life and these variables: job, Education level, care giver, the intensity of illness, duration of illness period, number of refers to physician and hospitalization, duration of combination of hypertension with CHF, presence of edema, high cholesterol, characteristics of disease, the intensity of fatigue at the time of research and in last 1 month ago (p=0.000) and the kinds of using drugs (p=0.039), but there is not a significant statistical relationship between quality of life and these variable: age, gender, Marriage status, Number of people living together, Having therapeutic insurance, Smoking, Body Mass Index: BMI presence of Myocardial Infarction or other diseases and patient knowledge.

Conclusion: Congestive heart failure has a negative affect on quality of life. So assessing the quality of life and promoting it is viewed as one of the duties of nurses and also as one of the major caring goals.

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Background & Aim: Some aspects of life style in adulthood have major preventive role from osteoporosis in adult ages. This research has been done in order to determining female teenager’s life style in relation with prevention of osteoporosis.

Methods & Materials: This research was a descriptive - analytical study. In this study, 760 person of female teenage students in high schools and pre-university centers of zone 17 in Tehran city were chosen by random classified cluster sampling method. In this study, the tool for data collection was written questionnaire, and method of it was answering to questionnaire. The questionnaire had 2 parts. First part included demographic characteristics, and second part included different dimensions of lifestyle in relation with prevention of osteoporosis, such as nutrition, exercise and physical activity, habits (smoking, using weight loss food regimen and weight loss drug). The life style categorized as 3 levels unfavorable, partially favorable, and favorable. The collected information was assessed by SPSS software and descriptive and analytical statistical methods were used to reaching study objects.

Results: Results Showed nutrition, phisycal activity and exercise the highest percent of cases (51.8%, 57.7%) had undesirable lifestyle. Also 50 percent of cases had undesirable lifestyle. About habits (Smoking, using weight loss food regimen and using weight loss drug) the highest percent of cases (74.9%) had desirable lifestyle. Also there was a significant statistical relationship between life style and variables of education level (p=0.004), economical status of family (p=0.043), the birth number in family (p=0.001) and educational level of mother (p=0.005).

Conclusion: According to the results of research, lifestyle of 50% of female teenagers was undesirable. Findings of this research are attentive and need more assessment and planning by responsible people in order to omitting noted problems in lifestyle.

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Background & Aim: The Clinical Teaching Partner model (CTP) integrates theoretical knowledge with professional skills and brings the reality to workplaces. Closing educational and practical aspects in nursing discipline has been a challenging goal for nursing which requires cooperation between faculty instructors with nurse practitioners such collaboration will led to development and promotion of nursing discipline. Therefore selecting an effective and efficient approach in order to integrate theoretical knowledge with practical experiences would be crucial for nursing profession. This study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of CTP on nursing students&apos clinical skills outcome.

Methods & Materials: A quasi experimental, only post test design was applied. Study sample consisted of 1) three faculty instructors, 2) seven registered nurse practitioners who were staff nurses in three pediatric wards and voluntarily participated in the study and 3) fifty two nursing students which were in the 5th semester of nursing BSc. program and had eligible criteria to enter the study. Students were allocated randomly to the intervention (n=28) and control (n=24) groups. Participants in the control group, initially started their internship period in 3 pediatric wards and were evaluated by faculty instructors regarding their clinical skills at the end students in the intervention group, then started their clinical training course in the same ward as control group, but their clinical education was conducted by the nurse practitioners who voluntarily participated in the study and trained initially in the nursing faculties&apos skill lab. Students&apos clinical skills were evaluated by nursing mentors via some instruments at the end of the educational period in addition, clinical education outcomes and nursing students&apos satisfaction of achievement to apprenticeship goals were assessed at the end of the training period. Data were analyzed using the statistical tests including Chi square, Fisher exact test, Mann-Whiney U, and t-test in SPSS.

Results: Considering students demographic characteristics, both groups were homogenous. There was a significant difference in the students&apos clinical skills between two groups (P<0.001). A significant difference was shown in the nursing mentors and faculty instructors&apos satisfaction of application of cooperative education method between both groups (P=0.004). No significant differences were found between students&apos satisfaction of reaching to educational outcomes between both groups (P=0.058). There were also no statistical differences between nursing mentors and faculty instructors&apos satisfaction of achieving to clinical education outcomes (P=0.109).

Conclusion: According to this study, CTP is an effective approach in clinical education and development of clinical skills for nursing students therefore,

application of this method is recommended in clinical nursing education.

 

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Background & Aim: Micronutrients deficiency is one of the most common health problems among adolescents. Theory based educational interventions which address learners&apos preferences are among the solutions for the matter in hand. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Transtheoretical model (TTM) based educational package on vitamin intake in female adolescents in Tehran.

Methods & Materials: A randomized community trial was applied. Study samples were consisted of 80 female students from two middle schools of Tehran, district 17^th. They were selected using a cluster-random sampling method and were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=40) and control groups (n=40). The intervention group received a TTM-based educational package. Changes in vitamin intake were assessed using standard food frequency & 24-recall questionnaires.

Results: Based on pre-test results, intake of vitamin B2, B6, B9, B12, and C were lower than Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) in both groups. Based on the post-test data, a significant increase occurred in the mean score of vitamin intake in the intervention group comparing with the control group and also with the intervention group at pretest (P<0.05).

Conclusion: TTM-based educational package could be effective in improving vitamin intake in urban female adolescents.

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Background & Aim: Cigarette smoking is a common risky behavior among teenagers. Theories and models of health education aim to design effective educational programs. This study has been conducted to assess the effect of a health education program designed based on the health belief model on preventive smoking behaviors among female teenagers.

Methods & Materials: In this quasi-experimental study, 176 female teenagers from the Educational Cultural Centers of 17 zones of Tehran Municipality were randomly allocated to two equal experiment and control groups (88 girls in each group). The designed educational program was presented to the experiment group through three lecture and question/answer 45 minute sessions. Data were collected using a questionnaire before and eight weeks after the intervention. Data were analyzed using the SPSS-16.

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in the characteristics of the participants before the intervention. Comparison of the two experiment and control groups after education showed that the mean score of all studied constructs of the health belief model (i.e., susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers, cues to action), as well as the preventive behaviors were increased significantly.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the program seems to be helpful in promoting the smoking preventive behavior among teenagers.