Introduction: Surgery is a stressful event and patients undergoing surgery experience anxiety. Any effort to reduce anxiety of surgical patients should be of priority in nursing care of preoperative patients. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of Benson relaxation technique and Zekr (rosary) on anxiety level of patients awaiting abdominal surgery.

Materials and Methods: This research is a quasi-experimental study carried out on patients who were admitted for abdominal surgery in a affiliated hospital to Tehran University of Medical Sciences in the year 2004. A total of 70 patients were chosen and divided randomly into two groups. We used Benson’s relaxation technique in first and Zekr in the second group. The patients were assessed on the day before surgery and on the day of surgery by a questionnaire that included demographic information and Spielberger anxiety tool. Vital signs were also recorded. The data were analyzed by SPSS computer software. The differences between pre and post intervention values were analyzed using paired t test, and between groups using independent t test and 2.

Results: Although there was a significant difference between mean anxiety level before and after intervention in both Zekr (p<0.006) and relaxation group (p<0.02), there was no significant difference between two techniques in reduction of preoperative anxiety (p>0.05). There was also a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure and pulse rate in both groups (p<0.05).

Conclusion: It seems that Zekr is as effective as Benson’s relaxation technique in reducing anxiety level of patients and both can be used to reduce anxiety level of patients awaiting abdominal surgery.

Background & Aim: Health is one of the vital concepts in every society which is affected by several factors including age, gender and social situation of the people. Individuals&apos perception of health concept is also of paramount importance. The main objective of this study is to determine health concept perceptions and health promoting behaviors among Tehran University medical and non-medical students

Methods & Materials: This is a descriptive- analytical study. Four hundred medical students and four hundred non-medical students were recruited for the study using stratified sampling. A three-section self-evaluating questionnaire including demographic information, health perception information and health promoting behaviors information was used to gather data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test and Pierson Correlation Coefficient.

Results: 49.7 percent and 6.8 percent of the medical students had good and excellent perceptions about health concept, respectively. In non-medical students, it was 49.4 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively. 57 percent of the medical students and 54.9 percent of non-medical students had good health promoting behaviors, respectively. There was significant relationship between perceptions of health concept and health promotion behaviors among both groups (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the results, there is a direct relationship between perception of health concept and health promoting behaviors among both groups. There is no difference in all aspects of health promoting behaviors, except for cigarette smoking in which the medical students showed more healthy behaviors.