Showing 5 results for Safavi
M Safavi, R Sheikholeslam, Z Abdollahi, M Naghavi, S Sadeghiansharif, E Sadeghzadeh, S Mohammadian,
Volume 2, Issue 3 (24 2006)
Abstract
Background & Objectives: Iron is a major essential micronutrient during pregnancy and has an important role in intrauterine fetal growth and safe delivery. This survey was designed to study the status of anemia, iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in pregnant Iranian women. The results can help health policy-makers with the design and implementation of targeted strategies to overcome these problems.
Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 4368 women at gestational ages ranging from 6 to 9 months. Subjects were drawn through cluster sampling from 11 different regions of the country. Hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and serum ferritin levels were measured and the prevalence of anemia, iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) was determined both nationwide and separately in each region.
Results: Overall, 21.5% of the women suffered from anemia 42.7% were iron deficient and the prevalence of IDA was found to be 10.4%. The prevalence of anemia s was significantly greater in rural areas than in urban settings (22.2- 27.8% compared to 17.1 -21.6%, 95%CI). The highest prevalence of anemia and low Hct was seen in the women of region 5 (including Sistan and Baluchistan, South Kerman and South Khorasan with rates of 44.2% and 40.5% respectively). Region 6 (covering Isfahan, Yazd, Kohkilooyeh-Boyerahmad and North Kerman) had the lowest prevalence of anemia and low Hct (9% and 10.8% respectively). Use of iron supplements (even irregular) had a positive effect in reducing anemia. It affected Hct levels only when taken regularly.
Conclusions: Anemia is still a major health issue for pregnant Iranian women. Although supplementation should be continued, there is a need for more comprehensive interventions addressing all target groups, especially women of child-bearing age.
A Afshari Safavi , H Kazemzadeh Gharechobogh , M Rezaei,
Volume 11, Issue 3 (Vol 11, No 3 2015)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Missing data is a big challenge in the research. According to the type of the study and of the variables, different ways have been proposed to work with these data. This study compared five popular imputation approaches in addressing missing data in the questionnaires.
Methods: In this study, 500 questionnaires were used for self-medication in diabetic patients. Missing in the observations was artificially generated by random selection of questions and then deleting them. Five imputation ways included: 1) the mean of the questions, 2) the mean of the person, 3) the mode of the person, 4) linear regression, and 5) EM algorithm. For each method, the mean and standard deviation were compared with imputation. The Spearman correlation coefficient, the percentage of incorrectly classified and kappa statistic were also calculated.
Results: A kappa higher than 0.81 represented almost perfect agreement at 10% missingness. The EM algorithm showed the highest level of agreement with the results of actual data with a Kappa of 0.886. With increasing missingness to 30%, the EM algorithm and the mean of the person showed a rather similar agreement with a Kappa of 0.697 and 0.687, respectively.
Conclusion: In this study, the EM algorithm was the most accurate method for handling missing data in all models. The mean of the person method is easy for handling missing data, especially for most non statisticians.
S Mirshekar, Sm Safavi, Gh Yadegarfar,
Volume 12, Issue 4 (Vol.12, No.4 2017)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Food is one of the major needs of the humans that is defined in the context of food security. The objective of this study was to find the relationship between food insecurity and stunting combined with obesity and overweight in children aged 7-11 years old in Zabol.
Methods: This study had two phases. In the first phase (cross-sectional), 3443 students aged 7-11 years old were selected with stratified – cluster sampling. In the second phase, all of the children with stunting and obesity or overweight based on the CDC growth chart comprised the case group and 112 students with normal height and weight based on the CDC growth chart comprised the control group. The case and control groups were matched in terms of age, sex, and school. The food security USDA questionnaire that consists of 18 items was completed through interview with mothers to evaluate the family food security.
Results: The prevalence of stunting, obesity, and overweight was 17.95%, 4.56%, and 10.98% respectively and the prevalence of stunting combined with obesity and overweight was 1.71% in the first phase of the study. There was a significant relationship between food insecurity and stunting combined with obesity and overweight. Food insecurity had a significant relationship with low economic status, living in rented homes, labor job and unemployment of the household head, and low education level of the household head in the case group.
Conclusion: Because of the significant relationship between food insecurity and stunting combined with obesity and overweight, it is necessary to design interventional programs to prevent or reduce food insecurity.
Sm Hosseini , A Afshari Safavi , A Esmaeil Zade , S Beig Rezaei ,
Volume 13, Issue 2 (Vol.13, No.2, Summer 2017)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Using the anthropometric indicators of children is one of the ways of monitoring their growth. Because of the racial divisions and levels of health and welfare, comparing these indicators with the global reference is not reasonable; therefore, designing a local reference seems necessary. This study aimed to evaluate the growth indices for boys and girls aged 5 to 18 years old living in Isfahan and to compare the indices with standard values.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 53,839 subjects were included. Percentiles of body mass index, height, and weight were calculated using the LMS method in the LMS Light software. After normalization of the growth indices, their mean and standard deviation were calculated for each age group and anthropometric indices curves were plotted versus the 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles of the NCHS reference.
Results: In all age categories, the mean SDS scores of BMI in boys and girls was -0.004 ± 0.029 and 0.014 ± 0.062, respectively, indicating no difference with reference values. However, the 95th percentile of the body mass index for the reference population was consistent with the 90th percentile for the population studied. Also, weight in boys below 13 years of age was higher than the reference line while in girls, weight was always higher than the reference value.
Conclusion: Due to differences in the pattern of growth and also lower anthropometric values, particularly among boys, it seems that a national growth curve can be a better guide for future decisions.
H Tavakoli Ghouchani, A Delshad, Hr Shoraka, H Lashkardoost, A Afshari Safavi , J Rahimi,
Volume 16, Issue 5 (Vol 16, Special Issue 2021)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major health and socioeconomic problems worldwide. This study was conducted to determine the clinical features and health behaviors related to COVID-19 in patients presenting to selected COVID-19 centers of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out using stratified random sampling in 350 patients presenting to selected COVID-19 centers of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences in August and September 2020. Demographic and clinical features and the data related to COVID-19 disease were collected using a researcher-made checklist and analyzed with the SPSS 24 software using chi-square test and logistic regression.
Results: Of 350 patients, 200 (57.1%) were male and the rest were female. The PCR test was positive in 72% of the patients. The highest percentage of infection was seen in self-employed subjects and driver, people in the age group 30-50 years, and male subjects. The highest observance of masking, hand washing, and social distancing was related to healthcare staff and the lowest was seen in self-employed people, drivers, and military staff. A history of attending a gas station increased the chance of a positive test by 2.3 times (95% CI: 1.13-4.79).
Conclusion: According to the results, age, gender, occupation and history of presence in crowded places are important determinants of infection and adherence to protocols.
