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Background and Aim: Cardiovascular disease is the first and for most factor for mortality in adults and hypercholesterolemia (HC) is a susceptible agent for them. The main objective of this study is to determine the of prevalence of HC and some risk factors related to it in adults in Golestan province  in 2006.

Materials and Methods: This is a Crossectional-Descriptive study based on population and 1995 cases (997 men and 998 woman) between 25- 65 years old, were chosen by cluster and stratify sampling in Golestan adult population. We interviewed all the cases and determined anthropometric and biochemical indexes. Data was analyzed by SPSS.14 software. HC was defined as serum cholesterol levels over 200 mg/dl.

Results: Mean age was 39.2 year and mean ±SD of serum cholesterol in men and women was 196.7±39.11 and 209.4± 42.9 respectively. Prevalence of HC showed significant deference between men (44.7%) and women (57%) (P<0.05). There is a  significant difference between age groups, region, physical activity and BMI in the mean value of serum cholesterol (P<0.01) but regarding economic status it is not significant. Prevalence of HC in abdominal obese and healthy group is 63.2% and 41% respectively and statistical difference is significant (P<0.05). The people of Golestan province consume fruits , vegetables and fish 4.84, 3.65 and 2 days in a week  respectively and  vegetable and fish are consumed more in HC group than in non- HC group. The consumption of hydrogenated oil, liquid oil and other type of oils is 85.4% ,14% and 0.7% respectively, and in HC people the intake of liquid oil is slightly higher than others, but statistical differences is not significant.  

Conclusions: HC is one of the most health problems in Golestan province and women suffer from it more then men. Life style and food behavior are two risk factors for it. Thereby correction of food and social behavior can decline incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Background and Aim: Identification of entrepreneurial opportunities in the field of nutrition counseling is a central issue in employing nutrition consultants and meeting the needs of patients with chronic diseases better. To this end, the present survey has been conducted in order to analyze the supply and demand trends of diabetes nutrition counseling as a basic step toward identifying the entrepreneurial opportunities for nutrition consultants in Tehran.

Materials and Methods: To implement this descriptive-survey study, a questionnaire based on Likert scale was sent by email to 80 active professionals in the field of nutrition counseling services in Tehran, of whom 48 responded to its questions. Then, using SPSS11.5, the mean values of participants' responses were calculated and compared with one another.

Results: The findings obtained based on participants' responses revealed that the need for "nutritional counseling in the form of a treatment team" was mostly not met in different age, education and income groups of diabetic patients

Conclusion: "Nutrition counseling in the form of a treatment team" can be considered as a suitable field for entrepreneurial activities.

Background and Aim: Nowadays, because of the intense competition between nutrition consultants and rapid changes in patients' demands for nutrition counseling, application of the concepts such as "Entrepreneurial Opportunities Recognition" in this field seems unavoidable. One of the most commonly used methods for recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities is "Strategic Analysis of External Environment". Present survey has been conducted in order to study the impact of nutrition consultants' educational level on their strategic analysis about entrepreneurial opportunities.

Materials and Methods: This analytical survey was implemented based on the data (nutrition consultants' educational levels and their responses regarding the supply and demand for nutrition counseling services) which was collected during a previous study entitled ((Analysis of supply and demand trends in the field of diabetes nutrition counseling: A basic step towards identifying the entrepreneurial opportunities for nutrition consultants)). Also, ((Spearman's correlation test)) and ((GLM multivariate test)) were performed for the analysis of aforementioned data.

Results: Both statistical tests showed that nutrition consultants' educational levels (including 1- Bachelor of Science and 2- Master of Science and PhD) had significant relationship with two-thirds of their comments.

Conclusion: Nutrition consultants' educational level has a relative impact on their strategic analysis about the entrepreneurial opportunities.

Background and Aim: Considering the potential damages caused by inaccurate, inadequate and incomplete information published in web pages, the aim of this study was to evaluate Persian-language web pages containing nutritional information, using Silberg criteria.

Materials and Methods: Internet pages related to nutrition were found in “peyvandha.ir” and by searching 20 nutrition-related keywords in five search engines. The first fifty results of every keyword in every search engine were evaluated according to the inclusion criteria. From every website/weblog, three issues were randomly chosen. The Silberg checklist and the qualitative questionnaire were completed and the data were analyzed using SPSS software.

Results: In total, 56 websites /weblogs (47 websites and 9 weblogs) were found to have nutrition-related information. Among these websites/weblogs, 40 were active in the field of nutrition, 14 in health-related fields, and the rest in news, general information and cooking. Mean Silberg score (out of 9) was 2.3±1.9 for websites and 1.75±1.3 for weblogs. The highest score in this study was 8 (one website) and the lowest score was zero (13 websites/weblogs). In 82.5% of websites/weblogs, the sources used in compiling the articles were not mentioned and 64.9% of them lacked their authors’ names. Of all websites/weblogs, 94% didn’t have any disclaimer rejecting the responsibility for accuracy of the information.

Conclusion: Due to the poor quality of internet pages on the one hand and the importance of nutritional knowledge on the other, the development of reliable Persian-language web pages to improve public awareness of nutritional issues is necessary.