Journal of School of Public Health and

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Background and Aim: Based on WHO reports, there are about 100-150 million people with asthma around the world and the number is increasing. Asthma is a prevalent disease and permanent self-management is needed in order to control the symptoms and maintain the normal action of the lungs and a normal level of activity. The Green's Model of Health Education Planning provides a systematic process for planning, implementation and evaluation of population health promotion programs and is used in a broad range of issues in health promotion, including self-management in asthma. This study was carried out with the aim of determining predictors of self-management behaviors in patients with asthma in Yazd, Iran, based on the above-mentioned model.

Methods and Materials: In this cross-sectional study convenience sampling was employed to recruit 94 outpatients with asthma from among those referring to Shaheed-Sadooghi Clinic in Yazd, Iran. Data were collected using a questionnaire based on the Green's Model constructs, consisting of predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors and self-management behaviors. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire were assessed prior to data collection.

Results: The subjects acquired 49.5%, 68.6%, 67.3%, and 61.2 % of the earnable scores for self-management behavior, predisposing factors, reinforcing factors, and enabling factors, respectively. Predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling variables had positive correlations with self-management behaviors (p<0.01) and accounted for 34.6% of the self-management variance. Predisposing factors were the strongest predictor (β = 0.480).

Conclusion: It is concluded that the Green's Model of Health Education Planning can be used in developing countries, such as Iran, as a framework for planning intervention programs in an attempt to improve the self-management behaviors of patients with asthma. Designing and implementing educational programs aiming at promoting self-management behaviors in asthmatic patients with emphasis on predisposing factor enhancement is recommended.

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Background and Aim: women’s barriers and beliefs are important in the care of teeth and oral health in family and it influence on family’s goals, values and health behavior. Depend on the role of women in shaping health behaviors in family and explain their experiences in the field of oral and dental diseases, the aim of this study was to apply grounded theory approach to develop a process about dental caries in women. Materials and Methods: A grounded theory design was used for data gathering and analysis. 23 participants including 18 women, 3 dentists and 2 spouses were chosen through purposive and theoretical sampling methods. Face to face and semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were held to gather data. Interviews were recorded, taped and analyzed via the grounded theory method developed by Strauss and Corbin. In order to support the validity and rigor of the data, different criteria such as acceptability, confirmability and transferability were utilized. Results: During the data analysis, the core category of “Promoting acknowledge for preservation of teeth” and five main themes of “destructive factors of teeth”, “maintaining dental”, “social and environmental factors”, “Effective believes in dental health”and“Trying to rebuild teeth” were developed. Conclusion: To prevent of oral and dental disease, promoting women’s awareness is not only individual factor but also family, dentist, social and religious believers and policies and executive systems are important. The findings of this study can be effective in designing educational appropriate models in women’s oral and dental health and also may be useful for developing educational context in dentists and policymakers.

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Background and Aim: To succeed in study and deliver service to community, training spiritual and related skill is urgent need in public health students. The aim of study was to explore spiritual needs and related skills in public health students of Kurdistan University of medical sciences.

Materials and Methods: This research was done through content analysis approach in Kurdistan university of medical science in 2015 year. Public health 15 students’ needs and perspective investigated via purposeful sampling. Inclusion criteria were including willingness to participate in the study, public health students, and ability to speak fluently. Data was gathered using individual and group in-deep sim-structural interviews and field note. Interviews recorded, typed, and analyzed using content analysis method. credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability were employed to rigor and trustworthy of data.

Results: from Analysis of data were extracted 4 main categories: “individual interaction with superior existence”, “individual’s interaction with surrounding”, “strengthen individual characteristics”, and “improvement of study”. 

Conclusion: the results of the study showed that acquiring of spiritual and life skills is an urgent need for students. Earning these skills not only is not an individual factor but also is multi-factorial and this is regarding to educational organizations, ministries, universities and families.

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Background and Aims: Nocardia asteroides complex is the most common cause of infectious diseases due to nocardiosis. Interspecies differentiation of Nocardia genera is essential for prognosis and timely proper treatment, as well as for epidemiological studies. Since each genus has its own antibiotic resistance, precise careful diagnosis is of prime importance. As compared to biochemical and phenotypic methods, the efficacy of molecular methods for fast and accurate identification of Nocardia species has been proven. The aim of this study was to detect for the first time Nocardia asteroides complex in clinical isolates using real time polymerase chain reaction (Real-Time PCR).
Materials and Methods: Out of the 25 clinical isolates suspected to be Nocardia asteroides genus 10 were identified as Nocardia asteroids complex by biochemical and phenotypic methods, followed by genomic DNA extraction of the suspicious isolates. Nocardia asteroides complex positive controls were prepared using standard strains. Real-time PCR was conducted on all the 10 suspicious isolates. The final real-time PCR samples were sent for sequencing to verify the identified species.
Results: Based on sequencing results 3 of 10 clinical isolates suspected to be identified as Nocardia asteroides complex were confirmed as belonging to the Nocardia asteroids complex genera ─ Nocardia asteroids, Nocardia farcinica, and Nocardia nova.
Conclusion: This study shows that, as compared to biochemical and phenotypic methods, real-time polymerase chain reaction is faster and more specific, and is considered as an efficient method, for Nocardia interspecies identification and differentiation.