Journal of School of Public Health and

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Background and Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between educational practice of volunteer health workers (VHWs) and preventive behavior of households (HH) under their coverage regarding cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) based on the BASNEF model in Yazd City, Iran

Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, all the 60 VHWs in the CL-endemic regions in Yazd City were interviewed and completed a valid and reliable questionnaire designed by the investigator. In addition, from among the households under coverage of each one of the VHWs, 2 HHs were selected randomly and their heads were interviewed and completed the relevant questionnaire (total n=120). Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: There was a positive correlation between the knowledge and attitude of VHWs and knowledge of the households, as well as between the VHWs' behavioral intention and households' behavior. Further analysis of the data also revealed a positive correlation between the enabling factors of VHWs and the knowledge, behavioral intention, enabling factors and behaviors of families, as well as between educational behavior of VHWs and knowledge, attitude and behavior of the families.

Conclusion: Volunteer health workers can potentially play an important role in case-finding, prevention and timely treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis. However, merely promoting their awareness of the disease will not lead to improvements in their educational behavior in the community. More effective education aiming at promoting their awareness and enabling factors, as well as developing better attitude in them, will certainly result in better behavior of households and control of the disease

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Background and Aim: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a major cause of death worldwide. The objective of this study was to determine the most important behavioral (inadequate nutrition, low physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption) and non-behavioral (stress, high blood sugar, dyslipidemia, hypertension and obesity) risk factors for CVD among CVD patients hospitalized in Kermanshah Heart Hospital. This was a needs assessment study aiming at designing interventions for reducing CVD risk factors.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study 402 CAD patients (60.4% males and 39.6% females) were selected by consecutive sampling from among those hospitalized in Imam Ali Hospital for the first time. Data were collected using the Iranian version of WHO Stepwise questionnaire and the patients’ files and analyzed using the SPSS-16 software.
Results: The mean (±SD) age of the patients was 54.2 (±8.8) years. About 73% of them had a poor diet and 46.5% had low physical activity; in addition, 36% of the men had consumed alcohol in the previous year and 26.1% were smokers. Non-behavioral risk factors were quite common too. The proportions of the patients suffering from diabetes, hypertension and overweight-plus-obesity and abdominal obesity were 49.3%, 48.0%, 54.7% and 61.0%, respectively. Finally, 43.3% of the patients had high stress, 31.0% were hypertriglyceridemic and in another 21% hypercholesterolemia was seen.
Conclusion: Based on the findings it can be concluded that, as compared to other risk factors, imbalanced nutrition was more prevalent common among the patients. Another major risk factor was obesity, particularly abdominal obesity. In addition, blood glucose disorders were more common than dyslipidemia.