Journal of School of Public Health and

---

The population of most countries in the word has been growing older during the last 30 years. This trend is important because it leads to a predictable increasing burden of diseases, political, social and economic challenges. The objective of this study was to assess health related quality of life and relating factors in institutionalized elderlies living in “Kahrizak Charity Institution for elder people, in Tehran, Iran”. In this cross sectional research 202 persons aged 65 years and above who were residing in the institution for at least 6 months and able to answer our questions were studied. We used the Iranian version of the SF-36 questionnaire to measure quality of life. Data were collected by face to face interviews. For comparing quality of life between different groups we used non-parametric tests. The mean age of participants was 76.8 (SD=±7.6) years and 58.5% were female.The results showed significant relation between the participants’quality of life scores and variables such as gender, educational level, working in the institution’s workshop, receiving pension, having different types of fractures, deformities, and arthrosis. The study findings indicated that quality of in this group of elderly people was poor and it needs to be improved.

---

Background and Aim: In 1991, the world health organization initiated a project to simultaneously develop an instrument for measuring quality of life in 15 countries. The study yielded two questionnaires, namely WHOQOL-100 and WHOQOL-BREF. These were intended as generic QOL measurement tools to be used in a broad range of diseases, for different degrees of disease severity, and in various cultural subgroups. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the Iranian version of the WHOQOL-BREF. This 26-item instrument comprises four domains: Physical Health, Psychological, Social Relationship, Environment and the overall QOL/health.
Material and Methods: We administered the questionnaire to 1167 adults in Tehran. The stratified sample consisted of 476 diseased subjects and 700 healthy ones. We tested the instrument's reliability (internal consistency, test-retest), discriminant validity and factorial structure.
Results: The participants had an age mean of 36.3 years (SD = 13.2) and had an average 11.5 years of education. Using Cronbach's α and intraclass correlation, all domains met the minimum reliability standards, with the exception of social relationship domain (α = 0.55). The latter could be attributed the small number of questions in this domain and the sensitive nature of the questions themselves. Since 83% of the questions show maximum correlation with their original domain, the factorial structure of the questionnaire was regarded as acceptable. The questionnaire has the ability to discriminate different groups after adjustment for confounding factors in regression analysis.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated good to excellent reliability and acceptable validity in various groups of subjects in Iran. The instrument may be used in future studies, albeit with minor modifications in the domain of social relations, as determined by expert opinion.

---

Background and Aim: In social marketing, the common techniques of commercial marketing are used to increase the chances of acceptability of an idea or action by the target group. In this study, we determined the impact of an intervention based on social marketing to reduce risky driving behaviors among taxi drivers in Tehran.

Materials and Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study, consisting of a quantitative and a qualitative part, on taxi-drivers in 2 regions (an intervention and a control groups) in the City of Tehran. Based on a formative research approach, the components of social marketing, namely, the product (reminder message for concentrating on avoidance of two target behaviors, tailgating and not driving between lines), price, place and promotion were determined. An 8-week educational program was implemented, the components being installation of stickers before the driver's eyes, distributing a pamphlet, and transferring messages through taxi route supervisors as opinion leaders. After six weeks, risky driving behaviors were assessed by checklists and compared.

Results: The intervention resulted in statistically significant reductions in the two target behaviors in the intervention group as compared with the control group. Furthermore, logistic regression showed that the odds ratio for avoiding both behaviors increased significantly in the intervention group. 

Conclusion: Determining specific target groups, designing interventions based on actual needs and wants of the target group, and focusing on the factors influencing the behavior market are the basic elements of social marketing. Due consideration of these elements when designing behavioral interventions would lead to reductions in risky driving behaviors.

---

  Background and Aim: Addiction behaviors have been established among high risk behaviors among different age groups in Iran. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a designed educational program on high risk behaviors of a sample of addicts in Qom, Iran.

  Materials and Methods: Totally, 128 men with addiction history in self help groups referred to health centers in Qom were studied. The instruments used to collect data were a self administered demographic questionnaire and the designed scale high risk behavior based on Health Belief Model (HBM).

  Results: The mean age of participants was 32.4 years. There were no significant difference between two groups at baseline in terms of all demographic data and all HBM constructs. The mean scores of HBM constructs, improved significantly in comparison with baseline. (p < 0.05).

  Conclusions: This study indicated that designed educational program could improve all HBM constructs after intervention. Additionally, behavior intention might be changed after intervention significantly.