Journal of School of Public Health and

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Background and Aim: Access to reproductive health information and services is a basic right for the youth. Lack of suitable educational/counselling materials about reproductive health can decrease effectiveness of educational programs. This study aimed to determine the premarrital reproductive health educational needs of the youth.

Materials and Methods: In a descriptive-analytical study a total of 450 young males and females were selected by stratified random sampling to participate in pre-marital counseling in Tehran. Data about pre-marrital reproductive health educational needs were collected using a questionnaire developed by the investigator, with a 5 degree-Likert scale. SPSS-15 was used for data analysis, the statistical tests being t-test, one-tailed ANOVA and chi-square.  

Results: Based on the Likert scale (1-5), felt need for reproductive health education was 3, it being higher among females (p<0.05). Both the males and females thought that what they needed most was education/counseling on healthy sexual relationship. The educational needs did not seem to be influenced statistically significantly by socio-demographic variables in either gender.

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it seems that the current educational materials are not sufficient for pre-marrital counseling. Comprehensive information on reproductive health, with particular emphasis on sexual relationship, should be included in the existing programs, so that the youth can begin a better, healthier married life.

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  Background and Aim: Current traditional research methods for solving social problems were challenged due to limited participation of community . The health companion project was carried out with the aim of determining effective model of community participation for solving health problems in Boyerahmad and Dena township. .

  Materials and Methods : This study is a community based participatory research performed in Kohgiloyeh and Boyerahmad province 2005-2009.The study population was the entire rural and urban households of Boyerahmad and Dena county.The strategic committee of project including academic researchers, managers of health and health related sectors was formed and this committee selected six regions for research activities. In each region local directing group "health companion " was established with participation of stakeholders: academic researchers, local leaders, health providers and public representatives to guide all aspects of project. The members of the group empowered and enabled by attending training workshops for need assessment, priority setting, research methodology that through these activities the health problem priorities of the regions were recognized, the research area determined and intervention programs were designed and implemented according to these research area.

  Results: The most important achievement of this project is the methods of activities to reaching goals. Implementation of six participatory interventional proposal for solving health problems and needs are the other achievement. The frequency and means of health problems and their risk factors significantly reduced after the completion of intervention program in each region.

  Conclusion: Establishing and activities of health companion groups followed model of Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH) that help community to form health promotion team, collecting and organizing of data, choosing health priorities, developing a comprehensive intervention plan and evaluation .

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  Background and Aim: Suicide by burning is one of the main health problems very common among women living in the west part of Iran. The objective of this study was to explore its causes and preventive strategies from the viewpoint of healthcare providers .

  Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews, carried out in Kermanshah. The participants were the health care personnel working in Imam Khomeini Hospital, a teaching hospital and referral center in the west part of Iran. Sampling was purposeful and continued until data saturation. Data analysis was conducted through thematic analysis.

  Results: Four themes were extracted for the causes of self-immolation including cultural context, mental health problems, self-immolation as a way to highlight the outcry, and economic problems. As regards prevention strategies, two main themes, namely, cultural changes and mental education and services, emerged.

  Conclusion: Self-immolation is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Different factors interact, resulting in self-immolation by women in stressful situations. Comprehensive preventive strategies such as education, as well as cultural changes, can help to reduce the burden of self-immolation.

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Background and Aim: Health literacy implies the achievement, processing and perception of fundamental information and services required for making appropriate health-related decisions. Due to the high significance of health literacy during pregnancy and its direct effect on fetus, the present research was conducted to investigate the health literacy of pregnant women visiting medical centers in Bandar Abbas, Iran in 2015.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study conducted on 250 pregnant women visiting the healthcare centers in Bandar Abbas, Iran selected by mixed sampling (both clustering and simple random). The data were collected using an adult health literacy questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 16, the statistical tests being independent-sample t-test, ANOVA, Tukey test and linear regression.
Results: The average age of the pregnant women was 31.61±7.45 years. The proportions of the women with an adequate, borderline and inadequate level of literacy were 52%, 20.8% and 27.2%, respectively. A statistically significant association was found between health literacy and education (p<0.001), age (p<0.001), occupation (p<0.001) and the quality of healthcare provision during pregnancy (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The results reveal that the mothers’ health literacy is inadequate or at borderline. Based on these results the following are recommended in an attempt to promote health literacy of pregnant women: 1. revising/simplifying teaching materials, including both oral and pictorial, in addition to written materials in the form of posters, pamphlets and brochures; 2. promoting communication skills of health workers/mothers.