Journal of School of Public Health and

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Backgrounds and Aim: Increased life expectancies and decreased fertility rates have led to ageing populations worldwide. This phenomenon is one of the most important public health challenges of the current century. Previous studies have shown that identifying factors affecting lifestyle and educational needs help in designing new strategies for health promotion. This study was conducted to investigate the preparedness of the elderly to adopt a healthy lifestyle and factors affecting it in the City of Tehran in 2007.
Materials and Methods: This qualtative study included 60 elderly persons from Tehran elderly centers, using the focus group discussion method. Sampling was targeted and a qualitative methodology was used for analysis of the data collected.
Results: The results shows that different elderly persons have different views with regard to what physical and mental health is and what factors cause healthiness. They believe that regular physical activity is very beneficial but that there are many difficulties in performing regular physical activity. Most of the subjects are in the prepation, action and maintenance stages as regards physical activity. On the other hand, nearly all the subjects are in the precontemplation stage with regard to fruit and vegetable consumption, despite the many obstacles in following a healthy diet.
Conclution: The findings of this study show that many factors influence adoption of a healthy lifestyle by the elderly. Bearing these factors in mind, appropriate educational strategies aiming at facilitating adoption of a healthy lifestyle can be designed.

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Background and Aim: One of the most prevalent occupational diseases and conditions is musculo-skeletal disorders (MSDs) that impose expensive medical-recompense expenses, organic damages, and work-time wasting. The aim of this study was to detect spine curvatures (cervical, back/ low back, lumbar) and prevalence of musculo-skeletal disorders in assembly workers of Bahman automobile company, Tehran, Iran.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study 160 assembly workers of Bahman Automobile Manufacturing Company (vans, cars), Tehran, Iran were included. In the descriptive part data were collected on the demographic characteristics of the subjects. In the analytical section associations among the dependent variables, as well as between the dependent and independent variables, were determined. The Nordick Questionnaire, a scale, and a flexible ruler were used for data collection. The SPSS software was used for data analysis.

Results: Although the mean age of the participants was low (30.89 yrs), the prevalence of MSDs was high (69.4% 1.58). The most prevalenct of the MSDs was in the lumbar part (n=83 %51.9) and the least in the hip and femoral region (n=9: %5.6). Significant associations (p < 0.05) were found between MSDs prevalence and independent factors (age, years of working, marital status). However, cervical, back, lumbar curvatures and the Delmax index were not statistically related with MSDs.

Conclusion: This study shows that associations exist between muscleo-skeletal disorders and age, years of working, height, and marital status. The findings also reveal that there is no relation between MSDs and the vertebral curvatures (cervical, back, lumbar), except the neck curvature in the car (not van) assembly workers. It may be concluded that genetics and environmental conditions can adversely affect the musculo-skeletal health. We cannot control the genetic factors. However, one can provide more favorable environmental conditions. For example, employing younger workers may help decrease the musculo-skeletal disorders.

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Background and Aim: The role of fresh water snails as the intermediary host in transmitting parasitic infestations in man and animals is well known. In Iran, urinary schistosomisasis is known to be endemic in the Khuzestan Province, south-west of the country. Considering the Egyptian experience concerning the negative effects of Aswan Dam construction on expanding the prevalence of human bilharziasis, the possible role of huge agro-industrial sugar-cane projects on eliminating schistosomiasis in the only known endemic province of Khuzestan in Iran came to our attention. The main objective of this study was to identify the species of fresh water snails in a vast area under cultivation of sugar cane in Khuzestan province, S.W. Iran.

Methods and Materials: Thirty locations (points) under cultivation of sugar-cane in the area were selected for snail collection. In the selected localities there existed drains, canals, ditches, and water stands. Preliminary identification of snails was performed at the time of collection. A more complete taxonomical study was made after the samples were transferred to the laboratory of Dezful Health Research station.

Results: The total number of snails collected was 3825 snails, and seven different species were identified: Physa sp . (29%), Gyraulus sp. (19%), Melanoides sp. (16%), Bellamya sp. (14%), Melanopsis sp. (12%), L. gedrosiana, (7%)L. truncatula(2%). No Bulinus truncatus was seen .

Conclusion: Most of these snails are capable of getting involved in the life cycle of some zoonotic helminth parasites, e.g., Fasciolid and Heterophyd. These findings are encouraging. However, in order to avoid any possible undesirable effects on the public's health, constant monitoring, as well as annual malacological surveys, is essential.

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Background and Aim: Anemia is an important public health problem in Iran. The most prevalent type (50%) is iron-deficiency anemia. Flour fortification with iron and folic acid is one of the main strategies usually adopted to combat anemia. Two pilot projects were conducted in 2 Iranian provinces: the first one in Bushehr in 2001 and the second one in Golestan in 2007. The present study was conducted in January 2009 to evaluate the process and determine the effectiveness of the flour fortification pilot project in the 2 provinces.

Materials and Methods: To evaluate the effectiveness of the project, blood hemoglobin and ferritin levels were measured in a sample population of child-bearing women aged 15-49 years in Bushehr Province (n=600) and Golestan Province (n=625), selected by multi-stage sampling before and after the intervention. For process evaluation, the iron content in samples of flour and bread made from the flour were measured in a descriptive study.

Results: We found similar trends in the indicators of anemia/iron deficiency among the women in Bushehr and Golestan provinces. The flour fortification project appears to have had beneficial effects on the serum ferritin levels (low levels indicate iron deficiency) in both provinces. The prevalence of iron deficiency decreased from 22.2% to 15.7% (p<0.002) and from 26.7% to 14.6% (p<0.001), in Bushehr and Golestan, respectively. However, the prevalence of anemia was significantly higher after intervention in Golestan (p<0.001). Further analysis of the data also revealed that the intervention did not have any statistically significant effect on the prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia in either province. The coverages of fortified flour and bread were 90% and 98.7% in Bushehr and 94.1% and 95% in Golestan, respectively.

Conclusion: The flour fortification pilot project in Iran resulted in reducing prevalence of iron deficiency and improving body iron reserves in women, but it had no effect on anemia prevalence. It can be concluded that in circumstances where iron deficiency is not a major cause of anemia, interventions such as flour fortification with iron alone will not produce any significant effect.

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Background and Aim: This paper reports on the predictors of high school students' oral health behaviors (OHBs) based on the Pender's Health Promotion Model (HPM) in an attempt to identify effective factors that may be addressed through intervention efforts.

Materials and Methods: A multistage cluster sample of 403 high school students were recruited from 8 high schools in Marivan County, Iran. The study was conducted between April and July, 2010. Appropriate instruments were used to measure the relevant variables. The statistical analysis of the data included bivariate correlations, t-test, one-way ANOVA and linear regression.

Results: All HPM variables (perceived self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers, activity-related affects, interpersonal and situational influences and commitment to a plan of OHBs) were significantly related to OHBs among the respondents (p < 0.01), and a negative association was found between OHBs and perceived barriers (p < 0.01). All HPM variables were statistically significant predictors of OHBs and accounted for 42.2% of the variance.

Conclusion: Promotion of interpersonal influences and the students' perceived self-efficacy and also commitment to a plan of action should be priorities of any program aimed at promoting OHBs among students. School health care providers should suggest strategies to overcome the barriers of performing OHBs, rather than noting the benefits of these behaviors.

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  Background and Aim: The community assessment is the basis of strategic policies for health professionals and managers. The aim of community assessment is collection of the data that relating to public health problems, data analysis and concludes about necessary capacities for providing the necessary resources to resolve problems.

  Materials and Methods: In this study the databases of Scientific Information Database, MagIran, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and IranMedex were searched up to April 2014 (farvardin1393). All papers of community assessment in the country according to our standard community assessment model were included in this study.

  Results: Overall 11 studies were evaluated and the common feature of all research is to identify problems of society and local problems. The drug addiction was classified in 3 of the studies as a main problem and in 7 of studies was classified in the ten major problems. Poverty and unemployment are allocated to the next priority, the second priority in 2 studies, the third priority in 3 studies and the fourth priority in 3 studies. Environmental health problems and socio-cultural problems were the next priorities.

  Conclusion: The proposed model can be used to suggest new health services with due consideration of community problems, as well as develop suitable, effective intervention strategies. This type of community study should not be conducted only once. Rather, it should be repeated periodically in any community, results compared and used for policy-making.

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Background and Aim: Family female heads are one of the most vulnerable groups in the society and empowering them is essential. This research was a systematic study to design and develop a model of educational needs of female heads in the female-headed households.
Materials and Methods: This study was a qualitative applied research of a research synthetic type conducted using content-analysis and meta-analysis. The statistical population included all the relevant works published in Persian or English between 2012 and 2021 available in four reliable databases, namely, ERIC, Science Direct, PubMed and Google Scholar. Using the keywords "education of women-headed households, women's empowerment, women-headed households, and skills of women-headed households" and based on the inclusion criteria, initially 140 scientific articles were identified and finally, based on the exclusion criteria, 47 articles were selected for the final analysis. The Software MAXQDA 18 was used for the qualitative analysis of the articles.
Results: Analysis of the data obtained showed the educational needs of women-headed households as the main theme to consist of four subthemes including "knowledge and skills of desirable sexual orientation", "knowledge and skills of raising children", "knowledge and skills of occupation" and "individual and social development and empowerment”. Based on meta-analysis out of the four main themes 22 themes were extracted and a model was designed for educating female-headed households.  
Conclusion: Considering that the educational needs of female-headed households have been identified, it is recommended that educational courses be designed in accordance with their educational needs.