Journal of School of Public Health and

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Background and Aim: Domestic violence against women is a serious public health problem and women adopt different solutions to fight against it. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence and views of women
on adopting ways to fight against it in Arak city, Iran, year 2008.

Methods and Materials: In a cross-sectional study in Arak city in 2008, a total of 1037 women were interviewed. The data collected were analysed statistically.

Results: Findings showed that the common types of abuse were emotional (64.6%), verbal (57.1%), financial (32.3%), and physical (26.8%). The women mentioned that the most efficient ways they chose to counteract the abuses were as follows: resuming talking after the settlement of quarrels (93%), keeping silent on the part of one of the partners (81%), and seeking advice from the older members of the family (81%). The considered going into a temporary sulk (51%) and reciprocation (46%) ineffective methods. Correlations were found between violence on the one hand and education, job, addiction of the spouse, income of the spouse, mental disorder of the partner, and number of children on the other hand (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Results of this study show that a large number of women are subjected to different types of violence. It seems that increasing awareness of married women and girls concerning effective counteractive methods can be an effective step in solving this social problem.

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  Objectives: The role of mammography in early detection of b reast cancer is evident and persuasion to do that is very important in health sector. Majority of the interventions are based on education and informing and there has been less attention to making mammography cost beneficent. This study aimed at assessing the effect of a social marketing-based intervention to persuade to do mammography in Bojnord.

  Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, two villages around Bojnurd with similar demographic characteristics, considered as intervention and comparison groups randomly. All 35- years and older women consist of 343 women (151 in intervention and 191 in comparison groups) were identified. To obtain the main idea for intervention, and exploring the viewpoints of target group about mammography, a formative research combined of a quantitative survey (through completing the questionnaire for assessing the women’s attitudes based on health belief model) and a qualitative study (through establishing four focus group discussions) was done. According to the gathered and analyzed data, an intervention focused on the main barriers designed and implemented through four weeks. One week after the intervention, the number of mammograms in two villages was determined and compared.

  Results: Quantitative survey showed that the mean of the scores related to expending time and high economical costs (perceived barriers) not remember to do mammography and fear of exposure to x- ray is less than other constructs. In qualitative study, time expending and high economical cost considered as two main factors related to not doing mammography. After the intervention, 48.1 percent of the women in intervention group went to do mammography and there are no change similar results in comparison group.

  Conclusions: Educational interventions are not enough to persuade women to do mammography and we have to consider their perceived barriers and concerns. One of the most effective approach to promote an idea, behavior or service, is identifying the viewpoints of target group and design them as consumer- oriented programs. So, acceptance of the idea and behavior will be cost-beneficent.

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Background and Aim: Currently there is no standardized and validated questionnaire for assessing the care of danger signs in children less than 5 years by the mothers based on behavioral patterns. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate psychometrically an instrument for assessment of the care of danger signs in children less than 5 years old by the mothers based on the Health Belief Model.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 350 mothers in the City of Arak, Iran. After reviewing the related literature, an instrument was designed and its content validity ratio (CVR), content validity index (CVI) and face validity were measured. To measure the reliability of the scales, the internal consistency method was used. Data analysis was done using the SPSS software.

Results: The scores of the CVI and CVR of the 81 items were found to be 0.79 and 0.62, respectively, the items being classified into seven categories. Based on the Cronbach's alpha, the overall reliability was 0.86. The reliability of the questionnaire for checklists of performance was 0.99, followed by those of perceived benefits (0.90), severity (0.83), perceived barriers (0.68), knowledge (0.66), perceived susceptibility (0.65), self-efficacy (0.63), and cues to action (0.56). Conclusion: The output of this psychometric process study is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring symptoms of risk behaviors in the care of vulnerable children based on the health belief model constructs, which can be used in health sciences research aiming at helping to protect the health of children.

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Background and Aim: In Iran the rate of Cesarean section is reported to be 48%, which is higher than the acceptable rate recommended by WHO (15%). This study was conducted to determine the effect of an intervention based on social marketing on the reduction of intention to choose Cesarean section by primigravidae in Boyer-Ahmad County, Iran in 2015.

Materials and Methods: In this field trial 39 primigravidae three to four months pregnant who had an intention to choose Cesarean section for delivery participated. A formative research (a quantitative survey and a qualitative study) was done to achieve the social marketing mix, and based on the results a tailored intervention was designed and pretested on the subjects. The final intervention was implemented for a period of one month and its effectiveness assessed after at least one month by a proportion test.

Results: The average age of the women was 25.82 years. The proportion of the women with a high school (or lower) and university education was 38.5% and 61.5%, respectively. One month after the intervention thirty of the pregnant women expressed willingness and intention to have a normal delivery, which was a statistically significant change (p=0.01).

Conclusion: An educational intervention based on the consumer-oriented social marketing theory can be effective in designing, implementing and evaluating a program aiming at reducing Cesarean section intention.

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Background and Aim: Paying attention to the hygiene and safety of food will have a great success for people around the world. In recent decades, due to mass production and food processing, the globalization of food trade, industrialization, etc., the prevalence of diseases associated with contaminated water and food is increasing. Therefore, the study of knowledge and attitude of people in this field have been a necessity and this research was conducted to investigate the knowledge and practice of people of Kermanshah city, Iran in relation to food hygiene and safety.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Data were collected through questionnaires. 252 inhabitants of Kermanshah were randomly allocated by cluster sampling. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 17 by Spearman and X² test.
Results: Most of Kermanshah people were lack of proper knowledge and practice about food poisoning. Of these, 54% of people mistakenly thought that fully cooked foods also have microbes. In addition, 68.3% of the subjects did not have a proper health function regarding the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, so that they only cleaned it before consumption. Finally, the mean score of knowledge and practice was 11.62 ± 2.27 and 17.69 ± 1.59, respectively.
Conclusion: Considering the significant correlation between the level of knowledge and practice of the people living in Kermanshah about food safety, the necessity of conducting appropriate educational programs to increase the awareness and subsequently improve the performance of the related organs can upgrade status.