Journal of School of Public Health and

Background and Aim: Pressure ulcer is a common problem and a large drain on hospital resources, especially in wards such as ICU where patients stay for a long time. The aim of this study was to explore the likely factors contributing to pressure ulcers in the ICU units of Tehran University of Medical Sciences teaching hospitals, Tehran, Iran.

Materials and Methods: This project was conducted in all the seven ICUs of four teaching hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. In the first phase the researcher performed a direct observation of all the 90 patients who were admitted to the ICU units to check the presence of any pressure ulcer. In the second phase, 310 patients discharged from the same ICU units between March 2007 and February 2008 was randomly selected and their medical records reviewed. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data.

Results: Pressure ulcer occurred more frequently in the elderly women patients who were less active and had less mobility, hospitalized for a long time, or those with fever, diabetes, high blood pressure, paralysis, or respiratory diseases. In addition, pressure ulcer was seen more frequently in the patients hospitalized in the general ICUs, as well as in those with infections and different types of tumors.

Conclusion: Using a standard risk assessment tool and paying attention to the main risk factors of pressure ulcer can be a useful method for identifying the high-risk patients before admission in order to prevent them from developing such ulcers.

  Background and Aim: High fruit and vegetable intake has been introduced as one of the key factors of healthy diet to prevent chronic disease. This study attempts to explore the fruit and vegetable intake in Arak city and its relationship with demography and socio-economic factors.

  Materials and Methods : In this cross sectional study, 660 people in 18 -70 age range were selected with a two-stage cluster sampling and were interviewed for demography and socio – economic questionnaires and a 56- items semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire to assess fruit and vegetable intake. After univariate analysis, the association of the significant variables with fruit and vegetable intake was also evaluated with multiple linear regression.

  Results: In this study, over 60 percent of subjects consumed less than the minimum recommended amount of fruit and vegetable (5 servings or 400 gr a day).The total consumption of fruit and vegetable indicated an inverse significant relationship with age (p =0.04 and β = - 0.02), and a direct significant relationship with economic status (p <0.001and β =0.10). The father's educational level (p =0.005 and β =0.38 for diploma level and p =0.03 and β =0.36 for academic education) and physical activity level (p =0.001 and β =0.03 per hour) were factors associated with fruit consumption. The gender was only associated with vegetable consumption so that women had higher consumption in this study (p =0.03 and β=0.23).

  Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate low fruit and vegetable consumption in the population under study. In this study, age, physical activity, and socioeconomic status and fathers’ education were the factors that were significantly associated with fruit and vegetable consumption.