Journal of School of Public Health and

Background and Aim: Exercise is one of the major factors influencing health. Modern media such as   the Internet can play an important role in shaping an individual’s attitude towards physical exercise and behavior. This study aimed to identify priority of factors influencing use of the Internet to expand physical exercise in a university environment.

Materials and Methods: A 23-item questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.98) was designed to test the effect of virtual environment on expanding physical exercise among the university staff, faculty and students (Likert scale; 1, fully disagree to 5, fully agree). A sample of 500 individuals were selected by cluster-sampling and completed the questionnaire.

Results: The data showed that, based on the Friedman test, priority factors were not similar among the different categories of university audiences (p<0/001). While among the students and the staff the communication network factor ranked first, with an average rank of 3.56 and 3.46, respectively, among the faculty members it was information that ranked first, with an average rank of 3.64. Further analysis of the data showed a statistically significant difference among the three groups of university audiences – students, faculty and staff – as regards the total score of cyberspace application in university sport (F= 9.776, p < 0.05). There was no difference between the two genders. (t=0.78, p<0.5).

Conclusion: The findings show that the Internet can be quite effective in expanding university sport. It can provide an appropriate tool or substrate for expanding physical exercise/sport due to its popularity among university audiences. Hence, it is essential that university sport managers and planners use this cyberspace substrate to expand university sport by adopting appropriate relevant strategies.

Background and Aim: Communication is one of the oldest and greatest human achievements underlying our social life. Available literature show factors such as self-esteem, interpersonal skills, establishing desirable communication, goal setting and determining individual values have effective roles in the prevention and reduction of susceptibility to behavioral abnormalities and mental disorders (anxiety, depression, etc.), as well as in the promotion of mental health. The objective of this study was to determine associations between communication skills and mental health in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS), Mashhad, Iran.

Methods and Materials: This was a cross-sectional analytical study conducted in 2011. The statistical population was all the MUMS students. A sample of 210 students was selected by stratified sampling and signed an informed consent. Data were collected using Communication Skills and General Health Questionnaires and analyzed using the SPSS 16 software, the statistical tests being Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U and Chi-square. In all tests the significance level was 5%. To determine correlations between the variables the Spearman coefficient was used.

Results: The findings showed that 130 of the 210 students (61.9%) were suspected of having a mental disorder. Based on the Spearman correlation coefficient there were no statistically significant relationships between mental health and age (p=0.727) or skills such as listening (p=0.653), understanding verbal and nonverbal messages (p=0.857), awareness of the communication process (p=0.626) and assertiveness (p=0.477). However, a significant correlation was observed between mental health and emotion control skill (p=0.010). Furthermore, the Spearman correlation coefficient indicated no relationships between communication skills and age (p=0.228) or social dysfunction (p=0.074), while significant inverse correlations were found between communication skills and anxiety (p=0.043), physical symptoms (p=0.049) and depression (p=0.049). According to Mann-Whitney test no significant relationships were observed between communication skills and field of study (p=0.806), level of education (p=0.406), sex (p=0.404), place of residence (p=0.277), marital status (p=0.875) or employment status (p=0.274), but significant relationships did exist between mental health and sex (p=0.006), field of study (p=0.036)r and marital status (p<0.001). Finally, no significant correlations were found between mental health and level of education (p=0.080), place of residence (p=0.951) or employment status (p=0.978).

Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, in an attempt to promote the mental health of the students it is recommended to make psychological assessments of the students, provide consultative services to them, and organize communication skills educational workshops for them.

Background and Aim: Following the deployment of the Health Transformation Plan (HTP) in most of the public hospitals, various changes occurred in the relationships between insurance organizations and hospitals. The purpose of this study was to find the obstacles and challenges facing the two types of organizations and suggest solutions.
Materials and Methods: This was an exploratory study. The research population was a total of 74 participants from Tehran public, private and military hospitals (managers, senior nursing officers, financial officers, and chiefs of accounting) and basic and complementary insuring organizations (insurance agents in hospitals, insurance officers from insuring organizations, and insurance managers). Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results: The most important challenges were as follows: acting on one’s own preferences,  deductions, delays in the payments of hospital expenditures, an insufficient number of insurance agents in some hospitals, insufficient accountability of hospital personnel in expenditure management, lack of sufficient interaction between the two organizations, and lack of contracts between complementary insurance companies and public hospitals and between private hospitals and basic insurance organizations.
Conclusion: Given the importance and sensitivity of the relations between the health service providers and receivers and considering further the complexity and challenges that appeared after HTP and hospital accreditations, a knowledge of the challenges identified in this research can help policy-makers and managers to find suitable, effective strategies for enhancing relations and communication between insurance companies and hospitals.