Journal of School of Public Health and

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Nowadays the Quality of Life (QOL) among different groups of people, especially in disabled people, is recognized as a very important topic. In order to assess quality of life in people with spinal cord injuries, 86 members of Tehran spinal cord injury(SCI) society were selected randomly. Data were gathered through a questionnaire that consisted of two parts. The first part contained questions about sex, age, plus the cause, type and duration of injury. The second part contained questions that measured quality of life in an objective manner. The test was adapted from Lancashire and Wisconsin tests and modified to suit the cultural background of Iranian people. Results showed that %73.3 of people with SCI perceived their QOL as good or fair. In assessing different areas of quality of life, the highest scores were given to social relations (3.67 out of 5). In the married group the mean score for satisfaction in family relations was 3.95 out of 5 score. Sub-scores for work/education, finances, physical health and psychological health status were lower than the other ones. Results of study indicated that there was a significant difference in the mean QOL score between the two sexes: the score for women was higher (mean score was 3.3 for women and 2.9 for men). But Quality of Life was not significantly related to age, cause of SCI, type of SCI, or duration of SCI.

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Background and Aim: Undercounting is a common problem in surveillance systems and registries. One of the procedures has been used for assessing sensitivity of a surveillance system or completeness of a registry is capture-recapture method.The objective of the present study was to estimate the number of deaths due to road traffic injuries applying capture-recapture method and using three data sources: police, legal medicine organization and hospital.

Material and Methods: All of the deaths due to traffic injuries occurred within Kerman district in the year 2000 were derived from police, Shahid Bahonar hospital and Kerman legal medicine data sources. Matching cases between the lists was based on three characteristics: first name, family name and date of accident. Loglinear model was used for statistical analysis.

Results: The total number of identified cases was 471 the best fitted loglinear model estimated the actual  number of deaths as 596 (CI 95%: 543-686). Based on Iranian Statistical Center estimates, the population of Kerman district in the year 2000 has been 644673 so the cause-specific mortality rate of traffic injuries is estimated as 92 (CI 95%: 84-107) per 100,000 population. Therefore the proportion of deaths registered in police, legal medicine and Shahid Bahonar hospital are 16%, 58% and 48% respectively. The coverage of total deaths (471) is about 79%.

Conclusion: The findings showed that none of the data sources had enough coverage of all deaths due to traffic injuries. Capture-recapture estimates can help for obtaining better estimates.

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Background and Aim: This study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of a safe community program, as an international community-based program, for injury prevention and safety promotion, in Kashmar

Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, the data on injured patients consulting hospital emergency wards in Kashmar and 44 other districts (as control) for a period of 3 years (March 20 2005 to March 19, 2008) were analyzed and compared.

Results: The number of injuries/100,000 population in Kashmar was 4654.6, 4570.9, and 4949.2 in March 2005-2006, 2006-2007, and 2007-2008, respectively. The corresponding figures (means) for the control districts were 822.7, 1130.0 and 1245.5. The injury- related fatality rate in the emergency ward for the 3 periods was 57.6, 52.9, and 44.2 per 100,000 in Kashmar and 12.2, 13, and 11.9 per 100,000 in the control districts. The injury rate showed an increase and the injury- related fatality rate showed a decrease in both Kashmar and the control districts over the 3 year period, but there was a statistically significant difference between the decreased injury-related fatality rate in Kashmar (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: The Kashmar International Safe Community Program resulted in no significant decrease in the rate of injuries in Kashmar. However, as compared to the control distrcts, it caused a decrease in the injury-related fatality rate over the 3-year period. Long-term studies are necessary to confirm these results.