Journal of Health in the Field

Background: Iran, located in Eastern Mediterranean region, is one of the noteworthy centers for the prevalence of Beta-Thalassemia genetic disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between Beta-globin gene mutations and blood factors in the carriers of Beta-Thalassemia. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was to investigate the relationship between beta-globin gene mutations and the average volume of red blood cells in Beta-Thalassemia carriers referred to the health network. The study was conducted in Pakdasht and Varamin from 1997 to 2013. Ethical issues such as confidentiality of studied community were all considered. Results: In the present study, the relationship between some blood parameters of red blood cells, such as the mean volume of red blood cells (MCV), and the type of mutation in the beta-globin was analyzed. MCV was statistically related to the type of mutation (p=0.05). The mean and standard deviation values of MCV were 62.1 and 3.9, respectively.
Conclusion: The amount of MCV can be used as a guide for quick access to genetic mutations in Beta-Thalassemia carrier couples referred to Genetic centers before and during the pregnancy. Keywords: Thalassemia, Genetic disease, Mutation, Blood factors, Iran Iran, located in Eastern Mediterranean region, is one of the noteworthy centers for the prevalence of Beta-Thalassemia genetic disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between Beta-globin gene mutations and blood factors in the carriers of Beta-Thalassemia.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was to investigate the relationship between beta-globin gene mutations and the average volume of red blood cells in Beta-Thalassemia carriers referred to the health network. The study was conducted in Pakdasht and Varamin from 1997 to 2013. Ethical issues such as confidentiality of studied community were all considered.
Results: In the present study, the relationship between some blood parameters of red blood cells, such as the mean volume of red blood cells (MCV), and the type of mutation in the beta-globin was analyzed. MCV was statistically related to the type of mutation (p=0.05). The mean and standard deviation values of MCV were 62.1 and 3.9, respectively.
Conclusion: The amount of MCV can be used as a guide for quick access to genetic mutations in Beta-Thalassemia carrier couples referred to Genetic centers before and during the pregnancy.
Keywords: Thalassemia, Genetic disease, Mutation, Blood factors, Iran

Background and objectives: Public participation in is vital in optimal management of municipal solid waste. Thepublic awareness, education and empowerment are the pre-requisites for the use of this potential. In this study, public awareness, education and participation in solid waste management were studied among a community sample
in Tehran-2012. Materials and methods: The overall situation of solid waste management in Tehran was firstly assessed. Study participants were, thereafter, sampled from households from the 22 urban districts in the city of Tehran. A questionnaire was prepared and applied to 500 householders to estimate the public awareness, education and participation in solid waste management.
Results: The results of this study showed that only about one-third of people had appropriate awareness in the field of solid waste management. The overall status of public education in solid waste management was also insufficient, so that 86% of people were trained at level of poor or very poor. Public participation in solid waste management was variable in different fields. Public participation in simple activities such as avoiding waste spillage and splurge in public places and scheduled transfer of collected waste to public containers was relatively good; and in waste reduction and separation of recyclable components was moderate. Furthermore, separation of hazardous waste and household composting were not done due to lack of required facilities and training.
Conclusion: The present study revealed that public education and required facilities should be supplied and expanded in order to increase public participation in solid waste management. Repetition and continuity of education programs, face to face training, and greater use of television and Internet media are emphasized.
Keywords: Public education, Public participation, Municipal solid waste, Tehran City

Background and Aims: Air pollution is a serious threat to public health and environment. Factors contributing to air pollution have to be identified in order to reduce the corresponding effects. Meteorological data are among the noteworthy factors in determining the severity of air pollution. This study was conducted to investigate the trend of five criteria pollutants in air quality index and to find their correlation with meteorological data in Tehran metropolis during 2001- 2009.
Materials and Methods: During this descriptive-analytical study, the required data were obtained from Air Quality Department of Tehran’s Municipality, the Environmental Protection Agency and also from the synoptic stations of Meteorological Organization. SPSS software was used for data analysis. The trends in concentration of studied pollutants including: CO, PM10, SO2, NO2 and O3, as well as meteorological data and their correlation were indeed considered.
Results: The current study found that during the studied period, the concentration of O3 shows an increasing trend. Therefore, this pollutant could be a major factor, if not the only one, raising the index of air pollution in recent years. Another important result of this study can be cited to decrease in concentrations of CO, NO2, and SO2 during the years of present study.
Conclusion: Our findings revealed that although the air quality in Tehran has improved in term of particulate matter, SO2 and NO2 during the period of study, however the concentration of ozone has increased beyond the standard. It was also possible to draw a meaningful conclusion relating to the impact of some meteorological parameters in airpollution.
Keywords: Air pollution, Criteria pollutants, Meteorological data, Tehran metropolis

Background and Aims: Promoting normal vaginal delivery and, consequently, reduction in cesarean section rate is one of the health sector evolution goals. This study was aimed to determine health sector evolution plan’s achievement in vaginal delivery promotion in a large public hospital in Tehran.
Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015. Data were assembled from the hospital information system and the number of cesarean and vaginal deliveries in 2013 and 2014 for all obstetricians of the study hospital was separately entered in Excel (version 2013). Data regarding patient satisfaction and vaginal delivery
bills was extracted from the patient records and hospital documents.
Results: Among totally 5 obstetricians of the hospital, four doctors have reduced their cesarean rate between 3 to 7 percent compared the baseline year. However, all of the obstetricians failed in their attempt to achieve the 10 percent reduction in cesarean rate as the objective of vaginal delivery promotion plan at the end of study period compared to the baseline year. The hospital had totally only 2 percent reduction in the cesarean rate. Furthermore, patients, satisfaction was increased about 1.9 percent compared to the baseline and all bills of vaginal delivery was free of charge.
Conclusion: It seems that factors such as being as a teaching hospital and referring complicated deliveries to this referral hospital, have led to the unsuccessfulness of this hospital in achieving the objectives of vaginal delivery promotion plan as 10 percent reduction in the rate of cesarean section.
Keywords: Vaginal delivery, Cesarean section, Health Sector Evolution, Performance evaluation

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders are among the most important and common occupational injuries leading to disability of employees. An increasing trend of musculoskeletal disorders among sonographer specialists has been reported in the literature. This study, therefore, set out with the aim of assessing the musculoskeletal disorders among sonographer specialists working in centers covered by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study all sonographer specialists of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (totally 53 specialists) were selected on census method. Customized questionnaires based on Standardized Nordic Questionnaire were used to assess musculoskeletal disorders in this community. SPSS software was exploited to data analysis. All participants were informed in terms of the study objectives and ethical issues such as confidentiality of study community were all considered.
Results: The prevalence of WMSDs in current study was 86%. Pain and discomfort was more often reported in neck, shoulder and wrist, respectively. Sustained probe usage, types of patient table and chair as well as sustained shoulder abduction were the most risk factors that perceived by ultrasound specialists. Ergonomic evaluations showed that changes should be made soon. Age, experience, scanning hours per week and break duration provided the largest set of significant clusters of pain in body sections (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Since scanning is considered as the major task of sonographers, the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was high among participants in the present study. Ergonomics evaluations and interventions of sonographer’s workplace to allow them to remain productive are necessary.
Keywords: Musculoskeletal disorders, Ergonomics, Work-related risk factors, Ultrasound specialists

Background and Aims: In the last two centuries, world metal pollution level has increased extremely. Presence of some heavy metals in aquatic ecosystems is a constant threat to the health of human societies. Bioremediation- using biological agents to detoxify and degradation of environmental pollutants- provides a suitable alternative method for substitution of current heavy metals removal strategies.
Materials and Methods: In the present review study, about 30 papers, among approximately 300 papers, were selected from databases such as SID, sciencedirect, pubmed and scopus. The papers were analyzed to obtain the latest findings in the bioremediation of heavy metals from aquatic environments. Key words such as heavy metals, bioremediation, galvanic industry wastewater, bioleaching, biotransformation, and bioaccumulation were used to databases search.
Results: In order to get decontamination efficiently, it should be determined the performance of process according to the different range of metal ions concentrations. Moreover, microorganisms should be selected as they have shown the best performance in metals and their compounds bioremediation studies. For full-scale applications, bioabsorption compared with other various microbial methods such as bioaccumulation is more practical. This may be explained by the fact that the addition of nutrients is essential in bio-accumulative adsorption of metals.
Conclusion: This combination of findings provides some support for the conceptual premise that use of bioremediation in order to decontamination of wastewaters containing heavy metals is advantaged by resolving the
limitations of physiochemical methods and also in terms of economical issues. However, further studies are needed to overcome the current limitations of this technology, especially to use in practical scales.
Keywords: Heavy metals, Microorganisms, aquatic environments, Bioremediation, Sulfur metabolism