Journal of Health in the Field

Background: Road traffic is considered as one of the main sources of noise pollution causing annoyance.
In this study the relationship between noise pollution and demographic factors of residents living near Basij highway, north to south of Tehran’s district 15 was studied.
Materials and Methods: The noise measurement was conducted along 2 kilometers that was divided into 10 stations, each with a length of 200 meters. The measurement of equivalent level of noise took 5 minutes in each station. A questionnaire was developed to investigate the relationship between noise and
annoyance. The Cochran formula yielded a sample size of 170 people, and their demographic factors were examined. All stages of study was conducted ethically.
Results: The noise annoyed women more than men, and 48.91% of women reported high annoyance.The minimum (75.9 dBA) and maximum (87.60 dBA) levels of noise were measured at the first and fifth stations, respectively. The relationships between noise annoyance and LeqA, sex, sleep disturbances,
headache, disturbance of the leisure time, and impaired concentration were statistically significant (P<0.05). Average equivalent level of sound in all stations were higher than the standard level.
Conclusion: In this study it was found that traffic noise leads to dysfunction of the studied area residents.Indeed, women found the constant noise of the traffic an annoyance. Taking corrective measures to ensure
physical and psychological health were thence recommended.
Keywords: Noise annoyance, Highway, Traffic, Pollution

Background and Aims: One of the most important issues in the health sector is quality of care. Error reporting is essential to prevent errors and to learn from them. The aim of this study was to identify barriers to errors reporting in order to eliminate these barriers and to improve and encourage error reporting among
clinical staff members.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 419 clinical staff members of teaching hospitals under the auspices of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were selected using the multistage sampling method. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-developed questionnaire containing
29 items and its validity and reliability were confirmed. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software and statistical tests. Ethical issues such as confidentiality of studied community were all considered.
Results: The overall mean of barriers to errors reporting in our study was 3.13 of 5 which was at moderate level. Fear of error reporting consequences with mean score of 3.37 and staff attitudes with mean score of 2.70 were identified as the most important and less important barriers to error reporting. There was
significant relationship between barriers to error reporting with staffs, educational level and their working shift (p < 0.05) so that barriers to error reporting was higher among physicians (3.39) and night shift (3.22) workers.
Conclusion: The main barrier to error reporting was identified as the fear of error reporting consequences. Managers should have a nonpunitive approach to errors in the hospital so staff would report their errors voluntarily. By increasing the available data through error reporting, learning from errors is increased, and changes in hospital processes occurs.
Keywords: Medical error, Error reporting, patient safety, Hospital

Background and Aims: Natural childbirth is the best birth method. Several factors cause conflicts over birth method decision-making in mothers. The aim of this study was to determine these conflicts in primiparous mothers among women referred to health centers in Babol.
Materials and Methods: A descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study with cluster sampling was conducted on 161 primiparous mothers referred to selected Babol health centers. The “Low literacy Decisional conflict scale” was used after validity and reliability verification. The data were analyzed using SPSS V.16. The ANOVA, and Pearson,s correlation coefficient were run to analyze data. All stages of this research were conducted ethically. The consent forms were indeed completed.
Results: The mean age of pregnant women was 24.9± 5.3 and 27.3% (n= 44) tended to have caesarean. The mean scores of four-subscale decision-making for choosing the birth method; informed, personal values
clarity, decision support and uncertainty were 47.2, 49.7, 36.2, and 41.2 of 100, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient revealed that the four-subscale decision-making were directly correlated to each other (P < 0.0001). There was no significant correlation between mean score of conflict decision-making with women's decision-making on the childbirth method.
Conclusion: Findings show that almost half of the mothers had a conflict of decision-making on choosing an appropriate birth method. Although there was no statistically significant relationship between the choice of birth method and their conflict of decision-making, but this decision should be without any conflict in
decision making. In order to improve women’s decision-making skills, some interventions are needed.
Keywords: Delivery type, Primiparous, Conflict Decision-Making

Background and Aim: Textile industry is one of the largest consumers of water in the world. The wastewater from the textile industry is known to have strong colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD), highly fluctuating pH and high temperature. The release of coloured wastewater represents a serious environmental and public health concern. Among the various physicochemical and biological methods of textile wastewater treatment, coagulationflocculation is considered as an attractive and favourable technique because of its low cost, easy operation and high
efficiency.
Materials and methods: The study was conducted in the laboratory scale using Jar test. Dye removal from real wastewater was investigated by the use of three mineral coagulants including poly aluminum chloride, ferric sulfate and ferric chloride. In order to optimize the process, parameters including pH, coagulant dose, time and speed of coagulation were considered. Treated samples were analysed to determine the residual color and COD.
Results: According to the results of our experiments, under optimum conditions of process (pH 9, doses of 250 mg/lcoagulant and coagulation speed of 175 rpm with a duration of 5 minutes), the highest removal efficiencies (COD 44.4% and color 95%) were obtained by the use of poly aluminum chloride. The results showed that poly aluminum chloride enhanced the biodegradability of wastewater from 0.07 to 0.21 at optimized process conditions.
Conclusion: Although the coagulation process reduced a large percentage of pollution load in the wastewater, another process has to be followed to meet the wastewater discharge standards in receiving sources.
Keywords: Textile wastewater, Dye, Coagulation, Biodegradability

Background and Aim: Male menopause is a natural age-dependent decline in testosterone levels in men. Despite the importance of this issue for the health of the elderly, there is a lack of related information. So this study aimed to assess and compare the awareness and attitude of male and female general practitioners
about andropause.
Materials and methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 204 general physicians in Shiraz-2016. Cluster method was used for sampling. A researcher-made questionnaire was developed for assessing the demographic characteristics and levels of awareness and attitude of general physicians about
andropause. All stages of research were conducted ethically. SPSS 18 was used to analyze the data, and descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and Pearson’s correlation were applied for data analysis. P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the male and female general physicians, awareness about andropause (p = 0.185). Also there was a statistically significant difference between the attitude of males and females towards andropause (p < 0.001). The correlation between the mean score of awareness and attitude towards andropause was statistically significant (p= 0.018, r = 0.166).
Conclusion: The implementation of training courses for spreading information and knowledge as well as positive attitudes towards andropause for general practitioners are highly advocated.
Keywords: Andropause, Awareness, Optimism, General practitioner

Background and Aim: Understanding the relationship of some personality traits such as resilience with academic and career success could be helpful. Therefore, this research aims to investigate such a relationship in dentistry students, one of the most stressful professions of medical sciences.
Materials and Methods: A total of 185 dental students from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences participated in this cross-sectional non-experimental correlation study through convenience sampling. The Conner-Davidson  questionnaire was filled out to assess the resilience of students and the
average score of the final test of basic science was considered as the criterion for measuring the academic success. Data analysis was carried out through logistic regression and chi-square test. All stages of this research were conducted ethically. The subject of study was explained to students, and they were included
in the study after accepting and obtaining oral satisfaction.
Results: The relationship between resilience score with basic science score as a criterion for academic success showed a positive and direct correlation. The median of the resilience score was 62.27. The minimum and maximum resilience scores were 21 and 91, respectively. About 82.7% got a basic science score of > 120 (successful) and 12% got a basic science score of < 120 (not successful).
Conclusion: The results of this study can be very useful for educational planners, especially in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The current curriculum of dentistry primarily focuses on profession competencies as a decisive factor in academic success, while some personality traits are directly related to academic success. Therefore, there is no doubt about the necessity of changing and refining educational programs towards the development of personality dimensions affecting the nature and professional conduct.
Keywords: Resilience, Academic success, Dental students