Journal of Health in the Field

Background and Aim: Congestive heart failure is one of the most common cardiovascular disorders and is considered as a chronic, progressive and debilitating disorder. Heart failure is a high prevalence disorder in both developed and developing countries. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of
education based on self-efficacy theory on improving self-care behaviors in heart failure patients.
Materials and methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 80 patients suffering from heart failure. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups. Data were collected using a questionnaire including personal information questions, self-efficacy questionnaire for cardiovascular patients and European self-care behaviors questionnaire in three stages. The obtained results were analyzed by Spss16 software.
Results: The mean age of the patients in the experimental group was 55 ± 8.48 and in the control group 51.6 ± 8.51, respectively. Before intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of self-care behaviors. Following intervention, however, there was a statistically significant difference in self-care behaviors (p = 0.000). There was strong correlation between self-efficacy and disease management, so that with increased self-efficacy, disease management was better.
Conclusion: Given that self-care behaviors are important in patients with heart failure, interventive efforts are important and necessary to improve these behaviors in corresponding patients and thus for controlling the disease and preventing its complications as well as for admission and ultimately for early mortality.

Abstract:
Background: Health literacy (HL) is related with the adoption of preventive behaviors. Considering the increase smoking among students, this study aimed to determine the effective dimensions of HL in predicting the adoption of smoking preventive behaviors in students.
Materials and methods: In the present cross-sectional and descriptive study, 280 dormitory students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were selected through single-stage cluster sampling method.A questionnaire of HL measurement (HL for Iranian Adults) and also a valid and reliable researcher-made
questionnaire were exploited for measuring the adoption of smoking preventive behaviors. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16) and descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple logistic regression analysis. All stages of the study were conducted ethically.
Results: The mean (± standard deviation) score for adoption of smoking preventive behaviors were 39.36±19.16 out of 100. Understanding and access to health information dimensions received the highest scores, while decision making and application of health information as well as reading obtained the lowest
scores. Multiple regression analysis reflected that the dimensions of understanding (β=0.216, P=0.017) and decision making and the application of health information (β=0.324, P=0.001) were predictors of adoption of smoking preventive behaviors. Overall, these variables could predict 23.1% of behavioral changes.
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, in designing educational interventions for the prevention of smoking, special attention should be paid to HL, especially the dimensions of reading, understanding and decision making as well as application of health information in the audience.

Background: Petrochemical wastewater from isocyanate units contains aromatic and hazardous compounds such as Diaminotoluenes, Mononitrotoluene, Dinitro-toluene, Nitro-phenol, Nitro-cresol. Persulfate and ferrous sulfate can produce sulfate radicals with strong standard oxidation potential. Clinoptilolite, a natural adsorbent; plus sulfate radicals can result in catalytic oxidation of these chemicals. The objective of this study is to evaluate the catalytic oxidation efficiency Fe2+/Persulfate/ Clinoptilolite and cost effectiveness of this process for treatment of petrochemical wastewater containing aromatics.
Materials and methods: The effect of study variables including persulfate and ferrous sulfate concentrations, zeolite dosages, pH and oxidation time were investigated. The type and amount of aromatic compounds as well as COD and TSS removal efficiencies were determined. All procedures in study were conducted ethically
Results: The COD and TSS removal efficiencies using catalytic oxidative treatment processes by Fe,Persulfate, Clinoptilolite were 96% and 95%, respectively. The corresponding COD and TSS removal efficiencies using Fe and Persulfate, without zeolite were 85% and 80%, respectively.
Conclusion: The catalytic processes utilizing Fe2+/Persulfate/ Clinoptilolite demonstrates an excellent COD and TSS removal efficiency. Due to its natural nature, low cost compared to chemical oxidants, as well as improvements in the efficiency of advanced oxidation processes, Zeolite can be considered as an
efficient and cost-effective alternative to upgrade the catalytic oxidative treatment.

Background: Organizational culture affects hospital performance. This study aimed to assess organizational culture of selected teaching hospitals of Tehran in 2014.
Material and methods: This descriptive and cross sectional study was carried out in 7 teaching hospitals. Hospitals were selected out of 43 teaching hospitals using quota- randomized sampling method. A questionnaire with 32 questions was used to measure organizational culture of hospitals in 8 domains including attention to details, customer-oriented, team working, creativity and innovation, risk taking,
integration (Coherence), power distance and short/long- oriented. About 308 employees working in clinical, diagnostic, administrative, and logistic departments participated in this study. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 20) through U Man- Whitney and Kruskal- Wallis statistical tests. Ethical issues
such as informed consent, confidentiality of information and researchers’ objectivity were all considered.
Results: The mean score of organizational culture was 3.57 out of 6 (moderate). The most and least scores were observed in attention to details (4.48) and risk taking (3.18) dimensions of organizational culture, respectively. The highest score of organizational culture was related to administrative units. Curative wards
in hospitals got the lowest scores. There was a significant relationship between organizational culture and the type of hospital (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate a moderate organizational culture in selected hospitals.Given the importance of corporate culture in the success of the hospitals and improving patient outcomes, hospital managers should take appropriate actions to improve organizational culture, especially in terms
of team-working, innovation, risk-taking and coherence.

Background and Aims: It is essential to recognize the current situation and training needs for staff in the field of traffic accident prevention in order to organize suitable training programs. This study was conducted to assess the educational needs of pre-hospital and hospital personnel with respect to traffic accidents in 2015.
Materials and methods: This combined study was conducted in three phases-collection of qualitative data, design and validation of the needs assessment questionnaire, and a cross-sectional study. In the first stage, the assessment questionnaire was prepared using semi-structured interviews. The content validity
of the questionnaire was then conducted by an expert panel. Finally, educational needs of the target group were assessed in a cross-sectional study using the questionnaire. All stages of this research were conducted ethically.
Results: Results showed that the most important educational needs of pre-hospital centers were CPR training, opening up airways, checking the status of victim awareness, and ABC training courses. The three priorities of hospital emergency centers included ways to deal with special cases (such as amputation), advanced burn life support, and advanced trauma life support (ATLS) with the same degree of importance and self-care as in a road accident course.
Conclusion: The identified priorities point out that it is necessary to formulate and implement educational programs to enhance the skills of pre-hospital and hospital staff.

Background and Aims: Health education is one of the important tasks of health care centers employees. The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of health educators towards clients’ education and their educational effectiveness in health care centers of Ghaemshahr.
Materials and Method: Totally 190 employees of health care centers in Ghaemshahr city involved in health education were included in this study. The research was conducted in 2016. Data collection instruments entails two questionnaires including efficacy education questionnaire and a questionnaire on attitude towards education. Collected data were analyzed by descriptive indexes, correlation tests and
multivariate linear regression. Ethical issues were also considered in all stages of study.
Results: Studied subjects had 38 ± 7.64 years of old. 78.4% of the subjects were female and the remaining 21.6% were male. Respectively, 45.3%, 42.1% and 12.6% of the subjects described their educational effectiveness as good, moderate and poor. About 97.9% of the health educator's had a positive attitude
towards education. Also, there was a significant positive correlation between the effectiveness of education and attitudes towards education (p<0.001).
Conclusion: In this study, there was a statistically significant relationship between attitude toward education and educational effectiveness. The observed relationship between these two variables can be exploited to improve the level of effective teaching by health educators.