Journal of Behdasht dar Arseh (i.e., Health in the Field)

Background and Aims: Smartphones with many different applications help people organize their daily activities. As a result, the statistics indicate the increasing use of these phones. The aim of this study was to investigate the musculoskeletal and cognitive consequences of excessive use of smartphones among users in Tehran.

Materials and Methods: In this study, 541 smartphone users (60.2% female and 39.8% male) in Tehran with a mean age of 35.9 (±11.0) years participated. Four questionnaires including Smartphone Addiction Scale, Neck Disability Index, Cornell Hand Discomfort Questionnaire, and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, which were sent to participants online via WhatsApp or Telegram, were used. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation by SPSS25 software. Ethical considerations were considered throughout all stages of the study.

Results: The prevalence of smartphone addiction in the study population was 37.3% (35.2% in females and 42% in males). 20-30 years old participants had the greatest prevalence of smartphone addiction. There were positive and significant relationships between smartphone addiction and age, hands and neck musculoskeletal problems and cognitive failures in daily activities (P-value≤0.05).

Conclusion: The high prevalence of smartphone addiction besides its negative consequences necessitate proper planning to control the overuse of smartphones in Iranian users. Further studies are recommended to determine the mechanisms involved, especially in the relationship between smartphone addiction and age, cognitive impairment, performance, and human error.

Background and Aims: Organizational culture is a set of basic assumptions that the employees of an organization create when facing issues in order to adapt to the environment and achieve internal coherence. Responsibility and accountability of individuals is also one of the important indicators of mental health. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between organizational culture and employees’ responsibility.

Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021. In total, 191 employees of Golestan province health deputy, Gorgan city health center, comprehensive urban and rural health service centers participated in the study. Random stratified sampling method was used. Denison's organizational culture and Carroll's accountability questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS-23 software. Ethical considerations were also observed at all stages of the study.

Results: The overall score of organizational culture was below average. Only in the dimension of team orientation, the mean scores were higher than the average and in other dimensions it was below the average. The overall score of responsibility as well as altruism dimension was above average and in other dimensions less than average. In general, no statistically significant relationship was observed between the organizational culture and the employees' responsibility in the levels of providing health services in the health centers of Gorgan city.

Conclusion: The necessity of strengthening organizational culture in a scientific, practical and practical way is sensible. Managers of healthcare organizations should increase the responsibility of employees by providing incentives and welfare facilities.

Background and Aims: This study aimed to assess the risk of health, safety, and environmental (HSE) hazards based on the system's life cycle using Fuzzy Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FFMEA) in an aquaculture industry in Hormozgan province.

Materials and Methods Identification of HSE hazards by system life cycle stage, including (1) construction and preparation of pools, (2) construction of feed production and preparation plant, (3) pumping and filling the pools, (4) maintenance and breeding of aquatic animals and (5) catching and transporting the aquatic animals was carried out by five HSE experts using the FMEA worksheet. Then, the risk of identified hazards was assessed by the FFMEA method (with the range of risk priority number [RPN] of 1-634). All the ethical issues were considered in this study.

Results: In the life cycle of the aquaculture industry, a total of 343 HSE hazards were identified, of which 38.8% had high risk, 44.6% had medium risk, and 16.6% had low risk. About 86% of the HSE hazards were in the health and safety field and 14% of them were in the field of environment. The construction of feed production and preparation plant (having 46% of the HSE hazards) was determined to be the most hazardous phase of the life cycle of aquaculture.

Conclusion: The FFMEA risk assessment method based on the life cycle by taking into account the uncertainty in the risk components and identifying and prioritizing the HSE hazards in the entire life stages of a system can be used as an efficient and effective tool for assessing the risk of HSE hazards in different industries.

Background and Aims: Air pollution is generally mixture of complex and toxic compounds that particles (Particulate Matter: PM) are always a part of this mixture, that exposure to them leads to a wide range of health effects. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the health effects of reducing the level of PM2.5 in Tehran during ten years (2017-2025) to the WHO recommended level based on the Breath Life campaign، using the WHO AirQ+ model.

Materials and Methods: after collecting data on the population and concentration of particles in 2017 from the relevant centers and performing calculations to reduce the concentration to ten micrograms per cubic meter (recommended by WHO) with Excel software، the attributed deaths were estimated by AIRQ+ software.

Results: with a 30.8% decrease in the concentration of PM_2.5  during 10 years، death with all causes 25.22%، death due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 9.97%، death due to lung cancer 49.29%، death due to acute lower respiratory infection 34.36%، death due to ischemic heart disease 22.26% and death due to stroke brain decreased by 25.09%.

Conclusion: based on the results, reducing the concentration of PM_2.5 by achieving the goal of the Breathe Life Campaign (10 ) and using air quality reduction strategies, will lead to a significant reduction of premature deaths caused by PM_2.5 in Tehran.

Background and Aims: Periodic examinations are one of the requirements of occupational health care system and part of the second level of disease prevention which is recommended by the Occupational Safety and Health Organization. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of occupational diseases among workers in the industry and services sectors in Robat Karim.

Materials and Methods: This work is a cross-sectional study in which 3026 workers were asked for periodical examinations, referring to Occupational Medicine of Shahid Shaterian in Robat Karim. Data collection checklist, SPSS 22 software and descriptive statistical analyses including central indexes, distribution and frequency distribution, were used to describe and compare the studied variables. Ethical considerations were also observed at all stages of the study.

Results: The highest prevalence of underlying disease in the age group over 41 years old both in men and women were acquired type and diabetes, followed by cardiovascular diseases. The most common type of general disease in women was asthma, followed by hypothyroidism and cardiovascular diseases. In periodic examinations, 26% of workers showed to have hearing loss, less than 1% had contact dermatitis, and 3% had work-related back pain.

Conclusion: The high prevalence of hearing problems necessitates hearing screening, training and technical-engineering controls to prevent this disease. These measures play an effective role in the early identification of sensorineural hearing loss. Considering the prevalence of underlying diseases, the implementation of control programs and self-care programs for employees is a requirement.

Background and Aims: One of the most important ways of transmitting parasites to humans is consuming raw vegetables. Parasites may be transmitted to consumers through Unwashed vegetables. This study was conducted with the aim of determining the amount and type of parasites present in vegetables distributed in the supply centers of Isfahan city in 2021.

Materials and Methods: 8 regions from 12 regions in Isfahan and two shops from each region were selected. 2 samples of 100 gr of vegetables were taken from each store. Each sample entered a bucket containing 1 liter of water and 1.8 ml of Tween 80. The vegetables were removed from the bucket after 30 minutes and the water obtained from washing them was examined after 24 to 48 hours by flotation method with sucrose.  Ethical considerations were considered throughout all stages of the study.

Results: 10% of the samples had one type of parasitic infection, the highest frequency of isolated parasitic was related to Blastocystis hominis [12.5%] and lowest in [3.1%] related to Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichiura Trichuris, Isospora spp, stercorali Strongyloides, Cyclospora cayetanensis. The largest amount of pollution is seen in the more green and radishes has a parasitic infection.

Conclusion: Raw vegetables have at least one type of parasite. The type of parasites found in raw vegetables shows that human fertilizers and wastewater effluents are used in vegetable irrigation. Therefore, it is very necessary to teach vegetables to be healthy based on health recipes and avoid consuming raw vegetables before they are healthy, to minimize the transmission of parasites.

Background and Aims: Given the importance of self-efficacy in coping with Covid-19 in the long term and the ability of individuals to protect themselves against this disease, the present study aimed to design a self-efficacy scale in preventive behaviors against Covid-19.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 292 patients referring health centers in Arak during 2021-2022 through a random sampling method. Face validity was examined qualitatively and quantitatively, and the ratio and content validity index of the instrument was calculated with the qualitative judgment of a panel of 10 experts. Reliability was then examined and confirmed by determining internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient). Factor analysis was used to finalize the tool.

Results: Total 173 (59.2%) participant were male and the mean (SD) age was 37.6 (12.8) years old and the largest age group were 41-59 years old. Also, 163 people (48.3%) had a history of COVID-19. The mean of content validity index (CVI) was 0.94 and the  content validity ratio (CVR) was 0.89. The average calculated Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.89 and the  intragroup correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.86 

Validators in exploratory factor analysis of self-efficacy tool in 10 two-factor items that explained 66.8% of the variance of self-efficacy of COVID-19.

Conclusion: The results of this study provided appropriate evidence regarding a reliable and valid tool based on cultural validation for self-efficacy of prevention behaviors against COVID-19 in Iranian society.