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

Background and Aims: Neglecting nutritional needs of elderly people creates the basis for the occurrence of many diseases. Measuring nutritional knowledge, attitudes and behavior as a needs assessment is one of the first steps in intervention planning. The present study aimed to evaluate nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among the elderly people in Karaj, Iran.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional (descriptive–analytic) study was conducted on 393 elderlies attending in the health centers of Karaj, Iran. The sampling method was multi-stage and the tool used for data gathering was a questionnaire that has passed the validity and reliability stages, including the demographic information of people and questions related to nutritional knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of individuals. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using descriptive and inferential statistics. Ethical considerations were observed in all stages of the study.

Results: The elderlies showed average knowledge and had a good condition in terms of attitude and behavior. While the knowledge, attitude, and behavior (KAB) of participants were statistically associated with their education level and residence region (p < 0.001); however, age and gender were not significantly correlated with the subjects KAB (p > 0.05). Also, a significant correlation was denoted between the knowledge scores of the studied subjects and the family structure (p = 0.038).

Conclusion: Knowledge is not enough to make facilitate positive health changes. Educational interventions and emphasis on proper health habits should be persistent so that individuals’ attitudes and performance could visibly change and the subsequent positive impact on health would become tangible. Designing and implementation of educational programs are strongly recommended to improve and adjust the diet of the elderly.

Background and Aims: The purpose of this research is to design and build a comprehensive questionnaire covering all three indicators of environment, safety and health for pedestrians and vulnerable groups based on structural equation modeling (SEM).

Materials and Methods: Following the gathering of information to provide the basic foundations for the formulation of the necessary elements for the structures of this questionnaire, the 10th district of Shiraz was chosen as a statistical population given the existence of two neighborhoods with old and new textures. Totally, 383 pedestrians participated in the study with the approach of vulnerable groups living in this area. The formal, content, and structural validity of the questionnaire was assessed Data were analyzed through SPSS and LISREL software.  Ethical considerations were observed in all stages of the study.

Results: The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire (ICC coefficient) was 0.875 with Cronbach's alpha of more than 0.7, indicating its proper reliability. The power of the relationship between the quality of safety and health was 0.64, demonstrating the optimal correlation between the variables. The t -test was also 13.04 and showed the significant correlation. Therefore, the quality of safety has a positive effect on health.

Conclusion: The optimization of urban passages and spaces enables pedestrian, especially the vulnerable groups, to use their abilities and experiences in the best way for the development of the society. Also, they will be more active and thus less mental and physical problems and diseases will occur in these groups of people.

Background and Aims: Studies have shown that excessive use of social networks may cause mental disorders. This study was conducted to elucidate the relationship between the use of cell phone’s social networks and mental health.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2022, in which totally 250 staff members of Golestan University of Medical Sciences participated. Proportional random stratified sampling method was used. The data collection tool was a checklist of demographic variables. Additionally, valid and reliable questionnaires on the use of mobile cell phone’s social networks and mental health were exploited. The data was analyzed with the help of descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS software (v.24) and statistical tests were considered significant at P<0.05. Compliance with ethical considerations was considered in all stages of the study implementation.

Results: The average age of employees was 41.07±6.8 years and their average work experience was 15.04±6.93 years. About 56.8% of participants were women and the rest were men. WhatsApp was the most commonly used social network by study participants (44.8 percent). The average score of using mobile social network and mental health was 21.81±5.74 and 35.17±6.20 respectively. The use of social networks revealed a statistically significant association with the total score of mental health (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: The amount of social networks use was reported at a low level and the mental health of employees needs serious interventions. Considering the existence of a relationship between the engagement in social networks and mental health, the controlled use of social networks can prevent employees' mental health from being compromised.

Background and Aims: Fertility is a social behavior formed in the cultural context of society. Considering the recent decline in the population growth rate due to the decreased fertility and the need to make clear decisions in the field of having children, it is highly important to know the views of young people towards having children. The present study was conducted in order to examine the views of students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences regarding childbearing in 2022.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 306 unmarried students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences using cluster sampling method. The data was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire, whose validity and reliability were calculated. Data analysis was done using SPSS (v. 24) software. Compliance with ethical considerations was considered in all stages of the study implementation.

Results: In this study, 213 women and 93 men participated. In the knowledge section of the maximum 26 points, the average score was 15.57. The grades of almost more than two-fifths (47%) of the samples were lower than the average grade obtained and no significant difference was observed between the knowledge scores of the studied faculties. In the attitude section, out of a maximum of 235 points, the average score received was 140.78. Almost half of the samples obtained an attitude score lower than the average. Indeed, there observed a significant difference between the attitude scores of the three faculties.

Conclusion: Considering the unfavorability of the knowledge and attitude scores in this study, it is necessary to carry out educational programs to increase the awareness and improve the attitude of young people in the field of childbearing.

Background and Aims: This study was aimed to investigate the principles and foundations of passive defense, study the types of drinking water storage tanks, identify threats in urban water tanks and prioritize passive defense measures to reduce water tank threats.

Materials and Methods: In this study, in order to identify threats in the field of drinking water storage tanks and identify hazards and risk assessment, a combination of Delphi and FEMA methods was used. Moreover, AHP hierarchical analysis was adopted in order to prioritize the types of tanks from the passive defense criteria point of view. Ethical considerations were observed in all stages of the study.

Results: According to experts, important threats with a high destructive effect in the field of water storage resources included "chemical and biological contaminants" that can endanger the health of water and consumers. Indeed, “air and missile bombings”, "fixed suicide bombings" and "individuals and vehicles" can cause the destruction of reservoir structures and disrupt water supply operations. Moreover, threats related to psychological warfare and soft warfare, including "rumors of water pollution", "psychological operations and personnel evacuation", "process sabotage" and "cyber-attacks" could result in chaos in the society. Accordingly, based on the aggregation of experts' opinions and the points given to water reservoirs in terms of exposure to threats, buried ground reservoir with a score of 0.386, semi-buried ground reservoir with a score of 0.246, elevated reservoir with a score of 0.225 and ground reservoir with a score of 0.143 were respectively prioritized for use as urban water storage tanks.

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it is suggested to avoid the implementation of visible water reservoirs, and if possible, the reservoirs should be designed and implemented as buried. If it is not economically justified, the reservoir should be semi-buried with embankment and necessary modifications to the structure. Implement and finally use passive defense measures including camouflage, deception, etc. Evaluation of reservoirs in Sari city showed that the condition of these facilities is not favorable in terms of passive defense requirements, especially in rural areas and small reservoirs.

Background and Aims: Through the recycling of separated waste, energy and cost are saved and less pollution is introduced into the environment. Therefore, appropriate solutions should be provided and implemented regarding the separation of waste from the source. In this study, an attempt was made to identify the factors affecting people's intention in waste separation using the theory of planned behavior.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical research was conducted on 458 households in District 10 of Tehran. Sampling was done with a two-stage cluster method. The data was collected using a questionnaire designed in this study, and its validity and reliability were assessed. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analytical statistics with Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression tests using SPSS (v. 16) software. Ethical considerations were considered throughout all stages of the study.

Results: Subjective norms, attitude and perceived behavioral control, respectively, showed the greatest effect on participants’ intention in such a way that, on average, for each unit increase of these variables, intention increased by 0.39, 0.31 and 0.14 respectively (R=0.678 and R2 =0.46).

Conclusion: It is suggested to use the capacity of local trustees, schools and popular networks to improve the level of subjective norms. By providing waste separation facilities such as special bins and creating financial incentives, perceived behavioral control can also be increased.

Background and Aims: Increasing and uncontrolled growth of aquatic weeds including Myriopyhllum Spicatum has caused numerous environmental problems, such as disrupting the natural balance of the ecosystem and serious damage to plant and animal species in aquatic environments. Reaching an efficient, cost-effective and environmentally safe management method to control this growth is of particular importance. Therefore, in this study, management methods of Myriopyhllum Spicatum in water resources have been reviewed.

Materials and Methods: Using keywords “Management methods and water milfoil pollution and water sources pollution, aquatic plant or aquatic weed, water milfoil or Myriopyhllum Spicatum”, we searched in databases such as Google scholar, Science direct, Scopus and PubMed in a time period between 2000 to 2023. Finally, 30 articles were selected as the most relevant articles.

Results: Control and management methods of aquatic weeds are different and include preventive actions, biological, mechanical, chemical, ecological control, and management through usage. Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages, so their opting depends on the type of aquatic weed.

Conclusion: The efficiency of each method depends on pollution level, specific conditions of each ecosystem, limitations of control method in terms of the negative effects of plant and animal species, national and regional laws and regulations, economic considerations and the type of water resource usage. In addition, utilizing a combination of methods in a sequence outperforms the use of solely just one method in removing and controlling aquatic weeds.