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Background: Accidents and injuries one of the main causes of death and disability in the world and the most significant causes in children referred to hospital. So, this study aimed to assess the health belief model constructs and function of the mothers referred to health centers in the city of Khorramabad in the preventive behaviors of accidents and injuries in children.

Materials and Methods: This cross sectional and analytical study was done on 261 mothers with children aged less than 5 years are referred to health centers in the city of Khorramabad in 2014. Data was collected with a questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model. The data collected were analyzed by software SPSS-20.

Results: In this study the mean and standard deviation of age of mothers was 28.98±5.37 years and the mean score of function and self-efficacy were 59.1±14.74 and 69.1±11.07 respectively. Moreover, the mean scores of the other health belief model constructs such as perceived sensitivity, severity, benefits and barriers was higher than average. There was significant negative correlation between self-efficacy and perceived barriers (r=-0.256, p<0.01), and also between the perceived barriers and function (r=-0.391, p<0.01).

Conclusion: According to the score of the function of mothers and the other constructs of health belief model, training programs based on the model directly and indirectly in the form of multimedia training package recommended to promote preventive behaviors of accidents occur in children.

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  Background: M others must gain enough knowledge and practice about danger signs in children to achieve behavior change. Knowing such factors influencing behavior change will facilitate change. So, training about danger signs in children using models that identify the factors influencing behavior is essential. Health belief model is one of the effective models in education. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of education on behavior of mothers about danger signs in children less than five years.

  Materials and Methods: This is an educational trial study that was conducted on 116 mother with children under five years old referring to treatment health centers in Arak city in 2014. They were divided into two groups case (n=56 ) and control ( n=60 ) randomly.

  The data collected by filling the valid and reliable questionnaire that reseatcher made along with interview. An educational intervention was conducted in case group during the four learning sessions. Three months after educational intervention, post-test was conducted by filling questionnaire. Finally, data were analyzed by SPSS software in significance level of p<0/05.

  Results: There was no significant difference between mean score of health belief model construct and behavior in the experimental and control groups before the intervention(p<0.05) , but significant differences were shown after intervention(p<0.001). The mean score of the mothers in the intervention group before and after intervention was 39.58±42.15, and 84.52±23.05 respectively, that showed significant differences (p<0.001).

  Conclusion: According to the results of this study, educational intervention based on initial assessment on Health Belief Model was effective in improving mothers' practice about danger signs in children. Thus, it can be helpful to design training programs.

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Background: Today, environmental pollutants are one of the most important human problems. The purpose of this study was to assess the health belief model structures for promotion of preventive behaviors in pregnant women exposed to air pollution in Arak city in 2014.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 208 pregnant women referred to healthcare centers in Arak city were selected by multistage sampling and were studied. Data were collected by using a valid and reliable self- report questionnaire. The questionnaire included the demographic characteristics of the mother, the aspects of the HBM model, and the maternal practice checklist. Finally, the data were analyzed.

Results: The mean age of subjects was 26.48 ±4.77 and the mean gestational age was 14.88 ±5.59 weeks. The highest level of education for pregnant women (47.1%) was a diploma. The mean practice score was 72.9 and among the structures, the highest and the lowest score was obtained for perceived susceptibility(83.25) and barriers(59.16), respectively. To predict the hehavior by using the HBM structures, regression analysis showed that of the studied variables, the external practice guides, perceived susceptibililty, and barriers are as behavior predictive predictive agents that totally, predicted 26% (R2=0.265) of behavior changes.

Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the design of educational interventions should be based on the external practice guides, perceived susceptibility and barriers structures as the most important predictors of maternal behavior.

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Background: One of the common and important public health problems is failure to thrive in during childhood .The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between health belief model structures with mothers' performance in preventihg growth retardation in children aged 1-5 years in Shazand city in 2014.

Materials and Methods: In this analytical and cross-sectional study, 202 mothers with children aged one to five years in the Shazand city were selected by random sampling. The data were collected by using a researcher-developed valid and reliable questionnaire by self-report method. The questionnaire included demographic characteristics of the mothers, the maternal practice cheklist and health belief model dimensions. Finally, the data were analyzed by SPSS20 T-test, Chi-square, correlation, ANONV and regression.

Results: The mean age of subjects was 28.76±5.28 years and a mean age of children was 26.49±14.74 months. Most common level of education for mothers was diploma (76.7%). The mean score of mothers' behavior was 70.65. Among the structures, self- efficacy had the largest score(69.8) and external practice guide had the lowest (38.91). In regression analysis, for predicting behavior by health belief model stuctures, self efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers were main predictors of behavior that predicted 10% of behavior changes(R²=0.101).

Conclusion: The results of this study reveale that the design of educational interventions should be based on self-efficacy, perceived benefits and perceived barriers as the most important predictors of maternal behavior.

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Background: Today, the consumption of junk food as a snack among children, especially in elementary school students is on the rise. This research has measured Theory of Planned Behavior constructs in this field.

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional and analytical study that was carried out on 217 primary school students in Arak city in 2015. Students were selected according to cluster sampling method. Data collection instrument was a researcher-developed questionnaire consisting of theory of planned behavior constructs such as attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intention and performance. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire was studied before the study. Multivariate linear regression model was used to determine the most important predictive constructs of students behavior.

Results: In this study, the mean and standard deviation score of attitude (75.41±12.42), subjective norm (78.25±11.20), perceived behavioral control (63.69±17.06), behavicral intention (76.26±15.44), and performance (48.84±24.44) were observed. Based on the results, perceived behavioral control could predict 23 percent change in behavior. There was a direct correlation between the score of constructs and performance(p<0.05). Moreover, there were not any significant differences(p>0.05) between students nutrition and age(r=0.019), weight (r=0.07), height (r=0.12) and BMI (r=0.07).

Conclusion: The results of this study suggested that positive attitude and self-esteem must taken into account to control students diet, in the design of interventions to prevent consuming junk food.

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Background: Diabetes is one of the most common disease resulted from metabolism disorders. Thus, Studying medication adherence in patients to explain educational interventions to improve the health of these patients is necessary. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the factors affecting medication adherence in diabetics patients based on health belief model in Arak 2014.

Materials and Methods: In this analytical study, 366 diabetic patients in Arak in 2014 were selected and data were collected through a researcher made questionnaire about patients behavior in the field of medication adherence and its influencing factors based on the health belief model. Linear regression model was used to determine the predictive power of structures.

Results: The mean knowledge score and the medication adherence was 31.34 and 84.34, respectively. In this study, perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers and internal action guide were as the strongest predictors of medication adherence behavior in patients and predicted their behavior variance 0.36. Between function and susceptibility and severity and perceived benefits and self- efficacy of manual internal and external action guides in the field of medication adherence with diabetes, there was a direct correlation that the highest correlation was related to the perceived susceptibility structure (r=0.42 , p<0.001).

Conclusion: The results showed that the educational interventions with an emphasis on building the perceived sensitivity of patients with diabetes for medication adherence and emphasis on internal incentives as motivators and incentives for patients to achieve better results in the field of medication adherence should be at the heart of educational interventions.

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Abstract

Background: One of the common and important health problems is failure to thrive in childhood. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of education on preventive behaviors of failure to thrive in mothers with children based on health belief model.

Materials and Methods: This study is an interventional one in which 100 mothers with children one to five years involved (samples divided into two case and control groups, each of 50) sampling was done by a simple random method. For collecting information, a researcher-made questionnaire based on the health belief model and performance check list were used. Then, case group was trained for one month. 3 months after training, data were gathered and analyzed by Spss20 software. In addition to descriptive statistics, tests such as Chi-square, paired t-test and independent T-test were used.

Results: The mean age of case and control was 29.98±5.51 and 25.35±5.30 years old, respectively. The average age of children was 23.31 ± 13.14 and 27.55 ± 14.01months, respectively. Before the intervention, no significant difference was seen between groups. The average score in case group before intervention was as: knowledge(31.87±14.24), perceived susceptibility(64.23±5.86), perceived severity(64.41±9.34), perceived benefits(61.75±6.79), perceived barriers(67.91±8.14), self-efficacy(68.00±7.87), cues to action(44.53±6.82) and action(70.00±9.77). However, after the intervention, significant differences between groups in all variables were obserred.

Conclusion: According to the results, education based on health belief model is recommended for promoting preventive behaviors of failure to thrive.

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Background and Aim: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the most common mental health condition, with a severe decline in performance, disability, and a 15% risk of suicide. Allopurinol increases the level of tryptophan in the body by inhibiting xanthine oxidase, and by elevating the level of tryptophan, i.e., a precursor to serotonin. Accordingly, it can improve the symptoms of depression. This study aimed to investigate the impact of allopurinol on MDD.
Methods & Materials: In this double-blind clinical trial, 70 patients with MDD, diagnosed based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders- Fourth Edition-Third Edition (DSM IV-TR) were randomly (paired & individual patient records) divided into two equal groups. Both research groups received 40 mg of citalopram daily for 6 weeks. In addition to citalopram, the intervention group received 300 mg allopurinol daily and the control group received a placebo. At the end of the third and sixth weeks, the examined patients were tested for Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS).
Ethical Considerations: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Arak University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.ARAKMU.REC.1394.68). Also, it was approved by the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (Code: IRCT201508277373n6).
Results:  The Mean±SD HDRS’s score, after 3 weeks of treatment, in the control and allopurinol groups was measured as 28.42±3.1 and 23.02±3.4, respectively. After 6 weeks after treatment, the Mean±SD depression score in the control and allopurinol groups was equal to 23.28±4.1 and 20.4±1.2, in sequence. A significant difference was observed between the research groups; thus, the intervention group obtained a lower mean score in the HDRS than the controls.
Conclusion: Allopurinol can improve the symptoms of depression and can also be used as an adjunct in the treatment of depression.

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Introduction: Sexual self-efficacy is a fundamental concept in behavior, health, and sexual performance that changes over time due to events such as pregnancy and childbirth. The present study was conducted to investigate factors affecting sexual self-efficacy in pregnant women in Arak City.
Methods: The current research is a cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study conducted with 234 pregnant women aged 18 to 40 who had minimal reading and writing literacy and lived with their husbands. Ten comprehensive urban health centers were selected using cluster sampling. Data were collected through a demographic information checklist and a sexual self-efficacy questionnaire. Data analysis was done using Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis and (LSD) tests.
Results: The mean score of sexual self-efficacy of pregnant women was 28.51 ± 6.45 and was at a high level. Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the sexual self-efficacy of pregnant women is unrelated to their education (P = 0.2). There is a significant relationship between education and the education of their spouses (P = 0.04). (LSD) test showed a significant difference between different levels of education of husbands and the sexual self-efficacy of pregnant women. Also, no significant relationship was observed between the mean score of sexual self-efficacy and other variables.
Conclusions: The sexual self-efficacy of pregnant women is related to the education of their husbands, so it is suggested to provide a suitable platform for increasing the knowledge and awareness of men.