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.

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.

Background: studies in adults have shown that external focus of attention is better than internal focus in motor learning. So, the aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of focus of attention- self talk on balance of women with multiple sclerosis.

Materials and Methods: In this semi- experimental study, statistical population included women with MS referred to MS Society of Arak. Whereas balance disorder in patients was diagnosed by neurologyist, they were invited to the study. Patients were accidentally divided into 3 groups each of 15 concluding control, self tak-external focus of attention and self talk- internal focus of attention groups and were evaluated by Berg balance scale. 42 samples completed executive steps of study. ANOVA and Tukey tests were used to compare balance score between groups with significant level of less than 0.05. All patients practiced balance tasks for 9 days and then they were undergone post test.

Results: Balance was improved in all groups. Although the external- self talk group was better than the two other groups, there was no significant difference between external and internal- self talk groups.

Conclusion: The findings of this study showed the effect of practice on improvement of balance skill and superiority of the experimental groups in comparison with control group. Probably, focus of attention with self talk has effect on balance of women with MS.

Background: Improvement of nutrition like fish and sea products is influential in preventing from non-contagious diseases. The transtheoretical model is one of the models for effective investigation on nutrition behaviors.  This study was done with the aim of investigating fish consumption among women 30 to 50 years old based on the transtheoretical model.

Materials and Methods: This study was an analytical and cross sectional analysis which was conducted in 2014 on 360 women 30 to 50 years in Arak city. The data have been collected by using researcher-made questionnaires which its validity and reliability was assessed in accordance to the transtheoretical model were obtained by visiting houses. Then the collected data were analyzed by pearson correlation test.

Results: The average age of the respondents was 39.34±7.5. The average of fish consumption was 0.62 ±0.83 times a week. 64 % of people in consumption of at least two servings of fish a week were in the two first stages of change (pre-contemplation and contemplation).The average score of self-efficacy in fish consumption was a total of 10.58 ±3.12 out of 15 and the average score of cons of fish was 26.35 ±4.78 and the average score of pros of fish was 21.6 ±2.67 out of 25. Pearson correlation indicates that the amount of fish consumption with constructs of the self-efficacy, stages of change and pros of fish had respectively the most positive correlation (p≤0.05). Fish consumption had no significant difference with age, education, Body Mass Index, occupation, monthly income and marital status.

Conclusion: Fish consumption despite its high level of perceived benefits is really low and to eliminate these barriers, education and cultural-building especially in women who are influential people in family nutrition is necessary.

Background: Determining the level of manual ability of children with cerebral palsy has significant role in scheduling care and providing supportive services by organizations such as the a social welfare office. Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) is responsible for this critical matter. In Mazandaran Province, the prediction of manual ability is intuitive and is done without tools. This study aimed to investigate the consistency between operational therapists prediction of future manual function of children with cerebral palsy and MACS scale.

Materials and Methods: This study was designed as a cross sectional trial. The study population consisted of 12 occupational therapists working in Mazandaran’s rehabilitation center under the social welfare office. Firstly, occupational therapists chose 100 children with cerebral palsy and classified their future manual ability into five levels according to their prediction. Then the researcher classified the children based on MACS scale. Finally, the amount of prediction consistency between therapists and researcher was statisticaly analyzed.

Results: The weighted kappa coefficients of MACS scale were 0.671 in first level and 0.747 in fifth level that show good agreement in these two levels. This coefficient was 0.417 in third level and 0.444 in forth level that shows fair agreement. The weighted kappa coefficient was 0.358 in second level that indicates slight agreement.

Conclusion: With prediction consistency between operational therapists and researcher, MACS is used as a suitable means for classifying the level of manual ability in children with cerebral palsy and predicting their needs to adaptive and auxiliary devices by occupational therapists in rehabilitation centers and social welfare offices.

Abstract

Background: Silver nanoparticles are capable of inducing toxicity in living organisms. Silver nanoparticles can induce some effect in the liver. Thus silver nanoparticles, due to their wide spread effects, can also affect on hepatic, hematological, and oxidative stress factors. Ginger because of its powerful antioxidantal compounds can influence the toxicity effects of silver nanoparticles in different parts of the body. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of hydroalchoholic extract of ginger on cytotoxic silver nanoparticles on enzymes, hematological parameters, blood oxidative stress markers, and hepatic apoptosis in Balb-c mice.

Materials and Methods: In this study, 48 rats of Balb-c race Syrians were selected and devided into 4 groups, each consisting of 12. They were treated for a period of 35 days; the first group (control) received distilled water, the second group received nano silver, the third group received ginger extract, and the fourth group received both nanosilver and ginger extract at the same time. Bleeding was done to measure hematological factors, liver enzymes, and oxidative stress; then liver tissue was removed for evaluation of apoptosis. Data were compared using SPSS software and one-way ANOVA.

Results: Enzymes AST , ALT , ALP, GGT and LDH as liver factors showed significant differences in the groups of the study. Hematological factors including of WBC , RBC , Hb , HCT , MCV, MCH , Plt , Lymphocyte  and  Monocyte showed significant differences in all the groups.

Of oxidative stress factors , only GPX showed significant difference between groups, while no significant difference was observed in other oxidative stress parameters in the blood. Changes in apoptosis showed significant differences in all groups of the study.

Conclusion:  Based on the findings the study ,silver nanoparticles with their side effects in different parts of the body can induce changes in various factors and enzymes. Ginger can compensate ,and modify to some extent these side effects. Such effectiveness of ginger can probably be due to its special ingredients.

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.