Research Interests:
An effective response to health problems is completely dependent upon the capacities of the health system in providing timely and valid information to take action. This study was designed to identify various reasons from various... more
An effective response to health problems is completely dependent upon the capacities of the health system in providing timely and valid information to take action. This study was designed to identify various reasons from various perspectives for underreporting disease by physicians in the private sector in big cities in developing countries setting. In this qualitative study, we used focus group discussions (16 manager), and in-depth semi-structured interviews. Themes were classified in 6 categories: Infrastructure and legal issues, the priority of disease reporting, workflow processes, motivation and attitude, human resources and knowledge and awareness. As the main reasons of under reporting, most physicians pointed out complicacy in reporting process and inadequate attention by the public sector. Managers emphasized instituting legal incentives and penalties. Experts focused on physicians' knowledge and expressed a need for continuing medical education programs. Independent i...
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Hypertension is an important public-health challenge worldwide. The prevalence of hypertension greatly varies across countries. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of self-reported hypertension and to determine related... more
Hypertension is an important public-health challenge worldwide. The prevalence of hypertension greatly varies across countries. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of self-reported hypertension and to determine related factors in a large random sample of Tehran population in 2011. In this cross sectional study, 69173 individuals aged 25-64 years were selected using multistage cluster random sampling method. All participants were interviewed by trained personnel using standard questionnaires. Weighted prevalence and incidence rates were calculated and principle component analysis (PCA) was used to construct wealth index. Chi-square and odds ratio were used to assess associations in univariate analysis. Logistic Regression model was used in multivariate analysis. The prevalence of self-reported hypertension was 5.27% in total, 3.83% in men and 6.64% in women (p< 0.001). The annual incidence rate of self-reported hypertension was 6.87 per 1000; 5.26 in men and 8.43 ...
One of the main strategies to prevent smoking is delaying onset of smoking in adolescents. Thus, identifying the age of smoking and smoking pattern in adolescents gives important knowledge for planning the intervention programs on... more
One of the main strategies to prevent smoking is delaying onset of smoking in adolescents. Thus, identifying the age of smoking and smoking pattern in adolescents gives important knowledge for planning the intervention programs on smoking. Students aged 13-15 years old living in the Northern and the Southern Tehran were selected through two separate snowball samplings. In each area six smokers were considered as the seeds and were asked to introduce a smoker friend. The sampling continued until one hundred study subjects were recruited in each area. Although in the area with wealthier socioeconomic status the age at which smoking started was one year more, the number of days of smoking, number of consumed cigarettes, not willingness to quit smoking, ease of access to cigarettes, mother and siblings smoking were more frequent. In contrast, seeing anti-smoking advertisements, father smoking, teachers smoking and education about the adverse effects of smoking were lower than the area w...
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Identifying the underlying factors contributing to smoking among teenagers is important in establishing smoking control programs. The present study was designed to identify and compare factors revealed in a preceding qualitative study... more
Identifying the underlying factors contributing to smoking among teenagers is important in establishing smoking control programs. The present study was designed to identify and compare factors revealed in a preceding qualitative study conducted on 13-15 year-old boys living in two different socio-economic districts in the Northern and Southern parts of Tehran. Two completely similar case-control studies, each with 200 subjects, were conducted using a snowball sampling. The case and control subjects were matched based on the intimacy relations, i.e. six smokers were recruited in each of the Northern and Southern districts; they were then asked to introduce one of their smoker friends as a case and a non-smoker one as a control. Multi-variable conditional logistic regression revealed that having a smoker father is the single effective factor in the two districts. As for boys living in the Northern (wealthier) part of the city, social capital (OR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.43-0.81) played a prot...
Research Interests:
In this population-based cross-sectional study, we determined the prevalence of intentional injuries and associated factors among 1201 adolescents in Tehran, Iran. Overall, 63.9% of adolescents had at least one intentional injury behavior... more
In this population-based cross-sectional study, we determined the prevalence of intentional injuries and associated factors among 1201 adolescents in Tehran, Iran. Overall, 63.9% of adolescents had at least one intentional injury behavior which was significantly higher in males. Gender preference for males by parents, very high or very low supervision, waterpipe smoking, and alcohol consumption were significantly associated with injuries in females. In addition, poor wealth index, parental punishment and smoking were incriminating factors in males.
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An article with a clear message can transfer research knowledge better. However, this is the case when the message suits the type of study methodology (research design) and its results. The objective of this study was to assess the... more
An article with a clear message can transfer research knowledge better. However, this is the case when the message suits the type of study methodology (research design) and its results. The objective of this study was to assess the presence of message articles and the type of study methodologies. Articles published between 2001 and 2006, on maternal care, diabetes, and tuberculosis, which were based on studies performed on the Iranian population were investigated. A systematic search was performed in foreign databases 'Pubmed, Medline, and Embase', and national databases 'Iranmedex, SID (Scientific Information Database), and Iranpsych'. Seven hundred and ninety-five articles were examined for the type of study methodology and presence of an actionable message (one that specifies what and how an action should be carried out). Among the 795 articles accessed, cross-sectional studies were the most frequent (50.9%) and systematic reviews were the least frequent (0.4%). C...
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This study aims to identify the differences between Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) and non-IDUs, with regard to some potential factors. This could be useful to design effective interventions for harm reduction, which is one of the priority... more
This study aims to identify the differences between Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) and non-IDUs, with regard to some potential factors. This could be useful to design effective interventions for harm reduction, which is one of the priority areas in reducing the burden of addiction. Sixty cases and 60 controls participated in this pair-matched case-control study, which was conducted in Tehran. The cases were IDUs who were asked to introduce two friends; one IDU and the other non-IDU as the paired control. In addition to demographic variables, onset age of cigarette smoking, dropping out of school, imprisonment, history of being sexually abused for money, and family history of using illegal drugs were obtained from the cases and controls via an interview. Pair Odds Ratio (OR) was estimated through McNemar and conditional multivariable logistic regression analysis. Eighty-three % of the IDUs and 92% the controls were male. The mean for onset age of cigarette smoking was 16 in the cases an...
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Adolescents may get involved in high-risk behaviors. Surveys are the primary, and sometimes the sole source of data collection for many high-risk health behaviours. We examined the reliability and validity of the psychometric properties... more
Adolescents may get involved in high-risk behaviors. Surveys are the primary, and sometimes the sole source of data collection for many high-risk health behaviours. We examined the reliability and validity of the psychometric properties of the self-administered Persian version of the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) questionnaire. In a methodological study in summer 2010, 100 Iranian adolescents aged 15-18 years were recruited through convenience sampling. The face and content validity were used for the questionnaire validity. In order to evaluate the questionnaire's reliability, the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's α were calculated for domains and 89 items. Among 89 items, the ICC values were below 0.4 (weak reliability) for 2 items (2.25%), 0.4-0.6 (moderate reliability) for 10 items (11.24%), 0.6-0.8 (good reliability) for 32 items (35.96%) and 0.8-1 (excellent reliability) for 45 items (50.56%). The prevalence of most high-risk...
Research Interests: Nursing, Psychometrics, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Adolescent, Iran, and 19 moreTranslations, Humans, Female, Male, Young Adult, Patient Satisfaction, Psychometric Properties, Clinical Sciences, Sleep breathing disorders, Aged, Middle Aged, Questionnaires, Endodontics, Adult, Public health systems and services research, Neoplasms, Health Beliefs, Reproducibility of Results, and Cross Sectional Studies
Knowledge products such as clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are vitally required for evidence-based medicine (EBM). Although the EBM, to some extent, has been attended during recent years, no result has achieved thus far. The current... more
Knowledge products such as clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are vitally required for evidence-based medicine (EBM). Although the EBM, to some extent, has been attended during recent years, no result has achieved thus far. The current qualitative study is to identify the barriers to establishing development system and implementation of CPGs in Iran. Twelve semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of health policy and decision makers, the experts of development and or adaptation of CPGs, and the experts of EBM education and development. In addition, 11 policy-makers, decision-makers, and managers of the health system participated in a focus group discussion. The analysis of the study data was undertaken by thematic framework approach. Six themes emerged in order of their frequency include practice environment, evidence-based health care system, individual professional, politician and political context, innovation (CPG) and patients. Most of the ind...
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Background Exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke is an important health hazard. This study was designed to assess the sociodemographic risk factors related to women's exposure to secondhand smoke. Materials and Methods A case-control... more
Background Exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke is an important health hazard. This study was designed to assess the sociodemographic risk factors related to women's exposure to secondhand smoke. Materials and Methods A case-control analysis of data collected as part of a prospective cohort study was conducted. Participants were 340 female Tehran residents exposed to cigarette smoke. Women consented to participate in this study and completed a questionnaire containing socio-demographic characteristics, household characteristics and smoking status at home through a face-to-face interview. Factors related to women's exposure to secondhand smoke were assessed using the multivariate logistic regression model. Results The final multivariate logistic regression model showed that lower levels of education (p = 0.002) and social class (p = 0.03) increase the risk of exposure to secondhand smoke in women. Conclusion These results support the effect of women's educational level ...
Women's health constitutes a major aspect of development in societies and is considered a health-related priority. The aim of the present study was to determine appropriate strategies for improving health promoting behaviours in women... more
Women's health constitutes a major aspect of development in societies and is considered a health-related priority. The aim of the present study was to determine appropriate strategies for improving health promoting behaviours in women of reproductive age in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Using the nominal group technique, a panel discussion was held in October 2011 with 12 health specialists who were selected through purposive sampling. In the first round, panel members generated 81 strategies; after eliminating irrelevant items and merging items with similar concepts, 44 strategies remained. After group discussion and voting, the following 4 items had the highest scores: improving physical activity, with a social support approach; empowering women; promoting and improving men's role in women's health; and promoting social support. The strategies presented in this study may be utilized by policy-makers, managers and health care providers to improve women's health prom...
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Clinical guidelines have increasingly been used as tools for applying new knowledge and research findings. Although, efforts have been made to produce clinical guidelines in Iran, it is not clear whether they have been used by physicians... more
Clinical guidelines have increasingly been used as tools for applying new knowledge and research findings. Although, efforts have been made to produce clinical guidelines in Iran, it is not clear whether they have been used by physicians and what factors are associated with them?. Four hundred and forty three practicing physicians in Tehran were selected from private clinics through weighted random sampling. The data collection tool was a questionnaire on familiarity and attitude toward clinical guidelines. The descriptive and analytical findings were analyzed with t-tests, Chi(2), logistic and linear multivariate regression by SPSS, version 16. 31.8% of physicians were familiar with clinical guidelines. Based on the logistic regression model physicians' familiarity with clinical guidelines was positively and significantly associated with 'working experience in a health service delivery point' OR = 2.13 (95% CI, 1.17-3.90), 'familiarity with therapeutic protocols'...
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Knowledge translation was created in response to the knowledge-do gap. With the growing number of research projects, utilization of research knowledge roused interest. One of its defects, which are seen more in developing countries, is... more
Knowledge translation was created in response to the knowledge-do gap. With the growing number of research projects, utilization of research knowledge roused interest. One of its defects, which are seen more in developing countries, is the scarcity of recognized practical knowledge translation applications. The actions taken to strengthen knowledge translation can be classified into three categories of 'push, pull and exchange'. In Iran, some of the interventions effective in knowl- edge translation, may not have primarily taken place with this aim, but can however be effective in it. Some of the meas- ures taken specifically in Iran's research system are: capacity building of human resources for knowledge translation, better utilization of research by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, creating necessary incentives among medical uni- versities, identification of barriers and proposing interventions. Pilots of knowledge translation interventions are concerned ...
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Myocardial Infarction (MI) is a main cause of death and disability worldwide, which involves a number of genetic, physiopathologic and socio-economic determinants. The aim of this study was to assess the patterns of association between... more
Myocardial Infarction (MI) is a main cause of death and disability worldwide, which involves a number of genetic, physiopathologic and socio-economic determinants. The aim of this study was to assess the patterns of association between education, wealth and some other risk factors with non-fatal MI in Tehran population. Data derived from a second round of large cross-sectional study, Urban HEART-2, conducted in Tehran in 2011. Out of 118542 participants, all 249 self-reported incident cases of nonfatal MI were selected as the case group. A number of 996, matched on age and sex, were selected as controls. Principle component analysis (PCA) was used to calculate wealth index and logistic regression model to assess relations between the study variables. Mean (SD) age of participants was 60.25 (12.26) years. A total of 870 (69.9%) of the study subjects were men. Education, wealth status, family violence, hypertension and diabetes were observed as independent predictors of non-fatal MI. ...
Purpose: This study was performed in order to characterize the psychometric properties of the National Eye Institute visual functioning questionnaire in Iranians. Methods: After forward and backward translation, examination of the... more
Purpose: This study was performed in order to characterize the psychometric properties of the National Eye Institute visual functioning questionnaire in Iranians. Methods: After forward and backward translation, examination of the translation quality and a pilot test, 80 patients with various chronic ophthalmic diseases and 30 healthy individuals completed the questionnaire. Internal consistency (IC) was measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and reproducibility was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) obtained through test-retests. Regarding construct validity, convergent, discriminant and known group comparison validities were evaluated. The standardized response mean index was used to assess responsiveness and sensitivity of the instrument to changes. Results: Cronbach's alpha was above 0.7 for all of the subscales except for that of "driving", which had a value of 0.68. The ICC in all subscales was above 0.7. All items had correlati...
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Substance abuse in adolescents and its often tragic consequences, including addiction, is one of the preventable major public health problems. The aims of this paper were to estimate the prevalence of substance abuse and to evaluate its... more
Substance abuse in adolescents and its often tragic consequences, including addiction, is one of the preventable major public health problems. The aims of this paper were to estimate the prevalence of substance abuse and to evaluate its some associated factors in adolescents of Tabriz City (northwest of Iran). A self-administered questionnaire was completed in 4903 randomly selected students with mean age of 15.7 years old. The aim of the questionnaire was obtaining information on substance abuse, socio-economical information, cigarette smoking behavior, general risk taking behavior, self-esteem, attitude towards smoking and self-injury as well as demographical characteristics. Prevalence of substance abuse was 1.4% (95% CI: 1.1-1.7) which was different statistically significant between boys (2.4%) and girls (0.6%) (P<0.001). Older age (OR=1.43), not living with parents (OR=2.34), having general risk taking behavior (OR=2.26), higher smoking stage (OR=2.39), lower self-esteem (OR...
This study was conducted to identify the determinants of protective behavior in relation to HIV transmission. Since the risk of transmission is higher among those who have extramarital intercourse, the study sample constituted of such... more
This study was conducted to identify the determinants of protective behavior in relation to HIV transmission. Since the risk of transmission is higher among those who have extramarital intercourse, the study sample constituted of such people. We started this study in 2010 and finished it in 2011. Participants were divided into low-risk and high-risk groups. High-risk people included sex workers and those who presented at drop-in centers. Interviewees were 18 men and women in the low-risk group and 12 men and women in the high-risk group. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and were analyzed using the thematic framework method. In both groups, protective behavior was influenced by willingness to protect, intention or decision to protect, and personal, social, and environmental barriers and facilitators. In terms of willingness, behavior was influenced to preserve sexual pleasure by avoiding condoms. In terms of barriers and facilitators, trust in partner, misperceptions, ...
Informal payments to health care providers have been reported in many African, Asian and European countries. This study aimed to investigate different aspects of these payments that are also known as under-the-table payments in Iran. This... more
Informal payments to health care providers have been reported in many African, Asian and European countries. This study aimed to investigate different aspects of these payments that are also known as under-the-table payments in Iran. This is an in-depth interview-based qualitative study conducted on 12 purposively chosen clinical specialists. The interviewees answered 9 questions including the ones about, definitions of informal payments, the specialties and hospitals mostly involved with the problem, how they are paid, factors involved, motivation of patients for the payments, impact of the payments on the health care system and physician-patient relationship and the ways to face up with the problem. The findings of the study were analyzed using qualitative content analysis method. Six topics were extracted from the interviews including definitions, commonness, varieties, motivations, outcomes and preventive measures. It was revealed that under-the-table payments are the money take...
Number of Iranian articles published in ISI journals has increased significantly in recent years.Despite the quantitative progress, studies performed in Iran represent low collaboration in research; therefore,we decided to evaluate... more
Number of Iranian articles published in ISI journals has increased significantly in recent years.Despite the quantitative progress, studies performed in Iran represent low collaboration in research; therefore,we decided to evaluate collaboration in Golestan University of Medical Sciences (GOUMS) research projects. In this cross-sectional study, all GOUMS research projects that had got grants from the universitybetween 2005-2007 were studied. Among 107 research projects included in our study, 102 projects were evaluatedand checklists were completed. The researcher's questionnaire was sent to the principle investigators (n=46) of the projects and eventually 40 questionnaires were collected. The review of 102 research proposals shows that 10 projects (9.8%) have been performed in collaborationwith other organizations. Scientific outputs in these projects have been more than projects which wereconfined to the university (98% compare to 68%; p= 0.04). The total cost of the projects u...
Childbirth is one of the most vulnerable moments and the most important and memorable events in the lives of women that despite of bringing happiness, it can be associated with psychological trauma and endanger the mother and neonate... more
Childbirth is one of the most vulnerable moments and the most important and memorable events in the lives of women that despite of bringing happiness, it can be associated with psychological trauma and endanger the mother and neonate health. Mothers' perception of the psychological birth trauma is a highly subjective process that depends on the cultural, social and biological conditions of mothers that is not achievable except with examination of their views. This study aimed to understand psychological birth trauma from the perceptions of Iranian mothers. A qualitative research design using in-depth interviews of 23 Iranian mothers was conducted from Tehran and Isfahan health centers. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using conventional content analysis. Two themes were extracted from the data: impact of psychological birth trauma and trends of psychological birth trauma. Several categories and sub-categories also emerged from the data. Feelings of fear, anxiety, hel...
Research Interests:
Few studies use modern approaches to develop a quality of life (QOL) questionnaire with acceptable construct validity, especially in Iran. Our main objective was to construct a new validated and uni-dimensional questionnaire, based on... more
Few studies use modern approaches to develop a quality of life (QOL) questionnaire with acceptable construct validity, especially in Iran. Our main objective was to construct a new validated and uni-dimensional questionnaire, based on WHOQOL-100, using the Rasch analysis. In a population-based, cross-sectional study in 2007, 500 Tehran residents aged≥18 were randomly sampled. The Persian version of WHOQOL-100 was used to measure the participants' QOL. After using targeting and person fit analysis, we performed category/threshold ordering, item fit, and differential item functioning analyses, in succession. We used outfit or infit statistics>1.5 and <0.5 for detecting under-fit and overfit items/persons, respectively. We also deleted items with disordered category and/or threshold. Person Separation Index and test reliability were also calculated in the datasets. Male to female ratio was 0.98 and the mean age (SD) of participants was 35.1 (12.8) years. Initial analyses show...
Knowledge Translation is a process that includes synthesis, dissemination, exchange and application of knowledge to improve the health, services and products In this study we have attempted to examine the knowledge translation practice... more
Knowledge Translation is a process that includes synthesis, dissemination, exchange and application of knowledge to improve the health, services and products In this study we have attempted to examine the knowledge translation practice and its perceived barriers on the universalities and research institutes (research sector) in Iran. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. In the quantitative section, a questionnaire had prepared for this study was completed by 88 authors country wide from randomly selected papers. In the qualitative section 13 in-depth interviews and 6 focus group discussions were held with managers and policy makers, clinical and health service providers, and researchers. Twenty four percent of the authors had no interaction whatsoever with the target audience. Lack of expectation toward creating change in the target audience, researchers' incentives, low level of trust among researchers and decision makers, absence of a predefined mechanism fo...
Myocardial Infarction (MI) is a main cause of death and disability worldwide, which involves a number of genetic, physiopathologic and socio-economic determinants. The aim of this study was to assess the patterns of association between... more
Myocardial Infarction (MI) is a main cause of death and disability worldwide, which involves a number of genetic, physiopathologic and socio-economic determinants. The aim of this study was to assess the patterns of association between education, wealth and some other risk factors with non-fatal MI in Tehran population. Data derived from a second round of large cross-sectional study, Urban HEART-2, conducted in Tehran in 2011. Out of 118542 participants, all 249 self-reported incident cases of nonfatal MI were selected as the case group. A number of 996, matched on age and sex, were selected as controls. Principle component analysis (PCA) was used to calculate wealth index and logistic regression model to assess relations between the study variables. Mean (SD) age of participants was 60.25 (12.26) years. A total of 870 (69.9%) of the study subjects were men. Education, wealth status, family violence, hypertension and diabetes were observed as independent predictors of non-fatal MI. ...
This study aims to investigate the quality of life (QOL) of Tehran University of Medical Sciences' (TUMS) medical students at different educational levels and specify the most important factors related to this quality. A sample of 242... more
This study aims to investigate the quality of life (QOL) of Tehran University of Medical Sciences' (TUMS) medical students at different educational levels and specify the most important factors related to this quality. A sample of 242 medical students was selected randomly, given their number in three educational levels (basic sciences, physiopathology-stager and intern). The QOL was measured by WHOQOL-BREF. The students obtained average high score in two psychological and environmental health domains, and low score in physical health and social relationship domains. As the educational level of students increased their quality of life decreased at all four domains. At social relationship domain, the female students had overall better situation as compared to males (p=0.009). The female and male students had opposite condition at the level of basic sciences and internship, in a way that the female students earned higher marks at basic sciences level and the males at internship le...
Research Interests:
Adolescents' physical activity decreases from the stage of childhood to adulthood. This study was addressed to explain adolescents' insufficient physical activity (IPA) and its related factors. The subjects were 1201 adolescents... more
Adolescents' physical activity decreases from the stage of childhood to adulthood. This study was addressed to explain adolescents' insufficient physical activity (IPA) and its related factors. The subjects were 1201 adolescents in the quantitative phase and 25 adolescents in the quantitative phase. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design with follow-up explanations variant was used, which involved collecting quantitative data (1201 adolescents) first and then explaining the quantitative results with in-depth interviews and written narrative (25 adolescents) during a qualitative study. The quantitative results showed that 98.8% of adolescents did not have the recommended physical activity. Five themes were extracted in the qualitative phase including the inhibitory effect of the school environment and peers, as well as the inhibitory effect of the family environment, lack of availability and cultural barriers for the presence of girls in the community, the effect of s...
One of the main strategies to prevent smoking is delaying onset of smoking in adolescents. Thus, identifying the age of smoking and smoking pattern in adolescents gives important knowledge for planning the intervention programs on... more
One of the main strategies to prevent smoking is delaying onset of smoking in adolescents. Thus, identifying the age of smoking and smoking pattern in adolescents gives important knowledge for planning the intervention programs on smoking. Students aged 13-15 years old living in the Northern and the Southern Tehran were selected through two separate snowball samplings. In each area six smokers were considered as the seeds and were asked to introduce a smoker friend. The sampling continued until one hundred study subjects were recruited in each area. Although in the area with wealthier socioeconomic status the age at which smoking started was one year more, the number of days of smoking, number of consumed cigarettes, not willingness to quit smoking, ease of access to cigarettes, mother and siblings smoking were more frequent. In contrast, seeing anti-smoking advertisements, father smoking, teachers smoking and education about the adverse effects of smoking were lower than the area w...
Research Interests:
Identifying the underlying factors contributing to smoking among teenagers is important in establishing smoking control programs. The present study was designed to identify and compare factors revealed in a preceding qualitative study... more
Identifying the underlying factors contributing to smoking among teenagers is important in establishing smoking control programs. The present study was designed to identify and compare factors revealed in a preceding qualitative study conducted on 13-15 year-old boys living in two different socio-economic districts in the Northern and Southern parts of Tehran. Two completely similar case-control studies, each with 200 subjects, were conducted using a snowball sampling. The case and control subjects were matched based on the intimacy relations, i.e. six smokers were recruited in each of the Northern and Southern districts; they were then asked to introduce one of their smoker friends as a case and a non-smoker one as a control. Multi-variable conditional logistic regression revealed that having a smoker father is the single effective factor in the two districts. As for boys living in the Northern (wealthier) part of the city, social capital (OR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.43-0.81) played a prot...
Research Interests:
People are increasingly interested in health news. As a mass media, the 'Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting' (IRIB) has the highest number of target audiences. In Iran, some people follow health news via health programs on... more
People are increasingly interested in health news. As a mass media, the 'Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting' (IRIB) has the highest number of target audiences. In Iran, some people follow health news via health programs on satellites and other means of communication. However, all of these programs do not live up to the standards of scientific evidence. In this study, we examined Tehran people's trust in health news disseminated by the IRIB and other mass media outlets. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran. Through multistage sampling, 510 households proportional to size were randomly selected from five regions of Tehran including northern, eastern, western, southern and central regions. One person from each household completed the questionnaire through interviews. The questionnaire included questions on people's level of trust in health news delivered by the IRIB, satellite programs, the internet and magazines. It also included demographic questions. Th...
Hypertension is an important public-health challenge worldwide. The prevalence of hypertension greatly varies across countries. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of self-reported hypertension and to determine related... more
Hypertension is an important public-health challenge worldwide. The prevalence of hypertension greatly varies across countries. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of self-reported hypertension and to determine related factors in a large random sample of Tehran population in 2011. In this cross sectional study, 69173 individuals aged 25-64 years were selected using multistage cluster random sampling method. All participants were interviewed by trained personnel using standard questionnaires. Weighted prevalence and incidence rates were calculated and principle component analysis (PCA) was used to construct wealth index. Chi-square and odds ratio were used to assess associations in univariate analysis. Logistic Regression model was used in multivariate analysis. The prevalence of self-reported hypertension was 5.27% in total, 3.83% in men and 6.64% in women (p< 0.001). The annual incidence rate of self-reported hypertension was 6.87 per 1000; 5.26 in men and 8.43 ...
Traffic and transport is a substantial part of a range of economic, social and environmental factors distinguished to have impact on human health. This paper is a report on a preliminary section of a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) on... more
Traffic and transport is a substantial part of a range of economic, social and environmental factors distinguished to have impact on human health. This paper is a report on a preliminary section of a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) on urban traffic and transport initiatives, being conducted in Sanandaj, Iran. In this preliminary study, the psychometric properties of Urban Traffic related Determinants of Health Questionnaire (UTDHQ) were investigated. Multistage cluster sampling was employed to recruit 476 key informants in Sanandaj from April to June 2013 to participate in the study. The development of UTDHQ began with a comprehensive review of the literature. Then face, content and construct validity as well as reliability were determined. Exploratory Factor Analysis showed optimal reduced solution including 40 items and 8 factors. Three of the factors identified were Physical Environment, Social Environment, Public Services Delivery and Accessibility. UTDHQ demonstrated an appropri...
Childbirth is one of the most vulnerable moments and the most important and memorable events in the lives of women that despite of bringing happiness, it can be associated with psychological trauma and endanger the mother and neonate... more
Childbirth is one of the most vulnerable moments and the most important and memorable events in the lives of women that despite of bringing happiness, it can be associated with psychological trauma and endanger the mother and neonate health. Mothers' perception of the psychological birth trauma is a highly subjective process that depends on the cultural, social and biological conditions of mothers that is not achievable except with examination of their views. This study aimed to understand psychological birth trauma from the perceptions of Iranian mothers. A qualitative research design using in-depth interviews of 23 Iranian mothers was conducted from Tehran and Isfahan health centers. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using conventional content analysis. Two themes were extracted from the data: impact of psychological birth trauma and trends of psychological birth trauma. Several categories and sub-categories also emerged from the data. Feelings of fear, anxiety, hel...
Research Interests:
Exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke is an important health hazard. This study was designed to assess the sociodemographic risk factors related to women's exposure to secondhand smoke. A case-control analysis of data collected as... more
Exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke is an important health hazard. This study was designed to assess the sociodemographic risk factors related to women's exposure to secondhand smoke. A case-control analysis of data collected as part of a prospective cohort study was conducted. Participants were 340 female Tehran residents exposed to cigarette smoke. Women consented to participate in this study and completed a questionnaire containing socio-demographic characteristics, household characteristics and smoking status at home through a face-to-face interview. Factors related to women's exposure to secondhand smoke were assessed using the multivariate logistic regression model. The final multivariate logistic regression model showed that lower levels of education (p = 0.002) and social class (p = 0.03) increase the risk of exposure to secondhand smoke in women. These results support the effect of women's educational level and social class on their exposure to secondhand smoke.
Number of Iranian articles published in ISI journals has increased significantly in recent years.Despite the quantitative progress, studies performed in Iran represent low collaboration in research; therefore,we decided to evaluate... more
Number of Iranian articles published in ISI journals has increased significantly in recent years.Despite the quantitative progress, studies performed in Iran represent low collaboration in research; therefore,we decided to evaluate collaboration in Golestan University of Medical Sciences (GOUMS) research projects. In this cross-sectional study, all GOUMS research projects that had got grants from the universitybetween 2005-2007 were studied. Among 107 research projects included in our study, 102 projects were evaluatedand checklists were completed. The researcher's questionnaire was sent to the principle investigators (n=46) of the projects and eventually 40 questionnaires were collected. The review of 102 research proposals shows that 10 projects (9.8%) have been performed in collaborationwith other organizations. Scientific outputs in these projects have been more than projects which wereconfined to the university (98% compare to 68%; p= 0.04). The total cost of the projects u...
Waterpipe use among Iranian adolescents has become a matter for concern. A descriptive, cross-sectional community-based survey was performed in 2010 to determine the prevalence of waterpipe use and associated factors among Iranian... more
Waterpipe use among Iranian adolescents has become a matter for concern. A descriptive, cross-sectional community-based survey was performed in 2010 to determine the prevalence of waterpipe use and associated factors among Iranian adolescents in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. After multi-stage, random cluster sampling 1201 adolescents aged 15-18 years old responded to a questionnaire based on the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance. The prevalence of current waterpipe smoking (at least once in the previous 30 days) was 28.0%, significantly higher among males (34.8%) than females (21.4%). A total of 45.1% of adolescents reported lifetime use (ever use) of waterpipes and 34.2% had ever shared a waterpipe. In multivariate logistic regression analysis the significant correlates of current waterpipe use for both males and females were having smokers among friends and family members, while for males, older age and educational failure were also risk factors.
Research Interests: Adolescent, Iran, Humans, Smoking, Female, and 6 moreMale, Prevalence, Questionnaires, Sex Factors, Age Factors, and Cross Sectional Studies
An effective response to health problems is completely dependent upon the capacities of the health system in providing timely and valid information to take action. This study was designed to identify various reasons from various... more
An effective response to health problems is completely dependent upon the capacities of the health system in providing timely and valid information to take action. This study was designed to identify various reasons from various perspectives for underreporting disease by physicians in the private sector in big cities in developing countries setting. In this qualitative study, we used focus group discussions (16 manager), and in-depth semi-structured interviews. Themes were classified in 6 categories: Infrastructure and legal issues, the priority of disease reporting, workflow processes, motivation and attitude, human resources and knowledge and awareness. As the main reasons of under reporting, most physicians pointed out complicacy in reporting process and inadequate attention by the public sector. Managers emphasized instituting legal incentives and penalties. Experts focused on physicians' knowledge and expressed a need for continuing medical education programs. Independent i...
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This case-control study evaluated the factors influencing volunteering in the Islamic Republic of Iran's Women's Health Volunteer (WHV) programme, which is implemented in 150 centres in Khorasan-e-Razavi Province. We recruited 145... more
This case-control study evaluated the factors influencing volunteering in the Islamic Republic of Iran's Women's Health Volunteer (WHV) programme, which is implemented in 150 centres in Khorasan-e-Razavi Province. We recruited 145 cases (volunteers) and 146 controls (non-volunteers) from the centres. Data were collected by questionnaire. Sociodemographic variables included were: length of residence in neighbourhood, number of siblings, husband's age and education and job, family size, quality of life, self-rated health status, neighbourhood intimacy, child under 2 years, house ownership, wealth index. Social network variables included were: ego network size, type of acquaintance, intimacy with others, relationship communication, relationship duration, emotional support, advisory support, monetary support, physical support, time support. There were significant associations (P<0.05) between women's propensity to volunteer and family size, presence of a child under 2...
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The core concept of plagiarism is defined as the use of other people's ideas or words without proper acknowledgement. Herein, we used a questionnaire to assess the knowledge of students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS)... more
The core concept of plagiarism is defined as the use of other people's ideas or words without proper acknowledgement. Herein, we used a questionnaire to assess the knowledge of students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) regarding plagiarism and copyright infringement. The questionnaire comprised 8 questions. The first six questions of the questionnaire were translations of exercises of a book about academic writing and were concerning plagiarism in preparing articles. Questions number 7 and 8 (which were concerning plagiarism in preparing Microsoft PowerPoint slideshows and copyright infringement, respectively) were developed by the authors of the present study. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by five experts in the field of epidemiology and biostatistics. A pilot study consisting of a test and retest was carried to assess the reliability of the questionnaire. The sampling method was stratified random sampling, and the questionnaire was handed out to...
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Nearly three decades ago, the Master of Public Health (MPH) academic degree was introduced to Tehran University of Medical Sciences' School of Public Health, Tehran, Iran. A new program for simultaneous education of medical,... more
Nearly three decades ago, the Master of Public Health (MPH) academic degree was introduced to Tehran University of Medical Sciences' School of Public Health, Tehran, Iran. A new program for simultaneous education of medical, pharmaceutical and dental students was initiated in 2006. Talented students had the opportunity to study MPH simultaneously. There were some concerns about this kind of admission; as to whether these students who were not familiar with the health system had the appropriate attitude and background for this field of education. And with the present rate of brain drain, is this just a step towards their immigration without the fulfillment of public health? This qualitative study was conducted in 2012 where 26 students took part in focused group discussions and individual interviews. The students were questioned about their motivation and the program's impact on their future career. The participants' statements were analyzed using thematic analysis. THE P...
The purpose of this study is to determine association between personal, family, neighborhood, and social network characteristics and perceived intimacy in the neighborhood by the women. In this cross-sectional study, we applied a... more
The purpose of this study is to determine association between personal, family, neighborhood, and social network characteristics and perceived intimacy in the neighborhood by the women. In this cross-sectional study, we applied a two-stage sampling method to choose a representative sample of 150 married women and housewives, aged 15 to 49 years, who had education between six and twelve years and lived in the urban areas of the Khorasan-e-Razavi province of Iran. Association between personal, family, neighborhood, and social network variables, with the perceived neighborhood intimacy, was assessed through univariate and multiple linear regression. Based on the multiple model, there were significant associations between neighborhood intimacy as perceived by the women and their education level (Standardized Beta=-0.190, P=0.019), length of residence (Standardized Beta=0.175, P=0.029), self-rated health status (Standardized Beta=0.177, P=0.029), and their individual social network size ...
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In formulating the second national strategic plan for prevention of HIV/AIDS in the Islamic Republic of Iran a more evidence-based approach was needed. This paper reports on a systematic review of the local evidence about the determinants... more
In formulating the second national strategic plan for prevention of HIV/AIDS in the Islamic Republic of Iran a more evidence-based approach was needed. This paper reports on a systematic review of the local evidence about the determinants of HIV/AIDS transmission in 3 categories: poor knowledge and negative attitudes about HIV transmission; injection drug use; and sexual promiscuity. Of 93 reports reviewed, 53 met the inclusion criteria. Information about the prevalence and magnitude of effect for the 3 risk determinants at the national and regional level was scarce. Heterogeneity between studies, even in the same sub-population, was significant. An improved research base and better sharing of information are needed within countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
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With the expansion of scientific documents worldwide and the growth of Iranian articles published in recent years, highly sensitive electronic resources containing scientific studies can be of great help to researchers at different stages... more
With the expansion of scientific documents worldwide and the growth of Iranian articles published in recent years, highly sensitive electronic resources containing scientific studies can be of great help to researchers at different stages of research. This study has been conducted to examine the sensitivity of domestic and international databases to locate Iranian articles related to substance abuse disorders or addiction. Iranian articles in three domestic databases (Iranpsych, Iranmedex, and SID) and three international databases (PsycInfo, Embase, and Medline) were compared, separately. All articles in English or Persian related to the subject in one year period (2002) were selected by two reviewers. The log linear model was applied to estimate the total number of articles and sensitivity of each database. As a whole, 129 Persian articles and 29 English articles related to addiction were found in six domestic and international databases. Among domestic databases the sensitivity o...