Behavioral and Environmental Health

The marginal zones of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf have a higher prevalence of thalassemia compared to other regions of Iran. This disease has disabled many people and resulted in increasing health care costs. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of b-thalassemia (b-thal) and to evaluate the outcome of applied preventive strategies over a 14-year period in Fars Province, Southern Iran. This cross-sectional study comprised all new cases of b-thal recorded during 1997-2011. The data were obtained from the

The present study compared the nutritional status of schoolchildren from recently settled, ethnic minority tribespeople with those from a Persian village in southern Iran. Height and weight were measured and blood was collected from school children at three time points over 1·5 years. Supplemental Fe was provided to children with low Hb after the first screening. Twenty-one per cent of the children were wasted, 57 % were stunted and 23 % were anaemic. No statistically significant difference in the prevalence of wasting, stunting and anaemia was found between gender or ethnic groups. Children over the age of 12 years had a higher prevalence of wasting than children aged below 12 years. In a sub-sample of forty-one children the average BMI-for-age decreased. Fe supplementation increased Hb levels to normal in most children, but did not increase Fe level in a few children. Dietary deficiency of micronutrients, especially Zn and Fe, probably accounts for the high prevalence of stunting ...

Anthropological field research in Iran, mainly in the village of Aliabad and in nearby Shiraz in southwest Iran, has documented radical social, cultural, religious and economic change over the last 28 years. Increasing emphasis on the nuclear rather than the extended family and pressures for geographic and social mobility have profoundly influenced the lives of the elderly. The traditional family system of support for elders-with regard to emotional and social needs, as well as financial assistance and physical care-is breaking down. Social scientists, social workers and health personnel must focus on adequately addressing the needs and concerns of the Iranian elderly in the twenty-first century and on developing alternative systems to deal with key elderly issues of health, well-being and social incorporation.

Background: The purpose of this study is to assess attitudes toward premarital dating and sexual encounters in individuals aged 15-49 years in Tehran. Methods: Utilizing the attitudes section of an original cross-sectional study (n = 755) aimed at assessing sexual health needs of adults, this paper examined personal attitudes towards premarital dating, non-sexual relationships and sexual encounters in both male and female adults aged between 15-49 years. Multi-stage cluster random sampling and a validated/reliable questionnaire were used. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted using statistical software. Results: The results indicated that the majority of the participants were supportive of dating. Almost three-fourths of the males were more positively inclined towards non-sexual, yet tactile, affectionate interactions between unmarried males and females as opposed to only half of the females (70 % vs. 50.5 %). Also, males held significantly more liberal attitudes than females in their acceptance of premarital sex. On preserving virginity prior to marriage, 43 % of the males felt that it was important for a female to be a virgin, whereas only 26 % felt it was important for males to remain a virgin. Interestingly, more females (61 %) supported the importance of a female's virginity compared with the importance of males' virginity (48 %). This study showed that, being a male, of a younger age, single, and being less religious or being secular were important determinants of a liberal sexual attitude. Conclusion: These results might reflect a socio-cultural transition in the sexual attitudes of different age groups of participants-a phenomenon that will need empirical studies to unpack in the Iranian socio-cultural context.

Objective: This study among 400 undergraduate students enrolled at Jackson State University (JSU) study aimed to assess knowledge about HIV and AIDS among African-American undergraduate students attending a historically black college and university. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. Data were collected using a validated, self-administered, and standardized questionnaire on knowledge regarding risks for HIV and AIDS. Three hundred and eighty-six students (96.5%) had good knowledge about HIV and AIDS, although some participants had misconceptions about the modes of HIV infection transmission. There were no significant gender differences for HIV and AIDS knowledge among the participants (χ2 = 3.05; P = 0.08). In general we concluded that JSU undergraduate students had adequate knowledge about HIV transmission modes and AIDS, although some participants had misconceptions about the routes of HIV infection transmission. Hence, this study calls for strengthening HIV and AIDS awarenes...

Evidence suggests that health care in the United States could benefit from including the services of Community Health Workers (CHW), provided through Community Health Houses, in the delivery of care. This research project evaluated the impact of three newly-established Health Houses and the services provided to patients by Community Health Workers at three locations in the Mississippi Delta. The patients were current enrollees in the Medicare administered by United Healthcare. The program began in February 2014 and continued through September 2015. After analyzing data for payments made for each enrollee, emergency room visits and hospital admissions for the years of 2013, 2014, and 2015, we found significant decreases in the cost of health care for enrollees, the frequency of emergency room visits, and hospital admissions during the period 2013-2015. These reductions were especially marked during the years 2014 and 2015, and suggest that health care costs, patient visits to the eme...

In order to teach suitable feeding and hygiene practices to a group of randomly selected Qashqa'i tribe families with 406 children aged 0–59 months, a culturally appropriate community-based education intervention approach was used. To assess the impact of the intervention on the study group, another group of families with 405 children were randomly selected to serve as the controls. At the beginning of the intervention programme both groups of children had access to a similar diet, consisting of cereals, beans, oil, sugar, milk and yoghurt. Baseline data, age, gender, weight, height and mean arm circumference (MAC), were obtained before the intervention. Using Hubley's behavioural change model, the components of which deal with beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms and enabling factors, the research team studied the behaviour of the family members and tried to change their nutritional behaviour. This was achieved by designing a suitable education programme to be carried out f...

Introducing the Jackson State University School of Public Health Building on its historic mission of empowering diverse students to become leaders in various fields, Jackson State University began a public health program within the School of Allied Health Sciences in 1999. The program, with five concentrations, operated under the Department of Public Health for several years. In anticipation of becoming a School of Public Health, the Department of Public Health was reorganized into three departments, added the Department of Communicative Disorders, and became the School of Health Sciences in 2006.

This presentation reports on the participation patterns observed in four graduate courses offered at a large, urban, public university in [2006][2007]. All courses were taught by the same instructor. This instructor has been using hybrid teaching methods for more than a decade at several levels of public education, and recently developed a hybrid course design encouraging flexible student participation patterns -the HyFlex course. All students in this study were enrolled in a graduate program in Instructional Technologies leading to a Master of Arts degree. In each course, a mix of face-to-face and online students used a course website (hosted in an open source Learning Management System) to share files, access course information, review past class discussions in various formats, and engage in occasional topical discussions. In addition, online students had the option to participate in live online sessions using a synchronous web conferencing tool. All students were invited to participate either in face-to-face sessions or through online activities in any given week of the semester, depending on their needs and desires. Student participation mode (in-class or online) did vary considerably from week to week in each course. Most students reported that they valued in-class activities and static website resources more than synchronous online sessions or multimedia archives of synchronous (in-class or online) activities. Students felt a strong connection to the course instructor, and most students reported that they met or exceeded their learning expectations. The paper includes a sample of student comments regarding the HyFlex course experience, with a link to raw (aggregate) survey data.

Summary The emergence of COVID-19, caused by novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, became a pandemic in just 10 weeks. Without effective medications or vaccines available, authorities turned toward mitigation measures such as use of face masks, school’s closings, shelter-in-place, telework and social distancing. People found refuge on the internet and social media apps; however, there was a proliferation of instant messaging containing hoaxed, deliberate misleading information: fake news messaging (FNM). The aim of this study was to assess FNM through content analysis and to discriminate them in a proposed taxonomy structure. A sample of convenience of messages, memes, tweets or cartoons in several languages was selected from the most popular social media outlets, i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter etc. More than 300 FNM were identified. Descriptive statistics were used for highlighting potential relationships between variables. Content analysis determined that FNM could be divided into Healt...

The Role of Acculturation in Nutrition Behaviors among Low Income Hispanic Women Living in Texas. (August 2012) Nelson Alberto Atehortua, B.S., University of Cartagena, Colombia; M.S., Northern University, Colombia; M.S., Western Kentucky University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Ellisa Jones-McKyer The purpose of this study was to determine the role of acculturation in the food consumption patterns of low income Hispanic women living in Texas and enrolled in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program by testing the following hypotheses: a) There are significant differences in consumption of fruit and vegetables by selected socio-demographic variables; and, b) less healthy food consumption patterns are associated with higher levels of acculturation in health-related research involving lowincome Hispanic women living in Texas. A secondary-data analysis of the responses to the Texas Food & Nutrition (TEXFAN) questionnaire was performed. TEXFAN is a 122-item survey designed to me...