Editorial
Marieke van der Waal
Review Article
Abbas Rezaianzadeh; Seyedeh Leila Dehghani; Masoomeh Mousavi; Ramin Rezaeianzadeh
Abstract
Background: Uterus cancer is one of the main causes of death in the female population, which mostly occurs in low- or middle-income countries. Up to now, many descriptive studies have been conducted on the prevalence of uterus cancer in Iran and its relationship with various factors. Thus, the present ...
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Background: Uterus cancer is one of the main causes of death in the female population, which mostly occurs in low- or middle-income countries. Up to now, many descriptive studies have been conducted on the prevalence of uterus cancer in Iran and its relationship with various factors. Thus, the present study aimed to summarize the data relevant to the incidence of uterus cancer in Iran.
Methods: All the published reports on the incidence of uterus cancer in Iran were gathered through exploration of international journals. Accordingly, population-based articles and those that defined the topic clearly and reported age-specific rate (ASR) were included in the study. In order to extract the required information, all the articles were studied carefully and some were entered in the report.
Results: Out of the 130 articles, three were selected through careful screening for the final report. These studies were performed on 1086, 8359 and 652 cases and reported ASRs of 0.01, 0.027, and 0.026 in 1000 individuals, respectively.
Discussion: In this study, the incidence of uterus cancer and its geographical diversity in Iran was systematically taken into consideration for the first time. A total of 19875 individuals were studied in three selected articles. The results indicated that the incidence of this cancer followed an ascending trend.
Research Article
Nahid Khalilnejad; Mohammad Hossein Sorbi
Abstract
Background: The identification of maternal health status is a fundamental principle for any society, because mothers play an important role in the education of healthy children for the future of a country.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between the general health ...
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Background: The identification of maternal health status is a fundamental principle for any society, because mothers play an important role in the education of healthy children for the future of a country.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between the general health and resiliency of mothers of school-age children in the city of Yazd, Iran.
Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 122 mothers with school-age children who referred to Parnian Counseling and Psychological Center in Yazd during 2014. Of these numbers, 59 women had children with learning difficulties who were being treated by a psychologist. Convenient sampling method was used in this study. Data were collected from a demographic information form, general health questionnaire (GHQ), and a resiliency assessment (CD-IRSC). Data were analyzed using SPSS-18 and descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient, T-test, and stepwise regression).
Results: The results showed a significant relationship between general health and components of somatic symptoms, anxiety, depression, and social dysfunction with resiliency in mothers of school age children. There was no significant difference between the general health and resiliency among mothers of children with learning difficulties and those without such difficulties (P > 0.05). It also became clear that social dysfunction, anxiety, and sleep disorder have the highest ability to predict resiliency among mothers (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Based on our results, we can infer that the greater the mental health of mothers, the greater their ability to cope with life events. So, faced with unpleasant events such as fear and disease, they can show a better response.
Research Article
Ahmad Kalateh Sadati; Farnaz Rahnavard; Bahia Namavar Jahromi
Abstract
Background: Infertility is a complex phenomenon, which threatens everyone and every family. Females are threatened more due to various social differences.
Objectives: The goal of this study was to explore the experiences of infertile females, who had referred to a public center of infertility in Shiraz, ...
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Background: Infertility is a complex phenomenon, which threatens everyone and every family. Females are threatened more due to various social differences.
Objectives: The goal of this study was to explore the experiences of infertile females, who had referred to a public center of infertility in Shiraz, Iran.
Methods: This was a qualitative study based on four focus groups and four in-depth interviews with 25 infertile females. Transcribed data were analyzed using conventional content analysis.
Results: Four themes were extracted from the data, which were life without excitement, social pressures, low self-esteem and treatment problems. Although it seems that these themes are variable, they present a total reality, which leads to a bitter life.
Conclusions: Infertile females are under multidimensional pressures involving psychological, social and economic aspects of their life and interpersonal relationships. This condition leads to a bitter situation for these people.
Research Article
Nooshin Zarei; Hassan Joulaei; Mohammad Fararouei
Abstract
Background: Quality of life (QoL) is a broad construct and can be influenced by many factors. Perceived stigma is inevitable in patients with HIV. Therefore, it is an important factor to understand their QoL.
Objectives: The current study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the perceived ...
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Background: Quality of life (QoL) is a broad construct and can be influenced by many factors. Perceived stigma is inevitable in patients with HIV. Therefore, it is an important factor to understand their QoL.
Objectives: The current study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the perceived stigma among HIV-positive women and their QoL in Shiraz, Iran.
Patients and Methods: In this quantitative study, 110 HIV-positive women were selected by simple random sampling method. A questionnaire was designed and used as a tool for data collection. The questionnaire included demographic information, internal stigma scale, and the ACTG short form-21 (SF-21) for measuring QoL. Data were collected from March to August 2015 and analyzed using t- test, Pearson’s correlations, and the multiple regression test with the SPSS software version 21.
Results: The mean age of the women was 37.86 ± 9.03 years. Most of the participants were infected with HIV/AIDS through sex with their spouse (78.2%). About one-third of the women had physical symptoms (29.1%) of the HIV disease. The prevalence rate of perceived stigma in the sample was 69.7%. Quality of life was significantly different in terms of employment status, emotional support and physical symptoms (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: A higher level of perceived stigma among HIV-positive women is associated with a considerable decrease in all QoL dimensions. Thus, more efforts should be considered to reduce the perceived stigma and improve the QoL of such patients.
Research Article
Thanh Cong Bui; Christine M Markham; Pamela M Diamond; Ly Thi-Hai Tran; Michael W Ross; Huong Thi-Hoai Nguyen; Thach Ngoc Le
Abstract
Background: The conceptualization and measurement of gender-based relations and equity are still challenging to researchers worldwide. Given a growing number of health studies which want to take into account the roles of gender relations, there is a need for quantitative measures of this determinant.
Objectives: ...
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Background: The conceptualization and measurement of gender-based relations and equity are still challenging to researchers worldwide. Given a growing number of health studies which want to take into account the roles of gender relations, there is a need for quantitative measures of this determinant.
Objectives: Based on the theory of gender and power and results from our previous qualitative work, this analysis aims to examine the applicability, reliability, and validity of a set of self-perceived gender-relation measures in the Mekong delta of Vietnam.
Methods: Data came from a cross-sectional survey of 1181 undergraduate female students from two universities. Second-order latent variable modeling was used to examine applicability of theoretical structures and validity of measuring items. Single-factor modeling was employed to screen for the most relevant dimensions of self-perceived gender relations.
Results: The second-order modeling showed good fit, suggesting that the theory well explained self-perceptions of gender relations. The consistency of models across 500 hypothetical bootstrapping samples further substantiated factorial validity of measures. Students who ever had a boyfriend held slightly different perceptions of gender relations compared to those who never had a boyfriend.
Conclusions: The final parsimonious set of measures which had best loadings onto perceived subordination consisted of ten dimensions; this provides a practical application to measure self-perceived gender relations in other health research.
Discussion
Fariba Rezaei; Sedigheh Ebrahimi
Abstract
Nowadays different crimes are committed by people enticed away from the truth and deceived by devil, only to achieve their per-sonal goals and maintain their individual liberty. One of the greatest sins committed in this world is abortion. The fetus is a humanbeing from the very beginning and has the ...
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Nowadays different crimes are committed by people enticed away from the truth and deceived by devil, only to achieve their per-sonal goals and maintain their individual liberty. One of the greatest sins committed in this world is abortion. The fetus is a humanbeing from the very beginning and has the right to live. Although the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to herbody, her rights cannot be privileged over those of the unborn child. Therefore, the life of every human being should be respected.The most common attempts were made to show that the unborn child does not have the right to burden the female reproductiverights and women’s right to abortion. According to the universal declaration of human rights, every human being has the naturalright over his own life and this rule encompasses all members of the human society including human embryo. All of them are sup-posed to have human personality and ethical rights. Thus, it is not permitted to deprive an embryo of his future life. The purposein the current overview was to attempt an explanation of the questionable notion of the abortion. The paper puts forward a briefargument about abortion versus the right of fetus to live.
