Global, Regional, and National Levels and Trends in Burden of Oral Conditions from 1990 to 2017: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study.

Government and nongovernmental organizations need national and global estimates on the descriptive epidemiology of common oral conditions for policy planning and evaluation. The aim of this component of the Global Burden of Disease study was to produce estimates on prevalence, incidence, and years lived with disability for oral conditions from 1990 to 2017 by sex, age, and countries. In addition, this study reports the global socioeconomic pattern in burden of oral conditions by the standard World Bank classification of economies as well as the Global Burden of Disease Socio-demographic Index. The findings show that oral conditions remain a substantial population health challenge. Globally, there were 3.5 billion cases (95% uncertainty interval [95% UI], 3.2 to 3.7 billion) of oral conditions, of which 2.3 billion (95% UI, 2.1 to 2.5 billion) had untreated caries in permanent teeth, 796 million (95% UI, 671 to 930 million) had severe periodontitis, 532 million (95% UI, 443 to 622 million) had untreated caries in deciduous teeth, 267 million (95% UI, 235 to 300 million) had total tooth loss, and 139 million (95% UI, 133 to 146 million) had other oral conditions in 2017. Several patterns emerged when the World Bank's classification of economies and the Socio-demographic Index were used as indicators of economic development. In general, more economically developed countries have the lowest burden of untreated dental caries and severe periodontitis and the highest burden of total tooth loss. The findings offer an opportunity for policy makers to identify successful oral health strategies and strengthen them; introduce and monitor different approaches where oral diseases are increasing; plan integration of oral health in the agenda for prevention of noncommunicable diseases; and estimate the cost of providing universal coverage for dental care.

Spirituality and spiritual care in Iran: nurses' perceptions and barriers.

AIM: This study aimed to explore the perception of Iranian nurses concerning spiritual care and to reveal any confronted barriers. BACKGROUND: Although the context of spiritual care is a substantial aspect of holistic care, the delivery of spiritual care has been problematic due to lack of nurses' understanding of this concept. INTRODUCTION: Nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care directly influence their performance as well as their relationships with patients. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2013 with 259 nurses working in hospitals affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Data were collected using the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale alongside qualitative open-ended questions. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the quantitative data and content analysis for the qualitative data. RESULTS: The overall average for spirituality and spiritual care was 2.84 (score range: 1-4), indicating a moderate mean score. A significant relationship was found between education level and spiritual care. The majority of participants believed that they did not receive enough training in this aspect of care. The main obstacles regarding delivering spiritual care included busy working schedules, insufficient knowledge regarding spiritual care, low motivation, diversity of patients' spiritual needs and feeling 'unqualified' to provide spiritual cares. DISCUSSION: Consistent with the previous studies, this study has demonstrated that nurses had low confidence to meet the spiritual needs of patients due to lack of knowledge and training in this regard. CONCLUSION: Iranian nurses' perception of spirituality and spiritual care is moderate, reflecting that they do not receive sufficient training regarding spiritual care. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND/OR HEALTH POLICY: Despite the attention focused on spiritual care in clinical settings in Iran, there remains a significant gap in terms of meeting the spiritual needs of patients in nursing practice. This finding assists nursing clinicians, educators and policy makers to more effectively approach spiritual care as a beneficial component of holistic care. It is proposed that more emphasis is placed on integrating spirituality content into educational programmes to enable more effective clinical delivery. In addition, it would be beneficial to implement more widespread cultural assessment in order to further benefit spiritual care practices.

[Contribution of Persian physicians to the development of Islamic medicine]. / Doprinos perzijskih lijecnika razvoju islamske medicine.

In this article We have tried to reconsider the chronological appearance and influence of iranian physicians during periods before and after appearance of Islam until the penetration of contemporary medicine in Iran, e.i. up to 19th century AD. The priority has been put to mention names of scientists as well as their works and new thoughts, to expose, without exclusivity and national attitudes, part of efforts of iranian scientists in medical field. My main goal and intention was: first-to correct mistakes undertaken by some scientists who had seen books written in arabic language and so considered those scientific works as a part of arabic-islamic heritage, and second-to introduce and present iranian medical heritage of middle ages while Europe was in neglected dreams.