[Job stress among the nursing staff of Kashan hospitals]

Background: Job stress, the most important factor in reducing organizational productivity and the cause of psychosomatic disorders, today is more prevalent among the healthcare staff. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the level of job stress among the nursing staff of Kashan hospitals during 2009

Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 190 nurses of Kashan hospitals using the Osipow questionnaire consisted of two parts: demographic data and six stress-inducing work roles [role overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, role boundary, responsibility and physical environment]. In addition, job stress was divided into four [subnormal, normal, moderate and severe] levels

Results: Results indicated that the 95.3% of nursing staff were found to have a normal level of job stress. No significant relationship was seen between the job stress and gender; however, there was a significant relation between the role insufficiency, role boundary, responsibility and physical environment and gender. Moreover, no significant relationship was found between the job stress and some factors [e.g. age, education, marital status, income and type of hospital]. The most frequent job stressors among the men and women were responsibility [90.2%] and role ambiguity [40.9%], respectively

Conclusion: Role ambiguity, responsibility and workload are the major sources of stress among the nursing staff

[Epidemiological study of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Aran and Bidgol city from April to September 2009]

Leishmaniasis caused by leishmania protozoa can be considered as a zoonotic disease. This disease caused major health problems in some parts of Iran. Aran and Bidgol city [Isfahan province, Iran] is considered as one of the endemic foci of cutaneous leishmaniasis [Salak]. For success in controlling the disease and to provide the necessary training for high-risk groups, the epidemiological data of disease in the region is required. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 94 patients admitted to the health center of Aran and Bidgol from April to September 2009. The demographic and epidemiologic data were collected and analyzed. Thirty percent [30.8%] of patients were in the age group of 1-9 years. The number of patients in urban areas was more than that of rural areas and in men more than women. Most of these cases were seen in Aran and Bidgol city [52.1%] and then in Abuzeydabad city [22.3%], respectively. Moreover, most cases of disease were found in July [37.2%] and 54.3% and 45.7% of cases were dry and wet cutaneous sores, respectively. It seems that the high incidence of disease in age group of 1-9 years is due to the susceptibility of this age group to leishmaniasis. Therefore, regulating the control training programs in this group is suggested

[Exposure rate of cardiovascular risk factors among clients of health-care clinics in Kashan, Autumn 2010]

Background and aim: Cardiovascular diseases are noncontiguous diseases which are caused by various factors. One of the most important of these factors is an unhealthy lifestyle. In Iran this disease has been one of the problems of this late decade and in other words, in comparison with the 10 main causes of death in 2009, it has been the most prevalent death factor in Kashan. The main purpose of this research, considering this problem, was investigating the encountering rate of cardiovascular risk factors in Kashan

Methods: This descriptive study was based on 336 clients who were selected through cluster sampling in health-care clinics in Kashan. The data was gathered through filling out questionnaires. These questionnaires consisted of five separate parts on information about: demographic, disease background, nutrition, smoking and physical activity. The research data was analyzed using Chi-square test

Results: BMI mean among the samples was 25.69. The common and main risk factor among these people include: consuming fried food [%97.9], low consumption of fish [%90.8], low consumption of grain [%79.8], low consumption of egg [%75.3], high consumption of meat [%69./3], high consumption of sweet or candy [%67.9], eating fatty food [%66.7] and with little physical activity [%66.4]. There are significant relationships between life style and gender [P=0.016] and education [P=0.019], also physical activity and job [P=0.013]

Conclusion: According to the obtained results in this study, the client's life styles were not in an appropriate condition. So there is a need to pay more attention to inform people to reduce the amount of fried food, meat, fatty food and sweet and increase the balanced amounts of fish, grain and cereal, egg, fruit, vegetable in their diets. It is also recommended that they should increase body activities and decrease smoking