Monitoring the utilization and effectiveness of Iron and Vitamin D supplementations program and its predictive factors in high schools' girls in Qom, Iran.

Background: Iron and Vitamin D3 deficiency is one of the major global health problems in teenagers and adolescent population. This study was aimed to monitor the utilization and predictive factors of Iron and Vitamin D Supplementations Program (IVDSP) in high schools' girls. Methods: In a cross sectional study, the pattern of Iron and D3 consumption based on IVDSP on 400 high schools' girl in Qom, Iran assesses. Data collection was used by a reliable and standard researcher based questionnaire and daily, weekly, monthly and seasonally consumption of complementary minerals in schools were gathered. Data analysis conducted using SPSS version 20 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) by chi square, independent t-test and multivariate logistic regression. Results: The mean age of subjects was 15.14 ± 1.52 years and ranged from 12 to 18 years old. The total weekly prevalence of D3 and Iron consumption in high schools' girls was calculated 36.73% and the weekly prevalence of Iron and monthly prevalence of Vitamin D3 consumption was 33.75% and 40.5%, respectively. The most common causes of non-consumption were bad taste 49.31%, Iranian made drug 20.27%, drug sensitivity 19.82% and drug interaction 10.60%, respectively. Conclusions: The inadequate and incomplete rate of IVDSP in Qom was high and more than 60% of distributed supplementations have been wasted. Results showed that students who were participated in educational orientation classes were more successful and eager in Iron and Vitamin D3 consumption. Therefore, more educational explanatory interventions for both students and her parents recommended to increase the efficiency of the program.

Tobacco tax and price in the developed and developing countries in the World.

An ecologic study was conducted on 177 countries which the information of tobacco tax and price and also Human Development Index (HDI) was available in 2014. In this study, the relationship between HDI and four reported indexes by World Health Organization (WHO) was studied. These four indexes included: Tobacco affordability, Taxes as a percent of price of the most sold brand (total tax), Price of a 20 cigarette pack of the most sold brand international dollars at purchasing power parity (Price_ppp) and Price of a 20 cigarette pack of the most sold brand in US$ at official exchange rates (Price_US$). The data of HDI and tobacco were mined from WHO and United Nations Development Programme sites respectively. To study the correlation between HDI and the variables of this study, Pearson correlation coefficient was used and also Linear Regression Analysis was used to study the relationship between HDI and the variables of the study. According to the findings of the linear regression analysis, there was a significant relationship between HDI and total tax (B = 0.81, CI 95%: 0.63-0.99) and tobacco affordability (B = --0.35, CI 95%: --0.42 _ --0.28). There was also a significant relationship between HDI whit price-ppp (B = 9.44, CI 95%: 7.13-11.75) and price-US$ ;(B = 11.97, CI 95%: 9.71-14.23). According to the findings of this study, less developed countries devote less tax on tobacco. Due to the rising trend of the prevalence and also development of non-communicable diseases such as lung cancer in developing countries, policy makers of these countries are required to design stricter policies toward tobacco production and supply as well.