Effect of a school-based oral health-education program on Iranian children: results from a group randomized trial.

Parents and school staff play important roles in promoting children's oral health. Our study goals were to investigate whether an intervention targeting parents and school staff can improve the oral-health behavior and oral-health status of schoolchildren. Three-hundred and ninety-two schoolchildren in six schools in Tehran participated in a group randomized trial from September 2010 to March 2011. Schools were randomly allocated into three groups: comprehensive, student, and control. Intervention in the comprehensive group consisted of strategies to encourage children, their parents, and school staff to increase the frequency of toothbrushing and flossing. In the student group, the intervention targeted only children. The control group received no intervention. The primary outcome was change in oral-health behaviors (brushing and flossing), while the secondary outcomes were changes in oral hygiene and Community Periodontal indices and in Health Belief Model components. Multilevel modeling was employed for data analyses. Students who were in the comprehensive intervention group brushed and flossed significantly more frequently compared with those in the student intervention group. Although students' gingival health improved significantly in the comprehensive intervention group, such significant improvement was not seen in the student group. In conclusion, promising results are seen when the oral-health education targets both school and home settings.

Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in Zanjan Province of Iran.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) varies in different geographical regions and has dramatically increased in Iran. Revealing the high prevalence rate draws the attention of policymakers and helps them allocate necessary resources. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of MS in Zanjan province of Iran. METHODS: We included all registered residents of Zanjan province with MS on the prevalence day (July 31, 2019). All cases met the McDonald criteria. All registered cases in Zanjan MS society were identified as index cases. Data regarding patient's national code, gender, age, age at the first symptom onset, city of residence, marital status, education level, occupation, ethnicity, family history of MS and the time span between symptom's onset and disease diagnosis were recorded. RESULTS: We identified 758 patients, 551 of whom (72.7%) were female. The mean age at the first symptom onset was 28.9 ±8.7 years old. The crude prevalence was 71.6 per 100,000 population (95% CI 66.6-76.9). The disease was most prevalent in Zanjan city (100.5 per 100,000). The gender-specific prevalence per 100,000 population was 105.4 for women (95% CI: 96.8-114.6) and 38.7 for men (95% CI: 33.6-44.1), with female to male ratio of 2.6. The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was calculated as expected/observed for both men and women as 2.3 (207/88.2) (551/234.1). CONCLUSIONS: Our data confirm that the MS prevalence rate is high in Zanjan province of Iran.