Public Stroke Knowledge, Awareness, and Response to Acute Stroke in Isfahan Iran: What is Less or Misinterpreted in Developing Countries.

BACKGROUND: Considering the high burden of stroke in developing countries, it is important for the community to have adequate information and awareness of this disease. In this study, the baseline knowledge of an Iranian population towards stroke has been evaluated. METHOD: This study was conducted in a governmental hospital in Isfahan, Iran. The participants were selected from the companions of non-cardio-vascular hospitalized patients. A self-administered questionnaire was designed for gathering information RESULTS: A total of 630 questionnaires were analysed. Hypertension and stress were the most frequently identified risk factors (recognised by 83.7% and 75.8% respectively), while pregnancy, oral contraceptives, and anti-coagulants were the least (recognised by 3.5%, 14.2% and 15.8% respectively). Knowledge of other important risk factors such as cardiac diseases was also relatively low (39.4%). Sudden visual difficulties and irrelevant speech were the least identified warning signs of stroke (45.3% and 34.6% respectively), however, knowledge towards all other warning signs was moderately good (each identified by 60-70%). Importantly only 44.2% of respondents were aware that stroke treatment should be started within the first 3 hours. Participants tended to have moderately good insight of most stroke complications and rehabilitation (60-70%). Urban residence, high level of education and knowing someone with a history of stroke were significant predictors of a higher level of stroke awareness. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate that there is a need to improve general knowledge of cardiac and hypercoagulable related risk factors. Furthermore, understanding of the importance of time critical stroke management and the ineffectiveness of traditional medicine needs to be raised in the general community.

Joint Disease Mapping of Breast, Uterine, and Ovarian Cancers in Cities of Isfahan Province from 2005 to 2010 Using Spatial Shared Component Model.

BACKGROUND: Breast, uterine, and ovarian cancers are the most prevalent types of cancers among women. The aim of this study was to estimate the relative risk of these cancers and recognizing spatial patterns of their shared and specific risk factors in cities of Isfahan province, one of the most populated provinces of Iran, using spatial shared component model. METHODS: In this ecological study, the population consisted of all the registered patients having breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers in the cities of Isfahan from 2005 to 2010. In order to simultaneously analyze these diseases and clarify common and specific patterns of disease, spatial Shared component model was applied. Model fitting was done using Bayesian inference in OpenBUGS software. RESULTS: The highest relative risk of breast cancer was seen in Isfahan (4.96), Shahreza (2.37), Dehaghan (5.01), Lenjan (2.33), and Najafabad (2.68), respectively. For ovarian cancer, Isfahan (4.29), Shahreza (2.51), Dehaghan (5.02), Lenjan (2.06), Najafabad (2.00), and Borkhar (2.39) had the highest relative risk, respectively. However, no significant difference was seen among the cities for uterine cancer (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Since ovarian and uterine cancers are the less prevalent disease in comparison with breast cancer, the preciseness of these estimates were improved remarkably over simple mapping models. Based on this model, the estimates were done according to the correlation between the diseases. After recognizing the spatial patterns of the shared and specific risk factors and reviewing of previous studies, regardless of risk factors data, environmental pollution arises as a potential risk factor.

Mapping the relative risk of weight disorders in children and adolescents across provinces of Iran: the CASPIAN-V study.

Background: This study aimed to find possible spatial variation in children's weight disorders and in predicting the spatial distribution. Methods: The study population of this ecological study consisted of 7-18-year-old students living in 30 provinces of Iran. We used Besag, York and Mollie (BYM) model, a Bayesian model, to study the relative risk (RR) of underweight and excess weight (overweight and obese). The model was fitted to data using OpenBUGS (3.2.1) software. Results: The highest RR of underweight was found in southeastern provinces. Whereas, the highest RR of excess weight was documented in northern, northwestern and capital provinces.Sistan-Balouchestan (RR=1.973; Bayesian confidence interval [BCI]: 1.682, 2.289), Hormozgan(RR=1.482; BCI: 1.239, 1.749), South Khorasan (RR=1.422; BCI: 1.18, 1.687) and Kerman(RR=1.413; BCI: 1.18, 1.669) had the highest RR of underweight. Mazandaran (RR=1.366; BCI:1.172,1.581), Gilan (RR=1.346; BCI: 1.15,1.562), Tehran (RR=1.271; BCI: 1.086,1.472) and Alborz (RR=1.268; BCI: 1.079,1.475) provinces are high risk regions for excess weight. Conclusion: The significant variations in geographical distribution of weight disorders are because of various sociodemographic and ethnic differences. The current findings should be considered in health policy making in different regions of the country.