Are healthy lifestyle behaviors positively associated with the academic achievement of the university students?

INTRODUCTION: Universally, the number of students attending the university education is high and increasing. The future of academic graduates is affected by their academic achievement. The purpose of the research was to assess the correlation among academic achievement and healthy lifestyle behaviors in university students. METHODS: This cross-sectional research was conducted on 262 university students studying in the selected faculties of Babol University of Medical Sciences based on multi stage sampling technique. The students were categorized to low and high academic achievement groups according to grade point average (GPA) score at the end of the semesters. The health-promoting lifestyle profile with six domains was applied to determine healthy lifestyle behaviors. To investigate the adjusted correlation among the health promoting lifestyle's domains and academic achievement, the multi-variable logistic regression was used. RESULTS: The average age of the university students was 21.36 ± 2.28 years. According to the results, some domains of healthy lifestyle behaviors between the low and the high academic achievement groups were different significantly. The results demonstrated that the spiritual growth (the only domain of healthy lifestyle behaviors) (PV = 0.002) and living situation (PV = 0.043) were significant factors affecting academic achievement. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that the public health and educa-tion professionals should try to improve the students' academic achievement through holding periodic training workshops to promote the their spiritual growth and also consider more quotas for native students to the universities.

Structural challenges in the health domain of the health system reform: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Considering that the Qom University of Medical Sciences was a pioneer to implement the health system reform (HSR) in the domain of health services and the lack of a study that has addressed the challenges and strategies to promote the HSR in the health domain, this study was designed to explain the structural challenges and its solutions in the health domain of the HSR in the city of Qom, Iran, 2017. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was a qualitative research. The health managers, the health-care providers, and the recipients of health services referring to the health centers in Qom were the participants in this study who were selected using the convenience sampling method. The data were collected using individual interviews and with the guidance of a semi-structured questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed by the qualitative content analysis method with an inductive approach. After extracting the challenges of the HSR in the health domain through a qualitative approach, these challenges were prioritized through Delphi's technique in terms of relevance and resolving strategies. RESULTS: From the perspective of the study participants, the structural challenges of HSR in the health domain in order of importance and priority included problems due to the SIB system, defects in the instructions, the disruptions caused by multitasking, poor service coverage, incomplete health-care packages, and the shortage of resources. CONCLUSION: According to the findings of this study, we hoped that the HSR in the health area can be improved to increase its success by modifying the guidelines and the coverage of services, modifying the SIB system, providing requires resources, completing the service packages, and solving the multitasking problem.

Health-Promoting Behaviors and Their Predictors in Iranian Women of Reproductive Age: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Health-promoting behaviors are one of the main determinative components of health in the prevention of many diseases. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine health-promoting behaviors and their relationship to sociodemographic variables on 330 women of reproductive age admitted to the selected primary health-care centers in Qom city (one of the biggest cities in Iran) from March 2016 to July 2016. Data were collected using the health-promoting lifestyle profile II (HPLP-II) questionnaire and the sociodemographic characteristics and also were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance, with post hoc (if necessary), and multivariable linear regression. The total HPLP-II mean score of women was 136.64 ± 22.37. The highest score in the HPLP-II subscales of women was found for interpersonal relations subscale (26.43 ± 4.21) and the lowest score for physical activity subscale (14.66 ± 4.62). The educational level and income had significant association with some subscales ( p < .05).

Social Capital as a Determinant of Self-Rated Health in Women of Reproductive Age: A Population-Based Study.

INTRODUCTION: Recognition of the factors related to women's health is necessary. Evidence is available that the social structure including social capital plays an important role in the shaping people's health. The aim of the current study was to investigate the association between self-rated health and social capital in women of reproductive age. METHODS: This study is a population-based cross-sectional survey on 770 women of reproductive age, residing in any one of the 22 municipality areas across Tehran (capital of Iran) with the multi stage sampling technique. Self-rated health (Dependent variable), social capital (Independent variable) and covariates were studied. Analysis of data was done by one-way ANOVA test and multiple linear regressions. RESULTS: Depending on logistic regression analyses, the significant associations were found between self-rated health and age, educational level, crowding index, sufficiency of income for expenses and social cohesion. Data show that women with higher score in social cohesion as an outcome dimension of social capital have better self-rated health (PV = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Given the findings of this study, the dimensions of social capital manifestations (groups and networks, trust and solidarity, collective action and cooperation) can potentially lead to the dimensions of social capital outcomes (social cohesion and inclusion, and empowerment and political action). Following that, social cohesion as a dimension of social capital outcomes has positively relationship with self- rated health after controlling covariates. Therefore, it is required to focus on the social capital role on health promotion and health policies.