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Background: Hepatitis B infection is a major public health problem worldwide. An important way to prevent hepatitis infection, especially among the high-risk populations including healthcare workers is vaccination. So, this study was conducted to evaluate the post- vaccination immunologic response of health staff in Kashan University of Medical Sciences during 2012-2013. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on 227 staff randomly selected from the ones received the last dose of vaccine three months ago. Their blood samples were tested for Anti-HBs and Anti-HBc using the ELISA and RAPID tests, respectively. Results: Among 227 subjects, 167(75.6%) cases were female and 56 (24.4%) male (mean age, 31.35±7.85 years). Ninety-five percent of the women responded to the vaccine (10.8% hypo-response; 14.4% intermediate-response and 70.1% hyper-response). On the other hand, 95.3% of the men responded to the vaccine (20.4% hypo-response, 20.4% intermediate-response and 55.6% hyper-response). Conclusion: The results of this study reveal the appropriate immune responses to vaccine one year after the vaccination. Although among the subjects the immunologic response to vaccine after one period of vaccination has not been 100%, the current protocol for hepatitis B vaccine yields the remarkable response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the self- efficacy, self -esteem, social anxiety, shyness and aggression among the high school students with different levels of assertiveness. Materials and Methods: In this study, 311 first and second grade high-school students were selected from the five regions of Tehran (North, South, Central, East, and West) through cluster sampling. The low, high and moderate-assertive participants were recognized based on the mean and standard deviation of assertiveness. Multivariate analysis (MANOVA) was used to compare the research variables in the three groups. Results: The results showed a significance value of F for Wilks lambda (F=4.12, P=0.001) indicating the overall differences in different levels of assertiveness. There was a significant difference in self-efficacy (P<0.001, F: 13.77) and self-esteem (P<0.001, F: 4.80) in three groups of assertiveness. Moreover, a significant difference was found in aggression (P<0.001, F: 12.1), social anxiety (P<0.001, F: 5.24) and shyness (P<0.001, F: 8.65) among the high, low and moderate-assertive students. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the high-assertive students had the higher levels of self-efficacy and self-esteem and lower levels of social anxiety, shyness and aggression as compared to the low and moderate-assertive students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]