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Background: Health literacy (HL) has been recognized as an important concept in patient education and disease prevention. The rising burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Iran is significant. Hence, we designed and validated an HL questionnaire on the most important domains of NCDs, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer. Methods: Literature review was conducted to examine the definition and dimensions of HL. After reaching consensus about the HL dimensions and conceptual models in focus group discussions with experts, they designed questions in each domain. Then, face, content, and construct validity as well as reliability were determined by a pilot study on 72 participants. At the end, a cross-sectional study was implemented on 206 Hamedan university employees, to finalize the questionnaire. Results: After doing the pilot study and analyzing the collected data and according to the Bartlett's test of sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin = 0.421 with P < 0.001, factor analysis was used. Considering the eigenvalue >1.4, a 27-item questionnaire in seven domains was obtained which included attitude toward health, understanding information, social support, socioeconomic conditions, access to health services, and application of health information. Cronbach's alpha was more than 0.70 in all domains except the last one (0.47). The second phase showed that overall 75.2% of the individuals had inadequate HL with lowest scores in the application of health information. Conclusions: The designed tool seems appropriate for measuring the HL level among the Iranian population in the field of prevention of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. The results can help policy makers to improve health promotion interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Women play a central role in the health of the whole family, but they are faced with more barriers while taking part in physical activities. Methods: This study was composed of two main phases. In the first phase, the status of physical activity among young and adolescent in Iran and global evidence of effective interventions were searched. In the second phase, Focused Group Discussion (FGD) sessions were held with the key stakeholders in Tehran to investigate the results obtained from the first phase. Results: Physical activity among young and adolescent in Iran is inadequate. Based on the results obtained from the evidence and analysis of the FGDs, solutions defined as supporting policies, supporting environment, and supporting programs for physical activities. Conclusions: Multilevel cooperation among schools, families, and society is necessary to develop and implement policies and supporting programs, with an emphasis on combined interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicide is a commonly encountered and stressful event in professional life of any psychiatrist. Suicide risk assessment is a major gateway to patient treatment and management. It is a core competency requirement in training of psychiatry. The present study designed to assesseducational needsfor suicide prevention in residents of psychiatry in two medical schools in Iran, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) and Shahid Beheshti Medical University (SBUMS) inTehran. Methods: This was a qualitative triangulation study, conducted in two steps. The first step was based on a phenomenological approach and the second was based on focus groups. The studied population was the psychiatric residents of IUMS and SBUMS. Purposive sampling was implemented until saturation. Interviews were performed. Colaizzi method was used to analyze the data. In the second step, participants attended a session, in which all final codes of the first step were discussed, and regarding the views, educational priorities and needs were listed. Results: A total of 2047 codes, extracted from 31 interviews, analyzed through Colaizzi method, were categorized in three groups: Educational, facilities and processes, human resources. Conclusions: According to defects of current educational program, we suggest regular reevaluations and revisions of clinical training programs according to current needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Development of a manual or well-defined criterion for prioritizing the topics of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) will help validate and organize this process evermore. This study was conducted to design an applicable manual that would prioritize the CPG topics for family physicians., Methods: This study was a multi-stage method using a qualitative approach that was conducted for the manual developing. The manual development process took place in four steps, as follows: Literature review, interviews with ten experts, preparing a list of criteria and determining its appropriateness by applying the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness method, and development of the final draft of the manual and pilot study., Results: Interview transcripts went under content analysis and were classified into eight main groups, 12 subgroups, and 85 themes. A comprehensive list consisting of fifty preliminary criteria were extracted. After summarizing and classifying the criteria, 12 appropriate criteria were evaluated using the RAND appropriateness method. Eventually, based on the literature review and our own results of the interview analysis, a manual consisting of five main sections and one clause on ethics was developed. Later, a pilot study was conducted on ten family physician topics, and prioritized by nine experts., Conclusions: The manual can be eyed as a tool ensuring the quality of the process of prioritizing CPG topics for family physicians, as it takes into account the issues involved in priority-setting. Selecting informed stakeholders for rating the criteria and ranking the topics was an issue that was greatly emphasized by the experts. Eventually, the application of this manual can be the first step toward systematizing the process of prioritizing CPG topics in the country.