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Background: Considering that women are the main components of family health and the main models for education and promotion of healthy lifestyles to the next generation, the study of lifestyle and effective factors in promoting women’s health, especially at reproductive age, is of great importance. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the predictors of a health-promoting lifestyle in women of reproductive age in Zahedan based on Pender’s health promotion model (HPM). Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 200 women aged 15 - 49 in Zahedan, Southeastern Iran, using multi-stage cluster sampling in 2019. The instruments used to collect the data were the demographic information form, the Perceived Self-Efficacy scale, the Perceived Social Support scale, the Perceived Emotions scale, the Perceived Barriers scale, and the health-promoting lifestyle profile II. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple linear regression analysis using the enter method in SPSS software (version 25). Results: The mean score of health-promoting lifestyle was 69.82 ± 13.59 out of the score range of 32 to 128. The highest and lowest mean scores were related to the nutrition subscale (20.08 ± 4.3) and the exercise subscale (14.19 ± 4.51), respectively. It was shown that the health-promoting lifestyle had a significant positive correlation with perceived self-efficacy, perceived social support, and perceived emotions (P = 0.001) and a significant negative correlation with perceived barriers (P = 0.005). The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed perceived self-efficacy (P = 0.001), perceived social support, and perceived emotions were predictors of a health-promoting lifestyle in women of reproductive age (P = 0.05, P = 0.001), and these three variables together predicted 37% of the variations in the health-promoting lifestyle score. Conclusions: This study showed that women with 54.68% of the total lifestyle score did not have an acceptable lifestyle. Besides, perceived self-efficacy was the most important factor and the strongest predictor of women’s health-promoting lifestyle. Accordingly, some interventions must be planned and implemented to improve the health-promoting lifestyle in women of reproductive age and increase their self-efficacy.

Background and aims The differences in prevalence of malnutrition are mostly on account of social factors. However, we did not find any published study that provided an estimate of proportion of stunting and underweight among under-5 children due to household economic conditions, social inequalities, mother's BMI and education level. Hence, study has taken to study the effect of household economic status, social inequality, mother's BMI and education on stunting and underweight among children under-5 years and its determinants. Methods The study used Kids file of NFHS-4 (2015–16), which comprised 259,627 children aged less than five years. This data was analysed by bivariate and Forward Logistic Regression techniques using M.S. Excel and IBM SPSS-22 version. Results The prevalence of stunting and underweight children was significantly higher among those born to underweight mothers, poor households, working women, and women had a home delivery. It was also high among children of 4th or higher birth order, those from scheduled castes and tribes, born to illiterate women and those residing in rural. The odds of stunting (OR = 2.67, 95% CI: 2.54–2.81) and underweight (OR = 2.74, 95% CI: 2.60–2.88) were more than two times higher among children living in poor households than among those from rich households. Poor households account for about 40% of stunted and underweight children. Fifteen percent of stunted children and 26.9% of underweight were born to underweight mothers. Overall, 60% of stunted and 56.6% of underweight children had illiterate mothers. Conclusions children of illiterate and underweight mothers, socially deprived and economically poor groups are at a higher risk of being stunted and underweight. Hence, necessary health programmes are needed for improving nutritional status by giving special attention to illiterate, underweight mothers, socially deprived and economically poor groups.