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Recycling is a waste management process that has attracted a lot of attention for helping protect the environment. The current research aims to determine the effect of an intervention based on the Health Promoting Schools model (Albanian's HPSM) on the recycling behaviors of primary school students. In this study, 413 primary school students in Maragheh, Iran, were randomly divided into a test group (n = 207) and a control group (n = 206). The educational intervention consisted of seven 45-minute teaching sessions and eight promotion programs for the students, two discussion sessions for the parents and two group educational sessions for the teachers. The tools used included a researcher-made questionnaire with items on awareness, attitude, performance, and participation in source-separated recycling. The validity and reliability of this tool were also measured. The questionnaires were completed in two stages in both groups, including before and three months after the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. The significance level was considered to be P < 0.05. After the intervention, a significant difference was observed in the mean scores of awareness, attitude, performance, and participation in terms of recycling among the students in the test group compared to before the intervention (P < 0.05). The mean scores of knowledge, attitude, performance, and participation also differed significantly after the intervention between the teachers and parents in the test group and the control group (P < 0.05). The use of Albanian's Health-Promoting Schools (HPS) approach is effective in improving source-separated recycling behaviors in primary school students.

Background: Theory of planned behavior (TPB) is one of the most widely used theoretical frameworks to explain addictive behaviors, such as tobacco smoking. The aim of this study is to develop and validate an instrument based on TPB variables to measure factors influencing Iranian rural adults' intention to quit waterpipe tobacco smoking. Methods: This study was performed on a sample of rural adult waterpipe consumers living in two villages in Shiraz, Southern Iran. In the beginning, the initial items of instrument were extracted from the literature review and interviews with 20 waterpipe consumers. After that, face validity and qualitative content validity of the items were appraised. To measure quantitative content validity index (CVI) and the content validity ratio (CVR), a panel of experts reviewed the items. In addition, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were applied to characterize the construct validity of the instrument. Finally, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were computed. Results: CVI and CVR of items were within the ranges of 0.89–0.95 and 0.85–0.96, respectively. EFA indicated the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (=0.71) and Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant (=912.36, df=105, p<0.0001). Principal component analysis revealed that 15 items could be grouped into four subscales that accounted for 64.97% of the variance. Based on CFA, two items were deleted. CFA results showed that the remained data were fit to the model. The Cronbach's alpha and ICC of subscales were, respectively, in the ranges of 0.72–0.87 and 0.64–0.82. Finally, a 13-item instrument with four subscales was confirmed. Conclusions: The findings reveal that the developed TPB instrument is a reliable and valid scale to identify the determinants of the intention to quit waterpipe smoking among Iranian rural adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vaccination seems to be the most critical means of halting the COVID-19 pandemic. It is crucial to understand the factors that influence COVID-19 vaccine acceptance to avoid low vaccination rates. This study intended to monitor the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and its association with socio-demographic factors and prior diagnosis of COVID-19 in Iranian adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study utilized data from the COVID-19 Population Survey of Iran (COPSIR), a repeated national survey designed to monitor COVID-19-related behavioral insights. From April 2020 to November 2021, thirteen iterations of a series of crosssectional studies involving computer-assisted telephone interviews were conducted. Results: The COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate remained above 80% until the ninth wave in February 2021, when it dropped to 62.9%. However, throughout the next four surveys, it rose gradually from 72.0% to 85.7%. The multilevel regression model revealed that the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance was significantly and positively linked with age and education. Conclusion: Despite the relatively high COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate among Iranian adults, after the emergence of vaccines on the global market and controversies about their safety in Iran, the initially high vaccine acceptance rate dropped significantly, and then increased over time and returned to its peak level (85%). According to the Commodity Theory, this rise in vaccine acceptance can be attributed to the COVID-19 vaccine shortage in the country between January and July 2022. For Iranian adults to accept vaccines more readily, health promotion programs should target the youth and the less literate adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]