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Abstract Background In recent years, the food security and dietary quality of many Iranian families have deteriorated due to unprecedented inflation. Nutrition education programs can be an effective and inexpensive method to improve food quality and security. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of a comprehensive nutrition education program for low-income women who are heads of households and are covered by the Zanjan province’s welfare. Methods The food security of 2600 female-headed households covered by the Welfare of Zanjan province was evaluated using a standard 6-item questionnaire. A total of 600 women with the highest food insecurity scores were selected for the comprehensive nutrition education program. The participants received six sessions of 1.5 h of courses about how to improve the quality of their diets and manage their budgets and be physically active. At the beginning of the study and one month after the completion of the intervention, the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire designed and validated by the investigators. The scores of each section before and after the intervention were compared using paired t-test method and p values ​​of

Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of two educational methods: live practical and multimedia demonstrations of dental cast trimming.Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, all 44 dental students from Zanjan University Dental School who were studying in the 8th semester entered the study. Using simple randomization, weassigned them to two groups. Multimedia and live demonstrations were used in the intervention (n=21) and control (n=23) groups, respectively. Knowledge of students was assessed using pretestand post-test. Practical skills were compared using the students’ final semester scores. The Individual Development and Educational Assessment questionnaire was used to assess the students’ reaction to instruction. For data analysis, mean and standard deviation, and independent and paired t-tests were used. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software.Results: In terms of knowledge, the pre-test scores of the intervention and control groups were not significantly different (P=0.457), and the post-test scores of the two intervention and control groups had no significant difference (P=0.053); however, in both intervention and control groups there was a significant difference between the scores before and after the test, and the scores of both groups increased after training (P=0.001, P=0.001). In terms of practical skills, no significant difference was observed in the mean and standard deviation of the scores in the two groups (P=0.902). There was no significant difference in terms of the students’ reaction to instruction. Conclusion: All students passed this course successfully. Further, their knowledge and skills were improved in both groups. Similar to the live practical demonstration, that of the multimedia led to apositive reaction to instruction in students. Therefore, multimedia education can be used well with the traditional method and even replaces it.

Background: Privacy is one of the basic human needs and is considered one of the most important rights of patients. There is little information about respecting the privacy of patients undergoing surgery in the operating rooms of educational hospitals in Zanjan Iran. Objectives: Determine the status of respect for privacy in operating room from the perspectives of patients and staff. Methods: This is a descriptive cross sectional study. Participants in the study included 204 operating room staff and 323 patients undergoing surgery who were selected by convenience sampling. Patients and staff viewpoints were gathered through combining Serenko Fan privacy questionnaires and Noorian in three physical, informational, and psychological dimensions using self-reporting method for staff and interviewing for patients. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and SPSS software version 16. Results: The findings of this study showed that the rate of total respect for privacy from the patients’ perspective was 13.6% moderate and 86.4% good. In physical, informational and psychological dimensions, 77.1%, 72.8% and 12.7% of patients, respectively, assessed the status of privacy as good. From the perspectives of the operating room staff, respect for privacy was generally poor in 0.5% of cases, moderate in 5.4% of cases, and good in 94.1% of cases. In physical, informational and psychological dimensions, 89.7%, 95.1% and 71.1% of operating room staff, respectively, assessed the status of privacy as good. Conclusion: The findings showed that the evaluation of respect for privacy from the perspectives of staff was better than that of patients. The lowest score given by patients and staff was related to the psychological dimension of respect for privacy. Despite the total favorable status of respect for privacy from the perspectives of patients and staff, taking the necessary strategies is required to improve the current status.

Background and Objective: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorder, characterized by excessive worry and anxiety about different daily events and activities. The disorder causes severe problems in the academic and career performance of individuals. However, students are more prone to the damages of the disorder due to environmental and educational pressure. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of GAD and its association with worry in students of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional research was performed on 350 students (66.2% female) in the academic year of 2018-2019, selected by the availability sampling method. Data were collected using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) to determine the level of worry and prevalence of GAD in the participants. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 25 using Chi-square, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: In this study, 20.6% of the participants met the criteria for GAD diagnosis. Also, the GAD prevalence was higher in female students, compared to the male participants. However, this difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the participants with GAD and healthy students regarding the worry score (P

Background & Objective: In recent years, insufficient clinical education and the lack of integration with theoretical knowledge has caused problems in patients’ care. This study aimed to identify the barriers of applying learned lessons in the classroom in clinical settings Materials and Methods: A qualitative content analysis approach was adopted. Individual semi-structured interviews with clinical trainees, faculty members and experienced clinical staffs were done. Data collected until data saturation and concurrently analyzed, assisted by MAXQDA 10 Results: In this study, the five main categories of “tendency toward routine care in clinical settings”, “inefficient teaching-learning”, “lack of confidence in clinical adequacy”, “lack of supportive professional relationships”, and “difference between the nature of theory and practice” were extracted as the barriers of utilizing theoretical knowledge in the clinical settings. Conclusion: Transfer of learning is influenced by several factors with different natures. This phenomenon creates in a structure composed of the climate of clinical setting, lack of professional support in workplace, distrust and contradiction between the nature of theory and practice. Therefore, elimination of barriers requires improving the cultural, educational and professional settings.

An important part of studies on psychology of behavior and learning, as well as social and health sciences requires the use of researcher-made questionnaires. To achieve valid results and provide the possibility of publishing the results of a research, researchers seek suitable methods to assess the validity of research tools. This is mainly due to the fact that failure to provide such an important feature in a research tool might lead to the waste of effort and resources allocated to the study. One of the conventional types of validity of measurement tools is construct validity, which is often assessed as one of the most valid statistical techniques using factor analysis method. Generally, factor analysis applies statistical processes to simplify the related measurements and discover a pattern from a group of variables. This method is mainly used to find the simplest way to interpret the observed data. In several fields, including behavioral sciences and psychology, social sciences, medical sciences and nursing, economics, and geography, factor analysis is used as one of the important achievements of technology advancement in computers. In the present research, stages and methods of exploratory factor analysis are discussed and described step-by-step by using SPSS.

Development and assessment of measurement tools are important stages in the research processes regarding social, educational, and medical sciences, which mainly focus on the measurement of characteristics, qualitative variables, and abstract variables. Validity and reliability are two important components of researcher-made tools. The quality of assessment and confirming of validity and reliability are major concerns in research. Before publishing their findings, researchers are required to provide a report on the quality assessment of the validity and reliability of measurement tools. Precision in explaining these features could lay the ground for commenting on the trustworthiness and validation of the obtained findings, as well as their comparison with previous studies. If the validity and reliability of research instruments are not confirmed, the endeavors of researchers might be degraded. The present study aimed to elaborate on the significance of validity and reliability indices in medical research and the qualitative and quantitative assessment of content validity on confirming the reliability of measurement tools.

Background & Aim: It is crucial to assess communication skills among health workers using valid culture-based instruments. This study aimed to develop and assess psychometric properties of the Interpersonal Communication Skills Scale among Zanjan Health Volunteers. Methods & Materials: In this study, a total of 191 health volunteers participated in a self-rating assessment of the Communication Skills Scale (CSS). Moreover, 14 experts were asked to rate each item based on the relevance, clarity, and simplicity. Through a literature review, we developed an instrument with 43 items. The validity of the instrument was determined using the impact item method, content validity ratio (CVR), content validity index (CVI), face validity and exploratory factor analysis. Reliability of the instrument was reported by Alpha Cronbach coefficient. The CSS finally contained 35 items, divided into two categories: general and specific communication skills. Results: Of 43 items, those with impact item index over 1.5, CVR over 0.51, and CVI over 0.79 were considered as valid while the rest were discarded resulting in a 35-item scale. Factor analysis was carried out to determine the relationship among the items of the CSS. Exploratory factor analysis reduced the list of items to 30, which were divided into seven groups with a minimum eigenvalue of 1 for each factor, capable of predicting 68.8% of the variance. Internal reliability of the scale was determined by alpha Cronbach coefficient (0.91). Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the CSS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessment of the communication skills among health volunteers in Zanjan. These findings could be used for developing similar instruments in other health worker groups.

Background & Aim: It is crucial to assess communication skills among health workers using valid culture-based instruments. This study aimed to develop and assess psychometric properties of the Interpersonal Communication Skills Scale among Zanjan Health Volunteers. Methods & Materials: In this study, a total of 191 health volunteers participated in a self-rating assessment of the Communication Skills Scale (CSS). Moreover, 14 experts were asked to rate each item based on the relevance, clarity, and simplicity. Through a literature review, we developed an instrument with 43 items. The validity of the instrument was determined using the impact item method, content validity ratio (CVR), content validity index (CVI), face validity and exploratory factor analysis. Reliability of the instrument was reported by Alpha Cronbach coefficient. The CSS finally contained 35 items, divided into two categories: general and specific communication skills. Results: Of 43 items, those with impact item index over 1.5, CVR over 0.51, and CVI over 0.79 were considered as valid; while the rest were discarded resulting in a 35-item scale. Factor analysis was carried out to determine the relationship among the items of the CSS. Exploratory factor analysis reduced the list of items to 30, which were divided into seven groups with a minimum eigenvalue of 1 for each factor, capable of predicting 68.8% of the variance. Internal reliability of the scale was determined by alpha Cronbach coefficient (0.91). Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the CSS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessment of the communication skills among health volunteers in Zanjan. These findings could be used for developing similar instruments in other health worker groups.