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Background: Body image disturbance and efforts for body change are considered as one of the serious health issues especially in adolescence period. Aims: To identify contributing factors that could be affect body change behaviors in Iranian adolescents. Methodology: Four hundred and thirty- three adolescent boys were selected from high schools. The effects of demographic variables (age, educational grade, parental educational level, economic status and BMI ),Social pressure( media, parents and peers),body satisfaction and self-esteem on body change behaviors (weight loss and muscle enhancing )were assessed. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation test, univariate ANOVA and two-sample t-test, multi factorial linear regression were used to statistical analysis. P-value less than 0.05 were considered as significance level. Results: The mean age of respondents were 15.99(±.86). About 75 %(327) of adolescents had preoccupation with body change behaviors . Use special diet for muscle strengthening was the most methods for body change (41.1%). Positive correlation was seen between body change with body satisfaction (r=0.43), social pressure (r=0.64), BMI (r=0.22). Based on multi factorial regression analysis, only variables that remained significant were body satisfaction, social pressure, and financial status. Conclusion: Although the contributing factors of the body changing behaviors are similar to other studies, however, due to cultural differences, further studies are needed to investigate the factors that influence the body satisfaction and related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: More than a billion people have some form of disabilities worldwide. Persons living with a disability have many needs (including physically, mentally, and socially needs). Estimating the size of disabled population is a challenge in health systems. An innovative indirect method to estimate the size of populations is network scale up (NSU) having widely used for hidden populations. The method is based-on the social network of individuals. We assessed the capability of NSU to estimate persons living with a disability being a middle population (neither non-hidden nor hidden populations) in the Southeast of Iran (Kerman City, southeast Iran). METHODS: A total of 3052 of Kermanian people over 20 year old were interviewed by simple random sampling. We asked them whether they knew acquaintances with complete blindness, severe visual impairment, deafness, severe hearing impairment, limb defects, and mental retardation, if yes; we wanted them to count them. RESULTS: Based on the network scale up method, the prevalence of the populations was estimated at 5.21/1000 in Kerman City where severe visual impairment was 1.35, mental retardation was 1.039, severe hearing impairment was 1.005, limb defects was 0.78, deafness was 0.59, and complete blindness was 0.56 (per 1000 inhabitants). CONCLUSIONS: The results were not exactly comparable to previous studies using different methods such as surveys. Although the method has some limitations, considering its easiness and cost-effectiveness, modified NSU could be used when direct methods are not practicable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the case of sensitive questions such as number of alcoholics known, majority of respondents might give an answer of zero. Poisson regression model (P) is the standard tool to analyze count data. However, P provides poor fit in the case of zero inflated counts, when over-dispersion exists. Therefore, the questions to be addressed are to compare performance of alternative count regression models; and to investigate whether characteristics of respondents affect their responses. Methods: A total of 700 participants were asked about number of people they know in hidden groups; alcoholics, methadone users, and Female Sex Workers (FSW). Five regression models were fitted to these outcomes: Logistic, P, Negative Binomial (NB), Zero Inflated Poisson (ZIP), and Zero Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB). Models were compared in terms of Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT), Vuong, AIC and Sum Square of Error (SSE). Results: Percentages of zero were 35% for number of alcoholics, 50% for methadone users, and 65% for FSWs. ZINB provided the best fit for alcoholics, and NB provided the best fit for other outcomes. In addition, we noticed that young respondents, male and those with low education were more likely to know or reveal sensitive information. Conclusions: Although P is the first choice for modeling of count data in many cases, it seems because of over-dispersion of zero inflated counts in the case of sensitive questions, other models, specifying NB and ZINB, might have better goodness of fit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common chronic, highly pruritic and inflammatory skin diseases. The exclusive influence of breastfeeding in the prevention of inflammatory diseases is a matter of debate. In this study, we aimed to determine the concentration of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-13 (IL-13) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) cytokines as anti Th2 or anti Th1 cytokines in breast milk and their relationship with atopic dermatitis in breastfed infants. Methods: This study carried out in Afzalipour Hospital of kerman during one year from 2010 to 2011, we selected 50 breastfed infants with AD as cases and 50 healthy infants without AD or any other allergic disease as the controls. The concentrations of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were measured by ELISA in the mothers' milk. The demographic characteristics were recorded in a data collection form. Moreover, severity of the disease was determined by SCORAD index. T-test and logistic regression were used for assessment of the correlation among study variables. Results: The concentrations of IFN-γ and IL-13 were significantly higher (respectively, P=0.04, and P=0.02) in the case group. However, logistic regression revealed that only IFN-γ significantly increased the risk for atopic dermatitis (P=0.02). Concentration of TNF-a was similar in the milk from mothers belonging to the two groups. Conclusion: The results indicate that the concentrations of IFN-γ, IL-13 and IL-4 cytokines are higher in the milk of mothers whose infants have AD. However, the risk for atopic dermatitis increases by 49% by every ten-unit (in pg/mL) increase in the level of IFN-γ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]