Search

Background: Oral health is a basis for general health and well-being and affects physical and psychological aspects of the human life. The aim of this study was to determine the power of the health belief model in general and the role of perceived severity and its components in particular in predicting tooth brushing behavior among young adolescents., Methods: This was a cross sectional study of a sample of female students grade four in Rasht (a metropolitan in north Iran) in 2012. A systematic random sampling method was applied to recruit students. They were asked to respond to a designed questionnaire containing items on brushing behavior based on the health belief model. In this study for the first time perceived severity and perceived barriers were divided into two parts, perceived subjective and objective severity and perceived physical and psychological barriers and were treated as independent variables. Logistic regression analysis was performed in order to identify the variables that predict the desirable behavior (brushing twice a day or more)., Results: In all 265 female students were entered into the study. Of these, only 17.4% reported that they were brushing at least twice a day (desirable behavior). The results obtained from the logistic regression analysis indicated that perceived objective severity (OR = 0.37, 95% CI = 0.21- 0.66, P = 0.001) and feeling less perceived psychological barriers (OR = 2.60, 95% CI = 1.50- 4.52, P = 0.001) were the significant predicting factors for brushing twice a day., Conclusion: The findings suggest that perceived objective severity and perceived psychological barriers play important role in adapting a desirable health behavior among young adolescents.

Background: The transtheoretical model (TTM) is a common framework for studies of smoking cessation. Using the TTM, several instruments were developed to measure to what extent interventions could make changes in people's behavior. The current study aimed to test the validity and reliability of the Persian version of a TTM based questionnaire for smoking cessation in Iran., Methods: This was a cross-sectional validation study among adult male smokers using the TTM Questionnaire. Backward-forward procedure was applied to translate the questionnaire from English into Persian (the Iranian language). The confirmatory factor analyses were performed to test validity. The internal consistency and stability of the questionnaire was examined using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC)., Results: In all 150 male smokers were entered into the study. The mean age of participants was 36.51 ± 7.94 years. The results obtained from confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the data was fit to the model: the goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.92; the comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.91; the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.065 (95% CI = 0.063-0.067), and the relative chi-square (x²/df) = 1.87, p < 0.001. The Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.60 to 0.84 indicating an acceptable result. Also Intraclass Correlation of Coefficient (ICC) ranged from 0.61 to 0.83 corresponding to a satisfactory finding., Conclusion: The current study provided psychometric evidence for an appropriate, reliable, and valid tool to determine smoking behaviors among Iranian adult smokers. Indeed the findings from this study could be applied in designing smoking cessation interventions in Iran.

Background: Social support has proved to be one of the most effective factors on the success of diabetic self-care. This study aimed to develop a scale for evaluating social support for self-care in middle-aged patients (30-60 years old) with type II diabetes., Methods: This was a two-phase qualitative and quantitative study. The study was conducted during 2009 to 2011 in Tehran, Iran. In the qualitative part, a sample of diabetic patients participated in four focus group discussions in order to develop a preliminary item pool. Consequently, content and face validity were performed to provide a pre-final version of the questionnaire. Then, in a quantitative study, reliability (internal consistency and test-retest analysis), validity and factor analysis (both exploratory and confirmatory) were performed to assess psychometric properties of the scale., Results: A 38-item questionnaire was developed through the qualitative phase. It was reduced to a 33-item after content validity. Exploratory factor analysis loaded a 30-item with a five-factor solution (nutrition, physical activity, self monitoring of blood glucose, foot care and smoking) that jointly accounted for 72.3% of observed variance. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit to the data. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient showed excellent internal consistency (alpha=0.94), and test-retest of the scale with 2-weeks intervals indicated an appropriate stability for the scale (ICC=0.87)., Conclusion: The findings showed that the designed questionnaire was a valid and reliable instrument for measuring social support for self-care in middle-aged patients with type II diabetes. It is an easy to use questionnaire and contains the most significant diabetes related behaviors that need continuous support for self-care.

Background: The purpose of the present study was to assess the validity and reliability of Form A of Multidimensional Health Locus of Control scales in Iran. Health locus of control is one of the most widely measured parameters of health belief for the planning of health education programs., Methods: 496 university students participated in this study. The reliability coefficients were calculated in three different methods: test-retest, parallel forms and Cronbach alpha. In order to survey validity of the scale we used three methods including content validity, concurrent validity and construct validity., Results: We established the content validity of the Persian translation by translating (and then back-translating) each item from the English version into the Persian version. The concurrent validity of the questionnaire, as measured by Levenson's IPC scale was .57 (P < .001), .49 (P < .01) and .53 (P < .001) for IPC, respectively. Exploratory principal components analysis supported a three-factor structure that items loading adequately on each factor. Moreover, the approximate orthogonal of the dimensions were obtained through correlation analyses. In addition, the reliability results were acceptable, too., Conclusion: The results showed that the reliability and validity of Persian Form A of MHLC was acceptable and respectable and is suggested as an applicable criterion for similar studies in Iran.