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Iran is a developing country facing demographic transition. Cancers are among the major non-communicable disorders with remarkable budern on the health-care governing systems. Extended life expectancy of Iranian population, change in living style, as well as promoted diagnostic and treatment methods have resulted into significant malignancies emergence and detection. Understanding the trend of this epidemiologic transition is required for proper allotment of resources. In this manuscript, overall epidemiologic pattern of cancers and their burden transition is reviewed. In addition, more concerning neoplasia (gastrointestinal, breast, thyroid, urologic, and respiratory system cancers) are reviewed in more details.

There is a direct association between salt intake and blood pressure (BP), one of the main risk factors for CVDs. However, yet there has been a debate that how strong is this association in people with and without hypertension. This study was conducted to evaluate the magnitude of the association between salt intake and BP in hypertensive and normotensive population among a nationally representative population. The study was conducted on a nationally representative sample of 18,635 Iranian adults aged 25 years and older who participated in the STEPS survey 2016 and provided urine sample. Salt intake was estimated through spot urine sample and Tanaka equation. Multiple linear regression model in survey data analysis was used to assess the independent effect of salt intake on BP. After adjusting for covariates, there was a significant association between salt intake and SBP in hypertensive (p

Over 80% of deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) occur in low and middle-income countries, indicating an inequality in the health care system around the world. Conducted studies at provincial level in developed countries have shown that mortality rates due to this group of diseases are higher in the populations with lower education, income, and social class. NCDs account for 71.3% of total world deaths in 2016 and 79.2% of total deaths in Iran in the same year. Improving the health of Iranian population and reducing the number of communicable diseases over the past decades have made NCDs as a major health problem in Iran. In this study, we describe the status of most lethal NCDs in the country at national and provincial level. In addition, study on the inequality of deaths due to NCDs at provincial level in Iran showed that there is a considerable difference between different provinces. Furthermore, there is an age inequality so that mortality of main NCDs increased dramatically after the age of 70. Therefore, health policy makers and decision makers should adopt appropriate policies to reduce gender, geographic and age disparities to reduce gender and inter-provincial inequalities in Iran.

Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) are the leading causes of death globally, imposing a heavy burden on the healthcare systems, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Iran is a country in the Middle-East region with an aging population and changing disease risk factors, and now is facing NCDs as the major health problem of the country. Investigating NCDs’ risk factors and tackling preventable ones is the main intervention to control their heavy burden. In this review, we discussed the most critical risk factors in Iran and the implemented programs and action plans to control them. A better knowledge on current status of risk factors and plans to tackle them, could help policymakers effectively rule policies and allocate resources to curb heavy burden of NCDs in Iran.

Iran, as an in-transition country, tackled communicable diseases and now is confronting emerging challenges of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the path to reach health for everyone at all ages by 2030. Across Iran, death-averting treatments of NCDs have been expanded recently which might cause a shift toward a greater share of years lived with disability (YLDs) compared to years of life lost (YLLs) in the disability-adjusted life years of NCDs. Since the management of disability differs from the reduction of mortality in terms of public health policies, depicting the current picture of the burden of NCDs is principal for policymakers in achieving health for all. In this communication, we briefly reviewed our current knowledge about the burden of NCDs in Iran and found that burdens of cardiovascular diseases and asthma are shifting toward greater YLDs than YLLs. In addition to expanding preventive measures and maintenance of the current system, this profile calls policymakers for the development of more rehabilitation centers for patients with ischemic heart disease, stroke, and respiratory diseases to mitigate their disabilities. The consistent increase in the age-standardized YLD rate of neoplasms necessitates providing rehabilitation centers as well. Morbidity and mortality of diabetes have increased robustly which warrant extensive preventive and control measures. It should be noted that the estimates of the Global Burden of Disease study offer us invaluable insights on the burden of diseases in Iran; nonetheless, efforts for gathering nationally-representative data, e.g., National and Subnational Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors study, are strongly encouraged in the future.

Background Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is considered as one of the most serious public health concerns in developing countriesand the leading cause of mortality in under-five-year-old children.A large number of young children and pregnant women especially in low-income, non-industrialized communities are more susceptible to VAD. This study aims to report the burden of disease (BOD) attributable to VAD in Iranian population aged less than 5 years by using data of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2010. Methods The GBD 2010 study calculated the proportion of deaths, years of life lost (YLLs), and years lived with disability (YLDs) and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to VAD by using the comparative risk assessment (CRA). VAD defined as low serum retinol concentrations (plasma retinol concentration

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.