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Background: Community-based health programs (CBHPs) with participatory approaches has been recognized as an important tool in health promotion. The goal of this study was to understand the nature of participation practice in CBHP and to use the data to advocate for more participation-friendly policies in the community, academy and funding organizations. Methods: In this qualitative study, 13 CBHPs, which were active for last 5 years have been assessed using semi-structural in-depth interviews with programs principal and managers and focus group discussions with volunteers and service users. Data analysis was based on the deductive-inductive content analysis considering the participatory approaches in these programs. Results: The results show that, the main category of participation was divided to community participation and intersectional collaboration. The community participation level was very different from "main," "advisory" or "supporting" level. The process of recruitment of volunteers by the governmental organization was centralized and in non-governmental organizations was quite different. According to respondents opinion, financial and spiritual incentives especially tangible rewards, e.g., learning skills or capacity building were useful for engaging and maintaining volunteers′ participation. For intersectional collaboration, strong and dedicated partners, supportive policy environment are critical. Conclusions: It seems that maintaining partnership in CBHP takes considerable time, financial support, knowledge development and capacity building.

Objective(s): This study seeks to determine the direct cost of wife abuse in the 5 Legal Medicine Centers (LMCs) in Tehran. Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study. Given the 18% prevalence of violence against women; with a precision of 5%, a sample size of 225 was estimated. A questionnaire was developed to collect data. The costs were calculated by adding marginal and principal costs. Principal costs included all monetary expenditures related to the medical care services, legal-judiciary follow up, commuting and sundry charges. Results: On average, each woman has spent 132234 Rls for healthcare services. This figure included on average 25156 Rls for visits, 23595 Rls for prescribed drugs, 33483 Rls for radiological studies and 50000 for laboratory tests. Given the total number of 9050 of female victims of the domestic violence attending LMCs in the year 2002, the total medical services was estimated at 2801133,4071 Rls. Total legal services charged by the Police Force in 2002 was 1,46517361910 Rls. In the same period, sundry charges was 320/71/350 Rls. The estimated total costs therefore reached as high as 2/056/941/667 Rls. Conclusion: The study findings indicate that in Iran high expenses of domestic violence is imposed and this needs an urgent attention. Public health inventions might help to reduce the cost of domestic violence against women.

Objectives: The aim of present study was determining the level of satisfaction and its relative factors among parents of mentally retarded children using the services of private rehabilitation centers. Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical study that was conducted on parents of 150 mentally retarded children, who were selected by quota sampling from eight private rehabilitation centers in Tehran. Questionnaires were used to collect data, and correlation tests, independent t-test, and one-way analysis of variance were utilized to analyze data. Results: Upon the results, overall 88% of participants expressed their satisfaction. The major related factors were the behavior of managers and employees, receiving training for follow-up rehabilitation and education programs for the child at home, and the child's progress. The factors related to dissatisfaction included nutrition services, physical condition of the center and lack of parental participation in decision- making on matters related to the child. A significant relationship was found between parental satisfaction and family size, father's job, and the number of other disabled people in the family. Discussion: According to the findings, it seems that patient satisfaction is also affected by the behavioral aspects of care, in addition to the technical aspects. Considering the humans’ need for respect and compassion and the sense of being valuable, this finding could be anticipated. The managers of private rehabilitation centers, for attracting and retain clients, need to pay attention to the factors which have impact on service users’ satisfaction.

Background: Psychosocial factor is considered as intermediate social determinant of health, because it has powerful effects on health especially in women. Hence deeper understanding of the mental-health process needed for its promotion. The aim of this study was to explore women′s experience of the mental-health problem and related action-interactions activities to design the appropriate interventions. Methods: In-depth interviews with women 18-65 years were analyzed according to the grounded theory method. The selection of Participants was based on purposeful and theoretical sampling. Results: In this study, a substantive theory was generated; explaining how female with the mental-health problem handled their main concern, which was identified as their effort to achieve comfort (core variable). The other six categories are elements in this process. Daily stress as a trigger, satisfaction is the end point, marriage is the key point and action - interaction activities in this process are strengthening human essence, Developing life skills and help seeking. Conclusions: Better understanding the mental-health process might be useful to design the interventional program among women with mental-health problems.