The survival rate of BC was relatively low in Iran compared to developed countries. Hence, more effective measures have to be taken to increase these patients' survival.

No abstract

No abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer among women globally. Its incidence greatly varies around the world the globe. There are several estimates of breast cancer incidence from different geographical areas in Iran. In addition, no systematic reviews are available pertaining to the incidence rate of breast cancer in Iran. Therefore, the present systematic review aimed to address this epidemiological gap. Method: This systematic review was carried out based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) in January 2016. In doing so, the researchers searched Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Sciencedirect, and Google scholar for international papers and four Iranian databases (Scientific Information Database, MagIran, Iran Medex, and Iran Doc) for Persian articles. Result: A total of 427 titles were retrieved in the initial search of the databases. Further refinement and screening of the retrieved studies produced a total of 18 researches. Based on the random effect model, the Age-Standardized Rate (ASR) of breast cancer was 26.4, 95% CI (20.1 to 31.7). However, the results of Cochran's test showed the heterogeneity of the studies (Q=1788.2, df=17, I2=99%, p<0.001). Conclusion: The incidence of breast cancer was lower in Iran compared to other parts of the world. However, establishing cancer registries covering a broader perspective of the population and carrying out further studies are needed to map out the exact incidence rate and trend of breast cancer in Iran.

No abstract

Several numeric measures have been proposed to evaluate the individual researchers’ scientific performance. Among these measures, h-index is the most common and well recognized measure of research productivity and impact in scientific communities. However, empirical investigations and recent inspections revealed some shortcomings and limitations of this measure. In order to complement these limitations, several variants have been proposed in which g-index and ar-index were among the most discussed measures. The aim of this study was to examine h-index, g-index and ar-index across Iranian epidemiologists to identify the moderating characteristics as well as the distribution of these measures in the field. Using Web of Science Database, a list of Iranian epidemiologists was searched and total number of articles, total citations, and citations per paper, h-index, scientific age, g-index and ar-index were extracted and calculated for any epidemiologist. Descriptive statistics and multivariate linear regression models were used to examine research performance measures of Iranian epidemiologists. According to our findings, research performance measures found to be statistically associated with scientific age and academic ranking of Iranian Epidemiologists. Gender differences were not relevant to research performance across different measures.

Background and aims: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund have recommended that breastfeeding be continued until two years of age or over. This study aimed to investigate the duration of breastfeeding and weaning in children aged 6-24 months in south of Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 on 1653 children aged 6-24 months in Fars province of Iran. A multi-stage sampling was used and the data were obtained using a questionnaire including questions about breastfeeding and some related factors, as well as demographic questions about the children and their parents. The required information was collected by visiting and interviewing those mothers who had children aged 6-24 months in their homes. Data were evaluated using SPSS software (version 20.0) and performing descriptive and analytical statistics such as independent samples t test and one-way ANOVA. Results: On average, the children were breastfed up to 18.64±7.40 months of age and the mean age of initiation of complementary feeding was 5.86±1.04 months. Breastfeeding was stopped for 35.6% of children at the age of 24 months and higher. Mothers having had a normal vaginal delivery had a longer lactation period than mothers who had had cesarean delivery (19.27 and 18.05 months, respectively) (P=0.021). Conclusion: A decrease was observed in the mean duration of breastfeeding in this study compared to that obtained in the previous studies, and this decrease was found to be associated with the increase in the occurrence of cesarean delivery in mothers. Therefore, it was recommended that further comprehensive investigations be carried out in this regard.