Abstract:Objectives: More mental morbidities were reported in medical students than their nonmedical peers, which may negatively influence their lives and future career. The aim of this study was to assess the mental health status among medical students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Method:Two hundred and eight 1 st to 4 th year Medical students took part in this cross-sectional study. General Health Questionnaire with 28 items (GHQ-28) was used for data collection. We performed descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U test, one way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc and Kruskal Wallis H and Chi square test for statistical analysis. Results:The mean age of participants was 20.70 ± 1.14 (mean ± SD) years. More than half of them (54.4%) had total GHQ score above the cut-off point considered as probably abnormal mental health status. Years of education, positive family history and low satisfaction of the medicine discipline affected their mental health. Third and fourth year students had significantly higher mean scores of total GHQ (p-value = 0.009) and anxiety, somatic and social subscales (p-value = 0.001, 0.004 and 0.026). Students with positive family history of mental illness and low satisfaction of field of the study significantly had higher GHQ scores (p-value = 0.012 and < 0.001 respectively). Conclusion:Poor mental health prevalence is high among medical students in Shiraz. Proper changes in educational programs and other effective interventions to raise the students' satisfaction may reduce the effect of other stress reasons and improve their mental health status.

Background:Nowadays, infertility problems have become a social concern, and are associated with multiple psychological and social problems. Also, it affects the interpersonal communication between the individual, familial, and social characteristics. Since women are exposed to stressors of physical, mental, social factors, and treatment of infertility, providing a psychometric screening tool is necessary for disorders of this group. Objective:The aim of this study was to determine the factor structure of the general health questionnaire-28 to discover mental disorders in infertile women.Materials and Methods: In this study, 220 infertile women undergoing treatment of infertility were selected from the Yazd Research and Clinical Center for Infertility with convenience sampling in 2011. After completing the general health questionnaire by the project manager, validity and, reliability of the questionnaire were calculated by confirmatory factor structure and Cronbach's alpha, respectively.Results:Four factors, including anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, depression, and physical symptoms were extracted from the factor structure. 50.12% of the total variance was explained by four factors. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was obtained 0.90.Conclusion:Analysis of the factor structure and reliability of General Health Questionnaire-28 showed that it is suitable as a screening instrument for assessing general health of infertile women.

Background:Considering the problem of drug abuse in Iran especially in adolescents and the youth, recent alterations in drug abuse rate and its trend, the necessity to have local information about this problem, applied research has a determining role in management of this problem and making proper decisions. Therefore, the current study was conducted to develop a questionnaire to assess the status of drug abuse among high school students of Isfahan Province, Iran.Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted out in 2009 in 20 cities of Isfahan Province. A researcher-made questionnaire was developed to determine knowledge, attitude, and practice of high school students regarding addictive drugs and their associated causes. This was accomplished by recruiting 7137 students who were selected by multistage random cluster sampling.Results:The designed questionnaire identified the status quo of drug abuse according to age, gender, and different cities of Isfahan Province. We also accessed information about the type of abused drug, the most common causes of drug abuse for the first time, the most important causes of drug abuse, mean age of abusers and mean age at the first abuse, common time and locations of drug abuse, and the most common routes of drug abuse according to gender as well as urban and rural areas of Isfahan Province. Reliability of the questionnaire, based on the calculated Cronbach's alpha coefficient, was 77% considering a cut-off point of 0.07.Conclusions:According to the obtained results, the designed questionnaire is capable to assess the drug abuse status among high school students of Isfahan Province. Regarding the importance of teenage years in forming the future behaviors of adolescents and the opportunities provided at schools, it is prudent to pay more attention to interventions in this age group in order to increase their knowledge and correct their attitude toward illegal drugs and strengthening their confidence in this regard. These interventions can have an important role in decreasing the rate of drug abuse in this age group and consequently in the whole community.

Background:Prolonged screen time is frequent in children and adolescents. Implementing interventions to reduce physical inactivity needs to assess related determinants. This study aims to assess factors associated with screen time in a national sample of children and adolescents.Methods:This nationwide study was conducted among 14,880 students aged 6–18 years. Data collection was performed using questionnaires and physical examination. The World Health Organization-Global School Health Survey questionnaire was used. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between demographic variables, socioeconomic status (SES), family structure, physical activity, unhealthy eating habits, body mass index, and mental distress with screen time.Results:The participation rate was 90.6% (n = 13,486), 50.8% were male, and 75.6% lived in urban areas. Mean (standard deviation) age of participants was 12.47 (3.36) years. The SES, eating junk foods, urban residence, and age had significant association with screen time, watching television (TV), and computer use (P < 0.05). With increasing number of children, the odds ratio of watching TV reduced (P < 0.001). Statistically, significant association existed between obesity and increased time spent watching TV (P < 0.001). Girls spent less likely to use computer and to have prolonged screen time (P < 0.001). Participants in the sense of worthlessness were less likely to watch TV (P = 0.005). Screen time, watching TV, and using computer were higher in students with aggressive behaviors (P < 0.001); screen time was higher in those with insomnia.Conclusions:In this study, higher SES, unhealthy food habits, and living in urban areas, as well as aggressive behaviors and insomnia increased the risk of physical inactivity.

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