Background: Head lice infestation is a serious health issue among adolescents in Iran. The primary purpose of the study was to determine the association of head lice infestation with cognitive-behavioral factors in female adolescents. Methods: The study was cross-sectional, took place between September and October of 2017 in Sarab, East Azerbaijan province, Iran. Using a multi-stage sampling to recruit the study's 226 female adolescents, five of the Sarab's 13 schools were selected through simple random sampling. In the second step, the students were randomly selected using the systematic random sampling method. A survey questionnaire was used to collect the data. Findings: The prevalence rate of head lice was calculated 20.4%, and the subjects with head lice infestation had lower levels of severity, benefits, self-efficacy, and preventive behaviors. Those without head lice infestation reported adhering to preventive behaviors. The perceived severity and self-efficacy were the statistically significant predictors of head lice infestation and use of preventive behaviors. Conclusion: Public health authorities, with feedback from the community, must design and implement prevention programs, focusing on mothers and their school-aged children, school principals, and managers of public places as potential change agents. In addition to, perceived severity and self-efficacy should be considered as the key categories when developing these prevention programs.

Introduction: Promoting Health Literacy (HL) can be a priority in strategic healthcare planning of the countries. Low HL is prevalent in some societies which make barriers to successful self-care of diseases. The aim of this study was to examine the association of HL with self-care behaviors and glycemic control in a low education population with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Sarab city, Iran. The 192 participants were patients diagnosed as type 2 diabetes and with low level of education. Convenient sampling method was applied and the participants were chosen by their medical records in health-care centers. To collect data a valid and reliable tool was used based on HL dimensions and self-care behaviors. Using hierarchical logistic regression, the possible association of variables with self-care behaviors and glycemic control was assessed. Results: The mean age of study participants was 58.12 (±11.83) years. A 28.8% of the variation in the self-care behaviors is explained by the HL and the demographic variables (R= 0.288%; p-value<0.05). Furthermore, decision-making was the strongest predictor of self-care behaviors (β= 0.451). Approximately 80% of the variation in the HbA1c is explained by the HL, self-care behaviors, and the demographic variables (R= 0.804%; p-value<0.05). Conclusion: This study revealed that the HL dimensions predicted approximately onefourth of self-care behaviors and the self-care behaviors and HL dimensions about eighttenths of HbA1c in this population. These findings call for the need for interventional programs on HL to improve the self-care behaviors and HbA1c control.

Background: Cardiovascular disease significantly impairs quality of life. Inadequate social support has been associated with poor quality of life in patients with Cardiovascular. The aim of this study was to describe social support and explore its association with quality of life among cardiovascular patients.Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in 2020 from September to January. We selected 150 cardiovascular patients through convenience sampling. The structured questionnaires included: the Persian version of the WHOQOL-BREF was used to obtain the necessary data on the quality of life, psychometric evaluation of the interpersonal support evaluation list–short form as well as demographic variables were included in each questionnaire. Hierarchical linear regression models were used to explore the association between perceived social support and quality of life.Results: The demographic variables were able to predict 12.2% of the variance of quality of life in the first step. In the second step, after adjusting control variables, dimensions of social support the predictability increased to 29% of the variance with the addition of variables. All dimensions of social support, excluding tangible assets support, were significant predictors of quality of life in addition to monthly income status. Self-esteem support (β= 0.387) was the higher level of predictor of quality of life in cardiovascular patients.Conclusion: Overall, the current study revealed that social support is one of the strategies that cardiovascular patients can utilize to improve their quality of life and overcome their disease. It is possible to say that enhancing social support in patients improves their health and quality of life.

Background The coronavirus is one of the largest pandemics in the world that has occurred in recent years. The virus has so far killed millions of people around the world. To prevent the coronavirus, health behaviors are essential. Therefore, identifying the effective factors of coronavirus preventive behaviors can be effective in designing and implementing health interventions. Methods This study was a cross-sectional design that was implemented in Iran in 2021. Participants were recruited randomly from healthcare centers by medical records (n = 380, 64.7% female, mean age 32.14 years). The data collection included a demographic form, health literacy questionnaire, and Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) protective questionnaire. Analyses were adjusted for confounders using hierarchical regression analysis. Results According to the analysis, among participants COVID-19 preventive behaviors (CPBs) distributions, wearing masks was the highest and avoiding touching my face and do not leaving home were the lowest. Educational level, gender, perceive benefits, perceived barriers and self-efficacy trust were all significant predictors of COVID-19 protective behaviors. Also, among dimensions of the health literacy, all of them except decision-making were significant predictors of adherence to COVID-19 preventive behaviors. The most COVID-19 preventive behaviors distributions, among Iranian adults were wearing mask (66.3%) and covering mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing (44.2%) questions as “Always”. Conclusions this research shows health literacy and cognitive factors have a potential and determinative role in the health of patients with COVID-19. Wearing mask has been the highest preventive behavior in patients with COVID-19, which indicates the effect of educational level as demographic factors in these groups of patients. Therefore, these factors can be considered in prevention and treatment programs in health system.

Background: The main criteria of health determinants are Health Promoting Behaviors (HPBs) and Health Literacy (HL). This study aimed to assess  HL and HPBs among the urban population of adults. Methods: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional study with 379 adults in Iran. The inclusion criteria was that participants were randomly  selected from health centers using health records. Data were collected by demographic information questionnaire, Health Literacy for Iranian Adults  (HELIA) and Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II). Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, and Pearson’s r correlation  coefficient were used to analyze the data. Also, the hierarchical regression analysis was used to adjust for confounders. Results: There was a significant association between HL and demographic factors, including age, gender and education level. HL dimensions were  significantly correlated with HPBs of adults (p <0.05). Decision-making was the strongest HL dimension to predictive HPBs (β=0.606). In this study,  49.7% of the variation in HPBs is predicted by the HL, and the demographic characteristics. Conclusions: It can be advantageous to design  programs to promote HL and HPBs in adults, focusing on the aging group, gender, and education level.