Introduction and Aims:Diabetes is one of the chronic and prevalent diseases in the world. Diabetic patients’ number has increased 7 times during last 20 years. If this current situation continues, diabetic patients’ population will be 350 millions ones in 2030. It means that 7 millions people will be added annually. Up to now, different uncontrollable factors have been monitored in self-caring of this disease for managing and preventing from its early and late side effects. This research is conducted to study the role of self-efficacy as a determinant agent in self-caring of diabetic patients.Study Method:This is a narrative review study in which various information banks and search motors such as PubMed, ProQuest, SCOPUS, Elsevier were reviewed. Diabetes, self-care and self efficacy keywords from cross sectional, cohort, clinical experimental studies and systematic review were also used in the study construction. Iranian Banks such as IRANMEDEX, MEDLINE and also different articles from domestic research and scientific magazines were selected. Time spectrum of reviewed studies was supposed to be published from 1990 up to 2011.Results:Self-care situation among diabetic patients not only is unsatisfactory but also the studies’ results show that self-efficacy rate is low among them. The findings of the studies prove that there is a direct relation between self-efficacy and self-care in the patients in a way that this construct owns the predictability power of self-care behavior.Conclusion:Self-caring has a significant role in controlling of diabetes disease. Self-efficacy can induce motivation directly take health promoting behavior through efficacy expectations. It also affects motivation, indirectly, through perceived barriers and determining commitment or stability for following function map. So, self-efficacy is very important in changing self-care behavior process.

Introduction:This study was aimed to compare the effect of nutrition educational program based on HBM with traditional education recommended weight gain among pregnant women in Gonabad. Target population was pregnant women who were resided in Gonabad and went to urban health care centers for prenatal cares.Materials and Methods:110 pregnant women (case group: 54, control group: 56) were selected who had come to this centers in the first stage of prenatal care (6th -10th week of pregnancy) in 1388 and were consequently classified in case and control group. There is no significant difference for age, education, number of parity, history of abortion and job between case and control groups.Results:There was no significant differences in nutritional behavior mean score before intervention in case (74.42 ± 12.78) and control (77.14 ± 15.35) groups (P value = 0.82, independent t- test); but after education, intervention was significant in nutritional behavior between two groups (P value = 0.01, independent t-test);Discussion:after intervention, there also was significant difference in HBM structures mean score in case group compare with control group and the highest rise in score was related to perceived benefits (15.13 increment).

BACKGROUND:Social support is one of the most effective factors on the diabetic self-care. This study aimed to assess social support and its relationship to self-care in type 2 diabetic patients in Qom, Iran.STUDY DESIGN:A cross-sectional study was conducted on 325 diabetics attending the Diabetes Mellitus Association.METHODS:Patients who meet inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected using random sampling method. Data were collected by the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, with hemoglobin A1C test. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, and linear regression test, using 0.05 as the critical significance level, provided by SPSS software.RESULTS:The mean and standard deviation of self-care and social support scores were 4.31 ± 2.7 and 50.32 ± 11.09, respectively. The mean level of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C) of patients was 7.54. There was a significant difference between mean score of self-care behaviors and social support according to gender and marital status (P < 0.05). The regression analysis showed that disease duration was the only variable which had a significant effect on the level of HbA1C (P < 0.001). Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that self-care and social support significantly correlated (r = 0.489, P > 0.001) and also predictive power of social support was 0.28. Self-care was significantly better in diabetics with HbA1C ≤7%. Patients who had higher HbA1C felt less, but not significant, social support.CONCLUSIONS:This study indicated the relationship between social support and self-care behaviors in type 2 diabetic patients. Interventions that focus on improving the social support and self-care of diabetic control may be more effective in improving glycemic control.

Background and Objectives: Pap smear is a screening test for diagnosing cervical cancer in females. It is considered a health-promotion exam, and it has been shown that this test can prevent up to %60 of all deaths resulting from cervical cancer. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of this test and its related factors based on the health belief model in females referring to health centers in Qom. Materials and Methods:In this cross-sectional study, 320 females, who had health records and had referred to health centers in Qom in 2014 were selected using the multistage random sampling method and through following inclusion and exclusion criteria. A valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire consisting of demographic characteristics, awareness questions, and questions based on the health belief model was used for data collection. The data were finally analyzed by SPSS software with 0.05 significance level. Results: Overall, %11.25 of the subjects regularly underwent Pap smear screening, %51.87 irregularly participated in cervical cancer screening programs, and %36.88 did not undergo the tests. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results showed that the mean scores of the health belief model constructs were significantly different in terms of Pap smear screening (P > 0.05). conclusions: The participants did not consider cervical cancer a serious disease. Even women who felt vulnerable tried to hide it. Therefore, while perceived vulnerability and perceived severity of the disease risk was low in them, they perceived more barriers and, for this reason, the level of utilization of Pap smear was undesirable.

Background and Objectives:Diabetes is one of the major concerns in the third millennium, affecting more people every day. The prevalence of this disease in Iran is reported to be high (about 7.7%). The most important method to control this disease and prevent its complications is self-care. According to various studies, this method has not found its proper place among patients with diabetes due to several reasons. The present study was aimed at determining the relationship between social support, especially family support, and self-care behavior of diabetes patients.Materials and Methods:This study was a narrative review in which the relevant papers of cross-sectional, cohort, clinical trial, and systematic review designs were selected using databases and scientific search engines such as PubMed, ProQuest, SCOPUS, and Elsevier, with the keywords diabetes, social support, and self-care. Moreover, Persian papers were selected from MEDLAB and IRANMEDEX databases and through searching the websites of original research papers published in Iran. All the papers published from 1990 to 2011 were reviewed.Results:The results of the study indicated that the status of self-care and social support in patients with diabetes was not favorable. All the studied papers showed that there was a positive relationship between social support and self-care behavior. Also, some studies pointed to the positive effect of social support, especially family support and more specifically support from the spouse, on controlling blood sugar level and HbA1c.Conclusion:As social support can predict the health promoting behavior, this concept is also capable of predicting self-care behavior of patients with diabetes. Therefore, getting the family members, especially the spouse, involved in self-care behavior can be of significant importance in providing health care to patients with diabetes.