July 2009 - Volume 3, Issue 4

Abdul Abyad, MD, MPH, MBA, AGSF, AFCHSE (Editor) Abdul Abyad, MD, MPH, MBA, AGSF, AFCHSE (Editor) Abyad Medical Center & Middle East Longevity Institute Azmi Street, Abdo Center, 2nd Floor PO BOX 618, Tripoli LEBANON Tel & Fax: 961 6 443684/5/6 Email: aabyad@cyberia.net.lb Web: www.amc-lb.com

This is the fourth issue this year and although the journal is receiving more papers than before, the field of nursing is still lagging behind in the region. Dr Maryam Noori Tajer, looked at controlling costs of medical equipment in Hospitals of IUMSHS. The author stressed that a large number of medical equipment in hospitals becomes technically defective and therefore runs out of order every year, and as a result, a large proportion of hospital expenditure is allocated to supplying and repairing this equipment, and as such, great scientific damage and economic losses are imposed on the health care system of Iran. A second paper from Tehran looked at the application of recreational and leisure activities for Schizophrenic patients' self care. The authors in a pre/post test study recruited all chronic schizophrenic patients who could leave the psychiatric section; then patient's psychiatrist and family filled consent forms for participating in group recreational activities. The results show that group recreational activities as a rehabilitation intervention in psychiatric participants could impact on self- care skills.

A paper from Bangladesh looked at the awareness of rural men regarding safe motherhood. Using the information from 200 ever married males of Horian Village of Rajshahi district we found that rural men are mostly less educated and their occupation mainly agricultural based and small business. Some important indicators found related to safe motherhood were likely to get medical checkup or vaccination, rest for pregnant women, regular checkups for their wives, were recorded as positive results for safe motherhood. On the other hand some negative result found from this study were respondents' educational qualification, place of delivery, types of treatment process, age of marriage, duration until first baby.

A second paper from Bangladesh looked at the impact of education, both formal and informal (via media, GOs and NGOs a), which is believed to affect the use of contraceptives and, hence, fertility levels. The authors noted the effects of media and GOs/NGOs varied according to the urban-rural residences. While television was found to have a significant effect on fertility and contraceptive use between both the urban and rural women, the effect of radio and GOs/NGOs was insignificant among the rural women. However, exposure to mass media and education (except secondary) appears to have a weak significant effects on fertility and strong on contraceptive use.

Eghlima M and Dadkhah A, looked at the social factors related to returning run away girls to rehabilitation centers. The authors stressed that the girls suffering from abuse at home and running away from intolerable situations is neither new in Iran nor confined to particular sections of Iranian society. Run-away girls from their family and their following tendency to damage and social deviation, is one of the social pathologies that may take place in each society. The authors carried out the study on 300 participants in "Omidvar" and "Horriat" centers in Tehran and Mashhad. The variables were compared in two groups: one group with one returning and the other with several returning. Research outcome reveals that demographic status in family situation, pathological condition and psychological status of clients in the two groups were significantly different. A questionnaire, Raven test and MMPI test, and statistical T test and X2 test were used as research tools.