June 2007 - Volume 1, Issue 3

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 third issue of the journal and the editorial board are pleased with the increase of the flow of the paper. We are looking forward for that journal to serve as one of the leading resources for the nursing field in the area.

In this issue a review paper dealt with the need for Innovative Curriculum in Iraqi medical and Nursing colleges. The author stressed that despite the fact that the Curriculum is the heart of the educational process, yet, to find the answer to the question: What is a curriculum? might require hours and days of literature search without getting a definite answer or a universal agreement.

A paper from Tehran looked at the legal knowledge of Midwives. The authors stressed that midwives who had been employed in hospitals have an important role in the reproductive health and must be aware of the legal aspects of their occupation in order to prevent any problem in the course of their professional life. The authors concluded that it is recommended to revise the syllabus of the course "Midwifery Ethics and Regulations" in order to include topics discussed in this study and enhance the level of medico-legal knowledge of the midwives. In this study we selected our study group from hospitals in Tehran city, it is better to carry out the same study with the midwives work in other areas in Tehran and other cities too and compare the results.

A comparative study investigated the Relationship of women's health beliefs about mammography with its performance. The authors stressed that Breast cancer is one of the life threatening problems in women's life. Data collection tool was questionnaire, with questions that were on the basis of health belief model . Research findings indicated a relation between health belief and performance of mammography. Results also showed that occupation level of education and marital status had relation with susceptibility to breast cancer. The authors stressed that as self - breast examination is one of the early diagnostic methods in detection of breast cancer, It is recommended further researches be done in relation to heath beliefs and self breast examination

A study from Iran compare the Body consciousness and social norms between Iran and Japan. The author stressed that body consciousness is greatly influenced by the social norms, therefore , it would be interesting to see whether such consciousness is more prevalent in individualistic or collectivist societies. Body Consciousness Questionnaire (BCQ) were administered to Iranian and Japanese subjects. Subjects belonging to both cultures were found similar in respect to their type of body consciousness (such as, public as against private). These two groups however did differ in their level of awareness, with Iranian subjects were found to have more public consciousness about their body as compared to that of Japanese.

A case study from Bangladesh attempted to investigate the socio-economic conditions of the migrants of katakhali paurashava in Rajshahi district. Using the information from 1500 ever-married women of Rajshahi district within the reproductive span (15-49 years), it was found that the maximum migrants have migrated in the age range of 20 to 34. The authors concluded that this study helps in understanding to observe the socio-economic characteristics of the female married migrants and may be used as a benchmark to evaluate how migration can change the life style of individuals, the families as well as the regional and national.

The social cultural factors affecting remarriage was discussed by Kalfi AR & Abedi M. This research was conducted to evaluate socio-cultural factors affecting remarriage, and obstacles of remarriage for men and women have been taken into consideration. In this survey research, data was collected by questionnaire. The results show that there is relationship between marital staus of women and men (divorced and widowed) and remarriage, which is significant. It also shows the relationship between gender and remarriage. The findings of this research indicate that men remarry because of loneliness and having family, while women remarry because of solving social and financial problems.