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 last issue of the first year of the journal , the launching of the journal was well received and the number of papers received has widely increased. We have applied for the journal to be indexed by EMRO regional office of WHO.

In this issue a paper from Bangladesh discussed the Contraceptive Behavior among Married Adolescents. The authors stressed that the behavioral patterns of contraceptive acceptance and use differ significantly between adolescents and adults. The study was based on the data collected under the project of UNFPA entitled "Strengthening the Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development". It has been observed from this study that family planning practices among the adolescents is lower than other groups of women. Logistic analysis shows that respondent's education, husband's education, place of residence, religion, husband's occupation, visit of family planning worker, desire for more children and having radio or television in the household are supposed to be the most influential factors on the current use of contraception.

Khoshknab MF, studied the effect of continuing home nursing services on the recurrence rate in schizophrenic patients. He followed a semi-experimental study, whereby the patients are placed into Test and Control groups, with the test group receiving home nursing services after being discharged from the hospital, and the control group not receiving them, and instead of the usual way of the patient returning to the clinic to continue treatment, at the end, the two groups were compared for recurrence rate. The results showed that after 3 months follow up of the control group, 6 of the 24 patient (25%) had a recurrence, while this number was 0 in the test group (0%). The author stressed that the results indicate the importance of home nursing services in preventing the recurrence of the illness.

A paper from Iran and Hungary looked at the relationship between the number of blocked coronary branch arterioles and existing risk factors in 30 - 45 year old men. The researchers selected 200 of 30 to 45 year old men who have been referred to the Hospitals of Tehran Medical Universities with continued references to the catheterization wards. The results showed that there was a relationship between the number of obstructed coronary arteries and high BMI, smoking, history of hypertension in family members, using fat and hydrogenated vegetable oil, eating lamb and confectionary, high blood cholesterol and triglyceride. The authors concluded that whatever the number of risk factors, the chance of coronary artery obstruction is more. So, one of the nurses' roles in societies is extensive educational training programmes for changing poorlifestyle habits and replacing them with betterones. It is recommended that more research is done in the future in women of different ages.

Taavoni S, and Sadeghi S looked at the postpartum headache syndrome. Post partum (postnatal) headache is a common but not entirely understood syndrome. The aim of the authors was to determine the prevalence of post partum headache and the relationship between pre-existing headaches (migraine or tension type) and the post partum headache, also they tried to observe for the prevalence of new onset post partum headache and to determine to what extent it can be dangerous. A total of one hundred and ninety six volunteers were interviewed and examined at the first 48 hours post partum in wards of one of the well known public and educational hospitals in Tehran. The authors concluded that the prevalence of post partum headache among Iranian women was 23.1%. About 27% (6.3% out of 23%) of the post partum headaches in our study were of new onset. There was a significant relationship between positive history of tension headache and post partum headache, but there was no relationship between post partum headache and history of migraine headache.

Mahfoozpour S, Milani MJ , and Nooritajer M conducted a descriptive study to assess the quality of provided Care Services for 0-6 years children, in Urban Health Centers (UHCs), of Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences & Health Services (SBUMS), in 2002-2003. The study revealed that forty percent of the personnel provided poor care, thirty-one & twenty-nine parents provided medium & good quality of care, respectively. The authors concluded that there is poor quality of care provided for children. The authors further stressed that more research needs to be carried out to assess the impact of interventions on quality and quantity of children's health care services.

Dr Safaa Bahjat presented a review on Malaria in pregnancy. He stressed that malaria has stalked human history for the past 50,000 years, with mention of survivors from 27500 BC during the Xia dynasty in ancient China. The author reviewed the history of Malaria and presented the recent observationson Malaria and pregnancy.