This study was carried out on 1600 rectal swabs from children under 5 years of age admitted at the health centre in Islamshahr, Tehran province, Islamic Republic of Iran, during 1998-99. The specimens were examined for various bacterial pathogens. Isolation rates were: enteropathogenic Escherichia coli 6.8%, Shigella spp. 3.4%, Salmonella spp. 2.9%, Campylobacter spp. 0.9%, Yersinia spp. 0.7%. ...

Data on home accidents for a 3-year period (2000-2002) were collected from health houses, health centres and hospitals involved in a home accident prevention programme in Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran. A total of 15 402 accidents were registered, with a mortality rate of 1.3%. Accidents were more common in women than in men (52.1% versus 47.9%) and urban than rural areas (66.3% versus 33.7%)...

A cross-sectional study in Ahwaz city, Islamic Republic of Iran, described children's indoor and outdoor play patterns. A total of 952 pupils aged 7 and 9 years and 942 parents completed questionnaires. Children's favourite activities were: playing football (22.3%), cycling (13.2%) and watching television (12.3%). This differed from those perceived by the parents who reported watching televisio...

After a successful programme to prevent iodine deficiency disorders in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 1990s and early 2000s, evidence emerged that urine iodine levels in the population were falling. This paper reviews efforts to monitor and enforce the iodization of salt production and shows the resulting improvements in iodization levels of factory table Salt and in urine iodine concentra...

Chlamydia trachomatis is a common cause of sexually transmitted disease which can cause severe consequences. Effective prevention requires knowledge of prevalence of infection in order to target interventions in a cost-effective manner. To determine the prevalence of chlamydial infection in Mashhad, northeastern Islamic Republic of Iran, this study was performed among male patients with urethri...

This study aimed to evaluate the nutritional status of children consecutively admitted as inpatients to Tabriz Paediatric Hospital in the north-west of the Islamic Republic of Iran between June and August 2008. A total of 140 children aged 2-12 years were included. Patients' weight, height and triceps skinfold thickness (TSFT) were measured, and nutritional status was evaluated. Evaluation of w...

We carried out a semi-experimental study with simple randomized sampling to study the effects of applying a continuous care model on the quality of life of 36 spouses of haemodialysis patients in Hamedan, Islamic Republic of Iran. Participants took part in group discussions and training on the continuous care approach and completed the Perceived Quality Of Life (PQOL) questionnaire before and a...

This study recorded the rate of congenital malformations in 10000 births at a referral hospital in Gorgan, Islamic Republic of Iran in 1998-99. The overall incidence of congenital malformations was 1.01% (1.19% in males and 0.76% in females). Anomalies of the musculoskeletal system had the highest incidence (0.38%), followed by central nervous system (0.28%) and genitourinary system (0.25%). Th...

This study assessed the malocclusion types, very severe crowding and need for serial extraction among a random sample of 7-9-year-old children in Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran. Of the 3776 children 30.6% had normal occlusion, 47.4% class I malocclusion, 13.7% class II division 1 malocclusion (male/female ratio 3:2), 1.0% class II division 2 malocclusion (male/female ratio 3:1) and 2.1% class...

This report describes the steps in the development of an accreditation system for medical universities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The national accreditation project, supported by the government, was performed from 2001 to 2005. The project was carried out in 3 main phases, each phase including a number of tasks. After a review of the international literature on accreditation and through n...