Journal of

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Introduction: Smoking is one of the main risk factors in various diseases of different systems of the body, including the respiratory system and asbestosis is pulmonary fibrosis due to asbestos inhalation. Aim: This investigation evaluates the effects of smoking on the respiratory function and aggravation of respiratory complications in asbestos workers. This study was performed in August, 2002 at The Haajat Chrysotile Asbestos factory of Nehbandan, Birjand, Khorasan, Iran. Methods: A cross –sectional study was done on 56 Asbestos mine workers, randomly chosen and matched in two groups smokers (25 individuals) & nonsmokers (31 individuals). Asbestos levels were measured in different areas of the factory and mine. All of the workers were interviewed and underwent clinical examination and spirometery. Results: The mean value of asbestos in the respiratory field of the exposed workers was approximately 80 times over the standard limit (39.75 f/ml TLV= 0.5 f/ml). According to clinical examination, both groups showed some kind of respiratory dysfunction, but cough & bloody sputum in the smoker group was significant. So, pulmonary function test impairment was seen in both the groups, but obstructive and mixed patterns were significant in the smoker group (P<0.01). Conclusion: The results demonstrate that cigarette smoking results in a significant increase and aggravation of pulmonary complications in asbestos workers. These changes are prominent even in those workers smoking less than 5 p/y. We therefore suggest that smoking and asbestos inhalation aggravate each others complications because smoking, even in low amounts causes respiratory problems in these workers and asbestosis presents itself in smokers much earlier than expected. . In view of the wide use of asbestos in friction industries like manufacture of brakes of vehicles, smoking can produce undesirable effects in those exposed for longer periods to heavy traffic, such as traffic police officers. In order to decrease these personal and social problems, serious thinking needs to be done.

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Introduction : Adverse health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among non-smokers have been studied occasionally in developing countries. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of exposure to ETS on outcome in pregnancy Methods: In this descriptive and analytical study 600 non-smoking women delivering a singleton live baby were studied in delivery room in Hajar hospital in Shahrekord . A pre-designed structured questionnaire was used to record the details of exposure to ETS . Mother and infants outcomes were compared among those who were exposed to ETS vis-à-vis not exposed . We used spss software for analysis of data . Unpaired Student t-test was used for the comparison of continuous variables and Fisher’s Exact test was used for categorical variables. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed after including all variables found to have significant differences on univariate analysis. Results: Of the 600 women studied 236 (39.3%) were exposed to ETS. In these mothers there was a significantly higher incidence of pre-term birth (15.2% versus 7.9% , P = 0.001) and small-for-gestation babies (15.4% versus 6.8% , P= 0.0001) as compared to unexposed mothers. The mean birth weight of the babies born to the mothers exposed to ETS was 139 g less than that of babies in the unexposed group (3094.49 ±402 g versus 3233.99 ±443 g respectively, P= 0.001). The incidence of anemia was higher in exposed than unexposed mothers (P= 0.005) . The multiple logistic regression analyses showed that ETS exposure during pregnancy was significantly associated with a higher risk of small-for-gestation babies . Conclusion: Exposure to ETS during pregnancy is associated with higher risk of having a small-for-gestation baby.

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Introduction:Diabetes is a significant and expensive health problem which had influenced all the ages in almost all the countries. Increasing prevalence of this disease has been caused by continued changes in lifestyle such as unsuitable nutrition, lack of physical activities and fatness which is often related to modern city life, mechanization and industrialization. It is an expensive disease, both for patients and the health and hygienic care systems. This research tried to examine the relationship between lifestyle risk factors and type II diabetes. Methods: This research was a case-control type by random sampling and studying140 diabetes type II patients as case group and 140 healthy people accompanying some other patients as the control group at Tonekabon Shahid Rajaei hospital. People were of both sexes, between 30 and 64 years of age and Tonekabon residents. The questionnaire used included demographic, nutritional, physical activities, stress tolerance and smoking status information. The SPSS 11.5 and excel software were used for statistic calculation and for analysis of data, T and Chi-Square tests were applied. Results: By analyzing the data collected, there was a meaningful statistical relationship between physical activities, stress residence, nutrition, smoking and the diabetes type II disease (P-value<0.0001). Also, there was no meaningful statistical relationship between diabetes type II disease and factors such as sex, marital status, economical and social status(P-value>0.05). Conclusion: Results imply that some risk factors important in diabetes type II include unsuitable nutrition such as having too much of sweets and sugar,lack of fruits, vegetables, fish, proteins and also lack of physical activities, stress tolerance and control.

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Introduction: Smoking approval by friends and teachers seems to increase the probability of smoking by the students. This study aimed to determine whether adolescent smoking is associated with teachers or other students smoking, after controlling for confounders. Methods: A sample of the 3rd grade students of Tehran's high schools were asked to complete a 21 item questionnaire, including demographic and smoking habits. The comparisons of adolescent smoking pattern between two sexes and also smoking frequency of the family members, best friends and teachers between the smoking and non-smoking students, were performed. Furthermore, the association between smoking behavior and exposure to teachers smoking were assessed by a multivariate logistic regression analysis, adjusted for sex, parental, best friends, and sibling smoking. Odds Ratios were estimated. Results: Among the 4591 students (aged 17-19, mean 17.53±0.59 years), including 2092 boys (45.6%) and girls, 250 boys (12.1%) and 131 girls (5.3%) were current smokers (p=0.001). The proportion of smoker and non-smoker students who have been exposed to teachers smoking inside the school building were 55.7% (209) and 29.3% (1191) respectively (p=0.001). The 220 (58.7%) exposed students to outdoors teachers smoking (on school premises) were smoker while 1205 (29.2%) were non-smoker (p=0.001). By adjustment of the parameters, adolescent exposure to best friend smoking and to teachers smoking on school premises was significantly associated with current smoking. Conclusion: Teachers smoking during school hours and best friend smoking are the two important determinants to be considered in any project aiming to establish tobacco-free schools.

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Introduction: Improper lifestyle is one of the factors affecting the incidence of chronic diseases. According to the World Health Organization statistics, smoking causes four million deaths annually. Studies show that in 1993, 28.6% men and 3.6% of women older than 15 years in the country were smokers. The most practical stage behavior change model is Transtheoretical model. Therefore, this study used this model. Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 200 smokers or ex- smokers of Khorramabad who had high school diploma or higher educational levels. Cluster sampling was conducted in two stages. Data was collected by a questionnaire whose validity and reliability had been approved. Data was analyzed by using SPSS statistical software 11.5 and descriptive statistics. P level <0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Mean age was 42.5±7.85 years. Regarding stages of change, 39.5% were in pre-contemplation stage, 25.5% in contemplation stage, 12% in preparation stage, 5.5% in action stage and 17.5% were in maintenance stage. Variables that had a significant relationship with stages of change included years of smoking (p=0.001), complications of smoking (0.000), and age (p=0.04). There was no significant relationship between marital status, education, family and income, and stages of change. Conclusion: In this study, majority of the population under study were in the early stages. It is therefore necessary to provide educational programs and develop strategies for the same. Due to the significant relationship between age and years of smoking and exposure to advanced stages of change, people should be made aware of the problems of smoking earlier so that they can decide as soon as possible about smoking cessation.

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Introdution:. Quality of life is an important and measurable outcome in the field of medicine; The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relation between smoking and quality of life in the city of Yazd.
Methods: This analytical - cross-sectional study was performed using Yazd Health Study (YaHS) data with a sample size of 8725 people. SF8 (Short Form 8 Health Survey) questionnaire was used for evaluating the quality of life. Data were analyzed through Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Logistic regression tests.
Results: There was a significant difference between the quality of life in smokers and non-smokers  and the quality of life was significantly lower among smokers compared to non-smokers (p < 0.001) . This difference was observed in the dimensions of general health (p < 0.001), cheerfulness (p < 0.001) and social performance (p = 0.014) as well as in two general dimensions of physical (p = 0.001) and mental (p < 0.001) quality of life. In the present study, smoking cigarette (OR=1.54, CI 95%: 1.31-1.81) and hookah (OR=1.32, CI 95%: 1.11-1.56) were considered as risk factors for low quality of life. Analyzing the statistical interaction between smoking cigarette and quality of life-related demographic characteristics has shown that young smokers compared to old smokers (OR=3.55, CI 95%: 1.56-8.08) and single smokers compared to married smokers (OR=2.37, CI 95%: 1.44-3.89) had a higher chance of being in the low quality of life classification. In addition, employed smoker compared to unemployed smoker had a lower chance of low quaility of life (OR=0.711, CI95%: 0.513-0.983).
Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that there are significant differences in quality of life according to the smoking status.

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Introduction: The ability to taste Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), has been long studied from genetics, epidemiologic and evolutionary point of view. This ability is associated with the ability of tasting other bitter substances which mostly are toxic. Natural selection is involved in the maintenance of the allelic frequency of PTC. Variation in the frequency of tasters and non-tasters could reflect the food preferences and dietary habits. Moreover, it can be a marker for diet-related diseases. The frequency of PTC taste sensitivity has been studied in many populations. However, no study in this regard has been reported in Iran.  The aim of this research was to determine the frequency of PTC tasters and not-tasters in a population from Iran and also the association of sex and smoking with the ability to taste PTC.
 
Methods:  In this research, 175 individuals from Shiraz University or their families were examined regarding the ability to taste PTC.
 
Results: The frequency of T, and t alleles was 0.58 and 0.42, respectively. There was 82.3% taster versus 17.7% non-taster in this population. There was significant difference (p=0.007, OR=4.044) between male and female regarding the ability of tasting PTC. Moreover, there was more non-taster among smokers compared to non-smokers (p= 0.002, OR=0.278).
 
Conclusion: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the frequency of PTC tasters in Iran. We have shown that, similar to studies from other populations, the frequency of PTC tasters is higher compared to non-tasters in our population. Moreover, there are more tasters among women and non-smokers compared to men and smokers, respectively. Considering that in Iran, women have an important role in providing food recepies, being more taster would help them probably to choose healtier ingredients for food recepies. In addition, investigating the connenctions between taste perception and smoking may help us to find a reliable indicator for smoking susceptibility. However, larger sample size and genetic tests are necessary to draw a more comperihensive conclusion.  

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Introdution: One of the most important signs of general health is oral health. Many systemic diseases have oral manifestations that could be appeared in the oral cavity at first. Therefore, considering the importance of timely diagnosis and treatment of oral lesions. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of oral lesions in the patients admitted to Yazd ShahidSadoughi Hospital.
Methods: In this cross sectional study, 443 hospitalized patients were clinically evaluated for oral mucosal lesions. All of the abnormal variations in oral mucosa in these patients, demographic data, type & location of oral lesion, existence of denture & smoking were documented. Data were analyzed by SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL; Version 19 was analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher exact tests.
Results: Oral lesions were observed in 37.7% of patients. The most common type of lesion was related to red and white lesions, which was seen in 19.1% of patients.  Palate was the common location for red and white lesions. Most of vesiculobollous lesions were observed in the hard palate and tongue. The lesions rate increased with aging. Among the lesions, only pigmented lesions were significantly higher in males.
Conclusion: Regarding the high prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in admitted patients, the importance of more attention to oral cavity for timely diagnosis and referral in the routine examination is emphasized.

 

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