Introduction: Dysmenorrhea is one of the most common and important health problems especially among young girls. It causes absence from classes and work. It has some negative effects on daily activities of patients. Because of cultural problems, patients ordinarily don’t seek help from others in this situation. The aim of this survey was to study the prevalence of this disorder among university students and evaluate their knowledge and practice toward it. Materials & Methods: This was a descriptive study on 300 female students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd. Subjects were selected by simple sampling. The data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire. The data were analysed by SPSS (ver. 17) using Chi - Square and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: The age range of participants was 18 - 35 years (mean: 21±4.3 years). Prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 38.3% and the knowledge of 6.3% of students was good. There was a significant difference between participants regarding their knowledge and age. The first source of awareness of 39% of students was their mother. The practice of 17.7% of subjects was good. Discussion: the results of this study showed that the knowledge and practice of participants about dysmenorrhea was low, so there is necessary to plan training programs for university students.

Introduction: Today, transmitted diseases through food and food poisoning have been considered as a public health problem in many countries. Lack of knowledge concerning hygiene and food safety can increase the risks associated with the consumed foods. Hence, the present study aimed to determine the students' knowledge and attitude of hygiene and food safety in Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd.

Materials & Methods: This study is a cross-sectional survey in which 358 students were selected, out of 5400 students of different Schools of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd, via stratified random sampling method. In order to glean the study data, a questionnaire was applied, which were then analyzed applying Mann- Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Results: The mean score of knowledge has been reported in a low level within 33% of students and the mean score of attitude has been demonstrated to be at a good level within 63.4% of students. Most students revealed a low knowledge level regarding the proper procedures for food storage and food-borne diseases. Moreover, 28.5% of students had a history of food poisoning, whose knowledge and attitude levels were significantly less than those of students who had no history of food poisoning (P&le0.001).

Conclusions: As the study findings revealed, training programs in the form of workshops and courses related to hygiene and food safety can be effective for the students in increasing students' knowledge especifically lower grades students. These programs should contain practical information about microbiology of transmitted diseases through food and proper food storage methods.

Abstract

Introduction: Fast food consumption has greatly increased with in adolescents in recent years, which is linked with weight gain, poor dietary indexes and insulin resistance. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the association between demographic characteristics and fast food consumption with in high school students.

Materials & Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, a sample of 521 high school students  aged 15-18 years were examined in Isfahan city, who were selected via multistage sampling method. The study data were collected using a questionnaire completed by the students. The present study probed to assess such items as frequency of fast food consumption, demographic characteristics, hours of television viewing, as well as high school students' knowledge and attitude. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Result: Frequent intake of fast food (&ge1 time/week) was reported 15.5% within females and 15.3% within males. A significant relationship was detected between parents’ high level of education and high income of the family with the fast food consumption. The predominate reasons for fast food consumption were stated as “enjoying tastes”, “eating at any place”,” inexpensive and economic”.

Conclusion: The findings revealed that fast food consumption increased in families with high income and high education level, though these families needed to be educated on the harmful effects of fast food and how to choose the healthy foods. Therefore, some interventions may be regarded beneficial in order to reduce the exposure to the fast food and promote knowledge, attitude, and behavior change in regard with reducing consumption of fast food.

Introduction: Daily milk consumption can be introduced as a healthy dietary pattern associated with a range of health benefits. This study aimed to determine factors associated with milk consumption among students of Yazd university of medical sciences based on the theory of planned behavior.

Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 385 students in 2014, who were selected via stratified random sampling. The study data was collected from a questionnaire based on the indirect construct of theory of planned behavior. Finally, the study data were analyzed using the T-test, Chi-square, and Fisher's exact tests.

Results: In the present study, 64% of the students consumed milk daily. The behavioral intention, behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, control beliefs, and perceived power were significantly associated with the milk consumption (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Educating the students in regard with the importance of receiving enough amount of milk, modifying their misconceptions as well as reinforcing positive beliefs can be effective in increasing milk consumption. In addition, increasing access to milk in university campuses should be taken into consideration.

Abstract

Introduction: Smoking is regarded as one of the major causes of death caused by chronic diseases which begins during adolescence. Considering the fact that the age of  smoking onset in both developed and developing countries is decreasing, the current study aimed to determine the prevalence of  lifetime smoking and its determinant factors in high schools of Shiraz.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 750 students (569 males and 181 females) participated who were selected via multi-stage cluster randomized sampling. The study data were collected using a checklist designed under the supervision of a team of specialists, that was responded by self-reports of the students. The collected data was statistically analyzed applying SPSS software (ver. 20), via χ2 and logistic regression tests.

Results: 85% of students mentioned they had not had smoking experience, and 15% reported experience of smoking. The prevalence of smoking among the boys was 15/3% and it was reported 12/2% within the girls. Most smoker students cited smoker friends and close relatives as the most important factor in encouraging them to smoke. In the present study, the relationship between smoking and the following parameters was examined: age, gender, educational status, field of study, and parents’ educational level; however, the sole significant relationship was observed between smoking, educational status (P=0.025), and field of study (P=0.032).

Conclusion: As the findings of the present study revealed, more attention to adolescents and related planning are needed to deal with the problem of cigarette smoking among this stratum of society.

Abstract

Introduction: Substance abuse is a common problem and a major public health dilemma with a high incidence of morbidity and mortality. Therefore, due to the increase of drug abuse in recent years, especially among young people and its complications, including loss of life, unwanted pregnancy, suicide commitment, as well as violence and given that our country has a young population, so the present study, aimed to investigate the substance abuse among the students in Yazd, a central city in Iran.

Materials and methods: In this cross sectional study 1020 students studying in high school (the first period - the second period) were investigated in the 2015-2016 academic year in the city of Yazd. Multi-stage sampling method using cluster and stratified sampling was used. Information were collected through a standardized questionnaire based on World Health Organization method known as Global school-based student health survey (GSHS) which was translated to Persian. After completion of the questionnaire by students, the collected data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 and through statistical tests of significance.

Results: The results showed 18.1% of students had at least one history of drug use. 9.5% of students had a history of cannabis use, 12.5% had a history of amphetamines use, 10.8% had a history of taking psychotropic pills, 12.2% had a history of heroin use, 12.9% had a history of opium use, and finally, 9.6% had a history of crack use. There was no significant association between parents education and drug abuse in students.

Conclusion: According to high prevalence and diversity of substance abuse among students, recommend educational program in school and parents supervision. Promotion of parents and teachers knowledge about symptoms of abuse is needed. Family support of adolescents is effective for prevention. 

Introduction: Physical activity and healthy eating at an early age are two key elements in prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases. Therefore, regular physical activity is recommended to improve public health and to reduce the burden of diseases and medical costs in communities. The aim of this study was to determine the status of physical activity in Yazd high school students

Methods: A total number of1018 male high school students participated in this cross-sectional study. They were permanent residents of Yazd city in the school year of 2015-2016.

Multistage cluster classification and stratified sampling methods were applied to collect samples. A validated Persian standardized World Health Organization questionnaire (GSHS) was used as a data collection tool. After completing the questionnaire by students, data were analyzed by SPSS.

Results: only 11.6 % of participants reported physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day. Inert activities such as watching television or playing computer games for more than 2 hours during a typical day was reported by 531 participants (55 %). Based on body mass index, 18.23 % of students were obese and 13.22 % were overweight.

Discussion and conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the level of students' physical activities is low. Paying more attention to physical activity and designing curriculums that devote more hours for physical activities are recommended. Encouraging physical activity in leisure time and providing proper facilities for adolescents are further suggestions.

Introduction: Nowadays, use of virtual socail networks is increasing . However, few studies have been conducted  about  factors influencing the use of social networks by using theories of health education  among students.  The present study was to determine predictive factors of virtual social networks among students of Yazd university of medical sciences based on the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 Students in 2016, who were selected by stratified random sampling method. The  study data was collected from a questionnaire based on the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior including attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intentions and behaviors. The data collected were then analyzed via the SPSS Software using descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation test, one-way analysis of variance, and regression.

Results: The mean age of university students was 22.28±3.69 years. The results also suggested that 98.3% of these university students were using virtual social networks. Moreover, the findings of the regression analysis indicated that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were predictors of intention to use social networks and attitudes had the highest predictive power for the intention to use social networks (β=0.38). Furthermore, the results of the regression analysis demonstrated that behavioral intention, attitudes, and subjective norms among the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior could predict the behavior to use virtual space.

Conclusion: Given the high level of social networking utilization, the necessity of planinig and doing of interventions should be noted to manage it. It is also required to induce and educate the correct attitude about the use of network and how to take advantage of  it 

Introduction: Regarding the importance of health literacy for creating a healthy society, the role of multiple intelligence is among the factors influencing health literacy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of multiple intelligence on health literacy of students.

Methods: This is a descriptive correlational study. The statistical population includes students studying at the School of Public Health at Gonabad University of Medical Sciences in 2017. The total volume of the sample was determined 170 based on random stratified sampling. In order to collect the data, Montazeri et al.'s Health Literacy Questionnaire, and Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Questionnaire were used. Data was analyzed through spss 20. Pearson correlation coefficient, regression and independent t-test were used to analyze the data.

Results: The mean and standard deviation of students' score in the health literacy variable were 62.01 ± 9.17. The results showed that all aspects of multiple intelligence have a meaningful relationship with health literacy. Also, multiple intelligence components were 43.3 percent able to predict student health literacy.

conclusion: Considering the positive and significant relationship between multiple intelligence and health literacy, it is suggested that training courses and workshops be used to promote and strengthen the multiple intelligence and health literacy of students at the School of Public Health.

Introduction: Smoking abstinence self-efficacy is a factor that plays a key role in preventing addiction or its revival tendency after quitting. This study attempted to analyze the relationship between the early maladaptive schemas and smoking abstinence self-efficacy among the sophomore high school students in the city of Gorgan, Iran.
Methods:This was a descriptive study and its population (n= 9955) included all second grade high school students in the city of Gorgan in the school year 2015-2016. The multi- stage cluster sampling method was used to select 369 participants. The required data were collected using the maladaptive schema questioners and the smoking abstinence self-efficacy questionnaire. Pearson correlation and Multi- variable regression methods were also used to analyze data.
Results: The results of the current study indicated a significant, yet reverse relationship of the early maladaptive schemas with smoking abstinence self-efficacy. Furthermore, 51 percent change in self-efficacy variance is derived from the components of early maladaptive schemas. Among components of the early maladaptive schemas, components of the abandonment / aalienation, the strongest predictor was Students smoking abstinence self-efficacy. 
Conclusion: Early self- efficacy schemas are among the individual and psychological causes with especial importance in studies on smoking dependency and its consumption. Such early schemas lead to biases in an individual’s interpretation of the events. These biases are represented as distorted attitudes, false speculations, unrealistic aims and perspectives, and high- risk behaviors such as smoking.