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  Background and Objective : Young people are the major group at risk of acquiring AIDS worldwide. It is one of the health problems in the world and in the developing countries in particular. We aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of students of the Islamic Azad University, Saveh Branch, about HIV/AIDS.

  Materials and methods : This cross-sectional study was conducted on 666 students selected by cluster random sampling in 2009-2010. Instrument was a research-made questionnaire including three parts: demographic, knowledge and attitude toward AIDS. Data were analyzed by Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact Test using SPSS -15.

  Results : Most of the subjects (48.9%) are in 20-25 age bracket and 54.4% are females. The knowledge of 14.9% is good and 68.8% moderate 63.1% of them have negative attitude. Most students (80.6%) indicate that they have been informed about AIDS via mass-media (TV, radio) and 54.4% have not had any contact with AIDS. There is significant relation between knowledge level and sex and information sources (P<0.001) attitude level and sex, and also knowledge and attitude level (P<0.001).

  Conclusion : Overall, the majority have not adequate knowledge and positive attitude of basic HIV/AIDS. Since mass-media have the most effect on AIDS, paying attention to quantity and quality of programs and any other sources is an educational necessity.

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Background and Objective: Psychological hardiness has a relationship with various aspects of physical, psychological and social health of people, and it seems that high level of that may lead to a decrease in death anxiety and an increase in life quality in nurses. Hence, we aimed to determine the relationship of psychological hardiness and quality of life with death anxiety in nurses. 

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Background: Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disorder and its  Positive and negative symptoms have negative effects on social functions. A combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments is considered more effective for this condition. The present study aimed to determine the effect of a group horticulture program on psychiatric symptoms in patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Methods: This quasi- experimental study was conducted from April 2014 to July 2014 in Sina Hospital in Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari province in Iran. Fifty-two eligible patients with diagnosis of chronic schizophrenia were randomly assigned to two groups of horticulture and usual care (control). Both groups received similar medical and routine care. The patients in horticulture group participated in a group horticulture program for three months. The patients’ psychiatric symptoms were evaluated at the beginning and at the end of the study by Andreasen’s scales for assessment of negative and positive symptoms. The data was analyzed by student t test, paired t test and chi square.

 Results: At the beginning of the study, the patients in both study groups were matched in terms of age, sex, marriage status, education, and average scores of positive and negative symptoms. At the end of the study, the horticulture group showed a significant improvement compared with control group in positive and negative symptoms (P < 0.05), which indicated the effectiveness of the intervention on these symptoms.

Conclusion: Group horticulture program can be used as an effective non-pharmacological adjunctive treatment in patients with chronic schizophrenia.

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Background: Anxiety is the most common emotional reaction of women during childbirth. Anti-anxiety effects of Chamomile are documented thanks to flavonoids compounds, Apigenin, and phyto-estrogen which influence central nervous system by bounding to benzodiazepine receptors and lead to reducing anxiety. According to the importance of reducing anxiety, this study aims to evaluate the effect of chamomile essential oil on reducing anxiety in nulliparous women during the first stage of childbirth.
Methods: This randomized clinical trial was performed on 130 nulliparous women (65in intervention group and 65 in control group) who were qualified and referred to Abhar Emdadi Hospital (Zanjan, Iran) in 2013. The researcher referred to labor ward of Abhar Emdadi Hospital after determining the validity and reliability of the study, receiving ethics committee approval at No.400/4013, and registering it in Iranian Registry Clinical Trial Center at No.IRCT201308066807N7. Sampling was conducted in Abhar Emdadi Hospital from September to March 2013. The samples were assigned to case or control group according to the days divided by pockets A and B; qualified nulliparous women were placed in one of the groups in random days. In aromatherapy group, 2 drops of chamomile essential oil, and in control group, 2 drops of distilled water were spilled on sterile gauze. They were inhaled by the patients at a distance of 7-10 cm from their noses and prescription of aroma and distilled water was repeated every half an hour. At first, the anxiety level was measured with researcher by using Spielberger questionnaire at dilatations of 3-4 and 8-10 cm and effacement of 40-50 and 70-100. In all processes the samples were positioned on the bed in the left lateral position.The tools for data collection included midwifery and demographic information checklist, and Spielberg’s questionnaire. Independent t-test, for normal quantitative data and Mann-Whitney and Chi-square tests for not normal quantitative data, were used to analyze the collected data. They were analyzed using SPSS 22. The significance level was considered 0.05.
Results: At baseline, both intervention and control groups showed moderate anxiety. But after intervention, the anxiety level in intervention group at dilatations of 3-4 and 8-10 cm was (46.12 ± 3.70) and (39 ± 3.70) respectively which in turn portrayed a significant decrease (P <0.005) in comparison with control group at dilatations of 3-4 and 8-10 cm which was (60.00 ± 4.3) and (61.24 ± 4.61) respectively.
Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that aromatherapy by chamomile essential oil reduces the anxiety level during childbirth; therefore, it is recommended in order to reduce anxiety.

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Background: Mandala Coloring and Playing are distraction strategies to reduce the anxiety level in children. However, their effects are inconsistent and have received little attention for the management and prevention of anxiety in hospitalized children. The main objective of this study was to compare the effect of distraction strategies of Mandala coloring and playing with Lego on reducing preoperative anxiety in pediatric patients undergoing surgeries.
Methods: The study was designed as a randomized, single-blind, tree-arm, parallel-group controlled trial. There were 96 children aged 6 to 18 years who were admitted to the pediatric surgery ward in Mofid Children's Hospital in Tehran-Iran. Simple randomization was used for choosing the participants for dividing them into two intervention groups and one control group. The interventions (Mandala Coloring and Playing with Lego) lasted 15-20 minutes in Mandala and Lego groups. In the control group, they received care according to the ward’s routine procedure. Anxiety as the main outcome variable was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory in two stages (before the intervention and immediately after the intervention) for children. Analysis of variance was used to compare the means in the three groups, and Tukey’s post-hoc test was used to assess the significance of differences between pairs of group means.
Results: Less state anxiety was observed after the intervention in the Lego group compared to the Mandala group (-4.69 ± 7.58, P =0.094). The data also revealed significant differences before and after the intervention in the Lego group in terms of preoperative trait anxiety (35.84 ±10.25 and 34.38 ± 8.89, respectively, P = 0.038).
Conclusion: The results demonstrated that playing with Lego and Mandala coloring, compared to the control group that received care, according to the ward routine procedure, had an effective role in reducing preoperative anxiety in children; however, playing with Lego had the most effect on decreasing anxiety state in children.
 

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