Background:Pregnancy is an acute period in the lifetime of women, during which numerous excitatory physical and social changes occur. The purpose of this study is confirmatory factor analysis of Pregnancy Related Anxiety Questionnaire (PRAQ) that is designed in Iranian pregnant women population.Methods:A total of 170 pregnant women in health centers of Kerman city were chosen through random sampling method and completed PRAQ questionnaire and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). In this study, confirmatory factor analysis and concurrent validity are used to evaluate the validity of models; and to test-retest and Cronbach alpha were used for evaluating external and internal reliability in SPSS-19 and the AMOS software to evaluate reliability of models.Results:Confirmatory factor analysis gave an acceptable value for the latent PRAQ in the question scale and 5 micro-scale level. Furthermore, significant correlation between the components and the overall scale of the PRAQ questionnaire with the BAI confirmed concurrent validity of questionnaire. The reliability of questionnaire is confirmed based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient value of 0.78 that calculated 0.69–0.76 for the five-factors. A month later, reliability coefficient amplitude of test-retest on forty pregnant women was between 0.65 and 0.72 which shows the reliability of PRAQ over time.Conclusions:The short form of anxiety during pregnancy questionnaire has the essential psychometric properties. In this study, five-factors extracted in the PRAQ were adapted with the factors extracted from the original version. This study introduces an instrument that can be benefit in measuring anxiety and concerns of women during pregnancy.

The present study aimed at investigating and comparing patients suffering from β-thalassemia (β-thal) minor with normal individuals in regard to their performances in the short version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) test. Patients with β-thal minor are carriers of β-thal genes. They have mild microcytic and hypochromic anemia and are usually asymptomatic. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 60 individuals were divided into two equal groups of β-thal minor and normal subjects; they were then studied by the WAIS subscales. The mean performance scores of the normal group in the subtests of arithmetic and vocabulary (p <0.01) and picture completion (p <0.05) were higher than those of the thalassemia group. The mean performance score and ability of the normal group on the verbal scale was higher in comparison to the thalassemia group (p <0.05), while on the non verbal scale, there was no significant difference between the two groups. It can be concluded that β-thal minor negatively influences verbal fluency, reasoning and conceptualization, and sequencing tasks, perceptual skill, prediction of social situations and abstract thinking.

Introduction: Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in their capacity to execute a specific behavior. Believing that individuals themselves are responsible for their health can lead to the adoption of health behaviors. This study aimed to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis of a Cancer Behavior Inventory (CBI) for Iranian female breast cancer patients. Methods: This was a descriptive-analytic study. First, we establishing the content and face validity of the instrument. Then, 345 breast cancer patients were selected from cancer treatment centers of Kerman city by convenience sampling to evaluate the psychometric properties of the instrument. The participants completed the CBI and the General Self-efficacy Scale. The instrument validity was assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (structural validity) and correlational methods (concurrent validity), and the internal and external reliability were evaluated by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficients and using the test-retest method, respectively. Analyses were performed using SPSS 19 and AMOS software packages. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis of the 31-item questionnaire, consisting of 7 subscales, was conducted after removing items 3 and 5. A significant correlation between each subscale and the General Self-efficacy Scale and also between the overall scale and the General Self-efficacy Scale confirmed the concurrent validity of the questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed based on a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient value of 0.75 (ranging from 0.69 to 0.74 for the seven factors). The 1-month test-retest reliability, assessed by readministering the test to 30 cancer patients, ranged between 0.67 and 0.74 (P < 0.01), which shows acceptable reliability of the CBI over time. Conclusion: The CBI has acceptable validity and reliability. The seven factors extracted for the CBI matched those identified in the original version. The present study introduces a tool that can be useful in assessing and evaluating the self-efficacy of breast cancer patients during treatment.