Background:The children working in the streets are at risk of violence, sexual and substance abuse and infectious diseases. Few studies have been done in this field in Iran and around the world. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the health status and life situation of street children to encourage and inform interventions and the future research agenda regarding these children in Iran. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in southeast of Iran from January to April 2015. Based on postal map, the city was divided into five districts and 216 male street children were selected using snowball sampling. An unstructured questionnaire was provided by integrating eight previously used questionnaires in different studies with approved validity and reliability and filled with in-depth interview. Data were analyzed in Stata 12 software using independent t-test and chi-square test. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 12.5 ± 3.2 years and 29.2% and 18.9% of them subsisted by vending and rubbish gathering, respectively. There was significant relation between fathers' job and type of children's activities (P = 0.024). The prevalence of smoking and history of alcohol consumption was 42.6% and 2%, respectively. The lowest mean age of initial use and also the most commonly used substance was for cigarette smoking. The mean age of children with illiterate parents that were using substances or had lost both their parents was lower than the mean age of the rest (P < 0.05). Only 38.6% of the children ate meals with their families and the rest ate their meals as snack. Conclusions:The health status and life situation of street children in this region do not seem appropriate and earning money is the most important motivation to being a street child. Unlike violence, the tendency to substance abuse, especially cigarette smoking, was pretty high. On the other hand, the lower age of illicit drug abuse among these children in this study indicates a higher vulnerability of this group. However, the awareness and educational level of the parents is an important determinant in this regard.

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BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is considered a health problem that can be simply prevented by lifestyle modifications in adolescence. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effects of protection motivation theory (PMT)-based training on osteoporosis-preventive behaviors in female high school students in Zahedan, Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present quasi-experimental study was performed on 240 female high school students who were selected by a multistage sampling technique in Zahedan in 2019–2020. To collect the data, a multipart questionnaire was distributed among the participants in three stages, namely at the baseline, immediately, and 2 months after the intervention. This instrument consisted of demographic information, socioeconomic status, knowledge, PMT constructs, and preventive behaviors. The intervention group was subjected to educational content. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 22) by descriptive and analytical tests (i.e., Chi-square, independent t-test, and ANOVA). RESULTS: Based on the results, the intervention and control groups showed no significant difference in terms of the mean score of knowledge, theoretical constructs, and preventive behaviors at the baseline (P > 0.05). However, the two groups were significantly different in terms of the mentioned variables immediately and 2 months after the intervention (P = 0.001). Mean score of preventive behaviors, the two groups also demonstrated a significant difference (i.e., calcium intake, physical activity, and sunlight exposure) 2 months after the intervention, compared to before the intervention. (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study were indicative of the PMT effectiveness, which can, therefore, be used as a framework for designing educational programs regarding osteoporosis prevention.

Background: A workplace has an important role in staff health. Besides, it is a suitable place for performing interventions to reduce the risk of suffering from health problems associated with physical inactivity and overweight, and to reduce risks of cardiovascular and non-communicable diseases. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the effects of health promotion educational interventions on self-care behaviors of nutrition and physical activity among the selected university staff in Zahedan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The present quasi-experimental research was conducted in 2020-2021 in Zahedan, southeastern Iran. The control and intervention groups included a random selectionof 110 and 144 non-academic staff members of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZAUMS) as well as Sistan and Baluchestan University (SBU), respectively. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, an online researcher-made questionnaire (Porsline, https://survey.porsline.ir) (CVR: 92%; CVI: 90%; reliability: 85%) was uploaded, which had been already approved. Besides, educational booklets were provided to the intervention group via WhatsApp and Soroush messengers, through which the participants were allowed to ask their questions after every session. One month after the intervention, the online questionnaires were re-uploaded on Porsline and recompleted by the participants. The results were analyzed using SPSS V21.0. Results: The results indicated that the self-care behaviors of nutrition and physical activity increased significantly in terms of awareness, attitude, and performance among the intervention group participants after conducting the educational intervention (P-value < 0.05). Accordingly, the educational intervention resulted in an increase in the level of awareness, attitude, and performance of nutrition and physical activity among the university staff of the intervention group. Besides, the performance of physical activity was significantly affected not only by the intervention (P < 0.001) but also by work experience (P < 0.001). In addition, nutrition behavior was significantly better in female staff than male staff (P = 0.048), but there was no significant correlation between gender and the intervention (P = 0.266). Conclusions: The educational program executed in the present study was shown to be effective in promoting self-care behaviors of nutrition and physical activity among the university staff. Thus, health programmers and policymakers can have a significant role in promoting staff health by executing interventional educational programs. Accordingly, the efficiency of the whole system will improve by adopting these strategies and programs.