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Background and Purpose: Fever is one of the most frequent disease symptoms and a common cause of emergency admissions in infants and children. Considering the alarming nature of fever and pivotal role of mothers in the management of this symptom in children, this study aimed to evaluate the ability of fever management among mothers in Sabzevar city, Iran. Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted on 340 mothers with children aged less than 10 years referring to the healthcare centers of Sabzevar city, Iran in 2014. Data were collected using prepared checklists to assess the performance and ability of mothers in the management of fever. Data analysis was performed in SPSS V.20 using descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results:In this study, mean score of fever management was 4.65±1.64, and 20.9% of the mothers used antipyretic drugs at the body temperature of 38°C to control the fever of children. In addition, 83.7% of the mothers used antipyretics during the night by waking the children. Our findings were indicative of a significant association between fever management and maternal age (P=0.048), education level (P=0.002), employment status (P<0.001), and referring to community healthcare centers (P<0.001). Conclusion:According to the results of this study, mothers with low education levels required training to promote their performance and conceptions regarding fever in order for the effective management of this common symptom in children.

Introduction: Child hospitalization is one of the sources of anxiety for both the child and his/her parents. Among the strategies for reducing anxiety, non-pharmacological strategies are as important as pharmacological. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of educative storybooks and face-to-face education on anxiety of hospitalized children and their mothers. Methods: The research project had a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test. The subjects consisted of 81 hospitalized children, aged six to nine years old and mothers in Sabzevar, who were not selected randomly by method. Data collection tools were demographic information questionnaire, Scale of Facial Self-Reported Anxiety and the State Anxiety Inventory. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 20) and Descriptive Statistics, Shapiro-Wilk, Chi-Square, Paired Sample T Test, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Honestly Significant Difference (HSD). Results: After the intervention, the results of this study showed that there was a significant difference in anxiety of children, between the educative storybook group and routine group (Pvalue = 0.006). However, the differences between the educative storybook with face-to-face education groups and face-to-face education with routine groups were not significant (P-value > 0.05). There were significant differences in anxiety of mothers between the educative storybook with routine groups (P-value < 0.001) and face-to-face education group with routine group (Pvalue = 0.001). However, the difference between the educative storybook and face-to-face education groups was not significant (P-value = 0.079). Conclusions: The results demonstrated that educative storybooks and face-to-face education could reduce the mothers' anxiety. It can be recommended as a popular, practical and efficient tool to prepare children for hospitalization.

Chronic methamphetamine use increases apoptosis, leading to heart failure and sudden cardiac death. Previous studies have shown the importance of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in reducing indices of cardiac tissue apoptosis in different patients, but in the field of sports science, the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis in methamphetamine-dependent rats are still unclear. The present article aimed to investigate the changes in cardiac apoptosis markers in methamphetamine-dependent rats in response to HIIT. Left ventricular tissue was used to evaluate caspase-3, melusin, FAK, and IQGAP1 gene expression. Rats were divided into four groups: sham, methamphetamine (METH), METH-control, and METH-HIIT. METH was injected for 21 days and then the METH-HIIT group performed HIIT for 8 weeks at 5 sessions per week. The METH groups showed increased caspase-3 gene expression and decreased melusin, FAK, and IQGAP1 when compared to the sham group. METH-HIIT showed decreased caspase-3 and increased melusin and FAK gene expression compared with the METH and METH-control groups. The IQGAP1 gene was higher in METH-HIIT when compared with METH, while no difference was observed between METH-HIIT and METH-control. Twenty-one days of METH exposure increased apoptosis markers in rat cardiac tissue; however, HIIT might have a protective effect, as shown by the apoptosis markers.

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