Background and Objectives: Social support is considered as a key factor in adherence to a low fat diet among patients with cardiovascular disease. The main objective of this study is to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the family support questionnaire for adherence to low fat diet in patients with cardiovascular disease. Methods: The participants were 212 patients with cardiovascular disease who were discharged from 2 medical centers (Khatam Al-Anbiya and Ali Ibn Abi Talib) in the city of Zahedan. They were enrolled by the convenience sampling method. Internal consistency and Cronbach's alpha were used to test the scale's reliability and following, the exploratory factor analysis method (principal components analysis by using Varimax rotation) was used for the investigation factor structure. Results: The principal components analysis (PCA) provided support for two-factor structure (emotional and instrumental support) of the family support questionnaire for adherence to low fat diet in patients with cardiovascular disease. Two-factor structure explained 83.29% of the variance. In this analysis, the first factor (emotional support) and second factor (instrumental support), respectively, explained 63.03% and 20.25% of variance. The questionnaire had acceptable internal consistency. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the questionnaire was 0.89 and for both instrumental and emotional support was equal to 0.71 and 0.99, respectively. Conclusions: The present questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument to measure family support for adherence to low fat diet in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to their inability to take care of themselves. Thus, families have a main role in caring for these patients. Objectives: This study sought to examine the effects of home-based education on the incidence of UTIs and bedsores in patients with TBI discharged from the hospital. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 50 patients with TBI admitted to Khatam Al-Anbia Hospital in Zahedan in 2022 and their caregivers. The participants were selected through convenience sampling among those meeting our inclusion criteria and randomly divided into the intervention and control groups. Caregivers in the intervention group received face-to-face home-based training on the second and fifth days after discharge (i.e., two 45-minute sessions). The participants in the intervention group also received educational pamphlets and videos in the patient’s living environment. The participants in the control group received routine care. After four weeks, urine samples from the patients in the two groups were cultured, and the growth of organisms and the number of colonies were determined. If the number of colonies was 105 per mL or more, the test was considered positive, confirming the presence of UTI. The data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software using appropriate statistical tests at a significance level of less than 0.05 (P < 0.05). Results: The results showed that 28% and 64% of the patients in the intervention and control groups were positive for UTIs, respectively. The result of the Chi-square test indicated a statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of the incidence of UTIs (P = 0.01). Conclusions: Home-based education for traumatic brain injury patients and their caregivers can be effective in reducing the incidence of UTIs after discharge from the hospital and should be incorporated into nursing care programs at the time of the patient’s discharge.