Élaboration d'un indice socioéconomique pour la recherche en santé en IraqRÉSUMÉ Bien que le statut socioéconomique soit l'un des facteurs essentiels dans la plupart des recherches en santé, celui-ci reste une des notions les plus difficiles à cerner. La présente étude vise à proposer une méthode relativement précise et facile afin d'évaluer ce statut socioéconomique pour les recherches en santé en Iraq, ainsi que dans les pays au profil similaire dans le monde en développement. Après avoir passé en revue diverses méthodes de calcul du statut socioéconomique, une nouvelle méthode basée sur trois variables dominantes est suggérée : le niveau d'éducation, l'activité professionnelle et le capital/revenu. Une amélioration supplémentaire est obtenue en prenant en considération l'expérience et le statut professionnel. La validité du contenu a été calculée en s'appuyant sur les avis d'experts et la fiabilité test-retest. En se fondant sur les avis d'experts, il a été constaté que le ratio de validité de contenu calculé pour l'indice socioéconomique était relativement élevé et la fiabilité du coefficient de corrélation pour les six variables (niveau d'éducation, activité professionnelle, revenu, capital, expérience et statut professionnel) était très élevée. Ainsi, la méthode suggérée est raisonnablement valable, fiable ainsi que facile à calculer. ABSTRACT Although socioeconomic status is one of the essential factors in much health research, it is one of the most difficult constructs to measure. The aim of this study was to develop a relatively accurate, easy-to-calculate method to estimate socioeconomic status (SES) for health research in Iraq as well as similar profile countries in the developing world. After reviewing various methods of calculating SES, a new method is proposed based on the 3 main variables: education, occupation and wealth/income. Additional refinement was done based on experience and job status. Content validity was calculated through experts' opinions and reliability through test/retest. Based on experts' opinions, it was found that the calculated content validity ratio for the SES index was relatively high and the correlation coefficient reliability for the six variables (education, occupation, income, wealth, experience and job status) was very high. Thus, the suggested method is reasonably valid, reliable as well as easy to calculate. ‫العراق‬ ‫يف‬ ‫الصحية‬ ‫للبحوث‬ ‫واقتصادي‬ ‫اجتامعي‬ ‫مقياس‬ ‫إعداد‬

Due to remarkable changes in lifestyles, there has recently been an increase in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) among individuals of all age ranges in both developed and developing countries. Changing the patients’ lifestyles by modifying their diet through nutrition education programs decreases their body mass index (BMI), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and reverses DM. This study aimed to determine the effect of a proposed nutrition education program on BMI and HbA1c among patients with type 2 DM (T2DM). The present clinical trial was conducted on 42 patients with T2DM in Diabetes Center in Erbil-Kurdistan Region-Iraq, from December 2018 to September 2019. Data were collected using a customs questionnaire before the study and after educational sessions in which the patients were educated about an appropriate diet based on a proposed nutrition education program. In the first session and after third session, the patients’ BMI and HbA1c were measured. According to the results, most of the patients aged 45–64 years, a majority of the patients lived in urban areas (95.2%), were illiterate (33.3%), and were obese (76.2%). Due to the nutrition education program, remarkable decrease was observed in the patients’ high (BMI) and high HbA1c and experienced a mean decrease of (2.6%) from 34.0 ± 5.6 to 31.4 ± 5.2, and HbA1c decreased about (2.0%) on average from 8.9 ± 1.9 to 6.9 ± 0.9. High BMI and high HbA1c can be controlled and decreased through appropriate nutrition education programs.