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Background: Hemodialysis patients differ by the levels of negative effects on all their aspects of lives; their health care costs are high and physical, mental and social problems and fatigue, despite advances in treatment, still cause stress in these patients.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the amount of fatigue in patients treated with hemodialysis.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on 105 patients in AJA selected hospitals in 2015. Data collection and demographic questionnaires were the tools and mental fatigue (MF-20) was the software. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS version 21.

Results: The highest fatigue degrees were observed in women (P=0.53 and 10.57 ± 63.60), age group of “41 - 50” (P=0.24 and 12.05 ± 66.60), the ones with high school diploma (P=0.05 and 65.26 ± 11.09), the unemployed ones (P=0.84 and 63.61 ± 10.95), and one person with history of smocking (9.573±68.89, P=0.001).

Discussion and Conclusion: Unfortunately, monitoring fatigue in comparison with other symptoms is often neglected. Health care providers’ knowledge of how to determine the level, prevalence, risk factors, and complications of fatigue, as well as the strategies to reduce it and the training necessary to improve health and quality of care is essential.

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Introduction: The most common complaint in patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) is fatigue. Fatigue has devastating effects on the quality of life of patients undergoing hemodialysis.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of nutrition-based education on fatigue of patients on hemodialysis.

Materials and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 44 patients at selected AJA hospitals. The experimental group received based nutrition program and the control group did not receive care. Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) and a demographic collection tool were used and the obtained data were analyzed with the SPSS 21 software.

Results: The samples were 3.52% males and 4.86% were married, and the highest percentage of people was in the age range of 71 to 80 years (8.31%). In terms of total fatigue, general fatigue, mental fatigue and reduced motivation fatigue, values were significantly different in the intervention group compared to the control group (P value <0/05), yet physical fatigue did not show a significant difference.

Discussion and Conclusion: The results suggested that nutrition-based programs could be useful as simple, inexpensive and non-invasive therapy modalities for the treatment of fatigue in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

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Introduction: Patient plays a major role in treatment and control of diabetes. Therefore, his/her knowledge about various fields such as diet is very important.
Objective: This research is conducted aiming at investigating the efficiency of Health Belief Model (HBM) for educating the patients with Type 2 Diabetes how to go on a diet.
Materials and Methods: The current research is a quasi-experimental study. The studied population consists of 100 patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Tiran and Karvan counties and were randomly divided into two intervention (n=50) and control (n=50) groups. Data was collected through face to face interviews with patients using a researcher-made questionnaire with approved validity and reliability before and one month after the education. Furthermore, the collected data was analyzed by SPSS 19 and Chi-square test, Mann- Whitney, Paired t-test and independent T- test.
Results: After the intervention, a significant difference was seen between experimental and control groups in terms of scores of awareness, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy and eating behavior (P<0.05). The mean of blood glucose in experimental group was significantly lower after educational intervention compared to pre-intervention (P<0.05).
Discussion and Conclusion: According to the present study, health belief model is efficient in educating the eating behaviors of diabetic patients

 

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Introduction: Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite, which causes toxoplasmosis in humans and many warm-blooded vertebrates.
Objective: The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of T. gondii in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and control individuals in the southwest of Iran.
Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 80 patients with T2DM and 100 healthy individuals referred to Taleghani hospital in Abadan city during the winter season. Anti-T. gondii IgG antibody was measured in sera of participants using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). A questionnaire containing some demographic information and risk factors related to T. gondii infection was completed by each participant. Results were analyzed using SPSS software 20. P <0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
Results: About 72.5% of patients with T2DM and 29% of healthy subjects were found to be positive for IgG antibody. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). Among the risk factors, contact with cats in both cases (P<0.001) and control groups (P=0.045) and source of drinking water in the control group (P=0.048) were significantly associated with T. gondii infection. No significant association was observed between age, gender, place of residence, educational level and consuming raw or undercooked meat with T. gondii (P>0.05).
Discussion and Conclusion: Considering the high prevalence of T. gondii in patients with T2DM compared to healthy individuals, more attention should be paid to this high-risk group. It is suggested that these patients routinely be tested for this parasite.