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Diarrhea and malnutrition are important health problems in human societies, especially in developing countries, leading to a huge number of deaths annually. Numerous studies have death with the relationship between malnutrition as a predisposing factor and acute diarrhea, but they have yielded conflicted results. In a cross-sectional controlled study, we examined 398 infants 1-24 month-old referred to the diarrhea-training unit (DTU) of hospital. After treating dehydration, height, weight were measured and compared with an age-matched control group. In cases with acute diarrhea, 3.2% had severe, 14.8% had moderate, 48.8% had light malnutrition, 33.2% had no malnutrition according to Gomez scale. In the control group, the percentage of subjects with severe, moderate, light, and with out malnutrition were 0.5%, 2.2%, 32.4%, and 64.8%, respectively. Average weight for age and weight for height scores were significantly lower in cases with acute diarrhea than in control subjects. However, average for age score was not statistically different in the 2 groups. Patients with acute diarrhea suffered a higher prevalence of malnutrition compared with those from the control group. There was not statistically significant relationship between growth indices and socioeconomic class of the family. A lower percentage of infants with acute diarrhea compared with control group enjoyed breast-feeding as the primary feeding routine. The period of breast-feeding was shorter in infants with acute diarrhea. Nevertheless, breast-feeding neither have significant effects on malnutrition nor on weight and height growth indices. Overall, we concluded that malnutrition and decreased weight growth index might be important predisposing factors for acute diarrhea. Early diagnosis and treatment of malnutrition (Especially moderate and light degrees) are very important measures to be taken in order to decrease diarrhea and its complications.

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Background&Objective: Thalassemia is an inherited and chronic hemolytic disorder. Like other diseases it can make psychological, social and financial problems for both patients and families. The necessity of this research is to teach the way of treating the psychosocial problems of this illness and to increase the quality of patients and families life. It is also a descriptive study to examine psychosocial and financial disorders and coping strategies among families with patients suffering major beta thalassemia Materials&Methods: 320 parents (229 of mothers and 91 of fathers) were included in this study. These families were those who were visited clinics associated with Gorgan's University. Data collection was done using a self structured questionnaire as well as Mc Cubin and Thompson scale for identifying coping strategies. Results: Findings revealed many problems, such as: stress for disease (82.8%) and the patients' vague future (81.8%). The mentioned problems were of psychological disorders. And about social problems: 33.8% of patients families were deprived of having picnics in their free times and helping the patient meddles the routine work of homes in 30.1% of families. The financial problems: the cost of traveling and providing the medicine (63.8%). In addition 97.5% of families had faith and reliance in God in order to help them and to believe their child's illness as a reality. It is apparent that families use different kinds of method in order to cope with psychological, social and financial problems and to face the disease. Conclusion: Most of families have a strong belief in religion and as a result they believe that any kind of problems and especially disease is one of ways to reach God. This is the idea which helps them to face this disease stoutly.

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Background and Objective: Tuberculosis (TB) is the most important cause of death worldwide. The main reason for the increasing global burden of TB are severe poverty and class distinctions between rich and poor population groups in various communities. This study was performed to determine the relationship between socio-economic factors and TB using negative binomial and Poisson regression models. Method: This descriptive - analytic study was conducted on 11320 TB affected patients in Iran during 2010. Data was gathered from the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The relationship between the numbers of cases with socio-economic indicators was determined using negative binomial and Poisson models. Fitting models were compared using AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) and BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion). Results: The Poisson regression model showed a significant relationship between the TB mortality rate and socio-economic factors (P<0.05). Negative binomial regression model showed a significant relationship between TB and unemployment, illiterate, immigration and urban residency (P<0.05). Negative binomial regression model showed no relationship between TB and family size, physicians’ ratio to the number of population centers and annual average income. Conclusion: There is a significant impact of socio-economic factors with the number of TB cases. Negative binomial regression model is suitable for accountable data in comparision with Poisson regression model.