Volume 5, Issue 1 (Winter 2019)
Abstract
Background: With increasing infectious diseases as well as antimicrobial resistance in pathogens to existing drugs, researchers are now seeking for new drug candidates to be used as alternatives or complementary therapies. Maca is commonly used in traditional medication as herbal medicine.
Materials & Methods: In this research, the antibacterial and antifungal activities of maca powder and ethanolic extract were evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853, Escherichia coli ATCC25922, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC29212, and Candida albicans ATCC10231 using Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC), and disc diffusion methods.
Results: The obtained results showed that there was no significant difference between the MIC and MBC of maca powder and extract against the reference and clinical strains. Also, no strain showed zone of inhibition at 30, 40, 50, and 60 µl of reference concentration.
Conclusion: According to the results obtained in this study, maca powder and extract had a poor inhibitory effect on bacterial and fungal growth.
Volume 10, Issue 1 (Winter 2022)
Abstract
Aims: COVID-19 outbreak in China affected all age groups. Among these groups, pregnant women are among the most important ones. This study aimed to investigate the effect of educational intervention in terms of the pattern of health beliefs to promote preventive behaviors against COVID-19 among pregnant women.
Material & Methods: This descriptive study was performed as an intervention on pregnant women in Qom in 2021. One hundred-six women were chosen by multi-stage sampling. The pre-test questionnaire was electronically given to the target group, and the educational protocol was provided to the group for a 2-month duration during several virtual sessions through videos, posters, and pamphlets. Thereafter, the questionnaire was completed again by all the individuals. The required data were collected in SPSS 20 software and then analyzed by t-test.
Findings: Before conducting the educational intervention in terms of some variables, including age, education, occupation, spouse occupation, number of abortions, number of deliveries, weeks of pregnancy, illness during pregnancy, family illness, relatives, and death in family members due to diseases, no statistically significant difference was found between the intervention and control groups (p>0.05). After conducting the educational intervention, a significant difference was observed in the intervention group in terms of all constructs of the health belief model compared to the control group (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The results of this study support the effectiveness of the intervention based on the health belief model in promoting preventive behaviors against COVID-19.
