Publications by authors named "Haleh Ghaem"

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of a Persian Medicine herbal formula and a Traditional Chinese Medicine intervention (acupuncture) on the improvement of weight and anthropometric indices of overweight patients.

Methods: This study was a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trial. A total of 200 overweight patients were randomly divided into 4 groups receiving either (1) Herbal capsule, (2) placebo capsule, (3) acupuncture, or (4) sham acupuncture.

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Article Synopsis
  • Approximately 3-8 million infants are born with congenital anomalies each year globally, prompting a study on the prevalence of these defects in Iran.
  • The research involved 138,643 births across six major regions, finding a congenital anomaly prevalence of 249.4 per 10,000 births, with genital and limb anomalies being the most common.
  • The study highlights the urgent need for a national registry to better understand and manage congenital anomalies in Iran, which can help improve antenatal screening efforts.
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Background: In Iran, not only the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is increasing but also the age of patients at diagnosis is alarmingly dropping. We need urgent actions to better understand the epidemiology of CRC and the contributing factors for such pattern in Iranian population. The aim of our study was to determine the potential contribution of lifestyle, including dietary pattern, to CRC in a large Iranian province.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study examined the link between traditional cardiovascular risk factors and the occurrence of myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic stroke in a population of middle-aged adults (40-70 years) in Iran, using data from the Shiraz Heart Study.
  • - Among the 7,225 participants, 1.9% reported a history of MI or stroke, with factors like being older than 60, being male, having a history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or a family history of cardiovascular issues significantly increasing the risk.
  • - Key findings showed that age, sex, and specific medical and familial histories were important predictors of MI and stroke, highlighting the need for awareness and management of these risk factors in the population
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In Iranian stores, shelf workers, in addition to shelf-stocking, perform diverse tasks, such as working as a cashier, cleaning, barcode reading, labeling goods, and entering the price with the portable data terminal (PDT). Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal symptoms (WMSs) and assess load manual lifting among shelf-stoking workers. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 101 shelf-stoking workers (60 males and 41 females) in chain stores at Shiraz city, Iran.

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Background And Aims: Declines in estradiol levels after menopause have been reported to be associated with several health outcomes. This study aimed to determine the effect of age at natural menopause (ANM) on some of the most common chronic diseases.

Methods: This historical cohort study was performed on 2636 postmenopausal women aged 40-70 years participating in phase one of the PERSIAN cohort study in Kharameh, Iran, during 2015-2017.

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Background: Natural menopause is defined as the permanent cessation of menstruation that occurs after 12 consecutive months of amenorrhea without any obvious pathological or physiological cause. The age of this phenomenon has been reported to be associated with several health outcomes.

Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the Age at Natural Menopause (ANM) and to identify reproductive and demographic factors affecting ANM.

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Background: The incidence of thyroid cancer as the most common type of endocrine gland malignancy has risen more significantly than any malignancies in recent years. Estimated new cases of thyroid cancer in the United States in 2024 were 12,500 and 31,520 for men and women, respectively, and estimated deaths were 1,180 for women and 990 for men. Indices of socio-economic have been commonly used to measure the development of countries.

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The prevalence of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and its associated lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) increases with age. Considering that BPH drug treatment is associated with complications, this study aimed to investigate the effects of L-carnitine (LC) and Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) supplementation as an adjunct therapy to finasteride in the management of LUTS in older men affected with BPH. Fifty eligible volunteers (25 per group) were randomly assigned to either intervention (finasteride + LC and CoQ10 supplements) or control (finasteride + placebo) groups.

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Objective: Cancer is one of the main causes of death, and cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of death from malignancy among women. Knowing the survival rate is used to evaluate the success of current treatments and care. This study was conducted to assess the survival rate of cervical cancer in Asia.

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Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with metabolic factors including obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and elevated inflammatory factors. Zinc (Zn) supplementation has been investigated as a potential adjunctive therapy in managing NAFLD outcomes.

Methods: In this randomized, double-blinded, controlled clinical trial, 50 overweight or obese participants with NAFLD were randomized into 2 groups of 25 and received either 30 mg of daily Zn or a placebo for 8 weeks.

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Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy. Environmental risk factors such as presence of pollutants in air as well as the combustion of fossil fuels or carbon as a cooking habit in closed environments inside houses affect thyroid hormonal homeostasis and diseases. This study aimed to estimate the association between environmental risk factors and the incidence of thyroid cancer worldwide from 1990 to 2019 including particulate pollutants coming from fossil fuels employed in closed environments.

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Background: Knee extension exercise is useful and practical for obese and overweight people as this form of exercise is effective in minimizing body weight loading on joints and improving the body's physiological function. This study aimed to compare the physiological and psychophysical parameters of office workers while computer-based working in an active workstation equipped with an active footrest (AFR) prototype with a mechanism for performing knee extension exercises in a sitting position, and also to compare the physiological and psychophysical parameters among normal-weight and obese office workers.

Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, the physiological parameters of heart rate (HR) and energy expenditure (EE) (measured with the Fitbit Charge HR smartwatch) were measured in two cross-over random sessions for 32 office workers (16 normal-weight and 16 obese) aged 28 to 50 years ( = 42.

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Background & Aim: Lifestyle changes, prominently low mobility in recent years, have increased the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS), and cardiovascular disease risk. This study aimed to determine the relationship between physical activity and MetS using modern statistical methods in a population-based study.

Methods: The target population included 10,663 people aged 40-70 years in phase 1 of the Persian Kharameh cohort study conducted in 2017.

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Background: Ovarian cancer is amongst one of the most commonly occurring cancers affecting women, and the leading cause of gynecologic related cancer death. Its poor prognosis and high mortality rates can be attributed to the absence of specific signs and symptoms until advance stages, which frequently leads to late diagnosis. Survival rate of patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer can be used in order to better assess current standard of care; the aim of this study is to evaluate the survival rate of ovarian cancer patients in Asia.

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Introduction: Altered immune responses, in particular neutrophil changes, are perceived to play a key role in immune responses to trauma. This study aimed to evaluate the association of neutrophil changes with patients' survival in severe multiple trauma cases.

Methods: The current retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from patients admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a trauma center in Shiraz, Iran, between 2016 and 2021.

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The goal of this study was to develop a predictive machine learning model to predict the risk of prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), with a focus on laboratory and Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) data. This retrospective cohort study included ICU patients admitted to Rajaei Hospital in Shiraz between 2016 and March 20, 2022. All adult patients requiring mechanical ventilation and seeking ICU admission had their data analyzed.

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Background: General and central obesity are important risk factors for chronic diseases and health-related outcomes.

Aims: We determined the prevalence of obesity and related complications among individuals aged 40-70 years in Kherameh, southern Islamic Republic of Iran.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 10 663 people aged 40-70 years who participated in the first phase of the Kherameh cohort study.

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This case-control study aimed to assess the effect of drinking water nitrate on serum nitric oxide concentration and the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in the population in the Middle East. The study included 50 control and 50 thyroid disorder cases who were referred to two medical centers in 2021. In this study, serum nitric oxide concentration, drinking water nitrate, and metabolic syndrome components were measured in the two groups.

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Background: Non-pharmacological strategies that have been proposed by complementary medical systems, can be effective in management of COVID-19.

Methods: This study was designed as a three-arm, assessor-blinded, randomized controlled trial. A total of 139 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were randomly assigned into three groups: (1) acupuncture (ACUG), (2) cupping (CUPG), and (3) control (CTRG).

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Background: The co-occurrence of obesity and mood impairments named as "metabolic mood syndrome" (MMS) is often neglected in the obesity management. This study aimed to evaluate effects of Probio-Tec BG-VCap-6.5 and magnesium co-supplementation on mood, cognition, intestinal barrier function and serum C reactive protein (CRP) levels in participants with obesity and depressed mood.

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Background: Given that COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, attempts to restrain the virus and to prevent the effects that critically ill patients with COVID-19 have on healthcare systems, has become a public health priority. This ecological study aimed to investigate the correlation between the Human Development Index (HDI) and the epidemiological indicators of COVID-19, including the cumulative incidence rate of cases, the cumulative incidence rate of death, performed COVID-19 tests per million, recovery rate, and case fatality rate.

Methods: In this ecological study, a data set was provided, which included the epidemiologic indices of COVID-19, HDI, and its components for each country.

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Introduction: Sitting and standing workstations can affect individual's health outcomes differently. This study aimed to assess the effects of sit and stand workstations on energy expenditure and blood parameters, including glucose and triglyceride, musculoskeletal symptoms/pain and discomfort, fatigue, and productivity among workers of assembly line of a belt factory.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 47 male assembly line workers (24 workers in sitting workstation and 23 workers in standing workstation) with at least one year of working experience.

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