Ma'rof Redzuan

Barriers to mammography among women attending gynecologic outpatient clinics in Tehran, Iran

The aim of this study was to understand barriers to mammography among women attending obstetric and gynecologic outpatient clinics. Women at 4 obstetric and gynecologic clinics affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey with self-administered questionnaire and divided into two groups. The participant group consisted of women who had mammogram in the last two years and the non-participant group of women who had never had mammogram or for whom it had been over 2 years since their last mammogram. A total of 400 women aged 35 to 69 years, were randomly selected using random cluster sampling: 86(21.5%) were evaluated as the participant group and 314(78.5%) as the non-participant group. The result showed that lack of doctors’ advice, for the participant group, and embarrassment, for the non-participant group, are the most salient barriers. Mammography screening remains a health challenge for women and results suggest a comprehensive approach to focus on the attitudinal and logistic barriers.

Identifying sources of social capital among the farmers of the rural Sindh province of Pakistan

Social capital is the spirit of social relations. While it contains social resources, and is interrelated with other forms of capitals, there are some delusions among the scholars over its generation. Th e study was conducted to identify the factors possibly involved in the fl uctuation of social capital, in which the structural social capital, bonding social capital and linking social capital of the water-user associations were measured, and it was linked to various socioeconomic, demogra- phic and farm characteristics of farmers. Th e multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the social capital was signifi - cantly infl uenced by the canal water availability, age, the drainage system availability, land holding, the farming experience and the family size. Furthermore, the canal water availability was found the most dominant indicator in relation to social capital to make it dynamic, in the rural Sindh province of Pakistan.

An Innovative Tool for Measuring Levels of Community Capacity Building for Tourism in Developing Countries

The article illustrates the measurements of eight domains of community capacity building (CCB) at individual, organizational and community levels for tourism development. The suggested measurements were then employed in the study carried in Shiraz. The main objective of the study was to determine the level of CCB at the three levels using the measurements that have been developed. A total number of 175 community leaders were involved in the study. Findings show that generally, the level of tourism capacity building in the study area is low. It is concluded that, although there is an individual support for more collaboration in CCB, but; there is a low level of converging vision between organizations and individuals in communities. This study also provides a theoretical framework model of CCB for tourism development. It demonstrates that the CCB in three levels can develop tourism in communities. The authors suggest that the measurements and the models of CCB described in this paper is imperative in helping to develop tourism by integrating the efforts of local organizations, communities and individuals in local and urban communities.