Nowadays childhood obesity has become one the most challenging issue which is considered as a principle public health problem all around the world. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the impact of a 7-month school-based nutrition education intervention using social cognitive theory (SCT) to prevent obesity among overweight and obese adolescent girls. In this cluster randomized community trial after choosing schools, a total of 172 overweight and obese girl students participated in the study (87 in the intervention and 85 in the control group). A 7-month intervention based on SCT for students, their parents, and teachers was conducted. At baseline and end of the study, body mass index (BMI), waist circumstances (WCs), dietary intake, and psychological questionnaires regarding the SCT constructs were obtained. After 7 months, the mean of BMI and WCs reduced in the intervention group from 29.47 (4.05) to 28.5 (4.35) and from 89.65 (8.15) to 86.54 (9.76), respectively, but in comparison to the control group, they were not statistically significant (p values .127 and .504, respectively). In the intervention group, nutritional behaviors and most of the psychological variables (self-efficacy, social support, intention, and situation) were improved in favor of the study and they were significant in comparison to the control group (p < .05). Although school-based nutrition education intervention using SCT did not change significantly BMI and WCs among the targeted population in this study, dietary habits as well as psychological factors improved significantly in the intervention group. This trial was registered in Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials, www.irct.ir (IRCT2013103115211N1).
Food security and climate change are multidimensional issues. Therefore, a lack of knowledge about the most essential variables made these concepts more complex for decision-making and highlighted the need for credible decision support methods. Here, we aim to develop an accurate tool by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to explore the priority indicator of food security under climate change in Iran and social network analysis (SNA) to support decisions. The following steps were conducted for the AHP approach: a literature review, a Likert questionnaire and experts’ interviews for variable selection and the variables’ weight determination and prioritization by pairwise comparison questionnaire, designed based on the hierarchy matrix of the criteria and sub-criteria of food security and climate change. The SNA was employed to understand the robustness of the informants’ points of view for indicator selection. After the analysis, 61 criteria were extracted. Sustainability was the important criterion, weighted 0.248. The most important sub-criteria (indicators): groundwater sources, household income, underweight adolescent ratio, food wastage and an annual average of precipitation, weighted 0.095, 0.091, 0.125, 0.227 and 0.236, respectively. The SNA showed that professionals with academic origins focused on the sustainability component. The AHP tool is a credible technique to distinguish the most important criteria. The results might be employed to estimate or predict food security under climate change and simplify decision making in Iran.