Theses\' subjects chosen from public needs: Experience of Yazd Health Study (YaHS)

Yazd Health Study (YaHS) is an endeavor to involve students in design, implementation and analysis of a large study. Over 150 graduate and post graduate students from various disciplines have been invited to participate in a large longitudinal study with 10000 samples. Participants were selected randomly from Yazd population, over 1000000 as December 2014. Four hundred variables grouped in the following sections were asked 1) demographics, 2) physical activity, 3)sleep quality and quantity, 4) mental health, 5) history y of chronic illnesses, 6) history of surgical operations, 7) dental health, 8) history of accidents, 9) dietetic habits, 10) occupation and communication history, 11) traditional medicine, 12) history of smoking and addiction and 13) women’s health. The interview follows by anthropometric measurements including weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, neck circumference and WHR. Per cent body fat, % body muscle, visceral fat, resting metabolism have been measured followed by pulse and blood pressure. Students were trained to participate in design, piloting and the main phase of data collection. Students evaluated the experience useful and constructive. In return of their collaboration in interviewing 50-100 study participants, they will receive data for their theses' proposal. This will help them to access a large and high quality set of data and disseminate the results in high quality peer reviewed journals as well as national and international conferences. The students mandated to write an executive summary of their thesis and disseminate it to health managers and inter-sectoral decision makers. They will gain bonus score if they can publish their main findings in public media. Acknowledgments: Thanks to students who participated in the study and A. Professor Masoud Mirzaei, the principal investigator of Yazd Health Study (YAHS) for providing information on the design and the progress of the study.