The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland sea. Physiographically it is unique. It is the most productive body of water in the world1 and the only one that preserves the geno-fund of the sturgeon, the source of almost all the black caviar produced. About 10 million people live around the Caspian Sea and the occupations of many of them are connected with the sea, and first of all with fishing...

The present study was to construct a parentage verification system for Iranian Caspian horse. A total number of 45 Caspian horse samples including 14 foals for parentage verification, 17 stallion and 14 mare for individual identification were genotyped. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood and the genotype were analysed by PCR procedure and using 7 microsatellite markers (AHT04, HMS03, HM...

BACKGROUND The fourth survey of the surveillance system named "childhood and adolescence surveillance and prevention of adult non-communicable disease" (CASPIAN-IV study), was conducted among a national representative sample of Iranian students. This paper describes the methods and early findings of this survey. METHODS This nationwide school-based study was conducted in 2011-2012 in 30 provi...

BACKGROUND This study aims to assess the frequency of some hygienic behaviors that is, tooth brushing and hand-washing, in Iranian school students at national level. METHODS This nationwide study was conducted in 2011-2012 among 14,880 elementary, secondary and high school students who were selected by random cluster stratified multistage sampling from 30 provinces in Iran. We used the global...

BACKGROUND Prolonged screen time is frequent in children and adolescents. Implementing interventions to reduce physical inactivity needs to assess related determinants. This study aims to assess factors associated with screen time in a national sample of children and adolescents. METHODS This nationwide study was conducted among 14,880 students aged 6-18 years. Data collection was performed u...

PURPOSE Family dinner is a proxy of family connectedness that may affect mental health. The present study aimed to examine the associations of frequency of family dinner with mental disorders and obesity in a nationally-representative sample of Iranian adolescents. METHODS A total of 5528 Iranians adolescents aged 10-18 years were enrolled in 2009-2010 in the third survey of a national survei...