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ABSTRACT Background and Aim: Preterm delivery is a major cause of prenatal mortality and morbidity in the world and results in increased obstetric and pediatric care costs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of prophylactic vaginal progesterone in decreasing the rate of preterm delivery and its complications in high risk women. Material and Methods: This study included 150 asymptomatic women with high risk singleton pregnancies. The subjects were assigned randomly into two similar groups. One group received 100 mg of prophylactic vaginal progesterone therapy (n=75) daily between the 24th and 34th week of gestation and the other group received no treatment (n=75). The two groups were similar regarding maternal age and preterm delivery risk factors. Uterine contractions were monitored by external tocodynamometer for 60 minutes and in case of true contractions, routine tocolytic drugs were started for the subjects. In some patients, in spite of receiving tocolytic drugs, delivery progressed and the related data were collected. Data were introduced into SPSS software and analyzed by means of chi square, exact Fischer, ManWitney U, and t tests. The results were reported with a confidence level of 95%. Results: The mean gestational age at the time of delivery was higher in the interventional group (38.62 2.08 week vs. 35.88 3.5 week) (P=0.001). Preterm delivery before the 37th week of gestation occurred in 11.6% and 31.9% of the subjects in the progesterone and control groups respectively (P=0.004) and preterm deliveries before the 34th week occurred in 22.2% and 2.9% of the women in the control and progesterone groups respectively (p=0.001). Moreover respiratory distress syndrome, low birth weight, birth weight, need for oxygen, infant apgar,need for mechanical ventilator, and hospitalization in NICU were significantly different between the two groups (P<0.01). Conclusion: prophylactic vaginal progesterone reduced the frequency of uterine contractions which led to decreased rate of preterm delivery in women with high risk factors for preterm delivery. Key words: Preterm labor, Vaginal progesterone, Prevention, High risk pregnancy. Conflict of Interest: Nill Received: September 23, 2009 Accepted: November 30, 2009

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Background and Aim: Breast cancer has been identified as the most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the world. Non-clinical risk factors such as socioeconomic status can lead to inequality in the outcomes of the disease. This study aimed to analyze the provincial socio-economic inequality in the incidence of breast cancer in the country.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed using Iranian provincial data. The required data are obtained from the statistical yearbook report, the report of the Statistics Center and, the national report of the National Cancer Registration Program of the Ministry of Health of Iran in 1397. Extraction of density curves was performed by statistical analysis using STATA 14.
Results: The results of the study showed that provincial per capita income caused the most inequality (CI = 0.113) in cancer incidence (P <0.05). Provincial literacy rate with CI = 0.112 was in the next rank of inequality (P <0.05). The value of the concentration index (CI) of the province's socio-economic development index was also estimated to be 0.110 (P <0.05). The effect of health insurance coverage on inequality in cancer incidence (CI = -0.094) was also statistically significant (P <0.05).
Conclusion: It is suggested that policymakers facilitate early detection of cancer in provinces with lower socioeconomic status by providing insurance coverage for screening services, distribution of screening credit cards, payment exemptions, and public awareness.