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Background & Objectives: Senile cataract is one of the most common diseases in the world and a common cause for reduced visual acuteness and blindness. It is due to many factors the most important of which is aging. Other risk factors include gender, smoking, sunlight, living environment, high risk professions, family history, systemic diseases, etc. The present study was an attempt to investigate this disease epidemiologically and draw a general profile for it in order to pave the way for further research.

 Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive and retrospective study. The files of the patients who had received senile cataract surgical operation in Alavi hospital from March 1999 to February 2000 were investigated to collect the required data. The data were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods.

 Results: 218 patients were studied. The prevalence of this disease was found to be 83.9% which was observed among males more than females and was more common in the 6^th decade of life. The disease was mostly seen in the left eye and reduced visual activity to the light perception was the most common clinical complaint among the patients. 29% of the patients were diabetic and 22.1% of them had hypertension.

  Conclusion: Because of high prevalance of cataract, it is necessary to have good medical care and management. Moreover, some training and guidelines seem necesarry.

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 Background & Objectives: Narcotic abuse is one of the main problems in the world today, and individuals ’ view towards it is important for managers and social problem analysts.Regarding the threats and harms of the prevalence of narcotics in society, this research was done to determine the rate of tendency to narcotics among people over ten years old in Ardabil province.

 Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional research. A two-section questionnaire was used to collect the data. 600 men and women over ten years of age were chosen through systematic cluster sampling and the required information was gathered by referring to their houses and interviewing them. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive and analytical statistics.

 Results: 3.5% of the samples had positive family history of using narcotics. 18% were smokers. 84.7% believed that one can use narcotics everywhere. 30% claimed that using narcotics reduces one ’ s physical discomfort, and 30.2% expressed that one can give up the narcotics whenever necessary. On the whole the tendency towards addiction among the subjects was 53.57%. This tendency was higher in rural areas compared to the cities (56.72% versus 49.81%). This difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). Illiterate people had the most tendency rate towards addiction (55.61%). There was a statistically significant relationship between tendency towards addiction and positive family history (p< 0.05). The highest tendency rate (54.33%) was seen in 11- 20 age group.

 Conclusion: the results showed that the consequent dangers of addiction are not known for people and that the great tendency for narcotics shows the need to inform the society in order to prevent the addiction.