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The deficiency or excess of serum zinc in pregnancy may threaten the health of the mother and the fetus. The purpose of this study is to determine the pattern of serum zinc in pregnant women covered by Urmia urban health centers and its association with some nutritional and clinical determinants in the third trimester, from July to December 2018.

In this analytic cross-sectional study, of six selected health centers in Urmia, 400 pregnant women subjects who were in their third trimester were recruited in a simple random manner. The nutritional, demographic, clinical data as well as fasting blood samples were taken from each of the subjects. The data were analyzed using chi-square, independent t-test and logistic regression tests.

The study revealed that about 3 per cent of pregnant women had zinc deficiency, 70.2 per cent were normal and 26.8 per cent had high serum zinc levels. In 388 pregnant women (72.4 per cent with normal serum zinc and 27.6 per cent with high serum zinc), binary logistic regression model showed that high concentration of serum zinc was directly associated with dietary intake zinc (OR: 2.252; 95 per cent CI: 1.85-2.74), supplement zinc (OR: 7.823; 95 per cent CI: 3.676-16.649) and total intake magnesium (OR: 1.005; 95 per cent CI: 1.000-1.01) and inversely associated with frequent reproductive cycling (OR: 0.739; 95 per cent CI: 0.569-0.959).

Pregnant women in Urmia probably have high concentrations of serum zinc, and it is likely related to consumption of the zinc supplementation. Supplementation programs need to be scaled up for pregnant women that take inadequate dietary zinc.

Purchase intention of consumers depends on their perception of the extent to which his expectations will be met through the product. This issue, in the context of the products that are immediately purchased by consumer, depends on the extent of relationship in the point of sale. Packaging is one of the most significant factors influencing purchase decision in the point of sale. In this research, the purpose is evaluating the impact of using Islamic symbols in food packaging on the purchase intention of Muslim consumers.

The authors surveyed Muslim consumers through a questionnaire and analyzed the gathered data through partial least squares (PLS).

The findings reveal the positive impact of Islamic symbols in food packaging on purchase intention of Muslim consumers. However, this effect was confirmed regarding people with high religiosity. The findings show that religious symbol in packaging increases perceived religious symbolic-value of the product among the customers with high religiosity.

Findings of this paper help marketers that are seeking to promote their products in Islamic markets identify the importance of religious symbols and understand when and how to use these symbols in packaging.