The Impact Of Ramazan I’tikaf On Immune System

@#I'tikaaf is a worship maintained by very deep hunger in fasting month of Ramadan. Hunger causes different results on the immune system. This is a prospective study. In this study, the changes in the immune system were investigated during the period of the i’tikaf, which is deep hunger worship. In the last 10 days of Ramadan, before and at the end of i’tikaf blood was taken from 46 male volunteers who performed i’tikaf worship and various biochemical and immunological parameters were examined. Comparison of the measures taken before and after i’tikaf indicated a statistically significant decrease in weight, BMI, waist circumference and hip circumference (p<0.001). Of the hematologic parameters, the lymphocyte count increased significantly (p=0.009). Also, a significant increase was observed in the values of IgA, IgM ve Ig G within the hematological parameters (p<0.001). During the period of i’tikaf, feeding with very low calories (1000 calories) caused an increase in the levels of lymphocyte and immunoglobulins and got the immune system stronger.

Assessment of medical home care needs in Turkish population

To determine the home healthcare needs of the elderly so as to develop proper home Healthcare Services. This descriptive study was carried out in a county of Kocaeli province-Turkey. Data was collected through a specially designed questionnaire through face to face interview technique. The data were analyzed by the computer using the SPSS package program. Chi-square test was used for the statistical analysis. This study showed that 14.6% of the population had at least one diagnosed disease. Among them, 1.8% was disabled, 4.1% was elderly and 1.1% of the households were in need of home care services. Home care needs were found to be low in this study. Its main cause was that elderly population was not aware of the availability of such a service in the country