Eating habits, knowledge about cancer prevention and the HPLP scale in Turkish adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Nutritional status and healthy lifestyle are important factors not only in cancer etiology but also for prevention efforts. A good nutritional status contributes to a healthy life with high economic, social and cultural level. Unhealthy eating habits are part of risky behavior seen from adolescence. The present study was therefore carried out to determine eating habits, level of knowledge about cancer prevention and behavior of a group of adolescents. METHODS: Data were collected using questionnaire covering eating habits and knowledge of adolescents on prevention from cancer, and special scale (HPLP) to determine the related behavior. Three hundred sixty six of 390 students volunteered for study. RESULTS: Eating habits and the level of cancer prevention knowledge were similar for both genders, except for the exercise issue. The mean total points of adolescents in the Health Promotion Behavior and Subscales was 113,63. While spiritual growth had the highest score in HPLP subscale, exercise had a minimal score. Exercise was the only HPLP subscale with a statistically significant difference between male and female genders. CONCLUSIONS: Although they have some information, the adolescents surveyed did not have preventive skills relative to their practical life. In general in order to ensure cancer prevention and a healthy life style social, cultural and sportive activities should be encouraged and educational programmes supporting these goals should be designed and applied for all stages of life, starting in early childhood.

Why do men refuse prostate cancer screening? Demographic analysis in Turkey.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men, with a high incidence rates in Turkey. However, the early detection and diagnosis rates are considerably lower among Turkish men as compared with their counterparts in Western countries. This fact reflects a lack of awareness and fear of prostate cancer as well as low prevention activities. To reduce the disparities in prostate cancer survival, there is a great need to increase men's participation in screening programs. The present study was performed to assess why men do not seek screening or participate in screening programs, focusing on the demographics of men refusing a free screening program for prostate cancer.

Comparison of mediterranean, Western and Japanese diets and some recommendations.

During the past thousands of years, food systems, and thus human diets, have been and are shaped by climate, terrain, seasons, location, culture, and technology. In this context, many types of diet patterns have emerged. Nowadays, numerous epidemiological studies are being conducted in many countries in order to find relationships between empirically identified dietary factors and the occurrence of illnesses. Today, some dietary patterns are described as healthy eating models while others are generally qualified as unhealthy.

Ethical issues for cancer screening.

In recent years medical ethics has become an undisputed part of medical studies. Many people believe that modern advances in medical technology - such as the development of dialysis machines, respirators, magnetic resonance imaging and genetic testing and types of cancer screenings - have created bioethical dilemmas that confront physicians in the 21st century. Debates over research and screening ethics have until recently revolved around two related questions: the voluntary, informed consent of subjects, and the appropriate relationship between risk and benefit to subjects. Every patient has a right to full and accurate information about his or her medical condition. This legal principle arose primarily through court decisions concerning informed consent, but over time physicians recognized that most patients prefer to learn the truth about their condition and use the information well. To screen is to search for disease in the absence of symptoms or, in other words, to attempt to find disease in someone not thought to have a disease. Examples of screening include routine mammography to detect breast cancer, routine pap smears to detect cervical cancer, and routine Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) testing to detect prostate cancer. Ethical principles to be followed in cancer screening programmes are intended mainly to minimize unnecessary harm for the participating individuals. Numerous ethical questions can be raised about the practice of screening for disease. Here, we examine four leading cancer killers worldwide and we review the screening of protocols of these cancer types and their possible ethics.