ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Vaccination is the primary way to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy and refusal are one of the most important challenges against to reach herd immunity. The aim of this study is to examine the reasons for not getting vaccinated and the attitudes toward vaccines by people in Turkiye, who were not vaccinated, even though a COVID-19 vaccine was available for them. METHODS: This cross-sectional study is conducted in Eyupsultan district of Istanbul. The study population is 12,540. A questionnaire consisted of three sections as sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines, and Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) scale was used. Among the sample size, participation rate is 69.4%. RESULTS: About 50.2% of the participants (n=259) are male, 80.3% are married, 13.1% are university graduates, and 44.0% are working in a job. About 32.8% of the participants have COVID-19 history. About 34.4% of the participants stated that they would be vaccinated against COVID-19. Although those who define themselves as vaccine refuser are 5.4%, those who still refuse to be vaccinated for COVID-19 are 20.1%. In addition to this, those who are hesitant about COVID-19 vaccines are 45.6%. The most frequently preferred vaccine is comirnaty (41.7%). About 13.1% of the participants stated that "if we had a domestic COVID-19 vaccine, I would have it." The most common sources of information about vaccines are television with 78.4%, and health workers are in the last place with 14.7%. "Concerns about side effects" are the most frequently cited (85.9%) reason for not vaccinating. The mean score of the VAX scale is 42.34±10.93, and the "mistrust of vaccine benefit" is higher among primary school graduates than other educational status groups (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Anti-vaccination attitudes have increased with the COVID-19 vaccines during pandemic. Our study is valuable in terms of examining the reasons of individuals who have not gotten vaccinated even though they had no access problems. Prominent concerns of the population should be approached seriously. Otherwise, vaccine hesitancy can be a decisive factor that would prevent the success of the struggle against pandemic.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemisiyle mücadelede ön safta görev yapan sağlık çalışanlarında hastalığa yakalanma riski toplumun birçok kesimine kıyasla daha yüksektir. Risk altındaki bazı grupların zaman zaman taranması vakaların erken dönemde tespiti için önemlidir. Ülkemizde filyasyon, vaka ve temaslı takibi uygulamaları ilçe sağlık müdürlüğü (Ílçe SM) ve aile sağlığı merkezi (ASM) çalışanları tarafından yürütülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, birinci basamak sağlık çalışanlarında COVID-19 görülme sıklığının incelenmesidir. Tanımlayıcı kesitsel türde olan bu araştırmanın evrenini Nisan 2020 itibariyle Ístanbul ili Üsküdar ilçesinde görev yapmakta olan 627 birinci basamak sağlık hizmeti çalışanı oluşturmaktadır. 13-30 Nisan 2020 tarihlerinde Ílçe SM tarafından yapılan SARS-CoV-2 PCR testi taramasına katılan 586 sağlık çalışanına ait veriler dahil edilerek, tarama dönemine ait nokta prevalans ve Nisan 2020-Nisan 2021 dönemine ait süre prevalans hesaplanmıştır. Katılımcıların yaş ortalaması 38,5±10,3 olup %73,7’si kadındır ve %68,3’ü ASM’de görev yapmaktadır. Tarama sonucuna göre tüm grupta %8,5 olan nokta prevalans;Ílçe SM’de %15,1 ve ASM’de %5,5’tir (p<0,001). Süre prevalans ise tüm grupta %25,9 olup Ílçe SM’de %34,9 ve ASM’de %21,8’dir (p=0,001). 30.04.2021 itibariyle katılımcıların %17,1’i hiç aşı yaptırmamıştır. ASM çalışanlarına göre daha kalabalık bir ortamda görev yapan Ílçe SM çalışanlarında hastalığın daha sık görülmesi hem kurum içi temas ve vaka kümelenmesi açısından dikkatli olunması hem de vakalarla temas edilirken kişisel koruyucu önlemlere üst düzeyde uyulması gerektiğine işaret etmektedir. Aşı uygulamasının başlangıcından 3,5 ay geçmesine rağmen aşı yaptırmayan sağlık çalışanlarının azımsanmayacak düzeyde olması dikkat çekicidir.Alternate : Healthcare workers have been fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic with a higher risk than many parts of the population. Screening of some specific groups at regular intervals is important to detect cases earlier. Case and contact tracing (filiation) in Turkey are carried out by the district health directorates (DHD) and family health centers (FHC). The aim of this study is to examine the COVID-19 prevalence among primary healthcare workers. The population of this cross-sectional study consists of 627 primary healthcare workers in Uskudar, Istanbul as of April 2020, including the data on 586 healthcare workers who participated in the SARS-CoV-2 PCR test screening on 13-30 April 2020. The point prevalence of the screening period and the period prevalence of April 2020-April 2021 were calculated. 68.3% of the participants were working in FHC. According to the screening results, the point prevalence was 8.5% in the whole group, 15.1% in DHD, and 5.5% in FHC (p<0.001). The period prevalence was 25.9% in the whole group, 34.9% in DHD, and 21.8% in FHC (p=0.001). As of 2021/4/30, 17.1% of the participants have never been vaccinated. The fact that the disease is more common among the DHD staff, it is necessary to be careful regarding workplace contact and case clustering and to maintain personal protective measures strictly during contact tracing. It is noteworthy that the level of health workers who did not get vaccinated despite the fact that 3.5 months have passed since the start of the vaccination is not to be underestimated.
ABSTRACT
Twitter is a useful source for detecting anti-vaccine content due to the increasing prevalence of these arguments on social media. We aimed to identify the prominent themes about vaccine hesitancy and refusal on social media posts in Turkish during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this qualitative study, we collected public tweets (n = 551,245) that contained a vaccine-related keyword and had been published between 9 December 2020 and 8 January 2021 through the Twitter API. A random sample of tweets (n = 1041) was selected and analyzed by four researchers with the content analysis method. We found that 90.5% of the tweets were about vaccines, 22.6% (n = 213) of the tweets mentioned at least one COVID-19 vaccine by name, and the most frequently mentioned COVID-19 vaccine was CoronaVac (51.2%). We found that 22.0% (n = 207) of the tweets included at least one anti-vaccination theme. Poor scientific processes (21.7%), conspiracy theories (16.4%), and suspicions towards manufacturers (15.5%) were the most frequently mentioned themes. The most co-occurring themes were "poor scientific process" with "suspicion towards manufacturers" (n = 9), and "suspicion towards health authorities" (n = 5). This study may be helpful for health managers, assisting them to identify the major concerns of the population and organize preventive measures through the significant role of social media in early spread of information about vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: YouTube is an important online source of information and has two billion users globally. Its viewing numbers tend to increase exponentially in extraordinary global situations. Our aim in this study was to review and evaluate the contents of the most frequently viewed YouTube videos during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: In this qualitative study, contents of the most frequently viewed Turkish and English YouTube videos regarding the COVID-19 pandemic were examined and scored with modified DISCERN, medical information and content index (MICI), and video power index (VPI) during April 2020. RESULTS: The mean DISCERN score of Turkish videos was similar to that of English videos (2.55±1.40 and 2.43±1.25, respectively). The total MICI score tended to be higher in Turkish videos. News channels released 86.9% of all 168 videos and 65.2% of all 23 misleading videos. When the descriptive characteristics of videos were compared in terms of their content category, average view counts, view ratios, and VPIs of misleading videos were higher than those of the useful videos. Only, the likes ratio of useful videos was higher than that of the misleading videos. CONCLUSIONS: Since there is no peer-review system on YouTube, people can almost release every type of video. It is very important for the content of videos that are released through news channels to be accurate because the important messages can be spread among people in society through them. In our study, especially some Turkish videos included many different rumors and faulty statements. During the extraordinary situations such as the pandemic, the videos of official health authorities and international institutions should be more visible on YouTube.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The most common extra pulmonary organ dysfunction in acute respiratory distress syndrome is acute kidney injury. Current data so far indicate low incidence of AKI in Covid-19 disease. OBJECTIVE: In this retrospective study, we analysed the clinical features of patients diagnosed with Covid-19 and investigated the effect of Covid-19 on kidney function. METHODS: Ninety-six patients diagnosed with Covid-19 were included in our study. Demographic features (Age, gender, co-morbidities), symptoms, thorax CT findings, Covid-19 PCR results and laboratory findings were recorded. The clinical features of the patients were analysed and kidney function values before Covid-19 diagnosis were compared with kidney function values after Covid-19 diagnosis. RESULTS: Most presenting symptom was fever (51%). Most accompanying co-morbidity was hypertension (56%). According to laboratory findings; ferritin, D-dimer and C-reactive protein levels were statistically significantly higher in ARDS group than severe pneumonia and pneumonia group (P = .002, P = .001 and P < .001, respectively). Also lymphocyte levels were statistically significantly lower in ARDS group than severe pneumonia and pneumonia group (P = .042). According to KDIGO criteria 3 (3.1%) patients had AKI during the hospital stay. For all patients, there was statistically significant difference between basal, 1st, 5th and 10th day BUN and SCr levels (P = .024 and P = .018, respectively). For severe pneumonia group there was statistically significant difference between basal, 1st, 5th and 10th day SCr levels (P = .045). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that Covid-19 can cause renal impairment both with pneumonia and ARDS. A large-scale prospective randomised studies are needed to reach final judgement about this topic.