Attitudes of Turkish Medical and Law Students towards the Organ Donation.

BACKGROUND: Attitudes of medical and law personnel towards organ donation are very important. OBJECTIVE: To compare the attitudes of the medical and law students towards organ donation. METHODS: 498 students in the 1(st) and 4(th) grades of the medical and law faculties of Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey, in 2011-12 academic year, were included in this study. A questionnaire consisting of 31 questions on socio-demographic characteristics of the students and their attitudes towards organ donation and transplantation was administered to the participants. RESULTS: The percentage of the students who donated organs was 1%. Approximately, 48% of the medical students and 34% of the law students stated that they think to donate organs. The percentage of the students with a positive attitude towards organ donation was found significantly higher among the medical students than the law students, and higher among the 4th grade compared to the 1(st) grade. CONCLUSION: The percentages of the students who have donated organs and think to donate are rather low. Medical students' attitude towards organ donation was more positive than the law students.

The relationship between sleep duration and obesity in Turkish children and adolescents.

AIM: To determine the relationship between sleep duration and obesity in Turkish children and adolescents. METHODS: This study was conducted in Turkey with 5358 children aged 6 to 17 years. Height, weight, waist circumference (WC), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), triceps skinfold thickness were measured. Body mass index (BMI), arm fat area were calculated. Self-reported sleep duration by parents were obtained. RESULTS: As sleep duration increased, BMI, which was significantly higher in girls sleeping < or =8 h, decreased (p < 0.05). WC, MUAC, BMI were significantly higher in boys sleeping < or =8 h versus males sleeping > or =10 h. Boys sleeping < or =10 h in 6.0-17.0-years had significantly higher risk of overweight/obesity. In 6.0 to 17.0 years, the risk of overweight/obesity in boys sleeping 9-10 h, 8-9 h and < or =8 h were 1.86-, 1.74- and 2.06-times higher respectively, versus children sleeping > or =10 h (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Sleep duration may be an important factor for obesity and providing > or =10 h of sleep is recommended as a prevention strategy for obesity.

Iodine deficiency: an important and severe public health problem in Kayseri, Central Anatolia.

Iodine deficiency (ID) remains a significant global public health problem. The iodine status of rural areas of Kayseri Province, Central Anatolia was previously evaluated but a screening survey covering both rural and urban populations had not been conducted. The aims of this study were: a) to determine the nutritional iodine status by calculating urinary iodine excretion (UIE) of the school-children living in the districts, city centre and villages of Kayseri Province; b) to implement preventive measures. The study group was made up of 1,784 school-children (920, 51.6% females; 864, 48.4% males), aged between 7 and 12 yr. Height and weight of children were measured and urine samples were collected. The median UIE of all school-children was 25.5+/-17.2 microg/l. Iodine status of the population was gauged based on median urinary iodine values categorised as normal (> or =100 microg/l), mild (50- 99 microg/l), moderate (20-49 microg/l) and severe (<20 microg/l) ID and classified according to age, gender and body mass index (BMI). While UIE of 289 school-children (16.2%) was in normal range (> or =100 microg/l), 747 of school-children (41.9%) had UIE <20 microg/l. Although there was no significant difference in UIE of female children based on their BMI (p>0.05), in overweight and obese male children UIE was significantly higher than in normal or underweight children (p<0.001). In Kayseri, moderate and almost severe ID affects public health from intrauterine to advanced stages of life. This is due to geographical characteristics of this area causing insufficient amounts of iodine in the drinking water and traditional nutritional habits of the families. The local "Iodine Monitoring Committee" developed an action plan including information/education/ communication activities to sustain monitoring so as to increase the inclusion of iodized salt in the region.

Modern and traditional practices of Turkish infertile couples.

OBJECTIVE: This investigation was carried out to determine modern and traditional practices of infertile couples in Kayseri, Turkey. METHODS: Two hundred and fifty-two infertile couples were selected from the study area. Modern and traditional practices of the infertile women and their husbands were investigated through a questionnaire. The effects of some factors on the utilization of traditional methods were analysed through the logistic regression method. RESULTS: It was found out that 92.5% of the infertile women and 71.8% of their husbands had consulted a physician for infertility and 92.1% of the women and 32.6% of their husbands had applied for medical or surgical intervention. However, only 11.1% of the couples had attempted in vitro fertilization. In contrast, 61.5% of the infertile couples admitted to carrying out traditional practices. All traditional practices were more prevalent among the women than the men. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that traditional practices were more prevalent in the rural areas and among the older couples.

[Risk factors in traffic accidents]. / Trafik kazalarinda risk faktörleri.

Traffic accidents, which influence to every age group people, are an important public health. This study to determine which condition it has happened more, which days, months and years it has happened, what things have caused to happen traffic accidents. The study was made in Erciyes University Medical School Emergency Department. 31,550 patients applied to emergency department in a period of twelve months in 1998. 7098 (22%) cases of these were traffic accidents. It has done on 710 patients who have been brought to emergency by traffic accidents, and 10% systematic sampling of 7098 people. 504 (71%) of patients were male, 206 (29%) of them were female, the average age was 26.0 (min-max: 1-85). It was observed that traffic accidents occurred during peak times 1200-1800 p.m. The number of traffic accidents was higher during the weekends and in may and June than other times. All the accidents occurred in the same way both within and outside urban area. But the drivers hit the pedestrians more in the urban area. Although it has been seen 'the cars' in the accidents the most. The most mortality has been occurred in bus, minibus and motorbike accidents. The first treatment place of the casualties of 80.5% was at university emergency department. 619 all of the casualties who were admitted the university emergency department was simple injured. They all left the hospital with cure. 52 of casualties lost their life. As a result, some risk factors increase incidence of traffic accidents. Considering these risk factors in taking measures is of great importance in prevention of traffic accidents. Morbidity and mortality are affected by place where accidents occur, time of accident, properties of motor vehicles, and quality of medical care performed following the incident.

A comparison between short synacthen test and depot synacthen test in the evaluation of cortisol reserve of adrenal gland in normal subjects.

Synacthen test has been widely used as a screening test for evaluation of adrenal cortisol reserve. We investigated whether depot Synacthen test can be used in place of short Synacthen test in the evaluation of cortisol reserve of the adrenal gland. The study included 20 healthy volunteers of both sexes. We examined plasma cortisol response 30, 60, 90, and 120 min after administration of plain Synacthen, 250 micrograms, iv (Group 1), and depot Synacthen, 1000 micrograms, im (Group 2). Peak cortisol values were statistically similar between the groups. The increment in cortisol levels following Synacthen was also similar between the groups. A plasma cortisol value above 550 or 600 nmol/L was achieved in both groups during the test of 90 or 120 minutes duration, respectively. We think that depot Synacthen test, im 1000 micrograms, may be used in place of plain Synacthen, iv 250 micrograms, for evaluation of adrenal cortisol reserve.

The impact of mothers' health education on the prevalence of acute respiratory infections in children.

In this study, the effects of educating mothers on acute respiratory infections were investigated in Hacilar district of Kayseri, a province in Central Anatolia. The intervention group included 69 children and the control group 57 children between the ages of 0 and 4 years. The children in both groups were checked for symptoms of acute respiratory infections (ARI) in January 1990 and 1991, before and after intervention. The intervention consisted of 30 minutes of face-to-face education of mothers regarding ARI prevention and treatment. In addition, the numbers of clinic visits by children for acute infections before and after intervention were compared. The prevalence of acute respiratory infections decreased from 49.3% to 27.5% in the intervention group and from 43.9% to 38.6% in the control group. The decrease in the prevalence of acute respiratory infections in the intervention group differed significantly, from that of the control group. On the other hand, clinic visits by the intervention group for acute respiratory infections increased significantly.