Effect of health literacy on help-seeking behavior: A comparison of patients accepting surgery and refusing surgery for urinary incontinence.

OBJECTIVE(S): To compare the health literacy (HL) of the adult females with SUI complaints in terms of their acceptance or non-acceptance of surgery. METHODS: In this cohort study, the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU- Q47) scores as a measure of health literacy were compared among the two groups of patients who accepted to undergo surgery for SUI and the ones who did not. Demographic features, weight and BMI values, comorbidity, menopausal status, duration and type of UI, socioeconomic characteristics (marital status, educational level, level of income) and HLS-EU- Q47 survey results of the two groups were compared. We also investigated the reasons regarding the acceptance or refusal of SUI surgery. RESULTS: Among the patients who were offered surgery 474% accepted to undergo operation. Total HLS-EU-Q47 score was 30.04 in the group of patients who accepted surgery and 23.46 in the group who refused surgery. The patients that refused surgery had more often insufficient health literacy level (p=0.001). An excellent health literacy level was higher for patients who agreed to anti-incontinence surgery (p=0.021). CONCLUSIONS: Health literacy score of patients with urinary incontinence (UI) who refused surgery was lower than those who accepted surgery. Acceptance of surgery may be increased by providing more understandable and clear information, especially for women with lower HL levels.

The PUFFinCA scale: development of an instrument for evaluating the primary care functions of family physicians in childhood asthma.

AimTo develop the Primary care fUnctions oF Family physicians in Childhood Asthma (PUFFinCA) scale for evaluating the cardinal process functions of primary care services (accessibility, comprehensiveness, continuity and coordination) provided by family physicians (FPs) in the management of childhood asthma. BACKGROUND: In the literature on the functions of primary care, there is no assessment tool focusing on children with asthma. Primary care assessment scales adapted to various languages are not suitable to adequately address the needs of special patient groups, such as children with asthma. METHODS: In this methodological study, the instrument development process was completed in four stages: establishing the pool of items, evaluating the content validity, applying the scale and statistical analysis. The scale was applied to 320 children who had asthma and received care in the clinic of the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Pulmonology at Ege University School of Medicine, Turkey. The Cronbach's α and Spearman-Brown coefficient were calculated to determine the reliability of the scale. Principal component analysis was used to determine the construct validity of the scale.FindingsThe PUFFinCA scale was found to have four-factor structure and 25 items. Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.93. It has been determined that the reliability was excellent and the item-total correlation coefficients were >0.30 each. The factors were titled FP's 'functions of accessibility, first contact and continuity', 'functions of coordination and comprehensiveness of health services related to asthma management', 'provision of preventive care related to asthma' and 'provision of services for paid vaccinations'.

CD56, CD57, HBME1, CK19, Galectin-3 and p63 immunohistochemical stains in differentiating diagnosis of thyroid benign/malign lesions and NIFTP.

Detection of thyroid carcinoma has been steadily increased in the past few decades. After the recognition of NIFTP, also gain importance to differentiate benign tumors (follicular adenoma) from follicular patterned variants of papillary thyroid carcinoma (invasive and infiltrative follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma), and low-risk lesions of thyroid (NIFTP). Follicular patterned proliferations of thyroid still persists as a battle for pathologists. In this study, we aimed to analyze the most commonly used immunohistochemical stains "HBME1, CK19, Galectin-3", adding the new ones "CD56, CD57, and p63". Study groups were; nodular hyperplasia, follicular adenoma, NIFTP, infiltrative follicular variant PTC, classical variant PTC (CVPTC) and follicular carcinoma. Each group consisted of twenty cases. The sections were stained with CD56, CD57, p63, CK19, HBME1 (Mesotel cell), Galectin-3 antibody. Although the expression of CD56 was high in benign follicular lesions, FC could not be excluded in this group. CD57 was high in malignant follicular group and NIFTP. Interestingly, p63 was found highly expressed in FVPTC, which might be promising to predict invasiveness in follicular group of lesions. CK19, Galectin-3 and HBME1 were found quietly prominent in CVPTC in concordance with the previous reports.