Cyberchondria and COVID-19 anxiety and internet addiction among nursing students.

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between cyberchondria and COVID-19 anxiety and internet addiction in nursing students. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 843 students studying in the nursing department of Adnan Menderes University. The mean age of the students was 20.8 ± 1.72 years and 61.2% were female. The Cyberchondria Severity Scale-Short Form, Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, and the Young Internet Addiction Test-Short Form were used to collect data. The study found a positive association between internet addiction, cyberchondria severity, and anxiety about COVID-19. It was found that the anxiety of COVID-19 had a mediating role in the association between internet addiction and cyberchondria severity. It was found that the use of the internet as a source of information on health problems and trusting the health information found had a significant effect on high cyberchondria levels (p < 0.05). Taken together, the findings of previous studies and this study on the role of the association between internet addiction and cyberchondria exacerbating anxiety due to the pandemic provide further evidence for healthcare professionals that greater focus is needed on the problems of the new era related to people-internet interaction. To reduce the negative effects of the current health crisis and future health crises, interventions for nursing students to control their internet use and cyberchondria behaviors should be prioritized.

Determining health promoting behaviours, self-rated health, life satisfaction and loneliness among older persons.

OBJECTIVE: To determine relationship between health-promoting behaviours and loneliness, and between life satisfaction and self-rated health among the elderly. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted from June to November 2020 in Aydin, Turkey, after approval from the ethics review committee at Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, and comprised individuals of either gender aged >65 years. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews using a data-collection form with questions to identify independent variables and the geriatric health protective behaviour scale. Data was analysed using SPSS 23. RESULTS: Of the 661 subjects, 334(50.5%) were females and 327(49.5%) were males. The largest group was of those aged 65-69 years 270(40.8%), while the smallest group comprised those aged 74-79 years 94(14.2%). Overall, 19(2.9%) subjects perceived their health as very good, while 161(24.4%) described it as good. Subjects aged 65-69 years, who had secondary education, whose perception of household income was good, who were not disabled, who did not feel lonely and who were regularly visited had higher scores (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Health-promoting behaviours are affected by an individual's socioeconomic conditions as well as their life satisfaction, feeling of loneliness and perception of health.

Attitudes towards human milk banking among native turkish and refugee women residing in a rural region of Turkey: a mixed-methods approach.

BACKGROUND: Human milk banks (HMB) play an essential role by providing human milk to infants who would otherwise not be able to receive mother's milk. There is currently no donor milk bank in Turkey. For any new health intervention to be successful, determining its acceptability is a vital first step. This study intends to determine the opinions, knowledge, and attitudes of native Turkish and refugee women living in Çestepe, Aydin, a rural area in Turkey, about HMB. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional, mixed-methods study was conducted. Qualitative study data were collected through in-depth interviews with 33 women, and quantitative study data were collected using a questionnaire. A total of 271 women in the region were included in the study. Qualitative data were thematically analyzed and then a conceptual framework was created. Logistic regression was performed for quantitative data. RESULTS: Fifty-seven point nine per cent of the women were willing to donate breast milk, whereas only 27.7% were willing to use donor milk for their babies. Religious concerns, fear of infectious diseases, and distrust in people they did not know were among the reasons for the negative attitudes of the women. Fear of infectious diseases was mentioned specifically by native Turkish women, and religious concerns were reported both by native Turkish and refugee women. The importance of breast milk and religion were among the reasons for positive attitudes. Additionally, odds of having a positive attitude were 4.19 times higher in homemaker women (95% CI 2.0, 8.76); 4.77 times higher in women with three or more children (95% CI 1.25, 8.15); 6.12 times higher in women who had a positive attitude towards wet nursing (95% CI 3.14, 9.63); and 2.68 times higher in those who had previously heard about human milk banking (95% CI 1.24, 5.79). CONCLUSION: Attitudes towards HMB are affected by religion, cultural beliefs, and concerns about the safety of breast milk in HMBs. Refugees and native Turkish women are found to have similar religious concerns. These findings should be taken into consideration in human milk banking initiatives and in activities to increase acceptance by the public.

Burden on caregivers of dementia patients and affecting factors in Turkey: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the burden on the caregivers of dementia patients and the factors affecting the perception of it. METHODS: The current systematic review was done in Turkey and comprised a search between October 2019 and March 2020 on Turkish and English indices, including the Turkish Academic Network and Information Center database, Web of Science, PubMed, Education Resources Information Centre, Medline, SocINDEX, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, Ulusal Tez Merkezi, Dergipark and Turk Medline. The key words used were 'Demans', 'alzheimer', 'bakim verenler', 'hastalik yükü', 'dementia', 'alzheimer's', 'caregivers' and 'burden of illness'. Studies included were those having been conducted from 2010 to 2019 and which used the Personal Information Form, the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale and the Caregiver Burden Inventory. RESULTS: Of the 4,182 studies initially found, 502(12%) were accessed using Turkish key words, and 3,680(88%) using English key words. Overall, 16(0.38%) studies met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. There were 2,060 caregivers and 414 patients in these studies. A high number of variables affected caregiver burden. Patient-related variables reported in multiple studies included time spent on caregiving, dementia stage, patient's age and level of patient's dependence. CONCLUSIONS: The most frequently reported caregiver-related variables which increased caregiver burden were being female, younger age, being unemployed, older age, lower education level.

Descriptors of living alone for elders: based on Turkey national data.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to analyze the data of the 2018 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey and determine personal and demographic factors associated with elderly who are 60 and older and living alone. METHODS: This cross-sectional study is the secondary analysis of the national data obtained with the 2018 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate differences in living alone based on gender, age, welfare status, region of residence, urban/rural residence, whether the person is working in a paid job and home ownership. Independent effect of every variable is observed in the first stage and then checked for all variables in the equation. RESULTS: There is a total of 37,897 participants' data in the Turkey Demographic and Health Survey Database. In the study, there are 6244 (16.5%) older adults in 11,056 households and 9.79% of the elderly population is alone. The percentage of elderly women living alone is 13.62% while this percentage is 5.48% for elderly men (p < 0.001). The risk of living alone for elderly women is 2.74 times more than elderly men (95% Cl 2.28-3.31). Being poor increases the risk of living alone for elderly people 2.84 fold compared to being rich (95% Cl 2.17-3.71). Those who have high school and higher education level have 2.38 (95% Cl 1.73-3.29) fold higher risk of living alone than people with lower education. Older adults living in the Western region of the country have 3.18 (95% Cl 2.20-4.59) times higher risk of living alone than older adults living in the Eastern region of the country. The risk of living alone for older adults increases 1.90 fold (95% Cl 1.55-2.32) if the house they live in do not belong to a household member. CONCLUSION: Based on these findings, needs of older adults under risk should be met to allow them to be healthy and live their lives in better social, economic and cultural conditions.

The Cost of Prenatal Care Services in the City of Aydin: A Cross-Sectional Study.

AIM: To determine the cost of prenatal care services provided to pregnant women in the city of Aydin, Turkey. METHOD: This cross-sectional study was conducted over the period of February-December 2016 at the Aydin Maternity and Children's Hospital. The convenience sampling method was used to recruit 403 women who were in weeks 36-42 of pregnancy into the study. Data for the study were collected with the Descriptive Information Form and the Prenatal Care Service Usage Form. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to analyse data. RESULTS: It was determined that the pregnant women were followed up an average total number of 10.94±4.30 times and 97.0% received care at the state hospital. It was found that for each pregnant woman, the mean total cost of prenatal care was $138.77±$93.44, the sum paid by general health insurance was $96.12±$46.38, individual contributions stood at $25.05±$10.43 and payments made to the private institutions was $110.32±$142.31. It was observed that the total prenatal care cost was not influenced by some of the characteristics of the pregnant women. CONCLUSION: It was revealed in the study that most pregnant women received prenatal care at the state hospitals and at family health centers and that they had approximately 11 prenatal care follow-ups amounting to a total mean cost of about $139. A contribution can be made to making prenatal care more cost-effective by organizing the number and scope of prenatal care sites on the basis of the individual characteristics of risk factors pregnant women.

Healthy lifestyle behavior of employees in small and medium-sized enterprises in Aydin, Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: To determine healthy lifestyle behavior and affecting risk factors in workers at small and medium-sized enterprises from four different sectors in Aydin, Turkey. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at four different small and medium-sized enterprises in Aydin, Turkey and 264 employees participated in the study. A questionnaire was used for data collection. It consisted of questions about socio-demographic features (age, gender, marital status, education, perceived income, occupation and having children), health status, and medical history, medication use, having occupational accidents and occupational health and safety. Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale, which was developed by Walker et al. in 1996, was used to evaluate healthy lifestyle behaviors of the workers. RESULTS: The mean score for Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale was 135.46±22.49. Gender, marital status, perceived income, sector of workplace, title, presence of a chronic disease, finding oneself healthy in the previous year and having an occupational accident in the previous year did not significantly affect any subscales of Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale. The workers aged over 50 years had significantly higher scores for health responsibility than those aged 20-29 years (p<0.05). The workers living in a village got significantly higher scores for Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale and its subscales health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition and spiritual development than those living in a city (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Although workers have good spiritual development, they may not adopt physical activity as a healthy lifestyle and that workers benefiting from occupational health and safety services can display healthy lifestyle behavior.

How do nurses and teachers perform breast self-examination: are they reliable sources of information?

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. The aim of the present study was to determine and compare knowledge, behavior and attitudes among female nurses and teachers concerning breast self-examination (BSE). METHODS: Two-hundred and eighty nine women working in Aydin, Turkey (125 nurses and 164 teachers) were included in the study. The data were collected using a questionnaire designed to measure the knowledge, attitudes and behavior of the groups. Analysis involved percentiles, chi2 tests, t tests and factor analysis. RESULTS: The knowledge of nurses about BSE was higher than that of teachers (81.5% versus 45.1%; p < 0.001). BSE practice parameters (i.e. age groups, indications, frequency) were similar (p > 0.05), whereas skills in performing self-examination were higher in nurses (p < 0.001). Fear of having breast cancer is the most frequent reason for performing BSE. Among nurses, the reasons for failure to perform BSE were the absence of prominent breast problems (82%) and forgetting (56.4%). The teachers who did not perform BSE said that the reasons were lack of knowledge on how to perform self-examination (68.9%) and absence of problems (54%). Both groups had unacceptable technical errors in the performance of BSE. CONCLUSION: We conclude that nurses and teachers should be supported with information enabling them to accomplish their roles in the community. To improve BSE practice, it is crucial to coordinate continuous and planned education.