Social Participation of Older Adults in Rural and Urban Areas: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Turkey.

Social participation is important in terms of active aging and quality of life during old age. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the social participation of older adults in rural and urban areas in Turkey. Related factors were similarly identified. The sample comprised 1,224 people over the age of 60, with a mean of 69.78 ± 7.48 years. Among the participants, 61.4% live in urban areas. The data were collected in family health centers through face-to-face interview and the Interview Form, Social Participation Assessment Form, and Social Participation Dimension of the Turkish Version of the Aging Module of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) Scale. The scores obtained from the social participation dimension of the scale among the elderly in urban areas were higher than those obtained among the elderly in rural areas (p = .002). In addition, older adults in the urban areas who talked on the phone several times a month (p = .025), went to concerts, theater/cinema, museum/exhibition, various visual/musical shows (p = .046), and engaged in gardening (p = .032) obtained higher scores in the social participation dimension than the other participants. Health care professionals should take an advocacy role in building relationships with policy makers and create suitable socialization opportunities for older adults in urban and rural areas.

Social participation is important in terms of active aging and quality of life during old age.This is the first study with a huge sample to compare the level of social participation of the elderly in rural and urban areas in Turkey.It provides information on the level of social participation of the elderly in a developing country.

Are Health Fatalism and Styles of Coping with Stress Affected by Poverty? A Field Study.

Background: Fatalism is an important parameter that affects individuals' understanding of health. In addition, stress and economic status, such as fatalism, are important factors that affect an individual's understanding of health. In this context, there may be an important link between stress, economic situation and fatalism. This study was conducted to determine whether health fatalism levels and styles of coping with stress are affected by poverty. Methods: This cross-sectional field study involved participants consisted of 382 individuals living in the two-Family Health Center regions in Turkey in 2018. The data collection phase continued for approximately three months. Collecting the data were used, namely demographic introduction form, Health Fatalism Scale, Styles of Coping with Stress Scale, and Individual Poverty Index. The data were analysed using SPSS 22 package program. Results: The difference between the average health fatalism score in poor and non-poor individuals was statistically significant (P<0.05). There was a weak, positive, and significant relationship between health fatalism score and optimistic, helpless, and submissive approach scores in both poor and non-poor individuals (P<0.05). Conclusion: While individuals' health fatalism level was affected by poverty, their style of coping with stress was not affected. Still, there was a significant relationship between health fatalism level and their style of coping with stress.

Psychometric properties and cultural adaptation of Polish version of Gynecological Cancers Awareness Scale (GCAS).

OBJECTIVES: Cancer of the female genital organs is one of the most common causes of death of women in Poland. The aim of the study was to translate and analyze the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the Gynecological Cancers Awareness Scale (GCAS). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study and questionnaire technic were used to collect data. The study was conducted from June 10th to July10th 2021 among 443 adult women in Poland. RESULTS: The Cronbach Alpha measure was used to assess the internal consistency of the scale. Cronbach's Alpha values greater than 0.7 indicates that the scale has high reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis confirms that the Polish version of Gynecological Cancers Awareness Scale has a very high reliability to assess the women's cancers awareness and knowledge of cancers.

The Reliability and Validity of the Religious Health Fatalism Scale in Turkish Language.

This study aimed to conduct the reliability and validity study of the Religious Health Fatalism Scale in Turkish language. The study carried out in methodological type and consisted of 500 individuals. The basic component analysis was applied to the 17-item scale, and it was decided that the Turkish version of the scale would have one sub-dimension. Factor loads were over 0.30 for all items, and the explained variance of the scale was found 42.70%. The Cronbach's α coefficient was determined to be 0.91. Consequently, it was determined that the Religious Health Fatalism Scale had one dimension in the Turkish language, and it was a highly valid and reliable tool. It was determined that the elderly, females, housewives, illiterate, people with no health insurance, married individuals, those with low income, and people with chronic diseases had higher health fatalism scores.

The Reliability and Validity of Prostate Cancer Fatalism Inventory in Turkish Language.

This study aimed to conduct the reliability and validity study of the Prostate Cancer Fatalism Inventory in Turkish language. The study carried out in methodological type and consisted of 171 men. The ages of the participants ranged between 40 and 82. The content validity index was determined to be 0.80, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value 0.825, Bartlett's test X 2 = 750.779 and p = 0.000. Then the principal component analysis was applied to the 15-item inventory. The inventory consisted of one dimension, and the load factors were over 0.30 for all items. The explained variance of the inventory was found 33.3 %. The Kuder-Richardson-20 coefficient was determined to be 0.849 and the item-total correlations ranged between 0.335 and 0.627. The Prostate Cancer Fatalism Inventory was a reliable and valid measurement tool in Turkish language. Integrating psychological strategies for prostate cancer screening may be required to strengthen the positive effects of nursing education.

Psychometric features of an assessment instrument with likert and dichotomous response formats.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the psychometric properties of a Likert-formatted assessment instrument after altering the responses to a dichotomous format. DESIGN AND SAMPLE: This methodological study used a 15-item instrument to obtain data from 183 participants who responded in both Likert and dichotomous formats. Response sets from each format were compared. MEASURES: Each response set underwent factor analysis, Kuder-Richardson 20, Cronbach's α coefficient, item-total correlation, and parallel form equivalence tests. RESULTS: Factor loads of the instrument varied between .362 and .754 when responses were Likert-formatted and between .370 and .713 when responses were dichotomous. The Cronbach's α coefficient with Likert-formatted responses was .858; the Kuder-Richardson 20 coefficient of the dichotomous responses was .827. Parallel form equivalences were significant at the level of r = .753. CONCLUSIONS: The instrument had valid results when either Likert or dichotomous responses were obtained.

Reliability and validity of the Turkish form of the eight-item Morisky medication adherence scale in hypertensive patients.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the 8-item Morisky medication adherence scale. METHODS: The study was conducted as a methodological design. The study included 196 patients with hypertension who applied to the Family Health Centers in three different regions of Turkey. Data were collected from February-June 2012. Methods used in the analysis included factor analysis, assessment of Cronbach's α test and item-total correlation in order to perform psychometric measurements. Variables influencing scores of medication adherence were determined using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Factor loadings of all items in the scale were above 0.40, and the variation explained was determined to be 42.4. The Turkish form consisted of a single domain. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the items in the scale was 0.79. Item-total correlations of items in the scale were between 0. 30 and 0. 62. Scores of medication adherence were observed to be affected by low economic condition and city where said individuals reside. CONCLUSION: It was determined that levels of reliability and validity of Turkish version of 8-item Morisky medication adherence scale is acceptable.

The impact of educational sessions provided on prostate cancer, and its screening tests on the knowledge level, and participation behavior of the individuals in questionnaire surveys.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to inform male participants aged fifty and older who have not been diagnosed with prostate cancer about prostate cancer screenings and to examine their participation behavior in these screenings. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this study, in which an experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group was used, data were collected from 3 family health centers in the city center of Kars between April and July 2013. The sample group consisted of 113 male participants aged fifty years or over. A personal information and a knowledge test forms about prostate cancer screening were used to collect the data. The statistical power of the study was determined to be 0.99. RESULTS: The mean pretest knowledge scores of the participants were determined be similar. In the posttest, the mean knowledge score of the experimental group was significantly increased compared to that of the control group. In terms of screening participation frequency, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups during the period after the training. The knowledge level was higher in patients who had previously undergone a prostate examination and/or their prostate specific antigen (PSA) level measured or those with a family history of prostate cancer or in cases with a history of a benign prostatic disease. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that the knowledge level of the risk group can be increased by training. The study also found that the increase in the knowledge level did not affect the participation behavior of the individuals in the screening tests.

Herbal therapies used by hypertensive patients in Turkey.

The purpose of this study was to determine herbal therapies used by the patients for regulation of blood pressure. This descriptive study was conducted in three districts of Izmir, Turkey. The study group included 193 patients with hypertension diagnosis who admitted to a primary care center and accepted to participate in the study. Data were collected through an investigator-made questionnaire including questions about socio-demographic features and herbal therapies used for regulation of blood pressure. Percentiles and chi-square statistics tests were used to evaluate the data through SPSS 11.0 program. The subjects included in the study had suffered from hypertension for 8.28 ± 7.92 years, and 95.9% of them received medication to treat their hypertension. Of all hypertensive patients, 51.3% used herbal therapies for the treatment of hypertension. The patients used herbal therapies most commonly when they felt ill. There were no statistically significant difference between the use of herbal therapies and gender, education, marital status, having health insurance and income level. Health professionals who provide primary health services, especially nurses, need to follow patients regularly and provide patient education on antihypertensive therapy. Nurses must plan the necessary training programs by evaluating the data about, whether the hypertension patients use herbal therapies that can affect their health negatively or not.

Validity of the Turkish version of the medication adherence self-efficacy scale-short form in hypertensive patients.

OBJECTIVE: Study purpose was to examine the validity of a 13-item short form of the Medication Adherence Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (MASES-SF) in an independent sample of 150 hypertensive Turkish patients. METHODS: This is a methodological study and 150 adult patients, who are receiving medication for hypertension in the last one year, were included as the study sample. The sample of the study was chosen with the method of simple random sampling. The study was conducted between October 25, 2010 and December 31, 2010 at Family Health Center (FHC). In this study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used for psychometric evaluation. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the reliability of the scale. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis showed that all goodness indexes were at acceptable quality: χ(2)=61.72, df=65, p>0.05, GFI=0.99, CFI=1.00, RMSA=0.00. Reliability coefficient of the Turkish adaptation of MASES-SF was found as 0.94 and item-total correlations ranged between 0.63 - 0.80. [corrected]. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension had lower self-efficacy scores compared to those with normal blood pressure. CONCLUSION: This result indicated that the preliminary criterion validity is adequate. Psychometric testing demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and validity of the instrument for patients in the study group. It can be used confidently in determining and testing interventions to improve medication adherence self-efficacy perceptions and behaviors in hypertensive Turkish patients. The MASES-SF is brief, quick to administer, and capture useful data on medication adherence self-efficacy in hypertensive patients.

The effect of web-assisted education and reminders on health belief, level of knowledge and early diagnosis behaviors regarding prostate cancer screening.

PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of web-assisted education and reminders on health belief, level of knowledge and early diagnosis behaviors regarding prostate cancer screening. METHODS AND SAMPLE: In this pretest-posttest longitudinal study, Turkish men over 40 years of age were given an interactive educational session on prostate cancer and prostate cancer screening, and were then given related web-assisted education and consultation for a period of 6 months. As well as the Internet, reminders such as desk calendar, booklets, e-mails and cell phone messages were used in the study. Changes in the screening behaviors, the health belief and knowledge level of patients were examined 3 and 6 months after the interventions. KEY RESULTS: During the study, participants' prostate examination rate increased from 9.3% to 19.1% and PSA measurement rate increased from 6.7% to 31.4%. The interventions raised the susceptibility perception on prostate cancer and prostate cancer screening while decreasing the barrier perception (p < 0.05). No change was observed in other health belief components and the level of knowledge. CONCLUSION: Web-assisted education and reminders provided positive changes in the barrier and susceptibility perceptions of individuals. Participation in the screening also increased.

Development and validation of health beliefs model scale for prostate cancer screenings (HBM-PCS): evidence from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.

PURPOSE: Primary diagnostic tools for prostate cancer are prostate examination and detection of prostate specific antigen. It is important to know what factors affect individuals in their use of these tools. The aim of this study was to create a scale that combined the basic components of the health belief model with a focus on prostate cancer screening. METHOD: A total of 240 healthy men (mean age and standard deviation = 53.8 ± 10.8) was selected by convenient sampling. In this methodological study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used for psychometric evaluation. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the reliability of the scale. RESULTS: The scale was composed of 41 items and five subscales. The initial analysis extracted five factors. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the data obtained were compatible with Health Beliefs Model (HBM) (χ(2) = 769 (n = 240) = 324.25, p > 0.05, GFI = 0.93, AGFI = 0.93, RMSA = 0.00, CFI = 1.00. Cronbach's α coefficient of the subscales ranged from 0.83 to 0.94. CONCLUSIONS: The scale was found to be appropriate for the measurement of health beliefs about prostate cancer screening. The scale may be used in prostate cancer screenings for males who are 40 years and older to measure perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, health motivation, perceived barriers and perceived benefits with regard to prostate cancer screenings.