The knowledge and attitudes of the primary care physicians on developmental dysplasia of the hip.

OBJECTIVE: For the prevention and early diagnosis of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), a detailed clinical screening of the newborn performed by a primary care (PC) physician is recommended as a standard practice throughout the most western countries. We aimed to determine the knowledge and attitudes of the PC physicians towards DDH, and to develop further educational and training programs, according to the results obtained from the study. METHODS: The study was a pre- and post- test with a cross-sectional design. In winter of 2005, the participants included 102 PC physicians from 20 primary health care centers in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. A structured questionnaire was prepared consisting of 28 statements on medical, practical, and traditional knowledge and attitudes concerning DDH. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the pre-test (71.47 +/- 9.92) and post-test scores (78.85 +/- 12.86) of participants (p=0.000). Of the participants, 83 (81.4%) before, and 93 (91.2%) after the lecture, thought that DDH is a preventable disease. Prior to the lecture, only 27.5% of the physicians were aware of the wrong traditional attitudes that are considered as risk factors for DDH. CONCLUSION: The knowledge and attitudes of PC physicians on DDH needs to be improved by providing continuous education programmes.

Suicidal thought and behavior in high school students in Adana, Turkey.

Fifty years ago adolescents mostly died of natural causes, whereas they now die from more preventable causes. Part of this change has been a worldwide rise in adolescent suicide rates in both developed and developing countries. Suicides are probably under reported due to cultural and religious stigma attached to self-destruction. Objectives of this study were to collect data about suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts and related sociodemographic details in high school students. The population comprised 2,480 randomly selected students among 46,271 students from 72 high schools in 1999-2000 in Adana and 2,352 (94.8%) students from 10 schools were reached and given a questionnaire modified using Youth Risk Behavior Survey Questionnaire (YRBSQ). Chi2 and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used. Mean age was 16.5 +/- 1 (14-21) year, 1,187 (50.5%) students reported severe desperation, 526 students (22.4%) had suicidal thoughts, 332 (14.1%) planned committing suicide, 145 (6.2%) attempted suicide. The occurrence rate of desperation, suicidal thoughts, plans, attempts and the mean number of attempts were significantly higher in females than males. Adolescent suicide is a tragedy affecting individual, family, peers, and community. Families, teachers, and physicians should be aware of risk factors for suicide.

Predictors of smoking behavior of first year university students: questionnaire survey.

AIM: To assess the prevalence of smoking and sociodemographic factors related to smoking behavior of first year university students in Adana, Turkey. METHODS: The sample was selected from two faculties (Faculty of Engineering and Architecture and Faculty of Agriculture) using the method of simple cluster sampling, representing the university student population. The students filled out an anonymous questionnaire comprising 17 questions related to their sociodemographic characteristics and smoking behavior. The response rate was 73.5% (471 out of 640 students). RESULTS: The prevalence of daily smoking among the first year students was 21.4%, with the predominance of men (25.0%) over women (12.9%). Most students (89.1%) had positive expectations about quitting smoking in the next 5 years ("I will quit smoking", "I will decrease the number of cigarettes I smoke", and "I will continue to be a non-smoker"). The smoking behavior was significantly related to student's sex (p=0.026, Pearson's chi-square test), mother's education (p=0.029, Pearson's chi-square test), number of failed grades (p=0.011, ANOVA), student's monthly income (p<0.001, Pearson's chi-square test), and having friends who smoke (p<0.0001, Pearson's chi-square test). CONCLUSION: The main determinants of regular smoking behavior for university students in Turkey were male sex, low academic performance, having smoking friends, high level of income, and a mother with high education level. These findings call for making anti smoking policies more specific in regard to the targeted population.