Pregnant Turkish women with low income: their anxiety, health-promoting lifestyles, and related factors.

This paper presents anxiety levels, health-promoting lifestyles and related factors among pregnant Turkish women with low income. A descriptive correlation and cross-sectional study was conducted at a state maternity hospital in Western Turkey. The paper reports on the data (n = 195) from the Spielberg State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The average HPLP score was low (mean 2.57, SD 0.42). The average STAI score was high (40.67 ± 9.48; 46.40 ± 8.09, respectively). A significant relation was detected between the trait anxiety, state anxiety, antenatal visit, perception of social support, living environment, family type and HPLP (P < 0.05). A moderately negative relation was detected between the mean STAI and HPLP scores. The findings indicate information and data should be provided for service planning and community care to support pregnant Turkish women with low income in communities.

Fathers' knowledge about and attitudes towards breast feeding in Manisa, Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: to determine the extent of knowledge fathers of newborns have about breast feeding and lactation and to examine their attitudes regarding breast feeding. DESIGN: a descriptive, cross-sectional study. SETTING: Manisa Maternity and Children's Hospital. PARTICIPANTS: 203 fathers of newborn infants. FINDINGS: although a wide majority of the participants (92.1%) expressed a desire to have their infants breastfed, it was found that only 58.6% discussed this with their partners. It was discovered that 88.7% of the fathers were happy to help with the housework so that their wives could breast feed while 57.6% stated that breast feeding would be psychologically beneficial to both the mother and the baby. Approximately half of the study subjects (48.8%) expressed an interest in attending an educational programme on breast feeding for fathers. The study also showed that the fathers' level of education, the type of family they were a part of and previously received education on lactation and breast feeding had an effect on their knowledge and attitudes toward breast feeding (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: it was seen that fathers were eager to have their infants breastfed but unable to adequately share such thoughts with their wives. It was also observed that their knowledge about breast feeding and lactation was limited, leading to the conclusion that fathers may benefit from a supportive educational programme on breast feeding.

Effect of foot massage to decrease physiological lower leg oedema in late pregnancy: a randomized controlled trial in Turkey.

This study aims to evaluate the effect of foot massage for decreasing physiological lower leg oedema in late pregnancy. Eighty pregnant women were randomly divided into two groups; study group had a 20 min foot massage daily for 5 days whereas the control group did not receive any intervention beyond standard prenatal care. The research was conducted between March and August 2007 in Manisa Province Health Ministry Central Primary Health Care Clinic 1, in Manisa, Western Turkey. Compared with the control group, women in the experimental group had a significantly smaller lower leg circumference (right and left, ankle, instep and metatarsal-phalanges joint) after 5 days of massage. The results obtained from our research show that foot massage was found to have a positive effect on decreasing normal physiological lower leg oedema in late pregnancy.

Differences in quality of life between infertile women and men in Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: To examine potential differences in quality of life between infertile women and men. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross-sectional design. METHOD: A questionnaire was used to collect individuals' sociodemographic data; the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) tool was used to collect information about quality of life. PARTICIPANTS: The research sample comprised 248 infertile individuals (141 women and 107 men) admitted to the clinic for the first time for diagnosis and treatment between January 1 and June 30, 2007, and who voluntarily agreed to participate. SETTING: The research was conducted at the Ege University Family Planning and Infertility Research and Training Center Infertility Clinic in Izmir, Turkey. RESULTS: Physical health, psychological health, and social relations domain score means did not show significant differences between infertile women and infertile men (p>.05). However, score means for the environment domain were significantly higher (p<.05) for infertile women than for infertile men. Unemployed infertile men had significantly lower score means in the physical health and social relation domains (p<.01). No such significant differences were found for the other quality of life domain scores for infertile women or infertile men (p>.05). CONCLUSION: In the environmental domain, the quality of life of infertile women was greater than that of infertile men. Variables affecting quality of life of infertile individuals were seen to affect women and men in similar ways. Nurses and health care professionals caring for infertile individuals should be aware of the factors that affect quality of life and should plan to meet their care needs accordingly.

Effect of acupressure on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in gynecologic cancer patients in Turkey.

PURPOSE: The aim of the current study was to assess the effect of acupressure applied to the pericardium 6 (P6 or Neiguan) acupuncture point with a wristband (Sea-Band) on nausea-vomiting in addition to the standard antiemetic medications used to prevent nausea-vomiting due to chemotherapy in gynecologic cancer patients. METHOD: In this prospective research we used pre- and posttests. The study consisted of 34 patients with gynecologic cancer. RESULTS: We found a significant decrease in the patients' mean scores of nausea and the use of antiemetic medications following acupressure applied to the patients with a wristband, when compared with their mean scores of nausea and the use of antiemetic medications prior to the application (p<0.05), and we also observed a decline in their mean scores of vomiting and retching episodes; however, this decline was not found to be statistically significant (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study suggest that the acupressure applied to P6 acupuncture point with wristbands may be effective in reducing chemotherapy-related nausea and may decrease the antiemetic use after chemotherapy. Further research with more subjects is needed.

Protection from cancer and early diagnosis applications in Izmir, Turkey: a pilot study.

Research was planned as a descriptive and cross-sectional study in order to explore knowledge and practices of individuals residing in the Bornova District about protection from and early diagnosis of cancer. The individuals residing in the Bornova District in Izmir constituted the population of research. A total of 195 persons, who were selected by convenience sampling method, participated in the study. Results show that 89.2% of the individuals knew what cancer was, 50.3% were alcohol consumers, 45.6% knew the relationship between cancer and being overweight, and 41.5% were exercising regularly. Of the individuals enrolled, 75.4% knew that some ingredients in ready-made foods contain substances causing cancer, but only 10.8% paid attention to the ingredients while buying a food, and 26.7% did not pay any attention at all. Of the women, 53.9% knew how to do breast self-examination and 29.2% thought that to have pap smear performed regularly was essential for protection from cancer. Although 14.2% of the men knew how to do testis examination, 76.4% did not know the importance of testis examination. A statistically significant correlation was found between the research participants who knew what cancer was and those who knew the signs of cancer (chi2 = 8.077, SD = 1, P = .004 < .05). The levels of knowledge and practices related to protection from and early diagnosis of cancer among the individuals enrolled in the research were not sufficient.