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Ayse Ferdane Oguzoncul,1 Emel Ercan,2 Evrim Celebi3 1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Firat University, Elazig, Turkey; 2Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Firat University Hospital, Elazig, Turkey; 3Faculty of Health Sciences, Firat University, Elazig, Turkey Objective: As our society ages, the incidence of acute and chronic diseases increases, and so does chronic drug use and polypharmacy. This study was intended to examine the medication behaviors of the elderly who lived in the nursing homes in the Elazig and Malatya provinces, located in eastern Turkey, and in the Kayseri province located in Central Anatolia. Materials and methods: The population of this cross-sectional study included people over the age of 60 years (n=310) who lived in the nursing homes in the Elazig, Malatya, and Kayseri provinces. The entire population was included in the research without sampling, of which 255 (82.2%) people participated. Data were collected using a survey form, and the survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews. The data were reported in numbers, percentages, and averages. Results: Of the studied population, 87.8% were treated through polypharmacy, using various drugs. The most commonly used drugs were antihypertensives (52.2%). Females over 60 years used more polypharmacy than men (p

A Ferdane Oguzoncul,1 Murat Aygen,2 Yasemin Acik,1 S Erhan Deveci,1 B Canan Demirbag,3 Edibe Pirincci1 ¹Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Firat University, Elazig, Turkey; ²Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Firat University, Elazig, Turkey; ³Department of Public Health, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey Methods: Students attending five different types of high schools in central Elazig (a city in Turkey) during the 2009–2010 school year constitute the study population. One class was randomly selected from each high school. Out of 650 students, 640 participated in the study. The data were evaluated by using the SPSS program; percentage, mean, and chi-square analyses were used.Findings: Of all the students, 41.7% defined the elderly as those who are 60 years of age or older. When asked the question “What does elderliness mean to you?”, the majority of the students, 27.2%, responded “peace and resting”. The second most common answer, given by 23.6% of students, was “sickness/tiredness”; 16.6% responded “wisdom/experience”. Many students (30.3%) stated that the most difficult thing about living with the elderly was their interference in everything; 30.6% of students stated that there was no difficulty at all. According to 42.7% of the students, the greatest problem that the elderly face is health. Of all of the students, 58.3% stated that they feared growing old.Conclusion: Our study has concluded the following: 1) High school students have a conventional perception of elderliness and 2) They embrace the elderly and think that perspectives on elderliness will change through education. Keywords: old age, elderly, high school students, opinion

Aliye Bulut, A Ferdane Oguzoncul Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Firat University, Elazig, Turkey Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the level of satisfaction of patients utilizing first-level health care facilities as a function of health system performance rating in Elazig province of Turkey.Methods: The study was conducted between December 2013 and March 2014 at the family health centers in the Elazig province center. For collecting the data in the cross-sectional study conducted with 1,290 patients, personal data form for patients and the Turkish version of European Patients Evaluate General/Family Practice scale was used.Results: Of the patients who participated in the study, 54.3% were female. According to the general average scores received by the patients from European Patients Evaluate General/Family Practice-TR Patient Satisfaction Survey questions, average scores of male patients were found to be higher than those of female patients. Scores of the divorced and widow patients were higher compared to other groups, but this was not statistically significant. Average scores of the patients whose educational status is secondary school were higher compared to other groups. Scores of the patients with children were higher compared to those without children. Scores of the patients whose occupation was farming were higher compared to the other groups of occupation. Scores of the patients whose income was TL 1,001–2,500 were found to be higher compared to other patients. Scores of the patients who stated that they never had difficulty in access were higher compared to others, but this was not statistically significant. Average scores of the patients who had chronic diseases and patients who stated to have physical handicap were higher compared to those who did not have chronic disease and physical handicap, but these differences were not found to be statistically significant, either.Conclusion: There is a statistically significant difference between the patients’ demographic characteristics (sex, educational status, occupation, and income status) and their levels of satisfaction with the family medicine practice. Keywords: patient satisfaction, primary care, EUROPEP

The tetanus vaccine is not routinely given to Turkish adults. Protective tetanus immunity decreases with age. Health-care personnel (HCPs), who are role models in the field of health, are a target group in order to achieve a higher rate of tetanus vaccination in the community. This study was designed to evaluate attitudes and coverage regarding tetanus vaccination among a large sample of Turkish HCPs. This cross-sectional epidemiologic study was conducted from July to August 2019. A questionnaire was sent to HCPs using social media. Of the 10,644 HCPs included in the study, 65% were female. Overall, the tetanus vaccination coverage (TVC) among HCPs was 78.5% (95% CI: 77.7%-79.3%). TVC was significantly higher among physicians [83.4% (95% CI: 82%-84.6%); p < .001] compared with all other HCPs except nurses. Older age (≥40 years) and length of professional experience were significantly correlated with TVC. Of the 8353 HCPs who received tetanus vaccines during their lifetime, 73.03% received tetanus vaccination in the past 10 years. The self-vaccination rate for protection against tetanus was 13.1%. Acute injuries (25.42%) and pregnancy (23.9%) were the most common reasons for having the tetanus vaccine. One-third (33.7%) of HCPs did not have information about whether pregnant women could receive tetanus vaccinations. This survey study provided excellent baseline information about HCPs' coverage rates and attitudes regarding tetanus vaccination. The present results suggested that tetanus boosters for HCPs should be established as soon as possible, and revealed that the HCPs younger than 30 years with relatively less professional experience and all other HCPs except nurses and physicians should be identified as the target population for future intervention programs.

The aim of this study is to gather information about the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of women regarding breast and cervical cancer, to increase the knowledge level of the relevant age group and to begin including the relevant age group in screening programs. This cross-sectional study is composed of 6910 women aged 30-69 years in Malatya, Turkey. The study aimed to reach 1782 women with a survey, and all of them were reached. The questionnaire form was completed with face-to-face interview. For statistical analysis, data were evaluated as number and percentage distributions. The average age of the women was 45.6±11.4. Nearly half of the women (46.4%) did not know that scans for early detection of breast and cervical cancers were free. Only 22.2% of women knew that breast cancer could be diagnosed early by mammography. 72.7% had never received a mammogram. One third (31.6%) of women did not know it was possible to recognize cervical cancer early, and two thirds (64.5%) of women had not received a Pap smear test. It has been determined that Turkish women do not have adequate knowledge about cancer diagnosis, early cancer diagnosis, and screening.

Objective: This research determines the frequency of obesity among primary school-aged children and evaluates the relationship between obesity and family and environmental factors., Material and Methods: Three thousand four hundred sixty students, aged 6-15 years in three primary schools in Mardin city center were taken into the study. Information about eating habits and family-environmental factors were obtained by questionnaire. For each student we calculated the body mass index (BMI) and the ≥97 percentile was defined as obese, and between 85-97(th) percentile as overweight. These values were calculated with the SPSS statistical program. Chi-square and t-tests were used for analysis. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: 48.2% of the students were female. In the assessment of body mass index (BMI) the overweight rate for children was 15.78%, the obese rate was 10.57%. The prevalence of obesity according to gender was 9.05% for girls and 11.97% for boys (p<0.01). The mean BMI of the girls in the age group 13-15 is higher than in males of the same age. Those in the higher socio-economic group had a higher prevalence of obesity (p<0.01). Paternal obesity affected child obesity (p<0.01). Children who eat irregular meals (p=0.05), watch more than 2 hours per day TV (p=0.03), were breastfed for less than 6 months (p<0.05) and the mothers' obesity (p<0.05) were found to have a significantly higher prevalence of obesity., Conclusion: Obesity is increasing throughout the world as a health problem. Being obese in childhood and having obese parent(s) are two of the risk factors of being obese in adulthood. Persistence of obesity into adulthood is the most serious aspect of the problem. The therapeutic success rate in obesity is unfortunately not high. Therefore, a preventive strategy involving early identification of those at risk by incorporating body mass assessments to routine childhood growth assessment appears to be the most prudent strategy.