Turkey Health Literacy Journal

Polypharmacy in The Elderly

Fatma İşli — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Aging is a demographic situation that is becoming increasingly important for the whole world and our country. Factors such as the decrease in birth and death rate, the increase in modern medicinal facilities and the improvement of living conditions cause an increase in elderly population in the society. Being aware of the problems brought about by aging is important in determining the measures and corrective actions that can be taken in this regard. Increasing incidence of chronic diseases and various physiological changes occurring increase the possibility of problems in the drug use process. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes may cause an increase in drug-related sensitivity and a change in treatment effect. Polypharmacy is one of the leading drug-related problems in the elderly.
Polypharmacy, which can be described as taking more than one drug at the same time, is a health problem that requires multidimensional
thinking when its causes and consequences are considered. Consideration should be given in disease management, and the factors that alter the drug effect in olders should not be ignored while prescribing. Treatment approach that adopts the principles of rational drug use is the most effective way to prevent polypharmacy and to eliminate the problems it may cause.

Vaccine Literacy

Merve Atik Şahin, Fatma Nur Baran Aksakal — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Vaccine literacy covers the individual's knowledge, motivation and competence in accessing, understanding, evaluating and applying health information to make the right health decisions in daily life. An individual with advanced vaccine literacy accepts the vaccine as a must for a functioning health system, undertakes the task of vaccine advocacy in every environment and develops an uncomplicated system in order to ensure vaccine communication with other people. Old age is a very important period for vaccination literacy as well as vaccination. Lack of knowledge of the elderly population themselves or their caregivers; years of false traditions, myths and misperceptions; accessing services, using digital systems, and adapting to complex vaccination programs become more difficult with advancing age; combined with the deficiencies in the health records kept in the past years, it presents a difficult situation to overcome. The increase in susceptibility to infectious diseases, chronic diseases and cancers due to the weakening of the immune system requires vaccination literacy to be high both in the elderly group and among their families and caregivers.

In this review, it is aimed to contribute to the writing by explaining the concepts of vaccine literacy, factors affecting vaccine literacy, vaccine hesitancy, vaccine rejection and vaccine communication.

The Investigation of University Students Knowledge and Behaviors About Rational Drug Use

Umutcan Altun, Fatma Semanur Korkmaz Öner, Amine Başak Türk — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem of The Research: Adherence to treatment decreases, drug interactions, and the frequency of adverse reactions increase due to the principles of rational drug use are not followed by the public.

The Aim of The Study: This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and behaviors about the rational drug use of Medicine, Pharmacy, Health Management, and Nursing students who receive health education.
Method: The snowball sampling method was used in this descriptive study. A total of 749 students from the departments of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Health Management who agreed to participate in the study were asked to answer 36 questions online. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc. Chicago, USA) computer package program was used for statistical analysis of the data. In the descriptive statistics section, categorical variables are given as numbers and percentages, and continuous variables are presented as mean ± standard deviation and median (smallest – largest value). Conformity of continuous variables to normal distribution was evaluated using visual (histogram and probability graphs) and analytical methods (Kolmogorov
Smirnov/Shapiro-Wilk tests). Chi square test was used in the comparison analyzes of categorical variables. In this study, the statistical
significance level was accepted as p<0.05.

Results: Of the individuals participating in the study, 29.2% are in Health Management, 26.7% in Pharmacy, 22% in Medicine, and 22%
in Nursing students. 81.4% of the participants are women. There is a statistically significant relationship between the usage of medication
with a recommendation of a neighbor or close relative, and the act of prescribing medication, even if it is not necessary (p=0.006). There is a statistically significant relationship between buying a drug from the pharmacy without a doctor’s examination and the act of prescribing medication even if it is not necessary (p<0.001). There is a statistically significant relationship between the action taken when the drug has a side effect and the situation of prescribing the medication even if it is not essential (p=0.020). In cases where the complaint does not go away, there is a statistically significant relationship between taking medication without the recommendation of a physician
and prescribing medication even if it is not necessary (p=0.019).

Conclusion: It is seen that among the drugs used without consulting a physician, painkillers take the first place with a huge difference.
Another important issue is that although the rate of drug use by the students in this study without consulting the physician is low,
attention should be paid to the duration of use of the drugs prescribed by the physician.

Occupational Health And Safety Knowledge Level and Affecting Factors in Medical Faculty Students

Vecdi Osmanoğlu, Asiye Uğraş Dikmen — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Occupational physicians have an important role to play in the prevention of occupational diseases and work accidents. In our country,
occupational medicine can be practiced by the ones who have graduated from medical school, received the title of medical doctor, have completed the occupational medicine course, passed the exam, and are authorized by the Ministry. In this case, it has great importance
that medical school students receive studies on work accidents and occupational diseases that they will encounter in their working life. The universe of this research was composed of students studying at Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, the class (term) of education was determined as stratum, and a questionnaire was applied to 396 students with the stratified sampling method. During their education,
these students attend a public health committee in the 3rd grade, occupational health and workplace medicine in the 5th grade (elective),
and public health internship in the 6th grade regarding occupational health and safety. There are 42 questions in the questionnaire and 24 of them are the questions measuring the level of knowledge about occupational health and safety. The highest score obtained is 20 and the lowest score is 0. The students who participated in the survey mostly answered, “I don’t know” to the questions measuring their level of knowledge. A statistically significant difference found between the classes of the students and in terms of their previous education status and in terms of occupational health and safety knowledge level. (p<0.001) As a result of the research, considering that
the students will benefit in their business life and internship periods, it is suggested that medical school students should have compulsory
occupational health and safety, occupational health and occupational medicine courses.

Telehealth and Telemedicine in Health Service Presentation

Tuba Özdemirkan, Asiye Çiğdem Şimşek, Zeynep Belma Şenlik, Mustafa Kotanoğlu — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Telemedicine (telehealth) applications have become mainstream in many areas of health care and are accepted as the preferred service delivery method that increases access to health services.Today, telemedicine applications; to provide health services to people with more limited access to health, to increase the use of telemedicine applications not only in acute cases but also in chronic and periodic diseases, to enable health workers to access telemedicine applications not only from the hospital but also from anywhere, to encourage
health workers to use telemedicine applications, to encourage healthcare professionals to use telemedicine applications, There is a tendency to increase depending on reasons such as increasing the number of working hours.In the study, it was aimed to evaluate the initial process of the project in primary health care services provided in Altındağ, Çankaya, Gölbaşı, Sincan and Yenimahalle districts of
Ankara province, which were included in the “Distance Health Service Delivery (Telemedicine) Project” initiated in Ankara, Samsun and Konya provinces.In order to increase the frequency of use of telemedicine applications especially in chronic disease management, to encourage healthcare professionals to use telemedicine applications, and to eliminate the problems experienced in practice, face-to-face and online training was provided to 194 healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals are called periodically by phone to receive
their feedback, provide information and correct any problems experienced.When telemedicine applications are evaluated together with the pandemic experiences, it is certain that it will be beneficial not only in the delivery of treatment services, but also in the protection and
development of health, health education and health surveillance. In this way, it will contribute to the reduction of the disease burden and
health expenditures, and thus to the country’s economy.

Obesity and Sleep in The Covi̇d-19 Proces

Tugce Bulut, Semih Karaman, Hacı Ahmet Pekel, Mehmet Yıldız — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Covid-19 pandemic is the first global pandemic whose effects have reached deadly levels in terms of health. The long-term of the process has led people to change their daily habits and lead them to continue their lives in a limited environment. The aim of this study is to explain in detail how obesity and sleep, which are directly related to each other, have changed in the Covid 19 process and how much of an effect they have on our daily life and health. For scanning, the keywords "pandemic, covid-19, obesity, sleep, nutrition during the pandemic" were searched in the "Google Scholar, Pubmed and Endnote" search.

The findings obtained after the screening revealed that the stress, boredom, fear and risk of death caused by Covid 19 increased the anxiety levels of individuals. These increased negative situations caused sleep disorders, daytime well-being and psychological states worsened, and it was stated that, unlike normal processes, more fat, carbohydrate and protein consumption was observed. The fact that individuals have increased the amount of food consumption and inactivity levels has increased the susceptibility to obesity, and a long-term and dangerous vicious circle has emerged. For this reason, since the relationship between sleep and obesity are factors that directly affect each other, the negative situation experienced in one of them during the Covid 19 process negatively affected the other.It has been observed that the formation of unhealthy eating habits increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity in general.Controlled diet, regular sleep and exercise can be recommended to prevent this negative relationship.