The aim was to investigate the effectiveness of Kinesio taping for lymphedema following head and neck cancer therapy and its effect on patient compliance and quality of life.A total of 66 patients ...

Background. Thyroid disorder is one of the most common noncommunicable diseases worldwide and neglected public health issues in Somalia. The aim of the study thus was to investigate the thyroid disorders in patients attending to the largest tertiary referral hospital in Somalia. Methods. This retrospective study was conducted on patients admitted to the internal department of Somalia Mogadishu-Turkey Education and Research Hospital, Somali, between January 2017 and December 2019. Patients who were tested for thyroid function tests and had complete data were included. Patients with incomplete data and currently treated for any thyroid disorder were excluded from the study. Abstracted data including patients sociodemographic characteristics, thyroid function tests, and histopathological findings were retrieved from the hospital database system. Results. A total of 976 patients with thyroid disorders were enrolled, of whom 66.6 (n=650) were female and 33.4 (n=326) were male. The mean age of the patients was 47±18.5 years. The majority of the patients were reported in the 3150 (35.9) age range. The most reported thyroid function disorders were 58.8 euthyroid sick syndrome followed by 15.4 hypothyroidism, 12.5 subclinical hypothyroidism, 7.6 hyperthyroidism, and 5.7 subclinical hyperthyroidism. The distribution of comorbidity indicated that 13.4 had diabetes mellitus, 10.4 had HIV, 4.9 had malaria, and 4.5 had HIV and malaria coinfection. Thyroid malignancies were detached in 22 (2.2) patients including eleven papillary thyroid cancer, nine patients had follicular thyroid cancer, and two patients had differentiated thyroid cancer. Conclusions. Euthyroid sick syndrome was the most common type of thyroid disease in our setup. Hypothyroidism is the second most common, followed by subclinical hypothyroidism. Papillary thyroid cancer was the predominant histology among thyroid malignancies, followed by follicular thyroid cancer. This study revealed that thyroid diseases emerge as an important endocrine disorder encountered in Somali, necessitating a major public health response.

Childhood obesity/overweight is a worldwide concern and its prevalence is increasing in many countries. The first aim of this study is to analyse the trends in overweight and obesity among children under the age of five in Turkey based on the new World Health Organization (WHO) standards, using data from the ‘five-round of the Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys’ (TDHSs). The second aim is to examine whether or not the maternal/household and individual-level factors are associated with overweight/obesity using TDHS 2003, 2008, and 2013 datasets. A total sample of 14,231 children under the age of five were extracted from the TDHS in 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2013 to determine the prevalence of the trend. Pooled data from 8,812 children were included in the analysis to examine factors associated with overweight/obesity. Taking into account the clustered data structure, multilevel logistic regression models were utilised. In 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2013 the prevalence of overweight children was 5.3%, 4.9%, 10.0%, 11% and 11.6%, respectively. The factors that were independently associated with overweight/obesity were as follows: living in single-parent households (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.27, 95%CI = 1.21–4.26), compared to living in dual-parent households; having an obese mother (aOR = 4.25, 95%CI = 1.73–10.44), overweight mother (aOR = 3.15, 95%CI = 1.29–7.69), and a normal-weight mother (aOR = 2.70, 95%CI = 1.11–6.59) compared to having an underweight mother; being aged between 13–24 months (aOR = 1.72, 95%CI = 1.30 to 2.27), compared to being aged 0-12 months; male gender (aOR = 1.30, 95%CI = 1.11 to 1.53); being stunted (aOR = 2.18, 95%CI = 1.74 to 2.73); high birth weight (aOR = 1.55, 95%CI = 1.08 to 2.23) compared to low birth weight. In addition, overweight was higher in children of mothers who had completed primary school (aOR = 1.21, 95%CI = 1.01 to 1.59) than children of mothers who had not completed primary school. These findings reveal that, over the years, there has been a substantial increase in obesity/overweight among children which demonstrates the importance of evaluating the overweight indicators at the maternal/household level.

Background and Aim: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is closely associated with insulin resistance (IR). While a minority of patients with NAFLD does not have evidence of IR, no detailed characterization of this specific phenotype is currently available. This study was undertaken to investigate the clinical and histological characteristics of this patient group. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 263 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD. IR was defined by a Homeostatic Model Assessment of IR (HOMA-IR) score >2.73. The histological diagnosis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) was performed using 1) the steatosis, activity and fibrosis score and 2) the NASH Clinical Research Network (NASH CRN) criteria. Significant fibrosis was defined by the presence of a histological fibrosis score higher than F≥2. Patients with and without evidence of IR were compared concerning clinical, laboratory, and histological characteristics. Results: Of the 263 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD, 53 (20.2%) patients had no evidence of IR. Patients without IR were younger [IR (-): 42 (22–65) years versus IR (+): 49 (22−71) years, p=0.001] and had a higher prevalence of men [IR (-): 39 (73.6%) versus IR (+): 113 (53.8%), p=0.009]. Moreover, they were characterized by a lower body mass index [IR (-): 30.06±3.61 kg/m2 versus IR (+): 33.19±5.06 kg/m2, p=0.000] and lower frequencies of metabolic risk factors–including the metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and lower waist/hip circumference. Liver histology was generally less severe in patients without IR; specifically, they showed a lower prevalence of NASH [IR (-): 38 (71.7%) versus IR (+): 190 (90.5%), p=0.000] and significant fibrosis [IR (-): 9 (17.0%) versus IR (+): 106 (50.5%), p=0.000] than did patients with IR. Multivariate analysis identified obesity [odds ratio (OR): 9.321, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.031−84.261, p1.1 (OR: 10.116, 95% CI: 1.325−77.225, p

Objective: In 2011, Turkey started the nationwide “Smoking Cessation Treatment Support Program” via Smoking Cessation Clinics (SCC). This study examined the accessibility of these clinics using Levesque’s framework of access to healthcare services. From the (potential) users’ perspectives, it was aimed to find the challenges they face in accessing these clinics, and it proposed solutions for better implementation.Methods: This study was conducted among 304 smokers who visited four Family Health Centers in a geographically defined area in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018. Result: In this study, it was found that 74% of smokers wished to quit smoking. Within them, 21% didn’t know of SCCs, and half of them didn’t know what services were provided there. Among those who knew of SCCs, 30% used them to quit smoking. The majority (75.7%) of the SCC users found the medications expensive; 41% didn’t use them, and 64% didn’t re-visit the clinics for follow-ups. Eventually, 4.3% of smokers quit smoking through SCCs. Utilization of these clinics were significantly higher among women (35%) than men (18.6%) (p=0.024). T; and there was no other differences in terms of age, marital status, income, and education level.Conclusion: Smoking cessation programs in Turkey and other countries can be implemented more efficiently if the sufficient number of clinics are opened and are accessible at the local level; more health professionals are trained to practice; the clinics are made more visible; smoking cessation medications are made available constantly; and closer monitoring of service users is ensured.

Otoacariasis is the presence of ticks and mites in the ear canals of humans or animals, and particularly common in rural areas. This study aimed to present the clinical characteristics of patients that presented with ticks in their ear canal. The study was conducted with a total of 425 patients with 527 ticks in their ear canal at the Muş Malazgirt State Hospital Ear-Nose-Throat Clinic between June 2019 and June 2020. The removed ticks were examined at the parasitology laboratory of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University. Of the 425 cases included in the study, 72% (n=306) were female and 28% (n=119) were male (mean age 40±20, minimum-maximum: 4 months–81 years). A total of 527 ticks were removed in the one-year period. Three-hundred-and-fifty-one patients had adult or nymph ticks, and 74 patients had a larval form of the tick. Of the patients with adult or nymph tick, foreign body sensation was the dominant symptom in 68.7% (n=242), whereas pain was the dominant symptom in 62% (n=46) of those with larval tick. In the comparison between groups, foreign body sensation was statistically significantly higher in the adult tick group, and pain was higher in the larval tick group (p<0.001). There were no systemic diseases related to the ticks in any of the cases. Ticks in the ear is endemic in Eastern Anatolia and poses a public health problem. Tick infestations could be minimized with various precautions and educating the general public on preventive methods. Our study is the largest series in the literature on cases with ear ticks.