Phenomenon: Physician immigration from other countries is increasing as developed countries continue to be desirable destinations for physicians; however, the determinants of Turkish physicians' migration decisions are still unclear. Despite its wide coverage in the media and among physicians in Türkiye, and being the subject of much debate, there is insufficient data to justify this attention. With this study, we aimed to investigate the tendency of senior medical students in Türkiye to pursue their professional careers abroad and its related factors. Approach: This cross-sectional study involved 9881 senior medical students from 39 different medical schools in Türkiye in 2022. Besides participants' migration decision, we evaluated the push and pull factors related to working, social environment and lifestyle in Türkiye and abroad, medical school education inadequacy, and personal insufficiencies, as well as the socioeconomic variables that may affect the decision to migrate abroad. The analyses were carried out with a participation rate of at least 50%. Findings: Of the medical students, 70.7% had emigration intentions. Approximately 60% of those want to stay abroad permanently, and 61.5% of them took initiatives such as learning a foreign language abroad (54.5%) and taking relevant exams (18.9%). Those who wanted to work in the field of Research & Development were 1.37 (95% CI: 1.22-1.54) times more likely to emigrate. The push factor that was related to emigration intention was the "working conditions in the country" (OR: 1.89, 95% CI: 1.56-2.28) whereas the "social environment/lifestyle abroad" was the mere pull factor for the tendency of emigration (OR: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.45-2.06). In addition, the quality problem in medical schools also had a significant impact on students' decisions (OR: 2.20, 95% CI: 1.83-2.65). Insights: Although the percentage of those who want to emigrate "definitely" was at the same level as in the other developing countries, the tendency to migrate "permanently" was higher in Türkiye. Improving working conditions in the country and increasing the quality of medical faculties seem vital in preventing the migration of physicians.

Background:The aim of this study was to estimate the effects of exposure to chemical compounds on systemic biochemical inflammatory markers in printing industry workers. Material and Methods:Fifty-eight printing workers from 19 different small- and m...

Background: As years passes by, the usage of social media has become an important public health issue. It is known that problematic social media use is related with health problems. With this study, it is aimed to determine the social media use of hospital employees, the relation between social media addiction and burnout levels and to determine effective factors. Methods: Target population of the cross-sectional study consists of 2627 person between the ages of 18-60 who is working at a university hospital. Minimum sample size was calculated as 321 and reached up to 323 people. Question form, Burnout Scale and Social Media Addiction Adult Form were applied by interviewing the employees face-to-face between the months of March-April 2019. Results: 80.2% of the participants use social media every day, 63.1% of them use social media mostly at evenings. 94.8% of people mostly connect to social media with their phone. Average time spent daily on social media is 91, 33±87, 89 minutes. Daily social media use is significantly higher in women, university graduates, nurses. There is a significant difference between age groups and between married and never married in terms of average time spent daily on social media. Social media addiction scale score is significantly higher in women, never married persons and in the age group 20-29. Weak correlation was determined between scores of social media addiction scale and burnout levels, and age and time spent on social media. Conclusions: It is determined that social media usage in hospital employees is higher than Turkey’s average and there is a positive relation between scores of social media addiction scale and burnout levels. Providing education to employees in order to reduce social media usage, hanging posters related with how over-usage of social media may lead to burnout.

Background: Turkey hosts the world’s largest refugee population of whom 3.5 million are Syrians and this population has been continuously growing since the year 2011. This situation causes various problems, mainly while receiving health-care services. In planning the migrant health-care services, for the policy makers of host countries, health literacy level of migrants is an important measure. Determination of health literacy level of Syrian refugees in Turkey would be supportive for planning some interventions to increase health-care service utilization, as well as health education and health communication programs. An “original health literacy scale” for 18–60 years of age Turkish literate adults (Hacettepe University Health Literacy Scale-HLS) was developed to be used as a reference scale in 2018. Since it would be useful to compare the health literacy levels of Turkish adults with Syrian adult refugees living in Turkey with an originally developed scale, in this study, it was aimed to adapt the HLS-Short Form for Syrian refugees.Methods: This methodological study was carried out between the years 2019–2020 in three provinces of Turkey where the majority of Syrians reside. The data was collected by pre-trained, Arabic speaking 12 interviewers and three supervisors via a questionnaire on household basis. At first, the original Scale and questionnaire were translated into Arabic and back translated into the original language. The questionnaire and the Scale were pre-tested among 30 Syrian refugees in Ankara province. A total of 1254 refugees were participated into the main part of the study; 47 health-worker participants were excluded from the validity-reliability analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed. Cronbach’s alpha and Spearman–Brown coefficients were calculated.Results: Of the participants, 52.9% was male; 26.1% had secondary education level or less; almost half of them had moderate economic level; 27.5% could not speak Turkish. The Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.75, Spearman–Brown Coefficient was 0.76; RMSEA = 0.073, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92 and GFI = 0.95 for the Scale. The Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.76, Spearman–Brown Coefficient was 0.77; RMSEA = 0.085, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.91 and GFI = 0.95 for self-efficacy part.Conclusion: In conclusion, the adapted HLS would be a reliable instrument to evaluate the health-literacy level of Syrian refugees living in Turkey and could allow for a comparison of the host country’s health literacy level to that of the refugees using the same scale.

This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the drinking water parameters in primary and secondary schools. A questionnaire encompassing the schools’ general characteristics and information about drinking water was administered to school administrators. Drinking water samples were taken from 60 schools to evaluate drinking water parameters. The data were analyzed using Chi-Square, Mann–Whitney U, and Kruskall–Wallis tests, T-test, and SPSS 22.0 software. Non-compliance with national legislation was observed in 16.7% of schools during drinking water analysis. The microbiological parameters exceeded the threshold values in 90% of the schools where the analysis results of the drinking water were deemed inadequate. The analysis yielded no discernible variations based on school district or type. Mains water was the primary drinking water source in 91.7% of schools. The rate was lower in rural schools compared to urban schools, with a difference of 85 and 95%, respectively. It was found that 41.7% of schools lacked canteens or the sale of packaged water. Consequently, the availability of tap water in schools falls short of the desired standard. It is imperative to investigate the factors leading to microbiological contamination in school drinking water and formulate short-, medium-, and long-term strategies to enhance its safety.

Objectives: The opinion of health staff working at hospitals connected to Gaziantep Province Public Hospitals Union on the effects of warning purposed pictures and texts on cigarette packages on smoking behavior was searched. Methods: 458 health staff participated in the research. Percentage, frequency and chi-square test were used in the data analysis. Results: 42.8% of the participants were midwife nurses, 22.5% were specialist physicians, 19.9% were laboratry-anesthesia-X-ray techician and 14.8% were general practitioners. The smoking rate of the particiapants was found to be ’41.4%. The rate of the ones who want to give up smoking was determined as 52.6%. The health staff were highly affected by the united warnings on the cigarette packages (61.5%). Most of the participants think that this application may be effective in fighting smoking (43.9%). The most important factor in giving up smoking was the health problems caused due to smoking (56.5%). Prohibition of smoking in enolosed spaces was seen as the most effective method in fighting smoking. The united warnings on the cigarette packages were seen as the least effective method both among giving up smoking reasons and in fighting smoking, differences were determined among the groups according to demographic features and smoking habits (p˃0.05). The most effective warnings were like this in order; ‘‘smoking during pregnancy gives harn to the bayb’’ (72.1%), ‘‘protect your childeren, don’t let them breathe your smoke’’ (66.8%), ‘‘smoking causes fatal lung cancer’’ (59.6%) and the least effective warnings were like this in order; ‘‘ask for help from your doctor and the closest cottage hospital to give up smoking’’ (31.7%), ‘‘health institutions help you to give up smoking’’ (38.2%) and ‘‘smokers die young’’ (41.3%). Conclusion: As a result of this study, it was put forth that the health staff whose smoking rate is high should primarily be taken to education programs on giving up smoking and then their support should be taken to fight smoking. On smoking behavior, the content of the warnings placed on cigarette packakes shown effective for pictures and texts should be further enhanced.