The aim of this study was to assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients in Turkey and to study related factors. This multicenter study was carried out between January 01 and April 15, 2015 in Turkey in 57 centers. Adults were enrolled and studied in three groups. Group 1: Inactive HBsAg carriers, Group 2: CHB patients receiving antiviral therapy, Group 3: CHB patients who were neither receiving antiviral therapy nor were inactive HBsAg carriers. Study data was collected by face-to-face interviews using a standardized questionnaire, Short Form-36 (SF-36) and Hepatitis B Quality of Life (HBQOL). Values equivalent to p < 0.05 in analyses were accepted as statistically significant. Four thousand two hundred fifty-seven patients with CHB were included in the study. Two thousand five hundred fifty-nine (60.1 %) of the patients were males. Groups 1, 2 and 3, consisted of 1529 (35.9 %), 1721 (40.4 %) and 1007 (23.7 %) patients, respectively. The highest value of HRQOL was found in inactive HBsAg carriers. We found that total HBQOL score increased when antiviral treatment was used. However, HRQOL of CHB patients varied according to their socio-demographic properties. Regarding total HBQOL score, a higher significant level of HRQOL was determined in inactive HBV patients when matched controls with the associated factors were provided. The HRQOL score of CHB patients was higher than expected and it can be worsen when the disease becomes active. Use of an antiviral therapy can contribute to increasing HRQOL of patients.

Viral Hepatitis is one of the major global health problems, affecting millions of people every year. Limited information is available on the impact of social and economic factors on the prevalence of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) in Turkey. This study, contrary to other studies in the literature, was undertaken with the aim of examining the Majority of the excluded data come from the volunteers. There are medical and the social-economic factors affecting the prevalence of HBV. This research, while taking medical factors as control variables, clarify the social and economic factors affecting the prevalence of HBV by utilising clinical data with the use of the Binary Probit Model (BPM). The BPM estimation is a powerful tool to determine not only the factors but explain also the exact impacts of each factor. The estimations of the BPM shows that economic and social variables such as age, gender, migration, education, awareness, social welfare, occupation are very important factors for determining HBV prevalence. Compared to the youngest population, the 46 to 66+ age group has a higher prevalence of HBV. The male respondents were 5% more likely to develop HBV compared to females. When region-specific differences are taken into account, migrating from the poorest parts of the country such as the eastern and south-eastern regions of Turkey are approximately 16% more likely to be infected. The welfare indicators such as a higher number of rooms in the respondent’s house or flat decreases the probability of having HBV and, relatively higher income groups are less likely to develop HBV compared to labourers. The Self-employed/Business owner/Public sector worker category are approximately 10% less likely to develop HBV. When people are aware of the methods of prevention of HBV, they are 6% less likely to be infected. Previous HBV infection history increases the probability of having HBV again B by 17%. These findings strongly suggest that the impact of social and economic factors on the prevalence of HBV is vital. Any improvements in these factors are likely to reduce prevalence of HBV.

Numerous vaccination studies are conducted to protect against COVID-19 infection, and preclinical and clinical studies are still ongoing worldwide. During this extraordinary period, the necessity t...

Background/Aims: The present study aimed to determine the changes in the epidemiology of hepatitis in recent years in an adult Turkish population. Materials and Methods: Overall, 852 patients with acute viral hepatitis from 17 centers were included in this study. Their sociodemographic characteristics, clinical courses, treatments, and laboratory findings were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The most commonly found microorganisms were the hepatitis B virus (55.2%) and hepatitis A virus (37.6%), and the types of acute viral hepatitis differed significantly according to the age group (p≤0.001). The most frequently reported symptom was fatigue (73.7%), and the most common complications were cholecystitis (0.4%) and fulminant hepatitis (0.4%). The median hospital stay was 9 days (range 1-373). In total, 40.8% patients with acute hepatitis B virus developed immunity. Conclusion: In Turkey, there are significantly large adolescent and adult populations susceptible to acute viral hepatitis. Therefore, larger vaccination programs covering these age groups should be implemented. Cite this article as: Karacaer Z, Tosun S, Batırel A, et al. Changes in acute viral hepatitis epidemiology in the Turkish adult population: A multicenter study. Turk J Gastroenterol 2018; 29: 177-82.

Background: Training of infectious disease (ID) specialists is structured on classical clinical microbiology training in Turkey and ID specialists work as clinical microbiologists at the same time. Hence, this study aimed to determine the clinical skills and knowledge required by clinical microbiologists. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between June 1, 2010 and September 15, 2010 in 32 ID departments in Turkey. Only patients hospitalized and followed up in the ID departments between January-June 2010 who required consultation with other disciplines were included. Results: A total of 605 patients undergoing 1343 consultations were included, with pulmonology, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, dermatology, haematology, and endocrinology being the most frequent consultation specialties. The consultation patterns were quite similar and were not affected by either the nature of infections or the critical clinical status of ID patients. Conclusions: The results of our study show that certain internal medicine subdisciplines such as pulmonology, neurology and dermatology appear to be the principal clinical requisites in the training of ID specialists, rather than internal medicine as a whole.