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The construct validity and reliability of the Turkish version of Spreitzer's psychological empowerment scale

BackgroundToday, many organizations have adopted some kind of empowerment initiative for at least part of their workforce. Over the last two decades, two complementary perspectives on empowerment at work have emerged: structural and psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment is a motivational construct manifested in four cognitions: meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. The aim of this article is to examine the construct validity and reliability of the Turkish translation of Spreitzers psychological empowerment scale in a culturally diverse environment.MethodsThe scale contains four dimensions over 12 statements. Data were gathered from 260 nurses and 161 physicians. The dimensionality of the scale was evaluated by exploratory factor analyses. To investigate the multidimensional nature of the empowerment construct and the validity of the scale, first- and second-order confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. Furthermore, Cronbach alpha coefficients were assessed to investigate reliability.ResultsExploratory factor analyses revealed that four factors in both solutions. The first- and second-order factor analysis indicated an acceptable fit between the data and the theoretical model for nurses and physicians. Cronbach alpha coefficients varied between 0.81-0.94 for both groups, which may be considered satisfactory.ConclusionsThe analyses indicated that the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the scale can be considered satisfactory.

Children and firearms in Turkish homes.

BACKGROUND Unintentional firearm injuries are an important cause of preventable deaths and disabilities among children. Keeping firearms at home and letting children to see or touch them increases the risk of injury. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the extent of the firearm problem in an Anatolian province in Turkey. A random sample of families were approached and were asked to answer a series of questions completed by research assistants. RESULTS In 974 randomly selected households, there were 2129 children aged less than 18 years, 11.1% of the fathers have a job in the firearms industry or in the security sector, and 12.3% of the households kept a firearm at home. Only 25.6% of the firearms were kept in a safe place, and 29.3% of the firearms and ammunition were kept separately. Overall, 70.9% of the children whose parents have firearms saw the firearm and 27.2% had handled it. CONCLUSIONS Results of this study pointed to the urgent need for preventive measures for the physical separation of guns from children. The establishment of effective firearms safety programmes requires an understanding of the culture and routine behaviours of the target population.

Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors of University Students

of absence of first aid? Background: The ability of carrying out first aid should be one of basic skills in each of us. Methods: The study was conducted in the third quarter of 2015, on 335 members of emergency medical teams: doctors, paramedics, nurses and drivers, who provided medical rescue activities in the Provincial Ambulance and Health Transport “Meditrans” in Warsaw. The research tool was an anonymous questionnaire. Results: The straight majority of respondents encountered granting first aid at the event on the spot, however, the frequency of appearing of such proceedings isn’t too high. First aid has most often been given on the street and in houses. Middleaged persons constituted the most numerous group that first aid was administered to. The important element is the reason not to provide first aid by bystanders, in the opinion of members of the ambulance. The most common answers were: fear, lack of knowledge and skills, reluctance, indifference, lack of training, lack of experience and fear of doing harm. Conclusion: By far the majority of respondents meets with the carrying of first aid, but respondents assessed the low incidence of such situations. Placing the victim in the recovery position is the simplest and most common form of the provision of first aid. Organized training in first aid should be extended to activities carried out in other situations, other than cardiac arrest. Only continuous education and in particular the practical training, will help people to overcome the barrier of their limitation in order to help others.

Determinants of pre-lacteal feeding practices in urban and rural Nigeria; a population-based cross-sectional study using the 2013 Nigeria demographic and health survey data

Background Prelacteal feeding (PLF) is a barrier to exclusive breast feeding. Objective To determine factors associated with PLF in rural and urban Nigeria. Methods We utilized data from the 2013 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to test for association between PLF and related factors. Results Prevalence of PLF in urban Nigeria was 49.8%, while in rural Nigeria it was 66.4%. Sugar or glucose water was given more in urban Nigeria (9.7% vs 2.9%), plain water was given more in rural Nigeria (59.9% vs 40.8%). The multivariate analysis revealed that urban and rural Nigeria shared similarities with respect to factors like mothers education, place of delivery, and size of child at birth being significant predictors of PLF. Mode of delivery and type of birth were significant predictors of PLF only in urban Nigeria, whereas, mothers age at birth was a significant predictor of PLF only in rural Nigeria. Zones also showed variations in the odds of PLF according to place of residence. Conclusion Interventions aimed at decreasing PLF rate should be through a tailored approach, and should target at risk sub-groups based on place of residence.

Health Promotion Through the Media: Challenges and Opportunities

Aim: The world is changing from day to day, developing new tools of communication. The greatest tool developed in the 21 st century is the media. Media provides news of all kinds, including health information. The aim of this study is to describe the role of media, analyzed according to the case study of swine flu news in newspapers in Turkey. Method: This study seeks to examine the way in which swine flu (and the subsequent actions and discussion) was reported in the Turkish press, with particular attention to the framing devices used and the factors that might influence these framing decisions. Newspapers were chosen to represent the media as the design of the study. Influenza-related news for two consecutive years was chosen as the analytical subject; 575 related news reports were found. Results: There were 496 news reports in the first study year, and 50 in the second. Influenza news occurred primarily (300 news sources) between October-December 2009, while only 14 appeared during the same period in the second year. It was observed that the news pieces were initially located on first pages/covers and the upper part of the pages, covering larger areas. Disease and prevention related pictures were chosen at the crisis point, in particular. In the second year, the area occupied by swine flu news was smaller, occurring on inner pages and written by reporters (p<0.05). Conclusion: Health-related media content is provided when the subject is high on the public agenda, and if the issue poses a threat to the society, such as during crisis periods. In fact, protection is more important for health, so that health related topics should be provided in advance of crisis periods. KeywordsHealth; News; Communications Media; Newspapers; Pandemic

Preparation for a postgraduate specialty examination by medical students in Turkey: processes and sources of anxiety.

Phenomenon: Interns in Turkey must endeavor to study for a specialty exam during their internship. The preparation process for the specialty exam and the effect of this process on the students’ anxiety has not been studied comprehensively. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the interns’ preparation time for the specialty exam, their perception of how the preparation process affects their training, and which factors are related to their test anxiety. Approach: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 6th-year students (interns). A questionnaire asked participants to report health status, academic achievement, exam-related anxiety, and trait anxiety. Two open-ended questions asked about views regarding the specialty exam. Multiple linear regression was used to identify the significant predictors of anxiety level due to the exam. Findings: The average duration of exam preparations of participating interns (n = 214) was 16.8 months and 14.3 hours/week. Participating interns’ health status, economic level, perception of academic achievement, time allocated to study for the exam, time remaining until the exam, and trait anxiety level demonstrated a relationship with anxiety level due to the exam (R =.35, R2 =.13, p <.001). In the open-ended questions, the most frequent opinion regarding the importance of the Examination for Specialty in Medicine was “Value attributed to specialization” (43%). The most frequent response regarding the contribution of studying for the specialty exam to their general professional skills was “Rehearsal/recall.” Insights: Participating interns spent an appreciable amount of time preparing for the specialty exam. Although participating interns value this exam, they appear to believe that preparing for it will contribute only moderately to their professional competencies, while increasing their anxiety level. The internship curriculum, requirements, and timing of the specialty exam should be reconsidered.

Assessing the validity and reliability of family factors on physical activity: A case study in Turkey.

Background Childhood obesity rates have been rising rapidly in developing countries. A better understanding of the risk factors and social context is necessary to inform public health interventions and policies. This paper describes the validation of several measurement scales for use in Turkey, which relate to child and parent perceptions of physical activity (PA) and enablers and barriers of physical activity in the home environment. Method The aim of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of several measurement scales in Turkey using a population sample across three socio-economic strata in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Surveys were conducted in Grade 4 children (mean age = 9.7 years for boys; 9.9 years for girls), and their parents, across 6 randomly selected schools, stratified by SES (n = 641 students, 483 parents). Construct validity of the scales was evaluated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency of scales and test-retest reliability were assessed by Cronbach’s alpha and intra-class correlation. Results The scales as a whole were found to have acceptable-to-good model fit statistics (PA Barriers: RMSEA = 0.076, SRMR = 0.0577, AGFI = 0.901; PA Outcome Expectancies: RMSEA = 0.054, SRMR = 0.0545, AGFI = 0.916, and PA Home Environment: RMSEA = 0.038, SRMR = 0.0233, AGFI = 0.976). The PA Barriers subscales showed good internal consistency and poor to fair test-retest reliability (personal α = 0.79, ICC = 0.29, environmental α = 0.73, ICC = 0.59). The PA Outcome Expectancies subscales showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability (negative α = 0.77, ICC = 0.56; positive α = 0.74, ICC = 0.49). Only the PA Home Environment subscale on support for PA was validated in the final confirmatory model; it showed moderate internal consistency and test-retest reliability (α = 0.61, ICC = 0.48). Discussion This study is the first to validate measures of perceptions of physical activity and the physical activity home environment in Turkey. Our results support the originally hypothesized two-factor structures for Physical Activity Barriers and Physical Activity Outcome Expectancies. However, we found the one-factor rather than two-factor structure for Physical Activity Home Environment had the best model fit. This study provides general support for the use of these scales in Turkey in terms of validity, but test-retest reliability warrants further research.

Equity in access to care in the era of health system reforms in Turkey

OBJECTIVE To evaluate access to healthcare from an equity perspective on the way toward Universal Health Coverage in Turkey. METHODS The country representative data from 2006 to 2013 Turkey Income and Living Conditions Surveys were analyzed. Private household residents aged fifteen and older were asked for self-reported unmet need for medical care in the past twelve months. The dependent variable had three categories: no unmet need, unmet need due to cost, and unmet need due to availability (waiting list and distance problems). Predictors of unmet need were assessed by a multinomial logistic regression analysis. FINDINGS The prevalence of unmet need declined between 2006 and 2013. While educational inequalities in declared unmet need also decreased, the income gradient becomes more important. In 2013, controlling for other factors, the propensity to report unmet need was 10 times higher for those in the poorest-income quintile compared to the richest (versus 7 times in 2006). CONCLUSION Overall access to healthcare has gradually improved in Turkey in the health reform process, but 9% of people still declared unmet need due to cost in 2013, after the implementation of Universal Health Insurance. This was nearly four times the EU average. Unfavourable economic and labour market conditions can be challenges for effective universal health coverage.

Use of antibiotics among adults in Turkey and Turkish migrants in Germany, Netherlands and Sweden

Use of antibiotics among adults in Turkey and Turkish migrants in Germany, Netherlands and Sweden

Adequacy of antenatal care received by Nigerian women and some related factors

Aim: This study aim was to apply a set of indicators to measure antenatal care (ANC) adequacy in Nigerian and to identify key factors associated with. adequacy of ANC utilization Methods: We used cross-sectional data from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Our study sample consist of 9604 mothers who had a live birth in the five years preceiding the survey and had at least one ANC visit. The outcome variable Adequacy of Received ANC (ARANC) score was calculated as follows; ARANC Score=Provider × (Number of visits + Timing of first visit + Content of ANC). Where utilizing skilled provider was scored 1 and utilizing unskilled provider was scored 0, the remaining ANC atributtes were given a score of 1 for adequate utilization and 0 otherwise, such that, the maximum ARANC score was 3 and the minimum was 0The SPSS Complex Sample General Lineer Model procedure was used for both bivariate and multivariate analysis to compare assosiacion between ARANC score and explanatory variables. Results: Most mothers had scores of 2 (46.2%) refering to mothers who had a skilled provider and 2 ANC attibutes adequately. Older age, low number of birth, living in urban area, high educational level, almost daily exposure to mass media, being currently employed, knowledge on modern contraceptive methods, high household wealth index and easy access to health facility were positively associated with ARANC score (p