Selcen Öztürk

Equity in maternal health care service utilization: a systematic review for developing countries

ObjectivesThe objective was to explore progress of equity in the utilization of maternal health care services in developing countries since maternal care is a crucial factor in reducing maternal mortality, which is targeted by the Millennium Development Goal 5.MethodsA systematic review of quantitative studies was done. PubMed Central, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases were searched for peer-reviewed and English-language articles published between 2005 and 2015.ResultsThirty-six articles were included in the review. The results reveal the lack of equity in the utilization of maternal health care in developing countries. Thirty-three out of 36 studies found evidence supporting severe inequities while three studies found evidence of equity or at least improvement in terms of equity.ConclusionsMost of the literature devoted to utilization of maternal health care generally provides information on the level of maternal care used and ignore the equity problem. Research in this area should focus not only on the level of maternal care used but also on the most disadvantaged segments of the population in terms of utilization of maternal care in order to reach the set targets.

What is the economic burden of sports injuries

Despite the health benefits of sports activities, sports injury and fear of injury are important barriers to participation in sport. The incidence, prevalence and type of sports injuries vary among men and women as well as age groups. It is usually difficult to examine these different aspects of sports injuries due to insufficient data. This study argues that sport injuries can be considered as an important economic burden in terms of the direct and indirect costs it bears. As a result, strong and effective strategies are needed to prevent sports injuries. Sports medicine has also been attracted increasing attention in recent years, particularly. In this article, the importance of sports injuries and their economic costs as well as the role of sport medicine as a prevention method for sports injuries were discussed.

Gender differences in cigarette consumption in Turkey: Evidence from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to examine the potential factors associated with both smoking participation and the level of cigarette consumption in Turkey from a gender perspective, the understanding of which are crucial to the formulation and implementation of anti-smoking policies. METHODS The Global Adult Tobacco Survey for 2008 is used in the analysis. Since the dependent variable, the number of cigarettes smoked per day, consists of nonnegative integer values, Negative Binomial and Zero-inflated Negative Binomial models are used as an estimation methodology. The zero-inflated model allows the interpretation of smoking propensity and smoking intensity behaviours separately. RESULTS The main findings of this study are twofold. First, the factors affecting the smoking behaviour of males and females are different. Second, there are also differences between the factors affecting the decisions of whether to smoke and how much to smoke for both genders. Cigarette prices, for example, affect the level of cigarette consumption of females but not of males whereas pro-cigarette marketing affects the decision of how much to smoke for males with no effect on female smoking. CONCLUSIONS The findings highlight the importance of gender differences in cigarette consumption. Overall, education programs, cigarette taxation and tobacco advertising bans have different effects on each gender whereas social interaction is important for cigarette smoking behaviour of both genders. The anti-smoking policies can be more effective if policy makers take into account gender differences in both smoking propensity and intensity.

INVESTIGATING A SOCIAL PHENOMENON: EQUITY IN HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION-THE CASE OF TURKEY

Equity in the use of health care services is an issue which has increasingly been on the health policy agenda in recent years in both middle and low income countries. In recent years, empirical research in equity in health care utilization employs Andersen (1968)’s behavioural model. This study employs the probit model and uses 2008, 2010 and 2012 “Health Survey” data for Turkey in order to investigate the concept of equity in health care utilization in Turkey. This study analysis equity in health care utilization in GP, specialist and inpatient visits. Andersen’s behavioural model identifies 3 factors for health care utilization, namely; predisposing, enabling and need factors. Predisposing factors include; sex, age, education, marital status and employment status. Enabling factors include; location of residence (urban/rural), insurance status and income level. Finally need factors include; perceived and assessed health status of the individual. The results indicate that the need variable has the highest marginal effect in health care utilization in Turkey. Such result suggest that need is an important factor in health care utilization and let us conclude that the health care system in Turkey is equitable. Furthermore, since insurance status has the second biggest marginal effect we conclude that enabling factors are more important than predisposing factors in Turkish health care system.

TÜRK İMALAT SANAYİİNDE YENİLİKÇİ ETKİNLİKLERİN SAYMA VERİ ANALİZİ KULLANILARAK ARAŞTIRILMASI

Bu calismanin amaci Turk Imalat Sanayiinde patent aktivitesinin dogasini arastirmaktir. Literaturde patentleme veya yenilikci faaliyetler arastirilirken pek cok degisken kullanilmaktadir. Bu calisma icin secilen bagimli degisken her bir yil icin patent basvuru sayisidir. Bagimli degisken negatif olmayan bir tamsayi oldugu icin ve verinin dogrusal olmayan dogasini goz onune alabilmek icin sayma sayi yontemi kullanilmistir. 2003-2008 yillari arasinda Turk Imalat Sanayii icin kosullu sabit etkiler Poisson panel regresyonu tahmin edilmistir. Turk Imalat Sanayii icin elde edilen sonuclar, Schumpeteryan teoriyi desteklemektedir. Ayrica, Ar-Ge harcamalari ve Ar-Ge personel yogunlugu, patent aktivitesine yon veren onemli faktorlerdir. Bu calisma, yenilikci aktivitelerin geleneksel bakis acisini icinde barindirmakla birlikte, kullanilan ekonometrik yontem baglaminda bu bakis acisini bir adim oteye tasimaktadir.