Selda Polat

Evaluation of growth and neurodevelopment in children with congenital heart disease.

Background:  Children with congenital heart disease are under risk of delayed growth and development. We evaluated physical growth parameters and neurodevelopment in these patients in comparison with normal children and examined the effect of hemodynamic status.

New opportunity for vaccinating older people: well-child clinic visits.

Background:  Streptococcus pneumoniae causes considerable morbidity and mortality in the elderly. As aging of the population is making the health of the elderly a universal priority, preventive measures, such as vaccination, will become increasingly important.

Perceptions and Attitudes of Mothers about Child Neglect in Turkey.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions and attitudes about child neglect of a group of mothers, in Ankara, Turkey, and to determine the factors affecting perception and attitudes of these mothers about child neglect. A questionnaire consisting of 15 scenarios about perception of child neglect and 12 behavioral descriptions about attitudes was given to the mothers of 513 children between 0 and 5 years who were followed in the Gazi University Well-Child Clinic. High scores indicated better perception and positive attitudes about child neglect. The scores revealed that child neglect perception scores of the mothers were lower when his or her spouses education levels were 8 years or lower, the mother was not working, the familys monthly income was low, and the parents smoked at home. Child neglect attitude scores were low when the mothers or her spouses education levels were 8 years or lower, the father was unoccupied, the familys monthly income was low, the parents smoked at home, the birth order of child was high, and the childs medical history revealed he or she had had previous accidents. For building effective preventive strategies, traditional community perspectives and cultural characteristics concerning child neglect should be understood.

Evaluation of perinatal and intrafamilial hepatitis B prevention programmes in a well child clinic: 9-year follow-up study in Turkey.

Evaluating the performance of well child clinics on adherence to recommended perinatal hepatitis B prevention programmes as well as assessing the outcome of infants living with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive parents is important. A retrospective study was performed of 336 babies who had at least one HBsAg-positive parent and were followed-up in the well child clinic of Gazi University Hospital (Ankara, Turkey) between 2001 and 2009. Rates of passive immunisation in 109 babies with HBsAg-positive mothers and initiation of hepatitis B vaccination of all 336 babies with HBsAg-positive parents were 98.8% and 100% respectively. Ninety-two babies (27.4%) were lost to follow-up before completing primary immunisation. The recommended perinatal hepatitis B prevention programme was performed successfully in 194 of the 306 infants who were old enough for post-vaccination serotesting (63.4%). One baby became HBsAg-positive, and 88.1% of babies were seroprotected. Hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) levels were found to be increased if the HBsAg-positive parent was the father. There was a negative correlation between serotesting time and anti-HBs titres. The study infants had a total of 187 siblings and 123 (65.8%) were serotested after completing primary immunisation with 108 found to be seropositive. Although the vaccination rate in the perinatal hepatitis B prevention programme is satisfactory, post-vaccination serotesting and evaluation of infants and their siblings are still deficient.