Seval Akgün

How useful is a name-based algorithm in health research among Turkish migrants in Germany?

Migrants often face particular social, economic and health disadvantages relative to the population of the host country. In order to adapt health services to the needs of migrants, health researchers need to identify differences in risk factor and disease profiles, as well as inequalities concerning treatment and prevention. Registries of health‐related events could be employed for these purposes. In Germany, however, routine data bases often hold no, or inaccurate, information on the national origin of the cases registered. We developed an algorithm based on a large data set of Turkish family and first names (n=15 000), with religion as additional criterion, to identify cases of Turkish origin in registries in a largely automatic search. We tested the performance of the algorithm in a population registry and in a cancer registry. The algorithm discriminates well against Greek and Arab names, with 1% false positive matches in our study. It achieves a specificity of > 99.9% in delimiting Turkish from German cases in the cancer registry. The sensitivity can be increased to 85%, provided the small proportion of case records with uncertain origin can be assessed manually. The name algorithm can be useful for registry‐based health research among Turkish migrants in Germany. Possible applications are e.g. in cancer registries to compare survival among German and Turkish cancer patients, or in health insurance registries to compare the relative importance of work‐related degenerative diseases. In specific circumstances, the algorithm may also be useful in aetiological research.

Enhancing an International Perspective in Public Health Teaching through Formalized University Partnerships

Teaching in the field of public health needs to employ a global perspective to account for the fact that public health problems and solutions have global determinants and implications as well. International university partnerships can promote such a perspective through the strengthening of cooperation, exchange, and communication between academic institutions across national boundaries. As an example for such an academic network in the field of public health, we introduce the International Public Health Partnership—a collaboration between a university in Germany and universities in India, Turkey, and Nigeria. Formed in 2005, it facilitated the exchange of information, fostered discussion about the transferability of public health concepts, contributed to the structural development of the universities involved, and promoted an intercultural dialog through a combination of local and distance learning activities. Although well accepted by students and staff, different obstacles were encountered; these included limited external funding, scarce own financial, time and personnel resources, and diverging regulations and structures of degree programs at the partnership sites. In the present article, we share several lessons that we learned during our joint collaboration and provide recommendations for other universities that are involved in partnerships with institutions of higher education or are interested to initiate such collaborations.

Factors associated with the quality of outpatient service: The application of factor analysis – A case study

ABSTRACT Background: Measuring patient satisfaction is a key factor in assessing the quality of patient care. Patient satisfaction outcomes are affected by many variables. Identifying and analyzing effective factors related to patients’ overall satisfaction constitutes an essential aspect of the study of modern healthcare. Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the factors vital to patients’ satisfaction with outpatient service. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was carried out from April to June 2015, consisting of 945 patients in the outpatient services division of King Fahd Hospital of the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University. Subjects were selected through the simple random sampling method, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was checked for validity and reliability using the Cronbach α coefficient and Reliability analysis. The factor analysis technique was used to find the most significant factors affecting patient satisfaction. Results: Exploratory factor analysis showed that the outpatients’ satisfaction comprised four factors namely, professional care, availability of services, waiting time, and satisfaction of laboratory service. These four factors explained 82% of the total variance of patient satisfaction. Based on the results of the factor analysis, satisfaction with physician services and appointment service was identified as the most important aspects of overall satisfaction. Conclusion: Physician-related services, the waiting time for getting test reports, and the wait time for appointment are the major factors affecting patient satisfaction in the outpatient department. Hence, improving the quality of these factors will improve the overall quality of outpatient services for patients.

Dutch citizens of Turkish origin who utilize healthcare services in Turkey: a qualitative study on motives and contextual factors

BackgroundDutch residents of Turkish origin frequently utilize healthcare in Turkey.MethodsTo investigate their motives for doing so, we conducted a qualitative study among these healthcare users using semi-structured interviews. We complemented this with informal conversations with Turkish healthcare providers and observations at the registration offices and waiting rooms of outpatient clinics in several Turkish hospitals.ResultsRespondents believed their perceived needs for referral to specialist care and diagnostic assessments to quantify their health were not being met in the Netherlands.ConclusionsThese mismatches in expectations of what constitutes “good care” led to dissatisfaction with Dutch primary care. Consequently, respondents utilized healthcare in Turkey if the opportunity arose, and were encouraged in this by their social networks. Establishing cross-border communication between healthcare providers is necessary, because there is currently no continuity of care for cross-border patients.