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Background: Smoking is an important health threat in Turkey. This study aimed to determine the frequency of and main factors associated with smoking in persons of 15 years and over, and the frequency of passive smoking in homes in the South-east Anatolian Project (SEAP) Region in Turkey.

Background: Nearly 10% of the population of Turkey lives in the Southeast Anatolian Project (SEAP) region. The population growth rate and the rate of unintended pregnancies are high and family planning services are insufficient in this region. Lifetime induced abortion rate is also high in this region.

This study is the first investigation of intestinal parasite prevalence in a large region, specifically, in this GAP region and in Turkey, in general. There is no direct relationship between irrigating the cultivation areas and diffusion of parasitic diseases because the existence of intestinal parasites mentioned above is not related to the range of irrigation of cultivation areas, but is related to factors already discussed.

Household conditions, individual status, age, education level of fathers and parents' habit of washing hands before taking care of the child were major factors affecting the incidence of diarrhea.

Vitamin A levels during pregnancy have important influences on the health of pregnant women and the growing fetus. Therefore, plasma vitamin A and β-carotene concentrations during pregnancy in Turkish women living in Gaziantep city were investigated in a prevalence study. Optimum sample size was determined as 252 for vitamin A deficiency and vitamin A and β-carotene levels were examined in 427 pregnant women aged 14–44 years. Vitamin A and β-carotene concentrations were measured spectrophotometrically by Neeld Pearson method. Vitamin A and β-carotene concentrations in pregnant women were found as 1.14 ± 0.44 μmol/L, and 1.80 ± 0.66 μmol/L, respectively. Plasma vitamin A concentrations were found in low levels (<1.05 μmol/L) in 45.5 % of pregnant women. Vitamin A deficiency (<0.7 μmol/L) was determined in 16.9% of pregnant women. A mild negative correlation was obtained between the vitamin A concentration and pregnancy period. Vitamin A levels of pregnant women were decreased significantly in the third trimester (p<0.05). The findings of present study suggest that vitamin A levels of pregnant women were poor in the region. Therefore, the intake of vitamin A with foods should be improved. Supplementation of vitamin A might benefit at improving maternal and child health especially in high-risk groups especially in developing countries. Monitoring vitamin A levels in pregnant women is very important for also determining low and high levels.

Objective To determine whether women or men should be preferred as the target group of the family Design Community trial (educational intervention study).Setting Three villages having similar characteristics in Gaziantep, Turkey.Population Currently married women aged between 15-49 and their husbands in these villages.Methods Family planning education was given only to women in the first village, only to men in the second village and to both women and their husbands in the third village.Main outcome measures Changes in knowledge, attitudes, the behaviour of married women and their husbands between surveys performed before and after family planning education.Results Important changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour were determined in all intervention groups after family planning education. The rate of effective contraceptive usage among women using any one of the contraceptive methods described significantly increased in all groups, especially where family planning education was given to both sexes.Family planning education given to one of the couples may easily affect the other. Consistent and regular education is more important than selecting target gender groups for family planning education. planning education. Conclusions INTRODUCTIONThere are many kinds of intervention studies on family ~lanningl-~. Family planning education was given to different sex groups in these st~dies'."~, but a review of related literature does not allow one to determine whether family planning education is more effective if provided to one sex, compared with the other.This study aimed to determine whether gender selection improved the results of those given family planning instruction. By selecting three similar villages, we provided family planning education only to women living in the first village, only to men living in the second village, and to both women and their husbands living in the third village. After three education tours in a two-year period between June 1996 and July 1998, the effects of the family planning education were assessed for each intervention group. METHODSIn Turkey, primary health care services are being given by health centres in which at least one doctor, one nurse, one health personnel named 'saglik memuru', one sanitary technician, and two to four nurse-midwives are employed. Each nurse-midwife provides care at smaller health stations, which are subunits of the health centres. All of primary health care services, including family planning, are carried out by all personnel, but family planning education and application is particularly the duty of nurse-midwives at the health stations to which they are assigned.Villages were selected according to similarity of geographical status, distance to nearest city, use of contraception, distance to a village with a health centre and the presence of health facility. It is 20 km from the target villages of Atalar to Isikli, 8 km from Isikli to Yamaqoba, and 15 km from Atalar to Yamaqoba. It is 40 km from Atalar to Gaziantep (the city that was the base for th...

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to estimate the effects of exposure to chemical compounds on systemic biochemical inflammatory markers in printing industry workers.Material/MethodsFifty-eight printing workers from 19 different small- and medium-sized enterprises in the printing sector were investigated. For comparison, 80 healthy workers not subjected to workplace chemicals served as control subjects.ResultsNo significant differences were observed between the printing workers and control subjects with respect to age, BMI, waist circumference/hip circumference ratio, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Printing workers had significantly higher serum TNF-alpha levels (11.02±5.34 vs. 9.26±3.87 pg/ml, p=0.039), plasma fibrinogen levels (1.74±0.49 vs. 1.38±0.5 mg/dl, p=0.012), and red blood cell distribution width (RDW-SD) (49.77±3.09 vs. 47.3±2.88 p<0.01) compared to control subjects.ConclusionsElevation of RDW, serum TNF-alpha, and plasma fibrinogen levels in printing workers may be due to systemic toxic effects of chemical compounds used in this sector. TNF-alpha is an inflammatory cytokine that has a wide spectrum of biological activities, and fibrinogen plays an important role in pathological processes. Some compounds may be carcinogenic or mutagenic. Better designed workplaces and working conditions will help to reduce the hazardous effects of chemical compounds.