ObjectivesThis investigation was performed in order to determine the prevalence rate of waterpipe smoking in students of Erciyes University and the effects of some socio-demographic factors.MethodsA total of 645 students who study the first three grades of the medical faculty and the engineering faculty of Erciyes University were enrolled in the study. A questionnaire including 48 questions was applied. Chi-square test and logistic regression method were performed for the statistical analyses.ResultsThe total prevalence rate of waterpipe smoking was found to be 32.7%. The prevalence rate of waterpipe smoking was 28.6% in the medical and 37.5% in the non-medical students. It was determined that 41.6% of the males and 20.2% of the females currently smoke waterpipe. Gender, cigarette smoking, and the presence of waterpipe smokers among family members and friends have significant effects on the prevalence of waterpipe smoking. Residence and economical status of the family and with whom the students live have no significant effect on the prevalence rate.ConclusionsApproximately one-third of the students currently smoke waterpipe. Smoking of both cigarette and waterpipe was frequently found. The measures against all tobacco products should be combined.

Sleep duration may be an important factor for obesity and providing > or =10 h of sleep is recommended as a prevention strategy for obesity.

In order to improve the intake of folic acid during the recommended period, preconceptional counseling by the family doctors to inform women of childbearing age about the need to take folic acid to prevent NTDs seems to be important.

No abstract

Objective:Limited information is available about the use of neck circumference (NC) to assess obesity in preschool children. This study aims to provide NC percentiles and determine the cut-off levels of NC as a measure to assess obesity in preschool children.Methods:The data were obtained from the Anthropometry of Turkish Children aged 0-6 years (ATCA-06) study database. A total of 21 family health centers were chosen and children aged 2-6 years old from all socioeconomic levels were randomly selected from the lists of district midwives; 1766 children (874 male and 892 female; 88.3% of sample size) were included in the study. The smoothed centile curves of NC were constructed by the LMS method. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to calculate cut-off points for NC using body mass index ≥95th percentile.Results:Mean NC was greater in males than females. Cut-off values for obesity were found to be statistically significant in both genders other than 3 years old boys. The NC percentiles of Turkish preschool children were slightly greater than those of other European preschool children in both genders. This difference disappeared around the adiposity rebound period. The 97th percentile values for Turkish preschool children continue to be greater in both genders.Conclusion:NC may be useful to define obesity in preschool children. Since ethnic and various other factors may have a role in incidence of obesity, local reference data are important in assessment of obesity.