The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of depression, anxiety, distress, and insomnia and related factors in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. We applied the study survey online to HCWs during the pandemic in Turkey between 23 April and 23 May 2020. We used the sociodemographic data form, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, General Anxiety Disorder-7, Insomnia Severity Index, and Impact of Event Scale-Revised. Six hundred twenty (66.0%) of the 939 HCWs taking part in the study were female, 580 (61.8%) were physicians, 569 (60.6%) were working on the front line. Seven hundred twenty-nine (77.6%) participants exhibited depression, 565 (60.2%) anxiety, 473 (50.4%) insomnia, and 717 (76.4%) distress symptoms. Depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress symptoms were significantly greater among females, individuals with a history of psychiatric illness, and individuals receiving psychiatric support during the COVID-19 pandemic. HCWs serving in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced high levels of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress symptoms. Female gender, being a nurse, working on the front line, history of psychiatric illness, and being tested for COVID-19 were identified as risk factors for mental health problems.

The aim of this study was to elicit the views of medical faculty students regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. This descriptive study was performed with Ondokuz Mayıs University Medical Faculty students on 24-27 March, 2020. The Medical Faculty currently has 2051 students. A questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. For that purpose, the authors designed a questionnaire specifically for this research via the "Google Forms" web. This consisted of 40 open-and close-ended questions. The questionnaire was completed by 1375 (67.1%) students. Accordingly, 52.4% of medical students reported feeling mentally unwell. Although 50.8% of medical students reported generally/usually obtaining information about COVID-19 through the social media, 82.0% did not trust information/messages arriving through the social media and WhatsApp. We found that 86.7% of students regarded frequent hand washing as the most important means of protection against COVID-19, and 19.3% of students did not regard the COVID-19 pandemic as a severe public health problem for Turkey at that moment. In addition, 61.6% of students stated that a suppression strategy involving tight restrictions need to be applied to being the pandemic under control in Turkey. Use can be made of medical students in the transmission of accurate information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students can be excellent activists on these subjects in countries in which medical education is suspended. Measures therefore need to be taken concerning the transmission of up to date and accurate information to medical students.

Smartphone addiction is a recent concern that has resulted from the dramatic increase in worldwide smartphone use. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate psychosocial factors affecting smartphone addiction in university students. The study was performed among students at the Ondokuz Mayis University Samsun School of Health (Samsun, Turkey) on October-December 2015. Four hundred ninety-four students possessing smartphones and agreeing to participate were included. A sociodemographic data form produced by the authors and consisting of 10 questions was administered together with a questionnaire involving the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), the Flourishing Scale, the General Health Questionnaire, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The questionnaires were applied in a class environment at face-to-face interviews. SAS-SV scores of 6.47% of students were "significantly higher" than the participating group mean SAS-SV score. Multiple regression analysis revealed that depression, anxiety and insomnia, and familial social support statistically, significantly predicted smartphone addiction. Further studies of smartphone addiction in different age groups and with different educational levels are now needed.

The study showed that individuals with low cognitive flexibility levels are more likely to have depressive and anxiety symptoms. Based on our findings, we opine that evaluations of caregivers' cognitive strategies and social support are needed to determine the risk of depression in caregivers of cancer patients.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess practice of breast cancer early diagnosis methods among women and the factors associated with this practice. Materials and Methods:The population of this cross-sectional study consisted of 410,377 women over the age of 20, living within the administrative borders of Samsun province. Stratified systematic sampling was used in the selection of the 800-member sample. The Health Belief Model Scale, a questionnaire consisting of open and closed-ended questions, was used to elicit women's demographic data and determine their awareness on early diagnostic techniques. The questionnaires were administered face-to-face by visiting individuals' addresses.Results: 80.5% of women had knowledge on breast self-examination (BSE). 12.6% of the women who were aware of BSE stated that they regularly performed BSE. 30.4% of women had clinical breast examination (CBE) by health personnel at least once, while 36.8% of women over 40 years of age obtained mammography at least once. Factors associated with women's performance of BSE were age, having received education about breast health, perception of severity, barriers for BSE and self-efficacy. Factors affecting CBE included age, presence of history of breast cancer in a relative or friend, having received education about breast health; while factors associated with women's undergoing mammography were identified as age, a family member with a history of breast cancer and barriers for mammography. Conclusion:Determination of the factors associated with practice of breast cancer early diagnosis methods, and implementation of planned training programs based on these results is important in increasing compliance with these methods.

This study shows that the prevalence of MetS in Turkish patients with schizophrenia is similar to that of the general population, but lower than in other reports regarding the schizophrenia population.

We performed a questionnaire study to determine knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) among people intending to participate in the Hajj or Umrah Muslim pilgrimages. Of the 381 respondents aged between 17 and 85 years, 55% had never heard of MERS, while only one in three knew that it is a respiratory disease. Approximately half were insufficiently informed about protective measures. Prospective pilgrims do not seem prepared to take such precautions.

The attitude of mass media is a strong determinant for stigmatisation since the majority of the society gets exposed to psychiatric disorders via either written or visual media. In this study we explored to demonstrate the meaning attributed to the word schizophrenia in Turkish written printed media. We screened the online sites of 12 national newspapers which allow word scanning between the dates January 1, 2001 and May 1, 2006. The searched terms appeared in a total of 878 texts. In all twelve newspapers, the terms "Schizophrenia", "Schizophrene", or "Schizophrenic" appeared once every 2.2 days. While a positive referral appeared once in every 12.2 days, a negative referral or metaphoric use was seen once every 3.1 days. Among the 878 texts scanned, in 491(55.9%) the searched terms appeared with reference to the disease and in 387 (44.1%) the searched terms were used metaphorically. Considering the assumption the negative reporting may have a stronger impact than positive reporting, it is possible to suggest that Turkish newspapers are raising stigmatisation. It is meaningful that the name of a disease is used almost with equal frequency as a metaphoric term. In our study, higher rates of metaphoric use observed can be explained with the fact that in Turkey the word Schizophrenia is attributed with strong negative perception.