Browsing by Author "Özcan, C"
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Item A province-based study using sampling method to investigate the prevalence of cystic echinococcosis among primary school children in Manisa, TurkeyOk, UZ; Özkol, M; Kilimcioglu, AA; Dinç, G; Bayindir, P; Östan, I; Pabusçu, Y; Özcan, C; Korkmaz, M; Coskun, S; Yüksel, H; Girginkardesler, NA province-based field study using a portable ultrasound scanner (US) was performed for the first time using sampling method to investigate the prevalence of cystic echinococcosis (CE) in primary school children in Manisa, Turkey. A total of 6093 children from 37 primary schools was selected as the representative sample of the total number of 166,766 primary school children, and examined by the US. Prevalence was found to be 0.15%, as nine children were diagnosed with CE, seven new and two previously operated. A questionnaire applied to the children revealed no significant relationship between the risk factors and the infection (P > 0.05). In conclusion, it would be advisable to repeat the study at the same schools in eight years' time, in order to evaluate the efficacy of the control programs, since nearly all students involved in this study will have graduated by then. Besides, it is recommended to choose a sampling group to find the prevalence of an infection in a defined region. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Item Hypertension and overweight among Turkish adolescents in a city in Aegean region of Turkey: a strong relationship in a population with a relatively low prevalence of overweightDinç, G; Saatli, G; Baydur, H; Özcan, CObjective: A school-based survey was performed in 1346 adolescents aged 15-18 years to determine the relationship between overweight and hypertension among adolescents in a western city in Turkey with a low prevalence of overweight. Methods: The data were collected by a self administered questionnaire. Weight and height of adolescents were measured. US CDC pediatric anthropometric reference data were used to establish the body mass index (BMI) percentile. At risk of overweight (BMI-for-age and sex >= 85(th), and <95(th) percentile) and overweight (BMI-for-age and sex >= 95(th) percentile) were defined. Hypertension (systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure that is >= 95(th) percentile for sex, age and height percentile) was defined according to the 4(th) Report on the Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents (2004). The Chi-square test, Chi-square test for trend and logistic regression models were used for analysis. Results: Overall, prevalence of at risk of overweight and overweight were found to be 10.7% and 3.2%, respectively. About 3.5% of the adolescents were hypertensive. After adjustment for sex and age, income, family history of hypertension, the factors positively associated with hypertension were at risk for overweight (Odds Ratio [OR]=5.09, 95% Cl: 2.57-10.07) and overweight (OR=7.60, 95% Cl: 2.90-19.89). Conclusion: The results of this study confirm low hypertension risk among adolescents in Manisa, which may be attributed to the low prevalence of overweight. The relatively low cardiovascular disease risk factor profile of these adolescents needs to be encouraged through adulthood. Thus, a school program of health promotion should be established to prevent the epidemics of cardiovascular diseases in our region. (Anadolu Kardiyol Derg 2009; 9: 450-6)Item Retinol and α-tocopherol concentrations in breast milk of Turkish lactating mothers under different socio-economic statusTokusoglu, Ö; Tansug, N; Aksit, S; Dinc, G; Kasirga, E; Özcan, CRetinol and alpha-tocopherol levels in breast milk of Turkish mothers under different socio-economic status were investigated. Mature milk samples were collected from 92 lactating mothers living in Izmir and in Manisa, cities of Turkey, who were at 60-90 days of the lactating period. Socio-economic, anthropometric, and dietary data were collected by means of a questionnaire. The body mass index was used to determine the nutritional status. The retinol and alpha-tocopherol contents of breast milk were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography; the concentration of alpha-tocopherol was 9.84 mu g/ml whereas retinol levels were 81.5 mu g/100 ml. The questionnaire survey was used to determine the level of these vitamins in the daily ration of the women. No significant differences were found in terms of milk retinol and alpha-tocopherol levels for the variables income, educational level and mothers' body mass index.Item An Image Fusion Method of SAR and Optical Images, Based on Image Intensity Fields, by Reducing the Effect of Speckle NoiseGençay, S; Özcan, CThis study proposes an improved fusion method, that takes advantage of the combined strengths of existing fusion methods. First, current methods are compared using a fusion of noisy images from the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) database, with optical images acquired at the same location and time. The obtained image and metric results showed that combining optical images with de-noised SAR provides better performance. Experiments have also shown that removing noise in SAR data causes the loss of important data in images. The proposed method divides the image into small patches in the noise removal phase. By calculating the standard deviation of these sub-patches, a different noise reduction ratio is applied for each region, thus preventing the loss of important detail features in the image. The proposed method has been compared with fusion methods recognized in the existing literature. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method, performs better than current fusion methods. The proposed method also yields better metric results, over other methods and it also eliminates the noise problems, often present in the images.Item The Psychometric Properties of the New Turkish Generic Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Children (Kid-KINDL)Eser, E; Yüksel, H; Baydur, H; Erhart, M; Saatli, G; Özyurt, BC; Özcan, C; Ravens-Sieberer, UObjective: There are few health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instruments available that have been validated for use with Turkish children, The Kid-KINDL is a generic measure of children's (8-12 years) HRQOL, which contains 24 categorical items that assess 6 dimensions (physical well-being, emotional well-being, self-esteem, family, friends, and school). The Kid-KINDL is available in many languages. Following on elaborate translation procedure and cognitive focus group interviews, the Kid-KINDL was adopted into Turkish. This paper describes the psychometric properties of the new Turkish Kid-KINDL. Methods: In total, 1918 children aged 8-12 years at a school in Manisa completed the Kid-KINDL. A confirmatory approach was used for validity and reliability analysis. Using the Multi-trait/Multi-item analysis program (MAP) item-internal consistency and item-discriminant validity were calculated to confirm the instrument's structure. Likert scaling assumptions were tested and confirmatory factor analysis (CIA) was applied as well. After modification of 2 unsatisfactory items the Kid-KINDL was administered to a different group of 84 randomly selected children and the analyses were repeated. Results: Cronbach's alpha was 0.35-0.78 before and 0.54-0.78 after the scales was modified. MAP-scaling success was 60%-100% before and 90%-100% after the modification. CIA confirmed the Kid-KINDL structure for the original version (RMSEA = 0.077) was less than the modified version (RMSEA = 0.059), although for the latter the sample was rather small, Floor effects were negligible, and ceiling effects reached 19%. Conclusion: The results indicate that the Turkish Kid-KINDL was a reliable and factorially valid assessment of the children's HRQOL. The modifications mode to the 2 unsatisfactory items increased the psychometric quality of the scale.Item The Effect of SAR Speckle Removal in SAR-Optical Image FusionGençay, S; Özcan, CDue to the imaging mechanism of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and the noise in the images, visual identification of objects in the scene is not as easy as in optical images. SAR images have limited color information and cannot reflect the spectral information of objects. Optical images, on the other hand, have rich spectral information. SAR-Optical image fusion is an important area of study so that SAR data can be easily evaluated by anyone, but it is difficult to find a matching SAR and optical image of the same scene. In order to overcome this difficulty, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 datasets have been published and image fusion studies have been carried out with various methods. However, it has been observed that the effect of SAR noise removal before merging on image fusion methods has not been investigated. In the studies conducted to investigate this effect, five different fusion algorithms used in the literature were tested with twenty different image groups using different noise reduction ratios. The success of the fusion results obtained was compared with five different metrics that are widely used in the literature. The images and metric results obtained as a result of the tests showed that the removal of speckle noise in the SAR data has a positive effect on the fusion results.Item The relationship between obesity and health related quality of life of women in a Turkish city with a high prevalence of obesityDinç, G; Eser, E; Saatli, G; Cihan, ÜA; Oral, A; Baydur, H; Özcan, CThe purpose of this study was to demonstrate the relationship between body weight and HRQOL in a representative sample of nonpregnant women in reproductive age period. The data of this cross-sectional study was extracted from a survey: Manisa Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) conducted in Manisa city in 2000. The study population of MDHS is a representative sample of 1602 reproductive (15-49) age women. World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF), which was composed of four domain factors (physical, psychological, social relations and the environment), was used to assess HRQOL. Each of four domains had a possible score ranged between 0 (poor HRQOL) and 20 (excellent HRQOL). The mean age of the women was 35.29 +/- 8.19 years. Among them, 35.8 % had normal weight (BMI 18.5 to 24.9), 32.3 % were overweight (BMI 25.0 to 29.9) while 31.9 % were moderate and 3.4% were morbidly obese. After adjusting for age, level of education and co-morbid illnesses, subjects with a BMI higher than normal value, had significantly lower HRQOL scores, compared to normal-weight individuals on each of the domains, except for the environmental domain. Our results suggested that the body weight alone could negatively affect HRQOL. In other words, obesity not only increased the risk of morbidity and mortality, but also affected the perceived health and life quality negatively. In conclusion, in addition to age, socioeconomic status and co-morbid illnesses, body weight should also be controlled in studies examining HRQOL.Item Effect of Social Class and Social Security on Access to Healthcare in Manisa: A Research for InequalitiesNesanir, N; Dinç, G; Cambaz, S; Baysan, P; Serifhan, M; Deveci, S; Pala, T; Özcan, CObjective: In the following study, effect of social class and social security on reaching diagnostic and therapeutic health care services in Manisa is evaluated in both out-patient and in-patient basis. Material and Methods: The households were determined in proportion to targeting populations in health care facilities (health houses) by using cluster sampling method and 11284 people representing the population in Manisa city center (n:232760) was included in the study. The data was collected by pollsters using face to face technique. Crude risks were calculated in different social classes and in those with or without social security for history of health problems and access to diagnostic and therapeutic health care services on outpatient and the inpatient basis. Multivariable risks were revised in accordance with age, sex and chronic health problems. Results: In comparison to unemployed population, the health problems in last 15 days was 1.79 (1.17-2.75) times more common in upper social class and similar figures were also seen in middle social class and lower social class, being 1.51 (1.10 -2.06) and 1.44 (1.04-2.00), respectively. Moreover, reaching to diagnostic\theraupetic health care services in last 15 days was 1.73(1.08-1.46) times more common in upper social class and this value was 1.46 (1.03-2.06) in middle social class and 1.53 (1.07-2.20) in lower social class. The revised risks of having diagnostic and therapeutic health care were similar in different social classes. In comparison to those without any social security, it was found that those with social security reported having health problems 1.58 (1.17-2.13) times more, and this was also true for out-patient diagnostic\therapeutic medical care being 2.57 (1.75-3.78) and inpatient being 3.37 (2.11-5.40) times more. Conclusion: There are inequalities against those being unemployed and those without social securities with respect to accessing to health care services.Item Fertility preferences, contraceptive behaviors and unmet needsDinç, G; Eser, E; Cihan, UA; Ay, S; Pala, T; Ergör, G; Özcan, CObjectives To explore the differences in unwanted fertility in different parts of a city. Methods Data were obtained from the 9999 Manisa Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) in Turkey. We collected information from a representative sample of 1728 evermarried women aged 15-49 years on fertility, fertility preferences, unmet need for family planning, contraceptive discontinuation, and abortion. Data were analyzed using SPSS 10.0 for Windows's. Results Of the persons studied, 1238 (71.6%) were living in urban settlements and 490 (28.4%) in suburban (gecekondu) settlements. The total fertility rate is higher among gecekondu women (2.42) than among urban women (2.14) although gecekondu women have a lower wanted fertility rate (1.54) than urban women (1.77). Married women in the urban area were currently using a contraceptive method more frequently (75.6%) than those living in the gecekondu area (61.7%) (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.9-3.2; p < 0.001). The unmet need percentage in gecekondu women (17.7%) is higher than in urban women (8.3%; p < 0.001). The induced abortion rate is higher in urban women (14.8 per 1000 pregnancies) than in gecekondu women (7.1 per 1000 pregnancies; OR 2.1; 95% Cl 1.4-3.1; p < 0.001). Conclusions There are inequalities in the achievement of fertility preferences and in accessibility to family planning services between urban and suburban parts of the city.Item VALIDATION OF THE TURKISH VERSION OF THE WHOQOL-AGE AND A PROPOSED ALTERNATIVE SCALE STRUCTUREÖzcan, C; Eser, EPurpose: The WHOQOL-AGE is a combination of the EUROHIS-QOL.8 and the short version of the WHOQOL-OLD. The aim of the present study is to explore the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the WHOQOL-AGE in terms of its validity and reliability. Methods: Internal consistency, item-total correlations, and item success were analyzed taking the original structure into account. The validity tests consisted of construct validity and criterion validity analyses. The original scale structure was compared with a proposed new scale structure, comprised of two domains and based on the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, in terms of goodness-of-fit measures. Results: The mean age of the sample population (n = 550) was 73.09 +/- 6.77, and 58.9% were female. Skewness and kurtosis were both within accepted limits (<1.0) and the floor and ceiling percentages also showed good measuring capacity (<10%). The Cronbach alpha value was 0.90 for domain 1 and 0.86 for domain 2. The goodness-of-fit analysis results for the original scale structure and the new scale structure, respectively, were comparative fit index = 0.89 and 0.83, Tucker Levis index = 0.87 and 0.81, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.12 and 0.073. Conclusion: The WHOQOL-AGE.TR is moderately compatible with the original scale structure. The EFA revealed a new scale structure: the domain 1 ('satisfaction with physical and mental health and well-being' domain) includes items 1-5, 9 and 10, and the domain 2 ('satisfaction with economic and social well-being'domain) includes items 6-8 and 11-13.Item Prevalence of Asthma and Allergic Symptoms in ManisaSakar, A; Yorgancioglu, A; Dinç, G; Yüksel, H; Çelik, P; Dagyildizi, L; Coskun, E; Kaya, E; Özyurt, B; Özcan, CThe aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of asthma and allergic symptoms in Manisa city centre (Turkey), to evaluate the data obtained and to review the prevalences reported from different parts of our country. Data were collected from 610 home visits and complete interviews were conducted with 1336 adults over the age of 18. The questionnaire was consisted of sociodemographic questions and European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) questionnaire. The prevalences of current asthma, cumulative asthma, asthma-like symptoms were found as 1.2, 1.0, and 25.0% respectively in 20-44 years age group and allergic rhinitis, allergic dermatitis, family atopy were found as 14.5, 10.9, and 15.2% respectively in the overall group. Wheezing with breathlessness, wheezing in the absence of upper respiratory tract infection, waking up with shortness of breath and waking up with cough were detected in 9.1, 6.9, 6, and 16.1% of the study population respectively. Gender, age, active or passive smoking, familial history of atopy and in-house conditions are the factors that effect the prevalence of asthma and allergic symptoms. In this study, the prevalence of asthma in Manisa was found to be consistent with the low prevalence rates reported from different parts of our country.Item Contrasting children and women's health and the determinants of health in a small-sized cityEser, E; Dinç, G; Oral, AM; Özcan, CContrasts that exist in urban infrastructure and accessibility of public health and social services between suburban and urban districts of mega-cities have been well defined. There has been less research in small-sized cities (population under 500,000). This cross-sectional study was done on 1,728 ever-married reproductive-aged women living in Manisa, Turkey, in the year 2000. The probability proportion to size cluster sampling approach was used in the sample selection. Data were collected for women and 7,016 inhabitants of the interviewed households. The data were collected from the women by face to face interviews. Suburban areas (illegally occupied public land called Gecekondu dwellings) in Manisa differ from other urban regions (legal settlements of the city) on socioeconomic factors including household occupancy, adult literacy, social class, rates of religious marriages, unemployment, health insurance coverage, migration, cultural segregation, and social status of women. Some traditional practices were also highly prevalent in gecekondu families, where poverty is more common. Although gross fertility rate (GFR), total fertility rate (TFR), and percent decrease of the TFR were higher for gecekondu women than urban women, total wanted fertility rate (TWFR) was lower. In urban neighborhoods, prevalence of contraceptive use was higher, and the infant and child mortality rates were lower; however, when rates were adjusted for mother's age, education and number of births, the differences turned out to be nonsignificant. Women living in urban areas receive better antenatal care, child immunization services, and professional health delivery assistance and services in a health facility; these services are very scarce in gecekondu districts. Health status of gecekondu populations can be improved by social and economic support and by making health services more available and accessible, especially maternity and child health services.