Prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder in Turkish university students and assessment of associated factors.

BACKGROUND: Many students who begin university at risky periods for OCD development cannot meet the new challenges successfully. They often seek help and apply to the university health center for psychiatric distress. We aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) at students of the Cukurova University in this cross sectional study. METHODS: This study was performed in the Cukurova University Faculty of Education with a population of 5500 students; the representative sample size for detecting the OCD prevalence was calculated to be 800. After collecting sociodemographic data, we questioned the students for associated factors of OCD. The General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) and Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI, Section K) were used for psychiatric evaluation. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the linkage between OCD and associated factors. RESULTS: A total of 804 university students were included in this study. The GHQ-12-positive students (241 students, 29.9%) were interviewed using Section K of the CIDI (222 students, 27.6%). OCD was diagnosed in 33 (4.2%) students. The Logistic regression analysis of the data showed significant associations between OCD and male gender (p:0.036), living on government dormitory (p: 0.003), living on students' house/parental house (p:0.006), having private room in the parental house (p:0.055) and verbal abuse in the family (p:0.006). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates a higher prevalence of OCD among a group of university students compared to other prevalence studies of OCD in Turkish society. Furthermore, our findings also suggest relationships between OCD and sociodemographic factors, as well as other environmental stress factors.

Modeling the economic impact of pandemic influenza: a case study in Turkey.

Influenza pandemics have occurred intermittently throughout the 20th century and killed millions of people worldwide. It is expected that influenza pandemics will continue to occur in the near future. Huge number of deaths and cases is the most troublesome aspect of the influenza pandemics, but the other important trouble is the economic impact of the influenza pandemics to the countries. In this study, we try to detect the cost of a possible influenza pandemic under different scenarios and attack rates. We include the vaccination and antiviral treatment cost for direct cost and we add the work absenteeism cost to the calculations for indirect cost of influenza pandemics. As a case study, we calculate the economic impact of pandemic influenza for Turkey under three different scenarios and three different attack rates. Our optimistic estimation shows that the economic impact of pandemic influenza will be between 1.364 billion dollars and 2.687 billions dollars to Turkish economy depending on the vaccination strategies.

Family planning in rural Adana, Turkey.

This study of family planning in rural Adana, Turkey, collected data from 519 women aged between 16 and 55. Questionnaires were distributed in different districts during February 2006. Ths results showed that 81.3% of women used a contraceptive method. The IUD was the most widely used modern contraceptive method. There is a decrease in the average number of births per woman as the educational level of women increases.

Health-related quality of life in patients with conversion disorder with seizures.

Objective. The concept of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) is important for both the prevention and progress of psychiatric diseases. In the literature, we are aware that there are a few studies on HRQOL among patients with conversion disorder with seizure. Our aim is to measure the HRQOL in Turkey among patients with conversion disorder with seizure and to compare the quality of life of this study group to a healthy control group and to different types of epileptic patient groups. Methods. A total of 330 subjects was included in this study; 102 patients were included in the conversion disorder group, 121 patients were included in the epileptic group and 93 subjects were included in the healthy control group. WHOQOL-100 scale and Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI) were administered to these groups. Results. HRQOL for the patients with conversion disorder was worse than the control group except for the environment and social relations domains. The generalized epilepsy patients had better physical and psychological health, compared with the patients with conversion disorder. Compared with the partial epilepsy group, HRQOL for the patients with conversion disorder was better in psychological, environmental, social relationship domains. Conclusion. Considering these disorders, patients with conversion disorder need long-term psychiatric treatment. Carrying out this study in our country will be an advantage for the cross-cultural studies which will be undertaken out in the future.