Assessment of water, sanitation, and hygiene among women living in precarious households in a Turkish urban area.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify the determinants of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) behaviors and conditions among women in poor neighborhoods in Izmir, Turkey, and to develop a scale for assessing WASH behaviors and conditions that is specifically designed for use in precarious urban areas. METHODS: The study used a cross-sectional design, as well as a methodological feature for developing the scale. The sample size was calculated as 243 households out of 2667 households in the Basmane neighborhood, with a 95% confidence interval and a 6% margin of error, and a woman who was responsible for cleaning was invited to participate from each household. The scales for WASH behaviors and conditions, which served as dependent variables, were developed in a four-stage process, yielding two distinct scales. The WASH-Behaviors Scale had 14 items about hand, body, and home hygiene, whereas the WASH-Conditions in Households Scale included 16 items about variables like area per capita, physical structure, and cleaning tool availability. Age, ethnicity, number of children, education, work status, and income were among the independent variables. Data was collected through household visits. The scales' validity was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis. Linear logistic regression analysis was employed to assess the determinants of WASH behaviors. RESULTS: The women, with an average age of 40.65 ± 14.35 years, faced economic challenges, as a substantial portion earned an income below the minimum wage. More than half of them were uninsured, and 72.6% were identified as migrants or refugees. Factor analysis confirmed the compatibility of both scales (KMO = 0.78-0.80, p < 0.05), elucidating 52-54% of the total variance. Factors such as ethnicity, number of children, husband's education level, income perception, and WASH conditions explained 48% of WASH behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: WASH-Behaviors and WASH-Conditions in Households scales met the validity criterion, and their scores were related to basic sociodemographic and economic characteristics like education, income, household size, and ethnicity. The scale development process emphasized the importance of considering both behaviors and household conditions, albeit using different techniques. The findings indicated that WASH conditions are more problematic than behaviors, and that behavioral interventions will not work unless the conditions are corrected.

Outcomes of COVID-19 contact tracing in hospital healthcare workers: A retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine risk-group-specific rate of becoming COVID-19-positive among healthcare workers having had contact with COVID-19 cases. METHODS: The retrospective cohort study was conducted at the Ege University Hospital, Bornova, Turkey, and comprised all healthcare workers who had come into contact with COVID-19 cases between March 11 and May 31, 2020. The contacts were classified as low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk using the guidelines of the Turkish Ministry of Health. The outcome measures were the incidence of infection among contacts and the incubation period and serial interval among the new cases. Data was analysed using SPSS 23. RESULTS: Of the 845 cases, 312(37%) had high risk, 263(31%) medium and 270(32%) low. Overall, there were 490(58%) females, 355(41%) males, 565(67%) aged <40 years, and 277(33%) aged >40 years. Of the total, 27(3.20%) healthcare workers tested COVID-19-positive and distribution among the risk-based groups was significant (p=0.037). There was a significantly increased risk of incidence among repeated contacts, no mask use, and the source being a colleague (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The detection of high-risk contacts was found to be important for controlling COVID-19 infection in a hospital setting.

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma in a minor salivary gland in a child.

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC), one of the most common salivary gland malignancies, is rare in children. MEC mainly occurs in the parotid gland, along with minor glands being the second common site, particularly in palate. Clinical, histological, and radiological findings of palatal MEC in a 12-year-old girl are presented with three-year follow-up. Pathologic lesions must be considered in differential diagnoses of intraoral asymptomatic lesions, and their detailed inspection should be taken into consideration.

The influence of type-1 diabetes mellitus on dentition and oral health in children and adolescents.

PURPOSE: The present study is to investigate the effects of type 1 diabetes mellitus on dentition and oral health for children and adolescents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The investigation was carried out on 100 subjects. The first group consisted of 50 subjects with type 1 diabetes mellitus (21 females, 29 males), age 9+/-0.14 years; In the second group, there were 50 healthy subjects who did not suffer from any systemic disease (25 females, 25 males), age 9+/-0.11 years. The subjects were evaluated and divided into two groups of 5-9 years old, and 10-14 years old. The dentition of all participants was examined. Besides, the DFS/dfs index, oral hygiene conditions were evaluated, as well as the plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI) and calculus index (CI). The data obtained from each group were compared statistically. RESULTS: When compared to the non-diabetic group, we observed that dental development was accelerated until the age of 10 in the diabetic group, and there was a delay after the age of 10. The edentulous interval was longer in the group with type 1 diabetes mellitus. This was accompanied by a high ratio of gingival inflammation. Gingival inflammation was 69.7% in the group of 5-9 year-old, and 83.7% in the group of 10-14 year-old with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Though there was a greater loss of teeth in the group with type 1 diabetes mellitus, there were more caries in the control group. The PI, GI and CI values showed an increase with aging in favor of the group with type 1 diabetes mellitus. There was statistically significant difference in PI, GI and CI between the control and type 1 diabetes mellitus groups for 10-14 year-old patients (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The findings we obtained showed that type 1 diabetes mellitus plays an important part in the dentition and oral health of children and adolescents.

Primary canine and molar relationships in centric occlusion in three to six year-old Turkish children: a cross-sectional study.

This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the primary canine and the primary molar relationship in 205 (90 girls and 115 boys) three to six year-old Turkish children with the primary dentition in centric occlusion according to gender and age. In terms of the molar relationship, Class I was represented by 88.29% of all children who agreed to participate in the study, followed by Class II (7.31%), and Class III (4.4%). In terms of the canine relationship, Class I was represented by 87.8% of the sample, followed by Class II (7.8%), and Class III (4.4%). A statistically significant difference was found between age and both the canine and molar relationships (p<0.005), and a positive correlation was confirmed among them. However, the difference and correlation between the gender and the canine and molar relationships were not significant.

Evaluation of stainless steel crowns cemented with glass-ionomer and resin-modified glass-ionomer luting cements.

PURPOSE: To evaluate in vitro and in vivo conditions of stainless steel crowns (SSC) cemented using one luting glass-ionomer cement (Aqua Meron) and one luting resin-modified glass-ionomer cement (Vitremer). METHODS: In the in vitro part of this study, retentive properties of SSCs cemented using Aqua Meron and Vitremer on extracted primary first molars were tested. In addition, two specimens of each group were used to evaluate the tooth hard tissue-cement, within the cement itself, cement-SSC, and tooth hard tissue-cement-SSC under scanning electron microscope (SEM). In the in vivo part of this study, 152 SSCs were placed on the first or second primary molars of 86 children, and cemented using either Aqua Meron or Vitremer. The crowns were examined for retention. In addition, the clinical views of the crowns were recorded with an intraoral camera. RESULTS: No significant difference was found between the mean retentive forces of Aqua Meron and Vitremer (P> 0.05). SSCs cemented with Aqua Meron and Vitremer had an average lifespan of 26.44 and 24.07 months respectively. Only one (0.66%) of 152 SSCs was lost from the Aqua Meron group during post-cementation periods. Nineteen of the 152 SSCs (12.5%) had dents or perforations.

Clinical evaluation of simple fixed space maintainers bonded with flow composite resin.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical performance of simple fixed space maintainers bonded by using a flow composite resin (Tetric Flow) to prevent space resulting from early extracted primary teeth. For that reason, 64 fixed space maintainers (34 in the lower jaw and 30 in the upper jaw) were applied to 45 patients. The patients followed up for 12 to 18 months. Survival rate, prevention ability of that space, and whether damage to the abutment teeth occurred were evaluated. Five percent of space maintainers were determined to be unsuccessful at the end of the control period. During this period, loss of space among the abutment teeth was found to be statistically insignificant (P > .05). Finally, it was observed that the use of simple fixed space maintainers was successful due to operator experience and the choosing of favorable patient groups.

Retentive force and microleakage of stainless steel crowns cemented with three different luting agents.

The aim of this investigation was to compare the tensile strength, microleakage, and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) evaluations of SSCs cemented using different adhesive cements on primary molars. Sixty-three extracted primary first molars were used. Tooth preparations were done. Crowns were altered and adapted for investigation purpose, and then cemented using glass ionomer cement (Aqua Meron), resin modified cement (RelyX Luting), and resin cement (Panavia F) on the prepared teeth. Samples were divided into two groups of 30 samples each for tensile strength and microleakage tests. The remaining three samples were used for SEM evaluation. Data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA and Tukey test. The statistical analysis of ANOVA revealed significant differences among the groups for both tensile strength and microleakage tests (p < 0.05). Tukey test showed statistically significant difference between Panavia F and RelyX Luting (p < 0.05), but none between the others (p > 0.05). This study showed that the higher the retentive force a crown possessed, the lower would be the possibility of microleakage.