[The appreciation of the medical students' knowledge concerning the role and work of medical care funds in Polish health care system]. / Ocena wiedzy studentów medycyny na temat roli i funkcjonowania kas chorych w systemie ochrony zdrowia w Polsce.

The aim of the research was verification and comparison of the present state of knowledge among the students (of different departments and years ofstudy), about the role ofMedical Care Funds in the up-to-now healthcare system and the patient's rights as far as the students' future profession as doctors, dentists healthcare managers and medical rescuers is concerned. The research was carried out by means of anonymous questionnaire. A uniform "assessment" method was adopted following the principles of didactic measurement. The following were calculated: range, modal, mediana, arithmetic average, variance, standard deviation, easiness of the task, difficulty of the task, skip fraction, the task's differentiating power, reliability coefficient of the test using the own modification of the Excel programme. No significant differences among the particular groups have been proven as far as the students present state of knowledge is concerned. The research showed different difficulty levels of the particular questions among examined groups. The assessment of the up-to-now work of the Medical Care Funds is negative in the opinion of the respondents, no matter which medical faculty they have represented.

[The assessment of food intake and declared satisfaction in medical students]. / Ocena sposobu odzywiania sie studentów SAM i deklarowana z niego satysfakcja.

Proper nutrition is one of the basic factors of the external environment which substantially influence the assurance and upkeep of a one's good state of health until old age. For students of medicine, i.e. prospective doctors, acquisition of knowledge and clinical experience should be accompanied by raising qualifications in the field of preventive treatment so that in future they can not only cure but also promote health. The aim of the present study was to analyse students' nutrition habits and to evaluate the declared satisfaction with the way of feeding. In preparation of the present paper the author used anonymous questionnaire method employing an inquiry form. The research included 416 students of the 4th and 5th years of study of the Medicine Department and 3rd and 4th year students of the Stomatology Division in 2001-2002 years. In the female group one could observe a larger consumption of vegetables and fruit, dairy products, poultry, fish and seeds of leguminous plants. Men more often eat animal fat and red meat. The analysis of the number of meals eaten shows that majority of women eat only one hot meal a day and do not eat supper. Whereas men twice as often do not eat breakfasts, they eat two or more hot meals a day and 70% of them declare they eat supper. Every second questioned person eats sweetmeats even several times a day, and only 7.7% of the population does not have the habit of intermittent eating. Analysis of the research material allowed to draw the following conclusions: 1. There is a statistically significant interdependence between the amount and quality of consumed food and the sex. 2. Women's nutritious habits are more adequate than men's nutrition habits to the dietetic prescriptions of the Institute of Food and Nutrition]. 3. Most of the men are satisfied with their nutritious habits, and the dissatisfied group is dominated by women. 4. The obtained results point to a necessity to work out and implement pro-health education within the field of young people's nutrition.

[Self-assessment of nutritinal status in medical students and objective measures of estimating somatic development]. / Samoocena stanu odzywienia studentów medycyny a rzeczywiste mierniki oceny rozwoju somatycznego.

Problem of "obesity epidemic" is still very common, but the knowledge about this is limited and it develops very slowly. Probably it even concerns medical students who are in touch with health problems every day and who will watch over society's health in the future. Available literature estimating people's health is mainly connected with negative measures of human health condition. Positive measures are rarely used, although they are simply in use and accessible (including financial accessibility). This kind of measures should be used in widest range to epidemiological investigation of obesity. The aim of the study was to estimate the level of medical student's obesity and to compare declared self-assessment expressed by BMI. In the research 416 III-VI year students of Medical University of Silesia were involved. We used a number of anonymous questionnaires to receive required information. We analyzed objective value of BMI, fat tissue capacity, student's self-assessment and student's satisfaction of their state of nutrition. Statistic analyzes were done using Epi Info v.5.01b program. Distribution of abnormal body weight among students under research was following: underweight--10.3% of the students, overweight--12% and II degree obesity--1.9% of investigated population. Among people with confirmed obesity only 100% of women realized this fact and 44.2% of men found their overweight as normal. Student's satisfaction of state of nutrition independently if it was proper or not, was significantly higher among men. It is necessary to teach students how to properly estimate the state of nutrition.

[Current knowledge among students of the Silesian Medical Academy about the importance and role of medical care funds]. / Ocena stanu wiedzy studentów Slaskiej Akademii Medycznej na temat roli i znaczenia kas chorych.

The purpose of this research was verification and comparison of the present state of knowledge among the students of different departments and years of study. The questions concerned the role of Medical Care Funds in the up-to-now healthcare system and the patient's rights as far as the students' future professions as doctors, dentists, healthcare managers and medical rescuers is concerned. The questionnaire included 15 questions referring to the problem of functioning of the medical care institutions after the reform of healthcare services introduced in 1999. Distinct from most of the published works of this kind, the authors adopted a uniform "assessment" method following the principles of didactic measurement. The researchers calculated: Range, Modal, Mediana, Arithmetic Average, Variance, Standard Deviation, Easiness of the Task, Difficulty of the Task, Skip Fraction, the Task's Differentiating Power, Reliability Coefficient of the Test. The calculation was conducted with the use of the Excel programme modified by the researchers to suit the needs of didactic measurement. The survey included 104 students of the 3rd year of Dental Department, 116 of the students 4th year of Dental Department, 31 students of Bachelor's Medical Rescue Studies by the Medical Department in Zabrze, 18 students of Post-Graduate Management and Administration in Healthcare by the Medical Department in Zabrze and Silesian Technical University, 151 4th year students of the Medical Department in Zabrze and 121 6th year students of the Medical Department in Zabrze. It has been proved that between the particular groups there are significant differences as far as the students' knowledge is concerned ("the healthcare managers" demonstrated quite a high knowledge ratio). And that the questions were at different difficulty levels depending on the branch and year of study represented by the respondents.