[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.

[Influence of gas and dust air pollutants on development of asthma in children]. / Wplyw gazowych i pylowych zanieczyszczen powietrza atmosferycznego na indukcje astmy u dzieci.

Bronchial asthma belongs to a large group of illnesses of allergic and inflammatory origin. Despite long-term studies still not much is known about the factors inducing children's bronchial asthma. This fact influenced the line of the research. The research included 5945 children of 10-11 from 86 primary schools of the Katowice province (presently Silesian province). The factor evaluated was the influence of the exposure to air pollution on asthma induction. The data concerning the exposure was obtained from questionnaires, reports of the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management and medical examinations. The dependence analyses were conducted with the use of statistical packets Statistica and BUGS. The analysis proved that long-term exposure to SO2 caused an increased number of cases of children's asthma (correlation R = 0.95 with p < 0.05), whereas the current concentration of Sos did not correlate with the number of asthmatic children (p > 0.05). The concentration of dust did not correlate with occurrence of asthma (p > 0.05). The exposure to NO2 caused a significant increase in incidence of asthma (R = 0.98 with p < 0.05). Previous exposure to CO did not influence the occurrence of asthma (p < 0.05) whereas its present concentration correlated with the number of cases of children's bronchial asthma (R = 0.918 with p = 0.001). The results obtained point to significant influence of long-term exposure to nitrogen and sulphur oxides on later development of asthma (a comparison between the concentration of these gases in the past and the present state of health). As far as evaluation of the influence of the present pollution concentrations is concerned the results were not so unequivocal (perhaps the duration of exposure has been too short to allow for the development of the illness). The fact that the results of the research are unequivocal points to the necessity to change the evaluation method of the children's exposure to environmental factors. This concerns especially the estimation of gas pollution in the air by measuring the blocmarkers in the organic liquids, and not only by evaluation of the exposure to the factors in the air.

[Influence of exposure to cigarette smoke on clinical course of bronchial asthma among Silesian children]. / Wplyw narazenia na dym tytoniowy na indukcje i przebieg kliniczny astmy oskrzelowej u slaskich dzieci.

Bronchial asthma belongs to the group of illnesses of allergic and inflammatory origin. Despite numerous research divergent results are described in literature, that is the reason why a decision was made to conduct a careful study of the influence of various factors on induction and clinical course of bronchial asthma among children. The research included 5945 children of 10-11 from 86 primary schools of the Katowice province (presently Silesian province). The factor evaluated was the influence of the exposure to tobacco smoke on asthma induction and its clinical course. The data concerning the exposure were obtained from the children's parents. The dependence analyses were conducted with the use of statistical packets Statistica and BUGS. Smoking was declared in 3594 cases (68.5%), and non-smoking were 1637 people (31.2%). The probability of developing asthma is constant within the range of 0-40 cigarettes smoked daily; then it grows quite rapidly (R-0.794, p-0.011). The clinical course of asthma was evaluated on the basis of appearing wheezing respiration, pressure in chest, dyspnoea and cough. In the investigated population/group only the probability of pressure in chest incidence correlated with the number of cigarettes smoked (R-0.86, p = 0.014), in case of the remaining symptoms the correlation was statistically insignificant. The obtained results have proved a substantial influence of tobacco smoke on the development of asthma. This indicates the necessity of taking sanitary measures in the habitats, and especially elimination of tobacco smoke. The results of the research concerning the influence of tobacco smoke on clinical course of asthma were less unequivocal. This might be caused by the evaluation method of the exposure (purposeful underrating, smoking away from home, or in another room). This points to the necessity to employ a more unbiased method of evaluation of the exposure to tobacco smoke.

[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.