The impact of gender and academic achievement on the violation of academic integrity for medical faculty students, a descriptive cross-sectional survey study.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to determine the characteristics of medical faculty students about violations of academic integrity. METHOD: From the whole population of the 572 students of the Mugla Sitki Koçman University Faculty of Medicine, 271 students participated voluntarily in a descriptive cross-sectional survey. Descriptive data were recorded in the survey and a five-point Likert-type instrument, namely the Tendency towards Academic Dishonesty Scale, was used as the data collection tool in the study. The scale included 22 items' means that are considered to evaluate "Tendency towards academic dishonesty" (TTAD) score. In addition, four subscales, namely "Tendency towards cheating", "Dishonesty in works such as assignments and projects", "Tendency towards dishonesty in research and reporting processes" and "Tendency towards citation dishonesty" scores were evaluated separately. RESULTS: Of the participants, 138 (53.3%) were male. TTAD scores were 2.15 ± 0.61, showing a slight tendency towards academic dishonesty, according to the scale. TTAD scores and standard deviations (SD) were 2.26 ± 0.65 and 2.04 ± 0.55 for men and women, respectively (P = 0.005). There was no difference in the TTAD scores for students whether they had read the ethics code. Significant differences were observed in the TTAD scores for students with gender, different academic achievements and in different academic years. However, when multivariate analysis was performed, the significance shown in the results disappeared. CONCLUSION: In our study, a slight tendency to academic dishonesty was found for medical faculty students and there were no differences between all of the recorded individual factors of students.

Assessment of anxiety-depression levels and perceptions of quality of life in adolescents with dysmenorrhea.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to assess the anxiety-depression levels and the perceptions of quality of life, as well as the factors affecting these variables, in adolescents with dysmenorrhea. METHODS: The participants included 60 adolescents with dysmenorrhea and 41 healthy adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18. This study used the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) for assessing the perceptions of quality of life, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for measuring anxiety levels, and the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) for measuring depression levels. RESULTS: It was determined that compared to healthy controls, the depression and anxiety scores were higher and the quality of life was impaired in adolescents with dysmenorrhea. In addition, it was shown that the depression and anxiety levels increased and the psychosocial health subscale scores of quality of life decreased with increasing dysmenorrhea severity. However, the likelihood of dysmenorrhea was found to be higher with increasing depression scores, while the anxiety levels had no effect on dysmenorrhea. CONCLUSION: In dysmenorrhea management, it is important to enhance awareness among pediatric clinicians and gynecologists regarding the associations between dysmenorrhea and mental problems.

Focal myositis: a rare case report.

Focal myositis is an uncommon, self-limiting, benign skeletal muscle disease, which is generally determined as an inflammatory pseudotumor. The etiology is not fully known, although it has been suggested that subclinical damage may play a role. As it leads to a tumoral mass it may be confused with several diseases leading to incorrect evaluations. Definitive diagnosis is made by biopsy of the skeletal muscle. In radiologic diagnosis, magnetic resonance imaging is the most important modality. In this paper we presented the imaging findings of a 58-year-old female patient with focal myositis who was admitted with complaints of forearm swelling.

The challenge of clinical interviewing and physical examination performance for general practitioners in Turkey.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study's objective was to better understand the current conditions and style of practice of generalist physicians in Turkey on clinical interviewing and physical examination skills prior to the widespread availability of family medicine postgraduate training. METHODS: This study was performed in 30 primary health centers, randomly chosen from the 110 primary health centers in Izmir, Turkey. We administered a questionnaire to 106 physicians in those centers, asking about their performance during medical encounters. We then observed 166 first-visit encounters of 37 of those physicians. Finally, we compared physicians' reported behavior (as described in the questionnaires) with their actual performance (when observed). RESULTS: In the physician questionnaire, 86.8% of participants agreed that 20 minutes or more was sufficient time for first visits, but in practice, 81.9% of the interviews lasted less than 5 minutes. The major reason cited by physicians for short interview times was overcrowding (72.6%). In 94.6% of the encounters, physicians obtained the history of present illness but the rest of the history, such as past history and family history, was gathered in less than 40% of the interviews. Except for the examination of oral cavity and pharynx, lungs, and heart, almost all the rest of the physical examination was performed in less than 10% of the cases. No written records were kept in 63.0 % of the encounters. CONCLUSIONS: The problems and difficulties present in delivering primary care in Turkey include the physicians' behavior in addition to working conditions.

Importance of meta-analysis and practical obstacles in oncological and epidemiological studies: statistics very close but also far!

Studies of epidemiological and prognostic factors are very important for oncology practice. There is a rapidly increasing amount of research and resultant knowledge in the scientific literature. This means that health professionals have major challenges in accessing relevant information and they increasingly require best available evidence to make their clinical decisions. Meta-analyses of prognostic and other epidemiological factors are very practical statistical approaches to define clinically important parameters. However, they also feature many obstacles in terms of data collection, standardization of results from multiple centers, bias, and commentary for intepretation. In this paper, the obstacles of meta-analysis are briefly reviewed, and potential problems with this statistical method are discussed.

Comparison of clinical skills of 3rd-year students who completed structured clinical skills program with 6th-year students who acquired clinical skills in unsystematic way.

BACKGROUND: The timing and methods of teaching clinical skills are some of the main concerns of medical education. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare clinical skills of the 3rd and 6th-year students who acquired clinical skills training within different years and methods. METHODS: Randomly chosen students were observed and evaluated in the form of "did it-didn't do it" over the checklists composed of parameters of communication, history taking, and physical examination. The results were evaluated on the SPSS 10.0 for Windows program and Pearson chi-square test was used in the statistical analyses. RESULTS: Third-year students who had clinical skills training in early years and structured methods had better results for most of the parameters (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical skills training given through a structured program that is widespread in the early years of medical school makes a great contribution to the development of students' clinical skills.