Behaviours and opinions of adolescent students on smoking.

INTRODUCTION: Smoking is one of the major causes of preventable diseases, disability and death in the globe and Turkey. In our study, the knowledge of students about smoking addiction and which organ in the body is damaged due to smoking are aimed to be determined. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Surveys were applied to students of private university preparatory training center on the Anatolian side of Istanbul. In the conducted survey, the questions related with students' demographic characteristics, themselves, their families and friends smoking addiction, the reasons to start smoking, whether they want to quit smoking, whether they try to quit smoking and which of the organs that they know smoking is harmful were asked. The data obtained were transferred to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows. RESULT: Out of 358 students who answered the survey completely, 152 students (42.4%) were male, 206 (57.6%) were female. Students were between the ages of 16-20 and the mean age was 18 ± 1.15. When asked about their smoking addiction, 84 (23.5%) of total actively continued to smoke. Total of 14 students (3.9%) smoked and then stopped smoking, 260 students (72.6%) have never smoked. Curiosity was the most commonly reported reason to start smoking (39%) and for the second row, they indicated to start smoking due to tobacco user friends (30.6%). CONCLUSIONS: More and more young people begin smoking at an earlier age and they transfer the problems of this bad addiction to the later years of their lives. There should be fight resolutely against actions and conditions encouraging smoking both as a state and society and in order to rescue young people from this bad addiction, it should continue to take steps which facilitate accessibility to supportive institutions.

[Pericardial effusion predicts mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]. / Kronik obstrüktif akciger hastaliginda perikart sivi birikimi mortalite öngördürücüsüdür.

OBJECTIVES: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an increasingly important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Pericardial effusion (PE) is a current issue proven to be a mortality predictor, especially in pulmonary arterial hypertension. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of PE in COPD. STUDY DESIGN: The study cohort consisted of 488 COPD patients and a control group of 50 healthy patients. At the start of the study, 37 patients (7.5%) had PE. Mean follow-up time was 12 months (range; 1-16 months). Clinical spirometric and echocardiographic data were compared between patients with PE(+) group (n=37), patients without PE(-) group (n=451) and the healthy control group. RESULTS: Right ventricular functions were more depressed and pulmonary arterial pressure was more elevated in the PE(+) group. Also, Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis showed that at one-year follow- up, mortality was higher in the PE(+) group: PE(-) group 139 (30.8%), PE(+) group 21 (56.8%) log-Rank p value: 0.009). Age, presence of PE, and oxygen usage were independent predictors of mortality in Cox regression analysis. CONCLUSION: Presence of PE predicts mortality in COPD patients at one-year follow-up.