Evaluation of smoking cessation practice by physicians for hospitalized patients in a tertiary hospital.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate physicians' smoking cessation practice, consultation for smoking intervention for hospitalised patients and its determinants. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted at Duzce University Hospital, Duzce, Turkey, from January to April 2013, and comprised hospitalised patients. The survey, including smoking habits and 5As (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange) steps of smoking intervention practiced by physicians was applied to those patients discharged from the hospital. SPSS 20 was used for statistical analysis.. RESULTS: Of the 502(31.6%) participants, 264(52.6%) were women and 238(47.4%) were men. The overall mean age was 52.8±18.2 years. Besides, 269(53.6%) respondents were at the level of elementary school education; 289(57.6%) had chronic disease; 119(23.7%) were current and 106(21.1%) were former smokers. The frequency of current smokers among men with chronic disease was significantly lower compared to those who did not have chronic disease (p=0.017). In women, the factor was insignificant (p=0.642). The physicians practiced the steps of "Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange" on 354(70.5%), 240(47.9%), 194(38.7%), 88(17.6%) and 29(5.8%) patients for active smoking. Consultation during hospitalization significantly increased patient's effort to quit smoking after discharge (p=0.012). CONCLUSIONS: Smoking intervention by physicians for hospitalised patients was associated with the status of patient's gender, education level and chronic disease.

Investigation of relationship of visceral body fat and inflammatory markers with metabolic syndrome and its components among apparently healthy individuals.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of disorders and great risk for cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to investigate association between severity of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and anthropometric measurements, and to evaluate correlation of MetS and its components with metabolic deterioration and inflammatory indexes. The cross-sectional study enrolled 1474 patients with obesity and overweight. The patients were grouped as MetS and Non-MetS, and were sub-grouped as group 1 (three criteria), 2 (four criteria) and 3 (≥ five criteria) according to NCEP ATP III. Mean age was 38.7 ± 11.9 years and BMI was 35.1 ± 6.3 kg/m(2). Lipid profile, anthropometric and blood pressure measurements, liver function tests, bioelectric impedance body fat compositions, insulin resistance and HbA1c, and spot urinary albumin-creatinine ratio were significantly different between groups of MetS and Non-MetS. Age, lipid profile, bioelectric impedance fat analyses, BMI, blood pressure values, glucose, insulin resistance, uric acid and hs-CRP levels were significantly different between groups of MetS component groups. ROC analysis revealed that hs-CRP was found to be more predictive for severity of metabolic syndrome components 3 and 4 (P=0.030); uric acid and visceral fat were more actual to predict severity of metabolic syndrome between 3 and 5 MetS components, (P=0.006) and uric acid was detected as more actual to predict severity of MetS between 4 and 5 components (P=0.023). In conclusion, uric acid, hs-CRP and visceral body fat composition were useful to predict to severity of MetS in primary care.