INVESTIGATING HOW PARENTS, WHO GUIDE THEIR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN TOWARDS SPORTS, PERCEIVE SPORTS ACTIVITIES

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate parents’ expectations about general sport activities for their pre-school children. It is well documented that the awareness of sports knowledge of the parents are essential for the development of healthy life and acquiring a social dimension with a growth of healthy generations. Method: We administrated the ‘’Parents' Expectations of Their Children Questionnaire’’ developed by Keskin (2006). The questionnaire was a Likert type scale from ‘’totally agree’’ to ‘’totally disagree’’ and validity and reliability studies were reported by Keskin as Cronbach’s alpha was 0,86. A total of 125 participants (male; N = 39, Mage=35, 24 ± 5,48 , female; N = 86 and Mage=37,92 ± 6,65) were voluntarily participated from 10 different kinder gardens in Bursa province. The evaluation of the data was analysed with the Chi Square Test. Result: Our results revealed a statistical differences (p < .05) according to the sex groups of parents ‘’I believe my child will gain good eating habits by getting involved with sports activities’’ and age groups of parents; ‘’I believe by getting involved with sport activities, my child will stay away from psychological stress’’. Conclusion: According to parents’ belief and their expectations, attending sports activities for children provides physical, cognitive and social development for them. Developing countries (as well as developed ones) that are aware of the role of the parents on development of human being via sport and exercise activities should take into account their expectations especially in terms of sports policies.  Article visualizations

Rare occurrence of common filaggrin mutations in Turkish children with food allergy and atopic dermatitis

Background/aim: Filaggrin is a protein complex involved in epidermal differentiation and skin barrier formation. Mutations of the filaggrin gene (FLG) are associated with allergen sensitization and allergic diseases like atopic dermatitis (AD), allergic rhinitis, food allergy (FA), and asthma. The aim of the study is to reveal the frequency of change in the FLG gene and determine the association between FLG loss-of-function (LOF) mutations and FA and/or AD in Turkish children. Materials and methods: Four FLG loss-of-function (LOF) mutations known to be common in European populations were analyzed in 128 healthy children, 405 food-allergic children with or without atopic dermatitis, and 61 children with atopic dermatitis. PCRRFLP was performed for genotyping R501X, 2282del4, and R2447X mutations; S3247X was genotyped using a TaqMan-based allelic discrimination assay. Results were confirmed by DNA sequence analysis in 50 randomly chosen patients for all mutations. Results: A total of 466 patients [(67% male, 1 (0.7–2.8) years] and 128 healthy controls [59% male, 2.4 (1.4–3.5) years)] were included in this study. Two patients were heterozygous carriers of wild-type R501X, but none of the controls carried this mutation. Three patients and one healthy control were heterozygous carriers of wild-type 2282del4. Neither patients nor controls carried R2447X or S3247X FLG mutations. There were no combined mutations determined in heterozygous mutation carriers. Conclusions: Although R501X, 2282del4, R2447X, and S3247X mutations are very common in European populations, we found that FLG mutations were infrequent and there is no significant association with food allergy and/or atopic dermatitis in Turkish individuals. © TÜBİTAK