VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE TURKISH VERSION OF SCREENING TOOL ON DISTRESS IN FERTILITY TREATMENT (SCREENIVF)

Background: Women diagnosed with infertility and receiving infertility treatment reported high levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety and distress. Infertile women should first be screened for psychosocial risks. Psychosocial care interventions should be planned according to their needs. The aim of this methodologically designed study was to test the validity and reliability of the Screening Tool on Distress in Fertility Treatment\u27s (SCREENIVF)Turkish verzion in infertile women. Subjects and methods: The present study included 323 women diagnosed with nulliparous and undergoing fertility treatment. Women filled in the descriptive characteristics questionnaire, The Copenhagen Multi Centre Psyghosocial Infertility-Fertility Problem Stress Scale (COMPI-FPSS) and the SCREENIVF. Results: To examine the contribution of the items to the scale, six items with an insufficient contribution to the scale were removed from the scale as a result of the item-total score correlation values (Corrected item-total correlation <0.25). The item-total score correlation coefficients and subscale-total score correlation coefficients obtained for each subscale ranged from 0.31 to 0.98. According to the regression equation formed in line with the multivariate linear regression model that will model the linear relationship between COMPI-FPSS, which is a scale equivalent to the subscale of the SCREENIVF, the total scores of the subscale were statistically significant predictors of the scores obtained from COMPI-FPSS, and (F=161.281, p<0.001) multiple explanatory coefficients were 77.2%. Cronbach\u27s alpha coefficient was 0.77 and accepted to be reliable. 16% of the women participating in this study were above the cut-off scores concerning anxiety and depression, 13.9% acceptance, 8.2% hopelessness and 2% social support. The scale consisted of five subscales and 28 items. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the Turkish version of SCREENIVF is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used in the routine assessment regarding psychosocial aspects in the infertility treatment process

VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE TURKISH VERSION OF SCREENING TOOL ON DISTRESS IN FERTILITY TREATMENT (SCREENIVF)

Background: Women diagnosed with infertility and receiving infertility treatment reported high levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety and distress. Infertile women should first be screened for psychosocial risks. Psychosocial care interventions should be planned according to their needs. The aim of this methodologically designed study was to test the validity and reliability of the Screening Tool on Distress in Fertility Treatment\u27s (SCREENIVF)Turkish verzion in infertile women. Subjects and methods: The present study included 323 women diagnosed with nulliparous and undergoing fertility treatment. Women filled in the descriptive characteristics questionnaire, The Copenhagen Multi Centre Psyghosocial Infertility-Fertility Problem Stress Scale (COMPI-FPSS) and the SCREENIVF. Results: To examine the contribution of the items to the scale, six items with an insufficient contribution to the scale were removed from the scale as a result of the item-total score correlation values (Corrected item-total correlation <0.25). The item-total score correlation coefficients and subscale-total score correlation coefficients obtained for each subscale ranged from 0.31 to 0.98. According to the regression equation formed in line with the multivariate linear regression model that will model the linear relationship between COMPI-FPSS, which is a scale equivalent to the subscale of the SCREENIVF, the total scores of the subscale were statistically significant predictors of the scores obtained from COMPI-FPSS, and (F=161.281, p<0.001) multiple explanatory coefficients were 77.2%. Cronbach\u27s alpha coefficient was 0.77 and accepted to be reliable. 16% of the women participating in this study were above the cut-off scores concerning anxiety and depression, 13.9% acceptance, 8.2% hopelessness and 2% social support. The scale consisted of five subscales and 28 items. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the Turkish version of SCREENIVF is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used in the routine assessment regarding psychosocial aspects in the infertility treatment process

Big data in adolescent psychiatry: Do patients share their psychiatric symptoms on social networking sites?

Background: Fascinating developments in big data technologies and unprecedented diffusion of social networking sites (SNSs) generate unseen opportunities for scientific fields, including psychiatry. This study focuses on the use of SNSs by adolescent psychiatric patients and the potential use of SNS-generated data to help medical practitioners diagnose and treat patients’ mental health. Our objective is to understand and measure the psychiatric and individual conditions in which symptom-sharing occurs on SNSs and the frequency of these conditions. Based on literature, we hypothesized that the perceived value of social network sites positively affects adolescents’ sharing of symptoms on these sites. Subjects and methods: An empirical test of this hypothesis was conducted with a survey of 224 adolescents admitted to a psychiatry clinic in Turkey. The hypothesis was tested using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Results: The perceived value of SNSs explained an additional 37.8% of variation in symptom sharing on SNSs above and beyond the control variables, which are gender, age, type of disorder, and amount of internet and SNS use. The findings suggested that adolescents share symptoms on SNSs only if they attribute value to the SNSs that they use. We also found that 72% of adolescents in our sample shared their symptoms on SNSs. Conclusions: There is an attractive opportunity for information technology companies to develop, together with health professionals; data analytics that are able to detect symptoms to support psychiatric diagnoses and pave the way for big-data enabled personalized medicine

LIMPRINT study - the Turkish experience

Background: Lymphedema and chronic oedema is a major healthcare problem in both developed and non-developed countries The LIMPRINT study is an international health service based study to determine the prevalence and functional impact in adult populations of member countries of the International Lymphoedema Framework (ILF). Methods: 1051 patients from 8 centers in Turkey were recruited using the LIMPRINT study protocol. Data were collected using the core and module tools which assess the demographic and clinical properties as well as disability and QoL. Results: Most of the Turkish patients were recruited from specialist lymphedema services and were found to be female, housewives and having secondary lymphedema due to cancer treatment. The duration of lymphedema was commonly less than 5 years and most of them had ISL Grade 2 lymphedema. Cellulitis, infection and wounds were uncommon. The majority of patients did not get any treatment or advice before. Most of the patients had impaired QoL and decreased functionality, but psychological support was neglected. Although most had social health security access to Lymphedema centres nevertheless access seemed difficult due to distance and cost. Conclusion: The study has shown the current status and characteristics of lymphedema patients, treatment conditions, the unmet need for the diagnosis and treatment as well as burden of the disease in both patients and families in Turkey. National health policies are needed for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment in Turkey that utilise this informative data

Multi-Level Image Segmentation and Object Representation for Content Based Image Retrieval

Due to the increasing demand and oer of the technology, the next generation of the image le formats will be more likely to store and retrieve images based on their semantic content. Thus, an image should be segmented into \meaningful&quot; regions, each of which corresponds to an object and/or background. In this study, we propose a scheme for multi-level image segmentation, based on a simple descriptor, called \the closest color in the same neighborhood&quot;. The proposed scheme generates a stack of images without using any segmentation threshold. The stack of images is hierarchically ordered in a uniformity tree. The uniformity tree is, then, associated with a semantic tree, which is built by the user for content based representation. The experiments indicate superior results for retrieving images, which consist of few objects and a background. Keywords: Content Based Image Retrieval, Multi-level Image Segmentation, Color Descriptor 1. INTRODUCTION Ecient image retrieval in digital visua..

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Scope and Practice Areas

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a kind of practice of energy psychotherapy consisting of cognitive and somatic components that are used to improve personal negative emotions and related emotional and physical disorders. Stress hormones are secreted in the brain when a person is stressed, the amygdala and other responsive cerebral segments are activated. If the stress can not be effectively coped with, the physical and psychological consequences that will become chronic in course of time. There are essential steps to follow in EFT; firstly person create a setup sentence for sending a message to the emotional body (subconscious) and then twelve meridians of energy end point (acupressure points) is tapped on. There are different protocols for application purposes. EFT can be performed in psychological and physical areas, which are very common in children and adults, and there is not reported of any adverse effects in randomized controlled trials. In this review, PubMed, Google's Academic and related literature sources were examined and it was determined that the EFT had research results in a variety of subjects. Emotions can be recognized, accepted and transformed with the EFT application