The most recommended goal in the management of chronic illnesses is the individual's acceptance of the illness, a factor which has not been investigated in Turkish society. We, therefore, distributed 300 questionnaires at hospitals in Turkey, with the aim of identifying the illness acceptance levels of Type 2 diabetes patients. Of the 300 patients, 46% were found to have a low acceptance level, which was related to low education and income status, the presence of other chronic illnesses, recent diagnosis, low social support, low self-efficacy, and pessimistic life orientation. Recommendations are made for interventions to increase the illness acceptance level of diabetic patients.

The cross-sectional study was administrated between April and September 2006. Participants are doctors, nurses, and midwives. Between these dates we met only 750 health staff (doctor, nurse, and midwife). Six hundred thirty-two of them responded to our questionnaire, 122 of them were in Manisa city, and 510 of them in Erciyes. We sought to identify variables that contribute to euthanasia attitude, including demographics, in order to demonstrate Turkish doctors', nurses', and midwives' attitudes toward euthanasia and to compare their attitudes in this regard. The data was collected by a two-part questionnaire. The first part included questions about the health personnel; the second part comprised the euthanasia (Medical Staffs Attitude toward Euthanasia) scale. The scale was developed by the researcher to measure the attitude of healthy staff euthanasia. The SPSS was used to analyze the data. Student t-test, ANOVA, Mann Whitney U, and Kruskal Wallis were used to evaluate the data. Thep value 0.05 (95% confidence interval) was accepted as significant. In our study, professional groups are compared with all the factors but there is a significant difference only between social cost and professional groups.

SUMMARY AIM: This study was conducted using methodological approaches for the adaption of the Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS) developed in USA to the type 2 diabetic patients in the Turkish society. METHOD: The sample of this research, the validity and reliability study, consisted of 80 type 2 diabetic patients who had applied to the diabetes polyclinics of two training hospitals. During the data collection process of the study the following instruments were used: Acceptance of Illness Scale and Socio-Demographic and Diabetes Questionnaire. Validity and reliability analyses were used for the assessment of the study data. RESULTS: The validity and reliability of Acceptance of Illness Scale in the diabetic patients in the Turkish society were found to be high (Cronbach�s Alpha=0,79; test-retest r=0,71). Scale item mean scores between the 2,53 and 4,38, the item-total correlations ranged 0,45 to 0,77 and was found to be significant. CONCLUSION: The validity and reliability of Acceptance of Illness Scale has been determined. Establishing the factors that determine the acceptance levels and assessing the acceptance level in our country will enable individulas to receive holistic treatment and psychosocial adaptation. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2011; 10(2.000): 155-164

Ö ÖZ ZE ET T AAm ma aç ç: : Ambulans Servisi (AS) çalışanlarının sağlığının ve mesleksel enfeksiyon riskinin değer-lendirmesidir. G Ge er re eç ç v ve e Y Yö ön nt te em ml le er r: : Kesitsel özellikte olan bu araştırma, Haziran-Eylül 2010 tarihleri arasında İzmir'deki 243 AS çalışanı ile yapılmıştır. B Bu ul lg gu ul la ar r: : AS'de çalıştığı süre zarfında sağlık taramasından geçen çalışan oranı %33,74 olup, %32,1'i hepatit B, %21,4'ü hepatit C, %19,8'i HIV, %6,2'si tüberküloz yönünden sağlık taraması yaptırmıştır. Çalışanların %96,7'si tetanoz-difteriye, %66,3'ü kı-zamığa, %67,5'i kızamıkçık-kabakulak-suçiçeğine ve %94,7'si tüberküloza karşı aşılanmıştır. Domuz gribi ve mevsimsel gribe karşı aşılanan çalışan oranı sırasıyla %25,5 ve %23,5'tir. Hepatit B hastası ya da portörü olduğunu bildiren çalışan oranı %4,1'dir. %25,5 oranında çalışan hepatit B'ye karşı aşılan-mamıştır. Çalışanların %23'ü perkütan yaralanma ve %34,2'si mukozal membran maruziyeti yaşamış-tır. Kan ve vücut sıvısı maruziyeti yaşayan çalışanların (n=110) %25'inin hepatit B'ye karşı aşılanmadığı, %2,7'sinin hasta ya da portör olduğu tespit edilmiştir. %96,7 oranında çalışan yaşadık-ları ya da yaşayacakları maruziyeti raporlayacakları "maruziyet kayıt formunun" bulunmadığını ifade etmiştir. S So on nu uç ç: : Çalışmadan elde edilen bulgular doğrultusunda, enfeksiyon riski oldukça yüksek olan AS çalışanlarına "sağlık personelinde enfeksiyon önleme ve kontrolü" ile ilgili girişimlerin yeterli dü-zeyde uygulanmadığı tespit edilmiştir. Bu noktada, Türkiye'de diğer ülkelerde olduğu gibi, AS çalışan-larının sağlık durumlarını ve mesleksel enfeksiyon risklerini değerlendirecek çalışmaların yapılması, enfeksiyon önleme ve kontrolü ile ilgili gerekli girişimlerin uygulanması önerilmektedir. Re es su ul lt ts s: : 33.4% of AS workers underwent health screening (32.1% for hepatitis B, 21.4% for hepatitis C, 19.8% for HIV and 6.2% for tuberculosis). 96.7% of the workers were vaccinated against tetanus-diphteria, 66.3% against measles, 67.5% against mumps-rubella-varicella and 94.7% against tuberculosis. The rates of the workers, who were vaccinated against swine-orgine-influenza and seasonal influenza, respectively were 25.5% and 23.5%. 4.1% of the workers reported that they were patients/carriers of hepatitis B. 25.5 % of the workers were unvaccinated against hepatitis B. 23% of workers experienced needlestick injuries and 34.2% experienced mucosal membrane exposure. It was found that 25% of the workers, who experienced blood-body-fluid exposure (n=110) were unvaccinated against hepatitis B and 2.7% were patients/carriers. 96.7% of the workers were stated that they haven't got any "the registration form of exposure" their reported occupational exposure. C Co on nc cl lu us si io on n: : According to the results obtained from the study it was found that initiatives about "infection prevention and control in health care workers" were not sufficiently applied to AS workers who had high infection risk. At this point, suggest that like other countries, in Tur...