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We concluded that the EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL is a valid and reliable tool to determine the quality of life of advanced cancer patients who are undergoing palliative treatment in Turkey.

There is sufficient evidence to support the notion that environmental tobacco smoke is a serious health burden for children. Considering that recent studies suggest that up to 70% of children grow up in homes with at least one smoker, every effort should be made to reduce these children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and to give them a chance to grow up in a more healthy environment.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of nurses in Turkey to death, and the factors affecting this. Methods: The research was conducted with 390 nurses working in various departments of a university medical faculty hospital. A demographic questionnaire was given to the nurses to determine socio-demographic characteristics, and the DAP-R was used. Results: A majority of the nurses in our study (86.2%) believed terminal stage health care in Turkey to be inadequate; 46.7% thought that they themselves were partially inadequate with regard to terminal stage patient care, and a majority (76.4%) wanted to have psychosocial training in final stage patient care. The nurses' mean scores on the DAP-R were as follows: fear of death 4.7±1.18, avoidance of death 3.92±1.28, neutral acceptance of death 5.22±0.88, approach-oriented acceptance of death 4.69±0.94, and escape-oriented acceptance of death 3.59±1.16. Among the factors affecting attitudes to death, a positive correlation was found between age and escape acceptance of death (p=0.001 r:0.168) and a statistically significant relationship was found between marital status and fear of death, between education (professional experience) and escape acceptance and neutral acceptance of death, and between place of work and neutral and approach acceptance of death (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was found that nurses sometimes saw death as an unavoidable reality. However, it was concluded that this attitude was not reflected in daily life, that death is turned into a complete crisis, and that we still treat death as a taboo subject.

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