Introduction: While discussions on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines continue, healthcare professionals' attitudes and their growing fear and anxiety during the pandemic process are not yet fully known. In this study, we aimed to investigate the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and affecting factors in healthcare professionals.Methods: This was a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 1574 healthcare professionals consisting of physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and healthcare personnel in Turkey in December 2020. Demographic, attitudinal, and Fear of COVID-19 Scale scores of healthcare professionals were investigated in this survey.Results: About 84.6% of healthcare professionals declared willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine whenever possible. Most physicians (90.4%) stated to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, while 66.5% of nurses, 73.9% of healthcare personnel, also preferred to have it as soon as the vaccine was available. Factors affecting the willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine were found to be advanced age, male gender, working in a primary health care center, living with family, having a child, having a chronic disease, having high Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FC-19S) scores. While the group with the highest vaccine rejection rate was nurses with 33.5%, FC-19S scores were significantly higher in nurses who wanted to be vaccinated. In multivariate regression analyses, factors related to the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine were identified as advanced age, routine adult vaccination, no history of COVID-19, and recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusion:A high proportion of healthcare professionals declared their willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine, and hence, this will play a leading role in optimizing the vaccination rate of the entire population while combating the pandemic. What's known• The COVID-19 vaccines developed are seen as the solution to control and terminate the pandemic.• Healthcare professionals play a vital role in the general public's decisions to receive vaccinations.

IntroductionIt has been known that vitamin D has some immunomodulatory effects and in autoimmune thyroid diseases, vitamin D deficiency was more prevalent. In this study, our aim was to investigate the relationship between thyroid autoantibodies and vitamin D.Material and methodsGroup 1 and 2 consisted of 254 and 27 newly diagnosed Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves’ disease (GD) cases, respectively; age-matched 124 healthy subjects were enrolled as controls (group 3). All subjects (n = 405) were evaluated for 25OHD and thyroid autoantibody [anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (anti-tg)] levels.ResultsGroup 2 and group 1 patients had lower 25OHD levels than group 3 subjects 14.9 ±8.6 ng/ml, 19.4 ±10.1 ng/ml and 22.5 ±15.4 ng/ml, respectively (p < 0.001). Serum 25OHD levels inversely correlated with anti-tg (r = –0.136, p = 0.025), anti-TPO (r = –0.176, p = 0.003) and parathormone (PTH) (r = –0.240, p < 0.001). Group 2 patients had higher anti-tg and anti-TPO levels than group 1 and 3 (p < 0.001).ConclusionsIn this study, we found that patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) present with lower vitamin D levels and GD patients have higher prevalence. Since we found an inverse correlation between vitamin D levels and thyroid antibody levels, we may suggest that vitamin D deficiency is one of the potential factors in pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid disorders.

Background/aim: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the initial hematological findings analyzed on admission in confirmed COVID-19 patients who were transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU), to predict possible hematological indices. Materials and methods: Initial neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), red cell distribution width to platelet ratio (RPR), mean platelet volume to platelet ratio, and lymphocyte multiplied by platelet count (LYM x PLT), of 695 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were investigated and compared between the mild/moderate and severe groups. Results: The proportion of COVID-19 cases admitted to ICU was 3.9%. The median age of patients admitted to ICU was significantly higher than those who were not; (68.5 (interquartile range (IQR); 21.5) years vs. 41.0 (IQR; 15.7) years; p <0.001). Severe cases had higher NLR (6.6 vs 2.4; P <0.001), and MLR (0.40 vs 0.28; P=0.004) and lower PLR (180.0 vs 129.0; P <0.001) compared to that of mild or moderate patients. Among all of the parameters, the ROC curve of NLR gave us the best ability to distinguish serious patients at an early stage (AUC = 0. 819, 95% confidence interval 0.729-0.910; p<0.001). Conclusion: These data showed that age, initial NLR, PLR, and LYM x PLT were associated with the severity of COVID-19 disease and patients' need for the ICU. Therefore, initial hemogram parameters may be essential to predict the prognosis of COVID-19 patients.

Objective: To investigate the frequency of vitamin D deficiency in relation to demographics, clinical diagnosis, season of measurement and laboratory parameters in adult out-patients. Design: Descriptive, retrospective study concerning evaluation of the initial 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels determined at admission in relation to demographics, clinical diagnosis, season of measurement and laboratory parameters. 25(OH)D levels ,20 ng/ml were classified as deficiency, 20-30 ng/ml as insufficiency and .30 ng/ml as sufficiency. Setting: Out-patient clinics at a tertiary care centre. Subjects: A total of 2488 adult patients (mean age: 53?3 (SD 15?2) years; 85?2 % were females) admitted to out-patient clinics at Baskent University Istanbul Hospital were included. Results: Mean level of 25(OH)D in the overall population was 17?4 (SD 11?5) ng/ml while insufficiency and deficiency were evident in 24 % and 66 % of patients, respectively. Mean 25(OH)D levels in males .45 years old were higher than in their female counterparts (19?4 (SD 11?3) ng/ml v. 17?8 (SD 12?2) ng/ml; P , 0?05). Mean 25(OH)D levels obtained in summer (18?6 (SD 11?1) ng/ml) and autumn (23?3 (SD 13?6) ng/ml) were significantly higher than levels in spring (16?1 (SD 10?3) ng/ml) and winter (14?6 (SD 10?2) ng/ml; P , 0?01). Mean 25(OH)D levels were determined to be significantly lower in obese patients compared with non-obese patients (15?6 (SD 10?4) ng/ml v. 17?6 (SD 11?6) ng/ml; P , 0?05). Levels of 25(OH)D were significantly negatively correlated with serum parathyroid hormone levels (r 5 20?194; P , 0?001) while significantly positively correlated with phosphorus (r 5 0?059; P , 0?01) and HDL cholesterol (r 5 0?070; P , 0?01) levels. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that vitamin D deficiency is very common among out-patients in Turkey, regardless of gender and age, especially among obese people and during winter and spring.

Objective: To find out the frequency of vitamin D deficiency and its relation with glucose parameters and the incidence of gestational diabetes (GDM). Methodology: Gestational diabetes was diagnosed with 75 gram oral glucose tolerance test. Forty-four pregnant women diagnosed with GDM and 78 non-GDM pregnant women were enrolled as case and control group, respectively in this descriptive study. Vitamin D status was classified as deficiency at ≤20 ng/ml for serum 25(OH)D concentrations. Results: The mean ages were 33.4±5.2 (18-44) years and 29.7±4.1 (21-39) years, mean BMI was 30.6±5.9 kg/m² (19.5-46.1) and 25.9±4.4 kg/m2 (16.5-38) in case and control groups, respectively. The frequency of GDM was found 9.38%. The mean serum vitamin D levels in GDM group were significantly lower than in non-GDM subjects (p=0.07). A total of 56.8% of GDM patients were compared with 35.8% of control group which had Vitamin D deficiency and the difference was significant (p= 0.02). There was no significant association between vitamin D levels and fasting glucose, insulin and HbA1c. Vitamin D levels were inversely correlated with clothing style, parathyroid hormone levels, dental problems and muscle cramps. Conclusions: The association of maternal Vitamin D status with the markers of glucose metabolism in pregnancy needs prospective studies.