Browsing by Author "Pak, Halil"

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Citation - WoS: 17
Citation - Scopus: 17
Family Physicians' Knowledge About and Attitudes Towards Covid-19 - a Cross-Sectional Multicentric Study
(Korean Soc Antimicrobial Therapy, 2020) Gokdemir, Ozden; Pak, Halil; Bakola, Maria; Bhattacharya, Sudip; Hoedebecke, Kyle; Jelastopulu, Eleni
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected every country on earth, and family physicians (FPs) have helped patients at every stage. The first objective of our study was to study the FPs' knowledge about COVID-19 and second objective was to assess their attitudes, stress and death anxiety surrounding the current pandemic. Materials and Methods: An online questionnaire was prepared to collect responses from FPs between March-April 2020. A descriptive and correlational design was utilized. Results: 240 FPs from eight countries were evaluated. The majority reported that they received most information from medical journals (77%). Most of the respondents also noted that the most common symptoms were acute respiratory syndrome and fever - with the most effective treatment in most cases consisting of symptomatic treatment (41%). Although FPs generally had a positive attitude, most of them (68%) were concerned about contacting COVID-19 from patients and as a result, they experienced increased stress (64%). Conclusion: The research was conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak while the FPs were working on the frontline of the pandemic. This research revealed that most of the FPs had good knowledge of, and a positive attitude towards COVID-19 treatment. It was observed that participants who tended towards conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience, and who had higher life satisfaction, and lower levels of death anxiety also reported more positive attitudes towards COVID-19. While the main target population of COVID-19 disease were the older age groups, FPs' attitudes and fear levels were not associated with age, gender, or years of experience.
Citation - WoS: 51
Citation - Scopus: 44
The Mediating Effects of Fear of Covid-19 and Depression on the Association Between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Emotional Eating During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Turkey
(Springer, 2022) Pak, Halil; Susen, Yanki; Nazligul, Merve Denizci; Griffiths, Mark
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the mental health of individuals due to severe changes in their normal life routines. These changes might give rise to stress-induced factors and result in developing maladaptive behaviors. Therefore, the present study tested an explorative sequential mediation model regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as a global natural experiment and hypothesized that fear and depression would be serial mediators of the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and emotional eating. An online cross-sectional survey with convenience sampling was adopted. A total of 362 participants were recruited from Turkey, and each completed a battery of demographic questions and psychometric scales. The standardized instruments used to test the model's constructs were the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R21. The model was tested using a bootstrapping method utilizing IBM AMOS 24 software. Results showed that emotional eating was positively associated with intolerance of uncertainty, fear of COVID-19, and depression. Moreover, fear of COVID-19 had positive correlation with intolerance of uncertainty and depression. Significant negative association was also found between age and intolerance of uncertainty. In addition, females significantly reported higher levels of emotional eating and fear of COVID-19 than males. The study's hypothesized sequential mediation model was further supported. It is concluded that depression most likely developed by fear was triggered by intolerance of uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic and leading to emotional eating. The study is significant because it advances theories of emotional eating with an investigation examining some of its underlying mechanisms. Also, it is one of a few research studies highlighting to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic-related cognitions and emotions are associated with maladaptive behaviors in the case of emotional eating.
Citation - WoS: 1
Citation - Scopus: 1
Role Expectations From Doctors and Effects on Nonmedical Outcomes
(Wiley, 2020) Kasnakoglu, Berna Tari; Pak, Halil
Rationale, aims, and objectives The predominant assumption of doctor professionalism may be prone to unpredicted alterations in the face of a new age of doctoring. The aim in this study is to explore one dimension in the doctor-patient dyadic relationship: the face-to-face interaction between doctors and patients and whether satisfaction of role expectations affects service outcomes as perceived by the patient-consumer. Methods In the first qualitative phase, 10 physicians and 11 patients were interviewed in-depth for the purposes of understanding the variations in role expectations from doctors. These details were then used to construct the scenarios to be used in the second quantitative phase. Scenario-based experimental data were collected using a cross-sectional sample consisting of 432 individuals. Results Although positive emotions lead to positive outcomes when the doctor is role-congruent, positive emotions lead to even better outcomes when the doctor is behaving too friendly. In addition, negative emotions lead to negative outcomes in both scenarios; however, outcomes become worse when the doctor is role-incongruent. Conclusions Role expectations play a moderating role between emotions and service outcomes. The medical performance can be perceived good or bad depending on whether the doctor smiles too much or not. Results are discussed within the context of role expectation theory and the changing nature of service relationships in the health care sector.
Citation - WoS: 1
Socioeconomic Conflict Between Host Community and Syrian Refugees in Urban Turkey: the Mediating Role of Political Trust
(Istanbul Univ, Fac Letters, Dept Psychology, 2020) Pak, Halil; Elitsoy, Zeliha Asli
This study investigated socioeconomic conflict between the host community and Syrian refugees in urban Turkey. It was aimed to explore the mediating role of political trust in the relationship between personal economic satisfaction and socioeconomic threat perception toward refugees among the host community. Accordingly, 243 local urban residents from different cities of Turkey including Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir were reached using a cross-sectional survey approach and convenience sample method. Regarding the Turkish political, social and economic culture and previous studies, assessment tools were generated for the purpose of this study to measure socioeconomic threat perception, personal economic satisfaction, political trust, and satisfaction with public policies. The participants' age, city, education, gender and income information were obtained using a demographic form. Data was collected via an online survey program. Controlling for demographic variables (age, city, education, gender, and income) and satisfaction with public services, the indirect effect of political trust was analyzed using a bootstrapping method via PROCESS Macro plug-in for SPSS. The research findings showed that personal economic satisfaction was significantly associated with political trust and socioeconomic threat perception. Moreover, political trust was also significantly related to socioeconomic threat perception. More importantly, in accordance with the main hypothesis of the study, it was found that political trust mediated the relationship between personal economic satisfaction and socioeconomic threat perception. According to this result, it can be said that less satisfaction with personal economic conditions led to less political trust, which then resulted in greater socioeconomic threat perception toward refugees. The results were discussed in the light of previous findings, Integrated Threat Theory, Realistic Group Threat Theory, and System Justification Theory. Lastly, limitations and suggestions for future research were evaluated in the discussion part of the study.
The Use of Contraceptive Method Patterns Evaluation at Family Health Centers
(Istanbul Univ, Fac Medicine, Publ Off, 2021) Gokdemir, Ozden; Pak, Halil; Aygun, Olgu; Bulut, Ulku; Ekim Yardim, Sabire Ilke; Balik, Gurcan; Yaprak, Seval
Objective: Family planning is one of key responsibilities of family physicians; providing birth control methods, and ensuring its practical application remains important for maternal and child health. The aim of this study is to determine the contraception methods used by the individuals who applied to Family Health Centers (FHC) and to reveal the relationship between family planning methods chosen. Material and Methods: A descriptive research method was adopted for this study using the follow-up records of the FHCs. One thousand two hundred thirty-two follow-up records in total were accessed between March 2018 and December 2018, and SPSS 21.0 was used for data analysis. Results: Mean ranks provide evidence that age scores were higher for the users of tubal ligation, and this group had significantly more children than the users of combined oral contraceptives (p<0.001), condom (p<0.001) and intrauterine device (p=0.043). When all the follow-ups were evaluated, it was seen that the number of people who did not use contraceptive methods was high. Conclusion: Family planning and sexual education are associated with the availability and sustainability of resources that are crucial for healthcare. It remains important to provide Family Planning counseling to those who do not use any contraceptive method during the follow-up.