Mustafa Çoban

This study examines the dynamics of local resistance to nuclear power plants (NPPs), specifically the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) phenomenon, within the context of Türkiye’s nuclear energy policies, and the role of gender, at the national level. The study was designed within the framework of the correlational survey model. Data were collected from 703 respondents via multistage random sampling by TurkStat to represent the national population. The dataset was analyzed using hierarchical logistic regression, MANOVA, McNemar, and serial mediation. The findings indicate that educational level and nuclear knowledge exert no statistically significant effect on local NPP acceptance, providing no support for the Knowledge Deficit Model in the Turkish sample. The rigid local resistance exhibited by female respondents (77.6%) was independent of parental status, and the gender gap in nuclear attitudes was attributed not to biological motivations but to heightened risk perception and compromised institutional trust. Furthermore, when relocation intention (behavioral resistance) was examined, perceived macro-level benefits and demographic variables lost their predictive power entirely. These results demonstrate that social acceptance of nuclear energy projects in Türkiye depends not on objective information or the expectation of economic benefits, but on the construction of institutional trust in decision-making bodies.

This study examines how ethical issues in palliative care are perceived and experienced by healthcare professionals and family caregivers in Türkiye. Using a phenomenological qualitative design, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 healthcare professionals and 10 family caregivers. Thematic analysis revealed two key themes: “decision-making process” and “service process.” While both groups shared similar ethical concerns, their priorities differed. Healthcare professionals emphasized institutional and professional challenges, whereas family caregivers focused on communication gaps, emotional needs, and inadequate patient-centered care. The findings highlight the complex interaction of professional authority, cultural norms, and institutional constraints shaping ethical practices. Strengthening ethical decision-making requires fostering open dialogue between healthcare teams and families, enhancing ethical awareness, clarifying informed consent, and ensuring fair access to services. These insights contribute to improving ethical standards, education, and research in palliative care. Based on participants’ lived experiences, these findings contribute to strengthening the ethical foundations of palliative care in Türkiye.

Studies on the tuberculosis pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacillus require a biosafety level 3 laboratory. This study aims to investigate the gender distribution of researchers working in the most hazardous tuberculosis laboratory. In this study, the original articles indexed in Web of Science between 1970 and 2021, which include phenotypic testing methods in which the susceptibility results of drugs used in the treatment of tuberculosis are determined, were reviewed. As a result of our analysis, it was found that female researchers were included as first name in the publications at a rate of 49%, unlike other fields of science, and 51% came from lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income countries. According to the incidence rates announced by the World Health Organization in the years when the articles were published, it was seen that female researchers participated in more studies in regions with a high incidence of tuberculosis to ('x̄' = 89.94). According to our data, it was found that the proportion of female researchers was high in the laboratory with a high risk of contamination of biosafety level 3. The high proportion of female researchers in hazardous areas is striking.

This study aims to explore how Chekhov depicted health tourism and medical institutions in his works, how he used illness as a narrative device, and what these depictions reveal about social attitudes toward health and medicine. The study employs a qualitative content analysis of Chekhov’s literary works, focusing on references to health resorts, medical practices, and illness. Frequency analysis was conducted to quantify the most mentioned health destinations, diseases, and medical treatments in his works. The research also examines the stylistic and thematic role of illness in Chekhov’s narrative structures. Findings indicate that Chekhov frequently referenced both Russian and European health destinations, including Yalta, Crimea, Kislovodsk, and Baden-Baden. His works highlight a variety of medical conditions such as tuberculosis, neurasthenia, rheumatism, and psychological disorders, often using them as metaphors for existential and social struggles. His minimalist and psychologically nuanced style allowed him to depict illness not just as a physical ailment but as a symbol of human fragility and social inequalities. Furthermore, Chekhov’s health resorts serve as spaces where characters undergo personal transformation, reflecting the broader cultural belief in the healing power of travel. Chekhov’s literary representation of health tourism offers valuable insights into historical medical practices and the social perceptions of illness during his era. His works contribute to the understanding of health tourism as both a medical necessity and a cultural phenomenon. By integrating realism with psychological depth, Chekhov created a nuanced portrait of the human experience of illness, self-discovery, and healing.

Objective: The study aims to analyze the quality of studies that make economic evaluations for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Assessing the quality of studies can guide policy-making and planning. Methods: One of the most recognized checklists “The Consensus on Health Economic Criteria” (CHEC)-list designed by Evers et al. in 2005 aims to answer two important questions: is the methodology of the study appropriate, and are the results of the study valid? We reviewed studies focusing on ALS and its economic costs, and evaluated the studies with (CHEC)-list. Results: We examined 25 articles in terms of their cost evaluation and quality. It is seen that they mainly focus on medical costs, ignoring social care costs. When the quality of the studies is examined, it is seen that the studies overall achieve high scores in terms of their purpose and research question, but some of the studies score low in terms of ethical dimension, comprehensiveness of expenditure items, their application of sensitivity analyses and their study design. Conclusions: The main recommendation of our study for future cost evaluation studies is that they should focus on the questions in the checklist that are scored low overall by the 25 articles, and consider the social care costs as well as medical costs. Our recommendations when designing cost studies can be applied to other chronic diseases with long-term economic costs like ALS.

COVID-19 has caused a major crisis all over the world. To manage this crisis, a fixed shift system was applied to nursing home staff in Turkey to protect nursing home residents from the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff were not allowed to leave the institution during fixed shifts. It is thought that this practice for the COVID-19 outbreak, while protecting nursing home residents on the one hand, increased the workload and related stress of nursing home staff on the other hand. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study examining the workload and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic for nursing home staff in Turkey. The aim of this study was to examine the level of workload and work stress experienced by staff working in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. Methods: A cross-sectional research design was used in the study. The sample of the study consisted of nursing home personnel working in nursing homes in the provinces of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya between October 2021 and January 2022. A personal information form and a workload and stress scale were used for collecting the data. Cluster analysis was performed with SPSS software. Results: In total, 154 nursing home personnel participated in the study. A statistically significant difference was found between the mean age of the two clusters. The first cluster was described as “old” and the second as “young”. Statistically significant and high values were found in the quantitative workload, qualitative workload, job organization, social work area and fatigue factors in the nursing home staff in the older participant cluster. Conclusion: The results of this study provide new information about the concepts of workload and work stress experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey, which will serve as a guide for the management of future pandemics. Therefore, this study will contribute to the strategies to be followed in future pandemics in Turkey.

Bakım hizmetlerine olan gereksinimin artması ile birlikte evde bakım hizmetlerine olan talebi artmıştır. Bu çalışmada evde bakım sistemini bakım sigortası ile bütünleştiren ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti kökenli kişilerin Türkiye dışında en fazla yaşadığı ülke olan Almanya ile Türkiye’deki evde bakım hizmetleri incelenmiştir. Araştırma, Almanya (n=10) ve Türkiye’de (n=13) evde bakım hizmetleri yöneticileriyle yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. Almanya’daki görüşmeciler, evde bakım hizmetlerinin sunumunda pazarlama sürecinde yoğun bir rekabetin yaşandığını, bakım planları ve standartları uygulamanın güçlüğü, sigorta şirketlerinin maliyetleri düşürmek odaklı yaklaşım içerisinde olduklarını, denetim sürecinde bürokratik işlemlere odaklanıldığını belirtmişlerdir. Türkiye’de, sağlık ve sosyal bakım uygulamalarının farklı kurumlar tarafından yönetilmesi, evde bakım hizmetlerinin de denetim eksikliği, haksız rekabeti düzenleyici uygulamaların yetersiz olması temel sorunlar olarak belirtilmiştir. Türkiye evde bakım hizmetlerinin tanımı, kapsamı gibi birçok konuda uzlaşım bulunmazken Almanya’da bu bir sorun olarak yer almamıştır.

Objectives: The purpose of this study are: a) to review evidence-based and cumulative information health tourism literature by bibliometric analyses; b) to identifies the current 100 top-cited articles in health tourism ranging from 1970 to 2020 and indexed in Web of Science (WoS). Method: Retrospective analysis was used bibliometric information from the database of WoS. The obtained data analyzed by using VOSviewer through a software package. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software version 23.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Results: The citation count of the most-cited articles varied from 27 to 361 WoS (1970 – 2020). The most productive year was 2010 and the most productive country is the USA. 65 different journals were detected and the most frequent article was Tourism Management. Total citation time was positively associated with the age of the article (p