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Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical features of children with tracheostomy and the predictors of psychological status of their primary caregivers in order to determine the associations between the children's clinical course with their caregivers' psychological status. Background: The caregivers of children with tracheostomy are responsible for providing basic tracheostomy care at home. All these responsibilities may be associated with significant changes in family members' lifestyles, daily routines and family dynamics. Design: This study is a cross sectional study. Methods: Data of the family's socioeconomic status and clinical status of children with tracheostomy were noted in four paediatric pulmonology centers. The Beck Depression Inventory, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale, and Rosenberg Self‐esteem Scale were used for psychological measurements of the caregivers. The STROBE checklist was used for this study. Results: Eighty‐five children and their primary caregivers were enrolled in the study. The children's median age was 4.1 years. Thirty‐eight of them were dependent on home ventilators. Twenty‐one had bacterial colonisation. All children's primary caregivers were their mothers. Beck Depression Inventory scores of mothers of children with colonisation were higher. Number of hospitalizations in previous 6 months was related to mothers' emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scores. Duration of children's hospitalizations in previous 6 months was positively correlated to mothers' emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and Beck Depression Inventory scores. Conclusions: Mothers of children with tracheostomy may experience psychological conditions, such as high levels of depression, burnout, burden and low levels of self‐esteem. Frequent and long‐term hospitalizations of children correlated with mother's depression and burnout. Therefore, primary caregivers should be evaluated and supported psychologically. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Preventing mothers of children with tracheostomy from experiencing psychological conditions such as depression, burnout, burden and low self‐esteem can also increase the quality of care for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To objectively investigate the effect of passive smoking on pneumonia and disease severity in children aged less than 5 years by using cotinine as an indicator of passive smoking.Methods: Between December 2015 and April 2016, children aged less than 5 years with pneumonia and age-matched healthy controls were included in this study, which was conducted at three tertiary pediatric pulmonology centers. A questionnaire was given to the parents regarding demographic data and smoking status at home. Urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR) was measured. The data from the pneumonia and control groups, as well as children with mild and severe pneumonia within the pneumonia group, were compared.Results: A total of 227 subjects were included in the study; there were 74 children in the pneumonia group and 153 in the control group. The mean age of all the children was 33.4 ± 1.28 months. Of all subjects, 140 were male and 102 were exposed to passive smoking by their parents at home. There were statistically significant differences in age, number of people in the home, and mother's and father's age between the control and pneumonia groups (p < 0.05). No difference was found in the CCR in the control and pneumonia group (p > 0.05). Age and urinary CCR were significantly different between children with mild and severe pneumonia (p < 0.05).Conclusion: We showed that passive smoking exposure was associated with the development of severe pneumonia in children. Further studies are needed to examine the underlying cause in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although several scales are used to measure general and clinical learning climates, there are no scales that assess the preclinical learning climate. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an effective measurement tool in order to assess the preclinical learning climate. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 3,540 preclinical medical students of six medical faculties in Turkey. The methodology included the following activities: generate an item pool, receive expert opinions, perform a pretest to purify the instrument, and conduct factor and reliability analyses. According to the factor analysis, eight factors were determined and their contribution to the variance was 50.39%. In addition, the item factor loadings ranged from .31 to .91, Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the subscales ranged from .72 to .77, and the item-total correlation coefficients for the subscales ranged from .44 to .76. All the items significantly discriminated between the lowand high-performing students (t = 99.57; p = .01). The scale included 52 items with the following subscales: management, teaching, teaching staff, institutional commitment, emotions, inter-student relationships, physical environment, and motivation. The analysis of this newly developed Preclinical Learning Climate Scale (PLCS) indicated that its psychometric properties are appropriate and this scale can be employed to evaluate medical education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To objectively investigate the effect of passive smoking on pneumonia and disease severity in children aged less than 5 years by using cotinine as an indicator of passive smoking., Methods: Between December 2015 and April 2016, children aged less than 5 years with pneumonia and age-matched healthy controls were included in this study, which was conducted at three tertiary pediatric pulmonology centers. A questionnaire was given to the parents regarding demographic data and smoking status at home. Urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR) was measured. The data from the pneumonia and control groups, as well as children with mild and severe pneumonia within the pneumonia group, were compared., Results: A total of 227 subjects were included in the study; there were 74 children in the pneumonia group and 153 in the control group. The mean age of all the children was 33.4 ± 1.28 months. Of all subjects, 140 were male and 102 were exposed to passive smoking by their parents at home. There were statistically significant differences in age, number of people in the home, and mother's and father's age between the control and pneumonia groups (p < 0.05). No difference was found in the CCR in the control and pneumonia group (p > 0.05). Age and urinary CCR were significantly different between children with mild and severe pneumonia (p < 0.05)., Conclusion: We showed that passive smoking exposure was associated with the development of severe pneumonia in children. Further studies are needed to examine the underlying cause in detail., (© The Author(s) [2019]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)