Evaluation of Attitudes of Family Physicians toward Occupational Health and Occupational Diseases in Türkiye

Background/Aim: This study evaluated family physicians’ attitudes toward occupational health and disease in Türkiye. Materials and Methods: The study is cross-sectional and descriptive in a quantitative research design. The “Attitude Scale for Physicians toward Occupational Health and Occupational Diseases” developed by Kolcu et al. was used in the study (Cronbach’s α 0.94). Our study aimed to sample the entire country using the stratified sample selection based on geographical region. 349 family physicians were included in the study according to sample size (n: 349). Results: The mean age of the participants in the study was 37.77 ± 8.96 (min: 27, max: 65 years). Of the participants, 65.2% were male. Of the physicians, 33.8% were family medicine specialists, and 38.8% had occupational physician certificates. It was determined that the level of attitude of family physicians toward occupational diseases was insufficient. It was also found that awareness increased as age increased, and awareness and attitude levels did not change according to gender. No significant difference was found in the scale total scores and subdimensions of family physicians’ occupational health and occupational disease attitudes according to the regions they worked in Türkiye. Conclusion: It has been concluded that there is no difference in awareness among family physicians in regions where it is much more important to diagnose an occupational disease, especially in industrial regions. The number of family physicians with occupational physician certificates was very insufficient, and a significant number of those who had occupational physician certificates did not practice occupational medicine.

Pre-service Early Childhood Teachers’ Attitude Towards Mathematics: A Jamaican Inquiry

The purpose of the study was to evaluate Jamaican early childhood pre-service teachers’attitudes towards mathematics.The study is designed according to the quantitative survey model in the descriptive type.In this study,a modified version of the Fennema-Sherman mathematics attitude scale was used to measure the mathematics attitude of 144 early childhood pre-service teachers in four different categories of the attitude scale(mathematics usefulness,confidence in learning mathematics,mathematics anxiety,and mathematics motivation).The data were collected from participants in the five teachers’colleges that offer the early childhood education program in Jamaica.The findings revealed that Jamaican early childhood pre-service teachers generally have a more positive attitude towards mathematics.A comparison among the different year groups revealed that a significantly greater percentage of the Year two group of participants possessed a more positive mathematics attitude than the other year groups.A significantly higher percentage of the Year three group indicated that they do not want to teach the subject in the future.The findings have implications for the teaching and learning of mathematics in the early childhood education program in Jamaica and,by extension,the teaching and learning of mathematics at the early childhood level of the education system.

Pre-service Early Childhood Teachers’Attitude Towards Mathematics:A Jamaican Inquiry

The purpose of the study was to evaluate Jamaican early childhood pre-service teachers’attitudes towards mathematics.The study is designed according to the quantitative survey model in the descriptive type.In this study,a modified version of the Fennema-Sherman mathematics attitude scale was used to measure the mathematics attitude of 144 early childhood pre-service teachers in four different categories of the attitude scale(mathematics usefulness,confidence in learning mathematics,mathematics anxiety,and mathematics motivation).The data were collected from participants in the five teachers’colleges that offer the early childhood education program in Jamaica.The findings revealed that Jamaican early childhood pre-service teachers generally have a more positive attitude towards mathematics.A comparison among the different year groups revealed that a significantly greater percentage of the Year two group of participants possessed a more positive mathematics attitude than the other year groups.A significantly higher percentage of the Year three group indicated that they do not want to teach the subject in the future.The findings have implications for the teaching and learning of mathematics in the early childhood education program in Jamaica and,by extension,the teaching and learning of mathematics at the early childhood level of the education system.

Attitudes towards prescribing psychiatric medicines: Do the views of psychology and medical students differ?

Concordance has been suggested as a process of the consultation in which prescribing process is based on partnership. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to compare attitudes towards psychiatric medication and concordance in medicine taking between medical and psychology students, as they represent future members of mental health teams. Two hundred and sixteen medical students and 222 psychology students completed the Leeds Attitudes toward Concordance scale (LATCon) and the Beliefs about Medication Questionnaire (BMQ) (both adapted for psychiatric medication). Psychology students saw psychiatric medicines as more harmful and were also most likely to believe that psychiatrists overprescribed these medicines. They also scored higher than medical students on attitudes towards concordance, although this difference remained at the limit of statistical significance.