Zoi Tsimtsiou

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki | AUTH · Department of Hygiene, Medical School

We aimed to document vaccination coverage for five vaccines, predictors of each vaccine’s uptake and attitudes regarding adult vaccination. Adults visiting four pharmacies were randomly invited to participate during summer 2022. Among 395 participants (mean age 51.2 years, range 19–96), vaccination rates were 78.1% for influenza and 25.8% for herpe...

Background: Chronic periodontitis (CP) is a multifactorial, chronic inflammatory disease of microbial etiology that manifests as a result of the dysfunction of the immune mechanism, culminating in the destruction of the alveolar bone of the jaws. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disorder that affects the central nervous system (CNS), leads...

Ongoing study with preliminary results

Objectives: To evaluate possible associations between learners' results in written and performance-based assessments of communication skills (CS), either in concurrent or predictive study designs. Methods: Search included four databases for peer-reviewed studies containing both written and performance-based CS assessment. Eleven studies met the...

Although vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of preventing disease, vaccine hesitancy has been included among the ten threats of global health. Addressing low adult vaccination rates requires an adequate understanding of people's views. We explored perceived barriers to immunization among under-vaccinated adults to identify potential...

Objective The aim of this scoping review was to investigate the published literature on written assessment of communication skills in health professionals’ education. Methods Pubmed, Embase, Cinahl and Psychnfo were screened for the period 1/1995-7/2020. Selection was conducted by four pairs of reviewers. Four reviewers extracted and analyzed the...

Despite the unequivocal value of vaccination in reducing the global burden of infectious diseases, the anti-vaccination movement thrives. The vast majority of the existing validated tools explore attitudes regarding vaccination in children. The aim of our study was to develop and validate a scale assessing attitudes towards adult immunisation. This...

Introduction: Treated but uncontrolled hypertension is a worldwide challenge. Exploring patient perspectives in different cultures and contexts could contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of poor blood pressure (BP) control. This study aimed to investigate patients' knowledge and attitudes towards BP management in order to identify poss...

Background: Research in primary care is necessary to empower its role in health systems and improve population health. Objective: The aim of this evaluation study was to assess the experiences of primary care physicians who participated as researchers in a multi-centre, mixed-methodology study on adult vaccination supported by a newly establishe...

Aims To determine the prevalence of type-2 diabetes patients that were initially and currently being treated by primary care physicians (PCPs) or diabetes specialists and assess predictors influencing their choice. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in nine Greek primary healthcare units. Patients’ choices were modeled using a bivari...

Background: The Greek National Health System is currently pursuing the strengthening of Primary Health Care (PHC). Citizen preferences for healthcare service utilization, their views on structural reform of the current system, and the profiling of those in favor of PHC are essential in planning a reform that respects citizens' needs. However, data...

Aim: The objective of this study was to explore the experiences and level of awareness among primary healthcare (PHC) professionals, who were trained and encouraged to participate as educators in a school-based intervention for safe internet use. Methods: All directors of the PHC centers of the Third Health Authority of the prefecture of Macedon...

Purpose Although safe Internet use is an emerging public health issue, there is a scarcity of published work describing relevant school-based interventions. The objective of this study was to explore the impact of a health professional-led, school-based intervention in raising awareness on cyber-safety in adolescents, Therefore, the aim of this stu...

Objectives: Effective communication is a vital component of patient-centered consultations with favourable treatment outcomes. This study aimed in testing the effectiveness of a personalized, communication training program for dermatologists in their practices. Methods: Fifteen dermatologists were offered the educational intervention NO.TE.S. (N...

Objectives: Assessment of clinical communication helps teachers in healthcare education determine whether their learners have acquired sufficient skills to meet the demands of clinical practice. The aim of this paper is to give input to educators when planning how to incorporate assessment into clinical communication teaching by building on the au...

Purpose This study investigated the prevalence of Internet addiction (IA) and cyberbullying and examined profiles of adolescents with increased risk to develop pathological behaviors. Methods In this cross-sectional, school-based study, 8053 students of 30 middle and 21 high schools (12–18 years old) were invited to participate, based on a multist...

Background: The Feeding Exercise Trial in Adolescents (FETA) aimed to evaluate whether a community-based, parents-involving, combined physical activity and nutritional education program was effective in improving adiposity profiles in overweight and obese adolescents. Methods: A total of 181 overweight and obese adolescents aged 13-15 years old...

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important condition, with implications in morbidity and mortality that primary care physicians should early detect. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of CKD among the elderly population in primary care settings and to investigate the extent to which serum creatinine reflects kidney f...

Background: Little is known regarding the Internet activities of children, although Internet habits and pathological usage have been previously described in adolescents. Objectives: This study aimed in describing Internet use in both primary and secondary school children in order to early detect habits with high risks of developing pathological Int...

Aim: To adapt cross-culturally the Atrial Fibrillation Effect on QualiTy-of-Life (AFEQT) for use in Greek patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and to evaluate its psychometric properties. Methods: Professional translators were involved in the inverse translation procedure. Twenty patients with AF participated in the cultural adaptation procedu...

Students of health professions are at high risk of hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection during their clinical training. The aim of this cross-sectional, multi-centered study was to investigate the HBV vaccination coverage in Greek medical, nursing, and paramedical students, to look into their attitudes towards the importance of vaccines and to reveal...

The increasing obesity trend in adolescence is a public health concern. The initial phase of Feeding Exercise Trial in Adolescents (FETA) aimed in investigating the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adolescents and their parents and in identifying associated factors among parents’ and adolescents’ demographics, eating habits, and parental sty...

The authors investigated the prevalence of Internet addiction (IA) in undergraduate medical students to identify possible associations with sociodemographics and Internet habits. All students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Medicine, Greece, were invited to complete the online Internet Addiction Test (IAT) along with sociodemo...

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate -for the first time in Greece- patients’ attitudes towards patient-centered care, by identifying the impact of socio-demographic factors, health condition, social support and religious beliefs. Methods 454 hospitalized patients were interviewed on the first day of their scheduled admission, answer...

An action research study was carried out to comprehend reasons for poor blood pressure control and to explore ways to disperse commonly-held myths in a rural community in northern Greece. Methods. Registered patients under antihypertensive treatment, with a routine follow-up appointment in a primary health care center, were surveyed with the use of...

Background: Patients vary considerably in their intentions to pursue legal action following a medical error. The aim of this study was to explore predictors of litigious intentions in both hospitalized patients and outpatients, determining the relative influences of patients' characteristics, help-seeking behavior, information-seeking attitudes an...

The aim of this project was to translate, culturally adapt and validate the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in Greek adults. Twenty-one post-graduate medical students participated in the cultural adaptation procedure and 151 both post- and under-graduate medical students in the validation process. The internal consistency shown by a Cronbach's alpha...

Introduction: Greece is striving to limit its health expenditure to essential needs. General practice and the provision of Primary Health Care (PHC) mainly take place in rural settings, where approximately 200 Primary Health Care Centres (PHCCs) have been established. In order to determine how to optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of PHC se...

Little is known about medical students' perceptions of the factors that influence their academic performance. To detect factors medical students, in the final years of their undergraduate medical studies, believe affect their academic performance. We conducted semi-structured interviews with high-achieving and re-sitting students in the final two y...

Sharing information with patients and addressing their psychosocial needs are recognized as fundamental practices of patient-centered physicians. Our study explored predictors of physicians' patient-centered attitudes and yielded a better understanding of the relative influences of job satisfaction, employment status, specialty, previous communicat...

Master's programmes can provide continuing professional development, equipping GPs to teach, research, and lead general practice. A previous evaluation of the MSc in primary health care found that graduates were contributing significantly to the discipline of general practice. Given the changes in general practice over the last 10 years, it was con...

The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of general practitioners (GPs) applying to the MSc in Primary Health Care at King's College London and their reasons for doing so, and to see whether these have changed during the last 20 years. Demographic data came from 157 applications submitted between 1986 and 2006. GPs' answers to an op...

Emotional intelligence (EI) may be related to student characteristics (such as conscientiousness and empathy), and performance at medical school, although few studies have so far been conducted. To investigate the association of EI with students' age, sex, ethnicity and stage of study at a London medical school. All medical students were invited to...

Wide variations in anxiolytic and hypnotic prescribing by GPs in England have been described, but are largely unexplained. To examine the relationships between the volume of anxiolytics and hypnotics prescribed by GPs and their practice characteristics, population demography, and performance indicators. Cross-sectional study. All general practices...

Introduction: Patients' sexual concerns are frequently underestimated because of health professionals' reluctance to address sexual health issues. Though it has been documented that sexual attitudes are extremely influential in everyday clinical practice, limited data exist on identifying health professionals' attitudes. Aim: To explore sexual a...

OBJECTIVE: To perform linguistic and cultural adaptation of the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory (DSFI)-attitude subscale in the Greek language. METHOD: The instrument was translated into the Greek language using the bilingual translation methodology. The cultural adaptation was performed by its completion by 23 medical students. Subsequently...

Current management guidelines propose pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) as first line treatment for female stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of group PFMT under intensive supervision to that of individual home therapy in women with SUI. Thirty women with clinical and urodynamic diagnosis of SUI we...

Patient-centredness should be at the heart of medical education. This longitudinal study aimed to assess possible attitude changes towards patient-centredness in a medical students' cohort as they progressed through the clinical curriculum. It also investigated the possible impact of socio-demographic factors on students' attitudes. The same studen...

Although the World Health Organization has declared that sexual health is an integral part of overall health, physicians seem to engage in taking the sexual health history less than their patients would desire. This study aimed at investigating the factors that predict physicians' involvement in addressing sexual health issues, including their atti...

To develop and test step-wise treatment strategy for erectile dysfunction "non-responders" to tadalafil and vardenafil. Two groups [tadalafil-treated (TG); vardenafil-treated (VG)] of 100 consecutive patients complaining of non-response to treatments were enrolled in three-phase study. Phase 1: inadequate use was identified and patients were rechal...

To describe the development and assess the outcome of a workshop on erectile dysfunction (ED) management based on participating physicians evaluations. The study involved physicians who attended a workshop offered throughout the country, during a 3-year period. The workshop included tutorials, video-based dramatizations, and role-play sessions. A p...

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is highly prevalent in men with cardiovascular disease (CVD), yet it is frequently underrecognized and underdiagnosed in clinical practice. Even among clinicians who acknowledge the relevance of addressing sexual issues in their patients, there is a general lack of awareness of the optimal approach for sexual problem ident...