Women’s health project takes a major first step

A GROUNDBREAKING Oxford University-led project to map the health of women living in the TRNC took a major step forward this week, as the first of 8,000 participants gave details of their lives.

Female staff at Lefkoşa Turkish Municipality and private company Orhan Şevket were among the first to take part in a 30-minute survey to record their health history.

They also provided their weight, height and waist measurements along with their blood pressure.

Women aged 18 to 55, who are TRNC citizens and have lived in North Cyprus for more than five years, are being asked to take part in the Cyprus Women’s Health Research (Cohere) study.

Researchers will gather “vital health and morbidity data, and investigate factors affecting women’s health and care-seeking patterns”.

A “data collection team” is targeting businesses as a means of reaching more women. As well as the capital, the team has already paid visits to the Maraş area of Gazimağusa, İskele and Güzelyurt.

“It will be hard to reach out to as many women as we can to reach our target figure, since it can be hard to find women at home during the daytime,” Turkish Cypriot project leader and senior research assistant at Oxford University Nilüfer Ramiz Rahmioğlu said.

“Some do not want to be part of the project because they haven’t heard of what we are aiming to do, which is why we have created a number of short films and commercials to promote what we are working towards.”

Online surveys will also be available soon in both Turkish and English, researchers said.

An informational meeting was also held on Thursday at the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Commerce for those who wish to become part of the project, where a number of women were informed about the “mission and vision” of the research.

Those wishing to take part in the Eastern Mediterranean University(EMU)-backed study can also provide a saliva swab sample for a “genetic map” of some 1,000 women and have optional pelvic ultrasounds, which can be done at the British Cyprus IVF Hospital in Lefkoşa every day between 4pm and 4.30pm.

EMU and the IVF hospital are helping collect “medical history data, gynaecological profiles of women, along with lifestyle factors such as diet”, according to Cohere’s official website.

“Due to its political context, Northern Cyprus has been relatively isolated from the rest of Europe for [more than] 40 years,” it says.

“Consequently, there is a complete absence of population-level health data from this emerging region in Europe, and it is excluded from all health statistics reported for Cyprus . . .

“We aim to investigate the influences of the Cypriot adaption of the ‘Mediterranean lifestyle’, as well as genetic factors specific to Eastern Mediterranean populations on disease occurrence.”