{"id":4212,"date":"2026-05-29T12:07:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/?p=4212"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:07:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:07:55","slug":"machine-learning-driven-prediction-of-decisional-uncertainty-among-medical-students-post-kahramanmaras-earthquake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/machine-learning-driven-prediction-of-decisional-uncertainty-among-medical-students-post-kahramanmaras-earthquake\/","title":{"rendered":"Machine learning-driven prediction of decisional uncertainty among medical students post-Kahramanmaras earthquake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong>: Predicting psychiatric outcomes in individuals indirectly affected by natural disasters remains a significant challenge. While direct victims receive immediate attention, indirect victims\u2014including family and friends of those affected\u2014can also experience considerable psychological distress.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Objective<\/strong>: This study explores the tendency to report decisional uncertainty (selecting \u201cnot sure\u201d responses) regarding emotional and academic states, which may be associated with depressive symptoms. We operationalized this tendency using a pragmatic proxy: the sum of \u201cnot sure\u201d responses across four self-report domains, rather than a validated decisional uncertainty scale.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Methods<\/strong>: Medical students (<em>n <\/em>= 129), both indirectly affected and unaffected by the Kahramanmaras earthquake through family exposure, were recruited. The proxy measure for decisional uncertainty was calculated from responses concerning hobbies, nutrition, occupational satisfaction, and academic success. Associations with depression, anxiety, and earthquake exposure were analyzed using correlation analyses. Exploratory machine learning (ML) models\u2014including random forest (RF), gradient boosting machines, and support vector machines\u2014were employed to explore the feasibility of classifying this decisional uncertainty proxy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results<\/strong>: A weak positive correlation was found between the decisional uncertainty proxy and depression scores (<em>r <\/em>= 0.247, <em>p <\/em>= 0.005). However, a multivariable model identified academic and nutritional status as stronger independent predictors of the proxy than depression or anxiety scores. In exploratory ML analysis, models such as RF demonstrated the feasibility of classifying decisional uncertainty, achieving above-chance accuracy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong>: Preliminary findings suggest a weak association between a simple proxy for decisional uncertainty and depressive symptoms. Exploratory ML approaches show initial promise in identifying this proxy status. These results highlight a novel methodological pathway; however, they are preliminary and underscore the necessity for future validation and calibration against a dedicated, clinically validated decisional uncertainty instrument before any substantive clinical or predictive claims can be made.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ipubw-h2 mar-b-12 ipub-article-title\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">\n<p>Machine learning-driven prediction of decisional uncertainty among medical students post-Kahramanmaras earthquake<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ipubw-p3 mar-b-12\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><span class=\"ipub-nowrap\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"> Kadir Uludag<sup data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">1* <i class=\"ipub-icon iconfont icon-Email\" data-v-88ab4a9c=\"\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><\/i> <i class=\"ipub-icon iconfont icon-ORCID\" data-v-88ab4a9c=\"\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><\/i><\/sup>,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"ipub-nowrap\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"> Fatih Kara<sup data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">2 <i class=\"ipub-icon iconfont icon-ORCID\" data-v-88ab4a9c=\"\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><\/i><\/sup>,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"ipub-nowrap\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"> Ta\u015fk\u0131n Soyaslan<sup data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">2 <i class=\"ipub-icon iconfont icon-ORCID\" data-v-88ab4a9c=\"\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><\/i><\/sup>,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"ipub-nowrap\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"> \u00d6mer \u00c7elik<sup data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">2 <i class=\"ipub-icon iconfont icon-ORCID\" data-v-88ab4a9c=\"\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><\/i><\/sup>,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"ipub-nowrap\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"> Enes K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fckbey<sup data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">2 <i class=\"ipub-icon iconfont icon-ORCID\" data-v-88ab4a9c=\"\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><\/i><\/sup>,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"ipub-nowrap\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"> Hongxing Wang<sup data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">1* <i class=\"ipub-icon iconfont icon-Email\" data-v-88ab4a9c=\"\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><\/i> <i class=\"ipub-icon iconfont icon-ORCID\" data-v-88ab4a9c=\"\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><\/i><\/sup><\/span><\/div>\n<div data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div class=\"ipubw-p3 mar-b-12\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><br \/>\n<div data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">\n<div data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><sup data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">1<\/sup> <span data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">Division of Neuropsychiatry and Psychosomatics, Department of Neurology, Capital Medical University, Xuanwu Hospital, Beijing<\/span>, <span class=\"ipub-nowrap\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">China<\/span><\/div>\n<div data-v-e10c8a60=\"\"><sup data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">2<\/sup> <span data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Kars Kafkas University, Kars<\/span>, <span class=\"ipub-nowrap\" data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">Turkey<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-v-e10c8a60=\"\">link of study:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/healthpr.org\/journal\/HPR\/articles\/online_first\/7917\">https:\/\/healthpr.org\/journal\/HPR\/articles\/online_first\/7917<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background: Predicting psychiatric outcomes in individuals indirectly affected by natural disasters remains a significant challenge. While direct victims receive immediate attention, indirect victims\u2014including family and friends of those affected\u2014can also experience considerable psychological distress. Objective: This study explores the tendency <a href=\"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/machine-learning-driven-prediction-of-decisional-uncertainty-among-medical-students-post-kahramanmaras-earthquake\/\" class=\"read-more\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4213,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212\/revisions\/4213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifx0.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}