Weight loss maintenance in women two to eleven years after participating in a commercial program: a survey

BACKGROUND: After 5 years, most reports show that less than 10% of people maintain a 5% loss from initial body weight. Weight maintenance after 10 years is rarely assessed, especially in commercial programs. The current article reports weight maintenance in individuals who had participated 2 to 11 years earlier in a popular commercial weight loss program based on Canada's Food Guide called Mincavi. METHODS: Randomly picked subjects answered a telephone questionnaire. Participants, 291 adult women from various regions of the province of Quebec, had followed the program 2 to 11 years earlier for at least a month. Body weight at the beginning and at the end of treatment was recorded as well as actual weight, age and height. Existing records allowed partial verification of the sample. RESULTS: Based on corrected weights, percentage of women who maintained at least 5% of their initial weight loss are as following; 2 years = 43.6% (n = 55), 3 years = 33.3% (n = 42), 4 years = 23.8% (n = 42), 5–6 years = 38.2% (n = 55), 7–8 years = 29.4% (n = 51), and 9–11 years; 19.6% (n = 46). Five to eleven years after they had participated in the program 29.1% of all women maintained a weight loss of at least 5%, while 14.3% maintained a loss of at least 10%. CONCLUSIONS: Even though success rate is not as high as could be wished for, results show that participation in the Mincavi program can lead to effective weight maintenance long after individuals have left it. These findings suggest more thorough studies should be conducted on this weight loss program

What factors influence the prevalence and accuracy of nursing diagnoses documentation in clinical practice? A systematic literature review

Aim. To identify what determinants influence the prevalence and accuracy of nursing diagnosis documentation in clinical practice. Background. Nursing diagnoses guide and direct nursing care. They are the foundation for goal setting and provide the basis for interventions. The literature mentions several factors that influences nurses' documentation of diagnoses, such as a nurse's level of education, patient's condition and the ward environment. Design. Systematic review. Method. MEDLINE and CINAHL databases were searched using the following headings and keywords: nursing diagnosis, nursing documentation, hospitals, influence, utilisation, quality, implementation and accuracy. The search was limited to articles published between 1995-October 2009. Studies were only selected if they were written in English and were primary studies addressing factors that influence nursing diagnosis documentation. Results. In total, 24 studies were included. Four domains of factors that influence the prevalence and accuracy of diagnoses documentation were found: (1) the nurse as a diagnostician, (2) diagnostic education and resources, (3) complexity of a patient's situation and (4) hospital policy and environment. Conclusion. General factors, which influence decision-making, and nursing documentation and specific factors, which influence the prevalence and accuracy of nursing diagnoses documentation, need to be distinguished. To support nurses in documenting their diagnoses accurately, we recommend taking a comprehensive perspective on factors that influence diagnoses documentation. A conceptual model of determinants that influence nursing diagnoses documentation, as presented in this study, may be helpful as a reference for nurse managers and nurse educators. Relevance to clinical practice. This review gives hospital management an overview of determinants for possible quality improvements in nursing diagnoses documentation that needs to be undertaken in clinical practic

Food selection associated with sense of coherence in adults

BACKGROUND: Favorable dietary habits promote health, whereas unfavorable habits link to various chronic diseases. An individual's "sense of coherence" (SOC) is reported to correlate with prevalence of some diseases to which dietary habits are linked. However, understanding what determines an individual's dietary preferences and how to change his/her behavior remains limited. The aim of the present study was to evaluate associations between dietary intake and SOC in adults. METHODS: Diet intake was recorded by an 84-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire and SOC was measured by the 13-item Antonovsky questionnaire in 2,446 men and 2,545 women (25–74 years old) from the population based northern Sweden MONICA screening in 1999. RESULTS: Intakes of energy, total and saturated fat, ascorbic acid, sucrose, and servings of fruits, vegetables, cereals, and sweets correlated with SOC among women, whereas intakes of total and saturated fat, ascorbic acid, fiber, and alcohol, and servings of fruits, vegetables, bread, bread and cereals, fish, and potatoes correlated with SOC among men. With a few exceptions, intakes of these nutrients/foods were significantly explained by SOC quartile scores in linear GLM models. Both women and men classified into the highest SOC quartile had significantly higher age-BMI-education standardized mean intakes of vegetables than those in the lowest quartiles. Women in the highest SOC quartile also had higher intake of fruits but lower intakes of energy, total and saturated fat, sucrose, and sweets. Projection to latent structures (PLS) multivariate modeling of intakes of the 84 food items and food aggregates simultaneously on SOC scores supported low SOC to coincide with a presumably less health promoting dietary preference, e.g. intake of pizza, soft drinks, candies, sausages for main course, hamburgers, mashed potato, chips and other snacks, potato salad, French fries, whereas men and women with high SOC scores were characterized by e.g. high intake of rye crisp whole meal bread, boiled potato, vegetables, berries, and fruits. CONCLUSION: Both men and women in the highest, as compared with the lowest, SOC score quartile reported more "healthy" food choices. Dietary habits for individuals in the lowest SOC quartile therefore may render a higher risk for various endemic diseases

Nursing documentation in clinical practice : Instrument development and evaluation of a comprehensive intervention programme

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyse effects of a two-year comprehensive intervention concerning nursing documentation in patient records when using the VIPS model - a model designed to structure nursing documentation. Registered Nurses (RNs) from three acute care hospital wards participated in a two-year intervention programme, in addition, a fourth ward was used for comparison. The intervention consisted of education about nursing documentation in accordance with the VIPS model and organisational changes. To evaluate effects of the intervention patient records (n=269) were audited on three occasions: before the intervention, immediately after the intervention and three years after the intervention. For this purpose, a patient record audit instrument, the Cat-ch-Ing, was constructed and tested. The instrument aims at measuring both quantitatively and qualitatively to what extent the content of the nursing process is documented in the patient record. Inter-rater reliability, content validity, criterion-related validity, construct validity and internal consistency of the instrument were found to be satisfactory. A questionnaire was answered by 34 RNs to measure effects of the intervention. Their answer score was compared with the answer score of 343 RNs from other hospitals who had received a three-day course on nursing documentation based on the VIPS model. The questionnaire consisted of statements describing prerequisites and consequences about nursing documentation. Twenty RNs who had participated in the intervention programme also participated in focus group discussions on the effects of the intervention. The purpose was to describe their perceptions of and attitudes towards the effects of the intervention and to generate hypotheses for future research. The findings indicated a significant audit score increase in both quantity and quality of nursing documentation in the intervention wards immediately and three years after the intervention. The RNs who answered the questionnaire were largely in agreement about most of the specified consequences and prerequisites of nursing documentation. They perceived their documentation to increase patients' safety and to be beneficial to RNs in their daily work. The use of the VIPS model was considered a facilitator of the documentation process. Statements in the focus group discussions were that the structured way of documenting nursing care made the RNs 'think more' and 'think in a different way' about their work with their patients. Two types of role changing for the RNs were reported: change from a medical technical focus to a more nursing expertise orientation and change from a "hands on clinician" to more of an administrator. This study demonstrates that training RNs to use a structured documentation system improves their record-keeping and care planning skills, however, such a system is not sufficient. There are likely other factors in the organisation of the clinical practice that influence the action of documenting nursing care in addition to lack of knowledge and practice