Feeling unsafe in the healthcare setting: patients' perspectives

This literature review aimed to discover the factors that contribute to patients feeling unsafe in the healthcare setting. Electronic searches were undertaken using three databases to examine publications from 2002 to 2016. The design used a modified Cooper's (1982) five-stage integrative review method. Fourteen articles were identified, producing seven themes: information and communication, loss of control, staff presence, impersonal care, patients' vulnerable emotional and physical state, not being taken seriously, and the patient perception of of a lack of staff experience, knowledge, proactivity and interest. The findings suggest that, in maintaining a quality service for patients, nurses can contribute to the reduction of patients' feelings of being unsafe and vulnerable. Patients do not just feel unsafe when errors occur, but also when service quality is noticeably poor. Where lack of quality is perceived as an indication of potential threat, this lack may contribute to patients feeling unsafe within the healthcare settingN/

Comparison of the CAT-QoL and PedsQLTM instruments in measuring quality of life in amblyopia treatment: preliminary results

Background/Aims: The Child Amblyopia Treatment Questionnaire (CAT-QoL) is a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), designed to assess the impact of amblyopia treatment. The aim of this study was to compare the psychometric properties of two PROMs; the CAT-QoL instrument and Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQLTM), a generic pediatric PROM. This work was part of a wider project to develop a condition-specific PROM for children with amblyopia. Methods: Three hundred and forty-two participants were recruited in a UK multi-center study. Quality of life data was collected using the CAT-QoL and the PedsQLTM instruments. The psychometric performance of the CAT-QoL and PedsQLTM were examined in terms of acceptability, reliability, and validity. Results: Both instruments demonstrated good reliability (CAT-QoL Cronbach's α = 0.793; PedsQLTMα = 0.872). The convergent validity of the CAT-QoL and PedsQLTM instruments was tested by comparing the instruments to each other. There was a moderate correlation between the PedsQLTM and the CAT-QoL scores, and this relationship was statistically significant (rs = -0.517, p < .000). No statistical significance was found between the level of amblyopia severity and the mean PedsQLTM score (p = .420). Conclusion: It was possible to assess the impact of amblyopia treatment using the CAT-QoL and PedsQLTM instruments. The preliminary findings from this are not conclusive, and it is not possible to advocate the use of one questionnaire over another based upon psychometric performance demonstrated here. This may be due to the sample population, as there were limited numbers of participants with severe amblyopia. Both the CAT-QoL and PedsQLTM instruments were noted to have some issues with ceiling effects at an individual item level. The CAT-QoL and PedsQLTM were reliable (as determined by Cronbach's alpha). The PedsQLTM instrument was not able to discriminate between amblyopia severity groups (discriminant validity). Further research is required to formally assess the psychometric properties of the CAT-QoL questionnaire

Perceptions of the neighbourhood environment and self rated health: a multilevel analysis of the Caerphilly Health and Social Needs Study

Background In this study we examined whether (1) the neighbourhood aspects of access to amenities, neighbourhood quality, neighbourhood disorder, and neighbourhood social cohesion are associated with people's self rated health, (2) these health effects reflect differences in socio-demographic composition and/or neighbourhood deprivation, and (3) the associations with the different aspects of the neighbourhood environment vary between men and women. Methods Data from the cross-sectional Caerphilly Health and Social Needs Survey were analysed using multilevel modelling, with individuals nested within enumeration districts. In this study we used the responses of people under 75 years of age (n = 10,892). The response rate of this subgroup was 62.3%. All individual responses were geo-referenced to the 325 census enumeration districts of Caerphilly county borough. Results The neighbourhood attributes of poor access to amenities, poor neighbourhood quality, neighbourhood disorder, lack of social cohesion, and neighbourhood deprivation were associated with the reporting of poor health. These effects were attenuated when controlling for individual and collective socio-economic status. Lack of social cohesion significantly increased the odds of women reporting poor health, but did not increase the odds of men reporting poor health. In contrast, unemployment significantly affected men's health, but not women's health. Conclusion This study shows that different aspects of the neighbourhood environment are associated with people's self rated health, which may partly reflect the health impacts of neighbourhood socio-economic status. The findings further suggest that the social environment is more important for women's health, but that individual socio-economic status is more important for men's health

The age of anxiety? It depends where you look: changes in STAI trait anxiety, 1970–2010

Purpose Population-level surveys suggest that anxiety has been increasing in several nations, including the USA and UK. We sought to verify the apparent anxiety increases by looking for systematic changes in mean anxiety questionnaire scores from research publications. Methods We analyzed all available mean State–Trait Anxiety Inventory scores published between 1970 and 2010. We collected 1703 samples, representing more than 205,000 participants from 57 nations. Results Results showed a significant anxiety increase worldwide, but the pattern was less clear in many individual nations. Our analyses suggest that any increase in anxiety in the USA and Canada may be limited to students, anxiety has decreased in the UK, and has remained stable in Australia. Conclusions Although anxiety may have increased worldwide, it might not be increasing as dramatically as previously thought, except in specific populations, such as North American students. Our results seem to contradict survey results from the USA and UK in particular. We do not claim that our results are more reliable than those of large population surveys. However, we do suggest that mental health surveys and other governmental sources of disorder prevalence data may be partially biased by changing attitudes toward mental health: if respondents are more aware and less ashamed of their anxiety, they are more likely to report it to survey takers. Analyses such as ours provide a useful means of double-checking apparent trends in large population surveys

Maximising response to postal questionnaires – A systematic review of randomised trials in health research

Background Postal self-completion questionnaires offer one of the least expensive modes of collecting patient based outcomes in health care research. The purpose of this review is to assess the efficacy of methods of increasing response to postal questionnaires in health care studies on patient populations. Methods The following databases were searched: Medline, Embase, CENTRAL, CDSR, PsycINFO, NRR and ZETOC. Reference lists of relevant reviews and relevant journals were hand searched. Inclusion criteria were randomised trials of strategies to improve questionnaire response in health care research on patient populations. Response rate was defined as the percentage of questionnaires returned after all follow-up efforts. Study quality was assessed by two independent reviewers. The Mantel-Haenszel method was used to calculate the pooled odds ratios. Results Thirteen studies reporting fifteen trials were included. Implementation of reminder letters and telephone contact had the most significant effect on response rates (odds ratio 3.7, 95% confidence interval 2.30 to 5.97 p = <0.00001). Shorter questionnaires also improved response rates to a lesser degree (odds ratio 1.4, 95% confidence interval 1.19 to 1.54). No evidence was found that incentives, re-ordering of questions or including an information brochure with the questionnaire confer any additional advantage. Conclusion Implementing repeat mailing strategies and/or telephone reminders may improve response to postal questionnaires in health care research. Making the questionnaire shorter may also improve response rates. There is a lack of evidence to suggest that incentives are useful. In the context of health care research all strategies to improve response to postal questionnaires require further evaluation

Does owning a pet protect older people against loneliness?

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Pet ownership is thought to make a positive contribution to health, health behaviours and the general well-being of older people. More specifically pet ownership is often proposed as a solution to the problem of loneliness in later life and specific 'pet based' interventions have been developed to combat loneliness. However the evidence to support this relationship is slim and it is assumed that pet ownership is a protection against loneliness rather than a response to loneliness. The aim of this paper is to examine the association between pet ownership and loneliness by exploring if pet ownership is a response to, or protection against, loneliness using Waves 0-5 from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

Factor structure and construct validity of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for Carers (ASCOT-Carer)

Background: The ASCOT-Carer is a self-report instrument designed to measure social care-related quality of life (SCRQoL). This article presents the psychometric testing and validation of the ASCOT-Carer four response-level interview (INT4) in a sample of unpaid carers of adults who receive publicly-funded social care services in England. Methods: Unpaid carers were identified through a survey of users of publicly-funded social care services in England. 387 carers completed a face-to-face or telephone interview. Data on variables hypothesised to be related to SCRQoL (for example, characteristics of the carer, cared-for person and care situation) and measures of carer experience, strain, health-related quality of life and overall QoL were collected. Relationships between these variables and overall SCRQoL score were evaluated through correlation, ANOVA and regression analysis to test the construct validity of the scale. Internal reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and feasibility by the number of missing responses. Results: The construct validity was supported by statistically significant relationships between SCRQoL and scores on instruments of related constructs, as well as with characteristics of the carer and care recipient in univariate and multivariate analyses. A Cronbach’s alpha of 0.87 (7 items) indicates that the internal reliability of the instrument is satisfactory and a low number of missing responses (<1%) indicates a high level of acceptance. Conclusions: The results provide evidence to support the construct validity, factor structure, internal reliability and feasibility of the ASCOT-Carer INT4 as an instrument for measuring social care-related quality of life of unpaid carers who care for adults with a variety of long-term conditions, disability or problems related to old age