Survey of sleep status and its related factors among Hospitalized patients with heart failure

Background: Sleep disorders among heart failure (HF) patients negatively influence the quality of life. Awareness of sleep disturbances, as one of the disturbing factors of the quality of life among HF patients, and its related factors would help health care staff to provide more comprehensive care. Hence, this study was conducted to determine the quality of sleep and its related factors in hospitalized patients with HF. Methods: This cross-sectional survey study was conducted on 240 patients with HF hospitalized in one of the health centers of Guilan University of Medical Sciences between July and December 2013. Samples were selected by convenience sampling. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and a researcher-designed questionnaire on sleep disturbing factors were the instruments of this study. The correlation and relationship between sleep quality and variables related to personal, environmental, and disease factors were assessed. Results: The majority of the samples (91.2) had a poor sleep quality. A significant positive correlation was found between sleep quality and age (r = 0.322; p value < 0.001), body mass index (r = 0.212; p value < 0.001), number of comorbidities (r = 0.205; p value = 0.001), number of hospitalizations (r = 0.202; p value < 0.001), number of drugs consumed (r = 0.178; p value = 0.003), and length of stay in hospital (r = 0.149; p value = 0.011). Also, significant differences were seen between sleep quality and sex (p value = 0.014), smoking (p value = 0.038), educational level (p value = 0. 047), and hospital noise (p value = 0. 004). Conclusion: Age, sex, educational level, smoking, and obesity were the most significant factors affecting the sleep quality in our HF patients. © 2015 Tehran Heart Center. All rights reserved

Middle Eastern mothers in Sweden, their experiences of the maternal health service and their partner's involvement

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Traditional patterns relating to how to handle pregnancy and birth are often challenged due to migration. The purpose of this study was to describe Middle Eastern mothers' experiences of the maternal health care services in Sweden and the involvement of their male partner.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirteen immigrant mothers from the Middle East who had used the maternal health services in Sweden were interviewed using focus group discussions and individual interviews. These were taped, transcribed and analysed according to Content analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The four main categories that developed were:</p> <p>• Access to the professional midwife</p> <p>• Useful counselling</p> <p>• Stable motherhood in transition</p> <p>• Being a family living in a different culture</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>According to the respondents in this study, understanding the woman's native language or her culture was not vital to develop a good relationship with the midwife. Instead the immigrant woman developed trust in the midwife based on the knowledge and the empathy the midwife imparted.</p> <p>Increasing the amount of first trimester antenatal visits could avoid spontaneous visits to the emergency clinic. There was a greater need for involvement and support by the father during the perinatal period, such as caring for older children and carrying out household chores since the mothers' earlier female network was often lost.</p> <p>Clinical implications</p> <p>There is a need to involve immigrant parents in the available parental education in order to prepare them for parenthood in their new country as well as to explore their altered family situation. Collecting immigrant women and their partner's, experiences of maternal health care services offers a possibility to improve the existing care, both in content, access and availability where the timing of visits and content require further evaluation.</p