The Prevalence of Cognitive Impairment in Elderly Nursing Home Residents

Backgrounds Physical and cognitive impairment in the elderly interferes in their health. Cognitive impairment, as a common complication in the elderly, attracted the attention of many specialists. The current study aimed at assessing the psychological disorders in the elderly living in nursing homes in Khorramabad, Iran.Methods & Materials The current descriptive-analytical study employed census method to evaluate 70 residents of Sedigh Nursing Home in Khorramabad, 2014. Data were collected by the standardized Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) to assess cognitive status. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16, and descriptive and inferential statistics tests (Chi-square).Results Out of 70 study subjects, 48 (68.6) were female. The mean age of the subjects was 5.6±4.69 years; ranged 60 to 91 years. Generally, 74.3 of the subjects had different levels of cognitive impairment; (27.1) mild, (34.3) moderate, and (22.9) severe.Conclusion Based on the high prevalence of cognitive impairment among the study subjects, it is recommended to employ measures such as reducing stress and doing proper exercises and cognitive behavior therapies to manage or postpone cognitive impairments. Also, early diagnosis of cognitive impairment in the elderly is recommended. Future well designed studies on community-dwelling older adults are suggested

The Effectiveness of Encouragement Training in Academic Anxiety and Sense of Belonging to School in Students

Encouragement is an important concept of Adlerian psychology and refers to the expression of confirmation through language or other symbolic illustration to instill courage in a person within the context of addressing a challenging situation or recognizing a potential. Receiving encouragement would enhance social connectedness, academic performance, motivation and self-efficacy in students. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of encouragement training on academic anxiety and school connectedness in female high school students. The study was a pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design. Statistical population included all female students of the 10th grade of high school in Baharestan Education District 1 (Iran) in 2022. Participants were 30 female students were selected by accessible sampling and randomly assigned to in experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). Participants responded to Beatty and Brew student sense of connectedness with school scale (2005) and Abolghasemi et al.'s academic anxiety scale (1996). The experimental group received eight one-hour sessions of self-encouragement training and the control group did not receive any training. Data were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance. The results indicated that encouragement training decreased academic anxiety and increased students' school connectedness (p<.01). Therefore, providing this training is considered useful strategy for improving the motivational and social outcomes in students

Depression and Its Associated Factors in Elderly Nursing Home Residents: A Screening Study in Khorramabad

Objectives We aimed to investigate the frequency of depression among elderly residents of Sedigh Nursing Home and the related factors in Khorramabad. Methods & Materials In this descriptive-analytic study, 87 elderly people (21 men and 57 women) above 60 years were selected through census method. Depression was evaluated with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). To assess the relationship between depression and demographic factors, independent t-test and Fisher's exact test and SPSS version 19 were used.&nbsp; Results 36% of the participants were not depressed and 64% of them showed some degree of depression; 19.2% had moderate depression and 16.6% had severe depression. The relationship between depression in the elderly, age and education level were significant. As with aging, the prevalence of depression decreased (P<0.000) with age and the level of education was lower in depressed people (P<0.01). The relationships between the prevalence of depression and other demographic variables were not statistically significant. Conclusion Given the high prevalence of depression in the elderly population living in institutions, assessment and screening of elderly residents of nursing home especially younger elderly with lower educational levels, is essential