The effect of group discussion and telephone counselling on perceived stress of women as caregivers of patient with Alzheimer disease

زمینه و هدف: مراقبت از بیماران مبتلا به دمانس و بالاخص آلزایمر از آسیب پذیرترین و چالش برانگیزترین نوع مراقبت‌هاست که مراقبین ممکن است با آن مواجه شده و باعث تجربه استرس زیاد در آنها می گردد. در این میان فقدان آموزشهای لازم نیز مشکلات آنها را دو چندان نموده است. هدف این مطالعه تعیین تاثیر بحث گروهی و مشاوره تلفنی بر استرس درک شده زنان مراقبت کننده از سالمند مبتلا به آلزایمر بوده است. روش بررسی: در این پژوهش تجربی، 150 زن 18 تا 60 سال که از وابستگان درجه یک سالمند مبتلا به آلزایمر بوده و مراقبت مستقیم از سالمند مبتلا به آلزایمر را به مدت حداقل 6 ماه به عهده داشتند با روش نمونه گیری مستمر مبتنی بر هدف انتخاب شده و آزمودنی ها با روش تصادفی بلوکه شده به تصادف در دو گروه آزمون و کنترل قرار گرفتند. گروه آزمون در یک برنامه مداخله‌ای شامل یک جلسه بحث گروهی، دریافت یک پمفلت آموزشی و دو مشاوره تلفنی شرکت نمودند. 6 هفته پس از مداخله، پس‌آزمون برای هر دو گروه انجام گرفت. ابزار گردآوری اطلاعات، پرسشنامه اطلاعات دموگرافیک و استرس درک شده بود. برای مقایسه متغیرها از آزمون‌های آماری تی زوجی، تی مستقل، کای اسکوئر و آنالیز واریانس یک طرفه استفاده شد. یافته‌ها: نتایج نشان داد که قبل از بحث گروهی و مشاوره تلفنی 7/50 نمونه‌ها در گروه آزمون و 3/57 از نمونه‌ها در گروه کنترل استرس درک شده بالایی داشتند. پس از انجام بحث گروهی و مشاوره تلفنی میانگین استرس درک شده در گروه آزمون از 62/8± 38/28 به 55/5±45/22 تقلیل یافت (001/0 > P). بین استرس درک شده و متغیرهای وضعیت تحصیلات (03/0P=) و وضعیت اقتصادی (01/0 P=) از نظر آماری ارتباط معنی‌دار وجود داشت. نتیجه‌گیری: زنان مراقبت‌کننده از سالمند مبتلا به آلزایمر به عنوان مهم‌ترین مراقبین غیر‌رسمی، سطوح استرس بالایی را تجربه می‌کنند که همین امر سلامت آنها و سالمندان تحت مراقبت ایشان را تحت الشعاع قرار می‌دهد، لذا لزوم مداخله برای این مراقبین به منظور بهبود وضعیت آنها پیشنهاد می‌شود

Effects of a Web Based Lifestyle Education on General Health and Severity of the Symptoms of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) among Female Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

AbstractContext: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a range of physical, emotional and behavioral symptoms. Objectives: A randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine the effects of a web based education on general health in students. Methods: A total of 104 women with PMS participated in the study and were randomly assigned to two groups. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire. Results: The experimental group improved significantly general health (P≤0.001) as well as emotional, behavioral and physical components of PMS symptoms (P=0.007, p=0.04, and p=0.01 respectively) after intervention. Conclusions: The web-based training can lead to post-intervention improvements in general health and relief of PMS in female university students

The effect of acupressure on cancer-related fatigue among school-aged children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Background: Fatigue is the most common side effect of chemotherapy in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Acupressure is one of the most popular non-pharmacologic methods used to reduce fatigue in other settings. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of acupressure on reducing fatigue among children with ALL compared with a placebo treatment. Materials and Methods: In a single-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 120 hospitalized school-aged children with ALL, 24 h after chemotherapy, they were randomly divided into experimental (n = 60) and placebo groups (n = 60). Intensity of fatigue was rated using the Visual Analog Scale. The intervention (finger acupressure) was applied on ST36 (true points) in the experimental group and on LI12 (sham points) in the placebo group. We evaluated the symptoms of fatigue intensity immediately and 1 h after intervention. Fatigue was also measured 24 h after intervention by Fatigue Scale-Child (FS-C). Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16.0 using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and Chi-square and Fisher exact tests. Results: Significant differences were observed between the two groups in the intensity of fatigue 1 h after intervention (P < 0.001). But there was no significant difference between them regarding fatigue 24 h after intervention. Conclusions: Applying one time acupressure may reduce the intensity of fatigue at 1 h post-treatment. Therefore, acupressure could be recommended as an effective, non-pharmacologic method for some CRF control. Applying one time acupressure did not have a long-term effect

Perspectives of Nurses on Organizational Culture

Background &amp; Objective: Hospitals and healthcare centers, like any other organizations, have some common norms and beliefs called as organizational culture. Organizational culture plays a key role in organization's and staffs' performances. Nurses' perspectives on the organizational culture affect the way they play their role in. This study aimed to investigate the role of organizational culture from perspectives of nurses working in selected hospitals at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Methods &amp; Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 230 nurses working in different wards of selected hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were recruited to the study. Data were collected using a demographic characteristics checklist as well as the nurse and organizational culture questionnaire extracted from the Robbins criteria. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical indexes, independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and regression in the SPSS v.17. Results: Results showed that the existing organizational culture in the selected hospitals was in a moderately good level from nurses' perspectives. From the scores obtained for various dimensions of the organizational culture, the highest and lowest scores were for control (44.2%) and conflict tolerance (31.8%), respectively. Conclusion: The level of the organizational culture from the nurses' perspectives might lead them to decrease the quality of their performance. Optimizing the organizational culture can improve nurses' performance and motivate them to increase their quality of work. &nbsp

Investigation of General Health in Female Care givers of Elderly People With Alzheimer

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the general health status in women as care givers of the elderly people with Alzheimer who attending to the Iranian Association of Alzheimer&rsquo;s Disease. Methods & Materials: In this descriptive &ndash;cross sectional study as a introductory stage of a randomized controlled field trial, 150 women were recruited with a consecutive sampling method. The study population of this study included the women as family care givers attending to the Iranian Association of Alzheimer Disease. In this study, the inclusion criteria was consisted of women who had 18-60 years old, be a close relative to elderly patients with Alzheimer disease, as well as they have had direct caring with the duration of at least six months. Data collection regarding assessment of general health of the women was a questionnaire including 28 items of Persian version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). For data analysis, descriptive statistics and chi square were used in the study. Results: The study findings showed that only 24% of the subjects had a good level of general health, but 58.7% and 17.3% of them had a moderate and weak general health respectively. There were significant relations between general health of the women as care givers and the variables such as age (P=0.016), occupation (P=0.008), type of relative (P=0.013), and economic status (P=0.049). However, there were not any significant relation between general health and the other variables of marriage situation (P=0.5), education (P=0.07), and duration of caring the elderly patients with Alzheimer (P=0.205). Conclusion: According to the findings, the considerable percentage of the female care givers of elders with Alzheimer disease did not pose optimum level of general health. As Care givers&rsquo; gender centered studies have seldom conducted in Iran, future researches should focus on different dimensions of health promotion among both male and female care givers

The social network among the elderly and its relationship with quality of life

Introduction: Attention to the needs of the elderly is a social necessity, and it seems that evaluating the social network and quality of life of the elderly can be useful in a better understanding of their needs. This study was performed to determine the relationship between the social network and the quality of life of the elderly in the city of Bojnoord in Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 201 elderly people aged 60 years or more were selected by continuous and consecutive sampling method in Bojnoord, Iran in 2014. Data were collected using demographic questionnaire, Lubben social network scale and LEIPAD elderly quality of life questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 and using descriptive statistics and independent-samples t-test, ANOVA and Pearson product- moment coefficient. Results: The results showed that 30.3% of elderly people studied, were subjected to a high risk of isolation. The highest mean in social network dimensions was in the family (19.68%), friends (12.01%) and the neighbors (9.90%), respectively. The mean score for quality of life of the elderly was as moderate to high (63.90±13.73), and among the quality of life dimensions, the highest mean was related to the self-care dimension (15.59%), and the lowest mean was related to the sexual functioning dimension (1.53%). The findings suggested a positive and significant relationship between social network and quality of life in the elderly who were studied (p<0.000, r=0.468). Conclusion: This study was a step toward understanding the social network status and quality of life of the elderly. It is necessary to say that health care professionals, especially nurses, display a significant role in the community to help people in this regard

Investigating the Ability to Perform Basic and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living in Elderly Women With Osteoporosis in Tehran, Iran

Background & Aims Aging is associated with decreased physical and psychological functions. This study aims to investigate the ability to perform basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADL) in elderly women with osteoporosis in Tehran, Iran. Materials & Methods This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 130 elderly women over 60 years of age referred to selected hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2019-2020, who were selected by a consecutive sampling method. The data collection tools were a demographic form, the Barthel index for ADL, and the Lawton-Brody Instrumental ADL scale. The data was statistically analyzed in SPSS software, version 20. Results The mean age of the women was 67.5±5.7 years. None of them had dependency for performing ADLs such as eating. The highest dependence was for urination (54.62%). Regarding instrumental ADLs, the highest inability was related to shopping (60.77%), and the lowest inability was related to managing one's own medication use (0.77%). The scores of basic and instrumental ADLs were significantly related to age and educational level (P<0.001). Conclusion More governmental, family and social support is needed for elderly women with osteoporosis (with older age and educational level) who have lower ability to perform their basic and instrumental ADLs