Development and validation of a short form of the Chinese version of the State Anxiety Scale for Children

Background: There is a lack of a simplified instrument for use in busy clinical settings to measure and differentiate anxiety levels of children. Objectives: To develop a short form of the Chinese version of the State Anxiety Scale for Children (CSAS-C) and test psychometric properties of the new form. Design: The study was divided into two phases with phase one aimed at developing a short form of the CSAS-C, while phase two aimed at testing psychometric properties of the new form. A test-retest, within-subjects design was employed. Children (7-12 years of age) admitted for surgery in a day surgery unit during two consecutive years' summer holiday were invited to participate in the study. In phase one, selected participants (N = 1 1 2) were asked to respond to the CSAS-C. In phase two, selected participants (N = 8 2) were asked to respond to the short form of the CSAS-C. Results: Using exploratory factor analysis, a subset of 10 items, which was highly correlated with scores obtained from the full form (r = 0.9 2) and, which had acceptable internal consistency (r = 0.8 3) was developed. The psychometric properties of this short form have been empirically tested, showing adequate internal consistency reliability, good concurrent validity, and excellent construct validity. Conclusion: This study addresses a gap in the literature by developing a 10-item short form of the CSAS-C. Results indicate that this short form is an appropriate and objective assessment tool for measuring anxiety levels of Chinese children in a busy clinical setting where time constraints make unfeasible the use of the full form. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Assessing children's emotional responses to surgery: A multidimensional approach

Aim. This paper reports a study to assess the interrelationships between physiological measures of children's heart rates and blood pressure, subjective measures of children's level of anxiety, and direct behavioural observations in children's emotional responses to surgery. Background. Psychological upset has been described as a multidimensional phenomenon which includes behavioural, subjective, and physiological components. However, a majority of previous studies have employed only one or two measures of psychological upset. Most importantly, the interrelationships among these three components of psychological upset have seldom been explored. Methods. A cross-sectional design was employed, and 106 Chinese children admitted for day surgery during the summer of 2004 were invited to participate in the study. They were asked to respond to the Chinese version of the State Anxiety Scale for Children. Their mean arterial blood pressure and heart rates were recorded in the operating theatre after being transferred to the operating table but before anaesthesia induction. A research nurse used the Children's Emotional Manifestation Scale to document the children's emotional behaviours during anaesthesia induction. The data were collected in 2004. Results. Children with high preoperative anxiety levels manifested more negative emotional behaviour during anaesthesia induction. Those with more negative emotional behaviour or high levels of state anxiety also had faster heart rates and higher mean arterial blood pressure. Conclusion. A child's response to stressful medical procedures can be varied. The emotional responses of children to surgery need to be understood as a multidimensional phenomenon. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of surgery on children, it is recommended that assessment strategies used should reflect the multidimensional phenomenon of the emotional upset. © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.postprin

The impact of cancer on children's physical, emotional, and psychosocial well-being

The diagnosis and treatment of cancer are a stressful and threatening experience, which can be emotionally devastating to children. Despite the improved prognosis, the course of cancer treatment has tremendous impact on children. This article aims to examine the impact of cancer on physical, emotional, and psychosocial well-being of Hong Kong Chinese children, an area of research that has been underrepresented in the literature. Ninety-eight Hong Kong Chinese children aged 7 to 15 years, admitted for treatment of cancer in 2 pediatric oncology units of 2 different hospitals, were invited to participate in the study. Findings from this study indicated that the children scored considerably high state anxiety on admission, and more than half of the participants presented some depressive symptoms during their stay in the hospital. Moreover, semistructured interviews indicated that nearly all children expressed different degrees of sadness and worry. The findings suggested that there is a room for improvement in existing nursing intervention regarding preparing children for hospitalization and treatment of cancer. There is an imperative need for nurses to evaluate appropriate nursing interventions that can help children resume their normal growth and development, in particular, to help them ease the physical, emotional, and psychological burden of life-threatening disease. © 2010 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.postprin

Smoking cessation telephone counseling for youth: effective regardless of recruitment methods?

Poster Discussion 64. De-norrmalising Tobacco for Women and Children: no. PD-1351-21Conference Theme: Tobacco and Non-Communicable DiseasesBACKGROUND: Proactive telephone counseling appears effective for smoking cessation in youth and passive recruitment rate has been decreasing. New recruitment methods should be adopted; however, whether effectiveness of counseling is differentiated by recruitment methods remains unclear. This study compared quitting, adherence to services, service satisfaction, and baseline characteristics among youth smokers recruited from different sources. DESIGN/METHODS: 146 (32%) youth smokers who called the Youth Quitline of the Schools of Nursing and Public Health of The University of Hong Kong, 210 (45%) who were recruited proactively from outreach and 107 (23%) …published_or_final_versio

Effectiveness of a parental training programme in enhancing the parent–child relationship and reducing harsh parenting practices and parental stress in preparing children for their transition to primary school : a randomised controlled trial

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Spousal concordance in adverse childhood experiences and the association with depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults: findings across China, the US, and Europe

Copyright \ua9 2023 Sun, Ren, Zhu, Cheng, Liu, Li, Xia, Yuan, Adeloye, Rudan, Canoy, Song, on behalf of the Global Health Epidemiology Research Group (GHERG). Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with higher depressive risks in adulthood. Whether respondents’ ACEs are associated with their own depressive symptoms in adulthood and whether this association extends to their spouses’ depressive symptoms remain unexplored. Methods: Data were from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). ACEs were categorized into overall, intra-familial, and extra-familial ACEs. Correlations of couples’ ACEs were calculated using Cramer’s V and partial Spearman’s correlation. Associations of respondents’ ACEs with spousal depressive symptoms were assessed using logistic regression, and mediation analyses were conducted to explore the mediating role of respondents’ depressive symptoms. Results: Significant associations between husbands’ ACEs and wives’ depressive symptoms, with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of 2.09 (1.36–3.22) for 4 or more ACEs in CHARLS, and 1.25 (1.06–1.48) and 1.38 (1.06–1.79) for 2 or more ACEs in HRS and SHARE. However, wives’ ACEs were associated with husbands’ depressive symptoms only in CHARLS and SHARE. Findings in intra-familial and extra-familial ACEs were consistent with our main results. Additionally, respondents’ depressive symptoms mediated more than 20% of the effect of respondents’ ACEs on spousal depressive symptoms. Conclusion: We found that ACEs were significantly correlated between couples. Respondents’ ACEs were associated with spousal depressive symptoms, with respondents’ depressive symptoms mediating the association. The bidirectional implications of ACEs on depressive symptoms should be considered within household and effective interventions are warranted

Proportional lumbar spine inter-vertebral motion patterns: a comparison of patients with chronic, non-specific low back pain and healthy controls

Introduction: Identifying biomechanical subgroups in chronic, non-specific low back pain (CNSLBP) populations from inter-vertebral displacements has proven elusive. Quantitative fluoroscopy (QF) has excellent repeatability and provides continuous standardised inter-vertebral kinematic data from fluoroscopic sequences allowing assessment of mid-range motion. The aim of this study was to determine whether proportional continuous IV rotational patterns were different in patients and controls. A secondary aim was to update the repeatability of QF measurement of range of motion (RoM) for inter-vertebral (IV) rotation