44 research outputs found
Using XML and XSLT for flexible elicitation of mental-health risk knowledge
Current tools for assessing risks associated with mental-health problems require assessors to make high-level judgements based on clinical experience. This paper describes how new technologies can enhance qualitative research methods to identify lower-level cues underlying these judgements, which can be collected by people without a specialist mental-health background.
Methods and evolving results: Content analysis of interviews with 46 multidisciplinary mental-health experts exposed the cues and their interrelationships, which were represented by a mind map using software that stores maps as XML. All 46 mind maps were integrated into a single XML knowledge structure and analysed by a Lisp program to generate quantitative information about the numbers of experts associated with each part of it. The knowledge was refined by the experts, using software developed in Flash to record their collective views within the XML itself. These views specified how the XML should be transformed by XSLT, a technology for rendering XML, which resulted in a validated hierarchical knowledge structure associating patient cues with risks.
Conclusions: Changing knowledge elicitation requirements were accommodated by flexible transformations of XML data using XSLT, which also facilitated generation of multiple data-gathering tools suiting different assessment circumstances and levels of mental-health knowledge
Social cohesion, mental wellbeing and health-related quality of life among a cohort of social housing residents in Cornwall: a cross sectional study
Background: Research and policy have identified social cohesion as a potentially modifiable determinant of health and wellbeing that could contribute to more sustainable development. However, the function of social cohesion appears to vary between communities. The aim of this study was to analyse the levels of, and associations, between social cohesion, mental wellbeing, and physical and mental health-related quality of life among a cohort of social housing residents from low socioeconomic status communities in Cornwall, UK. Social housing is below market-rate rental accommodation made available to those in certain health or economic circumstances. These circumstances may impact on the form and function of social cohesion.
Methods: During recruitment, participants in the Smartline project completed the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, SF-12v2 and an eight item social cohesion scale. Cross sectional regression analyses of these data adjusted for gender, age, national identity, area socioeconomic status, rurality, education, employment, and household size were undertaken to address the study aim.
Results: Complete data were available from 305 (92.7%) participants in the Smartline project. Univariable analyses identified a significant association between social cohesion, mental wellbeing and mental health-related quality of life. Within fully adjusted multivariable models, social cohesion only remained significantly associated with mental wellbeing. Sensitivity analyses additionally adjusting for ethnicity and duration of residence, where there was greater missing data, did not alter the findings.
Conclusions: Among a relatively homogeneous cohort, the reported level of social cohesion was only found to be significantly associated with higher mental wellbeing, not physical or mental health-related quality of life. The efforts made by social housing providers to offer social opportunities to all their residents regardless of individual physical or mental health state may support the development of a certain degree of social cohesion. Sense of control or safety in communities may be more critical to health than social cohesion. Additional observational research is needed before attempts are made to alter social cohesion to improve health.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.The Smartline project is receiving up to £4,188,318 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014–2020. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding. Additional funding is from the South West Academic Health Science Network. KW is supported by the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula. KMa was funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellowship and ESRC Smartline Project for this research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health and Social Care. The funders did not contribute to the design of the study or collection, analysis, and interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript in any way.published version, accepted versio
Counteracting Age-related Loss of Skeletal Muscle Mass: a clinical and ethnological trial on the role of protein supplementation and training load (CALM Intervention Study): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Role of poor sleep in determining distress in caregivers of individuals with early psychosis
Quality of life, performance status, and work capacity after post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis
Dual Benefits of a Student-Assisted Interprofessional Men’s Healthy Lifestyle Pilot Program
Alterations in symptoms and health‐related quality of life as kidney function deteriorates: A cross‐sectional study
Aims and objectives: To compare symptoms and health-related quality of life and to examine the relationship between these as kidney function deteriorates. Background: Chronic kidney disease is a global health problem, and while knowledge of symptom burden and health-related quality of life is understood in kidney failure (previously end-stage kidney disease), there is limited understanding about symptoms and health-related quality of life across the chronic kidney disease trajectory. Design: Cross-sectional design reported using the STROBE guidelines. Methods: Eight hundred eighty-six adults with varying levels of kidney function (chronic kidney disease grades 3b–5 including those receiving dialysis) completed the renal version of the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale and the Quality of Life Short Form-36 version 2. Socio-demographic and renal characteristics were also collected. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Participants had a mean age of 57 years and were mostly male. Regardless of chronic kidney disease grade, pain, poor mobility, weakness, anxiety and depression were the most prevalent and severe symptoms reported. Health-related quality of life was significantly associated with physical and psychological symptom scores. As kidney function deteriorated, both physical and mental health-related quality of life decreased, and prevalence and severity of symptoms increased. Conclusions: There is substantial symptom burden irrespective of chronic kidney disease grade, which overwhelmingly affects health-related quality of life. Early identification by nurses would enable proactive management plans to be implemented. Relevance to clinical practice: Nurses, whether in specialist renal services or in primary healthcare, are ideally placed to regularly assess symptoms and health-related quality of life in those with chronic kidney disease. Timely assessment could assist in the targeting of earlier interventions designed to reduce symptom burden and to increase health-related quality of life.</p