Interventions of Health Visitors in Making a Decision About Breastfeeding

Aim: The aim of this paper was to establish a link between the promotion of breastfeeding and the interventions of the visiting nurse. Methods: The study was conducted in 2012 in the city of Đakovo and the surrounding area. The questionnaire was filled out by mothers after leaving the maternity ward, during the first visit of the community health nurse within the first seven days after the labor. Results: From a total of 154 parturient women who filled in a survey after they had left the hospital, the decision about breastfeeding before the pregnancy was made by 58.4% of examinees. Primiparas from the city were older than primiparas from the surrounding rural area (p<0.001). Mothers received the majority of information about the proper placement of the child on the chest after birth from nurses in the maternity hospital (56.3% of the examinees). The study showed that 57.9% of the examinees had the support of their husband during lactation. The visiting nurses’ first visit was within seven days after delivery at the home of 121 (78.6%) examinees, showing good awareness and collaboration between secondary and primary health care. Conclusion: This research has confirmed that breastfeeding promotion and nursing interventions have a major impact on breastfeeding

Cognitive Functioning and Life Quality of the Elderly: A Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND: According to the Gerontological Health Statistics for Croatia, the number of elderly people in Croatia is increasingly growing. The UN classification ranks the Republic of Croatia as the country which belongs to group four of the European countries with elderly population. AIM: The aim of this paper is to examine cognitive functioning and life quality of the elderly. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 156 participants took part in the study. The cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2016 to October 2016 in the Osječko-baranjska County, Croatia. The World Health Organization quality of life (QOL)-BREF scale was used to test the QOL; cognitive functioning was tested using mini-mental state examination (MMSE) questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 156 subjects were tested during the study. The MMSE questionnaire for cognitive abilities and dementia assessment: 83 (53%) participants scored 24 or more which indicates a normal result. The participants whose results indicate the presence of disorders also have notably lower life quality in all domains. The participants suffering only from a physical illness exhibit significantly lower values in the environmental domain (Mann–Whitney U-test, p = 0.010) when compared to those suffering both from physical and mental illness whose results show extremely low values in practically all the segments regarding the QOL. The values of the cognitive functioning questionnaire are related to the life quality domains; the strongest connection relates to mental health (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient Rho = 0.493 p &lt; 0.001) and the weakest connection refers to social functioning. CONCLUSION: After reaching a certain age, the elderly seems to exhibit the lowering in cognitive functioning which consequently reflects on lowering of the life quality as well. The problems regarding the QOL occur as a direct consequence of the gap between the possibilities of the elderly and the demands and conditions set by modern life