Autopercepción del estado de salud en familiares cuidadores y su relación con el nivel de sobrecarga

El objetivo del estudio es conocer cómo percibe su estado de salud una muestra de cuidadores familiares de la provincia de Vizcaya y comparar los resultados con datos referidos a población general española. Además se pretende comprobar si existe relación entre la salud percibida y el nivel de sobrecarga. La muestra consta de 1.257 cuidadores/as de personas dependientes. Se ha utilizado un protocolo elaborado para recoger información sobre aspectos sociodemográficos, salud percibida relacionada con la calidad de vida (SF-36) y sobrecarga (Zarit Burden Inventory). Los resultados muestran que la percepción general de salud de las personas cuidadoras que han participado en el estudio es peor que la de la población general española y que esta percepción es especialmente acusada en lo que se refiere al componente de salud mental. Además, las correlaciones muestran que cuanto peor es la salud percibida mayor es la sobrecarga. Estos resultados confirman los hallazgos obtenidos en otros estudios y proporcionan claves para orientar las intervenciones dirigidas a mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas cuidadoras

The COMT Val158 Met polymorphism as an associated risk factor for Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment in APOE 4 carriers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study is to examine the influence of the <it>catechol-O-methyltranferase (COMT) </it>gene (polymorphism Val158 Met) as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment of amnesic type (MCI), and its synergistic effect with the <it>apolipoprotein E gene (APOE)</it>.</p> <p>A total of 223 MCI patients, 345 AD and 253 healthy controls were analyzed. Clinical criteria and neuropsychological tests were used to establish diagnostic groups.</p> <p>The DNA Bank of the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) (Spain) determined <it>COMT </it>Val158 Met and <it>APOE </it>genotypes using real time polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLPs), respectively. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to determine the risk of AD and MCI.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Neither <it>COMT </it>alleles nor genotypes were independent risk factors for AD or MCI. The high activity genotypes (GG and AG) showed a synergistic effect with <it>APOE ε4 </it>allele, increasing the risk of AD (OR = 5.96, 95%CI 2.74-12.94, p < 0.001 and OR = 6.71, 95%CI 3.36-13.41, p < 0.001 respectivily). In AD patients this effect was greater in women.</p> <p>In MCI patients such as synergistic effect was only found between AG and <it>APOE ε4 </it>allele (OR = 3.21 95%CI 1.56-6.63, p = 0.02) and was greater in men (OR = 5.88 95%CI 1.69-20.42, p < 0.01).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>COMT </it>(Val158 Met) polymorphism is not an independent risk factor for AD or MCI, but shows a synergistic effect with <it>APOE ε4 </it>allele that proves greater in women with AD.</p

Degree of Functionality and Perception of Health-Related Quality of Life in People with Moderate Stroke: Differences between Ischemic and Hemorrhagic Typology

Objectives. The objectives of this pilot study were to analyze the functional differences and the differences regarding the perception of health-related quality of life between people affected by ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, respectively, and between these and their normative groups. Methods. A pre-post design study was conducted with 30 patients aged 65±15 during eight weeks. It assessed disability, mobility, and health-related quality of life. Exact nonparametric tests were used to compare both types of stroke, and t-tests and effect size estimates were employed to compare the stroke group and the normative group. Results. At baseline, there were differences in disability (“getting along” domain), where a poorer result was obtained by the hemorrhagic stroke group, and in the “vitality” and “mental health” domains of the health-related quality of life test, where the ischemic group obtained poorer results. Both groups made significant progress in their health assessments and functionality after eight weeks, and no significant differences were found between them at that time. The scores obtained in both groups differed statistically from the normative values, both at baseline and at posttest. Conclusions. Regardless of the stroke type, divergent results were only found in two domains, “vitality” and “mental health.” There was an improvement over time, but the scores obtained were still lower than those observed in the normative group, which indicated that the participants’ health was highly compromised. This study provides more information for faster rehabilitation after stroke; even so, more studies are needed

Effect of the Wii Sports Resort on the improvement in attention, processing speed and working memory in moderate stroke

Abstract Background Stroke is the most common neurological disease in the world. After the stroke, some people suffer a cognitive disability. Commercial videogames have been used after stroke for physical rehabilitation; however, their use in cognitive rehabilitation has hardly been studied. The objectives of this study were to analyze attention, processing speed, and working memory in patients with moderate stroke after an intervention with Wii Sports Resort and compared these results with a control group. Methods A pre-post design study was conducted with 30 moderate stroke patients aged 65 ± 15. The study lasted eight weeks. 15 participated in the intervention group and 15 belong to the control group. They were assessed in attention and processing speed (TMT-A and B) and working memory (Digit Span of WAIS-III). Parametric and effect size tests were used to analyze the improvement of those outcomes and compared both groups. Results At the baseline, there was no difference between TMT-A and B. A difference was found in the scalar score of TMT-B, as well as in Digit Backward Span and Total Digit Task. In TMT-A and B, the intervention group had better scores than the control group. The intervention group in the Digit Forward Span and the Total Digit obtained a moderate effect size and the control group also obtained a moderate effect size in Total Digit. In the Digit scalar scores, the control group achieved better results than the intervention group. Conclusions The results on attention, processing speed and working memory improved in both groups. However, according to the effect sizes, the intervention group achieved better results than the control group. In addition, the attention and processing speed improved more than the working memory after the intervention. Although more studies are needed in this area, the results are encouraging for cognitive rehabilitation after stroke

Psicothema

Resumen tomado de la publicaciónPropiedades psicométricas de la Escala de Satisfacción con el Ocio en familiares cuidadores. Antecedentes: a pesar de las evidencias sobre los beneficios del ocio para la salud y el bienestar, apenas existen instrumentos para medir este constructo. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española de la Escala de Satisfacción con el Ocio. Método: la muestra ha estado formada por 1.048 familiares cuidadores. La estructura de la escala ha sido analizada a través de análisis factoriales (exploratorio y confirmatorio) y para evaluar la validez concurrente y discriminante se han utilizado escalas validadas de sobrecarga (Zarit Burden Inventory - ZBI) y salud (SF-36 Health Survey). Resultados: los resultados muestran una buena consistencia interna (Alpha de Cronbach = .938), un buen ajuste al modelo (GFI = .925, BBNNFI= .996; IFI= .998, RMSEA= .043) y una adecuada validez convergente con constructos similares (r = -.44 con ZBI y valores r entre .226 y .440 con SF-36). Conclusión: las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española de la Leisure Time Satisfaction Scale (LTS) son prometedoras y los resultados obtenidos permiten concluir que es un instrumento adecuado para evaluar la satisfacción con el ocio de familiares cuidadores de personas dependientes.Universidad de Oviedo. Biblioteca de Psicología; Plaza Feijoo, s/n.; 33003 Oviedo; Tel. +34985104146; Fax +34985104126; [email protected]

Autopercepción del estado de salud en familiares cuidadores y su relación con el nivel de sobrecarga

El objetivo del estudio es conocer cómo percibe su estado de salud una muestra de cuidadores familiares de la provincia de Vizcaya y comparar los resultados con datos referidos a población general española. Además se pretende comprobar si existe relación entre la salud percibida y el nivel de sobrecarga. La muestra consta de 1.257 cuidadores/as de personas dependientes. Se ha utilizado un protocolo elaborado para recoger información sobre aspectos sociodemográficos, salud percibida relacionada con la calidad de vida (SF-36) y sobrecarga (Zarit Burden Inventory). Los resultados muestran que la percepción general de salud de las personas cuidadoras que han participado en el estudio es peor que la de la población general española y que esta percepción es especialmente acusada en lo que se refiere al componente de salud mental. Además, las correlaciones muestran que cuanto peor es la salud percibida mayor es la sobrecarga. Estos resultados confirman los hallazgos obtenidos en otros estudios y proporcionan claves para orientar las intervenciones dirigidas a mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas cuidadoras

Assessing irritability in patients with stroke: psychometric properties of the Irritability Questionnaire

Objective: Irritability is a very common symptom after stroke and a source of a great deal of distress to patients and caretakers. We evaluated the psychometric properties of the Irritability Questionnaire (IQ) in a sample of patients with stroke. Methods: we recruited 94 participants (47 stroke patients and 47 healthy controls) that participated in a 6-month longitudinal observational study. The IQ includes three dimensions in the assessment: emotion, cognition, and behavior. IQ has two subscales: The Irritability Questionnaire (IRQ) and the Carer’s Irritability Questionnaire (CIRQ). Internal consistency, convergent validity, and sensitivity to change were evaluated for both IRQ and CIRQ. Results: Cronbach’s alpha for the IRQ was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.76 to 0.87), whereas for the CIRQ was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.89 to 0.94). Convergent validity was good for both subscales. IRQ did not show sensitivity to change at 6 months (p-value = 0.99), while CIRQ showed moderate changes (−0.29, p-value = 0.124). Conclusions: IQ presented good psychometric properties to assess irritability in stroke. The tool detected significant differences between groups (stroke and healthy controls) and can be considered a valid instrument for clinical and research purposes