Towards a middle-range theory of mental health and well-being effects of employment transitions: Findings from a qualitative study on unemployment during the 2009-2010 economic recession.

This article builds upon previous theoretical work on job loss as a status passage to help explain how people's experiences of involuntary unemployment affected their mental well-being during the 2009-2010 economic recession. It proposes a middle-range theory that interprets employment transitions as status passages and suggests that their health and well-being effects depend on the personal and social meanings that people give to them, which are called properties of the transitions. The analyses, which used a thematic approach, are based on the findings of a qualitative study undertaken in Bradford (North England) consisting of 73 people interviewed in 16 focus groups. The study found that the participants experienced their job losses as divestment passages characterised by three main properties: experiences of reduced agency, disruption of role-based identities, for example, personal identity crises, and experiences of 'spoiled identities', for example, experiences of stigma. The proposed middle-range theory allows us to federate these findings together in a coherent framework which makes a contribution to illuminating not just the intra-personal consequences of unemployment, that is, its impact on subjective well-being and common mental health problems, but also its inter-personal consequences, that is, the hidden and often overlooked social processes that affect unemployed people's social well-being. This article discusses how the study findings and the proposed middle-range theory can help to address the theoretical weaknesses and often contradictory empirical findings from studies that use alternative frameworks, for example, deprivation models and 'incentive theory' of unemployment

Reliability of pedometer data in samples of youth and older women

BACKGROUND: Pedometers offer researchers a convenient and inexpensive tool for objective measurement of physical activity. However, many unanswered questions remain about expected values for steps/day for different populations, sources of variation in the data, and reliability of pedometer measurements. METHODS: This study documented and compared mean steps/day, demographic predictors of steps/day, and pedometer reliability in two longitudinal investigations, one involving a population-based youth sample (N = 367) and the other targeting postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes (N = 270). Individuals were asked to wear pedometers (Yamax model SW-701) at the waist for 7 days and record steps/per day. They were also asked to record daily physical activities, duration, and perceived intensity (1 = low/light, 2 = medium/moderate, 3 = high/hard) for the same 7 days. In addition, survey data regarding usual physical activity was collected. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to determine whether there were significant differences in pedometer results according to sex, age, and body mass index. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine potential differences in results among differing numbers of days. RESULTS: Mean steps/day were 10,365 steps in the youth sample and 4,352 steps in the sample of older women. Girls took significantly fewer steps than boys, older women took fewer steps than younger women, and both youth and women with greater body mass took fewer steps than those with lower body mass. Reliability coefficients of .80 or greater were obtained with 5 or more days of data collection in the youth sample and 2 or more days in the sample of older women. Youth and older women were more active on weekdays than on weekends. Low but significant associations were found between step counts and self-report measures of physical activity in both samples. CONCLUSION: Mean steps/day and reliability estimates in the two samples were generally consistent with previously published studies of pedometer use. Based on these two studies, unsealed pedometers were found to offer an easy-to-use and cost-effective objective measure of physical activity in both youth and older adult populations

Long-term effects of the Mediterranean lifestyle program: a randomized clinical trial for postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND: Multiple-risk-factor interventions offer a promising means for addressing the complex interactions between lifestyle behaviors, psychosocial factors, and the social environment. This report examines the long-term effects of a multiple-risk-factor intervention. METHODS: Postmenopausal women (N = 279) with type 2 diabetes participated in the Mediterranean Lifestyle Program (MLP), a randomized, comprehensive lifestyle intervention study. The intervention targeted healthful eating, physical activity, stress management, smoking cessation, and social support. Outcomes included lifestyle behaviors (i.e., dietary intake, physical activity, stress management, smoking cessation), psychosocial variables (e.g., social support, problem solving, self-efficacy, depression, quality of life), and cost analyses at baseline, and 6, 12, and 24 months. RESULTS: MLP participants showed significant 12- and 24-month improvements in all targeted lifestyle behaviors with one exception (there were too few smokers to analyze tobacco use effects), and in psychosocial measures of use of supportive resources, problem solving, self-efficacy, and quality of life. CONCLUSION: The MLP was more effective than usual care over 24 months in producing improvements on behavioral and psychosocial outcomes. Directions for future research include replication with other populations

The Relationship Between Diabetes Distress and Clinical Depression With Glycemic Control Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

ObjectiveTo clarify previous findings that diabetes distress is related to glycemic control and self-management whereas measures of depression are not, using both binary and continuous measures of depression.Research design and methodsFour hundred and sixty-three type 2 patients completed measures of diabetes distress (Diabetes Distress Scale [DDS]) and clinical depression (Patient Health Questionnaire 8 [PHQ8]). PHQ8 was employed as either a binary (>or=10) or continuous variable. Dependent variables were A1C, diet, physical activity (PA), and medication adherence (MA).ResultsThe inclusion of a binary or continuous PHQ8 score yielded no differences in any equation. DDS was significantly associated with A1C and PA, whereas PHQ8 was not; both DDS and PHQ8 were significantly and independently associated with diet and MA.ConclusionsThe lack of association between depression and glycemic control is not due to the use of a binary measure of depression. Findings further clarify the significant association between distress and A1C

A multilevel approach to youth physical activity research.

A multilevel approach to youth physical activity research. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev., Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 95-99, 2004. Social environment factors are hypothesized to interact with individual-level factors to influence youth physical activity. Multilevel analytic approaches are ideal for examining the influence of the social environment on youth physical activity as they allow examination of research questions across multiple contexts and levels (e.g., individual, family, and neighborhood levels)

Self-Efficacy, Problem Solving, and Social-Environmental Support Are Associated With Diabetes Self-Management Behaviors

OBJECTIVE — To evaluate associations between psychosocial and social-environmental variables and diabetes self-management, and diabetes control. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS — Baseline data from a type 2 diabetes self-management randomized trial with 463 adults having elevated BMI (M 34.8 kg/m2) were used to investigate relations among demographic, psychosocial, and social-environmental variables; dietary, exercise, and medication-taking behaviors; and biologic outcomes. RESULTS — Self-efficacy, problem solving, and social-environmental support were indepen-dently associated with diet and exercise, increasing the variance accounted for by 23 and 19%, respectively. Only diet contributed to explained variance in BMI ( 0.17, P 0.0003) and self-rated health status ( 0.25, P 0.0001); and only medication-taking behaviors contrib-uted to lipid ratio (total–to–HDL) (0.20, P 0.0001) and A1C (0.21, P 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS — Interventions should focus on enhancing self-efficacy, problem solving, and social-environmental support to improve self-management of diabetes. Diabetes Care 33:751–753, 2010 D iabetes management requires coor-dination between the patient andthe primary care team. Given the lifestyle changes required for self-management success, patient, social, and environmental factors, including health care (1) and community support (2), are increasingly recognized as important. Un-derstanding relations among demo-graphic, psychosocial, and social-environmental variables, and multiple health risk behaviors is critical to devel-oping interventions that will sustain health behavior changes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS — Baseline data were col-lected as part of a patient randomized trial to evaluate the impact of an interactive, multimedia diabetes self-management program relative to “enhanced ” usual car

Adapting and RE-AIMing a heart disease prevention program for older women with diabetes

Coronary heart disease is a pervasive public health problem with a heavy burden among older women. There is a need for developing effective interventions for addressing this problem and for evaluating the dissemination potential of such interventions. A multiple-behavior-change program originally designed for men with heart disease was adapted for women at high risk of heart disease in two randomized clinical trials—the Mediterranean Lifestyle Program and ¡Viva Bien!. Results from these two trials, including readiness for dissemination, are evaluated using the RE-AIM framework in terms of Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance. Program adaptations produced relative high reach as well as consistent and replicated effectiveness and maintenance, and were adopted by a high percentage of primary care offices and clinicians approached. We discuss key findings, lessons learned, future directions for related research, and use of RE-AIM for program development, adaptation, scale-up, and evaluation.Ye

Evidence for t\bar{t}\gamma Production and Measurement of \sigma_t\bar{t}\gamma / \sigma_t\bar{t}

Using data corresponding to 6.0/fb of ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector, we present a cross section measurement of top-quark pair production with an additional radiated photon. The events are selected by looking for a lepton, a photon, significant transverse momentum imbalance, large total transverse energy, and three or more jets, with at least one identified as containing a b quark. The ttbar+photon sample requires the photon to have 10 GeV or more of transverse energy, and to be in the central region. Using an event selection optimized for the ttbar+photon candidate sample we measure the production cross section of, and the ratio of cross sections of the two samples. Control samples in the dilepton+photon and lepton+photon+\met, channels are constructed to aid in decay product identification and background measurements. We observe 30 ttbar+photon candidate events compared to the standard model expectation of 26.9 +/- 3.4 events. We measure the ttbar+photon cross section to be 0.18+0.08 pb, and the ratio of the cross section of ttbar+photon to ttbar to be 0.024 +/- 0.009. Assuming no ttbar+photon production, we observe a probability of 0.0015 of the background events alone producing 30 events or more, corresponding to 3.0 standard deviations.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Combined search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a bb pair using the full CDF data set

We combine the results of searches for the standard model Higgs boson based on the full CDF Run II data set obtained from sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV p-pbar collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.45/fb. The searches are conducted for Higgs bosons that are produced in association with a W or Z boson, have masses in the range 90-150 GeV/c^2, and decay into bb pairs. An excess of data is present that is inconsistent with the background prediction at the level of 2.5 standard deviations (the most significant local excess is 2.7 standard deviations).Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev. Lett (v2 contains minor updates based on comments from PRL

Precision Top-Quark Mass Measurements at CDF

We present a precision measurement of the top-quark mass using the full sample of Tevatron $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV proton-antiproton collisions collected by the CDF II detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7 $fb^{-1}$. Using a sample of $t\bar{t}$ candidate events decaying into the lepton+jets channel, we obtain distributions of the top-quark masses and the invariant mass of two jets from the $W$ boson decays from data. We then compare these distributions to templates derived from signal and background samples to extract the top-quark mass and the energy scale of the calorimeter jets with {\it in situ} calibration. The likelihood fit of the templates from signal and background events to the data yields the single most-precise measurement of the top-quark mass, \mtop = 172.85 \pm$0.71 (stat)$\pm$0.85 (syst) GeV/c^{2}.$Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let