HOW SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION POSITIVELY AFFECT SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY INTERVENTION? A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS ON THE SCIENCE OF WELL-BEING

Purpose: The recent decades were witnessed such a rapid rise in wellbeing researches on the field of psychology. Social psychology intervention (SPI) has a strong impact on individual mental health and remarkable achievement in education domain. In this context, subject development within the last years could be illustrated through a bibliometric approach. This research aimed to analyze the scientific productivity while considering global trends of psychological intervention. Methodology: Web of Science Core Collection databases were selected in the period from 1990 to mid-2018. By thoroughly scrutinizing the objects which came to this attention, the trend of documents, publication date, geographic contribution to the field, relevant authorship and most cited articles, as well as frequent keywords from more than thousand references, were investigated. Main Findings: The results clearly indicate that the United States of America dedicates itself with the highest level of attention in the area of social psychology intervention. Whereas, lower attention was focused on the research criteria in Asian continent, except China. Although the majority of the studies on SPI approach is from USA, but performed analysis highlight the vast research potential to validate without any specific considerations to certain region settings or cultures. Implications/Applications: Despite advantages of SPI, the majority of the existed researches has been carried out predominantly in United States. Whereas, from defining the unit of analysis, the hypothesis might worthily be studied by practitioners to generalize the issue over various frameworks

Intensive resistance exercise and circadian salivary testosterone concentrations among young male recreational lifters

Strength and morphological adaptations to resistance exercise are mediated in part by anabolic hormones such as testosterone, yet the time course of variability in circadian hormone concentrations is not well characterized. This study, investigated how the circadian rhythm of salivary testosterone is altered by resistance exercise in young men. Twenty healthy young male recreational lifters (age, 18.0 ± 1.3 years) with 2 years of experience in weightlifting were recruited. A randomized controlled trial was conducted, and subjects were randomly assigned to either the resistance exercise group (n = 10), who completed a series of resistance exercise (3 times a week, in the afternoon, 6-7 repetitions, at 85% of 1 repetition maximum for 3 weeks), or a control group (n = 10), who did not exercise during the 3 weeks. Before and after the study, an unstimulated saliva sample (2 ml) was taken every 2 hours for a maximum of 16 hours during each day. A significant decrease was observed in the resistance exercise (44.2%, p = 0.001) and control group (46.1%, p = 0.001) for salivary testosterone at each time point compared with baseline (p = 0.001). There was also no significant difference between the exercise and resting conditions in both groups for salivary testosterone (p > 0.05), except a significantly higher increase by 38.4% vs. -0.02% (p = 0.001), at 1730 hours during exercise sessions in the resistance exercise group compared with the control group. Resistance exercise has no noteworthy effect on circadian secretion of salivary testosterone throughout the 16 waking hours. These results indicate that athletes can undertake resistance exercise in either the morning or afternoon with the knowledge that a similar testosterone response can be expected regardless of the time of day

Post-traumatic brain injury olfactory dysfunction: factors influencing quality of life

Purpose To evaluate if and how post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) olfactory dysfunction affects the quality of life (QoL). Methods In this case–control observational study, 32 adults with post-TBI olfactory dysfunction (cases) were matched with 32 TBI patients with intact olfactory function (controls). All subjects self-rated their olfactory function using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Cases also underwent objective olfactory function assessment with the Sniffin’ Sticks test, which generated a Threshold, Discrimination, and Identification (TDI) score. QoL was assessed with the Questionnaire for Olfactory Disorders (QOD). Factors evaluated included age, gender, smoking, TBI severity and duration, lesion localisation, and Disability Rating Scale (DRS) score. Results Cases had a higher mean QOD score than controls at 26.31 ± 14.37 and 9.44 ± 8.30, respectively (F = 16.426, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.224). The effect size was large (d = 1.07) with an odds ratio of 7.02. The features of QoL most affected were perception of smell changes, adapting to smell changes, and fear of hazardous substance exposure. DRS score and severity of olfactory dysfunction significantly affected QoL (p < 0.05). Conclusion Post-TBI olfactory dysfunction significantly lowered QoL and increased the likelihood of having a low QoL relative to TBI alone

A Comprehensive Comparison of Educational Growth within Four Different Developing Countries between 1990 and 2012

Educational growth is a fundamental infrastructure factor required to achieve sustainable development. Therefore, evaluation and measurement of educational growth is essential for establishing a development road map. Because of this, there are many organizations and databases that work to capture academic trends and provide the general view of institute achievements. Web of Science and Scopus are the two most popular and scientific. In this paper, we define the important effective factors in educational growth and discuss them; we then compare these defined factors across four different developing countries: Brazil, Iran, Malaysia, and Turkey. As well as the comparisons, this paper uses the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient method to analyze the factors and the strong or weak relationship between the factors are discussed.  Keywords: Educational growth; Developing countries; Publication; Impact factor; Web of Science; Scopus

Office exercise training to reduce and prevent the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders among office workers: a hypothesis

Pain in specific areas of the body (including the lower back, neck, and shoulders) due to extended periods of sitting and inactivity is the most widespread musculoskeletal disorder worldwide and has consequences that are both socio-economic and personal. This condition is particularly prevalent in industrialised countries, affecting roughly 70% to 80% of adults at some point in their lives; approximately 1% of the U.S. population is chronically disabled by this type of pain disorder. A practical way to reduce the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among office workers would have a significant positive impact. More work is required to develop a package of exercises designed to prevent and treat musculoskeletal pain in office workers. Such a package would be preferable to pharmacological treatments, which can have undesirable side effects. The main objective of this package would be to increase the flexibility and strength of trunk muscles in order to decrease the soreness, pain, and degree of discomfort. In this article, we introduce our proposed package of exercises, which are based on guidelines issued bythe American College of Sports Medicine

Musculoskeletal disorders and their relationship with physical activities among office workers: a review

Lower back, neck and shoulder pain are the most prevalent musculoskeletal problems affecting office workers worldwide, and they have both personal and socioeconomic consequences as well. Several hypotheses regarding the underlying mechanisms and the maintenance behind office work-related musculoskeletal disorders have been presented. There is some evidence, based on epidemiological studies as well as studies upon smaller groups of subjects, that individuals who sit and work for a long time not only show cognitive impairment at the workplace, but also suffer from poorer and fragmented daytime sleep, in addition to increased risks of developing various psychological, physiological and medical impairments and musculoskeletal disorders. The related physical mechanisms behind musculoskeletal disorders are discussed in the context of new findings. The main causes, as well as varying levels in severity of musculoskeletal disorders, not to mention the link between such disorders in the neck, shoulder and lower back regions and physical activity among office workers are also stated. The main objective of this review paper is to conduct a systematic review to identify musculoskeletal disorders and how these disorders are correlated with physical activity among office workers. The results of this review indicate that the musculoskeletal disorder is a critical issue among office workers and the main cause is related to the absence of physical activity as well as the subjects’ sedentary lifestyle. As a practical message, regular physical activity can be effective in the prevention and decrease of physical discomfort among office workers who suffer from musculoskeletal pain

Development of a Novel Retrospective Instrument to Gauge the General Well-Being Index and Lumbar-Specific Disability Index Post-intervention in Lumbar Degenerative Disease

Study Design Validation of a novel retrospective comparative questionnaire to obtain post-intervention outcome data in patients with lumbar degenerative spinal disease. Purpose Acquiring prospective outcome data for spinal intervention is not frequently feasible in resource-depleted units in certain developing countries. Therefore, a novel retrospective instrument is being validated for clinical use, which can act as a standard method to describe outcomes when data are retrospectively collected. Overview of Literature The standard method of collecting outcome data after a spinal intervention has been prospective, including the Oswestry Disability Index, Roland-Morris Questionnaire, and Short Form-36. The process of content validation and reliability of the novel retrospective spinal questionnaires is highlighted. Methods Questionnaire items were created based on a literature review, followed by a process of content validation by experts and modification based on expert opinions to achieve an acceptable content validity index (CVI, 0.70–1.00). To calculate factor loadings for each question, a pilot test was subsequently conducted from a pool of patients who underwent lumbar spine surgeries for degenerative spine diseases. Results All items achieved a CVI of >0.85 for both relevancy and clarity and were successfully validated after appropriate corrections were made before the second validation phase. Except for Q9 and Q10, which showed low-loading factors in the pooled sample, the remainder of the items had acceptable loading factors across different subgroups, indicating that the passage of time did not affect the results of the exploratory factor analysis. Conclusions The retrospective questionnaire that encompasses the general well-being and lumbar-specific symptoms is a valid and reliable instrument to provide an impression of the outcome after intervention in a patient with a degenerative lumbar spinal disease. A summative score will indicate the overall outcome

The effect of obsessive compulsive symptoms on psychopathology in patients with schizophrenia

Background: There is a growing interest on the impact of comorbid obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) on the course and severity of schizophrenia in recent years. Objectives: This study determined the prevalence of OCS in schizophrenia patients and the clinical outcomes of the comorbidity. Methods: A total of 220 schizophrenia patients were recruited. All the participants completed Structure Clinical Interview version, Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia, Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life – Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF). Results: Significantly higher number of schizophrenia patients with OCS were taking Clozapine (p = 0.023) and antidepressants (p = 0.013). Schizophrenia patients with OCS showed more severe positive (p &lt; 0.001) and general symptoms (p &lt; 0.001) of schizophrenia, higher depressive symptoms (p = 0.013), higher suicidality (p &lt; 0.001), more hospitalization (p = 0.044), poorer physical (p = 0.034) and psychological (p = 0.032) domain in WHOQOLBREF. Discussion: Schizophrenia patients with OCS are associated with more severe psychopathology and depressive symptoms which subsequently suffered poorer physical and psychological health. Hence, recognition of OCS in schizophrenia and early initiation of effective treatment may be able to reduce the burden for people with chronic mental illness