Conectar
To examine the multidimensional properties of caregiver burden among family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer in a palliative context.
A sequential, explanatory, mixed-method study was performed.
Family caregivers of patients diagnosed with advanced cancer were recruited from a palliative care department of a third-level hospital in Sichuan Province, China. The Caregiver Burden Inventory, Social Support Rating Scale and Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale were used to collect quantitative data, and a total of 150 caregivers were recruited from January 2022 to September 2022. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and a total of 22 caregivers were interviewed from October 2022 to November 2022. Survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and the factors of caregiver burden were identified using the Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test and Spearman correlations. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was performed to analyse the interview data to initially explore the multidimensions of caregiver burden. The following-a-thread method and convergence coding matrix were used for triangulation to examine the multidimensional properties of caregiver burden.
The participants experienced a moderate level of caregiver burden (32.97 ± 13.09). Through triangulation, six meta-themes and nine meta-subthemes were identified as multidimensional properties of caregiver burden, including physical (too many caring tasks and poor health condition), emotional (strong negative emotions resulting from patients' suffering and insufficient and ineffective family communication), social (less social interaction and social role conflict) and economic burdens, factors that aggravate burden (prevention and control of COVID-19 and spousal relationship with patients) and factors that mitigate burden (social support).
Multiple dimensions of caregiver burden were experienced by family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer in the palliative context. Family-centred palliative care must be further developed.
It is important to develop family-centred palliative care. Therefore, the focus must be on developing a rational understanding of palliative care in public and a culture-oriented death education in palliative units.
This study adopted a mixed-method approach to comprehensively understand the phenomenon of and factors in caregiver burden in the Chinese palliative oncology context. Our findings suggest that family caregivers in palliative oncology experience a moderate level of caregiver burden, with dimensions including physical, emotional, social and economic burdens, among which emotional burden is the most prominent. The findings of this study provide policy makers and nurse practitioners with targets to be addressed in family-centred care in Chinese palliative units.
The results of this study are reported based on the guidelines of the Mixed-Methods Article Reporting Standards.
Eligible caregivers were invited to participate in the study and semi-structured interviews. Nurse managers of the palliative unit helped us access the patient-management system.
To examine the prevalence and associated factors of chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) in older breast cancer survivors (BCS).
Systematic review.
We searched EMBASE, PubMed, PsychInfo, CINAHL, Cochrance Library, Web of Science, CNKI and SinoMed, without language restrictions, for studies published from the establishment of the database to September 2022.
Two researchers independently examined the full texts, data extraction and quality assessment, and any discrepancies were resolved through discussion with a third reviewer. Quality of evidence was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Scale.
The seven included studies showed that the estimated prevalence of CRCI in older BCS ranged from 18.6% to 27% on objective neuropsychological tests and from 7.6% to 49% on subjective cognitive assessments. The areas most affected were attention, memory, executive functioning and processing speed. CRCI was associated with 10 factors in six categories, including sociodemographic (e.g. age, education level), physiological (e.g. sleep disorders, fatigue and comorbidities), psychological (e.g. anxiety, depression), treatment modalities (e.g. chemotherapy cycles, chemotherapy regimens), genetic (e.g. APOE2, APOE4) and lifestyle factor (e.g. physical inactivity).
CRCI is multifactorial and has a relatively high prevalence. However, the results of subjective and objective cognitive examinations were inconsistent, possibly due to variations in tools used to evaluate different definitions of CRCI. Nevertheless, as there are few published studies of older BCS, this conclusion still require verification by well-designed studies in the future.
We found that the prevalence of CRCI in older adults is relatively high and multifactorial, providing evidence for further health care for this population.
There was no patient or public involvement.
To investigate the impact of socio-demographic factors and job stressors on the emotional intelligence of psychiatric nurses.
Emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in enabling nurses to effectively manage their own emotions, comprehend the emotions of others and assist individuals in dealing with diverse stressors. Nevertheless, a comprehensive conceptualization of the relationship between job stressors and emotional intelligence remains lacking.
This study employs a multi-centre cross-sectional design.
A multi-centre cross-sectional survey involving 1083 registered nurses from 11 psychiatric hospitals across four provinces in China was conducted. Non-probability sampling was utilised. The survey encompassed assessments of nurse job stressors, emotional intelligence using a scale and socio-demographic characteristics using a questionnaire. A multiple linear regression model was applied to identify significant variables associated with emotional intelligence based on demographic attributes and various nurse job stressors. The study adhered to the STROBE checklist.
The findings revealed a noteworthy negative correlation between nurse job stressors and emotional intelligence. Socio-demographic factors and job stressors of certain nurses were able to predict emotional intelligence and its dimensions among psychiatric nurses, with percentages of 44.50%, 40.10%, 36.40%, 36.60% and 34.60%.
Providing emotional intelligence training for psychiatric nurses could enhance their capacity to cope effectively with workplace stress, particularly among younger nurses who engage in limited physical activities.
The analysis of the relationship between emotional intelligence and nurse job stressors could facilitate early detection and intervention by managers based on pertinent factors. This, in turn, could elevate the emotional intelligence level of psychiatric nurses.
This study did not recruit participants, so details of participants were not be involved.
Newspapers are a predominant channel through which the Chinese public learns about nurses and the nursing profession. However, little nursing research has been performed in China to investigate the newspaper portrayal of nurses, and how the public perceives the role of nurses in the Chinese context is still an ambiguous phenomenon. This study aimed to clarify the public portrayals of nurses in China, and to analyze whether there are changes over time in news content related to nurses in the national newspapers.
A content analysis of the newspaper articles citing nurses that have been published since each newspaper was established.
We selected two national daily newspapers as sources to systematically search for articles about nurses from 1949 to 2022. A coding instrument was developed to quantitatively extract the contents of the articles identified. Then, using a mixed methods approach, we analyzed newspaper content to show the roles of nurses presented to the public by the media.
A total of 317 articles were analyzed. Nurses have been depicted with heterogeneous images in both newspapers with positive wordings and up to 28 types of public images. More than half of the articles portrayed two, three, or more types of images. Among the images of nurses identified, “overworked” appeared the most frequently, followed by “dedicated,” “philanthropic and benevolent,” and “with a sense of responsibility,” and then “technically skilled.” By analyzing the image of nurses in both newspapers over time, we found that images related to virtue have largely increased with time, while images about professionalism have decreased.
Nursing continues to be depicted as a virtuous caregiving profession, often forgetting the wide need for knowledge, skill, and expertise required in the occupation. The public image of nurses portrayed in the national newspapers does not accurately match their actual roles.
The public image of nurses portrayed in the national newspapers does not accurately match their actual roles. To actualize a professional role and increase social status of nurses, intentional image management is needed. Nursing schools, nursing associations, and nursing professionals should be more proactive in overcoming the stereotypical image portrayed of them and use the news media as a tool to invite attention from and dialogue with the public about the value of nursing to reframe the public's understanding of the expert role of the professional nurse in health care and to create a new and more professional image for nursing.
Background
Engagement with self-monitoring of blood pressure (BP) declines, on average, over time but may vary substantially by individual.
Objectives
We aimed to describe different 1-year patterns (groups) of self-monitoring of BP behaviors, identify predictors of those groups, and examine the association of self-monitoring of BP groups with BP levels over time.
Methods
We analyzed device-recorded BP measurements collected by the Health eHeart Study—an ongoing prospective eCohort study—from participants with a wireless consumer-purchased device that transmitted date- and time-stamped BP data to the study through a full 12 months of observation starting from the first day they used the device. Participants received no instruction on device use. We applied clustering analysis to identify 1-year self-monitoring, of BP patterns.
Results
Participants had a mean age of 52 years and were male and White. Using clustering algorithms, we found that a model with three groups fit the data well: persistent daily use (9.1% of participants), persistent weekly use (21.2%), and sporadic use only (69.7%). Persistent daily use was more common among older participants who had higher Week 1 self-monitoring of BP frequency and was associated with lower BP levels than the persistent weekly use or sporadic use groups throughout the year.
Conclusion
We identified three distinct self-monitoring of BP groups, with nearly 10% sustaining a daily use pattern associated with lower BP levels. Weight management is an important part of disease management in patients with heart failure. However, the effectiveness of reported weight management interventions is inconclusive.
The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the effects of weight management on functional status, heart failure-related hospitalizations, and all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure.
PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched on April 3, 2022. This study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021283817). Eligible studies assessed functional status, heart failure-related hospitalizations, and all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure. Two researchers independently screened the articles, extracted data, and evaluated the risk bias of each study. Dichotomous variables were presented as OR with a 95% confidence interval (CI). The data were analyzed using a fixed effect or random effect model, and heterogeneity was determined using I 2 statistics. All statistical analyses were conducted using RevMan 5.3.
Among 4279 studies screened, seven randomized controlled trials were included in this study. The results showed that weight management significantly improved functional status (OR = 0.15, 95% CI [0.07, 0.35], I 2 = 52%) and reduced the risk of all-cause mortality (OR = 0.54, 95% CI [0.34, 0.85], I 2 = 0%), but had no significant effect on heart failure-related hospitalizations (OR = 0.72, 95% CI [0.20, 2.66]).
Weight management has effects on improved functional status and reduced all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure. It is necessary to strengthen the weight management interventions of patients with heart failure to improve patients' functional status and reduce all-cause mortality.
As a devastating neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer's disease (AD) imposes a considerable direct and indirect financial burden. However, effective drug treatment options are limited. In recent years, game therapy has become a research hotspot in this field.
The purpose of this study was to synthesize the conclusions of existing studies and integrate the data to evaluate the effects of game therapy on people living with dementia (PLWD).
We included randomized clinical trials and quasi-experimental studies which assessed the impacts of game therapy on PLWD and took cognitive function, quality of life, and depression as outcome indicators. Two trained researchers independently screened the studies, evaluated the quality, and extracted the data. Statistical analysis was performed by Review Manager (Revman) 5.3 and STATA16.0 software.
There were 12 studies involving 877 PLWD included, total. The results of the meta-analysis demonstrated that the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores of the test group were significantly higher than that of the control group (SMD = 2.69, 95% CI [1.88, 3.51], p < .01), and the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia scores of the test group were significantly lower than those of the control group (SMD = −4.28, 95% CI [−6.96, −1.60], p < .01); but in terms of quality of life (SMD = 0.17, 95% CI [−0.82, 1.16], p = .74), the difference was not statistically significant.
Game therapy can improve cognitive function and depression in PLWD. The combination of different types of games can improve the different clinical symptoms of PLWD, and different intervention time also have different effects on the outcome, which shows that we can develop unique, systematic, safe, and scientific game intervention programs for PLWD to improve their cognitive function and depression.
Current studies have revealed that acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can alleviate the adverse effects of cancer; however, its effectiveness on the psychological flexibility, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and quality of life of patients with cancer remains unclear.
The aims of this study were to identify the effectiveness of ACT on psychological flexibility, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and quality of life of patients with cancer, and to explore moderators.
PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CENTRAL, PsycINFO, CINAHL, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang electronic databases were searched from inception to September 29, 2022. The Cochrane Collaboration's risk-of-bias assessment tool II and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach were used to evaluate evidence certainty. The data were analyzed using R Studio. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022361185).
The study included 19 relevant studies (1643 patients) published between 2012 and 2022. The pooled results showed that ACT significantly improved psychological flexibility (mean difference [MD] = −4.22, 95% CI [−7.86, −0.58], p = .02) and quality of life (Hedges' g = 0.94, 95% CI [0.59, 1.29], Z = 5.31, p < .01) but did not significantly improve fatigue (Hedges' g = −0.03, 95% CI [−0.24, 0.18], p = .75) or sleep disturbance (Hedges' g = −0.26, 95% CI [−0.82, 0.30], p = .37) in patients with cancer. Additional analyses revealed a 3-month sustainable effect on psychological flexibility (MD = −4.36, 95% CI [−8.67, −0.05], p < .05), and moderation analysis showed that intervention duration (β = −1.39, p < .01) and age (β = 0.15, p = .04) moderated the effects of ACT on psychological flexibility and sleep disturbance, respectively.
Acceptance and commitment therapy demonstrates effectiveness for psychological flexibility and quality of life of patients with cancer, but there is a lack of evidence regarding its effects on fatigue and sleep disturbance. In clinical practice, ACT should be designed in more detail and rounded to achieve better results.
The inconsistencies between randomized clinical trials (RCTs) registrations and peer-reviewed publications may distort trial results and threaten the validity of evidence-based medicine. Previous studies have found many inconsistencies between RCTs registrations and peer-reviewed publications, and outcome reporting bias is prevalent.
The aims of this review were to assess whether the primary outcomes and other data reported in publications and registered records in RCTs of nursing journals were consistent and whether discrepancies in the reporting of primary outcomes favored statistically significant results. Moreover, we reviewed the proportion of RCTs for prospective registration.
We systematically searched PubMed for RCTs published in the top 10 nursing journals between March 5, 2020, and March 5, 2022. Registration numbers were extracted from the publications, and registered records were identified from the registration platforms. The publications and registered records were compared to identify consistency. Inconsistencies were subdivided into discrepancies and omissions.
A total of 70 RCTs published in seven journals were included. The inconsistencies involved sample size estimation (71.4%), random sequence generation (75.7%), allocation concealment (97.1%), blinding (82.9%), primary outcomes (60.0%) and secondary outcomes (84.3%). Among the inconsistencies in the primary outcomes, 21.4% were due to discrepancies and 38.6% resulted from omissions. Fifty-three percent (8/15) presented discrepancies in the primary outcomes that favored statistically significant results. Additionally, although only 40.0% of the studies were prospective registrations, the number of prospectively registered trials has trended upward over time.
While not including all RCTs in the nursing field, our sample reflected a general trend: inconsistencies between publications and trial registrations were prevalent in the included nursing journals. Our research helps to provide a way to improve the transparency of research reports. Ensuring that clinical practice has access to transparent and reliable research results are essential to achieve the best possible evidence-based medicine.
FreshRSS 