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People with severe mental illness (SMI) experience substantially reduced life expectancy, largely due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Sedentary behaviour is a major risk factor for CVD, and people with SMI spend significantly more time sedentary and are less physically active than the general population. While interventions to increase physical activity have focused on structured exercise, these are not accessible or acceptable to many consumers. The sedentary time elimination with periodic activity snacks (STEPS) study aims to test and evaluate the feasibility of a codesigned novel intervention using ‘activity snacks’ to interrupt sedentary behaviour in people with SMI.
The STEPS study is a single-arm feasibility trial. We will recruit 20 participants with SMI to complete a 6-week intervention. The intervention will include the use of the STEPS smartphone app to prompt short bouts of movement across the day, the type of which are personalised to the individual. Feasibility will be assessed through recruitment and retention rates, adherence to the intervention and acceptability measured via qualitative interviews. Secondary outcomes include changes in sedentary time, physical activity, mood and quality of life, with pre–post variables analysed via either a t-test or Mann’s Whitney U test, dependent on the normality of the data. Effect sizes for secondary outcomes will be calculated as Cohen’s d.
This trial has received ethical clearance from the Metro South Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/2025/QMS/117193) and was prospectively registered with the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12625000265471p). Results from this trial will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12625000265471p).
Post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) is defined as mental, physical, cognitive, and social sequelae in survivors of critical illness. Survivors of liver transplantation exhibit a complex clinical condition following discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU). There is a lack of knowledge about the lived experience of PICS in survivors after liver transplantation.
Describe the lived experiences of PICS in ICU survivors following liver transplantation.
A phenomenological study was carried out using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ICU survivors one month after discharge.
Twenty ICU survivors were enrolled and interviewed after critical illness. The main themes that emerged from the data analysis were: (1) Profound life reorientation, (2) Physical impairment, (3) Psychological distress experiences, (4) Human-Centred Nursing Care, and (5) Return to daily life. Our results showed a particular impact of the dimensions of PICS, such as mental, physical, and social dimensions, on ICU survivors after liver transplantation.
The study concludes that ICU survivors experience profound life reorientation, physical impairment, and psychological distress experiences, yet benefit from human-centred nursing care, which facilitates their eventual return to daily life.
The findings highlight the importance of human-centred nursing care in the post-ICU recovery process, where the multidisciplinary team plays a critical role in addressing both psychological distress and physical rehabilitation, supporting survivors' reintegration into daily life.
Post-liver transplant ICU survivors experience profound physical, psychological, and social impacts. Life reorientation, altered body image, and emotional distress emerge. Human-centred nursing facilitates rehabilitation, reintegration, and overall recovery.
Reporting was structured based on the COREQ checklist.
Prot. N. 00014635–31/05/2023
by Ugo Picciotti, Giuseppe Francesco Racaniello, Marianna Ivone, Pasquale Trotti, Angela Assunta Lopedota, Paolo Damiani, Francesca Garganese, Nunzio Denora, Francesco Porcelli
Predation on Aphrophoridae and other olive tree pests makes Zelus renardii a candidate for biocontrol actions to limit Xylella fastidiosa infections while mitigating other olive tree pests. The opportunity drives the search for an effective mass rearing method of Z. renardii. Predator rearing on artificial diets greatly benefits from feed-effective formulation, preparation, storage, preservation, and delivery. Given the several oligidic, meridic, and holidic available formulations, we face the challenge of a proper diet processing for delivery. To understand how to obtain a large number of preservable and sterile diet portions while avoiding microbial contamination, we explore prilling/vibration techniques to rear Z. renardii. Prilling or vibrating the diets yields multicore microbeads or monocore microcapsules; water domains exist, whose arrangements are well-documented by the cryo-SEM study and represented in corresponding false-color images. Issues include the density interplay between low- or high-density alginate and the liquid diet formulation during prilling/vibration. Other options relate to alginate stickiness or consistency, which makes it difficult to disperse the diet domains in the microbeads or to obtain a single diet domain per microcapsule because of unpredictable wall thickness and core lateralization. We suggest options to make microbeads and microcapsule portions available for up to one year for predators, stored in cold, pure water.To assess 10 common indicators of clinical trial risks across regions.
Retrospective pooled analysis of routine central-monitoring outputs.
Data came from a central-monitoring platform (2015–2025), which contains data from clinical trials conducted worldwide by 46 different sponsors and contract research organisations acting on behalf of sponsors. Trial sites were grouped into seven geographic regions—North America, Central/South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa/Middle East, Asia, Pacific—to assess regional differences in monitored clinical-trial risks.
Primary outcome—Relative Key Risk Indicator (KRI) risk score, defined as the relative risk in the selected region in comparison to the expected risk computed using data across all regions globally for 10 common risks usually assessed in clinical trials.
A total of 585 studies involving 56 189 sites comprising data from all regions of the world were used in the analysis. No obvious concerns were identified regarding the conduct of reliable clinical research in any region. However, for some KRIs (eg, off-schedule visit rate, protocol deviation rate and screen failure rate), there was substantial variability observed of relative risks across regions. Conversely, some other KRIs (eg, visit-to-entry cycle time and adverse event reporting rate) had a very narrow distribution across all regions.
These results highlight regional differences across some common risks that may help clinical trials sponsors to plan future trials and take prospective measures to reduce KRI-related risks in some regions of the world.
Stroke represents the second leading cause of death worldwide after cardiovascular disease and the first cause of disability in adults. Only 25% of stroke survivors fully recover, 75% survive with some form of disability, and half of them lose self-sufficiency, negatively impacting their quality of life. This study aims to understand the experiences of stroke survivors and caregivers of training needs and support during the transitional care phase from hospital to home; it also investigates the experience of health care professionals (HCPs) of providing support and training to the dyad during this phase.
Meta-synthesis was conducted following a critical-interpretative approach. The SPIDER method was used for sample selection, and the PRISMA research question was adopted for article selection. The search for studies on CINAHL, Pubmed, Scopus, ERIC, PsycInfo and OVID was conducted until August 2024.
Of the 1123 articles found, 32 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-synthesis. Text analysis revealed two main thematic areas: (1) the training need is a new awareness in the transition of care from hospital to home and (2) moulding oneself to new life. The first theme had six subthemes: need for information and training, uncertainty, involvement, evaluation of training needs, individual discharge planning and physical-psychological problems. The second theme included three subthemes: different role perception, support after discharge and adaptation to change.
Knowing the training and support needs in the stroke survivor caregiver dyad guides HCPs to structure tailored discharge plans. Multi-method and multidisciplinary training and support interventions such as health coaching, weekend passes and early supported discharge are satisfactory outcomes for the triad involved in the transition of care, as continuous feedback on the needs of the new reality at home fortifies the relationship between the dyad and HCPs. A transitional care pathway based on the dynamic needs of the triad can improve the quality of care in the community.
FreshRSS 