Aim
To explore whether different profiles exist in a cohort of nurses regarding demographic and occupational outcomes.
Background
Nurses will face many occupational problems, including workplace ...bullying, work–life imbalance, burnout and medical errors.
Methods
A cross‐sectional study included 232 nurses working in a hospital in Oman. Data were collected from December 2018 to April 2019 using convenience sampling. Instruments included work–life balance questions, the Negative Acts questionnaire‐revised questionnaire, Oldenburg Burnout Inventory and Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index. Cluster analysis, t test, chi‐squared and Fisher's exact tests were used for data analysis.
Results
Cluster 1 (n = 108) was characterized as ‘low‐risk on medical error, burnout and workplace bullying but high‐risk in work–life imbalance’ group. Cluster 2 (n = 124) was labelled as ‘high‐risk on medical error, work–life imbalance, burnout and workplace buying’ group.
Conclusions
Two groups of nurses in Oman are facing occupational problems differently. Nurses in Cluster 1 need attention to work–life imbalance. However, nurses in Cluster 2 need attention on all occupational problems.
Implications for Nursing Management
Findings call on the nursing stakeholders in Oman to identify factors related to occupational problems, to provide consultation services to reduce inter‐personnel conflicts, and to review nurses' working hours to avoid burnout and resume a balanced work–life.
Objectives: This study sought to determine the confidence level of mental health practitioners in Oman regarding the use of antidepressants during pregnancy and breastfeeding, assess their knowledge ...and need for further training in this area, and examine their current prescribing patterns and preferences.
Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted from May to June 2017 among all practitioners in the psychiatry specialty, including medical officers authorized to prescribe medications, at the Behavioral Medicine Department of Sultan Qaboos University Hospital and Al Masarra Hospital.
Results: Forty-two practitioners (response rate equivalent 89.4%) responded to the questionnaire. Of them, 10 (23.8%) had no experience, while 30 (71.4%) had experience in prescribing antidepressants during both pregnancy and breastfeeding periods. Twenty-seven (64.3%) respondents felt that they were confident in prescribing antidepressants for women during their perinatal period, while 30.0% were neutral. Moreover, 35 (83.3%) participants expressed the need for more training in this area. Furthermore, 34 (81.0%) believed that more training in perinatal psychiatry should be included in the psychiatry curriculum. There was no consistent prescribing pattern (either prescribing or avoiding) among our participating practitioners during the first trimester of pregnancy and breastfeeding periods. The drug of choice in the first trimester of pregnancy was fluoxetine preferred by approximately 85.0% of the practitioners, but avoided by 10.0% of practitioners in the same period. This was followed by amitriptyline (50.0% vs. 23.0%), sertraline (50.0% vs. 9.0%), imipramine (28.0% vs. 84.0%). During breastfeeding, the drug of choice for approximately 74.0% of the practitioners was paroxetine, but avoided by 15.0% of practitioners. This was followed by sertraline (50.0% vs. 8.0%). The most common reasons for prescription during pregnancy were safety, evidence-based practice, and low teratogenicity. For breastfeeding, the main reasons for prescription were low levels of the drug in breast milk, safety, and evidence-based practice. On the other hand, high teratogenicity, neonatal side effects, limited data, and lack of evidence were among the most common reasons behind avoiding prescribing during pregnancy, while high levels of breast milk, neonatal side effects, limited evidence, and safety concerns were the most common reasons during the breastfeeding period.
Conclusions: There was inconsistency among mental health practitioners in making prescription decisions and in their prescribing patterns.
Aim
Despite the much heralded epidemic of adjustment difficulties, health‐care workers (HCW), who are likely to be at risk and impacted with mental health issues, have received scant attention. This ...study aimed to determine whether definable profiles exist in a cohort of HCWs associated with demographic and mental health problems.
Methods
An online cross‐sectional survey was conducted in Oman. Demographic and mental health data were collected from 8 to 17 April 2020. A total of 1132 participants returned their completed questionnaire. A two‐step cluster analysis was used to split the sample into three clusters.
Results
Cluster A (n = 416) was from HCW in non‐frontline roles, and constituted “low‐risk and least‐impacted”. Cluster B (n = 412) and Cluster C (n = 304) were from frontline HCW and constituted ‘high‐risk and moderate‐impacted’ and ‘high‐risk and high‐impacted’ groups, respectively. HCWs in Cluster C reported more depression (P < 0.001), anxiety (P < 0.001), stress (P < 0.001) and clinical insomnia (P < 0.001) compared with those in the other clusters. HCWs in Cluster C were at the highest risk for mental health problems during the pandemic.
Conclusions
Early psychological interventions targeting this vulnerable group may be beneficial. Management should develop different tailor‐made strategic plans to address different mental health needs for each profile group.
Summary statement
What is already known about this topic?
Nurses, physicians and allied health‐care workers (HCWs) experienced many kinds of psychological problems, including depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia during the COVID‐19 outbreak.
What this paper adds?
The HCWs in Cluster A were more experienced, did not work in the frontline and reported a lower prevalence of depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia. This group was labelled as the ‘low risk and least impacts’ group.
The HCWs in Cluster B were predominantly nurses and doctors working in the frontline and reported a higher prevalence of anxiety and stress. This cluster was labelled as the ‘high risk but moderate impacts’ group.
The HCWs in Cluster C were predominantly nurses who were younger, with less working experience and work in the frontline but reporting a higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia. This cluster was labelled as the ‘high risk and high impacts’ group.
The implications of this paper:
Management should develop different tailor‐made strategic plans to address different mental health needs for each profile group.
Online cognitive behaviour therapy targeting this vulnerable group may be beneficial during the COVID‐19 pandemic.
ObjectiveThis study aims to assess and compare demographic and psychological factors and sleep status of frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) in relation to non-frontline HCWs.Design, settings, ...participants and outcomesThis cross-sectional study was conducted from 8 April 2020 to 17 April 2020 using an online survey across varied healthcare settings in Oman accruing 1139 HCWs.The primary and secondary outcomes were mental health status and sociodemographic data, respectively. Mental health status was assessed using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and insomnia was evaluated by the Insomnia Severity Index. Samples were categorised into the frontline and non-frontline groups. χ2 and t-tests were used to compare groups by demographic data. The Mantel-Haenszel OR was used to compare groups by mental health outcomes adjusted by all sociodemographic factors.ResultsThis study included 1139 HCWs working in Oman. While working during the pandemic period, a total of 368 (32.3%), 388 (34.1%), 271 (23.8%) and 211 (18.5%) respondents were reported to have depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia, respectively. HCWs in the frontline group were 1.5 times more likely to report anxiety (OR=1.557, p=0.004), stress (OR=1.506, p=0.016) and insomnia (OR=1.586, p=0.013) as compared with those in the non-frontline group. No significant differences in depression status were found between the frontline and non-frontline groups (p=0.201).ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the differential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on different grades of HCWs. This study suggests that frontline HCWs are disproportionally affected compared to non-frontline HCWs, with managing sleep–wake cycles and anxiety symptoms being highly endorsed among frontline HCWs. As psychosocial interventions are likely to be constrained owing to the pandemic, mental healthcare must first be directed to frontline HCWs.
Effect of body mass index on stroke rehabilitation Burke, David T; Al-Adawi, Samir; Bell, Regina B ...
Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation,
06/2014, Letnik:
95, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
To investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and the functional progress of patients with stroke, admitted to a rehabilitation hospital.
A retrospective cohort study.
A freestanding ...university rehabilitation hospital stroke unit.
All patients (N=819) admitted to the stroke unit of a rehabilitation hospital during the study.
Not applicable.
The primary study outcome measure was the FIM efficiency of patients by BMI category.
For the 819 patients admitted during the observation period, BMI was compared with FIM score changes per day (FIM efficiency). After adjusting for age and sex, the FIM efficiency differed by BMI. The underweight group had the lowest FIM efficiency, followed by the obese and normal-weight subgroups. The overweight group had the highest FIM efficiency (P=.05) when compared with the obese subgroup.
Among patients admitted to an acute rehabilitation hospital for stroke rehabilitation, overweight patients had better functional progress than did patients in the other weight categories.
This study aimed to assess the prevalence of neuropsychiatric sequelae following traumatic brain injury (TBI) among the Western Asian, South Asian and African regions of the global south. All studies ...on psychiatric disturbances or cognitive impairment following TBI conducted (until August 2021) in the 83 countries that constitute the aforementioned regions were reviewed; 6 databases were selected for the literature search. After evaluating the articles using the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, the random effects model was used to estimate the prevalence of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), TBI-related sleep disturbance (TBI-SD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and cognitive impairment. Of 56 non-duplicated studies identified in the initial search, 27 were eligible for systematic review and 23 for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of depression in 1,882 samples was 35.35%, that of anxiety in 1,211 samples was 28.64%, that of PTSD in 426 samples was 19.94%, that of OCD in 313 samples was 19.48%, that of TBI-SD in 562 samples was 26.67% and that of cognitive impairment in 941 samples was 49.10%. To date, this is the first critical review to examine the spectrum of post-TBI neuropsychiatric sequelae in the specified regions. Although existing studies lack homogeneous data due to variability in the diagnostic tools and outcome measures utilised, the reported prevalence rates are significant and comparable to statistics from the global north.
Recent clinical research has demonstrated that berry fruits can prevent age-related neurodegenerative diseases and improve motor and cognitive functions. The berry fruits are also capable of ...modulating signaling pathways involved in inflammation, cell survival, neurotransmission and enhancing neuroplasticity. The neuroprotective effects of berry fruits on neurodegenerative diseases are related to phytochemicals such as anthocyanin, caffeic acid, catechin, quercetin, kaempferol and tannin. In this review, we made an attempt to clearly describe the beneficial effects of various types of berries as promising neuroprotective agents.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating age-related neurodegenerative disease with no specific treatment at present. The APPsw/Tg2576 mice exhibit age-related deterioration in memory and learning ...as well as amyloid-beta (Aβ) accumulation, and this mouse strain is considered an effective model for studying the mechanism of accelerated brain aging and senescence. The present study was aimed to investigate the beneficial effects of dietary supplements pomegranate, figs, or the dates on suppressing inflammatory cytokines in APPsw/Tg2576 mice. Changes in the plasma cytokines and Aβ, ATP, and inflammatory cytokines were investigated in the brain of transgenic mice. Significantly enhanced levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-9, IL-10, TNF-α and Eotaxin activity were decreased by administration of the diet supplements containing pomegranates, figs, or dates. In addition, putative delays in the formation of senile plaques, as indicated by a decreasing tendency of brain Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 contents, were observed. Thus, novel results mediated by reducing inflammatory cytokines during aging may represent one mechanism by which these supplements exert their beneficial effects against neurodegenerative diseases such as AD.
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