For many years, cancer have been the 2nd leading cause of death, both men and women, in Croatia, and breast cancer is among first three cause of death from cancer in women. Disease, especially ...cancer, has negative and multidimensional impact on quality of life. The aim of this research was to examine the relation between perceived social support and body image with quality of life in women with breast cancer who undergone surgical treatment mastectomy. Results showed that quality of life after the mastectomy in women with breast cancer was 53.58 %SM which was below the normative range, and indicating decreased QoL. Social support proves to be strongest protective factor for the quality of life in women with breast cancer who undergone mastectomy, and longer time from diagnosis was also associated with higher quality of life. Neither women’s age, level of body image disturbance nor type of additional treatment were shown to be significant predictors of the overall QoL Assessment of quality of life and perceived social support could become a valuable indicator of the success of multidisciplinary treatment and indicate areas where the woman needs additional help and support in order to achieve better quality of life.
Introduction. Studies suggest that people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) experience continuous and subclinical physical worsening, even as early as their disease diagnosis. Validating sensitive and ...reproducible tests that can capture subclinical disease activity early in the disease are clinically useful and highly warranted. We aimed at validating the utility of Fitts’ Tapping Task (FTT) as reproducible measure of psychomotor performance in pwMS. Materials and Methods. Thirty newly-diagnosed pwMS (within 2 years of diagnosis and Expanded Disability Status Scale; EDSS ≤ 2.0), 30 people with migraine (pwMig), and 30 healthy controls (HCs) underwent a psychomotor assessment using the FTT, O’Connor hand dexterity test, and Visual Reaction Time Test (VRTT). Hand strength was measured using a hand-grip dynamometer. Subjects also provided patient-reported outcomes (PROs) using the 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36). Intrarater and interrater reproducibility was acquired on 5 HCs by two independent operators. Test−retest reproducibility was determined in 5 pwMS over a 1-week follow-up. Eight pwMS returned for the same test procedures 2 years after the baseline assessment. Bland−Altman plots were used to determine the minimally detectable change (MDC) and logistic regression models determined the ability to differentiate between newly-diagnosed pwMS and HCs. Results. FTT exhibited a high intrarater and interrater reproducibility (interclass correlation coefficient of 0.961, p < 0.001). The test−retest demonstrated an MDC of the average FTT at > 15%. PwMS had significantly a slower FTT time and O’Connor dexterity time when compared to pwMig and HCs (p < 0.001 for both). Higher Fitts’ difficulty levels (4th and 6th difficulty) and average performance on the O’Connor test were able to differentiate newly-diagnosed pwMS from HCs with 80% accuracy (p < 0.01). Slower FTT performance was correlated with worse PROs due to physical health. Over the 2-year follow-up, and despite being clinically stable (no change in EDSS), 6 out of 8 (75%) pwMS had more than a 15% worsening in their average FTT time. Conclusions. FTT is a highly-reproducible test for measuring psychomotor performance in newly-diagnosed pwMS. FTT can capture insidious worsening in psychomotor performance and cognitive function in early stages of MS.
OBJECTIVESeveral studies indicate an association between adolescents' sense of coherence (SOC) and health. However, a few longitudinal studies have been conducted. The aim of the study was to analyze ...the association between SOC and health among adolescents during secondary education. METHODSParticipants of longitudinal cohort study were followed by questionnaires at the age of 15 (N = 441), and 17 (N = 354). The data were analyzed using the methods of descriptive and inferential statistics. We used hierarchical regression to examine significant predictors of health. RESULTSAdolescents' SOC was stable during the analyzed two-year period (128.84 ± 22.17; 129.24 ± 23.06). A strong significant positive correlation was found between SOC and mental health (r = 0.635, p<.001; r = 0.670, p<.001). A significant difference was found between adolescents with a low SOC and those with a high SOC in physical functioning (p<.018), general health (p<.001), vitality (p<.001), social functioning (p<.001), emotional role functioning (p<.013) and mental health (p<.001). Boys had higher SOC and most of the health dimensions. Having a stronger SOC, being male, and living with both parents were predictors of better mental health. CONCLUSIONSSense of coherence was a significant and stable factor associated with mental health. Thus, salutogenic interventions for improving the sense of coherence during adolescence should be explored.
The experience of labor pain is a complex process that represents the interaction of the nociceptive stimulus within the physiologic process with a series of psychological factors. The aim of this ...study was to investigate the relation between the choice of epidural analgesia as a form of pain management and psychological state of woman in labor; moreover, whether the women in labor with a higher level of anxiety have a more intensive experience of pain during labor and therefore decide on epidural analgesia. Pain was evaluated by the visual analog scale, while the sensory and affective pain components were evaluated by the McGill Pain Questionnaire, and anxiety as a trait was measured with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-form X. Women in labor with a higher level of anxiety had a significantly increased affective component of pain, but did not significantly more frequently decide on labor with epidural analgesia. The women having chosen epidural analgesia experienced more intense pain during delivery before epidural analgesia, with the sensory component of pain being less pronounced in the women in labor without epidural analgesia, while there was no difference in the affective component of pain.
Objective
The aim of this study was to compare self-perceived health between migraine and early stages of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and to explore whether and how accurate those ...health domains predict overall quality of life.
Methods
Ninety patients aged 18–55 years were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Thirty follow-up outpatients were recruited with migraine (with or without aura), 30 patients with RRMS, and 30 healthy subjects. They were asked to complete the Health status questionnaire (SF-36) and Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI).
Results
Patients with RRMS and migraine had significantly worse self-reported health regarding role limitation due to physical problems and general health than the healthy control group. Additionally, migraine patients had more bodily pain, while RRMS patients expressed more difficulties regarding physical functioning. Differences between migraine and RRMS patients were not significant. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that role limitation due to physical problems, mental health, and general health represents significant predictors of overall quality of life.
Conclusions
Migraine may affect quality of life similarly to early stages of RRMS. Bio-psycho-socio-medical understanding of the two diseases and their impact on patients QoL should be reconsidered.
It is known that cannabis increases mood, decreases anxiety and causes mild euphoria, but also it can cause serious mental diseases. Previous studies showed harmful effects of cannabis and the aim of ...this study is to show characteristics of persons registrated because of cannabinoids abuse in Croatia in the period 2008-2018 and show effectiveness of interventions using statistic methods.
Research data were collected based on the national Registry of Treated Psychoactive Drug Abusers in period 2008 to 2018 and included 10 533 registrated persons. Statistical analysis was performed by chi-square test and binary logistic regression.
Results showed that men and very young people took cannabinoids more often than women and older people. There was a changing trend of registrated people in a ten-year period. The most commonly used intervention of obligatory healthcare treatment is consultation, but the difference between apstinents and people with unchanged status isn't statistically significant. The most people are referred by repressive mechanism and they are more likely to have apstinent status compared to unrepressive source of referral, with one exception - referred by the family. The highest probability of abstinence have those referred by the center for social welfare.
Registrated people were mostly referred by repressive way, which makes question of its efficiency and prevention of long term addiction, because system like that more likely stigmatizes and punishes young people, opposite to giving support and help.
The aim of this study was to investigate the health related quality of life (HRQOL) in relation to the smoking status. The data from the Croatian Adult Health Survey conducted in 2003 were used for ...this study. Sample comprised 9,070 participants, 68.1% women and 31.9% men, from 18 to 101 years old. Results indicated that there were significant differences in HRQOL between smokers and non-smokers even in a young adult age when there is no difference in objective health status (for example diagnosis of disease). Generally health decreased with the age for both groups but direction of difference between smokers and non-smokers varied for different health dimensions across the age groups. The most notable difference in HRQOL in relation to smoking was found in the age group of 65 and older where women smokers reported better HRQOL than non-smokers, and men smokers significantly worse HRQOL than non-smokers. As we found significant differences according to gender in age groups, we suggest that it is essential for future studies to take those characteristics into consideration. Many other factors, for example education, income, marital status, and the socio-cultural acceptability of smoking may have an impact on the quality of life, and also need to be considered in future research. The existing differences in mental health and social functioning should be taken into account in planning of the future prevention programs.
We aimed to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among people with diabetes or hypertension, estimate the effect of cardiovascular comorbidities on HRQoL as well as compare HRQoL in these ...groups with that of healthy individuals.
A total of 9,070 respondents aged 18 years and over were assessed for HRQoL. Data were obtained from the Croatian Adult Health Survey. Respondents were divided into five groups according to their medical history: participants with hypertension (RR), hypertension and cardiovascular comorbidities (RR+), diabetes mellitus (DM), diabetes and cardiovascular comorbidities (DM+) and participants free of these conditions (healthy individuals, HI). HRQoL was assessed on 8 dimensions of the SF-36 questionnaire.
Participants with diabetes and those with hypertension reported comparably limited (p > 0.05) HRQoL in all dimensions of SF-36, compared with healthy individuals (p < 0.05). If cardiovascular comorbidities were present, both participants with diabetes and participants with hypertension had lower results on all SF-36 scales (p > 0.05) than participants without such comorbidities (p < 0.05). The results remained after adjustment for sociodemographic variables (age, sex, employment, financial status and education).
Diabetes and hypertension seem to comparably impair HRQoL. Cardiovascular comorbidities further reduce HRQoL in participants with both chronic conditions. Future research of interventions aimed at improving these participants' HRQoL is needed.
Regional pattern of smoking in Croatia Samardzić, Senka; Marvinac, Gorka Vuletić; Prlić, Ante
Collegium antropologicum
33 Suppl 1, Issue:
Supp.1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The aim of this paper was to investigate the regional smoking pattern in Croatia. The data from the Croatian Adult Health Survey from 2003 were used for the study (N = 9,070). The results of this ...study suggest that the prevalence of smoking among men was the highest in the Eastern parts of the country, followed by the Mountainous region. In contrast, the prevalence of smoking among women was the highest in City of Zagreb. The results support the strong regional pattern, with more pronounced differences in women (those from the City of Zagreb had more than twice higher prevalence than those from the Northern parts of the country). Smoking is still relatively highly prevalent in Croatian adult population (24-33% in men, and between 10 and 21% in women, depend on region). This suggesting that preventive actions and public health interventions are needed to reduce the smoking prevalence and thus improve the population health.
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