1,721,012 research outputs found
A comprehensive health impact assessment and determinants of quality of life, health and psychological status in acne patients
No full textAcne adversely affects all aspects of quality of life (QoL). Although many papers assessed acne-specific QoL impairment, there are few data on its impact on general health and psychological status. Apart from acne severity, little is known about determinants of a worse QoL. The aims of this paper were to measure acne impact on QoL, health and psychological status and to analyze the relationship between socio-demographic variables, disease severity and mental status on QoL of acne sufferers
Job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing in bio-medical researchers
No full textIntroduction, The aim of the stuay was to assess job satisfaction and risk of depression/anxiety in researchers of a Research Institute in Rome. Methods. The personnel was invited to participate in a survey filling in the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for the screening of depression/anxiety disorders and the evaluation of psychological stress, and a validated satisfaction questionnaire. Results. A descriptive analysis was conducted and logistic regressions were performed examining the following outcomes in separate models: being positive at the GHQ and being satisfied. The response rate was 52%. Among participants 15.1% were at risk of depression/anxiety, 77.4% were stressed and 66% were dissatisfied. Major determinants for dissatisfaction were "job opportunities", "communication between Units", "judgment about spaces", "economic rewards", "participation in the organization of the Unit". Conclusions. Dissatisfaction with "economic rewards" was predictive of depression, independently of sex, age and job duration. Areas of possible intervention were identified. © PI-ME. Pavia 2010
Insufficient patient knowledge on psoriasis treatments represents a barrier to participation in decision-making
No full textPrevalence of psoriatic arthritis and joint complaints in a large population of Italian patients hospitalised for psoriasis
No full textWe investigated the prevalence of psoriatic arthritis and joint complaints in a large population of Italian patients hospitalised for psoriasis. A total of 936 patients were evaluated for psoriatic arthritis according to the European Spondyloarthropathy Study Group (ESSG) criteria. They were visited by a dermatologist who evaluated specific joint signs and symptoms (i.e. arthralgia, stiffness, swelling, ankylosis, paresthesia) and assessed skin disease severity. Information on socio-demographic variables and other factors of clinical interest was also collected. Seventy-one patients (7.7% of the sample) had psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Overall, 90% of patients with PsA referred arthralgia, 70.4% stiffness, 67.7% swelling, 25.4% paresthesia, and 23.9% had ankylosis. However, among patients with plaque psoriasis who did not fulfil the criteria for PsA, 12.3% referred paresthesias, 7% arthralgia, 4.2% stiffness, 3.7% swelling, and 1.2% had ankylosis. Among 114 patients referring arthralgia, 42 (39.6%) did not meet the ESSG criteria for PsA. Therefore, patients with plaque psoriasis refer joint symptoms quite frequently making it difficult to distinguish patients with psoriatic arthritis from patients with joint complaints
Participation, satisfaction and knowledge level of patients with cutaneous psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis
No full textSummary
There have been few studies about the participation in health care and the satisfaction of patients with psoriasis and with psoriatic arthritis. The objective of this study was to examine the attitudes of and satisfaction with decision-making of patients with psoriasis. The study was based on a self-completed questionnaire, given after a routine medical visit to a consecutive sample of 240 patients with psoriasis [207 with cutaneous psoriasis (CP) and 33 with psoriatic arthritis (PA)]. Of the patients with CP and PA, only about a third (27.3% and 28.1%, respectively) preferred to leave decisions entirely to their doctor, whereas the majority (72.7% and 71.9%, respectively) wanted to be involved in decision-making. However, the level of knowledge about the disease was not as high, with 17.0% and 21.4% of patient with CP and PA, respectively, having a good level of knowledge about psoriasis treatment. Participation, knowledge and overall satisfaction were not significantly different between patients with CP and those with PA. Information on treatment side-effects (OR = 5.11; 95% CI 2.5–15.0; P &lt; 0.001) and information on treatment options (OR = 3.15; 95% CI 1.4–7.1; P = 0.006) were significantly associated with overall patient satisfaction.</jats:p
Psychological wellbeing in the hospital administrative personnel
No full textJob satisfaction and psychological well being of health care workers significantly influence the quality of care. The aim of this study was to evaluate job satisfaction and psychological well-being in the administrative personnel of a large hospital in Rome-Italy. The personnel self-completed two anonymous questionnaires: the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for minor psychiatric non psychotic diseases and a validated job satisfaction questionnaire. Descriptive analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed. Response rate was 65%. 74 were the questionnaires analyzed. 37.8% of respondents showed a high likelihood to develop symptoms of depression/anxiety (OR = 3.57; 95% CI 1.17-10.85). Major determinants of job dissatisfaction were the lower autonomy and poor communication in the working Unit. Factors associated with overall dissatisfaction were: insufficient training opportunities (p = 0.033), low autonomy (p = 0.023), poor communication between hospital Units (p = 0.009), unclear aims of their working Unit (p = 0.029), low agreement between personal expectations and required competence (p < 0.001). Among administrative staff job dissatisfaction was associated with high likelihood of depression/anxiety, low autonomy and poor communication, independently of sex, age, years of employment. Possible targets to improve satisfaction of administrative personnel were identified
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Measuring the Health Status of Patients with Vascular Leg Ulcers and the Burden for their Caregivers
No full textObjectivesTo assess the health status of patients with leg ulcers and the impact and consequences of such chronic disease on the life of their caregivers.DesignObservational study in a “day care” setting.MaterialAdministration of the Short Form-12 questionnaire and of Visual Analogue Scales for pain to patients; of the Family Strain Questionnaire to caregivers.MethodsEighty consecutive patients with leg ulcers and their principal caregivers were observed in the period January–August 2006.ResultsThe emotional burden and problem in social involvement were statistically significantly higher in caregivers for patients with worse SF-12 scores on the physical scale. Values of emotional burden were lower than those observed for cancer patients and for patients in a persistent vegetative state; however, they were higher than those observed for patients with neurological, respiratory, or renal conditions. The score for social involvement was significantly higher for caregivers of patient with vascular leg ulcers compared to other diseases, with the single exception of the persistent vegetative state.ConclusionsLeg ulcers alter the relationship between family members, and the physical impairment causes significant strain on the caregiver. The improvement of physical health status in patients with leg ulcers may induce a reduction in the emotional burden and an improvement in the social involvement for caregivers
Burden of disease during quiescent periods in patients with pemphigus
No full textStudies conducted using different tools have invariably observed that physical and mental components of health status are seriously compromised in patients with pemphigus. An improvement in quality of life (QoL) has been commonly observed over the treatment period
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