Spouse Caregivers' Perceptions of Influence of Dementia on Marriage

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulla Eloniemi-Sulkava ◽  
Irma-Leena Notkola ◽  
Kaija Hämäläinen ◽  
Terhi Rahkonen ◽  
Petteri Viramo ◽  
...  

Objectives: To investigate what kind of changes spouse caregivers of demented patients experience after the onset of dementia (a) in the general atmosphere, happiness, and relations of marriage and (b) in the sexual side of marriage. Design: Semistructured telephone interviews of spouse caregivers of demented patients. Setting: Community-living demented patients and their spouse caregivers in eastern Finland. Participants: The spouse caregivers of 42 demented patients recruited from a previous intervention study. Measures: The questionnaire covered different areas of marriage from the time before and after the onset of dementia. Results: A statistically significant decline had occured in extent of happiness (p = .012), in equal relations (p = .001), and in patients' expressions of sexual needs (p < .001) when compared the time before and after dementia. Twenty-five (60%) of the caregivers reported that the demented patient had shown at least one negative sexual behavioral change during the course of dementia. Seven male patients (24%) had shown the behavioral symptom of constantly expressing need for making love. One in 10 caregivers had experienced positive sexual behavioral changes. In one third of the patients, the expressions of tenderness towards the caregiver had increased. Dementia did not affect significantly the general atmosphere of the marriage. Out of those still in home care, at 3 years from the onset of dementia, 19 couples (46%) continued to practice intercourse, at 5 years the number was 15 couples (41%), and at 7 years it had declined to 7 couples (28%). Conclusions: Dementing illness has a major negative impact on many dimensions of marriage. However, there are also positive changes and preserved aspects of marriage. Dementia seems to have a surprisingly little impact on whether the couple continues to have intercourse when compared with the general aging population.

Author(s):  
Anda David ◽  
Mohamed Ali Marouani

This chapter focuses on the external effects of emigration on non-migrants, and particularly on the interactions with labor market outcomes in Tunisia before and after the revolution. Using the new Tunisia Labor Market Panel Survey (TLMPS), we conduct an in-depth analysis of the structure and dynamics of migration, including the profile of migrants and their origin households, mainly in terms of skills and spatial composition. We investigate transition matrices, employment status, income for current migrants and returnees, and the evolution of remittances. Our analysis confirms the role of emigration as a safety valve for the Tunisian labor market. Moreover, origin households of migrants have a significantly higher wealth index. Our analysis also tends to confirm the effects of remittances on labor supply of non-migrants, which can have a negative impact on Tunisia’s unemployment rate when a crisis in destination countries affects the remittance rate negatively.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Jordan ◽  
Marie Gabe ◽  
Louise Newson ◽  
Sherrill Snelgrove ◽  
Gerwyn Panes ◽  
...  

Objectives. People with dementia are susceptible to adverse effects of medicines. However, they are not always closely monitored. We explored (1) feasibility and (2) clinical impact of nurse-led medication monitoring.Design. Feasibility “before-and-after” intervention study.Setting. Three care homes in Wales.Participants. Eleven service users diagnosed with dementia, taking at least one antipsychotic, antidepressant, or antiepileptic medicine.Intervention. West Wales Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) Profile for Mental Health Medicines.Outcome Measures. (1) Feasibility: recruitment, retention, and implementation. (2) Clinical impact: previously undocumented problems identified and ameliorated, as recorded in participants’ records before and after introduction of the profile, and one month later.Results. Nurses recruited and retained 11 of 29 eligible service users. The profile took 20–25 minutes to implement, caused no harm, and supplemented usual care. Initially, the profile identified previously undocumented problems for all participants (mean 12.7 (SD 4.7)). One month later, some problems had been ameliorated (mean 4.9 (3.6)). Clinical gains included new prescriptions to manage pain (2 participants), psoriasis (1), Parkinsonian symptoms (1), rash (1), dose reduction of benzodiazepines (1), new care plans for oral hygiene, skin problems, and constipation.Conclusions. Participants benefited from structured nurse-led medication monitoring. Clinical trials of our ADR Profile are feasible and necessary.


Author(s):  
Lidia Borghi ◽  
Elaine C. Meyer ◽  
Elena Vegni ◽  
Roberta Oteri ◽  
Paolo Almagioni ◽  
...  

To describe the experience of the Italian Program to Enhance Relations and Communication Skills (PERCS-Italy) for difficult healthcare conversations. PERCS-Italy has been offered in two different hospitals in Milan since 2008. Each workshop lasts 5 h, enrolls 10–15 interdisciplinary participants, and is organized around simulations and debriefing of two difficult conversations. Before and after the workshops, participants rate their preparation, communication, relational skills, confidence, and anxiety on 5-point Likert scales. Usefulness, quality, and recommendation of the program are also assessed. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, repeated-measures ANOVA, and Chi-square were performed. A total of 72 workshops have been offered, involving 830 interdisciplinary participants. Participants reported improvements in all the dimensions (p < 0.001) without differences across the two hospitals. Nurses and other professionals reported a greater improvement in preparation, communication skills, and confidence, compared to physicians and psychosocial professionals. Usefulness, quality, and recommendation of PERCS programs were highly rated, without differences by discipline. PERCS-Italy proved to be adaptable to different hospital settings, public and private. After the workshops, clinicians reported improvements in self-reported competencies when facing difficult conversations. PERCS-Italy’s sustainability is based on the flexible format combined with a solid learner-centered approach. Future directions include implementation of booster sessions to maintain learning and the assessment of behavioral changes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Rose ◽  
Emma Ray ◽  
Rachael H. Summers ◽  
Melinda Taylor ◽  
Helen Kruk ◽  
...  

AbstractDespite high mortality and morbidity, COPD remains under-diagnosed. Case-finding strategies are possible, but patients’ perspectives are unexplored. Using qualitative methods, we explored the patient perspective of a case-finding intervention among at-risk patients in primary care. Semi-structured telephone interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis utilised. Seven patients without (mean age 64.5 years (58–74), n = 4) and 8 with obstructed spirometry (mean age 63.5 (53–75), n = 4) were interviewed. Themes identified were motives, challenges and concerns regarding attending the clinic. These included wanting to be well; to help with research; concern over negative impact to life from COPD diagnosis; perceived utility of the clinic; quality of information given; staff manner, approachability and knowledge; and perceived effects of the clinic on lifestyle, self-management and symptoms. The intervention was generally deemed useful and reassuring, although shared information was too detailed or irrelevant for some. Several reported positive lifestyle changes, improved symptoms and improved self-management.


2020 ◽  
Vol 154 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S102-S103
Author(s):  
Y S Kamel

Abstract Introduction/Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of GH administration on basic coagulation parameters: PT, aPTT and fibrinogen concentrations in adult GHD patients before and during one year of GH replacement. Methods Twenty-one adult patients with severe GHD (mean age +/- SE: 38.6 +/- 2.8 years) were included in this hospital based, prospective, interventional study. All patients were treated with rhGH for 12 months (GH dose: 0.4 mg/day for male and 0.6 mg/day for female patients). IGF-1 concentrations were determined using RIA-INEP kits. Basic coagulation tests, i.e. aPTT and fibrinogen concentrations, were measured before and after 3, 6 and 12 months of treatment with rhGH. Control values were obtained from fourteen “healthy” subjects matched by age, sex and body mass index (BMI). Results At baseline, we observed no significant differences in PT, aPTT and fibrinogen values between GHD and healthy subjects. IGF-1 concentrations increased significantly within 3 months of GH therapy (8.2 +/- 1.5 vs. 24.2 +/- 2.9 nmol/l, p &lt;0.05) and remained stable thereafter. A significant increase in PT values, which was more pronounced in female subjects, was noted after 6 and 12 months of treatment with GH. aPTT values increased significantly after 12 months of treatment only in male patients (28.8 +/- 4.6 vs. 39.7 +/- 2.1 s.; p &lt;0.05). No significant changes in fibrinogen concentrations were found during the study. Conclusion Twelve months of GH replacement therapy led to a significant increase in PT and aPTT values in adult GHD patients, while fibrinogen concentrations did not change. Changes in PT were more pronounced in female GHD patients, while an increase in aPTT values was observed only in male patients with GHD. The clinical significance of these changes needs further evaluation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1282-1291
Author(s):  
Sanjay Dhamija ◽  
Ravinder Kumar Arora

The article examines the impact of regulatory changes in the tax on dividends on the payout policy of Indian companies. The tax law was recently amended to levy tax on dividends received by large shareholders. As the promoters group is the largest shareholder, this is expected to have a negative impact on the payout policy of companies. Furthermore, companies with larger promoter holdings have a higher motivation to reduce their payout. The study covers 370 companies present in the BSE 500 Index and compares the dividend payout of the companies before and after the introduction of tax levy. The study finds that the newly introduced tax indeed caused a shift in the dividend policy of companies, particularly those companies which have high levels of inside ownership. The findings have significant implications for companies, investors and the government.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masakazu Nishigaki ◽  
Eiko Sato ◽  
Ryota Ochiai ◽  
Taiga Shibayama ◽  
Keiko Kazuma

Background. Offspring of type 2 diabetic patients are at a high risk of type 2 diabetes. Information on diabetes genetic susceptibility and prevention should be supplied to the offspring.Methods. A six-page booklet on diabetes genetic susceptibility and prevention was distributed to 173 patients who ere ordered to hand it to their offspring. The patients answered a self-administered questionnaire on booklet delivery and attitudinal and behavioral changes toward diabetes and its prevention in themselves and their offspring.Results. Valid responses were obtained from 130 patients. Forty-nine patients had actually handed the booklet. Booklet induces more relief than anxiety. From the patient's view, favorable attitudinal and/or behavioral changes occurred in more than half of the offspring who were delivered the booklet.Conclusion. The booklet worked effectively on attitudes and behaviors toward diabetes and its prevention both in patients and their offspring. However, the effectiveness of patients as information deliverers was limited.


Author(s):  
Shusaku Sasaki ◽  
Hirofumi Kurokawa ◽  
Fumio Ohtake

AbstractNudge-based messages have been employed in various countries to encourage voluntary contact-avoidance and infection-prevention behaviors to control the spread of COVID-19. People have been repeatedly exposed to such messages; however, whether the messages keep exerting a significant impact over time remains unclear. From April to August 2020, we conducted a four-wave online survey experiment to examine how five types of nudge-based messages influence Japanese people’s self-reported preventive behaviors. In particular, we investigate how their behaviors are affected by repeated displays over time. The analysis with 4241 participants finds that only a gain-framed altruistic message, emphasizing their behavioral adherence would protect the lives of people close to them, reduces their frequency of going out and contacting others. We do not find similar behavioral changes in messages that contain an altruistic element but emphasize it in a loss-frame or describe their behavioral adherence as protecting both one’s own and others’ lives. Furthermore, the behavioral change effect of the gain-framed altruistic message disappears in the third and fourth waves, although its impact of reinforcing intentions remains. This message has even an adverse effect of worsening the compliance level of infection-prevention behaviors for the subgroup who went out less frequently before the experiment. The study’s results imply that when using nudge-based messages as a countermeasure for COVID-19, policymakers and practitioners need to carefully scrutinize the message elements and wording and examine to whom and how the messages should be delivered while considering their potential adverse and side effects.


2021 ◽  
pp. 112972982110396
Author(s):  
Andrea Sansalone ◽  
Raffaello Vicari ◽  
Fabio Orlando ◽  
Alessandro Dell’Avo ◽  
Silvia Giuffrida ◽  
...  

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of needle-free connectors to maintain Central Venous Catheter—CVC patency. Background: Loss of patency is a common complication associated with CVC. For patients, this can be stressful and painful, and can result in a delay in infusion therapy. Pressure-activated anti-reflux needle-free connectors are one of the most modern devices; however, no studies have compared this connector with the open-system three-way stopcock in terms of the incidence of CVC occlusion. Methods: This study is a prospective before and after intervention study. From March to August 2018, an observation phase was conducted with the three-way stopcock as the standard central venous catheter hub and closure system (phase 1). After implementation of needle-free connectors (phase 2), post-intervention observations were made from September 2019 to January 2020 (phase 3). Results: Of 199 CVCs analyzed, 41.2% (40/97) occluded in at least one lumen in the first phase, and 13.7% (14/102) occluded after introducing the technological device, absolute risk reduction 27.5% (95% confidence interval 15.6%–39.4%). The lumens supported by needle-free connectors showed a higher probability of maintaining patency compared with three-way stopcocks. No differences were observed in the rate of infection. Conclusions: Pressure-activated anti-reflux needle-free connectors are effective and safe devices suitable for the management of vascular access in cardiac patient care. Staff training, even on apparently simple devices, is essential to avoid the risk of infection.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Fu ◽  
Xiang Li ◽  
Kan Liu ◽  
Jiying Chen ◽  
Ming Ni ◽  
...  

Introduction: Sexual activity is often an important component of life. To date, no studies have examined sexual activity before and after total hip arthroplasty (THA) in male patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of THA on sexual activity and to explore the most commonly reported and comfortable coital position for male AS patients with hip involvement. Methods: Data from 31 male AS patients who underwent THA for hip involvement were retrospectively reviewed. Information from the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), the Harris Hip Score (HHS) and other clinical parameters was collected and monitored over time. We compared the above-mentioned parameters before surgery and 2 years after surgery and analysed the correlation between changes on the IIEF and changes in clinical parameters. Results: The domain and total scores of the IIEF, except EF, were significantly higher after surgery than were those before surgery ( p < 0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between changes on the IIEF and improvement in flexion-extension range of motion (ROM), adduction-abduction ROM and HHS ( p < 0.05). Most patients (26/31, 83.9%) resumed sexual activity 5–12 weeks after surgery. The pre- and postoperative distributions of the most commonly reported and comfortable position were not significantly different (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Successful THA may improve sexual activity in male AS patients with hip involvement. Changes in hip ROM show the most significant correlation with improvement in sexual activity. Resumption of sexual activity occurs within 5–12 postoperative weeks.


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