Female spouses lived experiences of living with a husband with dementia: a qualitative study on changes in everyday life

Purpose The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of female spouses’ lived experiences of changes in everyday life while living with a husband with dementia. Design/methodology/approach Nine individual interviews of female spouses were conducted in 2017. A phenomenological narrative approach was applied during data collection, and the analysis was inspired by Amedeo Giorgi’s analytic steps. Findings Female spouses experienced changes in their marital relationships, and found ways of managing these changes, although they realized life was marked by loneliness and distress. The identified themes reveal how female spouses experienced changes in everyday life as the disease progressed. Everyday routines gradually changed and they actively sought ways to uphold everyday life and a marital relationship. Research limitations/implications Research should focus on developing supportive interventions, where the people with the lived experiences in relation to dementia are involved in the research process, to better target the needs for support, when developing interventions. Practical implications Insight into everyday life can help health-care service providers to better the support to female spouses and contribute with more individualized support, which may contribute to the quality of care. Originality/value In this study, the authors disclose the envisible and silent work that takes place in an everyday life, when living with a husband with dementia during the time span of caregiving. Spouses’ experiences are important to include, when developing intervention to support spouses to better tailor the interventions.

Contribution of mutual perceived support to the marital satisfaction of combat commander couples

LAY SUMMARY Military combat commander couples face many difficulties, and support, especially perceived support, can be an important source for coping with them. This study examined how perceived support contributes to marital satisfaction among 248 male combat commanders in the Israel Defense Forces and their female spouses. The study found that the level of perceived support among combat commanders was significantly higher than that among their spouses, whereas there was no significant difference in their marital satisfaction.

Estudio sobre los términos de la cónyuge femenina en la dinastía Shang (ca. 1600 a.C. – 1046 a.C.)

[Sinologia Hispanica, China Studies Review, 11, 2 (2020), pp. 79-100] Kinship is one of the most basic principles of society, based on marriage and blood, and as we all know, the kinship system in Chinese is the most complicated of the known languages, but the Shang Dynasty system (ca 1600 BC - 1046 BC) was very different from those of later generations and today. The Inscriptions on Shell and Bones is an important first-hand corpus to get closer to the Shang dynasty. Among the plates recovered, on the terms related to the meaning of “spouse”, find: 𥇛 (jū), 妻 (qī), 妾 (qiè), 妃 (fēi), 匕 (妣) (bǐ), 母 (mǔ), 帚 (妇) (fù), etc., most of which are still used during later generations, but it seems that their meaning is not exactly the same as later generations, even the meaning of some words is very different. Through the study of these terms of female spouses, in addition to being able to better understand the kinship system during that period of the shangs, we can also better understand the family and social status of women in that dynasty.

HIV incidence and associated risk factors in female spouses of men who inject drugs in Pakistan

Introduction Female sexual partners of men who inject drugs (MWID) living with HIV are at risk of HIV transmission. HIV prevalence estimates among non-drug using female sex partners of MWID are scarce, with no studies documenting HIV incidence. We investigated HIV prevalence and incidence among female spouses of MWID registered at Nai Zindagi Trust (NZT), Pakistan, between 2012 and 2019. Methods NZT registration and service provision data for female spouses who participated in HIV testing and counselling calculated HIV prevalence and incidence using the person years (PY) method. Cox proportional hazards models identified factors associated with incident infection. Results Overall HIV prevalence among female spouses of MWID was 8.5%. Among 3478 HIV-negative female spouses, 109 incident infections were observed, yielding an incidence rate of 1.5/100PY (95% CI 1.2–1.8). Independent predictors of incident infection were registration in Punjab province (AHR 1.73 95% CI 1.13–2.68, p = 0.012) and 1–5 years of education (AHR 1.89 95% CI 1.22–2.93, p = 0.004). Knowledge of HIV at registration was protective against infection (AHR 0.51, 95% CI 0.26–0.99, p = 0.047), along with a MWID spouse who had initiated antiretroviral therapy (ART) (AHR 0.25, 95% CI 0.16–0.38, p < 0.001), while incident infection was inversely associated with number of children (≥ 5 children AHR 0.44 95% CI 0.22–0.88, p = 0.022). Conclusions Additional efforts are needed to reduce HIV transmission among female spouses of MWID, including targeted provision of HIV education and access to HIV screening. Interventions that target MWID are also required, including evidence-based drug treatment and access to ART, including support to maximize adherence. Finally, consideration should be given to making HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis available to female spouses at high risk of HIV transmission, particularly young women and those whose husbands are not receiving, or have difficulty adhering to, ART.

The Impact of Spousal Migration on the Mental Health of Nepali Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

Spousal separation, lack of companionship, and increased household responsibilities may trigger mental health problems in left-behind female spouses of migrant workers. This study aimed to examine mental ill-health risk in the left-behind female spouses of international migrant workers in Nepal. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in the Nawalparasi district. Study areas were purposively chosen; however, participants were randomly selected. Nepali versions of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) were used. Mental ill-health risk was prevalent in 3.1% of the participants as determined by GHQ. BDI identified mild or moderate depression in 6.5% of the participants with no one having severe depression. In bivariate analysis, a high frequency of communication with the husband was associated with lower mental ill-health risk and depression, as well as increasing resilience. Reduced return intervals of husbands and a high frequency of remittance were also associated with a low GHQ score. In a multiple regression model, adjusting for potential confounding variables, participants who communicated with their husbands at least once a day had a greater mean CD-RISC score (i.e., high resilience against mental ill-health risk) compared to those who did so at least once a week; a mean difference of 3.6 (95% CI 0.4 to 6.9), P = 0.03. To conclude, a low mental ill-health risk was found in the female spouses of migrants.