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Potential Interventions (potential + intervention)
Selected AbstractsEarly childhood predictors of mothers' and fathers' relationships with adolescents with developmental disabilitiesJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 6 2010D. B. Mitchell Abstract Background The importance of positive parent,adolescent relationships is stressed in research on adolescents, although very little is known about this relationship when a teen has developmental disabilities (DD). We investigated the relationships of adolescents with disabilities with their mothers and their fathers in order to answer a number of questions regarding these relationships. In particular, we asked: are there differences in the relationships of mothers and fathers with their adolescent with DD? Are there early childhood predictors of the parent,teen relationship and are those based on variables that are amenable to intervention? Finally, do these predictors differ for mothers and fathers? Methods This study focused on the relationships of 72 mothers and 53 fathers with their 15-year-old teens with DD and their predictors from the early childhood years. Data were collected from parents through interviews and self-administered questionnaires, and from their children with disabilities through structured assessment when children were age 3 years and again at age 15 years. Results Analyses indicated that both mother,teen and father,teen relationships were predicted by earlier parenting stress. The father,teen relationship was also predicted by early behaviour problems, but this relation was mediated by parenting stress. Socio-economic status, type of disability and the child's level of functioning were not predictive of later relationships between parents and teens. Mothers and fathers did not differ significantly in their reports of perceived positive relationships with their teens. Conclusions The findings from this study suggest two important points of potential intervention during the early intervention years. First, parenting assistance and support to reduce stress during the early childhood years can benefit both mothers and fathers. Second, helping families and children cope with and diminish problem behaviours is likely to yield multiple advantages for parents and children and deserves emphasis in early intervention and pre-school programmes. [source] Potential impacts on the incidence of fatal heroin-related overdose in Western Australia: a time-series analysisDRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 4 2002KIM HARGREAVES Abstract In response to the rising concerns about the rate of heroin-related fatalities, overdose prevention campaigns, run by both users' organizations and government agencies, have been implemented in a number of states across Australia. In Western Australia (WA) in mid-1997, various overdose prevention initiatives were implemented. These included the implementation of a protocol limiting police presence at overdose events; the commencement of naloxone administration by ambulance staff; and the establishment of the Opiate Overdose Prevention Strategy (OOPS) which provided follow-up for individuals treated for overdose in emergency departments. This paper reports the results of a multiple linear regression analysis of 60 months of time-series data, both prior to and following the implementation of these interventions, to determine their impact on the number of fatal heroin overdoses in WA. The model employed in the analysis controlled for changes over time in proxy indicators of use and community concerns about heroin, as well as market indicators. The results suggest that, although the interventions implemented have managed to reduce the expected number of fatalities, they have become less successful in doing so as time passes. This has implications for both existing and potential interventions to reduce fatal heroin-related overdose. [source] Medical technology adoption, uncertainty, and irreversibilities: is a bird in the hand really worth more than in the bush?HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2010Joshua Graff Zivin Abstract The influence of current medical technology adoption decisions on the use of future potential interventions is often overlooked. Some health interventions, once exercised, restrict future potential interventions for both related and unrelated medical conditions. For example, treatment of a patient with an antibiotic may lead to resistance in that patient that precludes future treatment with the same or related compounds. This irreversibility raises the value of treatment modalities that preserve future treatment options. Surprisingly, partial reversibility with or without learning can either increase or decrease this value, depending on the distribution of patient types within the treated population. Evaluations that ignore these option values miss an important part of the welfare equation that is becoming increasingly important as individuals live longer and the stock of medical treatments increases. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] NANDA and NIC: Mediators to Describe Irish Intellectual Disability NursingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING TERMINOLOGIES AND CLASSIFICATION, Issue 2003Fintan Sheerin PURPOSE To identify the foci of interest specific to nursing interventions within residential, intellectual disability nursing through the use of the terms and meanings presented in NANDA and NIC. METHODS Data were collected using a Delphi approach involving a purposive sample of 8 individuals with relevant expertise, followed up by the conduct of three focus groups held with a total sample of 17 intellectual disability nurses working in three Irish service settings: traditional residential, community residential, and nurse education. Data were examined for contextual meaning as well as consensus of perceptions. FINDINGS Many potential interventions and diagnoses were identified for the field of residential learning disability nursing. Interventions that elicited a >50% consensus among participants across groups were examined for contextual meaning, based on the taped and noted responses, and potentially related NIC interventional labels were then applied. These led, through a reverse NIC-NANDA linkage exercise, to the identification of 8 potentially related interventions. The contextual aspect directed the analysis process to identify the nursing diagnoses associated with the interventions to be used, and 21 resultant diagnoses were identified. DISCUSSION Further analysis and study are needed to verify the relevance of these diagnoses and interventions to residential learning disability. A quick comparison of the results with those of studies carried out in other countries demonstrates that certain diagnoses have been identified by one or more authors in their studies. CONCLUSIONS This study identified a number of foci that have achieved various levels of consensus among the study participants. The ongoing study plan will further examine nurses' and managers' perceptions while also looking at these within the context of current service philosophy. [source] Cognitive Ability and Physical Performance in Middle-Aged African AmericansJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 6 2005Theodore K. Malmstrom PhD Objectives: To investigate the association between cognitive ability and physical performance in a population-based sample of middle-aged African Americans. Design: Cross-sectional study, 2000/2001. Setting: St. Louis, Missouri. Participants: Nine hundred ninety-eight African Americans born between 1936 and 1950. Measurements: Cognitive function was measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Animal Naming Test of verbal fluency. Physical performance was measured using eight tests: chair stand, semitandem stand, tandem stand eyes open, tandem stand eyes closed, one-leg stand, usual gait speed, grip strength, and peak expiratory flow. Results: There was a statistically significant and monotonic (progressively worsening) trend of the eight physical performance measures across cognitive tertiles in all eight MMSE analyses and five of eight Animal Naming analyses, controlling for age, sex, education, geographic area, depressive symptoms, and comorbid conditions. Conclusion: The association between physical performance and cognitive function appears robust. The results extend previous reports for adults aged 65 and older to a measure of verbal fluency and to a population-based sample of African Americans aged 49 to 65. Further research is needed to disentangle the temporal sequence and identify potential interventions to prevent declines in function. [source] Linking reductionist science and holistic policy using systematic reviews: unpacking environmental policy questions to construct an evidence-based frameworkJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2009Andrew S. Pullin Summary 1. There is a mismatch between broad holistic questions typically posed in policy formation and narrow reductionist questions that are susceptible to scientific method. This inhibits the two-way flow of information at the science-policy interface and weakens the impact of applied ecology on environmental policy. 2. We investigate the approaches to building policy in the health services as a model to help establish a framework in applied ecology and environmental management by which reductionist science can underpin decision making at the policy level. 3. A comparison of policy documents in the health and environmental sectors reveals many similarities in identifying approaches and specific interventions that might achieve policy objectives. The difference is that in the health services, information on the effectiveness of potential interventions is far more readily available through the collaborative process of systematic review. 4.Synthesis and applications. Decision makers are increasingly looking to produce policies that are shaped by evidence through evidence-based policy making. The approach that we outline here provides a framework for structuring systematic reviews to deliver the evidence on key policy issues in a way that will see a faster return and provide better use of the systematic review methodology in environmental management. [source] Combating prejudice and racism: new interventions from a functional analysis of racist languageJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2003Bernard Guerin Abstract Based on a conversational model of language-use-in-social-context, this article focuses on one particular form of racist and prejudiced talking that has not received enough attention,conversations in which racist statements function to maintain groups and relationships rather than seriously promote racism. Despite their casualness, such statements are still pernicious, and a range of potential interventions are proposed for this language function. These involve actively altering a community's discursive resources to include more rejoinders to racist comments. Such rejoinders must be utilized in the most appropriate way for any relationship, and this might mean polite corrections, witty repartee, strong put-downs to silence someone making racist comments, or as counter-jokes to racist jokes, depending upon the social context and power relations involved. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Utilizing Ericksonian Hypnosis in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing PracticePERSPECTIVES IN PSYCHIATRIC CARE, Issue 1 2002Rothlyn P. Zahourek PhD TOPIC. Ericksonian hypnosis conceptual framework. PURPOSE. To acquaint psychiatric-mental health nurses with hypnotic principles and how these can be integrated into their practice. SOURCES. Published literature and author's clinical experience. CONCLUSIONS. Ericksonian hypnosis offers an array of potential interventions for psychiatric-mental health nurses to integrate into their practices in a framework familiar to nurses: holism, honoring and respecting individuality, and capitalizing on an individual's strengths. [source] Health care professionals' grief: a model based on occupational style and copingPSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 3 2001Ellen M. Redinbaugh Many publications address grief in terminally ill patients and their loved ones. In contrast, this paper proposes a hypothetical model for grief reactions in health care professionals (HCPs) working with terminally ill patients. The model integrates three literatures: burnout, coping and personality/occupational interests. Grief-related job stress can culminate in burnout that affects over 50% of physicians treating the terminally and critically ill. Coping behaviors that attenuate burnout differ among HCPs, suggesting that nurses prefer different coping strategies when compared with physicians. The personality and occupational interests literatures provide a rationale for coping differences in HCPs. Personality characteristics associated with occupational preferences provide insight into HCPs' natural propensities for coping with stress. The model addresses personality/occupational differences among health care disciplines, thus providing a plausible explanation for coping differences among HCPs, as well as potential interventions that facilitate HCPs' adjustment to the deaths of their patients. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] How do teenagers manage their food allergies?CLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGY, Issue 10 2010H. Monks Summary Background The peak incidence of deaths from anaphylaxis associated with nut allergy occurs in teenagers and young adults. During adolescence, the management of food allergy shifts from being the responsibility of parents to that of the young person. This is a group who therefore need special attention in the clinic. Objective This study aimed to understand the practical challenges that teenagers with food allergy experience using a qualitative approach and generate potential interventions for tackling these. Methods Teenagers aged 1118 years with food allergy completed a questionnaire about their food allergy and underwent a focused, semi-structured interview with open questions guided by a priori topic areas. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using a thematic approach. Results The study enrolled 18 teenagers with a median age of 15 years (10 females); the most common food allergens were peanuts and tree nuts. Three key themes emerged: avoidance of allergens, preparation for reactions and the treatment of reactions. The majority of teenagers reported eating foods labelled as ,may contain' an allergen as they perceive that they are actually very unlikely to contain an allergen. Many of the teenagers only carried their self-injectable adrenaline when they thought they are particularly at risk of a reaction. Some do not know how to appropriately treat an allergic reaction. More than half believed that educating other students at school about the seriousness of food allergies would make it easier to live with their food allergy. Conclusions A significant number of teenagers demonstrate risk-taking behaviour in the management of their food allergies. Teenagers also felt it would be helpful for their peers to be educated about food allergy. This novel strategy might help them to avoid trigger foods and enable teenagers to access help more readily if they suffer a reaction. Cite this as: H. Monks, M. H. Gowland, H. MacKenzie, M. Erlewyn-Lajeunesse, R. King, J. S. Lucas and G. Roberts, Clinical & Experimental Allergy, 2010 (40) 1533,1540. [source] Regulatory T cells and asthmaCLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGY, Issue 9 2009D. S. Robinson Airway inflammation in asthma is characterized by activation of T helper type-2 (Th2) T cells, IgE production and eosinophilia. In many cases, this process is related to an inappropriate T cell response to environmental allergens, and other T cell-dependent pathways may also be involved (such as Th17). Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are T cells that suppress potentially harmful immune responses. Two major subsets of Treg are CD25hi, Foxp3+Tregs and IL-10-producing Tregs. There is evidence that the numbers or function of both subsets may be deficient in patients with atopic allergic disease. Recent work has extended these findings into the airway in asthma where Foxp3 expression was reduced and CD25hi Treg-suppressive function was deficient. In animal models of allergic airways disease, Tregs can suppress established airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness, and protocols to enhance the development, recruitment and function of Tregs have been described. Together with studies of patients and in vitro studies of human T cells, these investigations are defining potential interventions to enhance Treg function in the airway in asthma. Existing therapies including corticosteroids and allergen immunotherapy act on Tregs, in part to increase IL-10 production, while vitamin D3 and long-acting ,-agonists enhance IL-10 Treg function. Other possibilities may be enhancement of Treg function via histamine or prostanoid receptors, or by blocking pro-inflammatory pathways that prevent suppression by Tregs (activation of Toll-like receptors, or production of cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-,). As Tregs can also suppress the potentially beneficial immune response important for controlling infections and cancer, a therapeutic intervention should target allergen- or site-specific regulation. [source] | |||||||||||||