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Being Younger (being + younger)
Selected AbstractsAssociated and predictive factors of sleep disturbance in advanced cancer patientsPSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 10 2007Tatsuo Akechi Abstract Little attention has been paid to sleep disturbance experienced by advanced cancer patients. The purpose of the present study was to investigate longitudinal change in sleep disturbance and to identify factors that associated with and predicted sleep disturbance among 209 consecutive terminally ill cancer patients. Patients were assessed twice for sleep disturbance by one item of the structured clinical interview for assessing depression, once at the time of their registration with a palliative care unit (PCU) (baseline) and again at the time of their PCU admission (follow-up), and possible associated medical and psychosocial factors were evaluated. The proportions of patients with obvious sleep disturbance at baseline and follow-up were 15.3 and 25.9%, respectively. Sixty-seven percent of the subjects showed some sleep status changes, including both aggravation and improvement, between baseline and follow-up. Being younger, having diarrhea and living alone were significantly associated with sleep disturbance at baseline, and the increase of psychological distress was the only significant predictive factor for sleep disturbance at follow-up. These findings suggest that psychological distress is a possible key cause of sleep disturbance and management of psychological distress may be one promising strategy for prevention of sleep disturbance among advanced cancer patients. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Assessment of male sexual function by the Brief Sexual Function InventoryBJU INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2006ARNSTEIN MYKLETUN OBJECTIVE To present normative data from Norway using the Brief Male Sexual Function Inventory (BSFI, the first patient self-administered questionnaire to assess male sexuality, and used in the USA) in men aged 20,79 years, examine the psychometric properties of the BSFI, explore the impact of sexual function and other variables on overall sexual satisfaction, and compare American and Norwegian normative data. SUBJECTS AND METHODS From public official address lists 3500 men aged 20,79 years were invited to take part in an anonymous questionnaire study, including the BSFI. Altogether 1185 (34%) responded, and the response rates varied with age. RESULTS There was increasingly reduced sexual function concerning drive, erection, ejaculation, and problem assessment with age, and most of the age-effect started at >50 years old. Overall sexual satisfaction followed the same trend, but with a weaker association with age. Analyses of factor structure and internal consistency of the BSFI supported a one-factor solution with good internal consistency. Drive, erection, ejaculation, and problem assessment explained 28% of the variance in overall sexual satisfaction. Being younger and having a sexual partner were also associated with high scores of overall sexual satisfaction. American and Norwegian normative data in the BSFI dimensions were markedly similar. CONCLUSION The BSFI is a short and discrete screening tool for sexual function, and for most clinical and research purposes we recommend using the BSFI as a one-dimensional scale. [source] Parent responses to participation in genetic screening for diabetes riskPEDIATRIC DIABETES, Issue 4 2004Barbro Lernmark Abstract:, Screening for type 1 diabetes (T1DM) risk in newborns has little negative emotional impact on mothers. In this study, the impact on the mother and the father was evaluated both in the general population and in families with diabetes. All parents with a newborn in Skåne, Sweden, were invited to a screening for T1DM risk in their children (the Diabetes Prediction in Skåne (DiPiS)). Blood was obtained at delivery from the mother and the child. When the child was 2 months old, parents gave written consent and filled out questionnaires, but were not informed about the genetic risk. Of the 10 538 invited families, 6831 (64.8%) consented and 806 (7.7%) declined participation. Five questions addressing both parents were filled out by 6676 (63.4%) mothers and 6099 (57.8%) fathers. In 146/6676 (2.2%) families, one family member had diabetes (D-families). Participation in DiPiS did not affect most parents and the majority was satisfied with the information. The majority of parents (28.9%) were reassured and only 1.1% (140/12 670) reported increased worries because of participation, compared to 2.8% of the mothers in D-families. Parents in D-families more often ascribed diabetes risk to their child as well as the risk being higher. Mothers and fathers differed in their answers on four of the five study questions, with mothers being more satisfied with the information, reporting more knowledge of diabetes, estimating lower risk of their child to get diabetes, but reporting more worries of possible future chronic disease in the child. Parents with lower education, being born abroad, or being younger who reported worries of chronic disease in the child were also reassured by participation in the study. These results confirm that screening for T1DM risk in newborns does not create worries in most parents, but stress that fathers differ from mothers in opinions and reactions, that parents' reactions are affected by diabetes in the family, and that demographic factors might be important for the parents' reports. [source] Trends and determinants of antiresorptive drug use for osteoporosis among elderly women,PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY, Issue 10 2005Sylvie Perreault PhD Abstract Aim It has been established that women who have had a first osteoporotic fracture are at a significantly greater risk of future fractures. Effective antiresorptive treatments (ART) are available to reduce this risk, yet little information is available on trends in ART drug use among the elderly. The objective is to estimate the rate ratio (RR) of having an ART prescription filled among elderly women and its relation to selected determinants from 1995 through 2001. Method A cohort design was used. Through random sampling, we selected 40% of the women aged 70 years and older listed in the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) health database. The women were grouped into four cohorts (for 1995, 1996, 1998 and 2000). January 1 was established as the index date within each cohort (1995, 1996, 1998 and 2000). The dependent variable was the RR of having at least one prescription of ART drugs filled during the year following the index date among women with and without prior use. ART users were divided in two groups: bone-specific drugs (bisphosphonates, calcitonin, raloxifen) and HRT (hormone replacement therapy). The independent variable was whether or not (control) there had been an osteoporotic-related fracture. The RR was determined for having at least one prescription of bone-specific drugs or of HRT filled during the year following the index date using a Cox regression adjusted for age, chronic disease score (CDS) and prior bone mineral density (BMD) test. Results Crude rates of BMD testing (per 500 person-years) ranged from 20.4 (1995) to 41.1 (2000) in women who had had an osteoporotic-related fracture, and from 4.4 to 15.3 in controls. The crude rate of women (per 100 person-years) who had had an osteoporotic-related fracture and who took at least one bone-specific drug during follow-up ranged from 1.9 in 1995 to 31 in 2000 among those with prior osteoporotic-related fracture, and from 0.5 in 1995 to 11 in 2000 for controls; the corresponding figures for HRT ranged 6.7 in 1995 to 13 in 2000, and from 8.4 in 1995 to 11 in 2000 respectively. BMD test is the only major factor affecting the adjusted RR of having a prescription filled for bone-specific drugs (RR of 10.44; 6.91,15.79 in 1995 and RR of 3.68; 3.30,4.10 in 2000) or HRT (RR of 2.08; 1.64,2.64 in 1995 and RR of 1.44; 1.17,1.77 in 2000), particularly among women who had not had prior use. The fact of having a fracture status does significantly affect the RR of having at least one bone-specific drug prescription filled only among women without prior use (RR of 1.71; 1.26,2.33 in 1996 and RR of 1.77; 1.44,2.19 in 2000). The fact of being younger did not affect the RR of having at least one prescription of bone-specific drugs filled, but being younger increased the RR of filling a prescription of HRT. Conclusions Significant change was seen over time in the number of BMD tests ordered and ART use. Effective osteoporosis interventions are not optimal in the treatment of elderly women in a Canadian health-care system who have had an osteoporotic fracture, given that approximately 25% of women who had had an osteoporotic-related fracture were users of ART. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Appraisal of the cancer experience by older long-term survivorsPSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 3 2003Karen F. Bowman Cancer survivorship is best viewed as a process that continues across the life span. Appraisals of cancer change over time and may not be explicit until long after treatment completion. The current study, using the Lazarus and Folkman (1984) stress-appraisal-coping framework, explored factors related to both a stressful and an irrelevant appraisal of the cancer experience by older long-term survivors. Hierarchical regression analysis investigated the individual and cumulative effects of person factors (survivors' demographic characteristics, beliefs about the effect of cancer on family members) and situation factors (characteristics of cancer) on survivors' appraisals that cancer was a stressful life event. The strongest correlates of the stress appraisal were person factors. A more stressful appraisal was associated with: (1) the belief that diagnosis/treatment caused greater family distress, (2) being younger, and (3) being White. The irrelevant appraisal had a marginally significant correlate in bivariate analysis and was not included in regression analysis. Implications for health-care professionals and patient/family interventions are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Star formation in the LMC: Comparative CCD observations of young stellar populations in two giant molecular cloudsASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 8 2009J. Ruppert Abstract This work deals with a CCD imaging study at optical and near-infrared wavelength oftwo giant molecular clouds (plus a control field) in the southern region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one ofwhich shows multiple signs of star formation, whereas the other does not. The observational data from VLT FORS2 (R band) and NTT SOFI (Ks band) have been analyzed to derive luminosity functions and color-magnitude diagrams. The young stellar content of these two giant molecular clouds is compared and confirmed to be different, in the sense that the apparently "starless" cloud has so far formed only low-luminosity, low-mass stars (fainter than mKs , 16.5 mag, not seen by 2MASS), while the other cloud has formed both faint low-mass and luminous high-mass stars. The surface density excess oflow-luminosity stars (,2 per square arcmin) in the "starless" cloud with respect to the control field is about 20% whereas the excess is about a factor of 3 in the known star-forming cloud. The difference may be explained theoretically by the gravo-turbulent evolution of giant molecular clouds, one being younger and less centrally concentrated than the other (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Prevalence and associations of partner abuse in women attending general practice: a cross-sectional surveyAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 5 2002Kelsey L. Hegarty Objective: To deter mine the prevalence and socio-demographic associations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse by a partner or ex-partner for women attending Australian general practices. Method: In 1996, women attending 20 randomly chosen Brisbane inner south region general practices were screened for a history of partner abuse using a self-report questionnaire. Multivariate analyses were conducted on the data, using presence of abuse or not adjusting for cluster effect to obtain prevalence rate ratios for socio-demographic background data and history of violence in the family of origin. Results: Thirty-seven per cent (CI 31.0,42.4) of the survey participants (n=1,836, response rate 78.5%) admitted to having ever experienced abuse in an adult intimate relationship. One in four women (23.3%) had ever experienced physical abuse, one in three (33.9%) emotional abuse and one in 10 (10.6%) sexual abuse. Abused women were 64.1 (CI 44.4,94.1) times more likely to have ever been afraid of any partner than non-abused women. Of women in current relationships (n=1,344), 8.0% self-reported physical or emotional or sexual abuse in the past 12 months and 1.5% all three types of abuse. Associations of abuse included being younger (<60 years), separated or divorced, having a history of child abuse or domestic violence between their parents. Conclusion: Partner abuse is very common in women attending general practices and clinicians need to be alert to possible indications of partner abuse (age, marital status, past history of abuse). [source] |