Psychological predictors of injury in elite athletes

The Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) supports over 600 high-level athletes across 20 sports. Given the high cost of injuries (e.g., time out of sport and consequent detraining, expense of rehabilitation, adverse social and economic effects), comprehensive injury management and prevention has become a priority for the QAS. Considering the potential for developing cost-effective, preventative programs, knowledge gained by examination of psychological screening predictors of injury may also prove beneficial for the broader sports medicine community. Aims were to: Objectively summarise existing injury characteristics, including the creation of population-specific norms for scholarship holders at the QAS. Assess relationships between injuries, specific medical factors (e.g., asthma, back pain) and psychological risk factors including life stress, mood, previous psychological diagnoses and disordered eating behaviour over a three-year period. Evaluate the effectiveness of the psychological component of the QAS Health Screening Questionnaire.

Psychological capital as moderator of organizational change demands on nursing stress

Healthcare organizations in all OECD countries have continued to undergo change. These changes have been found to have a negative effect on work engagement of nursing staff. While the extent to which nursing staff dealt with these changes has been documented in the literature, little is known of how they utilized their personal resources to deal with the consequences of these changes. This study will address this gap by integrating the Job Demands-Resources theoretical perspective with Positive Psychology, in particular, psychological capital (PsyCap). PsyCap is operationalized as a source of personal resources. Data were collected from 401 nurses from Australia and analyses were undertaken using Partial Least Squares modelling and moderation analysis. Two types of changes on the nursing work were identified. There was an increase in changes to the work environment of nursing. These changes, included increasing administrative workload and the amount of work, resulted in more job demands and job resources. On the other hand, another type of changes relate to reduction to training and management support, which resulted in less job demands. Nurses with more job demands utilized more job resources to address these increasing demands. We found PsyCap to be a crucial source of personal resources that has a moderating effect on the negative effects of job demands and role stress. PsyCap and job resources were both critical in enhancing the work engagement of nurses, as they encountered changes to nursing work. These findings provided empirical support for a positive psychological perspective of understanding nursing engagement.

Psychological health of medical and dental students in Saudi Arabia : a longitudinal study

Introduction: Many studies have indicated the poor psychological health of medical and dental students. However, few studies have assessed the longitudinal trajectory of that psychological health at different times in an academic year. Aim: To evaluate the positive and negative aspects of psychological health among preclinical medical and dental students in Saudi Arabia prospectively. Methods: A total of 317 preclinical medical and dental students were recruited for a longitudinal study design from second and third-year students at Umm Al-Qura University in the 2012-2013 academic year. The students were assessed at the middle of the first term and followed up after 3-monthes at the beginning of the second term. Questionnaires included assessment of depression, anxiety, stress, self-efficacy, and satisfaction with life. Results: Depression, anxiety, stress, and satisfaction with life were improved significantly at the beginning of the second term, whereas self-efficacy did not change significantly. The medical, female, and third-year student subgroups had the most significant changes. Depression and stress were significantly changed at the beginning of the second term in most demographic subgroups. Conclusion: Preclinical medical and dental students have different psychological health levels at different times of the same academic year. It is recommended to consider time of data collection when analyzing the results of such studies.

Buckling tests of fire exposed cold-formed steel columns

Cold-formed steel sections are commonly used in low-rise commercial and residential buildings. During fire events, cold-formed steel structural elements in these buildings will be exposed to elevated temperatures. Hence after such events there is a need to evaluate the residual strength of these structural elements. However, only limited information is available in relation to the residual strength of fire exposed cold-formed steel sections. This means conservative decisions are often made in relation to fire exposed building structures. This research is aimed at investigating the buckling capacities of fire exposed cold-formed lipped channel steel sections. A series of compression tests of fire exposed, short lipped channel columns made of varying steel grades and thicknesses was undertaken in this research. Test columns were first exposed to different elevated temperatures up to 800 oC. They were then allowed to cool down at ambient temperatures before they were tested to failure. Similarly tensile coupon tests were also undertaken after being exposed to various elevated temperatures, from which the residual mechanical properties (yield stress and Young’s modulus) of the steels used in this study were derived. Using these mechanical properties, the residual compression capacities of tested short columns were predicted using the currently used design rules in AS/NZS 4600 and AISI cold-formed steel standards. This comparison showed that ambient temperature design rules for compression members can be used to predict the residual compression capacities of fire exposed short or laterally restrained cold-formed steel columns provided the maximum temperature experienced by the columns can be estimated after a fire event. Such residual capacity assessments will allow structural and fire engineers to make an accurate prediction of the safety of fire exposed buildings. This paper presents the details of this experimental study and the results.

Psychological effects upon exposure to polyhalogenated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans

Thirty workers who had been exposed to combustion products for several years due to testing of flame retarding qualities of building materials and 30 controls from the same facility were investigated. Concentrations found in samples taken from different places of the facility were up to 14,660 μg/kg for polybrominated dibenzofurans and up to 67.1 μg/kg for polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs). Physical examination, routine laboratory parameters, and blood fat concentrations of PCDDs and PCDFs revealed normal findings. Neurotoxic symptoms showed a weak tendency of overrepresentation among the exposed workers. The frequency of neurobehavioural symptoms increased significantly with trait anxiety independent of exposure to combustion products. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Maternal psychological distress mediates the relationship between asthma and physician visits in a population-based sample of adolescents

Objective This study examined whether maternal psychological distress mediates the relationship between presence of adolescent asthma and number of physician visits, and whether the association between maternal psychological distress and physician visits is moderated by adolescent general health. Methods Data were obtained from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy and included 4025 adolescents. Path analysis was used to examine mediating and moderating effects. Results Maternal psychological distress was found to partially mediate the relationship between adolescent asthma and number of physician visits, accounting for 25% of the effect of adolescent asthma on physician visits (p = .046). There was no evidence to suggest that adolescent general health moderated the association between maternal psychological distress and physician visits (p = .093). Conclusions The findings suggest that maternal psychological distress is associated with increased physician visits, regardless of adolescents' general health. Lowering maternal psychological distress may serve to reduce health care utilization and costs among adolescents with asthma.

The psychological and economic factors that influence energy consumption habits of low-income earners

Social marketers and governments have often targeted hard to reach or vulnerable groups (Gordon et al., 2006) such as young adults and low income earners. Past research has shown that low-income earners are often at risk of poor health outcomes and diminished lifestyle (Hampson et al., 2009; Scott et al., 2012). Young adults (aged 18 to 35) are in a transition phase of their life where lifestyle preferences are still being formed and are thus a useful target for long-term sustainable change. An area of focus for all levels of government is the use of energy with an aim to reduce consumption. There is little research to date that combines both of these groups and in particular in the context of household energy usage. Research into financially disadvantaged consumers is challenging the notion that that low income consumer purchasing and usage of products and services is based upon economic status (Sharma et al., 2012). Prior research shows higher income earners view items such as televisions and computers as necessities rather than non-essential (Karlsson et al., 2004). Consistent with this is growing evidence that low income earners purchase non-essential, energy intensive electronic appliances such as multiple big screen TV sets and additional refrigerators. With this in mind, there is a need for knowledge about how psychological and economic factors influence the energy consumption habits (e.g. appliances on standby power, leaving appliances turned on, running multiple devices at one time) of low income earners. Thus, our study sought to address the research question of: What are the factors that influence young adult low-income earners energy habits?

Regulatory focus moderates the relationship between task control and physiological and psychological markers of stress : a work simulation study

This experiment examined whether trait regulatory focus moderates the effects of task control on stress reactions during a demanding work simulation. Regulatory focus describes two ways in which individuals self-regulate toward desired goals: promotion and prevention. As highly promotion-focused individuals are oriented toward growth and challenge, it was expected that they would show better adaptation to demanding work under high task control. In contrast, as highly prevention-focused individuals are oriented toward safety and responsibility they were expected to show better adaptation under low task control. Participants (N = 110) completed a measure of trait regulatory focus and then three trials of a demanding inbox activity under either low, neutral, or high task control. Heart rate variability (HRV), affective reactions (anxiety & task dissatisfaction), and task performance were measured at each trial. As predicted, highly promotion-focused individuals found high (compared to neutral) task control stress-buffering for performance. Moreover, highly prevention-focused individuals found high (compared to low) task control stress-exacerbating for dissatisfaction. In addition, highly prevention-focused individuals found low task control stress-buffering for dissatisfaction, performance, and HRV. However, these effects of low task control for highly prevention-focused individuals depended on their promotion focus.

Toward a model for forming psychological safety climate in construction project management

The nature of construction projects and their delivery exposes participants to accidents and dangers. Safety climate serves as a frame of reference for employees to make sense of safety measures in the workplace and adapt their behaviors. Though safety climate research abounds, fewer efforts are made to investigate the formation of a safety climate. An effort to explore forming psychological safety climate, an operationalization of safety climate at the individual level, is an appropriate starting point. Taking the view that projects are social processes, this paper develops a conceptual framework of forming the psychological safety climate, and provides a preliminary validation. The model suggests that management can create the desired psychological safety climate by efforts from structural, perceptual, interactive, and cultural perspectives. Future empirical research can be built on the model to provide a more comprehensive and coherent picture of the determinants of safety climate.

Circulating antibodies against Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich proteins 2 interfere with antigen detection by rapid diagnostic tests

Background Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for detection of Plasmodium falciparum infection that target P. falciparum histidine-rich protein 2 (PfHRP2), a protein that circulates in the blood of patients infected with this species of malaria, are widely used to guide case management. Understanding determinants of PfHRP2 availability in circulation is therefore essential to understanding the performance of PfHRP2-detecting RDTs. Methods The possibility that pre-formed host anti-PfHRP2 antibodies may block target antigen detection, thereby causing false negative test results was investigated in this study. Results Anti-PfHRP2 antibodies were detected in 19/75 (25%) of plasma samples collected from patients with acute malaria from Cambodia, Nigeria and the Philippines, as well as in 3/28 (10.7%) asymptomatic Solomon Islands residents. Pre-incubation of plasma samples from subjects with high-titre anti-PfHRP2 antibodies with soluble PfHRP2 blocked the detection of the target antigen on two of the three brands of RDTs tested, leading to false negative results. Pre-incubation of the plasma with intact parasitized erythrocytes resulted in a reduction of band intensity at the highest parasite density, and a reduction of lower detection threshold by ten-fold on all three brands of RDTs tested. Conclusions These observations indicate possible reduced sensitivity for diagnosis of P. falciparum malaria using PfHRP2-detecting RDTs among people with high levels of specific antibodies and low density infection, as well as possible interference with tests configured to detect soluble PfHRP2 in saliva or urine samples. Further investigations are required to assess the impact of pre-formed anti-PfHRP2 antibodies on RDT performance in different transmission settings.

Psychological determinants of motorcycle helmet use among young adults in Cambodia

Cambodian accident statistics show that motivating motorcyclists to make proper use of a safety helmet is a top priority for road safety policy makers. Yet, currently there is no insight whatsoever in the psychological precursors of helmet use in Cambodia. As such, it remains unclear which variables to target by interventions aimed at promoting the use of safety helmets. Therefore, this study adopted a socio-cognitive perspective towards the examination of helmet use in a sample of Cambodian young adults (N = 344). Two theoretical models, i.e., Health Belief Model and Theory of Planned Behaviour were combined and further complemented with two norm-related variables, i.e., descriptive- and personal norm. Based on the results, two important conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the sample investigated in this study is clearly favourably disposed towards the use of helmets while riding. Secondly, in decreasing order, helmet use behaviour was found to be determined by the following five key-determinants: perceived behavioural control over a specific set of inhibiting situational factors (i.e., mostly when driving short distances, at night, or when dressed up to go out), perceived behavioural control in general, perceived susceptibility, personal norm, and behavioural intentions. Policy makers are recommended to reevaluate their current behavioural change methods for young adults being favourably disposed towards the use of safety helmets. Rather than focussing on motivation-oriented methods, there is a need for strategies that (1) stimulate the translation of good intentions into the desirable behaviour and (2) encourage young adults not to relapse in case they are exposed to risk facilitating circumstances. These implications will be discussed more in detail.

Executive functioning of 4 children with hyperphenylalaninemia from childhood to adolescence

Hyperphenylalaninemia is a variant of phenylketonuria, and debate remains as to what, if any, active management of this condition is required to preserve cognitive function and psychological well-being. This study is the first to examine longitudinally the executive function (EF) in adolescents with hyperphenylalaninemia. Two sibling pairs with mild hyperphenylalaninemia underwent neuropsychological examination in early childhood and again in adolescence using EF tests that were highly sensitive to phenylalanine exposure. By early adolescence, none of the 4 children demonstrated EF impairment. The children demonstrated a typical developmental trajectory of EF from childhood to adolescence, given phenylalanine exposure consistent with their condition.