Exploring self-rated health among adolescents : a think-aloud study

BACKGROUND: Despite extensive use of self-rated health questions in youth studies, little is known about what such questions capture among adolescents. Hence, the aim of this study was to explore how adolescents interpret and reason when answering a question about self-rated health. METHODS: A qualitative study using think-aloud interviews explored the question, "How do you feel most of the time?", using five response options ("Very good", "Rather good", "Neither good, nor bad", "Rather bad", and "Very bad"). The study involved 58 adolescents (29 boys and 29 girls) in lower secondary school (7th grade) and upper secondary school (12th grade) in Sweden. RESULTS: Respondents' interpretations of the question about how they felt included social, mental, and physical aspects. Gender differences were found primarily in that girls emphasized stressors, while age differences were reflected mainly in the older respondents' inclusion of a wider variety of influences on their assessments. The five response options all demonstrated differences in self-rated health, and the respondents' understanding of the middle option, "Neither good, nor bad", varied widely. In the answering of potential sensitive survey questions, rationales for providing honest or biased answers were described. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a self-rated health question including the word 'feel' captured a holistic view of health among adolescents. Differences amongst response options should be acknowledged when analyzing self-rated health questions. If anonymity is not feasible when answering questions on self-rated health, a high level of privacy is recommended to increase the likelihood of reliability.

Sjuksköterskors uppfattning om munvård och munhälsobedömning hos äldre boende på särskilt boende : En intervjustudie

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva uppfattningen hos sjuksköterskor med tjänst på särskilda boenden gällande deras arbete med tillämpningen av munhälsobedömningar och deras uppfattning om hur munvård utförs. Metod: Studien genomfördes med kvalitativ deskriptiv design. Data samlades in hjälp av intervjuer med sjuksköterskor (n= 6).  Intervjuerna analyserades med hjälp av innehållsanalys och fyra olika teman identifierades: Sjuksköterskors uppfattning om munvård, sjuksköterskors uppfattning om munhälsobedömning, sjuksköterskors uppfattning om munvår och munhälsobedömning i samband med palliativ vård samt sjuksköterskor uppfattning om samarbete med folktandvården. Resultat: Resultatet visade sjuksköterskorna uppfattade att munhälsobedömningar sällan utförs av sjuksköterskorna. Dock ansåg de att munhälsobedömning och munvård utförs regelbundet av såväl sjuksköterskor samt omvårdnadspersonal när vårdtagarna befinner sig i livets slutskede. De eftersöker instruktioner och utbildning av munhälsobedömning enligt ROAG innan detta införs i verksamheten. Munhälsobedömning har utförts av folktandvården en gång om året och de har även kommit till boendena om det finns problem med någon vårdtagares munhälsa. Folktandvården är ansvarig för att skriva vårdtagarnas munvårdskort som är ett stöd för vårdpersonalen vid utförande av daglig munvård. Resultatet har även visat att daglig munvård utförs av undersköterskor och vårdbiträden. Slutsats: Resultatet visar att munhälsobedömning utförs bristfälligt av sjuksköterskor i den kommunala äldreomsorgen. Vidare anser de tillfrågade sjuksköterskorna att utbildning i munhälsobedömningsinstrumentet ROAG är nödvändig innan införandet.

Health system context and implementation of evidence-based practices-development and validation of the Context Assessment for Community Health (COACH) tool for low- and middle-income settings

Background: The gap between what is known and what is practiced results in health service users not benefitting from advances in healthcare, and in unnecessary costs. A supportive context is considered a key element for successful implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP). There were no tools available for the systematic mapping of aspects of organizational context influencing the implementation of EBPs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thus, this project aimed to develop and psychometrically validate a tool for this purpose. Methods: The development of the Context Assessment for Community Health (COACH) tool was premised on the context dimension in the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services framework, and is a derivative product of the Alberta Context Tool. Its development was undertaken in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Uganda, South Africa and Nicaragua in six phases: (1) defining dimensions and draft tool development, (2) content validity amongst in-country expert panels, (3) content validity amongst international experts, (4) response process validity, (5) translation and (6) evaluation of psychometric properties amongst 690 health workers in the five countries. Results: The tool was validated for use amongst physicians, nurse/midwives and community health workers. The six phases of development resulted in a good fit between the theoretical dimensions of the COACH tool and its psychometric properties. The tool has 49 items measuring eight aspects of context: Resources, Community engagement, Commitment to work, Informal payment, Leadership, Work culture, Monitoring services for action and Sources of knowledge. Conclusions: Aspects of organizational context that were identified as influencing the implementation of EBPs in high-income settings were also found to be relevant in LMICs. However, there were additional aspects of context of relevance in LMICs specifically Resources, Community engagement, Commitment to work and Informal payment. Use of the COACH tool will allow for systematic description of the local healthcare context prior implementing healthcare interventions to allow for tailoring implementation strategies or as part of the evaluation of implementing healthcare interventions and thus allow for deeper insights into the process of implementing EBPs in LMICs.

Response process and test-retest reliability of the Context Assessment for Community Health tool in Vietnam

BACKGROUND: The recently developed Context Assessment for Community Health (COACH) tool aims to measure aspects of the local healthcare context perceived to influence knowledge translation in low- and middle-income countries. The tool measures eight dimensions (organizational resources, community engagement, monitoring services for action, sources of knowledge, commitment to work, work culture, leadership, and informal payment) through 49 items. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore the understanding and stability of the COACH tool among health providers in Vietnam. DESIGNS: To investigate the response process, think-aloud interviews were undertaken with five community health workers, six nurses and midwives, and five physicians. Identified problems were classified according to Conrad and Blair's taxonomy and grouped according to an estimation of the magnitude of the problem's effect on the response data. Further, the stability of the tool was examined using a test-retest survey among 77 respondents. The reliability was analyzed for items (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and percent agreement) and dimensions (ICC and Bland-Altman plots). RESULTS: In general, the think-aloud interviews revealed that the COACH tool was perceived as clear, well organized, and easy to answer. Most items were understood as intended. However, seven prominent problems in the items were identified and the content of three dimensions was perceived to be of a sensitive nature. In the test-retest survey, two-thirds of the items and seven of eight dimensions were found to have an ICC agreement ranging from moderate to substantial (0.5-0.7), demonstrating that the instrument has an acceptable level of stability. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that the Vietnamese translation of the COACH tool is generally perceived to be clear and easy to understand and has acceptable stability. There is, however, a need to rephrase and add generic examples to clarify some items and to further review items with low ICC.