Caring for heart transplant recipients: The lived experience of primary caregivers

Objective: To understand the experience of primary caregivers of heart transplant recipients. Methods: A phenomenological approach was used to understand the caregivers' experience of caring for a heart transplant patient. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 caregivers, in a Brazilian hospital, from December 2008 to March 2009. Results: Following the transplant, caregivers' lives change drastically; their priority becomes providing care for their relative. Despite successful transplant results, the uncertainty about future remains, generating permanent distress. Anxiety is exacerbated by familial or economic problems and, consequently, many participants turn to their local communities for support. Some caregivers learn from the experience and plan return to regular activities. Others feel helpless, unable to overcome personal losses and difficulties. Conclusions: Nurses are ideally placed to lead the way by providing family-centered support and education for caregivers of heart recipients. Listening to the concerns of family caregivers seems to be an essential aspect of effective interventions. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Avaliação de estresse e enfrentamento das mães de crianças com cardiopatias congênitas

Pós-graduação em Bases Gerais da Cirurgia - FMB

Evidências da associação entre hormônios do estresse e câncer de boca

Pós-graduação em Odontologia - FOA

Levantamento sobre uso de álcool, tabaco e outras drogas, redes de apoio e apoio social entre universitários

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Avaliação preliminar do efeito da Physalis angulata L. sobre a obesidade induzida por dieta hipercalórica

The obesity has been considered one of the most serious public health problem in the worldwide scale, especially for being one of the main risk factors for many chronic diseases that characterize the metabolic syndrome. In addition to these diseases, obesity also causes dermatoses that affect not only the individual emotions but also cause various cutaneous infections. Thus, overweighting can be an agent that causes many types of stress: psychological, physical and social. In order to improve people’s life quality, several ethnopharmacological studies indicate plant species for the treatment of disorders associated with obesity due to the attraction of this regimen is perceived as safer and more health effective when compared to the treatment performed by traditional anorectic substances. If considered both food intake and also oral treatment with different compounds can promote change in the gene expression, besides an appropriate diet has been maintenance mechanism of body's vital functions. The aim of this work was to develop new standard methods for induced obesity and stress, which stress is induced through physical and psychogenic stressors in Swiss male mice. Also to evaluate the effect of supercritical extract of Physalis angulata L. on the food intake and corporeal weight loss

Saúde do trabalhador na odontologia: o cirurgião-dentista em foco

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Burnout en estudiantes de odontología: evaluación através MBI versión estudiantes

The Dentistry is considerably stressful profession in all career phases. The aim of this study was verify the presence and level of Burnout syndrome in students, to compare it in the beginning and in the end of graduation course and verify the correlation among subscales and group of social and demographic variables. Was performed study an exploratory, descriptive and cross-sectional that with the sample by 174 students coursing different periods. It was used two instrument one with social and demographic questions and MBI-SS. Among 174 students participants of study, 112 (64.37%) were girls and 62 (35.63%) were boys. There was no significant difference between dimensions of Burnout and the gender (p<0.05), professional efficacy (p<0.01) and the period whose the students were coursing. The undergraduates that are in preclinical period showed average ehigher in the two first item of scale average lower in the third item in relation to those that exercise clinically the dentistry. The level of emotional exhausting had significance. There was correlation among three levels of Burnout and the preclinical period is a fact that should be observed.

Queixa subjetiva de comprometimento da memória em idosos saudáveis: influência de sintomas depressivos, percepção de estresse e autoestima

O presente estudo analisou a relação entre percepção de estresse, sintomas depressivos e autoestima em idosos com e sem queixa subjetiva de comprometimento de memória. Foram incluídos 204 idosos (104 sem e 100 com queixa de memória) avaliados a partir do instrumento Memory Assessment Complain Questionnaire (MAC-Q). O protocolo de estudo incluiu a Escala de Estresse Percebido (EEP), a Escala de Depressão Geriátrica (GDS) e a Escala de Autoestima de Rosenberg (EAE). Os idosos com queixa de comprometimento apresentaram escores significativamente maiores na EEP e GDS e menores na EAE (p < 0.001). Foi observada correlação negativa entre o escore do MAC-Q e EPP (p < 0.001) e EAE (p = 0.01). A análise de regressão multivariada identificou somente o estresse como fator preditor da queixa subjetiva de memória. Esses dados sugerem que a percepção de estresse e os sintomas depressivos estão associados com a queixa de memória em idosos.

Face Your Fears: Cleaning Gobies Inspect Predators despite Being Stressed by Them

social stressors typically elicit two distinct behavioural responses in vertebrates: an active response (i.e., "fight or flight") or behavioural inhibition (i.e., freezing). Here, we report an interesting exception to this dichotomy in a Caribbean cleaner fish, which interacts with a wide variety of reef fish clients, including predatory species. Cleaning gobies appraise predatory clients as potential threat and become stressed in their presence, as evidenced by their higher cortisol levels when exposed to predatory rather than to non-predatory clients. Nevertheless, cleaning gobies neither flee nor freeze in response to dangerous clients but instead approach predators faster (both in captivity and in the wild), and interact longer with these clients than with non-predatory clients (in the wild). We hypothesise that cleaners interrupt the potentially harmful physiological consequences elicited by predatory clients by becoming increasingly proactive and by reducing the time elapsed between client approach and the start of the interaction process. The activation of a stress response may therefore also be responsible for the longer cleaning service provided by these cleaners to predatory clients in the wild. Future experimental studies may reveal similar patterns in other social vertebrate species when, for instance, individuals approach an opponent for reconciliation after a conflict.

The positive impact of multiple sclerosis (MS) on carers: Associations between carer benefit finding and positive and negative adjustment domains

Purpose. This study examined benefit finding in MS carers including the dimensionality of benefit finding, relations between carer and care recipient benefit finding, and the effects of carer benefit finding on carer positive and negative adjustment domains. Method. A total of 267 carers and their care recipients completed questionnaires at Time 1 and 3 months later, Time 2 (n=155). Illness data were collected at Time 1, and number of problems, stress appraisal, benefit finding, negative (global distress, negative affect) and positive (life satisfaction, positive affect, dyadic adjustment) adjustment domains were measured at Time 2. Results. Qualitative data revealed seven benefit finding themes, two of which were adequately represented by the Benefit Finding Scale (BFS) [1] (Mohr et al. Health Psychology 1999; 18: 376). Factor analyses indicated two factors (Personal Growth, Family Relations Growth) which were psychometrically sound and showed differential relations with illness and adjustment domains. Although care recipients reported higher levels of benefit finding than carers, their benefit finding reports regarding personal growth were correlated. The carer BFS factors were positively related to carer and care recipient dyadic adjustment. Care recipient benefit finding was unrelated to carer adjustment domains. After controlling for the effects of demographics, care recipient characteristics, problems and appraisal, carer benefit finding was related to carer positive adjustment domains and unrelated to carer negative adjustment domains. Conclusion. Findings support the role of benefit finding in sustaining positive psychological states and the communal search for meaning within carer-care recipient dyads.

The impact of late career job loss on myocardial infarction and stroke: a 10 year follow up using the health and retirement survey.

BACKGROUND: Involuntary job loss is a major life event associated with social, economic, behavioural, and health outcomes, for which older workers are at elevated risk. OBJECTIVE: To assess the 10 year risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke associated with involuntary job loss among workers over 50 years of age. METHODS: Analysing data from the nationally representative US Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to estimate whether workers who suffered involuntary job loss were at higher risk for subsequent MI and stroke than individuals who continued to work. The sample included 4301 individuals who were employed at the 1992 study baseline. RESULTS: Over the 10 year study frame, 582 individuals (13.5% of the sample) experienced involuntary job loss. After controlling for established predictors of the outcomes, displaced workers had a more than twofold increase in the risk of subsequent MI (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.48; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.49 to 4.14) and stroke (HR = 2.43; 95% CI = 1.18 to 4.98) relative to working persons. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the true costs of late career unemployment exceed financial deprivation, and include substantial health consequences. Physicians who treat individuals who lose jobs as they near retirement should consider the loss of employment a potential risk factor for adverse vascular health changes. Policy makers and programme planners should also be aware of the risks of job loss, so that programmatic interventions can be designed and implemented to ease the multiple burdens of joblessness.

Elementi contestuali nella costruzione del benessere degli insegnanti in due casi studio italiani

L’articolo propone una riflessione su alcuni elementi critici della costruzione del benessere professionale degli insegnanti mettendo in luce, accanto alle note cause di insorgenza della sindrome del burnout quali fattori individuali, emotivi e relazionali, anche gli effetti che sembrano riconducibili alla condizione lavorativa nel suo complesso e dunque al sistema di attività nel quale viene svolto questo mestiere. Per dar conto di tali effetti l’articolo discute i risultati di due contributi empirici, realizzati in modo indipendente, a distanza di dieci anni l’uno dall’altro, nel Sistema scolastico italiano. In particolare i due studi fanno riferimento alla condizione di benessere socio professionale di insegnanti di scuola dell’infanzia e primaria in due fasi distinte dell’evoluzione del sistema scolastico italiano (che nell’arco dei dieci anni intercorsi fra i due studi è stato interessato da continui tentativi di riforme, da un crescente precariato, da un progressivo indebolimento del riconoscimento della professione, dalla presenza diffusa in classe di bambini di differenti culture, dall’introduzione, largamente approssimativa, di nuove tecnologie, dalla scarsa corrispondenza tra lavoro effettivo ed aspettative dei futuri insegnanti). Senza la pretesa di fornire risposte definitive ad un problema evidentemente complesso la ri-lettura dei due studi sul burnout, realizzati in due distinte fasi dell’evoluzione del sistema scolastico, pur confermando, in parte, i risultati di altri lavori simili, solleva il problema complementare della contestualizzazione delle modalità di espressione del disagio degli insegnanti in relazione al più ampio tessuto identitario professionale nel quale essi operano. Tessuto che sembra mutare al mutare del posizionamento sociale e culturale dell’insegnamento. (DIPF/Orig.)

Psychosocial stressors perceived in the process of social reintegration and compliance time remaining in prison sentence

Introduction: This study shows the results obtained from evaluating the main psychosocial stressors perceived in the process of social reintegration and their relation to a remaining sentence time in prison. Material and methods: A questionnaire based on an ad hoc design was administered, using a Likert scale, with a total of 383 inmates serving sentences in southeast Spain. Results: Findings show that inmates with a remaining sentence period of more than one year, like those who had served more than a year of their sentence, showed greater concern about possible economic difficulties. Conclusions: The psychosocial stressors studied might provide relevant information to facilitate the process of social reintegration after the completion of a prison sentence.

Does psychological stress mediate social deprivation in tooth loss?

It is unclear which theoretical dimension of psychological stress affects health status. We hypothesized that both distress and coping mediate the relationship between socio-economic position and tooth loss. Cross-sectional data from 2915 middle-aged adults evaluated retention of < 20 teeth, behaviors, psychological stress, and sociodemographic characteristics. Principal components analysis of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) extracted 'distress' (a = 0.85) and 'coping' (a =0.83) factors, consistent with theory. Hierarchical entry of explanatory variables into age- and sex-adjusted logistic regression models estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals [95% CI] for retention of < 20 teeth. Analysis of the separate contributions of distress and coping revealed a significant main effect of coping (OR = 0.7 [95% CI = 0.7-0.8]), but no effect for distress (OR = 1.0 [95% CI = 0.9-1.1]) or for the interaction of coping and distress. Behavior and psychological stress only modestly attenuated socio-economic inequality in retention of < 20 teeth, providing evidence to support a mediating role of coping.

The role of emotional labour and role stress on burnout and psychological strain in high contact service employees

This study examines the relationships between job demands (in the form of role stressors and emotional management) and employee burnout amongst high contact service employees. Employees in customer facing roles are frequently required to manage overwhelming, conflicting or ambiguous demands, which they may feel ill-equipped to handle. Simultaneously, they must manage the emotions they display towards customers, suppressing some, and expressing others, be they genuine or contrived. If the in-role effort required of employees exceeds their inherent capacity to cope, burnout may result. Burnout, in turn, can have serious detrimental consequences for the psychological well being of employees. We find that both emotional management and role stressors impact burnout. We also confirm that burnout predicts psychological strain. In line with the Job Demands and Resources Model, we examine the mitigating impact of perceived support on these relationships but do not find a significant mitigating impact.