Outcomes of a walking exercise intervention in postpartum women with disordered sleep.

AIM: Good sleep quality is essential to physical and mental-health-related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a walking exercise in relieving sleep quality, fatigue, and depression in new mothers during the postpartum period. METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was conducted at a teaching hospital in southern Taiwan. One hundred and four eligible postpartum women with poor sleep quality (Postpartum Sleep Quality Scale; PSQS score ≧16) were assigned to either the experimental group (n = 50) or the control group (n = 54) according to their individual preferences. The participants in the experimental group participated in a 12-week stride walking exercise intervention. The control group did not receive any exercise intervention. The PSQS, Postpartum Fatigue Scale, and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were used to assess outcomes. RESULTS: Repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that the experimental group participants perceived milder physical symptoms associated with sleep inefficiency at 4-week posttest (F = 7.25, p < 0.01) than their control group peers. However, no significant differences were found between two groups in terms of either fatigue or depression at 4-week and 12-week posttest. CONCLUSION: Significant improvement in the physical symptoms associated with sleep inefficiency was observed. The findings may be used to encourage postpartum women with disordered sleep to incorporate 20-30 min of stride walking into their regular routine to improve sleep quality.

Investigation and Comparison of Maternal Pre-Pregnancy Body Mass Index Coupled with Gestational Weight Gain on Maternal-Fetal Complications Based on US and Chinese Guidelines: A Retrospective Study.

Compared to Western populations, Chinese and Asians possess distinct genetics, lifestyles, and dietary habits. They tend to have shorter stature, lower Body Mass Index (BMI), and higher body fat percentages than Western populations. The aim of this study was to compare disparities in maternal-fetal outcomes by combining pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain (GWG) based on distinct US and Chinese guidelines. A total of 2,271 pregnant women who received perinatal care at Fooyin University Hospital from 2016 to 2021 were included. Logistic regression analysis categorized women into twelve groups based on the two criteria to explore the relationships between BMI and GWG, and maternal-fetal outcomes. Among the subjects, only 23.2% and 21.8% women had a normal weight BMI and adequate GWG, based on US and Chinese criteria, respectively. As BMI and GWG increase, the likelihood of developing complications such as gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension or preeclampsia, Cesarean section, and Large for Gestational Age also rises. Conversely, underweight women with excessive GWG exhibited lower risk of preterm birth either by US or Chinese guidelines. Two criteria exhibited similar odds for investigated outcomes, except for gestational hypertension or preeclampsia. Women had more than double the odds of developing gestational hypertension or preeclampsia when using US criteria compared to Chinese criteria. Therefore, it is essential for Asian, especially Chinese women, to be aware of the differences in adverse outcomes such as gestational hypertension or preeclampsia when using US criteria.

A rare case of coiling of the brachial artery: a description of the sonographic features.

We report the case of a patient with 360° coiling of the brachial artery that had been previously misdiagnosed as aneurysms of the right brachial artery on sonography performed at another institution. The previous misdiagnosis occurred due to sonographic pitfalls in gray-scale and color imaging, which led the operator to make a false interpretation. Knowledge of Doppler analysis and sonographic interpretation of arterial coiling may improve the diagnostic accuracy for this condition.

[The application of creative thinking teaching in nursing education].

Nursing education is increasingly expected to cultivate nursing student creative abilities in line with general Ministry of Education promotion of greater creativity within education and the greater leeway for creativity won domestically for nurses by professional nursing organizations. Creative thinking has been named by education experts in the United States as the third most important goal of nursing education. However, nursing students in Taiwan have been shown to test lower in terms of creativity than students enrolled in business management. Leaders in nursing education should consider methods by which to improve the creative thinking capabilities of nursing students. Articles in the literature indicate that courses in creative studies are concentrated in the field of education, with few designed specifically for nursing. The teaching of constructing creative thinking is particularly weak in the nursing field. The purpose of this article was to review literature on education and nursing in order to explore current definitions, teaching strategies, and evaluation approaches related to creativity, and to develop a foundation for teaching creativity in nursing. The authors hope that an appropriate creative thinking course for nursing students may be constructed by referencing guidance provided in this in order to further cultivate creative thinking abilities in nursing students that will facilitate their application of creative thinking in their future clinical practicum.

Interactions between psychiatric and physical disorders and their effects on the risks of suicide: a nested case-control study.

Previous studies, which included predominantly Caucasian populations, examined psychiatric and physical illness and associated suicide risk. We used a nationwide database to reassess the findings in an Asian population, and also analyzed the influence of different onset timing of psychiatric and physical illness and the suicide risk. We included 55,630 suicide cases aged 20-110 years. Using an incidence density sampling approach, we selected 222,520 controls matched by age, sex, and residence area from 2000 to 2012. We included most major psychiatric and physical illnesses defined by ICD-9-CM codes with anatomical classifications. By using conditional logistic regression models with adjustment of covariates, such as patients' marital status and education levels, we found that patients with psychiatric illness had higher suicide risk (adjusted IRR, 7.72; 95% CI: 7.35-8.09) compared with those with neither physical nor psychiatric illness and the risk increased substantially in patients with both psychiatric and physical illnesses (adjusted IRR, 18.35; 95% CI: 16.40-20.86). Specifically, we found the suicide risk was relatively higher (adjusted IRR, 1.28; 95% CI: 1.10-1.40) when psychiatric disorders occurred before physical illness compared with the other way around. The findings warrant attention to high suicide risk and preventive treatments in patients with both psychiatric and physical illnesses.

An unusual radiologic pattern of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia: diffuse pulmonary nodules in a leukemia patient.

The radiological appearance of diffuse discrete pulmonary nodules associated with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) has been rarely described. We describe a case of COP in 49-year-old woman with acute myeloid leukemia who developed diffuse pulmonary nodules during the second course of induction chemotherapy. The clinical status of the patient and imaging findings suggested the presence of a pulmonary metastasis or infectious disease. A video-assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy resulted in the unexpected diagnosis of COP as an isolated entity. Steroid therapy led to dramatic improvement of the clinical symptoms and the pulmonary lesions.