[Stress, Needs, and Quality of Life of People Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus/AIDS in North East China].

BACKGROUND: HIV/AIDS has become a chronic disease since anti-retroviral therapy has reduced the related rates of morbidity and mortality and maintained the immunity of people living with the human immunodeficiency virus / AIDS (PLWHA). PLWHA have psychological needs and many hope to improve their quality of life (QoL) over the long course of their treatment. Despite the large number of AIDS cases, there are limited reports addressing the issue of QoL among PLWHA in China. PURPOSE: The present study aims to explore the stress, needs, QoL, and related factors among PLWHA in China. METHODS: This cross-sectional, descriptive study used a structural questionnaire to assess the stress, needs, and QoL of 100 PLWHA in Shenyang, China. RESULTS: The most stressful issues faced by the participants were admitting HIV/AIDS status publicly and explaining their illness to others. Their needs were mainly related to receiving adequate information about HIV-related medical services, examination, and treatment and learning how to prevent disease progression. Among the four domains of QoL, the score in the physical domain was the lowest. The stress, needs, and QoL of the participants were significantly inter-correlated. However, only stress was found to predict QoL (ß = -.25 to -.60, p < .05 to .001) in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: To reduce the stress, meet the needs, and improve the QoL of PLWHA, healthcare providers should work to lower the risk of divulgence, provide adequate healthcare information, and work to reduce the stigma and discrimination that is associated with having HIV/AIDS.

[Tuberculosis patient disease knowledge, attitudes and behavioral intentions: the impact of individualized counseling].

BACKGROUND: The Taiwan government currently promotes a case management approach to tuberculosis (TB) treatment to address the growing number of TB and multiple drug-resistant TB cases in Taiwan. The approach aims to improve medical follow-up and monitor quality of care. The efficacy of this case management approach has yet to be evaluated. PURPOSE: The current study was designed to evaluate the effect of individualized case manager counseling on TB patient disease knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intention. METHODS: This study employed a one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. Participants first answered an initial questionnaire survey including three structured scales that addressed, respectively, the facets of disease knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intention. TB case managers then delivered two- stage counseling to participants based on assessed individual needs and outstanding issues identified in questionnaire answers. A second questionnaire survey was administered 30~42 days after the intervention. RESULTS: Data on a total of 96 TB patients were collected. Key study findings were (1) individualized counseling significantly improved TB patient disease knowledge (p < .001) and (2) TB patient attitudes correlated significantly and positively with behavior intention (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Individualized counseling provided during the early stages of TB helps elevate patient awareness of the importance of treatment, enhances compliance and increases the cure rate.

[The effectiveness of music therapy in reducing physiological and psychological anxiety in mechanically ventilated patients].

Anxiety, a common reaction in patients receiving ventilation therapy, often impacts negatively on patient recovery. Music therapy, a non-invasion intervention, is readily accepted by patients and has been used to relieve patient anxiety with encouraging results. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of music therapy on reducing anxiety in patients on mechanical ventilators. An experimental design was used and all cases were collected from a medical center in southern Taiwan. While the experimental group patients took a 30-minute music therapy session, control group patients were asked to rest. Both facility anxiety and anxiety visual scales were used as research tools, with other non-invasive medical instruments employed to measure heartbeat and breathing, blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation in both patient groups. When compared with the control group, patients in the experimental group showed significant improvement in sense of anxiety (Brief Anxiety Scale, BAS, t(29) = -4.80, p < .001; Visual Analogue Anxiety Scales, VAAS, t(29) = -3.38, p = .002), diastolic pressure (t(29) = -2.74, p = .002), mean arterial pressure(t(29) = -2.26, p = .031) and breathing rate (t(29) = -4.84, p < .001). In analyzing data from the two groups, we found that the sense of anxiety (BAS, t(58) = -3.21, p = .002; VAAS, t(58) = -2.90, p = .005) and breathing rate (t(58) = -3.20, p = .002) in the experimental group decreased significantly following music therapy. Study results are hoped to serve as an important reference for clinical nursing staff. Also, it is hoped that the music therapy method may help facilitate achievement of broader humanized nursing goals.