Predictors of death anxiety among patients with heart disease.

Objective: This research examines whether or not socio-demographic factors and hope predict death anxiety among patients with heart disease.Materials and Methods: Our sample consisted of 500 respondents who were hospitalized in a medical institution in Iran. Data were collected using the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (TDAS) and the Herth Hope Index (HHI).Results: The results of current study indicated that higher economic status, having one's main source of income from friends, increased age, increased religious belief, and increased hope were associated with lower death anxiety.Conclusion: These results highlight that improving hope, and religiosity among cardiac patients may be an effective means by which to reduce their death anxiety.

Sexual distress and sexual function in a sample of Iranian women with gynecologic cancers.

PURPOSE: This study aims to examine the correlation between sexual function and sexual distress, and to determine the predictive factors of sexual function and sexual distress in women with gynecologic cancers. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 387 subjects were referred to Velayat Hospital in Qazvin, Iran, using convenience sampling method between June and August 2016. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), and the Female Sexual Distress Scale-Revised (FSDS-R). RESULTS: Mean scores of sexual function and sexual distress were 19.4 ±â€¯6.7 and 29.2 ±â€¯12.9, respectively. There was no significant correlation between sexual function and sexual distress. Multivariate predictors of FSFI were cancer stage (p = 0.023), cancer type (p = 0.025), duration of disease (ß = -0.10, 95% CI [-0.17, - 0.02], p = 0.017) and social support (ß = 0.53, 95% CI [0.24, 0.83], p < 0.001). Predictors of FSDS-R were economic status (p = 0.040) and type of cancer (p = 0.016). There was a negative relation between the overall score on FSDS-R and FSFI sub domains of desire (ß = -1.4, p = 0.033) and arousal (ß = -2.1, p = 0.024). CONCLUSIONS: This study did not support a relation between sexual function and sexual distress. Other factors, however, including cancer type, economic status and social support may affect sexual function and sexual distress. Future studies needed to determine further factors which can affect the sexual distress and sexual function of gynecologic cancer patients.

Rhythm and Melody Tasks for School-Aged Children With and Without Musical Training: Age-Equivalent Scores and Reliability.

Measuring musical abilities in childhood can be challenging. When music training and maturation occur simultaneously, it is difficult to separate the effects of specific experience from age-based changes in cognitive and motor abilities. The goal of this study was to develop age-equivalent scores for two measures of musical ability that could be reliably used with school-aged children (7-13) with and without musical training. The children's Rhythm Synchronization Task (c-RST) and the children's Melody Discrimination Task (c-MDT) were adapted from adult tasks developed and used in our laboratories. The c-RST is a motor task in which children listen and then try to synchronize their taps with the notes of a woodblock rhythm while it plays twice in a row. The c-MDT is a perceptual task in which the child listens to two melodies and decides if the second was the same or different. We administered these tasks to 213 children in music camps (musicians, n = 130) and science camps (non-musicians, n = 83). We also measured children's paced tapping, non-paced tapping, and phonemic discrimination as baseline motor and auditory abilities We estimated internal-consistency reliability for both tasks, and compared children's performance to results from studies with adults. As expected, musically trained children outperformed those without music lessons, scores decreased as difficulty increased, and older children performed the best. Using non-musicians as a reference group, we generated a set of age-based z-scores, and used them to predict task performance with additional years of training. Years of lessons significantly predicted performance on both tasks, over and above the effect of age. We also assessed the relation between musician's scores on music tasks, baseline tasks, auditory working memory, and non-verbal reasoning. Unexpectedly, musician children outperformed non-musicians in two of three baseline tasks. The c-RST and c-MDT fill an important need for researchers interested in evaluating the impact of musical training in longitudinal studies, those interested in comparing the efficacy of different training methods, and for those assessing the impact of training on non-musical cognitive abilities such as language processing.

Opposite-sex relationship questionnaire for female adolescents: development and psychometric evaluation.

Aim The goal of the present study is to adopt state-of-the-art techniques and standards to develop and evaluate a measure, called the opposite-sex relationship questionnaire for female adolescents (OSRQFA), to assess the reasons why adolescent girls would or would not develop, a relationship with an adolescent boy. Methods A mixed-method, sequential, exploratory design was adopted. In the qualitative phase, an in-depth interview approach was used to identify the properties and dimensions to be included in the OSRQFA. In the quantitative phase, the psychometric properties of the OSRQFA were evaluated according to face, content and construct validity. Reliability and stability were assessed with Cronbach's α and test-retest analysis, respectively. Results A preliminary questionnaire including 86 items which emerged from the qualitative phase of the study was designed. Based on the impact scores for face validity and the cutoff points for the content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI), the preliminary questionnaire was reduced to 57 items. The Kaiser criteria (eigenvalues >1) and scree plot tests demonstrated that 21 items forming six factors, which were labeled 'innate predilection', 'abstinence', 'peer pressure', 'fear of the relationship consequences', 'family atmosphere' and 'risk taking', that accounted for an estimated 66.19% of variance provided an optimal fit with the data. These scales had acceptable levels of internal consistency (α = 0.822) and stability (r = 0.871, p < 0.001). Conclusion The OSRQFA with 21 items and 6 factors demonstrated suitable validity and reliability in a sample of Iranian female adolescents. The OSRQFA's has good psychometric properties, and can be used by other researchers in future studies.