Balancing barriers and strategies - Nurses' experiences of conducting lifestyle counseling.

OBJECTIVES: Over 70% of the disease burden in Europe is the result of chronic diseases caused by lifestyle. Lifestyle counseling can improve lifestyle habits and thereby health. However, according to research, there are several barriers to healthcare personnel carrying out counseling. The aim of this study was to explore nurses' experiences of conducting lifestyle counseling. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted in southern Sweden between August 2021 and December 2021. SAMPLE: Eleven nurses were recruited from both inpatient and outpatient care in northeastern Sweden through a combination of purposive and snowball sampling. MEASUREMENTS: Individual semistructured interviews were performed digitally using an interview guide. The interviews were analyzed via qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The nurses experienced several challenges in performing lifestyle counseling. However, knowledge gaps, sensitive topics, organizational dynamics, and time constraints were balanced using strategies. The theme of their responses can be explained by the following categories: "Collaboration with patients is key," "From self-interest to teamwork," and "The organization can assist or hinder." CONCLUSIONS: Lifestyle counseling needs to be prioritized within healthcare. Nurses need tools and knowledge to be able to feel comfortable with the task. All healthcare organizations need to work with lifestyle counseling in a structured way according to national guidelines.

Development and quality assessment of the psychometric properties of the Self-Efficacy in Lifestyle Counselling scale (SELC 20 + 20) using Rasch analysis.

BACKGROUND: Globally as well as in Sweden, diseases that are caused by unhealthy lifestyle habits are the most common causes of death and disability. Even though there are guidelines that oblige all health-care professionals to counsel patients about lifestyle, studies have shown that it is not prioritized within healthcare. One reason for this among nurses has been shown to be lack of confidence in knowledge and counselling skills. This study aimed to develop, and quality assess the psychometric properties of an instrument to measure self-efficacy in lifestyle counselling. METHODS: An instrument inspired by an American instrument, following Bandura's recommendations for development of self-efficacy measures, was developed according to Swedish national guidelines for disease-prevention. The instrument was revised after cognitive interviews with nursing students, university teachers within health sciences, and clinical experts, then administrated to 310 nursing students at different levels in their education. The instrument was tested with Rasch Measurement Theory, with focus on dimensionality, local dependency, targeting, reliability, response category functioning, Rasch model fit, and differential item functioning by age, gender, educational level and previous health care education. RESULTS: The development of the instrument resulted in 20 + 20 items, 20 items about self-efficacy in knowledge, and 20 items about self-efficacy in ability to counsel persons about their lifestyle. The analyses showed that knowledge and ability are two different, but related, constructs, where ability is more demanding than knowledge. The findings provide support (considering dimensionality and local dependency) for that all 20 items within the knowledge construct as well as the 20 items within the ability construct can be summed, achieving two separate but related total scores, where knowledge (reliability 0.81) is a prerequisite for ability (reliability 0.84). Items represented lower self-efficacy than reported by the respondents. Response categories functioned as expected, Rasch model fit was acceptable, and there was no differential item functioning. CONCLUSIONS: The SELC 20 + 20 was found to be easy to understand with an acceptable respondent burden and the instrument showed good measurement properties.

Notification of an abnormal Pap smear result: An intervention study.

This study aims to assess whether notification of an abnormal Pap smear result via a phone call, delivered by a trained healthcare provider, has an effect on women's HRQoL, coping and awareness of HPV. For this intervention study, women were consecutively recruited from a women's health clinic in Sweden. Women in the intervention group (n = 113) were notified of their Pap smear result via a phone call by a trained healthcare provider, while those in the comparison group (n = 122) were notified via a standard letter. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The results found no significant differences between the groups for HRQoL. However, 42.5% of women in the intervention group versus 48.3% in the comparison group reported anxiety. Women in the intervention group were more satisfied with the manner in which they were notified of their abnormal result than those in the comparison group (92.0% vs. 67.2%; p < 0.001), more aware of HPV (71% vs. 50%; p = 0.001), and called healthcare services less often (10.6% vs. 18.0%; p = 0.113), no significance. In conclusion, notification of an abnormal Pap smear result via a phone call does not increase women's HRQoL or reduce their anxiety.

Swedish women's awareness of human papillomavirus, and health-related quality of life, anxiety, and depression after a notification of an abnormal Pap smear result: a cross-sectional study.

This study aims to assess (a) women's awareness of the human papillomavirus (HPV), (b) women's health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and levels of anxiety and depression symptoms, and (c) to compare the outcomes between women who are aware of the sexually transmitted nature of the HPV infection and women who are not. Swedish women who have been notified of an abnormal Pap smear result completed a questionnaire. This questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic characteristics, items on awareness of HPV, and how to cope with the Pap smear result and the instruments: the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Cervical Dysplasia and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, χ-tests, Fisher's exact test, the Mann-Whitney U-test, and Fisher-Freeman-Halton exact test. In total, 122 women participated. The women reported a median (quartile 1-quartile 3) score of 87.6 on the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Cervical Dysplasia (81.8-107.0), compatible with a good HRQoL. The median (quartile 1-quartile 3) scores on HADS-anxiety and HADS-depression were 7.0 (4.0-10.0) and 3.0 (1.0-5.3), respectively; however, 48.4% of the women reported anxiety (compared with 20% in a normal population). There were no statistically significant differences in the median scores in any of the scales, including the prevalence of distress between the subgroups. Women with abnormal Pap smear results have a good HRQoL; they can become anxious, but not depressed. Awareness of HPV as a sexually transmitted infection is low, but being aware does not impact on women's HRQoL or on anxiety and depression.

Women's experiences of abnormal Pap smear results - A qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES: To describe women's experiences of abnormal Pap smear result. METHODS: Ten women were recruited from a women's health clinic. Qualitative interviews based on six open-ended questions were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed by content analysis. RESULTS: The women believed that their abnormal Pap smear result was indicative of having cancer. This created anxiety in the women, which resulted in the need for emotional support and information. Testing positive with human papillomavirus (HPV) also meant consequences for the relatives as well as concerns about the sexually transmitted nature of the virus. Finally, the women had a need to be treated with respect by the healthcare professionals in order to reduce feelings of being abused. CONCLUSIONS: In general, women have a low level of awareness of HPV and its relation to abnormal Pap smear results. Women who receive abnormal Pap smear results need oral information, based on the individual women's situation, and delivered at the time the women receive the test result. It is also essential that a good emotional contact be established between the women and the healthcare professionals.

The Swedish translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Cervical Dysplasia (FACIT-CD): linguistic validity and reliability of the Swedish version.

BACKGROUND: Cervical dysplasia is a precancerous condition, which has been shown to create anxiety in women. To be able to investigate these women's health-related quality of life, a disease-specific instrument is required. There does not seem to be a Swedish version of an instrument to screen for this specific disease. Therefore, this study aims to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Cervical Dysplasia (FACIT-CD) into a Swedish context and evaluate its linguistic validity and reliability. METHODS: The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) translation methodology was used, which consists of several steps including pilot testing of the FACIT-CD instrument through cognitive debriefing interviews. Ten women diagnosed with cervical dysplasia participated in the cognitive debriefing interviews. The internal consistency reliability of the Swedish FACIT-CD was estimated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Homogeneity of the items was evaluated by corrected item-total correlations. The sample consists of 34 women who were diagnosed with cervical dysplasia. RESULTS: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation went smoothly without any problems for the majority of the items. The cognitive debriefing interviews indicated that the Swedish FACIT-CD consists of relevant items, is easy to understand and complete, and has unambiguous and comprehensive response categories. The translation and cross-cultural adaptation resulted in a Swedish FACIT-CD, which is conceptually and semantically equivalent to the English version and linguistically valid. The total scale of the Swedish FACIT-CD exhibited good internal consistency reliability with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.84, and all of the subscales exhibited acceptable value between 0.71 and 0.81 except the Relationships subscale, which had a value of 0.67. Finally, all but four items exceeded the acceptable level for the corrected item-total correlations of ≥ 0.20. CONCLUSIONS: The Swedish FACIT-CD is conceptually and semantically equivalent to the English version and linguistically valid; further, it exhibits good internal consistency reliability.

Results of an outpatient multidisciplinary COPD rehabilitation programme obtained in two settings: primary and secondary health care.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There is limited experience with implementation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) rehabilitation in primary care settings. We aimed to evaluate the implementation of a COPD rehabilitation programme in a primary care setting and compare the effects with those obtained in a secondary health-care setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The same outpatient multidisciplinary 7-week rehabilitation programme was implemented in a primary (day care nursery) and a secondary (hospital) health-care setting. Disease-specific quality of life (QoL) and endurance shuttle walking time (ESWT) was assessed at the start and end of the programme. Additionally, QoL was assessed again at a 3-months follow-up. RESULTS: No serious problems or adverse events were encountered during the training/rehabilitation sessions. A total of 48 patients (81.3%) and 75 patients (84.2%) completed the 7-week rehabilitation programme in the primary and secondary settings, respectively. Within both centres, we found statistically significant improvements of ESWT and total St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire score. The improvement of ESWT was significantly greater in the secondary care setting than in the primary care setting. CONCLUSIONS: we found that it was possible to implement a COPD rehabilitation programme in a Danish primary care setting. In this non-randomised study, improvements of QoL and ESWT obtained in the primary care setting were reasonably similar to those obtained in the secondary care setting.

Suicidal behaviour among alcohol-dependent Danes attending outpatient treatment.

The association between alcohol dependence and suicidal behaviour is well established and patients with suicidal behaviour in treatment for alcohol dependence present a considerable challenge for clinical services. The aim of this study is to identify risk factors for suicide attempts and to evaluate the outcome of treatment in patients in treatment for alcohol dependence. Semi-structured, detailed interviews were administered at baseline and at three sequential follow-up interviews with a large sample of 1692 patients at an outpatient treatment centre in the county of Funen in Denmark. Characteristics of, predictors for and outcome among suicidal patients were studied. Alcohol-dependent patients with a history of suicide attempts were found to constitute a highly selected group in alcohol abuse treatment as they often had a more severe course of alcohol dependence, were unemployed, younger, were more often lowly educated, and had more physical and psychiatric problems. Traumatic childhood experience related to physical or sexual abuse was found as a major predictor for suicidal behaviour among alcohol-dependent patients. We found no significant difference in the effect of treatment in patients with and without suicidal behaviour. These results support the hypothesis that alcohol-dependent patients with a history of suicide attempts are a selected group in respect to a number of demographical and psychosocial factors, but we found no difference in the outcome of treatment. This may imply that suicidal patients in treatment for alcohol abuse are treated effectively within the present treatment settings.

Influence of pretreatment coping strategies on the outcome of outpatient treatment of Danish alcohol abusers.

An important issue regarding treatment for alcohol abuse is the high rate of relapse following treatment. In the research on treatment of alcohol abuse, the concept of coping has been proposed as a relevant factor in the relationship between relapse crises and treatment outcome. The present study investigated the role of pretreatment coping strategies in outcome of outpatient treatment for alcohol abuse. The pretreatment coping strategies of 136 clients receiving outpatient treatment for alcohol abuse were examined as a predictor of drinking pattern after treatment. The pretreatment coping strategies were assessed by the COPE questionnaire. Drinking pattern after treatment was assessed at follow-up one year after treatment was entered. Results indicated that some pretreatment coping strategies are identifiable as adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies, respectively, regarding successful treatment for alcohol abuse. Restraint coping was found predictive of a positive drinking pattern at follow-up while the use of alcohol to cope was found predictive of a negative drinking pattern. Furthermore, the results showed tendencies towards the possibility that some coping strategies co-operated differently with types of treatment methods.