Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: from echocardiographic characteristics to a cardiovascular damage score in a high-risk hypertensive population.

Background: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a high prevalence condition, with high rates of hospitalization and mortality. Arterial hypertension is the main risk factor for HFpEF. Among hypertensive patients, alterations in cardiac and vascular morphology identify hypertension-mediated organ damage (HMOD).

Mental health dynamics between mothers and siblings of children with disabilities.

Introduction: When a child has a disability, their families face significant challenges that also impact parents' and siblings' mental health and adjustment. We examined the potential bidirectional relationships between parental mental health and sibling mental health and adjustment in families of children with a disability.

Methods: We utilized baseline and 12-month follow-up data from a randomized controlled trial of a brief intervention designed to enhance parent-sibling communication in families of children with a disability.

Mental health in mothers and fathers of children with chronic disorders.

Objective: This study applied the Family Systems Illness Model to examine how child disorder severity influences mental health in mothers and fathers of children with chronic (mainly developmental) disorders (CD).

Methods: We measured parental mental health and perceived child disorder severity among 204 mothers and 125 fathers of 220 children with CD and compared the mental health scores with norms. We analyzed how much of the variance in parental mental health was explained by child disorder severity, including discrepancy between maternally and paternally perceived severity.