Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused abrupt closure of schools including higher education institutions. The transition from in-person to virtual teaching platforms caused challenges for frontline nurses in post-basic programmes. Nurses were forced to divide their efforts between responding to the pandemic and their studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To determine if there were differences between the subjective and objective assessments of physical activity while controlling for sociodemographic, anthropometric, and clinical characteristics.
Setting/sample: A total of 810 participants across eight sites located in three countries.
Measures: Subjective instruments were the two subscales of Self-efficacy for Exercise Behaviors Scale: Making Time for Exercise and Resisting Relapse and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System, which measured physical function.
J Prim Care Community Health
August 2022
Introduction/objectives: Health-related social needs (HRSN) screening efforts have reported high rates of identified social needs. Little is known if efforts to conduct HRSN screening in resource-constrained federally-qualified health centers (FQHC) successfully captures a representative patient population.
Methods: This cross-sectional study extracted EMR data from 2016 to 2020 for 4731 screened patients from 7 affiliated clinics of a FQHC.
Popul Health Manag
April 2022
Screening for social needs during routine medical visits is increasingly common. To date, there are limited data on which social needs are most predictive of health outcomes. The aim of this study is to build a predictive model from integrated social needs screening and health data to identify individual or clusters of social needs that are predictive of chronic illnesses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLittle is known about how demographic, employment and meteorological factors impact physical activity. We conducted an analysis to explore these associations from participants ( = 447) from six cities in the United States and matched their activity data with abstracted local meteorological data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather reports. Participants were purposively recruited in 3-month blocks, from December 2015 to October 2017, to reflect physical activity engagement across the seasons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: People with HIV (PWH), who engage in regular physical activity, have improved fitness, muscular strength, body composition, health-related quality of life and mental health symptoms, but PWH have amongst the lowest physical activity levels of those with any chronic health condition. Furthermore, there is scant evidence examining these relationships in PWH in Africa.
Aim: To address these critical gaps, this cross-sectional descriptive research study examined the relationships between demographic, HIV-related, anthropometric factors, neighbourhood walkability and physical activity, amongst PWH in Durban, South Africa.
Chronically ill persons with a condition requiring self-care activities can benefit from learning from reliable internet sources. Orem's theory of self-care was used to answer the question: Does increasing technical knowledge about reliable internet sites for health information increase self-care agency of low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS ( = 100)? Self-care agency, as measured by the Self-As-Carer Inventory, increased but not significantly, after two educational interventions. We hoped to gain insight into the measurement of self-care agency in our African American and Hispanic population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Racial bias in health care is increasingly recognized as a factor in health inequities, yet there is limited research regarding medical school education around race and racism and its impact on medical students. The purpose of this study was to understand attitudes of medical students on race and racism in health care and to study the impact of participation in a voluntary structured program on race and racism.
Methods: First-year medical students had the opportunity to participate in a series of discussions (10 hours total) on race and racism.
Immigration-related concerns can impact health and are an important consideration while caring for a multinational Latinx immigrant community. Patients and caregivers waiting for a non-urgent clinic appointment were randomly screened with one of two social risk screening tools. One tool included a question about "any health or stability concerns related to immigration status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: People living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) are at an increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in PLHIV are poorly understood.
Objective: The aims of this study were to describe physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness by sex and age and to examine the association between physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in PLHIV, controlling for covariates.
This research explored whether participating in a brief educational intervention using the National Library of Medicine video, Evaluating Health Information: A Tutorial From the National Library of Medicine, would increase electronic health literacy. A quasi-experimental longitudinal design was used in two randomly selected settings of a treatment program for low-income persons living with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (N = 100). Individuals in both intervention groups watched the video and completed an at-home assignment brought to the second session 1 week later; one group received an additional 15 minutes with an HIV nurse clinician who reinforced video content.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To explore perceptions of low income persons living with HIV/AIDS and history of substance abuse about how they decide whether an internet site is a credible source of health-related information.
Background: It is hard for any consumer to determine whether the information that is available on the internet is trustworthy and even more challenging for consumers with low health literacy and insufficient computer literacy skills.
Methods: Mixed methods with sequential explanatory design.
Background: Managing HIV treatment is a complex multi-dimensional task because of a combination of factors such as stigma and discrimination of some populations who frequently get infected with HIV. In addition, patient-provider encounters have become increasingly multicultural, making effective communication and provision of ethically sound care a challenge.
Purpose: This article explores ethical issues that health service providers in the United States and Botswana encountered in their interaction with patients in HIV care.
J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care
June 2019
Health literacy, including people's abilities to access, process, and comprehend health-related information, has become an important component in the management of complex and chronic diseases such as HIV infection. Clinical measures of health literacy that focus on patients' abilities to follow plans of care ignore the multidimensionality of health literacy. Our thematic analysis of 28 focus groups from a qualitative, multisite, multinational study exploring information practices of people living with HIV (PLWH) demonstrated the importance of location as a dimension of health literacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobally, people living with HIV (PLWH) are at remarkably high risk for developing chronic comorbidities. While exercise and healthy eating reduce and mitigate chronic comorbidites, PLWH like many others, often fail to engage in recommended levels. We qualitatively examined the perspectives and contextual drivers of diet and exercise reported by PLWH and their health care providers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedication adherence is the "Plus" in the global challenge to have 90% of HIV-infected individuals tested, 90% of those who are HIV positive treated, and 90% of those treated achieve an undetectable viral load. The latter indicates viral suppression, the goal for clinicians treating people living with HIV (PLWH). The comparative importance of different psychosocial scales in predicting the level of antiretroviral adherence, however, has been little studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity Ment Health J
October 2017
This study investigates socio-demographic characteristics and resilience and depressive symptoms among Korean Americans (KAs) with traumatic life experiences. Community-residing 285 KAs living in New York City and Teaneck, New Jersey completed questionnaires measuring traumatic life experiences, depressive symptoms, and resilience. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlations, and two-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Clin Nurs
September 2017
Aim: To examine the validity of the Spanish version of an instrument used to measure electronic health literacy (eHEALS) with an older Hispanic population from a number of Spanish-language countries living in New York City in the United States (US).
Background: Although the Internet is available globally, complex skills are needed to use this source of valuable health-related information effectively. Electronic health literacy is a multifactorial concept that includes health literacy but also requires technology skills.
Aim: Sexual risk behaviour was explored and described using Social Action Theory.
Background: The sexual transmission of HIV is complex and multi-factorial. Social Action Theory provides a framework for viewing self-regulation of modifiable behaviour such as condom use.
Low health literacy has been linked to inadequate engagement in care and may serve as a contributor to poor health outcomes among people living with HIV and AIDS. The purpose of this paper was to examine the perspectives of health care providers and professional care team members regarding health literacy in HIV disease. A secondary data analysis was conducted from a qualitative study aimed at understanding factors that help an HIV positive person to manage their HIV disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth literacy is important for access to and quality of HIV care. While most models of health literacy acknowledge the importance of the patient-provider relationship to disease management, a more nuanced understanding of this relationship is needed. Thematic analysis from 28 focus groups with HIV-experienced patients (n = 135) and providers (n = 71) identified a long-term and trusting relationship as an essential part of HIV treatment over the continuum of HIV care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Asian American women are more prone to suffer from depression compared to their non-Asian American counterparts and have lower rates of seeking mental healthcare services due to lack of available culturally appropriate therapies. Two prior studies of a culturally tailored therapeutic intervention called LogoAutobiography were helpful in treating depressed Korean American women. The LogoAutobiography program was revised to enhance its efficacy not only for depressive symptoms and purpose in life but also to increase coping strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough the internet increases the availability of diabetes-related health information, health care consumers need to have different skills in order to obtain, interpret and evaluate such information. The eHealth literacy scale (eHEALS) was originally developed to assess consumers' perceived skills at using information technology for health. The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of older Hispanics' with type 2 diabetes in using the internet for diabetes management.
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