Effects of an 8-Week Mindfulness Course in People With Voice Disorders.

Objectives: Nearly every modern textbook on the etiology and treatment of voice disorders (VD) recommends stress reduction for VD patients. The benefits of mindfulness for stress reduction are well documented, but published literature on mindfulness and VD is sparse. Our objective was to determine whether an 8-week mindfulness course could increase mindfulness and lower stress in people with VD, leading to a decrease in vocal handicap.

"Unprecedented Times:" Experiences of Social Work and Public Health Professionals during Times of Public Crises.

Social workers and public health professionals in the U.S. were profoundly impacted by COVID-19, systemic racism, and the 2020 U.

A Social Work Education Grounded in Human Rights.

In response to a mandate to advance human rights through social work education, this article focuses on the curricular redesign and program evaluation of one MSW Program. The program's specialization focused on advanced social work practice with individuals, families, and communities grounded in social justice and human rights. A pre-experimental one-group posttest-only program evaluation design was implemented.

Experiences and attitudes of collegiate athletic trainers regarding alcohol-related unintentional injury in athletes.

Context: Alcohol-related unintentional injury (ARUI) has been an unexamined consequence of alcohol consumption by collegiate athletes. It has a potentially devastating effect on their athletic performances and careers. Awareness of this problem in athletes could have a huge effect on what athletic trainers (ATs) do to recognize, treat, and prevent it in a collegiate athlete population.

Perception of nurse caring, skills, and knowledge based on appearance.

Objective: The objective of the study was to assess differences among perceptions of patients, nurses, nursing faculty, and nursing students regarding nurse caring, skill, and knowledge based on attire and level of visible body art.

Background: People often make judgments (positive and negative) based on how a person appears. Given somewhat more flexible dress codes for nurses, we wondered what type of perceptions a variety of stakeholders would have of nurses in different levels of attire.

Predictors of health education and nonmedication treatment in adult outpatients with diagnosed cardiac conditions.

The premise of this study was to assess what factors predict the provision of health education and nonmedication treatment for adult cardiac outpatients. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out on 2005 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey data to determine the odds of provision of health education or nonmedication treatment in respect to age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, insurance type, smoking status, diabetes status, and receipt of medication in 278 cardiac patients aged 18 to 64 years who visited outpatient departments in 2005. Approximately 48% of cardiac outpatients were offered health education and 32% nonmedication therapy.

Campus involvement, perceived campus connection, and alcohol use in college athletes.

This research study examined the relationship of college athletes' levels of campus involvement and campus connection to their alcohol use. A survey measuring alcohol use, campus involvement and campus connection was administered to 720 athletes at nine institutions. Participants who reported having 5 or more drinks on one occasion in the past two weeks had higher levels of campus connection than those who did not report that level of alcohol consumption; but, conversely these college athletes also reported lower levels of campus involvement.

The influence of health insurance on parent's reports of children's unmet mental health needs.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of unmet mental health needs in children identified by parents as having long-term emotional and behavioral problems, to identify the characteristics of these children, and to evaluate the influence of health insurance status and type on the odds of reporting unmet mental health needs.

Methods: We used the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NSCSHCN) to estimate the prevalence of unmet mental health needs among children with long-term emotional/behavioral conditions. Using logistic regression models, we also assessed the independent impact of insurance status and type on unmet needs.

Triangulating patient and clinician perspectives on clinically important differences in health-related quality of life among patients with heart disease.

Objective: To use triangulation methodology to better understand clinically important differences (CIDs) in the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients with heart disease.

Data Sources/study Setting: We used three information sources: a nine-member expert panel, 656 primary care outpatients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and/or congestive heart failure (CHF), and the 46 primary care physicians (PCPs) treating these outpatients. From them, we derived CIDs for the Modified Chronic Heart Failure Questionnaire (CHQ) and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36-Item Health Status Survey, Version 2 (SF-36).

Validity of patient-reported health-related quality of life global ratings of change using structural equation modeling.

Background: Patient-perceived global ratings of change are often used as anchors of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) since they are easy for clinicians to interpret and incorporate the patient's perception of change as a means to capture clinical significance. Although this approach may be preferred, the validity of the anchor-based approach is currently under scrutiny.

Objective: To estimate the explained variation in single-item domain-specific global ratings of change (GRCs) that is accounted for by time 1 (T1) and time 2 (T2) domain-specific summary change scores from the Short-Form 36, V2 (SF-36) Health Survey in asthma primary care patients.

Measuring patient and clinician perspectives to evaluate change in health-related quality of life among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Context: Many treatments aim to improve patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and many care guidelines suggest assessing symptoms and their impact on HRQoL. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding which HRQoL outcome measures are appropriate to assess, and how much change on those measures depict significant HRQoL improvement.

Objective: We used triangulation methods to identify and understand clinically important differences (CIDs) for the amount of change in HRQoL that reflects both health professionals and patients' values, among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

A comparison of traditional and Rasch cut points for assessing clinically important change in health-related quality of life among patients with asthma.

Background: Patient-perceived change in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) domains has often been classified using a 15-point patient transition rating scale. However, traditional change levels of trivial ( - 1, 0, or 1), minimal (2, 3 or - 2, - 3), moderate (4, 5 or - 4, - 5) and large (6, 7 or - 6, - 7) on this scale have been arbitrarily defined and originally assumed that change related to an improvement was the same as that for a decline.

Objective: To compare traditional and Rasch partial credit model-derived cut points and the mean changes for each change categorization when assessing clinically important change in asthma-specific HRQoL.

Interpreting quality-of-life data: methods for community consensus in asthma.

Background: Change in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important outcome in asthma treatment. Patient and provider consensus on how to determine thresholds for identifying important improvements and declines, however, has not been achieved.

Objective: To search for consensus in clinically important difference (CID) thresholds for HRQoL change from 3 points of view: (1) an expert panel of physicians who treat patients with asthma and measure the HRQoL of their patients, (2) asthmatic patients, and (3) the primary care physicians (PCPs) of these asthmatic patients.

Test-retest reliability of the Mirowsky-Ross 2 x 2 Index of the Sense of Control.

This study investigated the short-term stability of the 1991 Mirowsky-Ross 2 x 2 Index of the Sense of Control. From an ongoing longitudinal study, 304 subjects were randomly selected for test-retest interviews occurring 1 to 4 days after their regularly scheduled first follow-up interview. Test-retest reliability was assessed at the item level using percent agreement and weighted kappa.