The 13 item Family Support Scale: Reliability and validity of the Greek translation in a sample of Greek health care professionals.

Background: The Julkunen Family Support Scale aims to record the sense of support that a subject receives from the members of his family. The object of the present study was to investigate the reliability and to assess the validity of the Greek translation of the Julkunen Family Support Scale in Greek health care professionals in a public general hospital.

Methods: In order to determine the indicator of validity of content we addressed nine expert professionals and one sociologist, asking them to evaluate how much relevant to the sense of familial support are the items of the questionnaire.

Can't live with you, can't live without you: negative family exchanges and adaptation in end-stage renal disease patients.

The present study examined associations between negative family exchanges (patient perceptions of family overprotection and negative expressiveness, and patient feelings of being a burden), and two indicators of adaptation to illness (mental health and negative affect) in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Data were collected using the perceptions of illness-related family exchanges questionnaire, the SF36 and the PANAS in a structured interview with 127 patients with ESRD in Greece. Findings indicate that patient perceptions of negative family exchanges are related to outcomes, even after controlling for demographic and clinical factors.

A cross-cultural investigation of college student alcohol consumption: a classification tree analysis.

In this cross-cultural study, the authors attempted to identify high-risk subgroups for alcohol consumption among college students. American and Greek students (N = 132) answered questions about alcohol consumption, religious beliefs, attitudes toward drinking, advertisement influences, parental monitoring, and drinking consequences. Heavy drinkers in the American group were younger and less religious than were infrequent drinkers.

Perception of family support is correlated with glycemic control in Greeks with diabetes mellitus.

We studied 98 native Greek patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Their degree of glycemic control, evaluated with glycated hemoglobin A1c levels, was correlated with perceived family support, assessed with the Family Support Scale. The different social context of Greece--and its corresponding perception of family support--influence glycemic control in a way that is at variance from data of some studies of Anglo-Saxon families.

Obesity indices in a cohort of primary school children in Crete: a six year prospective study.

Objective: To report on the body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and sum of skinfolds in a cohort of Cretan children and identify the factors associated with these indices.

Design: The present study was a follow-up study. Children were measured prospectively at ages 6, 9 and 12.