Introduction: Symptom perception in heart failure (HF) has been identified as crucial for effective self-care, and is related to patient and health system outcomes. There is uncertainty regarding the feasibility and acceptability of symptom perception support and doubts regarding how to include informal caregivers. This study aims to test the feasibility, acceptability and outcome responsiveness of an intervention supporting symptom perception in persons with HF and their informal caregiver.
Methods And Analysis: A feasibility study with a quasi-experimental pretest and post-test single group design is conducted. The convenience sample consists of 30 persons with HF, their informal caregivers and six nurses. SYMPERHEART is an evidence-informed intervention that targets symptom perception by educational and support components. Feasibility is measured by time-to-recruit; time-to-deliver; eligibility rate; intervention delivery fidelity rate. Acceptability is measured by rate of consent, retention rate, treatment acceptability and the engagement in the intervention components. Outcome responsiveness includes: HF self-care (via the Self-care of Heart Failure Index V.7.2); perception of HF symptom burden (via the Heart Failure Somatic Perception Scale V.3); health status (via the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire-12); caregivers' contribution to HF self-care (via the Caregiver Contribution to Self-Care of Heart Failure Index 2); caregivers' burden (via the Zarit Burden Interview). Clinical outcomes include HF events, hospitalisation reason and length of hospital stay. Descriptive statistics will be used to report feasibility, acceptability, patient-reported outcomes (PRO) and clinical outcomes. PRO and caregiver-reported outcome responsiveness will be reported with mean absolute change and effect sizes.
Ethics And Dissemination: The study is conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki. The Human Research Ethics Committee of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, has approved the study. Written informed consent from persons with HF and informal caregivers are obtained. Results will be published via peer reviewed and professional journals, and further disseminated via congresses.
Trial Registration Number: ISRCTN18151041.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052208 | DOI Listing |
J Med Internet Res
January 2025
Institute of Medical Teaching and Medical Education Research, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Background: Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) are a widely recognized and accepted method to assess clinical competencies but are often resource-intensive.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR)-based station (VRS) compared with a traditional physical station (PHS) in an already established curricular OSCE.
Methods: Fifth-year medical students participated in an OSCE consisting of 10 stations.
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Neurology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Purpose: A relative afferent pupillary defect (RAPD) is a characteristic clinical sign of optic neuritis (ON). Here, we systematically evaluated ultrasound pupillometry (UP) for the detection of an RAPD in patients with ON, including a comparison with infrared video pupillometry (IVP), the gold standard for objective pupillometry.
Materials And Methods: We enrolled 40 patients with acute (n = 9) or past (n = 31) ON (ON+), 31 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) without prior ON, and 50 healthy controls (HC) in a cross-sectional observational study.
PLoS One
January 2025
Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and the Study of Religion, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, München, Germany.
Many visualisations used in the climate communication field aim to present the scientific models of climate change to the public. However, relatively little research has been conducted on how such data are visually processed, particularly from a behavioural science perspective. This study examines trends in visual attention to climate change predictions in world maps using mobile eye-tracking while participants engage with the visualisations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJAMA Netw Open
January 2025
Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Importance: Determining spectacle-corrected visual acuity (VA) is essential when managing many ophthalmic diseases. If artificial intelligence (AI) evaluations of macular images estimated this VA from a fundus image, AI might provide spectacle-corrected VA without technician costs, reduce visit time, or facilitate home monitoring of VA from fundus images obtained outside of the clinic.
Objective: To estimate spectacle-corrected VA measured on a standard eye chart among patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) in clinical practice settings using previously validated AI algorithms evaluating best-corrected VA from fundus photographs in eyes with DME.
Sleep
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan.
Study Objectives: Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is a parasomnia characterized by the perception of loud noises, or explosions inside the head during the sleep-to-wake transition. The prevalence of EHS remains unclear. This survey aimed to elucidate the prevalence of and factors associated with EHS in this cohort.
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