Ambulatory and Hospital-based Quality Improvement Methods in Israel.

This review article compares ambulatory and hospital-based quality improvement methods in Israel. Data were collected from: reports of the National Program for Quality Indicators in community, the National Program for Quality Indicators in Hospitals, and from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Reviews of Health Care Quality.

Novel television-based cognitive training improves working memory and executive function.

The main study objective was to investigate the effect of interactive television-based cognitive training on cognitive performance of 119 healthy older adults, aged 60-87 years. Participants were randomly allocated to a cognitive training group or to an active control group in a single-blind controlled two-group design. Before and after training interactive television cognitive performance was assessed on well validated tests of fluid, higher-order ability, and system usability was evaluated.

Between self-clarity and recovery in schizophrenia: reducing the self-stigma and finding meaning.

Although there are extensive theoretical reviews regarding the self-experience among persons with schizophrenia, there is limited research that addresses the implications of self-clarity on the recovery of persons with schizophrenia while exploring the role of possible mediators within this process. Accordingly, the current study explored the relationship between self-clarity and recovery while examining the possible mediating role of self-stigma and sense of meaning in life. 80 persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were administered four scales: self-concept clarity, self-stigma, meaning in life, and recovery.

The interrelationships between moral attitudes, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and mixed lateral preference in Israeli reserve combat troops.

Background: Combat soldiers often encounter moral dilemmas during operational deployment, especially when an armed engagement is situated within a civilian setting. The study of moral dilemmas and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has mostly focused on the impact of war atrocities and moral injury. However, the relationship between moral attitudes and different combat-related pathologies has not been thoroughly addressed by quantitative studies.

Internalized stigma and quality of life among persons with severe mental illness: the mediating roles of self-esteem and hope.

Research has revealed the negative consequences of internalized stigma among people with serious mental illness (SMI), including reductions in self-esteem and hope. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relation between internalized stigma and subjective quality of life (QoL) by examining the mediating role of self-esteem and hope. Measures of internalized stigma, self-esteem, QoL, and hope were administrated to 179 people who had a SMI.

Does combined cognitive training and physical activity training enhance cognitive abilities more than either alone? A four-condition randomized controlled trial among healthy older adults.

Cognitive training and aerobic training are known to improve cognitive functions. To examine the separate and combined effects of such training on cognitive performance, four groups of healthy older adults embarked on a 4 months cognitive and/or mild aerobic training. A first group [n = 33, mean age = 80 (66-90)] engaged in cognitive training, a second [n = 29, mean age = 81 (65-89)] in mild aerobic training, a third [n = 29, mean age = 79 (70-93)] in the combination of both, and a fourth [n = 31, mean age = 79 (71-92)] control group engaged in book-reading activity.

Cultural safety and nursing education in divided societies.

Aim: This research explores the experiences of cultural safety among nursing students from majority and minority groups in a divided society with implications for academic satisfaction and success.

Background: The study takes place in an academic nursing program in Israel, where Arab and Jewish students study together.

Methods: A researcher-developed questionnaire was used with 17 statements concerning social relations between students, faculty support, and the effects of social relations on academic satisfaction and outcomes.

Psycho-social reactions of Palestinian families in Israel and the West Bank following war-related losses.

Objective: to identify psycho-social reactions of Palestinian families to personal losses during the Second Intifada in the West Bank and the Second Lebanese war in Israel.

Method: Narratives were collected from support group participants in the west Bank and in individual and family therapy in Israel. the narratives were qualitatively analyzed to identify themes relating to psycho-social reactions to war losses.

The relationships among ADHD, self-esteem, and test anxiety in young adults.

Objective: The comorbidity of adult ADHD with test anxiety (TA) has not been previously reported. This comorbidity can potentially affect clinical and academic interventions among individuals with ADHD. The present study investigated the relationships among ADHD, self-esteem, and three subscales of TA among young adults: Cognitive Obstruction, Social Derogation, and Tenseness.

The effects of music relaxation and muscle relaxation techniques on sleep quality and emotional measures among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder with lifetime prevalence of 7.8%, is characterized by symptoms that develop following exposure to traumatic life events and that cause an immediate experience of intense fear, helplessness or horror. PTSD is marked by recurrent nightmares typified by the recall of intrusive experiences and by extended disturbance throughout sleep.

Adult attachment and emotional processing biases: an event-related potentials (ERPs) study.

Attachment-related electrophysiological differences in emotional processing biases were examined using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). We identified ERP correlates of emotional processing by comparing ERPs elicited in trials with angry and neutral faces. These emotional expression effects were then compared across groups with secure, anxious and avoidant attachment orientations.

How experience shapes health beliefs: the case of influenza vaccination.

This study examines the impact of past experience with influenza and the influenza vaccine on four categories of the Health Belief Model: beliefs about susceptibility to contracting influenza, severity of illness, perceived benefits of the vaccine in preventing influenza, and perceived barriers to getting vaccinated. The study population comprised employees at different workplaces in Israel. The results indicate that individuals who took flu shots in the past perceived higher levels of benefits from the vaccine and lower barriers to getting the vaccine than those who had not been vaccinated.

Factors Affecting Intention among Students to Be Vaccinated against A/H1N1 Influenza: A Health Belief Model Approach.

The outbreak of A/H1N1 influenza (henceforth, swine flu) in 2009 was characterized mainly by morbidity rates among young people. This study examined the factors affecting the intention to be vaccinated against the swine flu among students in Israel. Questionnaires were distributed in December 2009 among 387 students at higher-education institutions.

[Complementary and alternative medical information on Israeli medical institutions' web sites in 2009: the desirable vs. the available].

Background: Although complementary and alternative medicine [CAM] is a term commonly used to denote practices that lie beyond the dominant medical orthodoxy, these practices are penetrating Israeli medical institutions. The purpose of the study was to evaluate CAM information on medical institutions' web sites in relation to the type of information considered to be significant by integrative physicians. The methods employed included evaluating CAM information on the websites of: all four health insurance agencies, the eleven largest hospitals in Israel, the Ministry of Health, and the Israeli Medical Association.

Factors affecting the decision to be treated with continuous positive airway pressure for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a sleep-related breathing disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, accidents and high medical expenses. The first line of treatment for OSAS is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).

Objectives: To examine attitudes and beliefs as well as physiological and sociodemographic factors affecting OSA patients' decision whether or not to purchase a CPAP device.

Workplace vaccination and other factors impacting influenza vaccination decision among employees in Israel.

The study examined the factors affecting the decision to be vaccinated against influenza among employees in Israel. The research, conducted in 2007/2008, included 616 employees aged 18-65 at various workplaces in Israel, among them companies that offered their employees influenza vaccination. The research questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics, and the Health Belief Model principles.

Prediction of perineal trauma during childbirth by assessment of striae gravidarum score.

Objective: To explore the association between striae gravidarum (SG) and the risk for perineal trauma (PT) in childbirth.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: Maternity ward in 5 university medical centers.

Home-based personalized cognitive training in MS patients: a study of adherence and cognitive performance.

Objectives: To explore unprompted adherence to a personalized, home-based, computerized cognitive training program in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and to examine the impact of training on cognitive performance.

Methods: Participants were assigned to a training (n=59) or a control group (n=48). Those in the training group were instructed to train three times a week for 12 weeks.

The establishment of an academic nursing faculty: action research in Israel.

Aim: The aim of this paper is twofold: to conceptualize tensions related to the academization of nursing, and to analyse a case study, describing how such tensions were dealt with in the process of establishing a new nursing department.

Background: This paper represents the first stage of a case study of the transformation of a hospital-based nursing school into an academic programme, carried out as a joint venture between a local hospital school and a college in northern Israel.

Methods: This paper is based on action research.

Factors affecting nurses' decision to get the flu vaccine.

The objective of this study was to identify factors that influence the decision whether or not to get the influenza (flu) vaccine among nurses in Israel by using the health belief model (HBM). A questionnaire distributed among 299 nurses in Israel in winter 2005/2006 included (1) socio-demographic information; (2) variables based on the HBM, including susceptibility, seriousness, benefits, barriers and cues to action; and (3) knowledge about influenza and the vaccine, and health motivation. A probit model was used to analyze the data.

Visual cognitive function: changes associated with chronic insomnia in older adults.

Older adults typically exhibit poor sleep efficiency as well as a decline in visual perception. In this study, the authors investigated whether late-life insomnia is associated with age-related changes in visual processing of global and local aspects of hierarchical figures. The study findings suggest that late-life insomnia may be one of the most important factors contributing to the decline of visual processing in older adults.