Very few studies have addressed long-term development and risks associated with untreated malocclusion. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in occlusion in a lifelong perspective and to compare oral health and attitudes toward teeth among persons with malocclusion with those having normal occlusion.
In 1950 an epidemiologic survey of 2349 8-year-olds was conducted and included 4 intraoral photographs. Three selected samples with different malocclusions (deep bite, crossbite, or irregular teeth) and 1 sample with normal occlusion (a total of 183 subjects) were, 57 years later, invited for examination and an extensive interview about dental experiences and attitudes. Sixty-nine responded (38%) and constitute the subjects studied.
Malocclusion remained the same or worsened except in subjects having deep bite in childhood, which in some improved and in others became worse. Crowding generally increased. Sixteen persons reported moderate or severe temporomandular joint (TMJ) problems, and of these 7 belonged to the group with crossbite in childhood. With few exceptions, the subjects in all samples had good oral hygiene, visited the dentist regularly, and had well-preserved dentitions. Mean number of missing teeth was significantly lower among those with normal occlusion compared with the malocclusion groups. Individuals with normal occlusion responded favorably to all questions related to attitudes and experiences about their teeth, while responses in the malocclusion groups varied.
Persons with the particular malocclusions examined experienced more problems related to teeth later in life compared with those having normal occlusion in childhood.
To describe and analyse 75-year-old persons' health conditions and how they were associated with socio-demographic status and sense of coherence to produce a knowledge base for district nurse's preventive home visits.
Action plans are needed to promote health and to prevent diseases amongst older people. One action plan is preventive home visits to 75-year-old persons by the district nurse. Though the district nurse has a broad knowledge in the field of preventive health work, preventive home visits to 75-year-old persons was a new responsibility. Although aging and older persons health have been investigated in many varied studies, it was difficult to find a comprehensive view, in general and from a district nursing perspective, of 75-year olds' health conditions.
Cross-sectional.
In total 583, 75-year-olds (74%) answered a questionnaire regarding health and well-being, health problems, health behaviour and sense of coherence.
Most 75-year-old persons reported their health as good or very good, but they also reported health problems such as: pain, sleeping problems, memory failure, fatigue, poor understanding of their own health and illnesses, problems with elimination patterns and underweight and overweight. 75-year-old persons living alone, those with elementary school education and women reported worse health and well-being than other groups.
This study contributes to the knowledge about health issues that concern persons of 75 years of age. It gives a suggestion as to what the district nurses should be aware of when performing preventive home visits.
This study raises the importance of preventive health work regarding 75-year-old persons. It suggests how to educate district nurses in how to perform preventive home visits to older persons.
Abdominal discomfort in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is associated with physical and mental function, self-reported disease activity, and use of anti-inflammatory medication.
BACKGROUND: As staff members prioritize medical resources for patients, it is imperative to find out whether their assessments of patients' health status agree with patients' assessments. The degree to which physicians and nurses can identify the distress, anxiety, and depression experienced by adolescents recently diagnosed with cancer was examined here. PROCEDURE: Adolescents undergoing chemotherapy (13-19 years, n = 53), physicians (n = 48), and nurses (n = 53) completed a structured telephone interview, 4-8 weeks after diagnosis or relapse, investigating disease and treatment-related distress, anxiety, and depression. RESULTS: The accuracy of staff ratings of physical distress could be considered acceptable. However, problems of a psychosocial nature, which were frequently overestimated, were difficult for staff to identify. Staff underestimated the distress caused by mucositis and worry about missing school more than they overestimated distress. These aspects were some of the most prevalent and overall worst according to the adolescents. Both physicians and nurses overestimated levels of anxiety and depression. Nurses tended to show higher sensitivity than physicians for distress related to psychosocial aspects of distress, while physicians tended to show higher accuracy than nurses for physical distress. CONCLUSIONS: Staff was reasonably accurate at identifying physical distress in adolescents recently diagnosed with cancer whereas psychosocial problems were generally poorly identified. Thus, the use of staff ratings as a "test" to guide specific support seems problematic. Considering that the accuracy of staff ratings outside a research study is probably lower, identification of and action taken on adolescent problems in relation to cancer diagnosis and treatment need to rely on direct communication.
The study concerns 77 adults with muscular dystrophy (mean age 49 years) in two counties in Sweden. The purpose was to investigate activities of daily living, quality of life and the relationship between these. Data collection was performed with "the Activity of Daily Living Staircase", "the Self-report Activity of Daily Living" and the Quality of Life Profile. The results indicated that over half of the subjects were dependent on others, chiefly in activities requiring mobility. Muscular dystrophy had mostly negative consequences, and nearly half stated that life would have offered more without it. Few significant diagnosis-related (no gender-related) differences emerged regarding activities of daily living and quality of life. Lower quality of life can only partly be explained by greater disability (r=0.30-0.54). Therefore quality of life as a measurement of rehabilitation outcomes might be based both on physical status, disability and psychosocial factors in terms of positive and negative consequences.
OBJECTIVE: To find out whether acupressure wristband can alleviate nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy. DESIGN: Double-blind, placebo-controlled study. SUBJECTS: 97 women with mean gestational length completed 8-12 weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Symptoms were recorded according to intensity, duration and nature of complaints. RESULTS: 71% of women in the intervention group reported both less intensive morning sickness and reduced duration of symptoms. The same tendency was seen in the placebo group, with 59% reporting less intensity and 63% shorter duration of symptoms. However, a significance level of 5% was reached only in the case of duration of symptoms, which was reduced by 2.74 hours in the intervention group compared to 0.85 hours in the placebo group (p = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Acupressure wristband might be an alternative therapy for morning sickness in early pregnancy, especially before pharmaceutical treatment is considered.
Adapting and remodelling the US Institute for Safe Medication Practices' Medication Safety Self-Assessment tool for hospitals to be used to support national medication safety initiatives in Finland.
The US Institute for Safe Medication Practices' (ISMP) Medication Safety Self-Assessment (MSSA) tool for hospitals is a comprehensive tool for assessing safe medication practices in hospitals.
To adapt and remodel the ISMP MSSA tool for hospitals so that it can be used in individual wards in order to support long-term medication safety initiatives in Finland.
The MSSA tool was first adapted for Finnish hospital settings by a four-round (applicability, desirability and feasibility were evaluated) Delphi consensus method (14 panellists), and then remodelled by organizing the items into a new order which is consistent with the order of the ward-based pharmacotherapy plan recommended by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The adapted and remodelled tool was pilot tested in eight central hospital wards.
The original MSSA tool (231 items under ten key elements) was modified preliminarily before the Delphi rounds and 117 items were discarded, leaving 114 items for Delphi evaluation. The panel suggested 36 new items of which 23 were accepted. A total of 114 items (including 91 original and 23 new items) were accepted and remodelled under six new components that were pilot tested. The pilot test found the tool time-consuming but useful.
It was possible to adapt the ISMP's MSSA tool for another hospital setting. The modified tool can be used for a hospital pharmacy coordinated audit which supports long-term medication safety initiatives, particularly the establishment of ward-based pharmacotherapy plans as guided by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
To adapt a US Institute for Safe Medication Practices' Medication Safety Self Assessment (MSSA) tool to, and test its usefulness in, Finnish community pharmacies.
A three-round Delphi survey was used to adapt self-assessment characteristics of the US MSSA tool to Finnish requirements, and to obtain a consensus on the feasibility and significance of these characteristics in assessing the safety of medication practices in community pharmacies. The Delphi modified self-assessment tool was piloted in 18 community pharmacies in order to refine the tool, using a questionnaire containing structured and open-ended questions.
A total of 211 self-assessment characteristics were accepted to the self-assessment tool for pilot use by expert panellists in the Delphi rounds. Most pilot users considered the tool as useful in: identifying medication safety targets for development; medication safety assessment; and identifying the strengths of medication safety. The substance of the self-assessment tool was considered as comprehensive and essential for medication safety. Most criticism was regarding: the multiplicity of self-assessment characteristics; interpretation of some characteristics; and that all the characteristics were not yet available. After the modification, according to the pilot users' comments, the final Finnish tool consisted of 230 medication safety characteristics.
The study indicated the feasibility of adapting a US medication safety self-assessment tool for use in community pharmacy practice in Finland. More efforts should be made to familiarise Finnish community pharmacists with the self-assessment tool and its benefits, and get them to use the tool as part of their long-term quality improvement.
Information about quality of life (QOL) is valuable in evaluating pharmaceutical agents but it is not adequately assessed in many dementia drug trials. In prevention trials, following participants to conversion to AD requires QOL scales appropriate for both normal and cognitively impaired individuals. Our objective was to evaluate the utility of several scales for subject or informant QOL assessment: Quality of Life-AD; Quality of Life Activity Inventory; SF-36; SF-12 (a shortened version of the SF-36); and Satisfaction with Life Scale. Measurements were collected from 644 subject-study partner pairs, half of whom completed the instruments at the clinic and half at home. Three-month test-retest data were collected. Scales administered at home or in clinic did not differ significantly. Subject self-ratings showed a wide range for all scales. Test-retest intraclass coefficients ranged from 0.67 to 0.77. Moderately high interscale associations suggest that the scales are measuring common aspects of QOL but are not equivalent. Furthermore, they differed with respect to associations with demographic variables and QOL determinants. We conclude that the QOL scores at baseline show sufficient range and reliability to suggest they will have utility in tracking QOL through conversion to dementia.
The Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) is a multi-dimensional, preference-based measure of health status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). HUI3 scores correlate strongly with self-ratings of health status and functional disability and vary according to age, gender and occupation. In comparative studies relating to HRQoL, it is necessary to carry out adjusted comparison of the health status of the different groups. taking into account unbalanced distribution of confounding variables. This paper describes a stratification method to adjust the distributions of HUI3 scores. This method provides a graphical representation of adjusted distribution of HUI3, which can also be used to adjust other HRQoL scores. Cross-sectional data from the 1998/1999 National Population Health Survey (NPHS) in Canada were used to verify the proposed method. Male agriculture workers and male construction workers in Canada had quite different age distributions but similar HUI3 distributions. After adjusting the age distribution of the construction group to match the distribution of agriculture group, the mean HUI3 score of the former significantly decreased.
