ABSTRACT
Background and Aim: End-stage renal disease is a major health challenge worldwide. Patients with this disease need hemodialysis frequently. The disease and hemodialysis both negatively affect patients' self-efficacy. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Benson's relaxation technique on self-efficacy among patients receiving hemodialysis
Material and Methods: This clinical trial included 60 patients who had been on hemodialysis in Imam Reza Hospital in Kermanshah. Initially, patients' self-efficacy was evaluated by a General Self-Efficacy Scale. Then, patients were randomly allocated to either the control or the treatment groups. Patients in the treatment group were trained to perform the Benson's relaxation technique on a daily basis for 60 consecutive days at their homes. Patients in the control group received no relaxation intervention. Immediately after the study, the same scale was used for reevaluating patients' self-efficacy. We analyzed the data by independent t-test
Results: 44% of the patients were male and 56% were female with a mean age of 45.31 +/- 14.70 years. There was a significant difference between the mean values of self-efficacy before and after the intervention
Conclusion: Benson's relaxation technique had positive effects on self-efficacy among patients on hemodialysis. Therefore, it can be used for improving patients' self-efficacy in hemodialysis units
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The Berlin questionnaire [BQ] is a common tool to screen for Obstructive Sleep Apnea [OSA] in the general population, but its application in the clinical sleep setting is still challenging. The aim of this study was to determine the specificity and sensitivity of the BQ compared to the apnea-hypopnea index obtained from polysomnography recordings obtained from a sleep clinic in Iran
Methods: We recruited 100 patients who were referred to the Sleep Disorders Research Center of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences for the evaluation of suspected sleep-disorder breathing difficulties. Patients completed a Persian version of BQ and underwent one night of PSG. For each patient, Apnea-Hypopnea Index [AHI] was calculated to assess the diagnosis and severity of OSA. Severity of OSA was categorized as mild when AHI was between 5 and 15, moderate when it was between 15 and 30, and severe when it was more than 30
Results: BQ results categorized 65% of our patients as high risk and 35% as low risk for OSA. The sensitivity and the specificity of BQ for OSA diagnosis with AHI>5 were 77.3% and 23.1%, respectively. Positive predictive value was 68.0% and negative predictive value was 22.0%. Moreover, the area under curve was 0.53 [95% CI: 0.49 - 0.67, P=0.38]
Discussion: Our findings suggested that BQ, despite its advantages in the general population, is not a precise tool to determine the risk of sleep apnea in the clinical setting, particularly in the sleep clinic population