Effectiveness of the nursing health program for mothers with children undergoing bronchoscopy

Foreign Body Aspiration [FBA] is considered a serious and potentially-lethal threat to the health of children aged from 6 months to 4 years. The golden standard for diagnosing and managing this condition is rigid open tube bronehoseopy. Mothers and caregivers should be informed and educated about health guidelines in order to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by the foreign body aspiration. This paper aims at evaluating the effectiveness of a nursing health program for mothers with children undergoing bronehoseopy through assessing their knowledge, practice and attitude to develop and implement the nursing health program to meet mothers' needs. Quasi experimental design was conducted during the period of three months in 2010 to evaluate the effectiveness of a nursing health program on a non-random convenience sample of 80 mothers selected from a governmental hospital located in Amman city, Jordan. The researchers developed an interviewing questionnaire which was used as a pre- and post test to assess knowledge, practice and attitudes of the care provided by mothers during the incident of the foreign body aspiration and after the bronehoseopy procedure. Then, the researchers developed and implemented a nursing health program followed by a post test to track changes for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of the health program. The most common presenting symptoms were a combination of cough [93.75%] and difficulty of breathing [81.25%]. The most frequently-aspirated foreign bodies were organic material such as seeds and nuts followed by non-organic material i.e., coins accounting for [26.2%, 16.5%, and 20%], respectively. There were statistical significant improvements [P<0.01] in mothers" knowledge, practice, and attitude on the post-test scores. There is an urgent need to educate mothers with the safety precautions and chocking prevention measures to minimize the risk of FBA

Health related quality of life among cardiac patients at Queen Alia heart institute

Cardiac disease is a debilitating condition that seriously affects the lives of patients and their families and therefore, impacts the health-related quality of life for their patients. The aims of this study are to evaluate the quality of life among cardiac disease patients, and examine the relationship of certain sociodemographic factors, treatment modalities and the presence of co-morbidic diseases on the quality of a cardiac patient's life. A quantitative non-experimental correlational research design was utilized to guide this study. Data were collected from Queen Alia Heart Institute in Amman city using European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire [EORTC QLQ-c30 version 3]. The convenient sample was 118 cardiac disease patients; this study sample was equally distributed in relation to gender. The study findings revealed that the majority of the study sample had a moderate quality of life with a mean score of 78.78 and 20.63 S.D. There were no significant differences in the quality of life among cardiac patients related to treatment modalities. On the other hand, significant differences were found in the quality of life of cardiac patients related to gender [T=2.42, P=.017] and exercise performance [T=2.14, P=.034]. Moreover, the results revealed that the presence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus had a significant negative relationship to the quality of life among cardiac disease patients. The study concluded that cardiac patients have moderate quality of life as determined by the EORTC QLQ-c30 [version 3] questionnaire and reduced health status related to the quality of life which was associated with low income level, decreased exercise performance, and the presence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus

Association of parental history of type 2 diabetes mellitus with leptin levels in Jordanian male youths

To investigate the association between high level serum leptin in male youths in relation to parental history of type 2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM] and body mass index [BMI]. This cross-sectional study was carried out at the Department of Medical Technology, Applied Science University, Amman, Jordan during the period from January to April 2009. One hundred and sixteen Jordanian male nursing students aged 18-24 years were divided into 4 groups according to parental history of T2DM and BMI. Fasting blood samples were measured for blood glucose, lipid profile, and serum leptin. Serum leptin levels in overweight and obese male youth diabetic patients with parental history of T2DM were significantly higher than in those overweight and obese without parental history [p<0.001]. Of the 116 subjects, 83 [71.6%] had a positive parental history of T2DM. Compared with other groups, significant [p<0.001] elevation was observed in the mean cholesterol and triglyceride levels of obese T2DM. No significant differences were detected in high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, and blood glucose levels among all study groups. High levels of leptin in overweight and obese Jordanian male youths were more likely associated with a positive parental family history of T2DM than BMI factor