[Assessment of the quality of life of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes: child and Parental views]

Improvement of the quality of life [Qol] in addition to controlling symptoms of the disease in children and adolescents with chronic illness such as diabetes mellitus is important. Problems such as diabetes are not only recognized by the physician and nurses but also by the patients. The impact of the diabetes and its complications on Qol is still unknown. The number of studies on Qol of diabetic patients is limited. The aim of this study was to carry out a comparative assessment of the views of children and adolescents with type I diabetes on the Qol. In this historical cohort study the views of the children and adolescents with type I diabetes, and the views of their parents were assessed. A questionnaire on pediatric quality of life including children's and parents' views was used to collect data in four sections of physical [8 items], emotional [5items], social [5 items], and school performance [5items]. Data were analyzed by inferential statistics, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney test and spearman correlation. The results of this study showed no significant difference between the mean scores of Qol of diabetic children and control group, but there was a significant difference between two groups in physical aspect of Qol in diabetic children and control subjects. Parents' views showed that parents of children with diabetes were more worried than those of controls. There was a significant difference between scores of total quality of life in its physical, emotional and social aspects between parents of the diabetic children and parents of the control group [p=0.001]. This study showed that views of the children and adolescents with type I diabetes were different from those of control group in regard to physical aspect. Also the views of parents of children and adolescents with type I diabetes were different from those of control group concerning quality of life in particular, emotional and physical aspects. Therefore we recommend in addition to providing medical care, programs for improvement of the level of mental health of these patients and their families be designed

[Pediatric pain management by nurses in educational hospitals of Shahrekord in 2006]

Pain is a health problem and major part of the life in childhood, pain associated with different illnesses is one of the most common symptoms that children experience in the hospitals. Relieving pain is always an essential part of nurses caring role, but yet they feel weakness in pain management. The purpose of this study was to determine pediatric pain management by nurses, in the education hospitals of Shahrekord, Iran. This research was a descriptive and analytic study which conducted on 100 nurses. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire with for subscales: demographic data, knowledge [20 items], attitude [20 items], and practice. Data were analyzed by the independent T-test, one way ANOVA test, and Pearson correlation. The finding showed that the mean knowledge, attitude and practice of pediatric pain management by nurses were 13.09 +/- 1.9, 76.1 +/- 7.2, 8.42 +/- 2.9 and majority of nurses demonstrated knowledge [73.1%], attitude [69.1%] and practice [71.3%] moderated. There was not a significant difference between practice with knowledge and attitude of nurses about management of pain in children. This study demonstrated that the knowledge, attitude and function of the nurses about the pediatric pain management were intermediate. It showed that they need to become more aware of pharmacologic pain management with opioids, risks of addiction, non pharmacologic pain management, and respiratory depression and assessment tools of pain