ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Birth of the preterm babies creates a huge amount of stress in mothers and makes it hard for them to contribute to the care of their off springs. The Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP)is designed to empower the parents in comprehensively caring for their preterm baby after discharge from the hospital. The present research was intended to study the effects of NIDCAP follow up on the stress and anxiety of the mothers. METHODS: In this clinical trial, 20 mothers of preterm babies with the gestational age of 26 to 32 weeks were studied at Omolbanin Hospital, Mashhad, Iran. The NIDCAP was performed during the hospital stay and two times after discharge. The control group received routine care without the NIDCAP. Anxiety and stress of the mothers were assessed through the Spielberger and Cohen questionnaires. Data were analyzed by Independent t-test, Chi-square and Fisher's Exact test in SPSS 20 software. RESULTS: At the baseline, there were no statistically significant differences between the experimental and the control group. After the intervention, the average score of anxiety was significantly lower among mothers in the experimental group compared to the control group(P=0.009). NIDCAP and its follow up also reduced the stress of the mothers in the experiment group (P=0.033). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of the NIDCAP and its home follow up was effective in reducing the stress and the anxiety of the mothers of preterm babies. Execution of the NIDCAP is recommended to all hospital of the country for mothers of preterm babies.
Subject(s)
Aftercare/organization & administration , Anxiety/prevention & control , Child Health Services/organization & administration , Home Care Services , Infant, Premature , Mothers/psychology , Stress, Psychological/prevention & control , Adult , Anxiety/epidemiology , Anxiety/etiology , Empowerment , Female , Gestational Age , Home Care Services/organization & administration , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Iran/epidemiology , Male , Maternal Behavior , Program Evaluation , Stress, Psychological/epidemiology , Stress, Psychological/etiology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Young AdultABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of self-esteem and health control belief on promoting students' mental health. In so doing, 144 students from two medical universities in the north-east of Iran were recruited into study. They were pair-matched and randomly assigned to case and control groups. The data were collected through Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire-28, Multidimensional Health Locus of Control and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scales. The results showed that there were significant differences between the groups before and after the intervention. The external components of health locus of control (chance and powerful others) showed a significant decrease but the internal health locus of control and self-esteem revealed a significant increase after the intervention (P < 0.0001). Moreover, the students' mental health had a significant increase after 3 months of intervention (P < 0.0001). The findings emphasize that the programme can improve the health locus of control beliefs, self-esteem and mental health promotion of the students. This will require additional monitoring and uninterrupted attempts to be effective.
