Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale (SCSS) for Greece.

INTRODUCTION: Spirituality constitutes a central element of all health and social care professions. The Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale (SCSS) measures both spiritual and religious coping strategiesAim: The aim of this study was to provide evidence for the reliability and validity of SCSS for Greece. METHODS: A total of 301 nurses were selected by convenience sampling and required to complete the SCSS and the FACIT-Spiritual Well-Being Scale-12 non-illness scale. Forward-translations and back-translations were conducted by two bilingual translators (English-Greek) grown up in English-speaking countries (USA, Australia) while cross-cultural adaptation followed strictly the recent WHO guidelines. The reliability and validity of the scale were evaluated by correlation analysis, t-test, and exploratory factor analysis. RESULTS: Convergent validity was investigated in comparison to FACIT-Sp-12. Meaning, peace, faith, and total spirituality were positively correlated to SCSS as expected (r = 0.22 for Meaning, r = 0.34 for Peace, r = 0.70 for Faith, and r = 0.66 for Total Spirituality), implying sufficient convergent validity. The Cronbach's α coefficients of the two subscales were 0.91 and 0.78, respectively. Additionally, the Pearson correlation r for both spiritual and religious strategies showed strong correlations between the two measurements (p < 0.001), first administration and three weeks after. CONCLUSION: SCSS has good reliability and validity among nurses in Greece.

Elective use of nasal continuous positive airways pressure following extubation of preterm infants.

UNLABELLED: The aim of this study was to determine whether elective use of nasal continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) following extubation of preterm infants was well tolerated and improved short- and long-term outcomes. A randomized comparison of nasal CPAP to headbox oxygen was undertaken and a meta-analysis performed including similar randomized trials involving premature infants less than 28 days of age. A total of 150 infants (median gestational age 30 weeks, range 24-34 weeks) were randomized in two centres. Fifteen nasal CPAP infants and 25 headbox infants required increased respiratory support post-extubation and 15 nasal CPAP infants and nine headbox infants required reintubation (non significant). Eight infants became intolerant of CPAP and were changed to headbox oxygen within 48 h of extubation; 19 headbox infants developed apnoeas and respiratory acidosis requiring rescue nasal CPAP, 3 ultimately were re-intubated. Seven other trials were identified, giving a total number of 569 infants. Overall, nasal CPAP significantly reduced the need for increased respiratory support (relative risk, 0.57, 95% CI 0.43-0.73), but not for re-intubation (relative risk 0.89, 95% CI 0.68-1.17). Nasal CPAP neither influenced significantly the intraventricular haemorrhage rate reported in four studies (relative risk 1.0, 95% CI 0.55, 1.82) nor that of oxygen dependency at 28 days reported in six studies (relative risk 1.0, 95% CI 0.8, 1.25). In two studies nasal CPAP had to be discontinued in 10% of infants either because of intolerance or hyperoxia. CONCLUSION: Elective use of nasal continuous positive airways pressure post-extubation is not universally tolerated, but does reduce the need for additional support.

Plasma biotin levels in neonates.

Plasma biotin levels were measured by a new, very sensitive radioligand assay, in 47 normal full-term infants, receiving breast milk and/or different formulas, during the first 3 weeks of life. Exclusively breast fed infants and infants fed with a formula containing 11 micrograms/l biotin had plasma biotin levels of 538 +/- 78 and 502 +/- 117 ng/l, respectively, during the 1st week of life, and 321 +/- 48 and 503 +/- 153 ng/l, respectively, during the 3rd week of life. Infants fed with a formula very high in biotin (300 micrograms/l) had extremely high plasma biotin levels during the 1st week of life (13,741 +/- 659 ng/l) while during the 2nd week of life they showed a tendency towards decreasing plasma biotin levels. These changes of plasma biotin levels during the first weeks of life indicate that the in vivo kinetics of biotin is changing during this period.