Factores sociodemográficos, audiológicos y audioprotésicos relacionados con la calidad de vida en pacientes con prótesis auditivas en Madrid (España) / Sociodemographic, audiological and audioprosthetic factors related to quality of life in patients with hearing aids, in Madrid, Spain

Antecedentes y objetivo: El propósito de una adaptación protésica no es únicamente mejorar el entendimiento del lenguaje, sino mejorar la calidad de vida. El objetivo de esta investigación es medir la calidad de vida de los pacientes con prótesis auditivas e indagar qué variables sociodemográficas, audiológicas y audioprotésicas la afectan. Material y métodos: Estudio descriptivo transversal multicéntrico en la Comunidad de Madrid (España). Muestra formada por 54 pacientes. Se usó la escala Effectiveness of auditory rehabilitation (EAR). Resultados: Edad media de 66.4 años; el 55.6% eran hombres. La puntuación media de 10 ítems de la escala EAR audiológica fue 64.54 (DE 16.43). La puntuación media de 10 ítems de la EAR audioprotésica fue 71.84 (DE 13.49). La edad, sexo, actividad laboral, nivel de estudios, grado de pérdida auditiva, resultados de logoaudiometría, campo libre, número y formato de prótesis auditivas, prescriptor de las prótesis y año de fabricación de las prótesis se asocian con diferentes ítems de la escala EAR (p<.05). Conclusiones: La calidad de vida audiológica oscila entre regular y buena, y la audioprotésica se acerca a buena. Tener menor edad, ser de sexo femenino y tener actividad laboral se asocian con mejor calidad de vida. Las personas con buenos resultados logoaudiométricos se asocian con mejor calidad de vida. Las adaptaciones monoaurales, los audífonos retroauriculares, los audífonos más modernos y que el paciente no se autoprescriba prótesis auditivas se asocian con mejor calidad de vida. Las prótesis auditivas mejoran la calidad de vida de los pacientes siempre que se tengan en cuenta las características sociodemográficas, audiológicas y audioprotésicas específicas de cada paciente para realizar un ajuste audioprotésico personalizado y óptimo.(AU)

Background and objective: The purpose of a prosthetic adaptation is not only to improve language understanding and sound recognition, but to improve the patient's quality of life. The purpose of this investigation is to measure quality of life of patients with hearing aids, and investigate which sociodemographic, audiological and audioprosthetic variables affect it. Material and methods: Multicenter cross-sectional descriptive study in the Community of Madrid (España). Sample 54 patients and Effectiveness of Auditory Rehabilitation (EAR) scale was used. Results: Mean age 66.4 years; 55.6% men. The mean score of 10 audiological EAR items was 64.54 (SD 16.43). The mean score of 10 ear audioprosthetic items was 71.84 (SD 13.49). Age, sex, work activity, level of education, degree of hearing loss, logoaudiometry results, free field, number and format of hearing aids, prescriber of the prostheses and year of manufacture of the prostheses, are associated with different items of the EAR scale (P<.05). Conclusions: The audiological quality of life ranges from regular to good, and audioprosthetics is close to good.Younger age, female sex and work activity are associated with better quality of life. People with good logoaudiometric results are associated with better quality of life. Monaural adaptations, retroauricular hearing aids, more modern hearing aids and that the patient does not self-describe hearing aids, are associated with better quality of life. Hearing aids improve the quality of life of patients, provided that sociodemographic, audiological and audioprosthetic characteristics, specific to each patient are taken into account to make a personalized and optimal audioprosthetic adjustment.(AU)

Personality and gender prototypes for predicting health: a multilevel and cluster analysis.

Prior studies have identified that mentally healthy people tend to share common characteristics and common ways of coping with stressful life events; they show similar patterns of behavior and more flexible and adaptive social roles. The objectives of the study are to assess the influence of personality factors on gender roles and mental health, to identify personality patterns along with gender roles, and to assess the influence of the patterns identified on mental health. Data collection from a sample of 795 university students was carried out during 2019. Multilevel analyses tested the associations between gender (BSRI) and personality (TIPI) and between personality and health -mental health (GHQ12) and wellbeing (MHC-SF). Cluster analysis explored tendencies of gender and personality, and each cluster showed different health patterns. Individuals with high scores in extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to experience, and very high agreeableness score, as well as high femininity and masculinity scores, presented a decreased psychological morbidity (ß= -3.62, 0.57 (SE), p<0.001) and an increased well-being (ß=7.68, 1.15 (SE), p<0.001). The most relevant indicators of mental health were identified in androgynous individuals, those individuals with high scores in masculinity and femininity, as well as high scores in extraversion, openness to experience, emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

Beyond femininity or masculinity: gender typologies and healthy eating in early adulthood.

PURPOSE: In the field of health sciences gender is often confused with biological sex (male/female) or reduced to a dichotomous classification (masculinity/femininity). The concepts of sex and gender interact with each other, but they are not equivalent. According to Sandra Bem four gender typologies can be established (androgynous, masculine, feminine and undifferentiated). A relationship has been shown to exist between gender and health. Yet, there is little evidence as to the relationship between gender typologies and adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The aim of this research is to evaluate the association between Bem's gender typologies and adherence to the Mediterranean diet. METHODS: Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) and Bem's gender typologies were the main variables. Sex, age, socioeconomic status (SES), body mass index (BMI) and obesity were analyzed as covariates. RESULTS: Multilevel multivariate analysis showed that androgynous typology was associated with increased adherence to Mediterranean diet (ß = 0.46 (SE 0.21), p = 0.033), adjusting by covariates, in a university population in Spain. Moreover, this was not the case with masculinity or femininity typologies. CONCLUSION: Thus, the results of this study suggest (1) that androgynous typology is not only associated with better mental health but also with healthy/healthier lifestyles, and (2) the complexity of the relationship between sex-gender and health would advise researchers avoid dichotomies such as male/female or masculinity/femininity.

Effect of Action Units, Viewpoint and Immersion on Emotion Recognition Using Dynamic Virtual Faces.

Facial affect recognition is a critical skill in human interactions that is often impaired in psychiatric disorders. To address this challenge, tests have been developed to measure and train this skill. Recently, virtual human (VH) and virtual reality (VR) technologies have emerged as novel tools for this purpose. This study investigates the unique contributions of different factors in the communication and perception of emotions conveyed by VHs. Specifically, it examines the effects of the use of action units (AUs) in virtual faces, the positioning of the VH (frontal or mid-profile), and the level of immersion in the VR environment (desktop screen versus immersive VR). Thirty-six healthy subjects participated in each condition. Dynamic virtual faces (DVFs), VHs with facial animations, were used to represent the six basic emotions and the neutral expression. The results highlight the important role of the accurate implementation of AUs in virtual faces for emotion recognition. Furthermore, it is observed that frontal views outperform mid-profile views in both test conditions, while immersive VR shows a slight improvement in emotion recognition. This study provides novel insights into the influence of these factors on emotion perception and advances the understanding and application of these technologies for effective facial emotion recognition training.

Reflective based learning for nursing ethical competency during clinical practices.

BACKGROUND: A combination of theoretical and practical approaches is required to learn and acquire ethical competencies in caring. Occasionally, reflection on practical action differs from theoretical learning. In the context of reflective learning, issues such as ethical values can be discussed since they evoke conflict among nursing students. AIM: To identify ethical conflicts encountered by nursing students during clinical placements and to determine their cooperation strategies. RESEARCH DESIGN: Qualitative study with a content analysis according to Elo and Kinglas framework. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: Students enrolled in a nursing program at a Spanish university aged between 22 and 35, mainly women. METHODOLOGY: The study includes 134 ethical reflections from nursing students in the last year of the nursing program, written during their clinical practices in a variety of learning environments. The research team analyzed the reflections using an inductive content analysis method. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Ethical permission was obtained by the management center according to Law 3/2028, and all the participants accepted to participate through the informed consent form. FINDINGS: Three main categories emerged from the analysis of the ethical reflections: (1) evaluation of professional performance and patient care; (2) the student as the protagonist of the dilemma; (3) student coping. Student dilemmas and concerns are related to ignorance, student-patient communication, mistakes made and self-confidence. Some situations conflict with the autonomy of patients and their rights, and can contribute to stressful situations for patients. Stress factors include hospital routines, which the patient cannot modify, and asymmetric relationships with staff, which encourage passivity. CONCLUSION: All ethical problems detected by the students begin with the professional-patient relationship, including issues related to bad news, errors or malpractice. Reflection on the ethical values of nursing, both in the classroom and in clinical practices, allows students to develop a greater ethical awareness of care, enhancing their decision-making skills in ethical dilemmas.

Duodenal tuberculosis.

Gastrointestinal tuberculosis (TB) is a rare disease and only involves the duodenum in 2-2,5% of all cases. A 60-year-old female with no reported medical history, presented with constitutional syndrome with a 10 kg weight loss in three months, epigastric pain, bloating and vomiting. She denied fever or respiratory symptoms. Laboratory examination revealed elevated C-reactive protein levels and low prealbumin. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed duodenal wall thickening, mainly in its third part, with infiltration of the root of the mesentery and numerous subcentimeter adenopathies at that level.

Behavioral intention of mental health practitioners toward the adoption of virtual humans in affect recognition training.

This paper explores the key factors influencing mental health professionals' behavioral intention to adopt virtual humans as a means of affect recognition training. Therapies targeting social cognition deficits are in high demand given that these deficits are related to a loss of functioning and quality of life in several neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, affective disorders, and acquired brain injury. Therefore, developing new therapies would greatly improve the quality of life of this large cohort of patients. A questionnaire based on the second revision of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) questionnaire was used for this study. One hundred and twenty-four mental health professionals responded to the questionnaire after viewing a video presentation of the system. The results confirmed that mental health professionals showed a positive intention to use virtual reality tools to train affect recognition, as they allow manipulation of social interaction with patients. Further studies should be conducted with therapists from other countries to reach more conclusions.

Adaptation and validation of the Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale (ISVS) in Spanish university health sciences students.

Many interprofessional education programs are being designed to help students improve their collaborative practice. Traditionally, the evaluation of these programs is focused on attitudes, knowledge and skills, but according to some authors, the evaluation of these activities should be expanded to include the evaluation of the development of an interprofessional identity. The Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale (ISVS) is a self-report tool used to measure interprofessional socialization, but it has not been validated with Spanish students. In this study, the tool was translated into Spanish and administered to a sample of 645 undergraduate students. The data were analyzed to estimate structural validity, internal consistency and convergent validity. Regarding the structural validity, our data supported the unidimensional model found in the English version of the ISVS-21 (normed chi-square = 2.3, RMSEA = 0.045, SRMR = 0.087, CFI = 0.963 and TLI = 0.969). The internal consistency reliability of the scale was adequate, Cronbach α = 0.913 [95% CI 0.903, 0.923]. The Spanish version of the ISVS-21 shows adequate psychometric properties in terms of the construct validity (structural validity and convergent validity) and internal consistency of its scores. This study provides the Spanish-speaking population with an adaptation of the only instrument that has been specifically developed to assess interprofessional socialization.

Using a station within an objective structured clinical examination to assess interprofessional competence performance among undergraduate nursing students.

AIM/OBJECTIVE: To describe and analyse the use of a station within an OSCE to assess interprofessional competence performance in undergraduate nursing students. The specific objectives were: - To measure the students' level of competence performance in relation to the interprofessional competences Roles and Responsibilities, Communication and Teamwork. - To determine inter-observer concordance in the assessment of the interprofessional competences. BACKGROUND: Teamwork competencies are key to improving patient safety and avoiding medical errors. Today, healthcare professionals work in interdisciplinary teams. To foster a culture of safety, some of the measures that can be taken at the individual, team and organisational levels include fostering clear communication among team members, knowledge of respective roles and functions, and deepening team functioning through respect and trust in judgement and capabilities. The World Health Organization recommends starting to develop these competencies in university studies, through interprofessional education. There are numerous programmes in universities all over the world, but more research is needed on the assessment of interprofessional education activities, preferably through objective methods. Competency performance can be assessed by an external evaluator, in a simulated environment, with the Objective Structured Clinical Examination, which is widely used in nursing. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: 63 second-year nursing undergraduate students completed an interprofessional competencies station within an 8-station OSCE. Communication, Roles and Responsibility and Teamwork competences were assessed. The Interprofessional Collaborator Assessment Rubric (ICAR) was used as a model to assess the performance of students. Inter-observer concordance analysis was performed using the kappa coefficient and the concordance rate. RESULTS: 92.1% of students reached a good level in communication competence, 88.9% in roles and responsibility competence, and 55.6% in teamwork competence. The global concordance rate was 83.8%, and the kappa coefficient was 0.67. CONCLUSIONS: Most students have demonstrated interprofessional competence performance at a good level. However, the inter-observer concordance obtained for some of the items was not as expected. The assessment of interprofessional competencies, as it deals mainly with relational and communicative aspects, requires greater preparation both in terms of the specification of assessment items and in agreement between examiners.

Impact of an intervention program with reinforcement on nursing students' stress and anxiety levels in their clinical practices.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Several interventions have resulted in effectively reducing stress and anxiety in nursing students, however the efficacy of these interventions has only been investigated in the short term. This study had to objectives 1) to determine the effect of an intervention program to manage stress and anxiety in nursing students during clinical practices with two phases, phase I composed by cognitive behavioral therapy and progressive muscle relaxation and phase II or reinforcement phase with progressive muscle relaxation and 2) to determine the effect of phase I of the intervention program to manage stress and anxiety in nursing students during clinical practices. DESIGN: An experimental, analytical, longitudinal and prospective study. METHODS: Data were collected between April 2018 to June 2019 with 4 measurements of KEZKAK questionnaire and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. An intervention program composed of cognitive behavioral therapy and progressive muscle relaxation was developed. The intervention program was divided in two phases, phase I and phase II or reinforcement phase. Fifty-nine nursing students from a Spanish university participated. A control group (n = 29), an intervention group one (n = 15) that received phase I and an intervention group 2 (n = 15) that received phase I and phase II or reinforcement phase were formed. RESULTS: After completing phase I, significant differences were found in the state of stress and anxiety between nursing students who received this phase and those who did not and after 3 months they continued to show differences. After phase II or reinforcement phase, the inter-groups did not present significant differences between them. The inter-group comparison of the stress and anxiety values at the end of the intervention program minus the initial values indicated that the CG presented significant differences with both intervention groups in the total of the KEZKAK and also with the IG1 in factors 3 (p = 0.030) and 4 (p = 0.027) and with the IG2 in factors 1 (p = 0.006) and 7 (p = 0.018). On the other hand, no differences were found between both intervention groups, IG1-IG2, in levels of stress and anxiety (p > 0.05) CONCLUSIONS: The intervention program contributes to provide evidence on the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy and progressive muscle relaxation for stress and anxiety management in nursing students during clinical practices. This study suggests that we should continue in this line of research to improve the available evidence.

Anxiety and Worries among Pregnant Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multilevel Analysis.

Background. Several studies have identified pregnant women as a vulnerable group during the COVID-19 pandemic. The perinatal period has been identified as a stage of great risk for the mental health of pregnant women, due to a large increase in mental pathologies during this period. In this context, the objective of the present study was to assess the associations between socioeconomic and demographic factors, health concerns and health information management, and anxiety level during the COVID-19 pandemic in pregnant Spanish women. Method. The sample of this cross-sectional study was comprised of 353 pregnant women, aged 18 or older and residing in Spain. Data collection was carried out from 1 June to 30 September 2020. Participants were recruited from Quirónsalud University Hospital of Madrid. Multilevel regression models were built to value the associations between demographic factors, health concerns and health information management, and anxiety level during the COVID-19 pandemic among pregnant women. Results. Reduced working hours and income due to the COVID-19 pandemic were related to increased anxiety levels, as was the level of concern about COVID-19 symptoms, potential complications, contagion and consequences for the baby. Worries caused by restrictive measures adopted against COVID-19 and resulting isolation, delivery, postpartum and breastfeeding were also associated with increased anxiety levels. Being a separated or divorced woman and being informed to a greater extent by a midwife were related to lower anxiety levels. An increase in the degree of information obtained about COVID-19 symptoms, complications, contagion and consequences for the baby, restrictive measures and isolation adopted against COVID-19, delivery, postpartum and breastfeeding, were also related to decreased anxiety levels. Conclusions. The most vulnerable future mothers in terms of anxiety levels are those with reduced working hours and income due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those with a higher level of concern and who had access to a lesser degree of information about COVID-19 (symptoms and complications, contagion and consequences on the baby, restrictive measures and isolation, delivery, postpartum and breastfeeding), as well as pregnant women who have obtained information about COVID-19 during pregnancy from TV.

A longitudinal gender perspective of well-being and health in spanish youth: the UP&DOWN study.

Previous studies have observed a link between gender and well-being and health in young populations. The purpose of this research was twofold: (1) to analyse the cross-sectional relationship between gender status with well-being indicators and self-perceived health in adolescents at baseline and at 2-year follow-up and (2) to evaluate the prospective associations between gender at baseline and well-being indicators/self-perceived health assessed at 2-year follow-up. Well-being was measured using the KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire (as a measure of health-related quality of life (HR-QoL)), the Children's Hope Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Health status of the adolescents was assessed using self-perceived health. Multilevel mixed-effects linear/logistic regression models were carried out to assess the associations between gender status and well-being and health of a sample of 1590 Spanish adolescents. Adolescent girls were shown to have lower HR-QoL scores and higher negative affect scores, and had a higher risk of reporting poor health than boys, in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Adolescent girls seem to be more vulnerable to poorer well-being and self-reported health than boys. When looking at hedonic and eudemonic well-being separately, longitudinal differential evolution of boys and girls seems to indicate greater deterioration of hedonic well-being among girls as compared to boys. Overall, gender may have a relevant impact on mental and physical health during adolescence.

Effectiveness of Virtual Reality-Based Interventions for Children and Adolescents with ADHD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

This review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality-based interventions (VR-based interventions) on cognitive deficits in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed according to the PRISMA statement and the Cochrane Handbook guidelines for conducting meta-analyses. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to assess the quality of the evidence. Clinical trials published up to 29 October 2020, were included. The meta-analysis included four studies, with a population of 125 participants with ADHD. The magnitude of the effect was large for omissions (SMD = -1.38; p = 0.009), correct hits (SMD = -1.50; p = 0.004), and perceptual sensitivity (SMD = -1.07; p = 0.01); and moderate for commissions (SMD = -0.62; p = 0.002) and reaction time (SMD = -0.67; p = 0.03). The use of VR-based interventions for cognitive rehabilitation in children with ADHD is limited. The results showed that VR-based interventions are more effective in improving sustained attention. Improvements were observed in attentional vigilance measures, increasing the number of correct responses and decreasing the number of errors of omission. No improvements were observed in impulsivity responses.

Assessment of cognitive instrumental activities of daily living: a systematic review.

PURPOSE: Cognitive instrumental activities of daily living are particularly related to executive functions, such as scheduling appointments, monthly payments, managing the household economy, shopping or taking the bus. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the available tests for the assessment of executive functions with ecological validity to predict individuals' functioning. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An electronic search was conducted in MEDLINE, Cochrane Central, PsyCInfo and IEEE Xplore until May 2019, in addition to a manual search. The PRISMA criteria and the Covidence platform were used to select articles and extract data. RESULTS: After applying the search selection criteria, 76 studies were identified. They referred to 110 tools to assess instrumental activities of daily living. Those that have received most attention are related to menu preparation and shopping. Performance-based measures are the most widely used traditional methods. Most tests were aimed at the adult population with acquired brain damage, cognitive impairment or dementia. There was a predominance of tests based on the Multiple Errands Test paradigm. CONCLUSIONS: In recent years, it has increased the number of tools that assess the instrumental activities of daily living based on technologies such as personal or environmental sensors and serious games.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONAssessment of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living through performance-based measures is especially useful for the early detection of dysfunctions or preclinical disability.Difficulties in performing instrumental activities of daily living are closely associated with deficits in executive functions and prospective memory.Activities of Daily Living can be understood as multitasks.The use of virtual reality-based tests was shown to be sensitive to the detection of cognitive deficits in Activities of Daily Living.An advantage of using virtual reality in assessments is that it can help to predict the level of personal autonomy in patients who are in an institutional environment and could be a first approximation to the real environment.

Exploring new tendencies of gender and health in university students.

In light of the impact of gender roles on health, the aims of the present study are (1) to assess the associations between femininity/masculinity and gender typologies, and health indicators (mental health, wellbeing, and self-perceived health) and (2) to identify patterns of gender roles and health indicators, thus exploring new tendencies in gender and health in Spanish university students in the framework of the androgyny model. The sample was made up of 795 university students from Madrid and Toledo. Data collection was completed during 2019. Measures of self-rated health, mental health (GHQ12), and wellbeing (MHC-SF) were considered as health indicators, while the Bem Sex Roles Inventory (BSRI) was used to measure gender roles. Multilevel analysis was employed to value associations between masculinity and femininity and gender typologies with self-rated health, mental health, and wellbeing. Furthermore, cluster analysis was used to explore general tendencies in gender roles and health, while also considering biological sex composition. The best predictor of mental health was found to be masculinity, rather than femininity. Cluster analysis showed a dominance of androgyny and undifferentiated typologies with proportionally similar biological sex composition. Results confirmed the androgyny model, highlighting the role of androgyny and masculinity as protective factors of mental health. Cluster analysis suggested less gender-typed individuals and more flexible ways of adapting to gender roles in university students. Health systems, governments, and public institutions must take these results into account when designing health prevention and intervention policies. Social agents, educators, and the media must also collaborate in the achievement of equalitarian gender roles, which could result in a minimization of gender-related health differences.