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Biomedical subjects

G Larsson

Publications and source records attributed to G Larsson.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Relaxation training as an integral part of caring activities for cancer patients: effects on wellbeing.

The purposes of this study were twofold. The first was to investigate if relaxation training conducted by nurses as an integral part of their caring activities affected breast cancer patients' experiences of radiotherapy sessions as well as their general wellbeing. Second was to evaluate a pedagogical model for large scale application of relaxation training as an integral part of caring. The sample consisted of 64 consecutive outpatients with breast cancer at a Swedish oncology clinic, receiving their first radiotherapy treatment course following surgery. Every second patient was assigned to an experimental group (n = 32, mean age: 59.5 years) and every other second patient was assigned to a control group (n = 32, mean age: 60.0 years). The programme resulted in the following general effects: fewer perceived daily hassles and a more cheerful overall mood state. The following treatment situation specific effects were noted: programme participants appraised the treatment sessions as successively more benign-positive and less threatening. They also reported more perceived muscular tensions during treatment sessions. Most goals concerning the routinization of the pedagogical model were reached.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

Linen in the hospital bed: effects on patients' well-being.

The aim of the study was to determine if using linen in hospital beds affects patients' well-being. An experimental group consisting of 52 patients (mean age: 64.4 years) at a medical ward used linen in the bottom sheet, the protective sheet, the pillow-case and the patient gown for 4 weeks. A control group consisting of 40 patients (mean age: 67.5 years) at the same ward was observed for 4 weeks using the conventional material (cotton, cotton/polyester). Marginal positive effects on patients' well-being were noted when linen was used. It was discussed that the relative importance of the bed material to patients' well-being may be low, compared to medical treatment, nursing, etc. Given the high cost of linen, about 15 times more than the conventional material, it was suggested that the health care system should refrain from large-scale use of linen in hospital beds.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

Contributions of stress theory to the understanding of helping.

The paper is theoretical, patient centred, and focuses on the two following questions: (1) In what way might a stress theoretical approach further our understanding of how helping can affect somatic and psychological processes in patients, and (2) in what way might stress theory offer action oriented guidelines for those who offer help? A stress model is outlined involving relationships between a patient's cognitive appraisal of a given care situation, his or her coping efforts, and emotional and physiological reactions. Several conditions, related to the patient and to the care giving situation, which might influence the patient's appraisal process are discussed. Possible short- and long-term effects of helping in the somatic and psychological domains are presented. Two examples of common care situations are analysed to show how stress theory may offer helpers an action oriented tool. The concept of participatory caring, implying not only patient involvement but actual power sharing between patients and health professionals, is discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Comparison between Cytobrush and Papaplast in sampling vaginal smears.

The ability of Cytobrush and Papaplast to collect endocervical cells in vaginal smears was tested in a prospective randomized comparative study including 107 women. Endocervical cells were found more often and in greater numbers with Cytobrush, also in women over 50 years of age. Papaplast missed endocervical cells twice as often as did Cytobrush. The use of the latter instrument meant that the number of repeat smears necessitated due to the absence of endocervical cells could be considerably reduced, with consequent improvement in the cost/benefit ratio.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Diagnosis and prevalence of persistent chlamydia infection in infertile women: tissue culture, direct antigen detection, and serology.

Specimens for chlamydial culture, direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) test, two enzyme immunoassays (EIA) for antigen detection, and serum for chlamydial antibodies were collected from 256 infertile women. Specimens were taken from the tubes during tuboplasty and from the cervix and endometrium during laparoscopy or tuboplasty. Antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis were found four times more often in patients with signs of prior pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) than in infertile women with normal pelvic findings. Only 48 (37%) of 131 patients with signs of prior PID had a history of PID. Ten or more C. trachomatis elementary bodies (EBs) per smear were found in 21 (8.2%) of 256 patients. Six patients had a positive culture or a positive antigen EIA test. All six had high numbers of EBs in the DFA test. We conclude that routine culture and EIA antigen tests detect only a minority of persistent chlamydia infections in this population, but subjective factors in the interpretation of DFA methods must be considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Screening for HIV in pregnant women: a study of maternal opinion.

Pregnant women residing in the metropolitan area of Stockholm were screened for HIV in a 12-month pilot programme. The acceptance rate was 99.3%. Three HIV-antibody-positive women (0.04%) were identified. The screening was followed up by a study designed to ascertain the attitudes of the women towards the test. The vast majority had a positive attitude to HIV screening out of consideration for the health of the expected child. One out of seven felt uneasy while awaiting the test result. Significantly more women among those who thought repeatedly about the test had already considered having an HIV test before pregnancy. Once the women found out that their HIV test was negative it did not affect their subsequent experience of pregnancy.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗
PubMed1990

A review and critique of psychological approaches to the burn-out phenomenon.

In the 70s the concept burn-out appeared in psychological literature on the helping professions. The concept has since then been ascribed several meanings, and critical voices have been raised against the lack of clarity and consensus in the definitions. The aim of this article was to critically examine the thinking on the concept of burn-out. The helping professionals--nurses, welfare officers, psychologists, medical doctors, etc.--have expanded rapidly since the 60s. It is stated that the issues on which burn-out researchers focus deserve the attention of social scientists in general. The major limitation in the literature on burn-out is that there is little analysis of the role of society and social conditions in producing the phenomenon. It is suggested that sociological analyses may have a contribution to make here.

Burnout, Professional↗
PubMed1990

Patient-nurse interactions: relationships between person characteristics, empathy, content of communication, and patients' emotional reactions.

Relationships between antecedent person variables (sex and age), empathic understanding, content of communication, and patients' emotional reactions were studied in 3200 patient-assistant nurse dyadic interactions. The sample consisted of 32 psychiatric patients (20 males and 12 females, mean age: 61 years) and eight female assistant nurses at a nursing-home in Sweden. Four assistant nurses were younger (25 years old or less) and four were older (45 years old or more). All interactions were regular morning meetings at which the patient's activity plans for the day were discussed. These meetings were held in each patient's private room, and lasted for about 15 min. High empathic understanding on part of the helper covaried with more communication of "everyday character" and communication dealing with "personal and emotional qualities", with less communication dealing with "facts and practical issues", and with a more cheerful emotional state among the patients during the encounters. Male patients were more cheerful during encounters with younger assistant nurses while female patients were more cheerful when interacting with older assistant nurses. Helpers with higher scores on empathic understanding seemed to have a higher awareness of relational history.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Services to families with children. A study of community work in Uppsala.

This article describes some of the results of a study of services to families and children in a suburban district, Sweden. Services included in the study were: maternal and child health care, child psychiatry, services for handicapped children, school health care, day care services, community social services and family counselling services. The baseline studies comprised analyses of official goals expressed in legislation and recommendations, interviews with local politicians and administrators, record studies, studies of working time distribution and questionnaires to field professionals and families. The results indicate that services with traditional goals and well-defined tasks (e.g. health supervision) were more satisfied with their goal attainment, less inclined to collaborate with other services, and more occupied with direct client work than services with non-traditional goals and vaguely defined tasks (e.g. strengthening democracy).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Structural changes, ill health, and mortality in Sweden, 1963-1983: a macroaggregated study.

An exploratory time series analysis was performed on selected indicators of structural change, health behavior, and ill health in Sweden in the years 1963-1983. Both synchronic (nonlagged) and asynchronic (lagged) analyses were made. The synchronic analysis of variations in the suicide rate reveals two main contributory factors: level of employment and overtime work. For cardiovascular mortality in men, the synchronic and the two-year time lagged analyses reveal that the sale of alcohol and, to a certain extent, the length of the period of unemployment play a major role. In an analysis with a three-year time lag, only one significant factor for both men and women is revealed, namely the level of employment. In the synchronic analysis of cirrhosis mortality in men, the sale of alcohol plays a dominant role. The results of the synchronic analysis of the variations in sick leave show a similar pattern for both men and women. In both cases, the sale of alcohol is positively associated and the proportion of unemployed industrial workers negatively associated with sick leave. The results give rise to a number of questions. For example, how should these findings be interpreted and how should they be related to existing knowledge about the links between business cycles and changes in the health of the population? The answers to such questions are of importance both from a scientific viewpoint and with regard to health policy. We argue that the answers require further studies of the characteristics of the periods in the business cycle and of how these periods affect people's lives, living conditions, and behavioral patterns in general.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1989

Battered wives and female alcoholics: a comparative social and psychiatric study.

In this study 49 women seeking hospital treatment for wife battering injuries were compared with 49 female alcoholics and a control group consisting of 49 women treated in hospital for accidents. At one time or another two-thirds of the female alcoholics had been battered and the majority of these women showed the same pattern of severe, prolonged abuse as the 49 women seeking hospital treatment for wife battering injuries. The women in these groups were also similar in that many of them had experienced violence in their own childhood environment, in that they had cohabited with more men than the women in the control group and in that the frequency of depressive symptoms was high. An analysis restricted to the battered women in each of the three groups revealed similarities between them. The battered women in the control group did not, however, show any signs of more severe psychopathology or alcoholism. It is concluded that mental health is of crucial importance for the woman's ability to break away from an abusive male.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

The relation between life stress and hypertensive complications during pregnancy.

The relationship between life stress and hypertensive complications during pregnancy was studied in 345 women. A questionnaire was answered in the first trimester. The questions concerned education, employment, social network, traumatic experiences, housing conditions and stress of work. In this way a total life stress score for each woman was obtained. Hypertensive disorders, including chronic hypertension, were found in 63 women (18.3%). No significant difference was evident between women with low and high life stress scores with regard to hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. Nor did pressure changes during pregnancy differ between these groups.

Blood Pressure↗
PubMed1988

Crystallization and preliminary investigation of single crystals of deoxyuridine triphosphate nucleotidohydrolase from Escherichia coli.

Deoxyuridine triphosphate nucleotidohydrolase (dUTPase), an enzyme in the nucleotide metabolism that is a pyrophosphatase hydrolyzing dUTP, has been crystallized. The crystals belong to the trigonal space group R3 and diffract beyond 2 A. The native dUTPase crystals and a mercury derivative are stable in the X-ray beam and are suitable for a high resolution X-ray structure analysis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗