This study aimed to examine the health-related quality of life (HrQoL), coping, height-related beliefs, and social support of children/adolescents with short stature, the sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial variables associated with HrQoL, and the moderating role of sociodemographic and clinical variables on the associations between psychosocial variables and HrQoL. 114 Portuguese children/adolescents with short stature, aged 8–18 years old, completed the Quality of Life in Short Stature Youth questionnaire and the Satisfaction with Social Support Scale. Regression analyses explained 54% of the variance of HrQoL, with significant main effects of current height deviation and height-related beliefs, and a significant interaction effect between beliefs and diagnosis. Results suggest that a multidisciplinary therapeutic approach, not only focused on hormone treatment to boost physical growth, but also including psychosocial interventions focused on the modification of height-related beliefs, may contribute to improve the HrQoL of pediatric patients with short stature.
Journal of Child and Family Studies - Childhood chronic illness is associated with deleterious effects on caregivers’ mental health and children’s socio-emotional development. This... 相似文献
There is evidence that subjective health is an important variable in general health outcomes. It can be an indicator of the individual's overall health status, creating a reliable and valid estimate about health. Quality of life (QoL) assessment can be associated with the individuals' subjective assessment of their own health status. The aim of the present study was to investigate variables associated with subjective perception of health in older inpatients. Ninety elderly inpatients over 60 years old were interviewed. The perception of health assessment (healthy/unhealthy) allocated elders in either of two groups. All the elders answered sociodemographic questions, the WHOQOL-100 and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Comparing the group that considered themselves unhealthy to the other group, the former showed a tendency of worse QoL assessments in five out of six domains investigated. Significant differences were found for the physical and level of independence domains, as well as overall QoL. There was a significant association between health perception and lower intensity of depressive symptoms, as well as better QoL perception in the level of independence domain. This study shows the existence of an association between depressive symptoms and health assessment. It also suggests that the independence dimension is important in the elders' perception of their health status. These findings can help identify cause-effect relations between variables in aging studies involving health indicators and bring new intervention proposals for the elderly. 相似文献
The activity of collections of synchronizing neurons can be represented by weakly coupled nonlinear phase oscillators satisfying Kuramoto’s equations. In this article, we build such neural-oscillator models, partly based on neurophysiological evidence, to represent approximately the learning behavior predicted and confirmed in three experiments by well-known stochastic learning models of behavioral stimulus–response theory. We use three Kuramoto oscillators to model a continuum of responses, and we provide detailed numerical simulations and analysis of the three-oscillator Kuramoto problem, including an analysis of the stability points for different coupling conditions. We show that the oscillator simulation data are well-matched to the behavioral data of the three experiments. 相似文献
The relationship between handgrip isometric strength and swimming performance was assessed in the four competitive swimming strokes in swimmers of different age groups and of both sexes. 78 national-level Portuguese swimmers (39 males, 39 females) were selected for this study. Grip strength, previously used as a marker of overall strength to predict future swimming performance, was measured using a hand dynamometer. The best competitive time at 100 and 200 m in all four swimming strokes were converted into 2010 FINA points. Non-parametric tests were used to evaluate differences between groups. Pearson product-moment correlations were computed to verify the association between variables. Handgrip maximum isometric strength was significantly correlated with swimming performance, particularly among female swimmers. Among female age group swimmers, the relationship between handgrip and 100-m freestyle was significant. Handgrip isometric strength seems to be related to swimming performance, especially to 100-m freestyle and in female swimmers. For all other distances and strokes, technique and training probably are more influential than semi-hereditary strength markers such as grip strength. 相似文献
The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not blind children perseverate during a modified Piagetian A-not-B reaching task, with conditions that employ luminous AB targets and acoustic AB targets. Ten congenitally blind children, ages 1–4 years, with residual vision for light, took part in this study. Behavioral and kinematic data were computed for participants’ reaches, performed in six A trials and in two B trials, in both stimulus conditions. All of the children perseverated in the luminous condition, and none of them perseverated in the condition using acoustic targets. The children tilted their heads in the direction of the target as they reached towards it. However, this coupling action (head-reaching) occurred predominantly in the A trials in the acoustic condition. In the luminous condition, in contrast to the acoustic condition, the children took longer times to initiate the reaching movement. Also, in the luminous condition, the children explored the target surroundings, unlike the acoustic condition, in which they reached straight ahead. For these blind children, sound was more relevant to reaching than was the luminous stimulus. The luminous input caused perseveration in congenitally blind children in a similar way that has been reported in the literature for typically-developing, sighted infants, ages 8–12 months, performing A-not-B tasks with visual inputs. 相似文献
Senktide, a potent neurokinin-3 receptor (NK3-R) agonist, increases acetylcholine (ACh) release in the striatum, the prefrontal cortex (Schäble et al., 2011), the amygdala and hippocampus, presumably via postsynaptic mechanisms. A promnestic action of NK3-R agonists has been described in a variety of learning/memory tasks. The memory-enhancing effects of NK3-R agonists and their activating influence on ACh suggest a possible role of the NK3-R in learning and memory via cholinergic modulation. Deterioration of the cholinergic system in the basal forebrain has been associated with learning and memory deficits and cholinergic agents have promnestic effects in a variety of learning paradigms. The anticholinergic drug, scopolamine, a muscarinic ACh receptor antagonist, incurs deficits in a variety of learning tasks and provides a useful tool to investigate the role of the cholinergic systems in mechanisms underlying learning and memory. The aim of this study was to ascertain the effect of the NK3-R agonist, senktide, in the scopolamine-induced deficit model. We hypothesized that senktide treatment would attenuate scopolamine-induced (subcutaneous – s.c. 0.75 mg/kg) memory impairment in three novelty preference paradigms based on spontaneous object exploration: namely object recognition, object–place recognition and object recognition for temporal order. Administration of senktide reversed the scopolamine-induced memory deficits by re-establishing object recognition (s.c. 0.2 mg/kg), object–place recognition (0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg), as well as object recognition for temporal order (0.4 mg/kg) in adult Wistar rats. These results indicate memory enhancing effects of senktide in animals subjected to scopolamine-induced memory impairments and indicate that the promnestic action of NK3-R agonists is mediated by muscarinic cholinergic mechanisms. 相似文献
Early partial maternal deprivation causes long-lasting neurochemical, behavioral and brain structural effects. In rats, it causes a deficit in memory consolidation visible in adult life. Some of these deficits can be reversed by donepezil and galantamine, which suggests that they may result from an impairment of brain cholinergic transmission. One such deficit, representative of all others, is an impairment of memory consolidation, clearly observable in a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task. Recent data suggest a role of brain histaminergic systems in the regulation of behavior, particularly inhibitory avoidance learning. Here we investigate whether histamine itself, its analog SKF-91844, or various receptor-selective histamine agonists and antagonists given into the CA1 region of the hippocampus immediately post-training can affect retention of one-trial inhibitory avoidance in rats submitted to early postnatal maternal deprivation. We found that histamine, SKF-91844 and the H2 receptor agonist, dimaprit enhance consolidation on their own and reverse the consolidation deficit induced by maternal deprivation. The enhancing effect of histamine was blocked by the H2 receptor antagonist, ranitidine, but not by the H1 receptor antagonist pyrilamine or by the H3 antagonist thioperamide given into CA1 at doses known to have other behavioral actions, without altering locomotor and exploratory activity or the anxiety state of the animals. The present results suggest that the memory deficit induced by early postnatal maternal deprivation in rats may in part be due to an impairment of histamine mediated mechanisms in the CA1 region of the rat hippocampus. 相似文献
Happiness is a positive phenomenon that is universal in nature and is therefore, pertinent to all human beings. However, the definition of happiness differs from person to person, and varies among cultures, economic status, social connectedness, spiritual upbringing and daily situations. An individual’s contextual perception of happiness can change when subjected to bleak conditions such as incarceration wherein inmates, especially those who are old and are experiencing health impairments are stripped off with their customary source of happiness. Since Filipinos are known to be as “happy people,” this study purports to surface the different facets of what constitute happiness in the context of a penal institution in the Philippine setting. The Q-methodology is the primary design used in the study. It combines the objectivity of quantitative approach with the essence of human experiences as explored in qualitative studies. The participants (P-sample) were twenty elderly inmates suffering from chronic ailments. They were asked to arrange 32 statements (Q-sample), derived from the initial interview, in the Q-sort table based on their degree of agreement, which were then further explicated in the post-sort interviews. The results were then subjected to by-person factor analysis with varimax rotation using the PQ Method version 2.11. Five profiles emerged from the by-person factor analysis, namely: (1) ‘Sense of Affinity’, (2) ‘Sense of Opportunity’, (3) ‘Sense of Indemnity’, (4) ‘Sense of Positivity’ and (5) ‘Sense of Resiliency’. The discussion focused on similarities and differences among profiles regarding the four principal themes (familial, social, internal and spiritual components of happiness) derived from the statements used as the Q-sample. The perception of happiness varies from profile to profile. The differences in views on what constitutes happiness among profiles are more prominent than their said similarities. Most leanings are directed toward the familial and spiritual aspects of happiness however, happiness can also be internally motivated and cognitively construed. While happiness has a direct relationship to an individual’s overall perception of well-being, the nurse, being the primary provider of holistic care, plays a pivotal role in promoting optimum health through awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of vis-a vis an unwavering involvement with the unique and distinct psychological and emotional needs of the elderly inmates characterized by respect, openness, authenticity and inter-subjectivity. 相似文献