Revisiting self-regulatory techniques to promote physical activity in older adults: null-findings from a randomised controlled trial

Objective. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to evaluate a three-hour face-to-face physical activity (PA) intervention in community-dwelling older German adults with four groups: The intervention group (IG) received behaviour change techniques (BCTs) based on the health action process approach plus a views-on-ageing component to increase PA. The second intervention group ‘planning’ (IGpl) contained the same BCTs, only substituted the views-on-ageing component against an additional planning task. An active control group received the same BCTs, however, targeting volunteering instead of PA. A passive control group (PCG) received no intervention.

Design. The RCT comprised 5 time-points over 14 months in N = 310 participants aged 64+.

Main outcome measures. Self-reported as well as accelerometer-assessed PA.

Results. Neither PA measure increased in the IG as compared to the other groups at any point in time. Bayes analyses supported these null-effects.

Conclusion. A possible explanation for this null-finding in line with a recent meta-analysis is that some self-regulatory BCTs may be ineffective or even negatively associated with PA in interventions for older adults as they are assumed to be less acceptable for older adults. This interpretation was supported by observed reluctance to participate in self-regulatory BCTs in the current study.     

“God loves me no matter how I am”: a phenomenological analysis of the religious and spiritual experiences of HIV-infected African-American women with depression

Depression is associated with increased HIV morbidity and mortality, particularly among African-American women (AAW) in the United States. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore religious practices, spiritual beliefs, and experiences among AAW with co-occurring HIV infection and depression. A transcendental phenomenological study design was used to explore the experiences of AAW's religion and spirituality after an HIV diagnosis and living with depression. The four themes that were identified included: Religious Conflict and Return to Religious Practices; Religious Fortitude Broken and Feeling Judged; Spiritual Connection is More Powerful than Attending Church Services; and Spiritual Healing and Re-Connecting with Spirituality. These findings suggest that the distinction between internal and external manifestations of spirituality is important and that given the current religious climate, interventions that focus on supporting internal spiritual practice may be a more important and effective approach for AAW with co-occurring HIV infection and depression.     

Bioethicists Can and Should Contribute to Addressing Racism

The problems of racism and racially motivated violence in predominantly African American communities in the United States are complex, multifactorial, and historically rooted. While these problems are also deeply morally troubling, bioethicists have not contributed substantially to addressing them. Concern for justice has been one of the core commitments of bioethics. For this and other reasons, bioethicists should contribute to addressing these problems. We consider how bioethicists can offer meaningful contributions to the public discourse, research, teaching, training, policy development, and academic scholarship in response to the alarming and persistent patterns of racism and implicit biases associated with it. To make any useful contribution, bioethicists will require preparation and should expect to play a significant role through collaborative action with others.     

论“大流行病条约”的道义实现

审查世界卫生组织订立法律文书的可选择类型,并比较《烟草控制框架公约》与《国际卫生条例》的立法路径后,发现国际卫生法若采用封闭型路径立法会存在道义实现瑕疵的问题。通过对开放型立法路径的价值阐明,“大流行病条约”构建参与人开放机制具有适宜性;延展义务约束的范围可提供确定性;采用固定的义务约束与协商的义务约束构建多层面的产能保留机制可实现全球卫生治理政治价值与伦理价值的共融。“大流行病条约”最终需要设立共同原则,以获得共同的认识、使命与行动,进而实现自身的道义目标。

     

癌症患者健康赋权能力的研究现状

追溯赋权的起源及其概念的演变,全面研究健康赋权的内涵及其对癌症患者的重要性。通过总结癌症患者健康赋权的测评工具、相关影响因素、促进健康赋权策略三个方面,了解国内外癌症患者健康赋权研究与实施的关键点与未来挑战,以期为探索适合我国癌症患者健康赋权的专科评估、干预模式构建和护理实践提供依据,以提高患者对健康相关知识的掌握,促使患者与医务人员共同规划、设计医疗保健行为,并最终实现以患者为中心的医疗服务理念,促进医疗系统的可持续发展。

     

自我语言提示与两种心理操作的实验研究

选取大学生被试108名,用实验的方式研究了自我语言提示对情绪和记忆意向两种心理操作的影响。实验被试分3组,两个实验组和一个控制组。实验1组被试使用积极的自我语言提示,实验2组使用消极的自我语言提示,控制组使用中性语言提示,结果发现,实验1组和实验2组在情绪和记忆意向方面存在显著差异,三组的总体差异极显著,说明语言提示对被试的两种心理操作有显著的影响效果。     

汉语并列式合成词的词汇通达

汉语并列式合成词具有三种类型,这三种类型内部不同的词素组合在心理词典中则需要不同的词汇通达时间。实验结果表明,在对汉语并列式合成词的词汇通达过程中,第一成分并不总是起决定作用;同样,并列式合成词中的两个成分在词汇通达过程中并不总是同等重要。实验证明,语义透明度对并列式合成词的词汇通达起重要作用。实验还发现,在心理词典中对并列式合成词的词汇通达需要一个证实原则。     

Medical Psychology in Australia

Medical psychology in Australia is heavily influenced by British and American thought. The dominant model for clinical training and practice is the scientist–practitioner model, yet a gulf exists between academic and practice settings. Membership of the professional society requires 6 years of university study in psychology. However, registration requires only 4 years training in psychology. Medical psychologists provide a broad range of services in hospital and community settings, often within multidisciplinary teams. Challenges for the future include bridging the divide between university and health settings, increasing qualifications required for registration, making psychology culturally relevant, and demonstrating to funding managers that psychological interventions are both clinically effective and cost effective.     

Reliability of self-reported service use: Test-retest consistency of children's responses to the Child and Adolescent Services Assessment (CASA)

This paper reports on the reliability of children's responses on the Child and Adolescent Services Assessment (CASA) — a self-report instrument for use with 8– to 18-year-olds that gathers information about services used to address mental health problems. Findings were based on interviews completed by 77 children at a one week test-retest interval. Results showed that reports of lifetime service use were as reliable as were reports of service use in the preceding three months. Children reported restrictive and intrusive services more reliably than services that were provided in their natural environment. Reliability appeared to be associated more strongly with characteristics of the type of service than with characteristics of the child. Children also could report reliably on some details about their encounters with service providers (e.g., length of stay, number of visits, and onset of service use).     

Effects of models and demonstrations of personal narratives on the use of lexical ties by writers with mental retardation

A single subject reversal design was used to investigate the effects of two methods for teaching writing to eight adolescents with mild or moderate mental retardation during a weekly process writing workshop. During each workshop, each student wrote a personal narrative while the teacher circulated among the group and provided positive verbal feedback and spelled words on request. Students' texts were later typed with corrected spelling and punctuation and returned to them with verbal praise before the next writing workshop. During the first experimental condition, the subjects listened to an exemplar text selected by the teacher. In the second phase, the teacher read a narrative she had written as the exemplar text. During the third experimental condition, the teacher orally self-instructed herself through steps in writing a narrative. The subjects' texts were analyzed for number of words written and number and type of lexical ties used to produce cohesion between sentences in a text. The model narrative produced the best gains in the number of words written by the poorer readers, while the demonstration improved the cohesiveness of their texts. The better readers and writers wrote more cohesively during the model narrative and produced longer text during the demonstration condition.