| 1. |
- Andersson, Jenny
(författare)
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Genusgörande och läkarblivande : attityder, föreställningar och förväntningar bland läkarstudenter i Sverige
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The inclusion of a gender perspective in medicine has shown that gender is an essential factor in health and disease, in medical encounters and also in medical students’ educational environment. The aim of this study was to explore attitudes, preconceptions and norms regarding gender within medical education and processes of gender bias. First, we explored medical students gendered beliefs about patients. Second, we examined the medical students ideas about their future careers. Third, we compared awareness on gender issues among medical students in Sweden and the Netherlands.Method and materialThe analyses were based on data from two different sources: one experimental study based on authentic patient narratives about being diagnosed with cancer and one extensive questionaire exploring different aspects of gender issues in medical education. Both studies had a design which enabled both qualitative and quantitative research and mixed methods was used.Study I (Paper I and II): Eighty-one anonymous letters from patients were read by 130 students of medicine and psychology. For each letter the students were asked to state the patient’s sex and explain their choice. In paper I the students’ success rates were analysed statistically and the explanations to four letters were used to illustrate the students’ reasoning. Paper II examined the 87 medical students’ explanations closer to examine gender beliefs about patients.Study II (Paper III and IV): The questionaire started with an open question where medical students were asked to describe their ideal future, it also included a validated scale designed to estimate gender awareness. Paper III examined 507 swedish medical students descriptions about their ideal future and compared answers from male and female students in the beginning and at the end of medical school. Paper IV compared gender awareness among 1096 Swedish and Dutch medical students in first term.Findings with reflectionsPaper I showed that the patient’s sex was correctly identified in 62% of the cases. There were no difference between the results of male and female students. However, large differences between letters were observed, i.e. there were some letters were almost all students correctly identified the patient´s sex, others were almost all students were incorrect and most letters were found somewhere in the middle. Another significant finding was that the same expressions were interpreted differently depending on which initial guess the medical student had made regarding the sex of the patient.Paper II identified 21 categories of justifications within the students’ explanations, twelve of which were significantly associated with an assumption of either a male or female patient. Only three categories led to more correct identifications of the patients’ sex and two were more often associated with incorrect assignments. The results illustrate how beliefs about gender difference, even though they might be recognizable on a group level, are not applicable on individuals. Furthermore, the results show that medical students enter the education with beliefs about male and female patients, which could have consequenses and cause bias in their future work as doctors.Paper III found that almost all students, both male and female, were work-oriented. However, the female students even more so than their male counterparts. This result is particularly interesting in regards to the debate about the “feminization of medicine” in which the increasing number of female students has been adressed as a problem. When reflecting on their own lifes and their future its obvious that medical students nowadays, male and female, expect more to life than work, especially those who are on the doorstep to their professional life.Paper IV found that the national and cultural setting was the most crucial impact factor in relation to the medical students preconceptions and awareness about gender. The Swedish students expressed less stereotypic thinking about patients and doctors, while the Dutch students were more sensitive to gender difference. In both countries, the students’ sex mattered for gender stereotyping, with male students agreeing more to stereotypes.ConclusionsA gender perspective is important in medical education. Our studies show that such initiatives needs to take cultural aspects, gender attitudes and students’ gender into account. Moreover, reflections on assumptions about men and women, patients as well as doctors, need to be included in medical curricula and the impact of implicit gender beliefs needs to be included in discussions on gender bias in health care. Also, the next generation of doctors want more to life than work. Future Swedish doctors, both female and male, intend to balance work not only with a family but also with leisure. This attitudinal change towards their future work as doctors will provide the health care system with a challenge to establish more adaptive and flexible work conditions.
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| 2. |
- Diderichsen, Saima, 1981-
(författare)
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It's just a job : a new generation of physicians dealing with career and work ideals
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Today, women constitute about half of medical students. However, women are still underrepresented in prestigious specialties such as surgery. Some suggest that this could be explained by women being more oriented towards work-life balance.Aim: The overall aim of this dissertation was to explore aspects of gender in work-life priorities, career plans, clinical experiences and negotiations of professional ideals among medical students and newly graduated doctors, all in a Swedish setting.Method: We based the analysis on data from two different sources: an extensive questionnaire exploring gender and career plans among medical students (paper I-III) and interviews with newly graduated doctors (study IV).In paper I, four classes of first- and final-year medical (N=507, response rate 85%) answered an open-ended question about their future life, 60% were women. We conducted a mixed methods design where we analyzed the answers qualitatively to create categories that could be analyzed quantitatively in the second stage.In paper II, five classes of final-year medical students were included (N = 372, response rate 89%), and 58% were women. We studied their specialty preference and how they rated the impact that the motivational factors had for their choice. In order to evaluate the independent impact of each motivational factor for specialty preference, we used logistic regression. In paper III, final-year medical students answered two open-ended questions: “Can you recall an event that made you interested of working with a certain specialty?” and “Can you recall an event that made you uninterested of working with a certain specialty?”. The response rate was 62% (N = 250), and 58% were women. The analysis was similar to paper I, but here we focused on the qualitative results.In paper IV, thematic interviews were conducted in 2014 and 2015. We made a purposeful sampling of 15 junior doctors, including nine women and six men from eight different hospitals. Data collection and analysis was inspired by constructivist grounded theory methodology.Results: When looking at the work-life priorities of medical students and junior doctors it is clear that both men and women want more to life than work in their ideal future. The junior doctors renounced fully devoted and loyal ideal and presented a self-narrative where family and leisure was important to cope and stay empathic throughout their professional lives.The specialty preferences and the highly rated motives for choosing them were relatively gender neutral. However, the gender neutrality came to an end when the final-year medical students described clinical experiences that affected their specialty preference. Women were more often deterred by workplace cultures, whereas men were more often deterred by knowledge area, suggesting that it is a male privilege to choose a specialty according to interest.Among the newly graduated doctors, another male privilege seemed to be that men were able to pass more swiftly as real doctors, whereas the women experienced more dissonance between their self-understanding and being perceived as more junior and self-doubting.Conclusions: The career plans and work-life priorities of doctors-to-be were relatively gender neutral. Both female and male doctors, intended to balance work not only with a family but also with leisure. This challenges the health care system to establish more adaptive and flexible work conditions.Gender segregation in specialty choice is not the result of gender-dichotomized specialty preferences starting in medical school. This calls for a re-evaluation of the understanding where gender is seen as a mere background characteristic, priming women and men for different specialties.
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| 3. |
- Asklund, Ina, 1978-
(författare)
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A mobile app for self-management of urinary incontinence : treatment effect and user experience
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background Urinary incontinence affects 25-45% of all women. The most common type is stress urinary incontinence, which is the leakage of urine on physical exertion. Pelvic floor muscle training is an effective first-line treatment for this condition but many women do not seek help from their ordinary health care service. There is a need to evaluate new methods to offer effective treatment, and internet-based treatment has previously been found to be effective for women with stress urinary incontinence.Aim To evaluate the mobile app Tät® which has a self-management program focused on pelvic floor muscle training for women with stress urinary incontinence, with respect to treatment effect, factors associated with successful treatment, user experience and use by pregnant and postnatal women.Methods Papers I, II and III are based on the same study population from a randomized controlled trial (RCT). We recruited adult women who had stress urinary incontinence at least weekly via our website. In total, 123 women were randomized to the app group (n=62) or the control group (n=61). The app included information about incontinence, the pelvic floor and lifestyle factors associated with incontinence, pelvic floor muscle training exercises and functions for reminders and training statistics. Treatment outcome after three months was evaluated using validated questionnaires assessing incontinence symptoms, quality of life, subjective improvement and a leakage diary. Outcomes were compared between the two groups. Factors associated with a successful outcome in the app group were further analysed using logistic regression. We strategically selected 15 women who had used the app and interviewed them about their experiences of using the app. The interviews were analysed according to Grounded Theory. After closing the RCT we made the app freely available and continued to follow its use on a larger scale by incorporating an anonymous questionnaire that appeared within the app upon download and after three months. The data from these questionnaires is used in paper IV. Results Participants in the RCT had a mean age of 44.7 years (range 27-72) and 120 of the 123 women had moderate/severe incontinence. The app group reported significant improvements in the primary outcomes, the incontinence symptom score (mean ICIQ-UI SF reduction 3.9, 95% CI 3.0-4.7) and the quality of life score (mean ICIQ LUTSqol reduction 4.8, 95% CI 3.4-6.2), and the difference between the groups was significant. The app group also reduced their number of leakages and use of incontinence aids compared to the control group. At follow-up 92% of women in the app group experienced subjective improvement and 56% had improved “much” or “very much” and were classified as having a successful treatment outcome.Factors associated with a successful outcome were higher expectations of treatment effect (OR 11.38, 95% CI 2.02-64.19), weight control (OR 0.44 per kg gained, 95% CI 0.24-0.79), and self-assessed improvement of pelvic floor muscle strength (OR 35.54, 95% CI 4.96-254.61).The main finding from the interviews was that women experienced that the app “enabled their independence”. They described that the app was “something new” that helped with “keeping motivation up” although they sometimes wondered whether their training efforts were “good enough”.The freely available app was downloaded by 10,456 pregnant and postnatal women during a period of ten months (41% of all users). At inclusion 51% experienced incontinence and their mean ICIQ-UI SF score was 6.7 (SD 3.45). After three months, 1,805 women answered the follow-up. The majority of women with incontinence at inclusion experienced improvement with greater improvement in the postnatal group than in the pregnant group.Conclusion The mobile app Tät® offers a new, easily accessible and effective self-management program for women with stress urinary incontinence. Women appreciated that the app enabled them to manage their pelvic floor muscle training independently. Once the app was freely released it reached a large population with many pregnant and postnatal women. We believe that the app could be useful for the prevention of urinary incontinence among pregnant women. We also believe that the app could be used both as a stand-alone treatment and as a complement to other treatments provided by the ordinary health care service.
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| 4. |
- Kristoffersson, Emelie, 1986-
(författare)
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Är det bara jag? Om sexism och rasism i läkarutbildningens vardag : erfarenheter, förklaringar och strategier bland läkarstudenter
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Medical education is characterized by unequal conditions for women/men and white/racialized students. Even subtle interactional processes of inclusion and exclusion convey messages about who rightfully belongs in medical school. Insights into these processes, though, are scarce – especially in the Swedish context. In this thesis, the concepts ’everyday sexism/racism’ and ’gendered/racial microaggressions’ serve as a theoretical framework for understanding these processes.Aim: The main objective of this thesis is to explore and analyze how medical students experience, understand, and handle the norms, perceptions, and expectations about gender and culture/ethnicity that are expressed and (re)created in the specific contexts of medical education and clinical practice. In the analysis, a particular focus is placed on power inequalities. The role that the image of Sweden, which is characterized by equality, and the notion of medical education as characterized by objectivity and neutrality play in the participants' understanding and actions is discussed.Method: The four articles that make up this thesis are based upon three empirical studies conducted among medical students at Umeå University. In the first study, focus groups were performed with 24 students (15 women, 9 men) to explore their experiences of situations during clinical training where they perceived that gender mattered. The material was explored using qualitative content analysis. In the second study, 250 students’ written answers to two short essay questions were analyzed to explore the impact of medical school experiences on specialty preferences. Utilizing a sequential mixed methods design, their responses were analyzed qualitatively to create categories that thereafter were compared quantitatively between men and women. In the third study, generating two articles, individual interviews were conducted with 18 students (10 women, 8 men) who self-identified as coming from cultural or ethnic minority backgrounds, exploring their experiences of interactions related to their minority position. Inspired by constructivist grounded theory, data collection and analysis were iterative.Findings and reflections: In individual interviews and focus groups, many participants initially described the medical school climate as equal and inclusive. Still, in their narratives about concrete experiences they gave another picture. In interactions with supervisors, staff, and patients almost everyone had regularly encountered stereotypes, discriminatory treatment, and demeaning jargon. Simultaneously, a subtle favoring of male and white majority students was noted. Thus, values, norms, and hierarchies concerning gender and culture/ethnicity were crucial dimensions in their narratives.These experiences made female students feel like they were rendered invisible and not taken seriously, and marked racialized minority students’ status as ’Others’ – making both female- and minority students feel less worthy as medical students. However, most were unsure whether they could call their experiences “sexist”, ”racist”, or ”discriminatory”. Instead, they found other explanations for people's actions such as curiosity, fear, or ignorance. Participants strove to manage the threat of constraining stereotypes and exclusion while maintaining an image of themselves as professional physicians-to-be. They opposed being seen – and seeing themselves as – problematic and passive victims. The clinical power hierarchy, fear of repercussions, and lack of support from bystanders affected what modes of action seemed accessible. Consequently, participants tended to stay silent, creating emotional distance, and adapting to avoid stereotypes rather than resisting, confronting, and reporting unfair treatment. The school climate also had consequences for specialty preferences. Both women and men expressed that working tasks and potential for work-life balance were motifs for their specialty preference. These aspects, however, were often secondary to feeling included or excluded during clinical practice. More women than men had been discouraged by workplaces with perceived hostile or sexist climates. In contrast, more men had been deterred by specialty knowledge areas and what they thought were boring work tasks. Conclusions: Medical students experience everyday sexism- and racism or microaggressions, i.e., practices that, intentionally or inadvertently, convey disregard or contempt. However, the contemporary discourse, which confines sexism and racism into conscious acts perpetrated by immoral or ignorant people, and the pretense that these phenomena no longer pose a problem in Sweden or in medical school, obscure their structural and systemic nature. In fact, this limited view of sexism and racism leaves inequities normalized and disempowers those targeted by discrimination. Constraining stereotypes and exclusion are not caused by the actions of their recipients, that is, female or racialized/minority students. Consequently, their behavioral changes like avoidance and adaptation will not eliminate discrimination but, instead, tend to re-establish the white male medical student as the norm. As long as students who do not fit the norm, rather than the norm itself are regarded as the problem, the sexist and racist practices described in this study will remain part of the hidden curriculum and part of the process of becoming and being a physician. Simultaneously, formal commitments to equality are at risk of being only symbolic while inequities persist. To counteract these inequities, the medical community needs to acknowledge female and racialized medical students’ knowledge about sexist and racist practices within our institutions. Further, medical school leadership should provide students, supervisors, and teachers with an account of structural and everyday sexism and racism, encourage them to engage in critical self-reflection on their roles in sexist and racist power relations, and with strategies and training on how to intervene as bystanders and allies.
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| 5. |
- Lilliehorn, Sara, 1976-
(författare)
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Betydelser av bröstcancer i ett livssammanhang
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse how a group of women experience that their every-day lives are affected during and after primary breast cancer treatment. The thesis is a consecutive, longitudinal study that takes an explorative qualitative approach. Seventy-one women younger than 60 years of age with primary breast cancer were consecutively included in the study. The women were interviewed four or five times over a period of 4 to 6 years from end of radiotherapy. The analyses of the interviews were inspired by grounded theory and narrative analysis. The thesis encompasses four papers. Paper I focused on the women’s contact with health care. The results of this study indicate that it is crucial for patients in a vulnerable situation to be admitted into a supportive system – ‘admitted into a helping plan’ – that, more or less explicitly, displays a well-thought-out plan of care. This is a process built on individual relationships with members of the health-care staff, but it ends up in a relationship to health care as a helping system, a ‘safe haven’ to attach to. Study II explored the women’s ideas about what motivated and discouraged their return to work. The results illustrate that the meaning of work fluctuates over time and that the processes of returning to work are conditioned by the patients’ individual life situations. Returning to work was regarded as an important part of the healing process because of how it generated and structured the women’s everyday lives. Returning to work meant demonstrating well-being and normalcy after breast cancer. Study III examined how life was lived and valued during and after treatment for breast cancer compared to pre-cancer life. The analysis showed that being afflicted with breast cancer was evaluated from a context of the women’s former everyday lives and stressed that how the women experienced breast cancer was a matter of personal circumstances. Study IV focused on how the women experienced and dealt with their altered bodies. The results showed that the women followed three different body-mind trajectories that depended to a significant extent on the severity of side effects and bodily alterations that resulted from their treatments.Being afflicted by breast cancer implies vulnerability and losses, but it can also involve benefits and provide new perspectives on life. How the overall breast cancer experience is valued seems to be very much a matter of circumstances in everyday life. This thesis highlights circumstances that focus in particular on contacts with health care, the body, the work situation, and the family situation.
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| 6. |
- Waller, Göran, 1954-
(författare)
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Self-rated health : from epidemiology to patient encounter
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: In epidemiology self-rated health is often measured as people’s subjective answer to a question “How is your health in general?” or “How is your general health compared to persons of your own age?”. The answers have a strong association with significant medical outcomes such as death, diabetes, coronary heart disease, functional ability and depression, medical diagnoses and how these are perceived. The overarching aim of this thesis was to investigate if and how a use of the epidemiologists’ tool of self-rated health might aid GPs in practising medicine with a holistic perspective, contextually sensitive and taking into account the patients’ medical and personal histories.Methods: In Paper I, I used semantics to elucidate the meaning of self-rated health. Data came from the Northern Sweden Monica Project 1990–1999. In Paper II, with data from the MONICA Project in 1999–2009, I used ordinal regression to investigate associations between self-rated health, medical factors, psychosocial factors and emotions. In Paper III, I used data from the Västerbotten Intervention Programme 1990–2004 in Cox regression analyses to investigate the relationship between self-rated health and standard risk factors for the outcome myocardial infarction. Paper IV is a qualitative study from seven primary care health centres. Actual consultations were audio-recorded and analysed with systematic text condensation, measuring apportionment of speaking time and by taking into account GPs’ assessments of using a question about comparative self-rated health in a consultation.Results: In Paper I, I found “health” in questionnaires being understood not through definitions of health but through associations of the word “health” with “sense relations”, that are important connotations of the word “health”. Age-comparative self-rated health was semantically clearer as it pointed towards comparison with a reference group. In Paper II, emotions of anxiety or depression and discontent with personal economy were associated with lower self-rated health and were common in the population. Paper III established self-rated health as an independent risk factor for myocardial infarction when adjusted for standard risk factors. In the qualitative Paper IV, self-rated health affected consultations, increased patients’ speaking time in relation to doctors’ when discussing self-rated health and elicited reactions, sometimes with strong language. Reflections ensued that could give vivid descriptions of function, life circumstances and resources or obstacles in handling symptoms and illnesses.Conclusion: Comparative self-rated health constitutes a feasible tool in general practice, particularly in taking account of patients’ medical and personal histories. It is holistic, sensitive to psychosocial factors. It is useful to solicit information on risk and the patient’s feelings related to an illness/disease, and to encourage the patient’s active reflection on functional abilities, life situation, health and health strategies. However, self-ratings are not to be seen as a standard procedure in all consultations.
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| 7. |
- Lundqvist, Anette, 1963-
(författare)
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Nutritional aspects of behaviour and biology during pregnancy and postpartum
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- BackgroundA well-balanced nutritious diet is important for the pregnant woman and the growing fetus, as well as for their future health. Poor nutrition results from both over-consumption of energy-rich foods which can lead to a higher weight gain than is healthy and under-nutrition of essential nutrients. Food intake is regulated in complex biological systems by many factors, where steroid hormone is one factor involved.The overall aim of this thesis is to describe dietary intake, vitamin D levels, dietary information and dietary changes, and to study the relation between allopregnanolone and weight gain during pregnancy and postpartum.Methods Study I was a qualitative study with focus group interviews with 23 pregnant women. The text was analysed with content analysis. Study II was a quantitative cross-sectional study conducted in early pregnancy (n=209) with a reference group (n=206). Self-reported dietary data from a questionnaire was analysed using descriptive comparative statistics and a cluster analysis model (Partial Least Squares modelling). Study III had a quantitative longitudinal design. Vitamin D concentrations were analysed in 184 women, collected on five occasions during pregnancy and postpartum. Descriptive comparative statistics and a linear mixed model were used. Study IV was a quantitative longitudinal study with 60 women. Concentrations of allopregnanolone were analysed in gestational week 12 and 35. Descriptive and comparative statistics as well as Spearman’s correlation (rho) were used to describe the relationship between weight gain and allopregnanolone concentrations. Results The focus group interviews showed that women wanted to know more about different foods to reduce any risk for their child but the information about foods was partly up to themselves to find out. They expressedfeelingsof insecurityand guiltif they accidentallyate something“forbidden”. The recommendationswere followedas best as possiblealong withcommon sense todeal with dietchanges. The main themes were “Finding out by oneself”, “Getting professional advice when health problems occur”, “Being uncertain” and “Being responsible with a pinch of salt”. Some differences in the dietary patterns were found among the pregnant women compared to references, with less, vegetables (47 g/day), potatoes/rice/pasta (31 g/day), meat/fish (24 g/day) and intake of alcohol and tobacco/snuff but a higher intake of supplements. Bothpregnant women and referenceshad intakes offolatethrough diet45% (pregnant) and 22% (references) lower than current recommendations(500vs400g/day). Vitamin Dintake was34% lower than the recommendationsof 10mg/day. At least a third of the participants had insufficient plasma levels below 50 nmol/L of vitamin D. Season was a strong factor influencing the longitudinal pattern. Gestational week, season, total energy intake, dietary intake of vitamin D, and multivitamin supplementation over the previous 14 days were factors related to vitamin D levels. A correlation betweenallopregnanoloneconcentrations ingestationalweek 35and weight gainin weeks12–35was seen (p = 0.016). Therewas alsoa correlation betweenthe increase inallopregnanolone(weeks12–35) andweight gain(see above) (p = 0.028). ConclusionsDietary recommendations were described as contradictory and confusing and the dietary advice felt inadequate. The women faced their diet changes and sought information on their own but would have wished for more extensive advice from the midwife. The intake of vitamins essential for pregnancy was lower than recommended, which is also confirmed by low plasma levels of vitamin D in at least one third of the pregnant women. Vitamin D levels peaked in late pregnancy. Aside from gestational week and season which were related to plasma levels, intake from foods and supplements also affected the levels. Reasons for weight gain are complex and depend on many factors. Allopregnanolone is a factor that was seen to relate to the weight gain of the studied pregnant women.
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| 8. |
- Sperens, Maria, 1958-
(författare)
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Att leva med Parkinsons sjukdom : med fokus på konsekvenser i dagligt liv för kvinnor och män
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common, progressive neurodegenerative disorder. It is characterized by motor symptoms, such as stiff muscles, slowness of movements, tremor, gait and balance difficulties, and also by non-motor symptoms such as depression, sleeping disorders, fatigue, sexual dysfunction, cognitive decline and pain. In an advanced stage of the disease, dementia can be developed. The disease occurs in all ethnic groups and affects both women and men. In 2016, the world wide prevalence of PD was estimated to 6.1 million people (2.9 million women, 3.1 men). In Sweden there are currently about 20 000 persons diagnosed with PD. There is no cure for PD. The main goal of treatment is for the patient to achieve best possible quality of life. The basic treatment for PD is oral medication, but for some, with a more advanced disease, alternative ways to distribute medicine, and/or neurosurgery (deep brain stimulation, DBS) may be an alternative. Today, there is an increasing awareness of the need of medical research, based on sex/gender. Among those living with PD, more men than women undergo highly specialised treatment with neurosurgery, even though women after surgery experienced greater benefit in ADL, in emotions and in social life. In a progressive disease as PD, changes in ADL can appear both suddenly and gradually. Earlier studies have shown that PD affects ADL already in an early stage of the disease, and also that maintenance of activities is important for well-being in daily life.The overall aim of this thesis was to gain knowledge of daily life among women and men with Parkinson’s disease and to explore how they relate to and manage aspects of consequences of the disease. The specific aims were to investigate how persons with moderately advanced Parkinson’s disease manage consequences of the disease in their daily life, how they reason about DBS as a treatment alternative, to evaluate the development of ADL over time in persons living with PD, from the time of diagnosis up to eight years, and finally, to explore similarities and differences among women and men.Method: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 persons with PD (PwPD), 14 men and 10 women. The interviews were analysed according to Grounded Theory (GT). Comparisons between patterns in men and women were made. The quantitative study included 129 PwPD from the NYPUM project (Ny Parkinsonism in UMeå). Data from baseline assessment, and then from follow-ups at one, three, five and eight years have been used. Participants estimated their ability to perform daily activities based on the ADL-taxonomy. Data have been analysed statistically with respect to development over time, as well as differences between men and women. Linear Mixed Model was chosen for analyses.Results: To achieve the best possible everyday life, in spite of the difficulties PD caused, it was important for the participants to adapt to their medication regime and also to ongoing changes in their abilities. The interviewees tried to think in a positive way, prioritize among social relations and activities, to take advantage of positive environments and to exercise physically. Participants had a good knowledge of DBS as an alternative treatment method although it was not their choice at the actual time point. They worried about the neurosurgical procedure and were hesitant about the outcome of DBS. The treatment was seen as a step-way process, and DBS was seen as the last option. In the quantitative study, nine out of 12 activity domains showed a statistically significant change over time. Seven of these were basic, needed to be performed almost every day. The two remaining ADL-domains (Shopping and Cleaning) also showed a statistically significant difference between women and men, showing that women experienced a higher degree of detoriation. Those 32 remaining at eight years, still fulfilling the ADL-taxonomy, did not seem to experience that PD had a big impact on their ADL-ability. Overall, in these studies, there were more similarities than differences between women and men.Discussion: Our results support the importance of PwPD maintain routines regarding food, medicine and daily activities, adapt their way to perform tasks, and engage in meaningful and values activities as a way to achieve a good, daily life. Occupational therapists with good knowledge in PD could contribute in facilitating to use this strategies. Concerning DBS, the participants had comparatively low expectations on the outcome. This might be explained by a high level of education and a high percentage being member in a PD-society. Of the nine ADL domains showing change over time, seven were likely to be needed to be performed every day (e.g. Mobility and Dressing). The two remaining, (Shopping and Cleaning) are activities that are challenging for PwPD. They are also such activities where it is generally known that there are differences between women and men.Conclusion: Various aspects of activity appear to be important factors in the assessment, treatment and follow-up of PwPD. Meaningful activities, adapting the way of performing various tasks, as well as a functioning schedule based on food, medicines and activity are important elements in the strive for a good daily life. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) seems to be considered as the last step in a step-by-step approach to treatment options. Those who still perform self-assessment according to the ADL taxonomy at eight years follow-up, do not seem to experience that PD have a major impact on their perceived ability. The results also implies that men and women have a similar development over time regarding ADL ability and that they reason in a similar way with regard to strategies for achieving good daily life and about deep DBS as a treatment option.
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| 9. |
- Wennberg, Anna Lena, 1952-
(författare)
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Pregnant women and midwives are not in tune with each other about dietary counseling : studies in Swedish antenatal care
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background During pregnancy, a healthy diet is beneficial for the expecting mother and her fetus. Midwives in antenatal care have an ideal position for promoting a healthy diet and thereby help women to not only lower the risks of pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes, but improve maternal health. The overall aim of this thesis was to describe diet and dietary changes during pregnancy from the women’s and the midwives’ perspectives with a focus on dietary counseling. The thesis comprises four studies. The specific aims in the respective studies were to: I) Describe pregnant women’s attitudes to and experiences of dietary information and advice, as well as dietary management during pregnancy. II) Explore midwives’ strategies in challenging dietary counseling situations. III) Describe how midwives’ perceive their role and their significance in dietary counseling of pregnant women. IV) Describe women’s food habits during pregnancy and up to six months postpartum.Methods Studies I-III were qualitative. Study I included focus group interviews with 23 pregnant women. Study II included telephone interviews with 17 experienced midwives working in Swedish antenatal health care. Study III included the same 17 interviews from study II and supplemented them with four face-to-face-interviews. Qualitative content analysis was performed in all three studies. Study IV was a longitudinal study including a quantitative analysis of a questionnaire, which was given to women at five occasions during and after pregnancy. It concerned their food habits and it was answered by 163 women. The quantitative data was analyzed using comparative and descriptive statistics.Results The overall findings of the thesis were summarized as the main theme “Pregnant women and midwives are not in tune with each other about dietary counseling”. The main theme included the two themes ‘Pregnant women are concerned about risks for their child but fail to change to healthier dietary habits over time’, and ‘Midwives view themselves as authorities, though questioned ones’. In subthemes it was highlighted that pregnant women are well informed and interested in risk reduction for their child’s best and that they try to do their best to improve their diet during pregnancy. However, their diet did not reach levels of healthy eating recommendations and became even unhealthier after pregnancy. It was also highlighted that midwives experienced insufficient knowledge in dietary issues and related risks and that they had difficulties to give dietary support to pregnant women. Midwives were found to mainly focus on giving information and they lacked sufficient competence for challenging counseling.Conclusion Pregnant women, on the one hand, experience a lack of support from the midwives when dealing with dietary changes. The midwives, on the other hand, feel exposed and express a need for both further education in dietary issues and training in counseling. Women’s food habits during, but in particular after pregnancy need improvement, and dietary counseling could be more focused on healthy eating in a long-term perspective.
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