| 1. |
- Blixt, Ingrid, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Breastfeeding training improved healthcare professional's self-efficacy to provide evidence-based breastfeeding support : A pre-post intervention study
- 2023
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Ingår i: Midwifery. - : Elsevier. - 0266-6138 .- 1532-3099. ; 125
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To describe healthcare professional's (HCP's) perceived self-efficacy in their ability to provide breastfeeding support before and after a breastfeeding training program.DESIGN: Pre-post intervention study.SETTING: Antenatal care and child healthcare (CHC) centres in Sweden during 2020.PARTICIPANTS: An intervention group consisting of 39 HCPs (midwives 51.3%, child healthcare nurses 46.2%) completing a questionnaire at baseline and after intervention, and a control group of 34 HCPs (midwives 61.8%, child healthcare nurses 38.2%) completing a questionnaire at baseline.INTERVENTION: A breastfeeding training program in line with the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and WHO recommendations about breastfeeding.MEASUREMENTS AND FINDINGS: The 11-item Breastfeeding Support Confidence Scale (BSCS) measures HCP's self-efficacy regarding providing breastfeeding support in line with Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and WHO recommendations. The intervention group experienced a significantly increased self-efficacy from pre-intervention to post-intervention for 8 of the 11 BSCS items, with the overall BSCS index score increasing from 36.87 to 39.56 points (p = 0.001). The index score in the intervention group at follow-up was significantly higher than the corresponding score in the control group at baseline (p = 0.025). The intervention group had significantly higher scores at follow-up than the control group at baseline on the questions: "I'm sure that I can help mothers continue to breastfeed even if the infant doesn't follow the growth curve" (p = 0.026) and "I'm sure that I can help mothers continue to breastfeed when the breastfeeding is painful" (p = 0.048).KEY CONCLUSIONS: The breastfeeding training program improved HCP' self-efficacy to provide evidence-based support to breastfeeding mothers.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: This training program is well suited to implement in clinical practice and follows the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.TRIAL REGISTRATION: ACTRN12623000648628.
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| 2. |
- Blixt, Ingrid, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Partners' experiences of breastfeeding : a qualitative evaluation of a breastfeeding support intervention in Sweden
- 2024
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Ingår i: International Breastfeeding Journal. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1746-4358 .- 1746-4358. ; 19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The World Health Organization states that women and their families need breastfeeding support from the healthcare system. However, knowledge about the most effective way to involve the partner in breastfeeding is lacking. A qualitative evaluation can provide insight and knowledge about the partner's experiences towards a breastfeeding support intervention and thus contribute to how forthcoming breastfeeding support policies are designed. The aim of this study was to explore partners' experiences regarding breastfeeding while participating in The Breastfeeding Study.Methods: An exploratory, longitudinal and qualitative design was used. This study was part of The Breastfeeding Study, which took place in Sweden. The intervention was performed in line with the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. Partners in the in the intervention group (IG) were part of a structured breastfeeding support programme. An individual breastfeeding plan was established in cooperation with the parents-to-be during pregnancy, and the plan was followed up at the child healthcare centre. A purposive sample was recruited from March to December 2021. Interviews and diary entries from IG (n = 8) and control group (CG) (n = 8) during pregnancy and 2 months after birth were analysed by content analysis, in accordance with the COREQ guidelines.Results: Partners' experiences can be summarised under the main category of 'Striving to be part of the family and important that the family's everyday life was well-functioning'. IG partners experienced that both parents were involved and cooperated in the breastfeeding process and that guidance from healthcare professionals (HCPs) helped them to feel secure. CG partners experienced feeling excluded and not receiving support from HCPs.Conclusion: Both parents need to be targeted in breastfeeding support policies to meet the support needs. Midwives at antenatal care and child healthcare nurses at the child healthcare centre have important roles to play in providing structured breastfeeding support and a breastfeeding plan. Both IG and CG partners strived to become a part of the infant's life and to make family life work. Midwives should involve both parents in a reflective dialogue on how the partner can be involved, apart from just feeding the infant.
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| 3. |
- Blixt, Ingrid, et al.
(författare)
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Partners’ Experiences of Breastfeeding: A Qualitative Evaluation of an Intervention
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background The World Health Organization states that women and their families need breastfeeding support from the healthcare system. However, knowledge about the most effective way to involve the partner in breastfeeding is lacking. A qualitative evaluation can provide insight and knowledge about the partner’s experiences towards a breastfeeding support intervention and thus contribute to how forthcoming breastfeeding support policies are designed. The aim of this study was to explore partners’ experiences regarding breastfeeding.MethodsAn exploratory, longitudinal and qualitative design was used. Partners in an intervention group (IG) and control group (CG) participated in interviews or wrote diaries during pregnancy and two months after birth. The intervention was performed in line with the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. Partners in the IG were part of a structured breastfeeding support programme. An individual breastfeeding plan was established in cooperation with the parents-to-be during pregnancy, and the plan was followed up at the child healthcare centre. A purposive sample was recruited from March to December 2021. Interviews and diary entries from 16 Swedish partners (8 IG and 8 CG) were analysed by content analysis, in accordance with the COREQ guidelines.ResultsPartners’ experiences can be summarised under the main category of ‘Striving to be part of the family and important that the family’s everyday life was well-functioning’. IG partners experienced that both parents were involved and cooperated in the breastfeeding process and that guidance from healthcare professionals (HCPs) helped them to feel secure. CG partners experienced feeling excluded and not receiving support from HCPs.ConclusionBoth parents need to be targeted in breastfeeding support policies to meet the support needs. Midwives at antenatal care and child healthcare nurses at the child healthcare centre have important roles to play in providing structured breastfeeding support and a breastfeeding plan. Both IG and CG partners strived to become a part of the infant’s life and to make family life work. Midwives should involve both parents in a reflective dialogue on how the partner can be involved, apart from just feeding the infant.
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| 4. |
- Blixt, Ingrid, 1968-
(författare)
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Support to breastfeeding women
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Breastfeeding has important health benefits for mothers and infants in high- and low-income countries. For that reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months and partial breastfeeding for two years or longer. During pregnancy, a majority of women state that they intend to breastfeed, but they often stop earlier than they want because they face many barriers. Thus, it is important that women get the opportunity to breastfeed as long as they want. The overall aim of this thesis was to explore women’s perceptions of what assisted them in breastfeeding and their advice to healthcare professionals regarding breastfeeding support. An additional aim was to evaluate a breastfeeding support programme based on the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and the WHO’s recommendations on breastfeeding. In Paper I, an exploratory qualitative design was used based on the critical incident technique. The main finding was that supporting women to continue breastfeeding is both complex and multifaceted. In Paper II, an exploratory qualitative design illuminated that Swedish women advised healthcare professionals to provide up-to-date and evidence-based breastfeeding support in a sensitive and individualised manner to help the mothers to reach their breastfeeding goals. In Paper III, a breastfeeding training programme was evaluated using a pre-post design. The programme improved midwives’ and child healthcare nurses’ self-efficacy to provide evidence-based support in line with the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and the WHO’s recommendations on breastfeeding. Paper IV used an exploratory, longitudinal and qualitative design. Specifically, the study showed that partners who participated in the breastfeeding support programme and received structured support felt that both parents were important. They felt involved and that the family cooperated in the breastfeeding process. In conclusion, it is crucial to understand families’ perceptions and experiences of breastfeeding when supporting women to breastfeed. Midwives and child healthcare nurses have important roles to play by providing structured breastfeeding support during the breastfeeding process. The whole family must be targeted to decrease the partner’s feelings of being excluded. Both parents must be involved in a reflective dialogue, where healthcare professionals explain how breastfeeding works and how the partner can be involved without bottle-feeding the infant.
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| 5. |
- Green, Jonathan M. H., et al.
(författare)
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Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food, energy, water and the environment
- 2017
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Ingår i: Sustainability Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1862-4065 .- 1862-4057. ; 12:2, s. 319-331
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the 'nexus' of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboration with researchers to devise solutions to some of the foremost sustainability challenges of today. Yet opportunities are missed because the private sector is rarely involved in the formulation of deliverable research priorities. We convened senior research scientists and influential business leaders to collaboratively identify the top forty questions that, if answered, would best help companies understand and manage their food-energy-water-environment nexus dependencies and impacts. Codification of the top order nexus themes highlighted research priorities around development of pragmatic yet credible tools that allow businesses to incorporate nexus interactions into their decision-making; demonstration of the business case for more sustainable nexus management; identification of the most effective levers for behaviour change; and understanding incentives or circumstances that allow individuals and businesses to take a leadership stance. Greater investment in the complex but productive relations between the private sector and research community will create deeper and more meaningful collaboration and cooperation.
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| 6. |
- Hinkula, Jorma, et al.
(författare)
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Immunization with DNA Plasmids Coding for Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus Capsid and Envelope Proteins and/or Virus-Like Particles Induces Protection and Survival in Challenged Mice
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Virology. - : AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY. - 0022-538X .- 1098-5514. ; 91:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is a bunyavirus causing severe hemorrhagic fever disease in humans, with high mortality rates. The requirement of a high-containment laboratory and the lack of an animal model hampered the study of the immune response and protection of vaccine candidates. Using the recently developed interferon alpha receptor knockout (IFNAR(- / -)) mouse model, which replicates human disease, we investigated the immunogenicity and protection of two novel CCHFV vaccine candidates: a DNA vaccine encoding a ubiquitin-linked version of CCHFV Gc, Gn, and N and one using transcriptionally competent virus-like particles (tc-VLPs). In contrast to most studies that focus on neutralizing antibodies, we measured both humoral and cellular immune responses. We demonstrated a clear and 100% efficient preventive immunity against lethal CCHFV challenge with the DNA vaccine. Interestingly, there was no correlation with the neutralizing antibody titers alone, which were higher in the tc-VLP-vaccinated mice. However, the animals with a lower neutralizing titer, but a dominant cell-mediated Th1 response and a balanced Th2 response, resisted the CCHFV challenge. Moreover, we found that in challenged mice with a Th1 response (immunized by DNA/DNA and boosted by tc-VLPs), the immune response changed to Th2 at day 9 postchallenge. In addition, we were able to identify new linear B-cell epitope regions that are highly conserved between CCHFV strains. Altogether, our results suggest that a predominantly Th1-type immune response provides the most efficient protective immunity against CCHFV challenge. However, we cannot exclude the importance of the neutralizing antibodies as the surviving immunized mice exhibited substantial amounts of them. IMPORTANCE Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is responsible for hemorrhagic diseases in humans, with a high mortality rate. There is no FDAapproved vaccine, and there are still gaps in our knowledge of the immune responses to infection. The recently developed mouse models mimic human CCHF disease and are useful to study the immunogenicity and the protection by vaccine candidates. Our study shows that mice vaccinated with a specific DNA vaccine were fully protected. Importantly, we show that neutralizing antibodies are not sufficient for protection against CCHFV challenge but that an extra Th1-specific cellular response is required. Moreover, we describe the identification of five conserved B-cell epitopes, of which only one was previously known, that could be of great importance for the development of diagnostics tools and the improvement of vaccine candidates.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Wendel, Ulrika, et al.
(författare)
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A novel monoclonal antibody targeting carboxymethyllysine, an advanced glycation end product in atherosclerosis and pancreatic cancer
- 2018
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 13:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Advanced glycation end products are formed by non-enzymatic reactions between proteins and carbohydrates, causing irreversible lysine and arginine alterations that severely affect protein structure and function. The resulting modifications induce inflammation by binding to scavenger receptors. An increase in advanced glycation end products is observed in a number of diseases e.g. atherosclerosis and cancer. Since advanced glycation end products also are present in healthy individuals, their detection and quantification are of great importance for usage as potential biomarkers. Current methods for advanced glycation end product detection are though limited and solely measure total glycation. This study describes a new epitope-mapped single chain variable fragment, D1-B2, against carboxymethyllysine, produced from a phage library that was constructed from mouse immunizations. The phage library was selected against advanced glycation end product targets using a phage display platform. Characterization of its binding pattern was performed using large synthetic glycated peptide and protein libraries displayed on microarray slides. D1-B2 showed a preference for an aspartic acid, three positions N-terminally from a carboxymethyllysine residue and also bound to a broad collection of glycated proteins. Positive immunohistochemical staining of mouse atherosclerotic plaques and of a tissue microarray of human pancreatic tumors confirmed the usability of the new scFv for advanced glycation end product detection in tissues. This study demonstrates a promising methodology for high-throughput generation of epitope-mapped monoclonal antibodies against AGE.
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