| 1. |
- Alehagen, Siw, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Catecholamine and cortisol reaction to childbirth
- 2001
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Ingår i: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. - 1070-5503 .- 1532-7558. ; 8:1, s. 50-65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One way to study the stressfulness of childbirth is to examine the output of stress hormones. In this study, urinary catecholamines and salivary cortisol from 50 primiparous women were collected for 1 day during gestational weeks 37 to 39, hourly during labor and delivery, and 2 hr and 2 days postpartum. All three stress hormones increased statistically significantly from pregnancy to labor. The increase in adrenaline and cortisol was more than 500%, and the increase in noradrenaline was about 50%. After labor, the output decreased but not statistically significantly below the levels during late pregnancy. Hormone levels during late pregnancy, during labor and delivery, and during the period postpartum mostly did not correlate systematically. However, noradrenaline and adrenaline, as well as adrenaline and cortisol, were positively correlated during labor. After administration of epidural analgesia, there was a moderate but significant decrease in noradrenaline and adrenaline, whereas cortisol did not change. In conclusion, the results of this study support the assumption that childbirth is a very stressful event and that the stress responses vary considerably among women. The substantial increase of adrenaline and cortisol compared with noradrenaline indicates that mental stress is more dominant than physical stress during labor.
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| 2. |
- Burell, Gunilla, et al.
(författare)
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Women`s hearts need special treatment.
- 2002
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Ingår i: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. - 1070-5503 .- 1532-7558. ; 9:3, s. 228-242
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the Western world. Some studies show that the observed decline in cardiovascular mortality is not as pronounced among women as among men. There is a growing awareness that most earlier studies both on primary and secondary risk factors, diagnosis, prognosis, and rehabilitation have focused mainly on men. Thus, there is a need to develop knowledge about women with CHD and to address gender issues in treatment and rehabilitation strategies. Negative affect and emotions increase risk and may interfere with effective cardiac rehabilitation. Therefore, methods for coping with emotional stress need to be included in treatment regimens after a coronary event. The feasibility of a stress management program for women with CHD was assessed in a pilot study. The program consisted of twenty 2-hr group sessions during 1 year, with 5 to 9 participants per group. The pilot study showed that this treatment program had a low dropout rate and resulted in improvement in quality of life and reduction in stress and symptoms. Further work to optimize psychosocial interventions for women with CHD is needed.
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| 3. |
- Canivet, Catarina, et al.
(författare)
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Higher risk of colic in infants of nonmanual employee mothers with a demanding work situation in pregnancy.
- 2004
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Ingår i: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1070-5503 .- 1532-7558. ; 11:1, s. 37-47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this population-based study, we assessed the relation between socioeconomic and psychosocial conditions in 1,094 pregnant women and subsequent infantile colic by means of self-administered questionnaires measuring exposures in the 17th pregnancy week and telephone interviews at infant age 5 weeks. There was a higher risk of colic in infants born to younger mothers, mothers with low instrumental support in pregnancy, and mothers with nonmanual occupations. Having an "active" job situation, that is, high demands and high decision latitude at work, acted synergistically with a nonmanual occupation, yielding even higher odds ratios for colic as did concomitant low instrumental support and nonmanual occupation. An expected synergy between low social participation and nonmanual occupation could not be demonstrated. Findings from gender-related research may partly explain some of these results.
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| 4. |
- Grossi et al, G, et al.
(författare)
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Gender differences in coping with musculoskeletal pain
- 2000
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Ingår i: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. - 1070-5503 .- 1532-7558. ; 7:4, s. 305-321
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gender differences in coping with musculoskeletal pain were cross-sectionally investigated, using questionnaires (Coping Strategies Questionnaire), in 446 Swedish patients (mean age 46 years, 72% women) seeking care for their ailments. Compared to male patients, women reported more disability, a larger consumption of analgesics, more work strain, higher levels of posttraumatic stress reactions, a lower self-esteem, and higher scores for the Coping Strategies Questionnaire indexes: diverting attention, praying/hoping, catastrophizing, increased behavioural activity, and pain behaviours. All gender differencesin coping were ruled out in multivariate analyses, except for the association between the interaction term Gender x Posttraumatic Stress Reactions and Catastrophizing. Among women, catastrophizing was positively associated with posttraumatic stress reactions, perceived disability, and the number of previous treatments for pain.Nosuch associations were found among men. Women’s poorer capacity to cope with musculoskeletal pain is related to higher level of emotional distress, greater disability, and a history of treatments for pain.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Koertge, J C, et al.
(författare)
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Vital exhaustion in relation to lifestyle and lipid profile in healthy women
- 2003
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Ingår i: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. - : LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOC INC. - 1070-5503 .- 1532-7558. ; 10:1, s. 44-55
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- "Vital exhaustion," characterized by fatigue, irritability, and demoralization, precedes new and recurrent coronary events. Biological mechanisms explaining this association are not fully understood. The objective was to investigate the relationship between vital exhaustion, lifestyle, and lipid profile. Vital exhaustion, smoking, body mass index (BMI), alcohol consumption, exercise capacity, and serum lipids were determined in 300 healthy women, aged 56.4 +/- 7.1 years. No statistically significant associations were found between vital exhaustion and lifestyle variables. Divided into quartiles, vital exhaustion was inversely related to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A1 in a linear fashion after adjustment for age, BMI, exercise capacity, and alcohol consumption. A multivariate-adjusted vital exhaustion-score in the top quartile, as compared to one in the lowest, was associated with 12% lower HDL-C and 8% lower apolipoprotein A1 (p < .05). In conclusion, alterations in lipid metabolism may be a possible mediating mechanism between vital exhaustion and coronary heart disease. The impact of lifestyle variables was weak.
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| 7. |
- Krantz, G, et al.
(författare)
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Does it make sense in a coherent way? Determinants of sense of coherence in Swedish women 40 to 50 years of age
- 2004
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Ingår i: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1070-5503 .- 1532-7558. ; 11:1, s. 18-26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to explore how socioeconomic and psychosocial life experiences in childhood and at adult age influence the level of sense of coherence (SOC) in women. The idea was to seek empirical support for establishing whether SOC is an individual construct being developed in early life and basically resistant toward adverse environmental factors or rather an entity influenced by adult psychosocial factors and as such, sensitive to health promotion activities; that is, if evidence could be found for a causal direction from classic factors involved in health promotion, such as social network and support, to SOC. A questionnaire (Krantz & Ostergren, 1999) was mailed to a random sample of 486 women, equivalent to 50% of the women between the ages of 40 and 50 in a medium-sized municipality (population 13,200) in Sweden. The response rate was 81.7% (397 women). Odds ratios (OR) were used to estimate bivariate associations between socioeconomic and psychosocial variables and low SOC Logistic regression analysis was used to test for confounding and as a method of analyzing the structure of tentative causal chains. It was found that adult factors such as job strain (OR = 3.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.11-5.54), low social support (OR = 4.00, CI = 2.48-6.46), and low social anchorage (OR = 4.14, CI = 2.57-6.67) were independent predictors for low SOC in adult women. Childhood conditions such as family disruption and child abuse proved not to influence SOC to a statistically significant degree. Our study suggests that SOC is an entity partly associated with an individual's position in the social structure and partly by work conditions and social network and support rather than by childhood conditions. We could not claim this study to be a critical test of Antonovsky's (1979) theories in. the full refutationistic sense. To approach this goal, it would take a carefully designed prospective study assessing the effect of different factors on SOC in a true life course perspective.
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| 8. |
- Mellegård, M, et al.
(författare)
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A comparative study of coping among women with fibromyalgia, neck/shoulder and back pain
- 2001
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Ingår i: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. - 1070-5503 .- 1532-7558. ; 8:2, s. 103-115-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Passive coping strategies for pain (e.g., eatastrophizing) have been implicated in the development and maintenance of chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia (FM). Catastrophizing may thus be independently associated with FM, controlling for pain parameters such as intensity and complexity. This cross-sectional study compared coping strategies for pain (Coping Strategies Questionnaire; CSQ) among women with FM (n = 81), neck/shoulder pain (re = 76), and back pain (re = 131). Soeiodemographics and pain parameters were also assessed. FM patients reported stronger pain intensity, higher consumption of analgesics and sedatives, and higher disability than the other patients did. They also reported higher scores for the CSQ subscales–diverting attention, eatastrophizing, praying/hoping, and pain behaviors–and lower scores for self-efficacy beliefs. Multivariate analyses controlling for relevant conifounders ruled out most differences in coping strategies between groups, with the exception of diverting attention and pain behaviors. The results indicate that passive coping is not independently related to FM, but is, rather, dependent on a more general dysfunction due to pain.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Soares, Joaquim J. F., et al.
(författare)
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Age and muscousceletal pain
- 2003
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Ingår i: International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. - 1070-5503 .- 1532-7558. ; 10:2, s. 181-190
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using questionnaires, we analyzed associations between different pain variables (e.g., pain intensity) and age (20-65+ years) among 949 primary pain patients. Older patients (a) were more often divorced, were blue-collar workers, were less educated, and had greater difficulties with living expenses; (b) had pain of longer duration, more frequently and of more complexity, and felt more disabled; (c) consumed more painkillers, analgesics, sedatives, and other medications, and had received more pain treatments; and (d) had more health problems. Younger patients had more severe pain, were financially strained, and were more often unemployed. A multivariate regression analysis showed that high disability was more determined by older than young age. However, other factors (e.g., pain complexity) were also important. Thus, older and younger patients experienced their pain differently.
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