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- Axelsson, Malin, 1964-
(författare)
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Report on personality and adherence to antibiotic therapy : a population-based study
- 2013
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Ingår i: BMC Psychology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2050-7283. ; 1:1, s. 24-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND:Antimicrobial resistance results from inappropriate use of antibiotics and makes common or life-threatening infections more difficult or sometimes impossible to treat. Proper adherence to antibiotic therapy is one among several measures required to prevent antimicrobial resistance. Knowledge of personality traits could help in identifying patients who need support with their adherence behaviour. Previous research has presented associations between personality traits and adherence to long-term medication treatment in individuals with different chronic diseases. However, there is limited knowledge about associations between personality traits and adherence to both antibiotic therapy and to shorter treatment periods. The aim was to explore the relation between personality and adherence behaviour in people prescribed antibiotics for common infections.METHODS:In a population-based study, 445 respondents reported on their prescribed antibiotic therapy and completed the Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to experience Five-factor Inventory and the Medication Adherence Report Scale. Data were statistically analysed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, bivariate correlations, multiple and logistic regressions.RESULTS:Non-adherence was estimated to be 9.4%. The most common reasons for stopping therapy prematurely was that the respondent was now healthy and that the respondents experienced side-effects. Non-adherent respondents scored lower on the personality traits Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. A logistic regression showed that higher scores on Agreeableness decreased the risk for non-adherence to antibiotic therapy. In a multiple regression, Neuroticism was identified as a negative predictor, and both Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were identified as positive predictors of adherence behaviour.CONCLUSIONS:Preventive measures to decrease non-adherence may be to inform patients not to interrupt the antibiotic therapy when they start to feel healthy and to inform them about how to prevent and handle common side-effects. As associations between personality and adherence mainly have been described in relation to long-term treatments in chronic diseases, the current study add to the literature by showing that personality traits also seem to be reflected in adherence to shorter treatment periods with antibiotics for common infections. More studies in this specific area of adherence research are recommended.
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| 3. |
- Lundh, Lars-Gunnar, et al.
(författare)
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Direct and indirect aggression and victimization in adolescents - Associations with the development of psychological difficulties.
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC psychology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2050-7283. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Previous research has established that direct and indirect forms of aggression differ in their association with gender and type of psychological difficulties. One purpose of the present study was to test if the same applies to direct and indirect victimization. A second purpose was to study these associations not only cross-sectionally (as in most previous research) but also longitudinally. A third purpose was to test the hypotheses that there are prospective bidirectional associations not only between victimization and psychological difficulties (which has been shown in previous research), but also between aggression and psychological difficulties, and that direct and indirect forms of aggression and victimization show different associations with different types of psychological difficulties. Methods The participants were a community sample of all students in two grades of regular school in a Swedish municipality who answered questionnaires as part of a two-wave longitudinal study with a one-year interval. The participants were 13-15 years old, and there were longitudinal data on 893 students, which represented 85 % of all students. The cross-sectional associations were primarily tested by semi-partial correlations, and the longitudinal associations by hierarchical multiple regression. Results The results corroborated the meaningfulness of differentiating not only between direct and indirect aggression but also between direct and indirect victimization. Boys reported being more victim to direct aggression, whereas girls reported being more victim to indirect aggression. Direct aggression predicted increased conduct problems in boys, whereas indirect aggression predicted increased conduct problems in girls, and conduct problems reciprocally predicted increased direct and indirect aggression. Indirect victimization showed prospective bidirectional associations with emotional symptoms and conduct problems, suggesting the potential development of vicious cycles of escalating problems in these areas. Conclusions The present results indicate that direct and indirect aggression, as well as direct and indirect victimization, may have different roles in the development of psychological difficulties in young adolescents. Further, the demonstration of prospective bidirectional associations points to a possible mechanism for the development of psychological difficulties, that may be described in terms of dynamical systems theory. This has potential relevance both for the prevention and the treatment of psychopathology.
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| 4. |
- Faresjö, Åshild, et al.
(författare)
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Higher perceived stress and poorer health reflected in elevated cortisol concentrtions measured in extracts of hair from middle-aged healthy women
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC Psychology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2050-7283. ; 2:30, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundThe prevalence of mental strain and stress has increased in modern societies, resulting in increased public health problems. Stress can be measured either by biomarkers or by self-reports. A new biomarker that measures long-term biological stress is cortisol measured in timed hair extracts. Hair grows at approximately 1 cm per month, and retrospectively reflects average stress levels. However, the plausible relationship between perceived stress and self-reported health and this novel biomarker is yet not firmly established. The objective of this study was to investigate the possible relationship between perceived stress, self-reported health, and cortisol in hair extracts in healthy middle-aged women from two different occupations.MethodA cross-sectional study was conducted in 112 middle-aged women working as nurses or librarians in a county in southeast Sweden. The women were invited to fill in a questionnaire covering stress, health, and life situation. The questionnaire included questions on health and disease symptoms, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale. A piece of hair was cut from the vertex posterior area of the head an analysed by a competitive radioimmunoassay method.ResultsMiddle-aged women who reported high perceived stress (p = 0.031) or lower health (p = 0.029), or had signs of depressiveness (p = 0.016) had significantly higher cortisol concentrations adjusted for age. There were no significant differences in cortisol in hair concentrations or perceived stress between nurses and librarians. Two women with extremely high cortisol concentrations were considered as outliers, but during the interview at follow-up they reported experiences of serious life events in their work or social life during the retrospective time of the sample taken for cortisol measurement.ConclusionsHigher cortisol concentrations measured in the hair of healthy and working middle-aged women were associated with higher perceived stress and generally poorer health and with depressiveness. These findings lend support to the general applicability of cortisol measured in hair extracts as a biomarker in population-based epidemiological studies.
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| 5. |
- Fransson, Emma, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring salivary cortisol and recurrent pain in mid-adolescents living in two homes
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC Psychology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2050-7283. ; 21:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Each year, around 50.000 children in Sweden experience a separation between their parents. Joint physical custody (JPC), where the child alternates homes between the parents for about equal amount of time, has become a common living arrangement after parental separation. Children in two homes could benefit from everyday contact with both parents and access to both parents' financial resources. However, children could experience stress from being constantly moving and potentially exposed to parental conflicts. Still, studies on JPC and biological functioning related to stress, are lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate how living arrangements (intact family/JPC) relate to HPA-axis activity and recurrent pain in mid-adolescents.METHODS: Mid-adolescents (106 girls and 51 boys) provided demographic details, self-reports of recurrent pain (headache, stomachache, neck/shoulder and back pain) and salivary samples. Salivary cortisol samples were collected: 1) immediately at awakening, 2) +30 minutes, 3) +60 minutes, and 4) at 8 p.m. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) was computed using an established formula. Additionally, the diurnal decline between the waking and 8 p.m. samples was computed.RESULTS: Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that living arrangements (intact family/JPC) was not associated with morning cortisol (CAR), the diurnal cortisol decline or with recurrent pain. However, sex was a significant predictor of both cortisol measures and recurrent pain with girls exhibiting a higher cortisol awakening response and a greater diurnal decline value as well as reporting more recurrent pain than did boys.CONCLUSIONS: Living arrangements were not associated with HPA-axis activity or recurrent pain in this group of well-functioning mid-adolescents. Although this study is the first to investigate how living arrangements relate to HPA-axis functioning and additional studies are needed, the tentative findings suggest that these mid-adolescents have adapted to their living arrangements and that other factors play a more pertinent role for HPA-functioning and subjective health.
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| 6. |
- Meneguzzo, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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Subliminal versus supraliminal stimuli activate neural responses in anterior cingulate cortex, fusiform gyrus and insula : a meta-analysis of fMRI studies
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC Psychology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2050-7283. ; 2:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUNDNon-conscious neural activation may underlie various psychological functions in health and disorder. However, the neural substrates of non-conscious processing have not been entirely elucidated. Examining the differential effects of arousing stimuli that are consciously, versus unconsciously perceived will improve our knowledge of neural circuitry involved in non-conscious perception. Here we conduct preliminary analyses of neural activation in studies that have used both subliminal and supraliminal presentation of the same stimulus.METHODSWe use Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) to examine functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies that uniquely present the same stimuli subliminally and supraliminally to healthy participants during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We included a total of 193 foci from 9 studies representing subliminal stimulation and 315 foci from 10 studies representing supraliminal stimulation.RESULTSThe anterior cingulate cortex is significantly activated during both subliminal and supraliminal stimulus presentation. Subliminal stimuli are linked to significantly increased activation in the right fusiform gyrus and right insula. Supraliminal stimuli show significantly increased activation in the left rostral anterior cingulate.CONCLUSIONSNon-conscious processing of arousing stimuli may involve primary visual areas and may also recruit the insula, a brain area involved in eventual interoceptive awareness. The anterior cingulate is perhaps a key brain region for the integration of conscious and non-conscious processing. These preliminary data provide candidate brain regions for further study in to the neural correlates of conscious experience.
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| 8. |
- Rozental, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
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Psychometric evaluation of the Swedish version of the pure procrastination scale, the irrational procrastination scale, and the susceptibility to temptation scale in a clinical population
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC Psychology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2050-7283. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Procrastination is a prevalent self-regulatory failure associated with stress and anxiety, decreased well-being, and poorer performance in school as well as work. One-fifth of the adult population and half of the student population describe themselves as chronic and severe procrastinators. However, despite the fact that it can become a debilitating condition, valid and reliable self-report measures for assessing the occurrence and severity of procrastination are lacking, particularly for use in a clinical context. The current study explored the usefulness of the Swedish version of three Internet-administered self-report measures for evaluating procrastination; the Pure Procrastination Scale, the Irrational Procrastination Scale, and the Susceptibility to Temptation Scale, all having good psychometric properties in English.Methods: In total, 710 participants were recruited for a clinical trial of Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy for procrastination. All of the participants completed the scales as well as self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and quality of life. Principal Component Analysis was performed to assess the factor validity of the scales, and internal consistency and correlations between the scales were also determined. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, Minimal Detectable Change, and Standard Error of Measurement were calculated for the Irrational Procrastination Scale.Results: The Swedish version of the scales have a similar factor structure as the English version, generated good internal consistencies, with Cronbach’s α ranging between .76 to .87, and were moderately to highly intercorrelated. The Irrational Procrastination Scale had an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient of .83, indicating excellent reliability. Furthermore, Standard Error of Measurement was 1.61, and Minimal Detectable Change was 4.47, suggesting that a change of almost five points on the scale is necessary to determine a reliable change in self-reported procrastination severity.Conclusions: The current study revealed that the Pure Procrastination Scale, the Irrational Procrastination Scale, and the Susceptibility to Temptation Scale are both valid and reliable from a psychometric perspective, and that they might be used for assessing the occurrence and severity of procrastination via the Internet.
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| 9. |
- Wall, Maja, et al.
(författare)
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Suicidal ideation among surgeons in Italy and Sweden : a cross-sectional study
- 2014
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Ingår i: BMC Psychology. - : Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. - 2050-7283. ; 2, s. 53-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Suicidal ideation is more prevalent among physicians, compared to the population in general, but little is known about the factors behind surgeons’ suicidal ideation. A surgeon’s work environment can be competitive and characterised by degrading experiences, which could contribute to burnout, depression and even thoughts of suicide. Being a surgeon has been reported to be predictor for not seeking help when psychological distressed. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent surgeons in Italy and Sweden are affected by suicidal ideation, and how suicidal ideation can be associated with psychosocial work conditions. Methods: A cross-sectional study of surgeons was performed in Italy (N=149) and Sweden (N=272), where having suicidal ideation was the outcome variable. Work-related factors, such as harassment, depression and social support, were also measured. Results: Suicidal ideation within the previous twelve months was affirmatively reported by 18% of the Italian surgeons, and by 12% of the Swedish surgeons in the present study. The strongest association with having recent suicidal ideation for both countries was being subjected to degrading experiences/harassment at work by a senior physician. Sickness presenteeism, exhaustion and disengagement were related to recent suicidal ideation among Italian surgeons, while role conflicts and sickness presenteeism were associated with recent suicidal ideation in the Swedish group. For both countries, regular meetings to discuss situations at work were found to be protective. Conclusions: A high percentage of surgeons at two university hospitals in Italy and Sweden reported suicidal ideation during the year before the investigation. This reflects a tough workload, including sickness presenteeism, harassment at work, exhaustion/disengagement and role conflicts. Regular meetings to discuss work situations might be protective.
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