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- Andreae, Christina, 1969-
(författare)
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Appetite in patients with heart failure : Assessment, prevalence and related factors
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Appetite is an important component in nutrition for maintaining the food intake needed by the body. Decreased appetite is a common clinical problem in patients with heart failure. It has a negative impact on food intake and possibly on malnutrition and health outcomes. There is a lack of evidence on how to assess appetite in heart failure. Furthermore, there are knowledge gaps about factors associated with appetite and which role appetite plays for health status in heart failure. Aim: The overall aim of the thesis was to investigate appetite in patients with heart failure. Four studies were conducted with the goal to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Council on Nutrition Appetite Questionnaire (CNAQ) (I) and to explore the prevalence of decreased appetite and related factors associated with appetite in patients with heart failure (II-IV). Methods: A multicenter study was conducted in three outpatient heart failure clinics in the center of Sweden during 2009-2012. Data were collected through a baseline measurement (I-IV) and an 18-month follow-up (IV). The first study was a psychometric evaluation study (I), while the other studies had an observational cross-sectional design (II-III) and an observational prospective design (IV). One hundred and eighty-six patients diagnosed with heart failure and experiencing heart failure symptoms participated at baseline. At the 18-month follow-up study (IV), one hundred and sixteen participants from the baseline participated. Data were collected from medical records (pharmacological treatment, comorbidity, left ventricle ejection fraction, time of diagnosis), self-reported questionnaires (demographic background data, appetite, symptoms of depression, health status, sleep, self-reported physical activity), objective measurements (anthropometric assessment of body size, blood samples, six minutes’ walk test, and physical activity measured with an actigraph) and clinical assessment (New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification, and cognitive assessment). The main outcome variables included appetite (I, II and IV) and health status (III). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the studies (I-IV). Results: The majority of the participants had moderate heart failure symptoms, i.e., NYHA class II (n=114, 61%). Most of the participants were men (n=130, 70%). Mean age was 70,7 years, (SD=11,0), and mean BMI was 28.7 (SD=5.3). The CNAQ showed acceptable psychometric properties for assessing appetite in patients with heart failure (I). This thesis shows that 38% of the participants experienced an appetite level that put them at risk of weight loss (I). It was shown that factors such as biological, medical, psychological (II) and physical activity/exercise capacity (IV) are associated with appetite. Also, appetite was associated with impaired health status. However, this association was found to be moderated by symptoms of depression (III). Neither appetite nor physical activity changed during the 18-month follow-up (IV). Conclusion: Decreased appetite is a serious phenomenon that needs attention in the care of patients with heart failure. Health care professionals can now use a validated and simple appetite instrument to assess appetite in heart failure. In addition, attention should be paid to elderly patients and those who have symptoms of depression, sleep problems, impaired cognitive function and impaired physical activity, as well as to patients on suboptimal medical treatment. Higher appetite was shown to contribute to a better health status, but this was only evident in patients without symptoms of depression. Therefore, special attention should be paid to symptoms of depression, as this risk factor affected the association between appetite and health status. This thesis enhances the understanding of the magnitude of the problem with decreased appetite in heart failure both in numbers and factors. New priorities in nutrition care and new ideas can be established, both in practice and in research, in order to improve a nutrition care that is vital for patients with heart failure.
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| 2. |
- Ranheim, Albertine, 1960-
(författare)
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Expanding Caring : Theory and Practice intertwined in municipal elderly care
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish Agency for Higher Education evaluated in 2007 the nursing programs at Swedish Universities, and confirmed that several programs lacked definition of the main subject of the discipline;- namely caring- and/or nursing. The caring science disciplines showed indications of increasing signs of fragmentation, in that sub-disciplines were evolving. There is a unique foundation of theoretical knowledge that is specific for the caring professions grounded in caring theory and philosophy. For some reason the theoretical foundation and contexture of providing care seems to fade off with time in clinical practice, as well as an explicated theory-practice gap; that theory does not go along with clinical practice. An assumption in this thesis is that caring theory somehow seems to evaporate; as nurses become clinically active- caring theory does not seem to be much reflected upon.The overall aim was to investigate into the meaning of caring to nurses in municipal elderly care, and into their explicit and implicit understanding of caring theory in their daily practice.The theoretical perspective was caring science, while the epistemological frame was of a phenomenological hermeneutical life world approach. Data was gathered by interviews with nurses working in elderly care and analyzed to grasp the structure of the phenomenon of caring in theory and practice. The thesis comprises four studies of which three empirical was consolidated with a Jean Watson’s specific caring theory, ending up in a better understanding of the approach of caring in nursing and the role of theory in practice.The findings of the studies show that the lived experience of caring as narrated by the participating nurses comprises both implicit and explicit theoretical foundation to existential caring theory. The explicit use of theory or certain theoretical affiliation was not obvious; rather what may be theoretical inputs was expressed as the importance of being present and the necessity of having a health perspective in caring. By illuminating caring and concepts from caring theory, the meaning of caring in their professional lived experience, the primary intention or choice of working as nurses became apparent again. There seems to be different perspectives related to caring theory, but as the empirical findings shows, there is a consensus behind what caring is, both in theory and in practice. As a result from the analysis the aim of caring itself may be more salient and focused if based on existential phenomenological caring concepts and theory, as this corresponds with the nurses understanding of holistic intentional caring with a health perspective.A gap exists, but is more related to organizational restrictions such as role constraints and time pressure than to the meaning of caring in theory and practice.Mediating care is a concept that embraces the implications of all the outcome concepts of the analysis and it has the possibility of being the expression of immanent and transcendent dimensions in caring. Mediating care represents the expression of our understanding of life, our values and norms. It is given expression through the insights into, and the ways we connect to one another, our ability as carers (nurses) to reach out to another in his or her being, as well the understanding of ones own being in caring. Theoretical and practical reflection and cultivation of clinical sensibility has the opportunity of inspiring for an expanded caring consciousness, manifested in the mediation of care.
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| 3. |
- Östlund, Gunnel, 1956-
(författare)
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Promoting return to work : lay experiences after sickness absence with musculoskeletal diagnoses
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders constitute the greatest cause of sickness absence from work. Despite research and efforts at rehabilitation, sickness absence due to these disorders has not decreased, but has instead increased, particularly in women. Clients’ perceptions of care and rehabilitation, i.e. knowledge generated from a lay perspective, is a neglected area of research. This thesis deals with lay experiences of rehabilitation following sickness absence due to back, neck or shoulder problems, termed musculoskeletal disorders (MSD).Aim: The overall aim was to examine hindering and promoting processes in rehabilitation after sickness absence due to MSD from a lay perspective. Specific aims were to study how lay persons experience rehabilitation agents and rehabilitation activities (paper I), how they describe themselves and their experience in relation to work (paper II), the significance of the private arena regarding return to work (paper III), and how clients who have experienced sickness absence due to MSD perceive contact with rehabilitation agents (paper IV).Method: The study population in the four papers is part of a cohort of persons living in the same municipality and who in 1985 were aged 25-34 years and were sick-listed due to back, neck or shoulder diagnoses for 28 days or more, n=213. During 1995, 148 persons in the cohort responded to a questionnaire, and in 1997-1998, 20 of these persons were interviewed concerning their experiences with rehabilitation. In papers I, II and III the qualitative method of Grounded Theory was used with a focus on creating an empirically-based theory concerning the area under study. Data collection was strategic and analysis of the tape-recorded interviews was done on a continual basis. How previously sick-listed persons experienced contact with professional rehabilitation agents in t he health care sector and social insurance office was investigated in paper IV. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the data in this study.Results: The interview study shed light on lay persons’ experiences with medical, social and work-related measures in rehabilitation, their perceptions of rehabilitation actors and family members in relation to rehabilitation, and their self-presentations. The descriptions of lay persons concerned three arenas, the health care arena, the occupational arena, and the private arena. Dilemmas and difficulties in these arenas were described, such as handling the duty to work, experiencing domestic strain, and the experience of lacking socioemotional support from significant persons during the rehabilitation process. In paper I some ideal types of rehabilitation agents emerged from the interviewees’ descriptions concerning the health care arena, and we called these the routine bureaucrat, the empathic administrator, the distant technician, and the professional mentor. The latter agent was requested and was described as a person who could provide socioemotional support, who had professional competence, and who could function as a unifying link during the rehabilitation process. The results from paper II showed that in their self-presentations, the interviewees expressed having a duty to work and that there were differences in how they handled this sense of duty. The selfpresentations contained descriptions of work as a part of personal identity and could be summarised in the following ideal types: the work manic, the workhorse, the workaholic and the relaxed worker. The latter used a strategy that can be considered to promote rehabilitation in that the individual himself/herself had control over his/her work and worked in accordance with his/her own needs rather than those of others. Paper III focused on the private arena. Different patterns were found in the experiences of men and women. Women related that their responsibility for the home and domestic work seldom left any time for themselves, including any time for rehabilitation. Men more often reported having time for themselves that could be used for leisure activities and rehabilitation. Some of the women said that they lacked socioemotional support from their partner and that they had a great deal of responsibility for housework, which seemed to be a hindrance in returning to work after sickness absence. Furthermore, these women, like most of the men, had little education, which could make finding other work alternatives more difficult. Based on the interviews, a hypothesis was developed regarding domestic strain that is related to the distribution of domestic work, the distribution of responsibility for the home, and the quality of the marital relationship. Paper IV dealt with clients’ perceptions of contact with rehabilitation agents in health care and the social insurance office. Three latent dimensions were found in the respondents’ ratings of these contacts: supportive treatment, distant treatment, and empowering treatment. Sex, disability pension status, mental health and diagnostic group were significantly related to how these dimensionswere rated. Women perceived the treatment from both types of rehabilitation agents as more supportive than men. Contact with the social insurance offices were rated higher by persons with disability pensions than by those who had returned to work. Men rated their contact with rehabilitation agents at social insurance offices high on the dimension of distant treatment. Respondents with mental health problems rated the contact as distant for both types of rehabilitation agents, but contact with health care was also scored low on the supportive dimension. Finally, respondents with neck/shoulder diagnoses rated contact with rehabilitation agents in health care as more empowering than was done by persons with back diagnoses.Conclusions: From a lay perspective rehabilitation following sickness absence due to MSD occured in three arenas, the health care arena, the occupational arena and the private arena, where the quality of relationships both with rehabilitation agents, persons at work and in one’s private life was described as important regarding the rehabilitation process. This thesis also showed that both sex and health were important factors regarding how lay persons’ perceived contacts with rehabilitation agents during the rehabilitation process following sickness absence due to MSD.
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