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- Fraga, S, et al.
(author)
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Lifetime Abuse and Quality of Life among Older People
- 2017
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In: Health & Social Work. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0360-7283 .- 1545-6854. ; 42:4, s. 215-222
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Few studies have evaluated the impact of lifetime abuse on quality of life (QoL) among older adults. By using a multinational study authors aimed to assess the subjective perception of QoL among people who have reported abuse during the course of their lifetime. The respondents (N = 4,467; 2,559 women) were between the ages of 60 and 84 years and living in seven European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden). Lifetime abuse was assessed by using a structured questionnaire that allowed to assess lifetime experiences of abuse. QoL was assessed with the World Health Organization Quality of Life–Old module. After adjustment for potential confounders, authors found that to have had any abusive experience decreased the score of sensory abilities. Psychological abuse was associated with lower autonomy and past, present, and future activities. Physical abuse with injuries significantly decreased social participation. Intimacy was also negatively associated with psychological abuse, physical abuse with injury, and sexual abuse. The results of this study provide evidence that older people exposed to abuse during their lifetime have a significant reduction in QoL, with several QoL domains being negatively affected.
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2. |
- Costa, D., et al.
(author)
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Male and female physical intimate partner violence and socio-economic position : a cross-sectional international multicentre study in Europe
- 2016
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In: Journal of Public Health. - UK : Elsevier. - 2198-1833 .- 1613-2238. ; 139, s. 44-52
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- ObjectivesThis work explores the association between socio-economic position (SEP) and intimate partner violence (IPV) considering the perspectives of men and women as victims, perpetrators and as both (bidirectional).Study designCross-sectional international multicentre study.MethodsA sample of 3496 men and women, (aged 18–64 years), randomly selected from the general population of residents from six European cities was assessed: Athens; Budapest; London; Östersund; Porto; and Stuttgart. Their education (primary, secondary and university), occupation (upper white collar, lower white collar and blue collar) and unemployment duration (never, ≤12 months and >12 months) were considered as SEP indicators and physical IPV was measured with the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales.ResultsPast year physical IPV was declared by 17.7% of women (3.5% victims, 4.2% perpetrators and 10.0% bidirectional) and 19.8% of men (4.1% victims, 3.8% perpetrators and 11.9% bidirectional). Low educational level (primary vs university) was associated with female victimisation (adjusted odds ratio, 95% confidence interval: 3.2; 1.3–8.0) and with female bidirectional IPV (4.1, 2.4–7.1). Blue collar occupation (vs upper white) was associated with female victimisation (2.1, 1.1–4.0), female perpetration (3.0, 1.3–6.8) and female bidirectional IPV (4.0, 2.3–7.0). Unemployment duration was associated with male perpetration (>12 months of unemployment vs never unemployed: 3.8; 1.7–8.7) and with bidirectional IPV in both sex (women: 1.8, 1.2–2.7; men: 1.7, 1.0–2.8).ConclusionsIn these European centres, physical IPV was associated with a disadvantaged SEP. A consistent socio-economic gradient was observed in female bidirectional involvement, but victims or perpetrators-only presented gender specificities according to levels of education, occupation differentiation and unemployment duration potentially useful for designing interventions.
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4. |
- Arab-Zozani, Morteza, et al.
(author)
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The prevalence of elder abuse and neglect in Iran : A systematic review and meta-analysis
- 2018
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In: Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0894-6566 .- 1540-4129. ; 30:5, s. 408-423
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of elder abuse and neglect in Iran.Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and PsycINFO by the end of 2017. The prevalence was calculated based on the percentage or the amount reported in the studies. Heterogeneity was assessed by the I2 statistic, and the data were combined using random effects model. The results were reported as the pooled estimates and the 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The review protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42017070744).Results: A total of 16 studies involving 6,461 participants aged 60 years and over were included. The pooled prevalence for overall elder abuse was 45.7% (95% CI: 27.3–64.1, p < .001).Discussion: The prevalence of elder abuse and neglect is substantial in the Iranian population aged 60 years and over. More research is needed to investigate the actual prevalence of elder abuse at the national level.
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5. |
- Eriksson, Ann-Kristin Mimmi
(author)
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Vid utmattningens gräns. Utmattningssyndrom som existentiellt tillstånd : Vårdtagares och vårdgivares erfarenheter av utmattningssyndrom och rehabilitering med en existentiell ansats i svensk vårdkontext
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background and objectives: Stress-related illness is a growing public health problem in Sweden and it is the most common reason for sick leave today. Stress-related illness causes suffering on a number of levels and affects the patient’s health and life in the long term. The stress-related ill health also leads to consequences for society, causing high costs for sick leave and health care as well as lost workforce since people partially or entirely lose their capacity to work. Research on stress-related ill health and rehabilitation often underline work-related conditions as crucial in dealing with the problem. There is also research that points out psychosocial factors in understanding stress-related ill health. What we know little about is the existential perspective of clinical burn-out. Therefore, it is of importance to investigate people’s existential experiences of clinical burn-out and the significance of an existential perspective in rehabilitation.Aim: The overall aim of this thesis is to gain insight into the existential experience of clinical burn-out as well as to highlight the significance of an existential perspective in rehabilitation. In addition, the thesis aims to reach a deeper understanding of clinical burn-out from an existential point of view and contribute to the field with knowledge of the existential dimension of health.Methods: The study, conducted in 2011, is based on qualitative interviews made with an inductive hermeneutic approach. Five patients and seven care givers were interviewed, focusing their existential experiences of clinical burn-out as well as their experiences of rehabilitation with an existential approach. A strategic selection was made of informants in the context of a rehabilitation program with an existential approach for people diagnosed with clinical burn-out. The data was analysed in two steps. In the first step the data was interpreted with an inductive hermeneutic approach. In step two of the analysis, the data was interpreted with a deductive hermeneutic approach, using Karl Jasper’s concept of limit situation as a way of interpreting the existential experience. Aaron Antonovsky’s concept sense of coherence was used as a tool for understanding components that can contribute to restoring health.Results: In this study, the patients describe clinical burn-out as a comprehensive existential experience that can be perceived as being in between life and death, in a shadow world, trapped in a dead end. It’s a situation characterized by being powerless. It creates a need to comprehend one’s situation in order to be able to regain control and manage it. It’s a struggle to make sense of the life situation. When not being met with understanding, the patients lose hope. Existential issues in terms of meaning, existence and life choices become urgent. Working with the existential perspective requires trust, openness from both caregiver and patient, distinctness, a way to communicate it and courage to take on the challenge of dealing with existential issues. The perspective also requires that the existential suffering can be contained. Dealing with existential questions leads to self-knowledge and insights that enables a possibility to make different choices and leave negative behavioural patterns. Also, it can lead to a discovery of spirituality and religion as a resource in life. Besides their personal struggle for meaning, the patients see an existential void in society, leaving people without tools to handle existential needs. This is understood as something that affects people’s ability to handle stressful times in life.The care providers understand burn-out as a manifestation of a way of living that is not sustainable. It is an existential experience embodied in body and mind that can be experienced as being drained of life. It’s an existential challenge, causing grief when realizing one’s limitations as a human being. Also, loss of meaning and sense of existential vulnerability due to an experience of being annihilated is crucial for understanding the deep existential crisis that clinical burn-out can induce. This situation makes the patient ask existential questions about identity, meaning, values and direction. In the burnout-process the patients have distanced themselves from their own self and therefore need to reconnect with themselves. This makes the existential questions central in the rehabilitation as a way to reconnect to inner strength and resources, which are prerequisites for starting a health promoting, sustainable process which is empowering, making it possible to see oneself as a human being who experience meaning, not only as a patient with a diagnosis. Instead of finding meaning in the diagnosis, the patient’s existential questions and the existential experience is a key to moving forward, out of the situation. Meaning-making is therefore important in the rehabilitation.A holistic-existential approach and view of man makes it possible to work with the complexity of the situation. The holistic-existential approach creates synergies and offers an extra tool both for the caregiver and the patient. Focusing on the patient’s resources and competence makes it possible to see the crisis as a way to learn from it.The existential perspective in health care and rehabilitation is enabled by competence, openness, reliance, empathy and respect when meeting the patient. It also requires courage to take on the challenge of dealing with existential issues. It can be hard for both the patient and the care giver to confront existential suffering. It is the responsibility of the care giver to enable the existential perspective by acknowledging and making the existential perspective possible to communicate and work it through.The care providers understands values in modern society as contributing to people’s experience of feeling alone with existential needs, which intensifies their existential aloneness.The care providers’ experience is that the biomedical paradigm aggravates an existential perspective. The perspective is not associated with the care situation. There is a lack of knowledge about and understanding of the value of the existential perspective, all the way from the decision-making level to the clinical meeting with the patient. In addition, the paradigm affects how the patients express their illness. Also, the perspective requires time. Existential perspectives, therefore, tend to be concealed in the health care context.Applying Karl Jasper’s concept of limit situation, clinical burn-out can be interpreted as a defining existential experience. It can be understood as a limit situation when humans realize their limitations and at the same time get insights that are crucial for their lives. It’s an experience they wish they had not gone through, but on the other hand, it has led to insights they do not want to be without. The meaning-making process is health promoting by recreating meaning, the fundamental part of sense of coherence, which is crucial for a salutogenic direction.Conclusion: The existential state that the clinical burnout patients go through can, using Karl Jasper’s concept, be understood as a limit situation. According to Jasper’s reasoning, the limit situation can be perceived as facing an abyss, making it clear one has limitations as a human being. At the same time, the experience can be perceived as reaching a limit where humans can get insights about human life that can enhance life. Clinical burn-out, using Aaron Antonovsky’s concept, can be understood as a loss of the components that create sense of coherence. Loss of meaning is particularly central for understanding burn-out.Consequently, it is crucial to acknowledge the existential challenge that the patient is facing, as well as the importance of the meaning-making process for facilitating a movement in a health promoting manner. It gives a deeper understanding of the challenges and needs of patients suffering from clinical burn-out.The existential dimension of health has been highlighted in health promotion, but gets little attention in practice. This is especially significant in the health care context. This points out the need for a discussion about how the existential health dimension can be used as a resource in health care and rehabilitation and how this resource for health can be applied in a better way in health promotion and public health.
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6. |
- Eslami, Bahareh, et al.
(author)
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Life-time abuse and mental health among older persons : a European study
- 2017
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In: Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1092-6771 .- 1545-083X. ; 26:6, s. 590-607
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study aimed to investigate the association of lifetime abuse and mental health among older persons, considering associated factors (e.g., demographics) through a cross-sectional design. We recruited 4,467 women and men ages 60–84 years from 7 European cities. Mental health was measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial, and physical injuries) based on the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale and the UK survey of abuse/neglect of older people. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that country of residence, low educational level, and experienced financial strain increased the odds of probable cases of anxiety and depression. Female sex, white-collar profession, and financial support by social/other benefits/or partner income were associated with higher odds of anxiety, while older age and experience of lifetime injury were associated with increased odds of depressive symptoms. The findings of this study indicate that socioeconomic factors, as well as experienced lifetime severe physical abuse leading to injuries, are significant in perceived mental health of adults in later life.
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7. |
- Eslami, Bahareh, et al.
(author)
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Lifetime abuse and somatic symptoms among older women and men in Europe
- 2019
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In: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science. - 1932-6203. ; 14:8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Research suggests that survivors of interpersonal violence have an increasing experience of bodily symptoms. This study aims to scrutinise the association between lifetime abuse and somatic symptoms among older women and men, considering demographics/socio-economic, social support and health variables. Methods: A sample of 4,467 community-dwelling persons aged 60–84 years (57.3% women) living in seven European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, Sweden) was recruited for this cross-sectional study. Lifetime abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial and injury) was assessed on the basis of the UK study of elder abuse and the Conflict Tactics Scale-2, while somatic symptoms were assessed by the Giessen Complaint List short version. Results: Women reported somatic symptoms more frequently than men. Multiple regression analyses revealed that lifetime exposure to psychological abuse was associated with higher levels of somatic symptoms among both women and men, while experiencing lifetime sexual abuse was associated with somatic symptoms only among older women, after adjusting for other demographic and socio-economic variables. Country of residence, older age, and low socio-economic status were other independent factors contributing to a higher level of somatic symptoms. Conclusions: The positive association between the experience of abuse during lifetime and the reporting of higher levels of somatic symptoms, in particular among older women, seems to suggest that such complaints in later life might also be related to the experience of mistreatment and not only to ageing and related diseases. Violence prevention throughout lifetime could help to prevent somatic symptoms in later life.
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8. |
- Eslami, Bahareh, et al.
(author)
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Quality of life and life satisfaction among adults with and without congenital heart disease in a developing country
- 2015
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In: European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2047-4873 .- 2047-4881. ; 22:2, s. 169-179
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background Life-expectancy of adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) has improved world-wide, but there are limited data on these patients' experiences of quality of life (QoL), life satisfaction (LS), and their determinants (e.g. social support), particularly among patients from developing countries.Design Cross-sectional case-control.Methods A total of 347 CHD patients (18-64 years, 52.2% women) and 353 non-CHD participants, matched by sex/age, were recruited from two heart hospitals in Tehran, Iran. LS and QoL served as dependent variables, and demographic/socioeconomic status, mental-somatic symptoms, social support, and clinical factors (e.g. defect category) served as independent variables in multiple regression analyses once among all participants, and once only among CHD patients.Results The CHD patients had significantly lower scores in LS and all domains of QoL than the control group. However, having CHD was independently negatively associated only with overall QoL, physical health, and life and health satisfaction. Additionally, multivariate analyses among the CHD patients revealed that female sex, younger age, being employed, less emotional distress, and higher social support were significantly associated with higher perceived QoL in most domains, while LS was associated with female sex, being employed, less emotional distress, and better social support. Neither QoL nor LS was associated with cardiac defect severity.Conclusions The adults with CHD had poorer QoL and LS than their non-CHD peers in our developing country. Socio-demographics, emotional health, and social support were important 'determinants' of QoL and LS among the CHD patients. Longitudinal studies are warranted to establish causal links.
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9. |
- Eslami, Bahareh, et al.
(author)
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The prevalence of lifetime abuse among older adults in seven European countries
- 2016
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In: International Journal of Public Health. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1661-8556 .- 1661-8564. ; 61:8, s. 891-901
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives To investigate the lifetime prevalence rate of abuse among older persons and to scrutinize the associated factors (e.g. demographics).Methods This cross-sectional population-based study had 4467 participants, aged 60–84, from seven European cities. Abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial and injuries) was measured based on The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale, and the UK survey of abuse/neglect of older people.Results Over 34 % of participants reported experiencing lifetime psychological, 11.5 % physical, 18.5 % financial and 5 % sexual abuse and 4.3 % reported injuries. Lifetime psychological abuse was associated with country, younger age, education and alcohol consumption; physical abuse with country, age, not living in partnership; injuries with country, female sex, age, education, not living in partnership; financial abuse with country, age, not living in partnership, education, benefiting social/partner income, drinking alcohol; and sexual abuse with country, female sex and financial strain.Conclusions High lifetime prevalence rates confirm that elder abuse is a considerable public health problem warranting further longitudinal studies. Country of residence is an independent factor associated with all types of elder abuse which highlights the importance of national interventions alongside international collaborations.Keywords Determinant Elder abuse Financial Injuries Psychological Sexual
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10. |
- Macassa, Gloria, et al.
(author)
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Socioeconomic Position and Suicidal Ideation : Going Beyond Education, Occupation and Income
- 2016
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Objective: Suicidal ideation have been found to be a strong predictor of suicide attempt as well as completed suicide. Currently, there is an on-going debate on the impact of the recent economic recession on mental health outcomes, including suicide behaviours. Northern Sweden continues to bear the consequences of the recent recession which started in 2008.Thus, this study investigates differentials in twelve months suicidal ideation by socio-economic position (SEP) among economically active persons residing in Västernorland County. In addition, the study discusses the importance of employment status as a fourth measure of socio-economic position in the context of economic hardship. Method: The study uses cross-sectional data from the 2010 Västernorrland in 2010 “Health on Equal Terms Survey”, which consisted of 5,050 in economically active persons aged 16-65 years. Descriptive and weighted regression analyses were performed and results are presented as OR´s (with 95% confidence intervals).Results: Suicidal ideation was statistically significantly associated with SEP as measured by education, occupation, income and employment status. Respondents who had primary education, were manual workers, or had lower income and were out of work had odds ratios of 2.19 (CI 1.51-3.16); 2.95 (CI 2.04-4.27); 3.40 (CI 2.41-4.79) and 3.24 (CI 2.84-4.21), respectively. Controlling for demographic, socio-economic and health-related variables only eliminated the statistical significance for education and income.Conclusion: SEP as measured by education, occupation, income and employment was associated with suicide ideation in Västernorrland County. Also, employment status was found to be an important measure of SEP within the context of economic recession. There is a need for social protective policies for the less privileged in the population at all times, but especially during times of economic crises.
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