The association between serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels and job-related stress among female nurses

Clinical Effects of Using A Massage Chair on Stress Measures In Adults: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE

Since the clinical benefits of a massage chair have not been fully elucidated, we aimed to assess the effects of the long-term use of a massage chair on stress measures in older adults.

DESIGN

Randomized controlled trial SETTING: Community. Interventions In total, 80 adults aged 50-75 years were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n=41) and control group (n=39). The intervention group used the massage chair twice a day for 6 months. The control group was educated about lifestyle modification.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The primary outcome was the change in serum cortisol levels in the morning (8 a.m.) and afternoon (1 p.m.), and the secondary outcomes included changes in levels of dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), serotonin, insulin-like growth factor, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, high sensitivity C-reactive protein, and natural killer cell activity, and results from a questionnaire on mood, cognition, and quality of life.

RESULTS

The use of the massage chair was associated with a decreasing trend in serum cortisol levels at 1 p.m. (-2.68 ug/dL, p = 0.059). Serum DHEA-S levels significantly decreased with the intervention (-9.66 ug/dL, p = 0.003). In addition, the perceived rate of depression and health status considerably improved following the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

Chronic stress in adults could be effectively managed using a massage chair.

Effect assessment of the application value of evidence-based nursing intervention in operating room nursing: A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The advantages of evidence-based nursing (EBN) intervention in health care settings have been widely disseminated to nurses throughout the world. More researches are reporting the effectiveness of EBN intervention in operating room nursing. However, the results are inconsistent. This study focuses on conducting a meta-analysis and systematic evaluation aimed at determining the usefulness of EBN intervention in operating room nursing.

METHODS

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis for Protocols criteria were used to write this paper. We will look for relevant studies from 2 Chinese databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang database and also from 3 English databases such as Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PubMed, and EMBASE), to locate all relevant randomized controlled trials and observational studies assessing the application value of EBN intervention in operating room nursing from their commencement to June 2021. Separately, 2 authors will choose the studies, do the data extract and conduct the assessment probing into the likelihood of bias. If there is a disagreement, it will be resolved by the third author. RevMan 5.3 software and Stata 15.0 software will be used to conduct the meta-analysis.

RESULTS

The usefulness of EBN intervention in operating room nursing will be assessed in this study.

CONCLUSION

The purpose of this research is to conclude the value of EBN intervention in operating room nursing and the quality of current data.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Since there is no requirement for data on the individual patient, hence there will be no need for ethical approval.

OSF NUMBER

DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/MSXNF.

Blood and affective markers of stress in Elite Airmen during a preparatory training course: A pilot study

In highly stressful environments, individuals with diverging stress-reactivity can perform differently. Identification of blood markers of stress-reactivity is of major significance to help human performance during stress. Candidate transcripts were identified between stressed and non-stressed strains of rats’ blood and brain, and overlapping significant differentially expressed genes were selected. Serum levels of human orthologues of these proteins, in lieu of blood RNA, in addition to classic stress and general clinical markers, were measured in 33 Battlefield Airmen undergoing a 52 day long preparatory training course before their course of initial entry (COIE). Blood samples and factors of affective state, negative valence “Threat” and positive valence “Challenge”, were obtained five times across different days of training which included either routine physical exercise or prolonged and intense physical and mental training. During training, levels of chloride (Cl), dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), creatinine kinase (CK), and total carbon dioxide (TCO2) differed between airmen who subsequently graduated from their COIE and those who did not. Time dependent changes of serum TCO2 and neuropeptide Y (NPY), as well as the affective factor Challenge differed by future graduation status throughout the training. Serum levels of parvin beta (PARVB) correlated with the affective factor Threat, while those of NPY, testosterone, coactosin like F-actin binding protein 1 (COTL1) and C-reactive protein (CRP) correlated with factor Challenge during the extended, intensive periods of training, consistently. These pilot data suggest that the identified panel of blood markers can measure stress responsiveness, which has the potential to advance individualized stress-management strategies.

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Levels of novel and classical serum markers signal stress severity in men.

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Biomarker levels reflect stress reactivity of Battlefield Airmen in training.

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Affective measures correlate with serum biomarkers after extended stress.

Influencing factors and strategy to the career planning of operating room nurses

Aim

This study aims to investigate the status quo of self‐career planning of nurses working in operating rooms (OR) and analyse the influencing factors.

Methods

A total of 1,418 nurses working in OR were selected and surveyed using a general data questionnaire, a nurse career planning questionnaire and an organizational career management questionnaire.

Results

Multiple linear regression analysis showed that organizational career management perception, hospital‐grade and monthly income were the influencing factors of self‐career planning score of nurses working in OR, which could explain the 56.6% variation of career organization management.

Conclusion

The status quo of self‐career planning in OR nurse was at the middle level, and the scores of different dimensions were not balanced. Reasonable self‐career planning helps the OR nurses improve their professional skills and increase their commitment to work and satisfaction.

The impact of lifecourse socio-economic position and individual social mobility on breast cancer risk

BACKGROUND

Women with an advantaged socioeconomic position (SEP) have a higher risk of developing breast cancer (BC). The reasons for this association do not seem to be limited to reproductive factors and remain to be understood. We aimed to investigate the impact of lifecourse SEP from childhood and social mobility on the risk of BC considering a broad set of potential mediators.

METHODS

We used a discovery-replication strategy in two European prospective cohorts, E3N (N = 83,436) and EPIC-Italy (N = 20,530). In E3N, 7877 women were diagnosed with BC during a median 24.4 years of follow-up, while in EPIC-Italy, 893 BC cases were diagnosed within 15.1 years. Hazard ratios (HR) were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models on imputed data.

RESULTS

In E3N, women with higher education had a higher risk of BC (HR [95%CI] = 1.21 [1.12, 1.30]). This association was attenuated by adjusting for reproductive factors, in particular age at first childbirth (HR[95%CI] = 1.13 [1.04, 1.22]). Health behaviours, anthropometric variables, and BC screening had a weaker effect on the association. Women who remained in a stable advantaged SEP had a higher risk of BC (HR [95%CI] = 1.24 [1.07; 1.43]) attenuated after adjustment for potential mediators (HR [95%CI] = 1.13 [0.98; 1.31]). These results were replicated in EPIC-Italy.

CONCLUSIONS

These results confirm the important role of reproductive factors in the social gradient in BC risk, which does not appear to be fully explained by the large set of potential mediators, including cancer screening, suggesting that further research is needed to identify additional mechanisms.

Hormonal Function Responses to Moderate Aerobic Exercise in Older Adults with Depression

Background

Poor daily life physical activities among older people were related to depressive mood especially memory loss. In addition to that, the change in physical ability is significantly associated with the score of depression among older age.

Objective

The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of a supervised aerobic training program with moderate intensity for 12 weeks on mood profiles and hormonal levels of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) of older adults.

Methods

A total of 80 individuals of both gender (90 males, 110 females) of ages ranged between 65 and 95 years were recruited for this study. Based upon the profile of mood states (POMS) analysis, the participants were classified into two groups: control group (n=30) and depressive group (n=50). Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), adrenal hormones such as ACTH, corticosterone (CORT), cortisol, DHEA/S, and cortisol:DHEA/S ratio were measured at baseline and post-intervention of moderate aerobic exercise for 12 weeks.

Results

Older adults with higher depressive scores showed a remarkable change in the level of adrenal hormones compared to control. There was a significant increase in the level of ACTH, CORT, cortisol, and cortisol:DHEA/S ratio, and decrease in DHEA/S. Compared to females, males showed an improvement in depressive mood score along with an increase in LPTA, DHEA/S and decrease in ACTH, CORT, cortisol, cortisol:DHEA/S ratio following 12 weeks of supervised aerobic training, respectively.

Conclusion

The findings of this study showed that 12 weeks of supervised exercise interventions are promising non-drug therapeutic strategies in improving depression among older adults. The potential performance in a psychological state occurs physiologically via optimizing the levels of the hormones of the HPA axis.