ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SELF-CARE BEHAVIORS AND SELF-ESTEEM OF RURAL ELDERLIES; NECESSITY OF HEALTH PROMOTION

Effectiveness of a natural wellness group program using interactive real-time video for unmarried mothers: A quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND

Unmarried mothers who raise their children alone in South Korea experience various difficulties in maintaining their health. Improving the health of unmarried mothers, who are socioeconomically vulnerable, is important not only for them but also for the healthy growth and development of their children. We aimed to implement a natural wellness group program using an interactive real-time video platform for unmarried mothers and to verify its effects.

METHODS

This quasi-experimental study utilized a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design. The participants were unmarried mothers raising children aged 0-6 years. The quantitative data collection occurred from August to November 2021. For the qualitative data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants from the experimental group. The experimental group received eight 90-minute weekly online sessions, whereas the control group received no intervention. The outcome variables were physical and mental health, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and parenting stress.

RESULTS

A total of 42 unmarried mothers (21 experimental, 21 control) participated. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed significant post-intervention differences in mental health, depression, and self-esteem in the experimental group. Moreover, a generalized estimating equation analysis revealed significant differences in self-esteem levels between the experimental and control groups. Four themes identified through qualitative analysis revealed that the natural wellness group program using interactive real-time video not only increased mothers' vitality and relaxation but also improved depression and anxiety, and had a positive effect on parenting stress.

CONCLUSIONS

Natural wellness group programs using interactive real-time videos can help improve the psychological health of unmarried mothers with young children, a group that tends to be socially and psychologically marginalized.

"Upgrading self-esteem: Effectiveness of cognitive enhancement package among psychiatric inpatients."

OBJECTIVE

To assess and compare the self-esteem before and after administration of cognitive enhancement package among psychiatric inpatients.

DESIGN & METHOD

Quantitative approach, Non-Equivalent control group pre-test and post-test design under quasi experimental research design was used for study. Total 60 psychiatric inpatients whose scores came out to be 25 and less in Rosenberg Self-esteem scale were enrolled in the study. Samples were selected by using purposive sampling method. Total four sessions of intervention were provided with 80 to 100 min for overall tasks. Interventions comprised of total three sub-tasks and each task was followed by daily assessment of progression with the help of self-care activities checklist for self-care activities, Ferrara Group Experience scale for group interaction and Mini-Mental Status Examination for cognitive functioning. Post-test was taken on fifth day of intervention.

RESULTS

The results showed that mean score of self-esteem (14.17 ± 2.00), self-care activities (3.83 ± 2.34) and group interaction (20.83 ± 7.42) along with cognitive functioning (18.23 ± 6.07) in pre-test were in lower level comparatively than in post-test after administration of Cognitive Enhancement Package which is self-esteem(20.17 ± 3.24), self-care activities (6.82 ± 2.31), group interaction (37.90 ± 5.71) and cognitive functioning (24.80 ± 4.12) at the 0.05 level of significance (p ≤ 0.05). However, the score remained same or decreased in case of comparison group who only received routine hospital care.

CONCLUSION

All in all, present study concluded that different innovative psychological approaches like Cognitive Enhancement Package can be incorporated along with usual psychopharmacology in order to promote the overall wellbeing and better rehabilitation for the psychiatric inpatients.

Self-Actualization: Self-Care Outcomes among Elderly Patients with Hypertension

Background:

This study aims to analyze the experiences of older patients with hypertension to realize the outcomes of their self-care behaviors for controlling hypertension.

Materials and Methods:

This is a qualitative research with a conventional content analysis approach. The participants consisting of 23 people were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews until data were saturated. Granheim and Lundman's conventional content analysis was applied to analyze the data.

Results:

After data analysis, four main categories including self-efficacy, active lifestyle, spirituality, and stress management were obtained. These categories show the experience and outcomes of self-care behaviors among elderly patients with hypertension.

Conclusions:

Awareness of the elderly of their potentials and role in disease control in addition to relying on the power of spirituality provides positive results in hypertension management. Self-actualization of the elderly resulted in resisting against the destructive effects of internal and external stress and moving in the direction of growth. Health professionals should be vigilant to encourage and promote education about the importance and advantages of self-care for elderlies.

Self-Care in Iranian Cancer Patients: The Role of Religious Coping

Religious and spiritual practices are related to physical and mental health. Social support is an important source to aid coping, but this is not without its difficulties. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between religious coping and self-care in a sample of Iranian cancer patients. In this cross-sectional study (October-December, 2015), 380 cancer patients were entered into the study using non random sampling (accessible sampling). Data were collected using socio-demographic, religious coping (R-COPE), and self-care questionnaires. Male patients (48.39 ± 13.39; 95% CI 46.41-50.38) were older than the females patients (45.33 ± 18.44; 95% CI 42.79-47.87). The findings indicated that there was a significant correlation between self-care and positive religious coping (r = .188, p = .009). Also there was a significant relationship between self-care and a history of smoking (p < .05). It seems that improving the level of positive religious affiliation can have beneficial effect on the self-care of cancer patients. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct these studies with greater scale and more different societies to achieve more reliable results about the effects of religious coping on self-care behaviors in cancer patients.

Relationship between Depression and Self-care in Iranian Patients with Cancer

Background:

The current cross-sectional study was carried out to determine relationships between self-care and depression in patients with cancer.

Materials and Methods:

From October to December, 2015, 380 patients with cancer admitted to the associated university’s medical sciences hospitals (Sari, Iran), were entered into the study using non random sampling (accessible sampling). Data were collected by demographic questionnaire, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and a Self-care Questionnaire.

Results:

Males (48.4±13±39; CI95: 46.4-50.4) were older than females (45.3±18.4; CI95:42.8-47.9). Spearman correlation analysis results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between self-care and depression (r= -0.134, P<0.05) and also a significant inverse relationship between physical (r= -0.166, P=0.001), psychological (r= -0.207, P<0.001) and emotional self-care (r= -0.179, P<0.001) with depression.

Conclusions:

It appears that self-care measures such as training of physical exercises, promotion of physical self-care, holding counseling sessions and psychotherapy can reduce depression levels.