The Impact of Hope and Resilience on Multiple Factors in Neurosurgical Patients

Resilience and Self-Management of Hypertension in African American Adults Using a Conceptualized Resilience Framework: An Exploratory Analysis

BACKGROUND

Hypertension rates have increased worldwide, with the most significant increase in morbidity and mortality observed among African Americans. Resilience is a potential factor influencing how individuals manage health-related challenges or self-management tasks for hypertension. Research is scarce related to resilience and self-management frameworks in African Americans with hypertension.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to describe a conceptualized resilience framework and preliminary findings of the association among resilience precursors, stress response, hypertension self-management behaviors, and health outcomes in African Americans with hypertension.

METHODS

This cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study included African American adults with hypertension, aged 25 years and older, recruited from an academic university and surrounding urban communities in the Midwest. Participants completed standardized, validated questionnaires to examine the association among resilience precursors, stress response, hypertension self-management behaviors, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and blood pressure at baseline. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample demographic characteristics, whereas Pearson's correlational and multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the associations among the variables.

RESULTS

African Americans with hypertension (N = 30) were included in this preliminary study, with a mean age of 59.17 years; 66.7% were female. The mean systolic blood pressure was 136 (SD = 16.8) mmHg; the mean diastolic blood pressure was 78.1 (SD = 13) mmHg. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between resilience precursors, stress response, hypertension self-management behaviors and capability, and health outcome components. Multiple regression analysis showed that poor perceived resilience significantly predicted depression. Low dispositional optimism and low perceived resilience were significant predictors of stress. Higher perceived resilience significantly predicted self-efficacy. Perceived stress was negatively and significantly associated with HRQOL. Finally, higher self-efficacy significantly predicted better HRQOL.

DISCUSSION

This study underscores the significant association between resilience, stress, self-management behaviors, and health outcomes in African Americans with hypertension. Further research with larger sample sizes and longitudinal designs is warranted to confirm and expand upon these findings.

Integrating Subjective Recovery and Stigma Resistance in Individuals with Schizophrenia: A Narrative Review and Theoretical Integration

Stigmatised attitudes are known to be associated with negative outcomes in schizophrenia, yet there is little focus on the role of stigma in the recovery process. Attempts to develop interventions to reduce self-stigma in schizophrenia have not been found effective. This paper presents a theoretical integration based on a narrative review of the literature. PsycINFO, Medline and Embase databases were searched up to the 11th December 2023. Studies were included if they were: i) empirical studies using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods studies investigating mental health stigma; ii) included participants based in the United Kingdom, fluent in English, between the ages of 16 and 70, meeting criteria for a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis. Fourteen studies were included. In Part 1, we propose a novel theoretical model derived from a synthesis of service-user perspectives on the relationship between stigma and schizophrenia. Stigmatised attitudes were commonly perceived to be caused by a lack of education and further exacerbated by disinformation primarily through the media and cultural communities. Stigma led to negative self-perceptions, negative emotional responses, social isolation and increased symptom severity, ultimately acting as a barrier to recovery. In Part 2, we identify several factors that ameliorate the impact of stigma and promote clinical and subjective recovery among service-users: education, empowerment, self-efficacy, self-acceptance, hope and social support. We argue that the notion of stigma resistance may be helpful in developing new interventions aimed at promoting recovery in individuals with schizophrenia. Wider implications are discussed and recommendations for future research and practice are explored.

Role of social support in the relationship between resilience and sleep quality among cancer patients

Introduction

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of resilience on sleep quality and explore the role of social support between resilience and sleep quality in cancer patients.

Methods

A multicenter and cross-sectional study was conducted in China from May to November 2021. A total of 202 cancer patients were recruited to complete the questionnaires composed of demographic information, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Resilience Scale-14 (RS-14), and Multidimensions Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). The associations between resilience, social support, and sleep quality were explored through hierarchical regression analysis.

Results

The prevalence of poor sleep quality was 50% among cancer patients. Resilience, social support, and the interaction between resilience and social support were all found to be significantly associated with sleep quality. Results of simple slope analysis indicated that the association between resilience and sleep quality were gradually decreased with the increasing social support levels (1 SD below the mean, B=-0.225, β=-0.551, P<0.001), mean social support (B=-0.147, β=-0.353, P<0.001) and high social support (1 SD above the mean, B=-0.065, β=-0.156, P<0.001). Additionally, social support mediated the effect of resilience on sleep quality among cancer patients.

Discussion

Poor sleep quality has been common in cancer patients. Social support could mediate and alleviate the relationship between resilience and sleep quality among cancer patients. Besides providing sufficient social support, interventions based on resilience should be applied to address sleep problems in cancer patients.

Democratic Spirit, Emotions, Help, and Hope during the Russian war against Ukraine: Experience from the Czech Republic

This study is based on an original eight-wave longitudinal survey conducted in the Czech Republic (N = 1622, national quota sample). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to create a mediation model to test whether democratic spirit assessed in March 2021 (1 year before the Russian invasion) predicted responses to the major crisis (measured immediately, 2 months, and 9 months after the invasion). The Russian invasion of February 2022 deeply impacted Czech democrats. They reacted by a strong increase in positive emotions toward Ukraine/Ukrainians (e.g., compassion, admiration to courage), a milder increase in negative emotions (e.g., anger) and physiological discomfort. The Russian invasion further strengthened the democratic identity of the Czech citizens which increased their willingness to help Ukraine, both personally and by government. Finally, the democratic spirit of 2021 predicted hope for Ukraine and for Czechia in late 2022 when various crises cumulated. Notably, the direct effect of democratic spirit on future hope was non-significant unless respondents were concerned with some aid to Ukrainians. Help completely mediated the democratic spirit and was linked to hope. The relationship between democratic values and hope was strong and spanned almost 2 years and cumulated crises. The study suggests that democratic values are significantly related to positive reactions to stressful conditions. The protective effect of the democratic spirit seemed beneficial both to one's health and delivering help to victims.

Sense of coherence and its context with demographics, psychological aspects, lifestyle, complementary and alternative medicine and lay aetiology

PURPOSE

For patients with a cancer diagnosis, coping abilities are of high importance. Cancer patients with a high sense of coherence may cope better. The purpose of this study is to learn more about the correlation of sense of coherence and different aspects, such as demographics, psychological factors, lifestyle, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and lay aetiology.

METHODS

A prospective cross-sectional study was performed in ten cancer centres in Germany. The questionnaire consisted of ten sub-items, collecting information about sense of coherence, demographics, general life satisfaction, resilience, spirituality, self-efficacy, physical activity and sports, nutrition, CAM methods and cancer causes.

RESULTS

As many as 349 participants were evaluable. The mean sense of coherence score was M = 47.30. Significant associations were shown for sense of coherence and financial situation (r = 0.230, p < 0.001), level of education (r = 0.187, p < 0.001), marital status (η = 0.177, p = 0.026) and time interval since diagnosis (r = - 0.109, p = 0.045). Sense of coherence and resilience correlated on a high level, as well as spirituality, self-efficacy and general life satisfaction (r = 0.563, r = 0.432, r = 0.461, r = 0.306, p's < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Several aspects, such as demographics and psychological factors, have a great influence on the sense of coherence. To help patients to cope better, physicians should try to strengthen sense of coherence, resilience and self-efficacy and, at the same time, consider patients' individual background such as level of education, financial capacity and emotional support by family members.

COVID-19 and stress of Indian youth: An association with background, on-line mode of teaching, resilience and hope

Background

COVID-19 pandemic causes serious threats to physical health and triggers wide varieties of psychological problems, including anxiety and depression. Youth exhibit a greater risk of developing psychological distress, especially during epidemics influencing their wellbeing.

Objectives

To identify the relevant dimensions of psychological stress, mental health, hope and resilience and to examine the prevalence of stress in Indian youth and its relationship with socio-demographic information, online-mode of teaching, hope and resilience.

Method

A cross-sectional online survey obtained information on socio-demographic background, online-mode of teaching, psychological stress, hope and resilience from the Indian youth. A Factor Analysis is also conducted on the recompenses of the Indian youth on psychological stress, mental health, hope and resilience separately to identify the major factors associated with parameters. The sample size in this study was 317, which is more than the required sample size (Tabachnik et al., 2001).

Results

About 87% of the Indian youth perceived moderate to a high levels of psychological stress during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Different demographic, sociographic and psychographic segments were found to have high stress levels due to the pandemic, while psychological stress was found to be negatively correlated with resilience as well as hope. The findings identified significant dimensions of the stress caused by the pandemic and also identified the dimensions of mental health, resilience and hope among the study subjects.

Conclusion

As stress has a long-term impact on human psychology and can disrupt the lives of people and as the findings suggest that the young population of the country have faced the greatest amount of stress during the pandemic, a greater need for mental health support is required to the young population, especially in post pandemic situations. The integration of online counselling and stress management programs could assist in mitigating the stress of youth involved in distance learning.

Hope and resilience among patients affected by unipolar and bipolar depression

BACKGROUND

Mood disorders, including unipolar and bipolar depression, are disabling mental conditions and patients' full-functional recovery may be challenging. Hope and Resilience are relevant factors in the framework of personal recovery and it is of interest to explore their association with the severity of depressive illness and other variables, including suicidality.

METHODS

in this cross-sectional study, 69 patients affected by unipolar (n = 31) and bipolar depression (n = 38) have been recruited and information about their sociodemographics, clinical characteristics were collected as well as the following assessment has been performed: BPRS (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale); HAMD ( Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression); MADRS (Montgomery Asberg Depression rating scale); HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale); SSI (Scale for Suicide Ideation); Synder (The Adult Hope Scale); CD-Risk (The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale).

RESULTS

patients affected by bipolar depression reported significantly higher level of psychopathological issues (BPRS) as well as higher scores of depressive and anxious symptoms (MADRS and HADS), suicidality (SSI). Also, bipolar depression patients reported lower levels of hope (Synder) and resilience (CD-Risk), with hope and resilience levels positively correlated each other, and inversely correlated to psychopathology and psychopathology, depressive and suicidal symptoms, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

these findings suggested that bipolar depression is characterized by higher clinical severity and lower levels of hope and resilience. Specific psycho-educational and psychotherapeutic interventions should be promoted to increase levels of hope and resilience in mood disorders, especially in bipolar depression.

A Cross-Sectional Study on Mental Health of School Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

The broad objective of the present study is to assess the levels of anxiety and depression of school students during the COVID-19 lockdown phase and their association with students’ background, stress, concerns and social support. In this regard, the present study follows a novel two stage approach. In the first phase, an empirical survey was carried out, based on multivariate statistical analysis, wherein a group of 273 school students participated in the study voluntarily. In the second phase, a novel Picture Fuzzy FFA (PF-FFA) method was applied for understanding the dynamics of facilitating and prohibiting factors for three categories of focus groups (FG), formulated on the basis of attendance in online classes. Findings revealed a significant impact of anxiety and depression on mental health. Further, PF-FFA examinedthe impact of the driving forces that steered children to attend class as contrasted to the the impact of the restricting forces.

The Correlation Between Quality of Life and Positive Psychological Resources in Cancer Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Purpose

This study aimed to assess the evidence of the association between positive psychological resources and quality of life in patients with cancer.

Methods

Electronic searching was performed to retrieve articles from PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CNKI, and CBM (from inception to 7 April 2022). Summary correlation coefficient (r) values were extracted from each study, and 95% CIs were calculated by the random-effect model. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to investigate potential heterogeneity.

Results

In total, sixty-six articles were included in the present study. The pooled r for resilience was 0.71 (95%CI: 0.55, 0.87), hope 0.50 (95%CI: 0.43, 0.56), self-efficacy 0.53 (95%CI: 0.46, 0.61), self-esteem 0.46 (95%CI: 0.28, 0.63), and optimism 0.30 (95%CI: 0.19, 0.40). For subgroup analysis, no significant differences were found between minors and adults.

Conclusion

This study indicated that resilience, hope, optimism, self-esteem, and self-efficacy were positively correlated with quality of life in patients with cancers. Therefore, intervention programs should be focused on increasing state-like positive psychological resources to improve the quality of life in patients with cancer.

Mental Health and Psychological Impact during COVID-19 Pandemic: An Online Survey of Portuguese Higher Education Students

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant psychological impact on vulnerable groups, particularly students. The present study aims to investigate the mental and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated factors in a sample of Portuguese higher education students. An online cross-sectional study was conducted among 1522 higher education students selected by convenience sampling. The survey assessed mental health symptoms as well as sociodemographic variables, health-related perceptions, and psychological factors. Results were fitted to binary and multivariable logistic regression models. The overall prevalences of stress, anxiety, and depression were 35.7%, 36.2%, and 28.5%, respectively. Poor mental health outcomes were related with being female, having no children, living with someone with chronic disease, facing hopelessness, and lacking resilient coping. Future studies focusing on better ways to promote mental health and wellbeing among students are warranted. It is necessary to gather more evidence on the post-pandemic mental health using robust study designs and standardized assessment tools.

Healthy ageing: Assessment of health-promoting lifestyle among the elderly population in Karachi Pakistan

BACKGROUND

The growth in the elderly population is predicted to expand exponentially and developing countries like Pakistan have about two-third of the global elderly population. It is vital to maintain the health of the elderly aged population to reduce disabilities and health-care cost.

AIM

This study aimed to determine the health promotion practices among the older aged population in Pakistan and to explore the factors associate with adopting healthy lifestyle practices.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study spanning from 2019 to 2020 conducted on 317 participants of age more than 60 years in Pakistan. The participants included healthy attendants of patients visiting the outpatient clinics of different disciplines in the Liaquat National Hospital Karachi through purposive sampling technique. The health-promoting practices were assessed using Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II Questionnaire. The factors that determined the healthy practices among the elderly population were identified using independent t-test and analysis of variance and Tukey test, with a significance level of P < 0.05. IBM SPSS Statistics 22 was used for data entry and analysis.

RESULTS

The highest subscale was detected from interpersonal relationships and spiritual growth. The lowest score was detected from physical activity. The scores differed significantly by occupation, education, and the marital status of the participants. Females, unmarried people, those who were less educated, and participants relying on others for financial support had lower health-promoting lifestyle scores.

CONCLUSION

The overall health-promoting practices were good among the old-aged population of Pakistan. These practices differed particularly for physical activity, spiritual growth, and interpersonal relationships.

Hope and Distress Are Not Associated With the Brain Tumor Stage

Objective

Hopelessness and depression are strongly associated with suicidality. Given that physical and psychological outcomes can be altered with hope, hope is a therapeutic goal of increasing importance in the treatment of brain tumor patients. Moreover, it is not yet understood which factors affect the perception of hope in brain tumor patients. In addition, it remains uncertain whether lower-grade brain tumor patients suffer less from psycho-oncological distress than higher-grade brain tumor patients.

Methods

Neuro-oncological patients were examined perioperatively with the Distress Thermometer (DT) and the Herth Hope Index (HHI). In addition, psychological comorbidities (anxiety GAD-2, depression PHQ-2) and an assessment of general psycho-oncological distress were recorded.

Results

Sixty-six brain tumor patients were included (median age 53 years, 35% higher-grade brain tumors, i.e., WHO grade III/IV). No differences between higher- and lower-grade brain tumor patients were observed for general psycho-oncological distress and hope. However, higher-grade brain tumor patients showed a significantly higher level of depression (p ≤ 0.001) and more negative expectations regarding therapeutic success (H = 4.873, p ≤ 0.050). The extent of depression correlated negatively with hope.

Conclusion

Unexpectedly, higher-grade brain tumor patients remained as hopeful as lower-grade brain tumor patients despite the devastating diagnosis, higher levels of depression, and a worse expectation of therapeutic success. Conversely, lower-grade brain tumor patients experience as much psycho-oncological distress as patients with a higher-grade brain tumor, underpinning the imperative need for comprehensive psycho-oncological screening. For all brain tumor patients, considering hope is important to avoid suicides resulting from hopelessness and depression.

Resilience and pain catastrophizing among patients with total knee arthroplasty: a cohort study to examine psychological constructs as predictors of post-operative outcomes

Background

Patients’ psychological health may influence recovery and functional outcomes after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Pain catastrophizing, known to be associated with poor function following TKA, encompasses rumination, magnification, and helplessness that patients feel toward their pain. Resilience, however, is an individual's ability to adapt to adversity and may be an important psychological construct that supersedes the relationship between pain catastrophizing and recovery. In this study we sought to identify whether pre-operative resilience is predictive of 3-month postoperative outcomes after adjusting for pain catastrophizing and other covariates.

Methods

Patients undergoing TKA between January 2019 and November 2019 were included in this longitudinal cohort study. Demographics and questionnaires [Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, Junior (KOOS, JR.) and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Physical and Mental Health (PROMIS PH and MH, respectively)] were collected preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively. Multivariable regression was used to test associations of preoperative BRS with postoperative outcomes, adjusting for PCS and other patient-level sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.

Results

The study cohort included 117 patients with a median age of 67.0 years (Q1–Q3: 59.0–72.0). Fifty-three percent of patients were women and 70.1% were white. Unadjusted analyses identified an association between resilience and post-operative outcomes and the relationship persisted for physical function after adjusting for PCS and other covariates; in multivariable linear regression analyses, higher baseline resilience was positively associated with better postoperative knee function (β = 0.24, p = 0.019) and better general physical health (β = 0.24, p = 0.013) but not general mental health (β = 0.04, p = 0.738).

Conclusions

Our prospective cohort study suggests that resilience predicts postoperative knee function and general physical health in patients undergoing TKA. Exploring interventions that address preoperative mental health and resilience more specifically may improve self-reported physical function outcomes of patients undergoing TKA.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12955-021-01772-2.

The relationships between resilience of the adults affected by the covid pandemic in Turkey and Covid-19 fear, meaning in life, life satisfaction, intolerance of uncertainty and hope

The current study was conducted to investigate the association between the resilience of the adults affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and Covid-19 fear, meaning in life, life satisfaction, intolerance of uncertainty, hope gender, psychological trauma history and the presence of the individuals diagnosed with Covid-19 around. A total of 929 adults with the mean age of 41.58 participated in the current study. Findings from the study indicated that hope, meaning in life, life satisfaction, not having the experience of psychological trauma positively and significantly predict resilience while intolerance of uncertainty and Covid-19 fear negatively and significantly predict resilience. The presence of people diagnosed with Covid-19 and gender on the other hand were found to not significantly predict resilience.

Relationships Between the Life Satisfaction, Meaning in Life, Hope and COVID-19 Fear for Turkish Adults During the COVID-19 Outbreak

The current study investigated whether there are significant relationships between life satisfaction and meaning in life, hope and COVID-19 fear and the extent to which life satisfaction is predicted by these variables. The study group of this research consists of 1,186 adults with the mean age of 41.04. Study group participants are consists of different cities of different regions of Turkey. As the data collection tools, the life satisfaction scale, the meaning in life scale, the dispositional hope scale and the COVID-19 fear scale were used. The results of the analyses have revealed that meaning in life, hope (actuating thinking and alternative ways thinking) are significant predictors of life satisfaction as positively. Besides, it is seen COVID-19 fear, age, gender and the presence of people infected with COVID-19 around aren't significant predictors of life satisfaction in adults.

The relationship between hopelessness and risk factors for early mortality in people with a lived experience of a serious mental illness

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between self-reported hopelessness and risk factors for premature mortality in people with serious mental illness (SMI). Data were extracted from the 2014 Health Center Patient Survey (N = 5,592). Having a diagnosis of SMI was significantly associated with self-reported hopelessness. Hypertension or high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder were significantly associated with self-reported hopelessness. Higher levels of hopelessness were found to be significantly associated with increased alcohol consumption. Hopelessness may be an important dimension of health in people with SMI.

Validation and psychometrics for the Health Skills Profile

Introduction

Few measures can comprehensively explore the extent to which individuals are able to effectively identify areas of concern, create a personalized health action plan and target these areas for improvement. Thus, the aim of this paper was to validate the Health Skills Profile (HSP©) as a measure for assessing health-related skills and explore the relationship between the HSP skills with existing validated measures.

Method

Participants completed a battery of self-report measures (including validated measures and visual analogue scales [VAS] that relate to each of the health-related skills) and the HSP measure online.

Results

We explored the association between each skill within the HSP with their corresponding validated measure. We found a significant positive relationship between the HSP skills and the validated measures. Further, we found a significant positive relationship between the HSP skills and the corresponding VAS.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that the HSP can be combined with other assessment data to develop more complete personalized profiles of individual and organizational health and health behaviors.