• Title/Summary/Keyword: psychological discomfort

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Healthcare Workers' Mental Health in Pandemic Times: The Predict Role of Psychosocial Risks

  • Carla Barros;Pilar Baylina;Ruben Fernandes;Susana Ramalho;Pedro Arezes
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.415-420
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    • 2022
  • Background: Healthcare workers perform an emotionally exhausting daily work activity, making them prone to occupational hazards, namely psychosocial ones. This study aims to assess the impact of psychosocial risk factors on healthcare workers' mental health. Methods: A cross-sectional study was developed between May and June of 2021 with 479 healthcare workers from Portuguese hospitals. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale was used to assess mental health, and psychosocial risks were assessed through the Health and Work Survey - INSAT. Statistical analysis was performed to identify the psychosocial risk factors related to anxiety, depression, and stress. Subsequently, a multiple linear regression was performed to identify the models that better explained psychosocial risk factors' relationship with anxiety, depression, and stress. Results: Data showed a strong exposure to psychosocial risks. Work pace and intensity, work relationships, and emotional demands stood out with higher global average percentages for yes answers to "exposure and discomfort." The analysis of the b values and p-values from the multiple linear regression shows that some cross-sectional psychosocial risks are predictors of anxiety and stress dimensions, and other psychosocial risks differ in the two mental health dimensions. However, it is important to highlight that healthcare workers still showed great joy and pleasure in performing their work activities. Conclusion: Support network development in the work environment is needed to prevent healthcare workers' emotional stress and promote their psychological well-being. Therefore, new research is essential to understand the psychosocial risks that affect healthcare workers and assess the less visible effects of work-health relationships.

Is corporate rebranding a double-edged sword? Consumers' ambivalence towards corporate rebranding of familiar brands

  • Phang, Grace Ing
    • Asia Marketing Journal
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.131-159
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    • 2014
  • Corporate rebranding has been evident in the qualitative corporate rebranding studies as an imposed organizational change that induces mixed reactions and ambivalent attitudes among consumers. Corporate rebranding for the established and familiar corporate brands leads to more ambivalent attitudes as these companies represent larger targets for disparaging information. Consumers are found to hold both positive and negative reactions toward companies and brands that they are familiar with. Nevertheless, the imposed change assumption and ambivalent attitude, in particular corporate rebranding, have never been widely explored in the quantitative corporate rebranding studies. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive empirical examination of the ambivalence towards rebrandingrebranded brand attitude-purchase intention relationships. The author proposes that corporate rebranding for familiar corporate brands is a double-edged sword that not only raises the expectation for better performance, but also induces conflicted and ambivalent attitudes among consumers. These consumers' ambivalent attitudes are influenced by both the parent brands-related and general attitude factors which further affect their rebranded brand attitude and purchase intention. A total of 156 useable questionnaires were collected from Malaysian working adults; and two established Malaysian airfreight operators were utilized as the focal parent brands. The study found a significant impact of prior parent brand attitudes on ambivalence towards rebranding (ATR). The parent brand attitudes served as anchors in influencing how new information was processed (Mazaheri et al., 2011; Sherif & Hovland, 1961) and closely related to behavioral intention (Prislin & Quellete, 1996). The ambivalent attitudes experienced were higher when individuals held both positive and negative reactions toward the parent brands. Consumers also held higher ambivalent attitudes when they preferred one of the parent brands; while disliked the other brand. The study also found significant relationships between the lead brand and the rebranded brand attitude; and between the partner brands and ATR. The familiar but controversial partner brand contributed significantly to the ambivalent attitudes experienced; while the more established lead brand had significant impact on the rebranded brand attitude. The lead and partner brands, though both familiar, represented different meanings to consumers. The author attributed these results to the prior parent brand attitudes, the skepticism and their general ambivalence toward the corporate rebranding. Both general attitude factors (i.e. skepticism and general ambivalence towards rebranding) were found to have significant positive impacts on ATR. Skeptical individuals questioned the possibility of a successful rebranding (Chang, 2011) and were more careful with their evaluations toward 'too god to be true' or 'made in heaven' pair of companies. The embedded general ambivalent attitudes that people held toward rebranding could be triggered from the associative network by the ambiguous situation (Prislin & Quellete, 1996). In addition, the ambivalent rebranded brand attitude was found to lower down purchase intention, supporting Hanze (2001), Lavine (2001) and van Harreveld et al. (2009)'s studies. Ambivalent individuals were found to prefer delay decision making by choosing around the mid-ranged points in 'willingness to buy' scale. The study provides several marketing implications. Ambivalence management is proven to be important to corporate rebranding to minimize the ambivalent attitudes experienced. This could be done by carefully controlling the parent brands-related and general attitude factors. The high ambivalent individuals are less confident with their own conflicted attitudes and are motivated to get rid of the psychological discomfort caused by these conflicted attitudes (Bell & Esses, 2002; Lau-Gesk, 2005; van Harreveld et al., 2009). They tend to process information more deeply (Jonas et al., 1997; Maio et al., 2000; Wood et al., 1985) and pay more attention to message that provides convincible arguments. Providing strong, favorable and convincible message is hence effective in alleviating consumers' ambivalent attitudes. In addition, brand name heuristic could be utilized because the rebranding strategy sends important signal to consumers about the changes that happen or going to happen. The ambivalent individuals will pay attention to both brand name heuristic and rebranding message in their effort to alleviate the psychological discomfort caused by ambivalent attitudes. The findings also provide insights to Malaysian and airline operators for a better planning and implementation of corporate rebranding exercise.

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Basic Study on the Development of Impact Protective Pants and Falls of Elderly Women (여성노인의 낙상실태 및 충격보호팬츠 개발을 위한 기초 연구)

  • Lee, Jin Suk;Park, Jung Hyun;Lee, Jeong Ran
    • Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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    • v.16 no.6
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    • pp.945-953
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    • 2014
  • This study aims to develop protective pants to relieve impact from falls and to present basic data for the development. The survey results are as follows; First, 45% of the respondents were in their 60s and 55% of them were in their over 70s and older. Also, 64% of them have fallen once for the past year and 36% of them have fallen twice or more. The older they were, the more there were those who have fallen twice or more. This indicated the older people has experienced more fall accidents again after a initial fall accident. Second, as per accident situations, the survey showed that fall accidents happened the most in the winter and in the afternoon (12-18 pm). Also, it happened on a street mostly and they were wearing sneakers or hiking boots when they got a hurt slipped in a front or side by missing their step in a walk. The injury areas are mostly knee and ankle. They had the bruises or a sprain in their knee and ankle mostly. The rate of bone fracture was 19.5%. Therefore, the protection area to falls in lower body is the knee. But hip and hip joint should be protected with knee as well because those are usually be broken when it is damaged. Third, approximately 80% of those who were hospitalized for treatment had surgery. Patients who had surgery were rather in their over 70s than in their 60s. The older they were, the more serious their fracture was. The period of hospital or outpatient treatment is more than three weeks in many cases. They responded their health got worse after falls. Aftereffects of accidents were physical discomfort, anxiety and medical costs. Falls to the old makes physical damage, psychological damage, which cause reduced physical activity and the increased cost of health care with economic losses. So it results on a negative impact on the life of the old. Fourth, elderly females were rarely aware of impact protective clothing and they have never purchased such clothing. For impact protective pants, the major consideration was suitable design for their body types. They liked casual style with front or side pockets and simple designs without any patterns or decorations. As per pants materials, they responded that they need functionality, activity and elasticity. Among the functional points, insulation of cloths are considered importantly, so the heat reservance of material in the impact protective pants should be considered carefully.

Relationship of Self-Perceived Symptoms of Periodontal Disease to Quality of Life in Adults (일부 성인에서 치주질환 자각증상과 삶의 질의 관련성)

  • Lee, Mi-Ra;Choi, Jun-Seon
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.115-121
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    • 2012
  • The aim of this study was to investigate the correlations between the self-reported symptoms of periodontal diseases and the quality of life. This study conducted its questionnaire survey over the subjects of 450 adults who had ever visited dental clinics among the adults of age 35-65 living in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do region from January 7 to March 14, 2010. The data were analyzed using a chi-square test, t-test, binominal logistic regression analysis in the SPSS version 12.0 program. Among the self-reported symptoms of periodontal diseases, 65% of respondents perceived that 'I bleed from the gums in brushing my teeth', which was the most, whereas 18.8% of respondents perceived to 'tooth mobility', which was the least. Self-reported symptoms of periodontal diseases was associated with socio-demographic characteristics such as sex, age, level of education and periodic oral examination, dental scaling(p<0.05). People who perceived the symptoms of periodontal diseases experienced functional limitation, physical pain, psychological discomfort, disability in diverse domains, and social handicap more than the group who did not perceive them(p<0.001). OHIP-14 scores were significantly correlated with sex, bleeding gums, swollen gums and bad breath(p<0.05). This study showed the self-reported periodontal problem had a negative impact on the public's leading their happy life. Therefore, in order to enhance the quality of life in adults, it is necessary to prevent periodontal diseases and reduce the subjective symptoms.

Relationship between Oral Health Behavior and Happiness Index in Elderly People (노인의 구강보건행태와 행복지수와의 관련성)

  • Lee, Hyun-Ok;Park, Ji-Young
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.16 no.6
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    • pp.415-423
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    • 2016
  • This study examined the relationship between oral health behaviors and in senior citizens to determine how to improve their happiness index. The subjects in this study were 260 senior citizens aged 65 years or older, who resided in North Jeolla Province. A survey was conducted from June 17 to 30, 2016. The happiness index of elderly people who brushed their teeth more often and had dental checkups on a regular basis was significantly higher (p<0.05). Evaluation of subfactors associated with quality of life related to oral health showed significant differences in functional disturbances according to gender, age, the presence or absence of a spouse, and the use or nonuse of dentifrice (p<0.05). Physical pain significantly varied with the presence or absence of a spouse, educational level, monthly mean allowance, and regular dental checkups (p<0.05); significant differences were found in psychological discomfort according to gender, tooth brushing frequency, and regular dental checkups (p<0.05). There were significant differences in declining physical capacity according to gender, age, educational level, and monthly mean allowance (p<0.05); waning mental capacity significantly differed with age, living alone or with another person, the presence or absence of a spouse, and regular dental checkups (p<0.05). The factors that influenced the happiness index in senior citizens were age, living alone or with another person, educational level, monthly mean allowance and the Oral Health Impact Profile score (p<0.05). The study showed that measures are needed to improve the quality of life and happiness index in elderly people, including the development of oral health programs for this population.

A Qualitative Study on Reducing Dental Anxiety through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (인지행동치료를 통한 치과불안 감소에 대한 질적 연구)

  • Koh, Boo-Il;Song, Youn-Mi;Bae, Soo-Myoung
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.17 no.1
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    • pp.46-55
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    • 2017
  • Many people in Korea suffer from a fear of dental treatments; however, only a few studies have focused on this population. This study assessed the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and its interventions in reducing dental anxiety, especially when administered by trained dental staff. Using case studies, the authors analyzed the content of each session and examined the process of reducing dental anxiety. First, the authors observed that the results of both dental fear scale and subjective unit of disturbance decreased significantly with changes in cognitive distortions related to dental anxiety and that rapid improvements were noted after two therapy sessions. Second, the study reported that practicing relaxation (deep-breathing) and muscle relaxation techniques; using hand signals to indicate anxiety or discomfort; establishing an empathic relationship with the therapist; making an anxiety list; and graded insensitive and exposure along with rehearsal, were effective in coping with dental anxiety and in changing negative thoughts towards the dentist. Third, a simple cognitive behavioral intervention can be effective in reducing dental anxiety. In summary, a short-term, five-session psychological intervention with CBT produced a sustained decrease in the symptoms of dental anxiety, allowing the patients to receive the required procedures. The authors discussed the study limitations and the implication of their results on future research.

Utility of Ultrasonography for Urinary Tract Infections of Infants (소아 요로 감염의 초음파 검사 유용성 검토)

  • Yoon, Chul-Ho;Kim, Yun-Jeong
    • Journal of radiological science and technology
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.153-160
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    • 2009
  • In this study, we investigated utility of ultrasonography for urinary tract infections of infants. The results of the research is as follows : 1. The number of infants under one year old was 100 out of 122 infants who were diagnosed as a unitary infection. The ratio of males to females was 1.7 : 1. Seventy-seven infants who underwent three kinds of radiologic examinations such as kidney sonography (51%), $^{99m}TC$ DMSA-scan (42%), and VCUG (22%). 2. In comparison of correlation between kidney sonography and VCUG, the sensitivity of kidney sonography was 82% while the specificity of kidney sonography was 58%. In comparison of correlation between kidney sonography and $^{99m}TC$ DMSA-scan, the sensitivity of kidney sonography was 66% while the specificity of kidney sonography was 67%. 3. Utility of kidney sonography showed the highest efficiency when we considered pain, discomfort, a sense of shame, psychological stress when infants may undergo at the examination, side-effect of a contrast agent after the examination, and complication of exposure to radiation.

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Study on the Adolescent Patient′s Stress during Hospitalization (청년기환자의 입원생활에 따르는 긴장에 관한 연구)

  • 백영주
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.72-79
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    • 1976
  • Contemper nursing literature place much importance on human- centered and individualized care. Nursing research has related stress during hospitalization of adolescent patients to adaptation to a new environment, isolation from friends, limitation due to illness, over protection of parents and communication with member of the medical team. The investigator conducted this study in the hope that an understanding of adolescents responses to hospitalization, their perceptions, the kinds and levels of stress, and the relationships between stressors and individual characteristics would contribute to the improvement of adolescent patient care. The objective of the study was to obtain informations related to the adolescents psychological stress experience during hospitalization, specifically stress from interpersonal relationships and communication, isolation from the family, social or economic problems, illness and from the treatment environment and nursing care. An interview schedule adopted from Holmes and Rahe's Social Readjustment Rating Scale and selected items from Voicer's instrument on stress-producing events was used with 120 adolescent inpatients aged 13 to 18 years three general hospitals in Seoul during Aug. 10, to Sep. 30, 1975. 1. The sample consisted of 66 male and 54 female patients. Sixty-six percent were late adolescents, aged 16 to 18 years: 4% were early adolescents, aged 13 to 15 years. The primary cause for hospitalization was for orthopedic problems (35.8%). More than half of these (54.4%) were due to injury or accident. 2. Stress eclated to illness revealed the highest score (4.97), followed by stress related to treatment environment and nursing care (4.34) , isolation from family and social or economic problems (4.01) and interpersonal relationships and communication (3.96). 3. The perceived indifference of doctors and nurses was a serious cause of stress (mean=4.83). Fellow patients and visitors caused least stress (mean=2.06). 4. Discontinuation of education or unemployment were major stressful events (mean=4.71). Least stressful was isolation from the family (mean=3.47). 5. More than 94% of the respondents expressed fears related to body image (mean=4.97) 6. Within the category of treatment environment and nursing care, items related to restrictions because of treatment, discomfort because of treatment, inadequate explanation from nurses about procedures were rated as severe stress events (mean=4.6). Items related to the ward environment and to having a relative stay with them were seen by the group as less serious events (mean=3.7). 7. Stress related to interpersonal relationships and communication was correlated positively with female patients and those preferring passive activities. (P〈0.05) 8. Stress related to family problems was positively related to female and early adolescent patients (P< 0.05). Stress related to social problems was positively , elated to students and those preferring active pursuits (P< 0.05). 9. There were no correlation between the high stress related to disease and any of the characteristic items. (P> 0.05) 10. Stress related to treatment environment and nursing care was positively related of early adolescent and female and student patients. (P< 0.05) This group of hospitalized adolescents reported high level of stress related to treatment environment and nursing care, due to lack of consideration of normal growth and development and individual characteristics. The findings have important implications for the planning of effective, individualized, comprehensive nursing care of adolescents during hospitalization.

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A Study on Prevalence and its Relating Factors of Urinary Incontinence in Women (여성의 요실금빈도와 관련요인에 관한 조사연구)

  • Kim Keum-Soon;Suh Moon-Ja
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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    • v.4 no.1
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    • pp.73-85
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    • 1997
  • The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence of the urinary incontinence and it's relating factors in women. The target population is 327 community dwelling women in the age of 30-70 years old at 6 cities in Korea. The data were collected from August, 1996 to December. 1996 with interview using structured questionaire composing of items of general characteristics, obstetric characteristics, disease characteristics, situation of experiencing urinary incontinence, discomfort due to urinary incontinence, and depression. The data were analysed with $SPSS/PC^+$ program, T-test, $x^2$ test, and ANOVA test. The results obtained from this study were as follows : 1) The prevalence of urinary incontinence in women is 37.7%(130/327). 2) The mean duration of experiencing the urinary incontinence was 75.9 months and the 60% of the respondents experienced a few frequency of urinary incontinence and the most common amount of urinary incontinence(91.5%) was somewhat small expressed as 'wetting their clothes'. 3) The common factors related to the urinary incontinence were coughing, sneezing, laughing aloudly, and the activities of need for hurry. 4) The most common situations of discomforts associated with urinary incontinence were having long journey, exercise, playing, and social meeting. 5) The incidence of urinary incontinence was significantly higher in woman who had more children, older age of last delivery, more vaginal delivaries, and less c-section. 6) The incidence of urinary incontinence was not affected with the disease characteristics of the respondents, however it was higher when the women had the physical problems of constipation, abdominal laparatomy and episode of urinary catheterization than who had not. 7) The most common symptom of urinary incontinence was the frequent urine(43.1%), and the next was the urgent urine(12.3), delayed urine(9.2%). 8) 90.7% of the epsodic urinary incontinence were not treated at al, however, they wanted to try the herb medicine(41.5%), Kegel exercise(27.7%), and biofeedback(10.0%). 9) The level of Depression in the group of urinary incontinence was higher than that of non incontinence group significantly. In conclusion, as urinary incontinence in women proved severe health problem, health care providers need to develop and provide nursing intervention of urinary incontinence such as pelvic muscle exercise with bio-feedback and psychological care.

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Development and Validation of the Scale to Measure Acculturation Stress of Parents-in-law who have a Foreign Daughter-in-law (외국인 며느리를 둔 시부모의 문화적응 스트레스 척도 개발에 관한 연구)

  • Chung, Soon-Dool;Park, Hyun-Ju
    • Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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    • v.63 no.2
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    • pp.319-336
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    • 2011
  • There is recent recognition that the approach toward family members is crucial for understanding problems in multi-cultural families by emerging from typical approach focused on migrant women. While researches have reported serious conflicts and adaptation problems from cultural difference between parent-in-law and foreign daughter-in-law, cultural stress of parent-in-law has not been systematically examined. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale to measure acculturation stress of parent-in-law who have a foreign daughter-in-law. The sample consisted of 266 parents-in-law from three provinces of South Korea. Initially, 16 items were generated based on the existing scale of acculturation stress and they are tested by item-analysis through the descriptive and correlational analysis. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to investigate the factor structure of the scale and a confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the scale. By item-analysis, five items were deleted from initial scale items because of redundancy. Findings from an exploratory factor analysis provided the evidence that the scale consists of three factors which are the perception of prejudice and discrimination, conflicts from different cultural value, and daily discomfort. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ for the scale is 0.86. Multiple fit indices from confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the hypothesized three-factor model for acculturation stress achieved a good fit with the data. Results showed the evidence for the reliability and validity of the scale for acculturation stress of the parent-in-law who have foreign daughter-in-law. The scale would have potential effects for assessing psychological stress for parent-in-law in research and clinical practice. Further implications and limitation of the study and suggestions for future studies were discussed.

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