Down syndrome is a condition caused by trisomy of chromosome 21 and is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability. Due to distinct body and facial morphology, people with Down syndrome appear to be at increased risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Additionally, adults with Down syndrome are at increased risk for Alzheimer dementia at younger ages than the general population, and OSA has been identified as a risk factor for Alzheimer dementia in the general population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sleep disturbances are common among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and can negatively impact the health and wellbeing of the child, caregiver, and family. Nurses are well-positioned to support families of children with ASD to improve sleep.
Design & Purpose: In this mixed methods study, we leveraged an existing dataset to 1) characterize qualitative descriptions of sleep disturbances experienced by children (4-10y) with ASD, 2) examine the convergence of qualitative descriptions of sleep disturbances with quantitative scores on the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), and 3) explore strategies used to manage bedtime and sleep disturbances.
Increasingly, studies use social media to recruit, enroll, and collect data from participants. This introduces a threat to data integrity: efforts to produce fraudulent data to receive participant compensation, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Insights into how symptoms influence self-care can guide patient education and improve symptom control. This study examined symptom characteristics, causal attributions, and contextual factors influencing self-care of adults with arthritis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, or heart failure.
Methods: Adults (n = 81) with a symptomatic chronic illness participated in a longitudinal observational study.
Objective: The aim of this study was to identify for the first time patterns of self-care decision-making (i.e. the extent to which participants viewed contextual factors influencing decisions about symptoms) and associated factors among community-dwelling adults with chronic illness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: This cross-sectional study aimed to (1) compare family management between families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Down syndrome and (2) evaluate the contribution of the child (ASD behaviors, feeding difficulties, sleep disturbances), caregiver (mental health) and family (social support) factors to the caregiver's perceived condition management ability and effort.
Method: Eighty-five caregivers (56 ASD, 29 Down syndrome) completed quantitative instruments online. Data analysis included independent samples t-tests and multiple linear regression.
Background: Chronically medically ill patients often need clinical assistance with symptom management, as well as self-care interventions that can help to reduce the impact of bothersome symptoms. Experienced clinicians can help to guide the development of more effective self-care interventions.
Objective: To create a consensus-based list of common bothersome symptoms of chronic conditions and of self-care management behaviors recommended to patients by clinicians to reduce the impact of these symptoms.
Background: Decisions about how to manage bothersome symptoms of chronic illness are complex and influenced by factors related to the patient, their illness, and their environment. Naturalistic decision-making describes decision-making when conditions are dynamically evolving, and the decision maker may be uncertain because the situation is ambiguous and missing information. Contextual factors, including time stress, the perception of high stakes, and input from others may facilitate or complicate decisions about the self-care of symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Self-care is important at all stages of life and health status to promote well-being, prevent disease, and improve health outcomes. Currently, there is a need to better conceptualize self-care in the general adult population and provide an instrument to measure self-care in this group. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the Self-Care Inventory (SCI), a theory-based instrument to measure self-care in the general adult population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFeeding difficulties related to selective intake, or eating a limited variety of foods, are very common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, and CINAHL identified 29 studies that evaluated eight correlates: age, ASD symptoms and severity, cognitive and adaptive skills, sensory processing and perception, challenging behavior, weight status, gastrointestinal symptoms, and parenting stress. Feeding difficulties related to selective intake are consistently correlated with impaired sensory processing and perception and tend to be positively associated with rigidity and challenging behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Cardiovasc Nurs
February 2021
Mixed methods is an innovative research approach that can be applied to understand complex cardiovascular phenomena. A mixed methods study involves collecting both quantitative and qualitative data and intentionally integrating the data to provide a better understanding of the phenomena than can be achieved by using a quantitative or qualitative approach alone. Conducting a mixed methods study requires planning and careful attention to methodological rigour in the data collection, analysis, and integration phases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs adolescents become adults, they typically change from seeing a pediatric health care provider to seeing a health care provider who specializes in working with adults. Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder may have more difficulty finding an adult health care provider who is trained to address the varied needs and medical and mental health issues that often are seen with autism spectrum disorder. Without careful planning for transition to adult health care, patients may continue to be seen by pediatric providers who may not be familiar with adult health needs.
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