Abstract. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) environment has the potential to exacerbate stress for parents of infants admitted to the unit. This study investigated the stress among parents of hospitalized infants in neonatal intensive care unit, and its effects on parental needs and expectations. Convenient sampling method was used to select 216 parents of at-risk infants in the NICU from two Teaching Hospitals in the South-East Zone of Nigeria. Two research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. Parental Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Parental Self -report Scale on coping measures were used to measure the stress among the parents. A parent -infant demographic information was obtained and used to determine the extent to which the characteristics serve as stress predictors. Mean score, standard deviation (SD) and Spearman Rank correlation Coefficient (rho) were used to answer the research questions while Chi-square, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests were adopted in testing the null hypotheses at 0.01 level of significance. Parental stress for NICU infant behaviour and appearance significantly correlated with parental role alteration while infant gestational age correlated with parental stress for NICU staff behaviour and communication. Significant differences resulted in parental self-report of coping measures and their role alterations with regard to number of children born by parents and across the fertility history of the parents respectively. Parents of infants in the NICU need to take more active part in decision making and care of their infants.
Background: Lifestyle modification like exercise is an essential rehabilitation measure that improves the quality of life (QoL) of women with breast cancer and helps in preventing cancer related complications. This study assessed the practice and outcome of exercise interventions on breast cancer-specific quality of life of survivors in Delta State, Nigeria. Methods: Experimental design was applied with intervention (47) and control (47) groups. This design involved a pre-test, an intervention, and a post-test. Exercise intervention (aerobic, resistance and flexibility exercises, including warm-up with Swiss ball and dance, climbing of stairs, treadmill, stationary exercise bicycle, shoulder, and arm exercises) was administered to the intervention group for twelve weeks. The assessment of breast cancer survivors' specific quality of life in the two groups was done with the English version of The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Breast Cancer-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ- EORTC-BR23) before and after the exercise intervention. Results: The overall pre and post-intervention breast cancer-specific functional quality of life was 65.4±22.7 (intervention group); 71.3±23.4 (control group) and 75.05 ±10.4 (intervention group); 58.65±12.9 (control group) while the pre and post breast cancer-specific symptoms QoL was 22.2±6.2 (intervention group); 24.1±9.6 (control group) and 11.8±13.0 (intervention group); 30.9±21.2 (control group), respectively. All the women in the intervention group practiced exercise only at mild/moderate intensity and no notable side effects were observed during the practice by many of them (n=39). Significant differences existed in the overall post-intervention breast cancer-specific functional and symptoms QoL between the two groups (p<0.001) and no significant differences were observed among most of the specific QoL scales in relation to age, duration of diagnosis, and stage of the cancer diagnosis. Conclusion: Exercise remains beneficial to women with breast cancer and has proven to be one of the necessary means to improve their overall well-being. Therefore, healthcare providers that manage these patients in different hospitals should always counsel and support them to initiate the recommended exercises for cancer survivors to enhance their survival.
Objectives: This study evaluated the effect of exercise on the quality of life of women with breast cancer. It determined the pre and post-intervention functional, symptoms, and global quality of life of women with breast cancer in the control and intervention groups. Methods: The quasi-experimental design study adopted a purposive sampling technique in selecting the women with breast cancer in the intervention (47) and control ( 47) groups. Data on QOL was measured using standardized instruments, namely the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-version 3 (EORTC QLQ-C30. Results: The results show the pre-intervention overall functional quality of life domain score was 59.2±21.98 for the intervention and 67.0± 20.13 for the control, an overall score for the symptom domain was 31.8±10.89 for the intervention and 29.8±10.24 for the control. The post-intervention overall generic functional domain score was 89.0±11.1 for the intervention and 51.2±17.8 for the control and for symptoms domain; their overall score was 16.4±10.2 for the intervention and 35.4±12.4 for the control. A significant difference existed in all post-intervention functional domain scores of the generic function and symptoms quality of life as the functional domains (p < 0.001) and global health status (p < 0.001). Conclusion: As the numbers of women who survive breast cancer continue to increase, there is a need for lifestyle modification like exercise to improve and maintain their overall QOL to live a fulfilled life devoid of post-treatment complications.
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