Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a major complication of diabetes mellitus that needs a multidisciplinary approach. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of patients’ characteristics, anxiety/depression, and adherence to guidelines on the QoL of patients with diabetic ulcer. The sample of the study consisted of 195 patients. Data collected by the completion of SF-36 Health Survey, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and a questionnaire that measured adherence to self-care activities. Patients had moderate- to high-quality levels in emotional well-being, pain, social functioning, and energy/fatigue (median: 68, 68, 63, and 60, respectively), while they had low levels of quality in physical functioning, role physical, and role emotional (median: 21, 0, and 33, respectively). In their general health, patients had moderate levels (median: 50). High levels of anxiety and depression were observed in 13.8% and 20.0% of the participants, respectively. After multiple regression, regarding general QoL, patients living in the capital city had 9.89 points worse general health than patients living in Attica (β = −9.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −16.86 to 2.93, P = .006). Patients with moderate or high levels of anxiety had 9.37 and 16.08 points, respectively, worse general health than those with low levels (β = −9.37, 95% CI = −17.04 to 1.70, P = .017, and β = −16.08, 95% CI = −26.65 to −5.51, P = .003, respectively). Clinically, these findings may help health professionals attain effective treatment of emotional burden to DFU patients and increase adherence to self-care.
Background:Association between perceived social support and quality of life in hemodialysis patients represents a new area of interest.Aim:The aim of this study was to explore the effect of social support on the quality of life of hemodialysis patients.Material and Methods:In this study 258 hemodialysis patients were enrolled. Data was collected using a questionnaire which consisted of three parts: a) the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) to assess perceived social support, b) the Missoula-VITAS Quality of Life Index (MVQOLI–15) to assess quality of patients’ life and c) the socio-demographic, clinical and other variables of patients. To test the existence of association between quality of life and social support the correlation coefficient of Spearman was used. Multiple linear regression was performed to estimate the effect of social support on quality of life (dependent variable), adjusted for potential confounders. The analysis was performed on SPSS v20.Results:Patients felt high support from significant others and family and less from friends (median 6, 6 and 4.5 respectively). Patients evaluated their quality of life in its entirety as moderate in the total and “overall quality of life” score (median 17.2 and 3 respectively). Regarding the association between social support and quality of life, results showed that the more support patients had from their significant others, family and friends, the better quality of life they had. (rho =0,395, rho =0,399 and rho=0,359, respectively).Conclusions:Understanding the relation between social support and quality of life should prompt health professionals to provide beneficial care to hemodialysis patients.
Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is a major global health problem associated with increased morbidity and mortality and reduced quality of life (QoL). The aim of the study was to assess the impact of anxiety, fatigue and adherence to therapeutic guidelines on HF patients' QoL. Material and methods: A hundred and twenty hospitalized HF patients were enrolled in the study. Data collection was performed by completion of the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ), the Greek version of the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS-Greek), the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and a questionnaire that measured adherence to therapeutic guidelines. Results: Data analysis showed moderate levels of anxiety and high levels of adherence to therapeutic guidelines as well as moderate to large effects of HF on patients' fatigue and QoL. A statistically significant positive linear association was observed between anxiety and QoL (rho > 0.6) as well as fatigue and QoL (rho > 0.3). An increase in the anxiety or fatigue score indicated an increase also in the QoL score, meaning that the more anxiety and fatigue a patient felt the worse the QoL also was. Moreover, a statistically significant negative linear association was observed between adherence to therapeutic guidelines and QoL (rho <-0.2). An increase in adherence score indicated a decrease in QoL score, meaning that the more adherent a patient was the better was the QoL. Conclusions: The present findings suggest that QoL may be improved when adherence to therapy is increased and fatigue and anxiety are alleviated.
Buprenorphine and methadone are two substances widely used in the substitution treatment of patients who are addicted to opioids. Although it is known that they partly act efficiently towards this direction, there is no evidence regarding their effects on the redox status of patients, a mechanism that could potentially improve their action. Therefore, the aim of the present investigation was to examine the impact of buprenorphine and methadone, which are administered as substitutes to heroin-dependent patients on specific redox biomarkers in the blood. From the results obtained, both the buprenorphine (n=21) and the methadone (n=21) groups exhibited oxidative stress and compromised antioxidant defence. This was evident by the decreased glutathione (GSH) concentration and catalase activity in erythrocytes and the increased concentrations of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and protein carbonyls in the plasma, while there was no significant alteration of plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) compared to the healthy individuals (n=29). Furthermore, methadone revealed more severe oxidant action compared to buprenorphine. Based on relevant studies, the tested substitutes mitigate the detrimental effects of heroin on patient redox status; still it appears that they need to be boosted. Therefore, concomitant antioxidant administration could potentially enhance their beneficial action, and most probably, buprenorphine that did not induce oxidative stress in such a severe mode as methadone, on the regulation of blood redox status.
The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical use of smartphones among medical and nursing staff in Greece. This study used a 17-item questionnaire that was administered to the participants by the authors. The sample consists of 974 participants of 1200 who were asked to participate (ie, a response rate of 81.3%). The survey was open to all categories of medical and nursing staff (junior doctors, specialized doctors, assistant nurses, and RNs). In total, 167 participants (18.5%) were nurse assistants; 385 participants (42.6%), nurses; 154 participants (17%), specialized doctors; and 198 participants (21.9%), junior doctors. The data analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics (version 21), and the significance level was set to .05. Medical doctors own smartphones on a higher percentage in comparison with nurses. Among smartphone owners, medical doctors use their devices for clinical issues more frequently compared with nurses. Although medical doctors believe that smartphones can be a great tool for their work, they state that they do not use it for clinical reasons. Nurses state that they do not use their smartphones for clinical reasons because they are not aware of the existence of applications that can be used to assist them in their daily clinical tasks.
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