OBJECTIVES We estimated disability prevalence among adults at global, regional and country levels using internationally comparable disability data and measure. METHODS We conducted a retrospective analysis of data from the World Health Survey (WHS) (2002-2004) for nationally representative samples of civilian, non-institutionalized populations in 54 countries. A disability was measured as hav...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a psychoeducational intervention called "Powerful Tools for Caregivers" (PTC) influences burden of spouse caregivers. Specifically, this study examined whether spouse caregivers who attended PTC exhibited reductions in stress burden, relationship burden, and objective burden compared to a comparison group. DESIGN AND MET...

Effective communication between patients and oncologists is an area of active and growing research interest. Evidence-based recommendations can be drawn from studies examining (1) the patient-physician relationship; (2) how physicians handle medical information; (3) how physicians deal with patient emotions; (4) system-level communication interventions; (5) physician self-management, and (6) ed...

CONTEXT Although abortion became legal in India in 1971, many women are unaware of the law. Behavior change communication interventions may be an effective way to promote awareness of the law and change knowledge of and perceptions about abortion, particularly in settings in which abortion is stigmatized. METHODS To evaluate the effectiveness of a behavior change communication intervention to...

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of multiple interventions in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is unclear. OBJECTIVE To examine the effectiveness of multiple interventions as compared to single interventions or usual care on health outcomes and health care utilisation within the context of integrated disease management in asthma and COPD. METHODS MEDLINE and the Cochrane ...

Patients with cancer receiving therapy may face a variety of complicated and stressful symptoms. Oncology nurses can advocate for patients by performing their roles as educators and comanagers of cancer-related side effects. In addition, symptom-focused education provided by oncology nurses can enable patients to administer self-care more effectively.

Through a statewide telephone survey of 819 beneficiaries (or their proxies), we collected data regarding client and aide demographics, as well as clients' satisfaction, outcomes, perspectives on staff performance, and complaints associated with home-based personal care services provided under the Virginia Medicaid Elderly and Disabled (E&D) waiver. Most respondents indicated that services impr...

AIM The aim of this study was to determine the patient problems that nurses encounter in different clinical settings and the extent to which they report being able to influence those patient problems. DESIGN Exploratory online survey research. METHOD Data were collected through an online questionnaire. We prepared a 2 × 2 matrix to compare the rate of occurrence against the average level of...

Over the last two decades, disability (needing help with personal care or other routine needs) has fallen among the elderly. But disability has risen for younger Americans, especially those ages 30–49. The largest increase occurred for those ages 30–39, whose rate of disability rose by more than 50 percent between 1984 and 1996. Disability is rising for whites and nonwhites, for people inside a...