Mixed methods

BACKGROUND: Chronic cancer-related pain (CRP) can have a significant negative impact on quality of life. Mindfulness is hypothesized to mitigate chronic CRP by regulating both physical and emotional resistance to pain. In recent years, there has been interest in the use of virtual reality (VR) to deliver mindfulness meditation. VR provides an immersive and engaging environment, which may enhance one's focused attention to present-moment experiences, potentially making mindfulness less effortful and more efficacious for individuals with chronic pain...

INTRODUCTION: Positive maternal mental health is associated with improved outcomes for infants, and yet the consideration of maternal mental health is often neglected in breastfeeding interventions. Breastfeeding interventions typically focus on breastfeeding promotion, and do not always include supports for the mother. This may result in isolated perceived pressure to breastfeed, the mental health impacts of which are not well understood. METHODS: This mixed-methods, longitudinal study examined whether perceived pressure to breastfeed was associated with depression, suicide ideation, anxiety, birth trauma and stress concurrently and 4 weeks later for postpartum mothers...

INTRODUCTION: Although older adults are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, they seem to be overall less concerned about it, and less inclined to support climate policies. The study aims to identify the communication strategies that have been evaluated in promoting awareness and/or climate friendly behaviors in older adults. METHODS: We searched multiple electronic databases for studies that evaluated the effects of any interventions aimed at communicating climate change to older persons (over 65 years) and assessed the results as awareness and /or behavioral changes...

OBJECTIVE: Mobile health (mHealth) services suffer from high attrition rates yet represent a viable strategy for adults to improve their health. There is a need to develop evidence-based mHealth services and to constantly evaluate their feasibility. This study explored the acceptability, usability, engagement and optimisation of a co-developed mHealth service, aiming to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours. METHODS: The service LongLife Active® (LLA) is a mobile app with coaching...

In stroke rehabilitation, simple robotic devices hold the potential to increase the training dosage in group therapies and to enable continued therapy at home after hospital discharge. However, we identified a lack of portable and cost-effective devices that not only focus on improving motor functions but also address sensory deficits. Thus, we designed a minimally-actuated hand training device that incorporates active grasping movements and passive pronosupination, complemented by a rehabilitative game with meaningful haptic feedback...

Cadmium (Cd) contamination of soil can strongly impact human health through the food chain due to uptake by crop plants. Inorganic immobilizing agents such as silicates and phosphates have been shown to effectively reduce Cd transfer from the soil to cereal crops. However, the effects of such agents on total Cd and its bioaccessibility in leafy vegetables are not yet known. Pak choi ( Brassica rapa L. ssp. chinensis ) was here selected as a representative leafy vegetable to be tested in pots to reveal the effects of silicate-phosphate amendments on soil Cd chemical fractions, total plant Cd levels, and plant bioaccessibility...

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is a critical issue for patients undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease (CHD) but has never been assessed in a low-income country. We conducted a cross-sectional mixed methods study with age-matched healthy siblings serving as controls at the Uganda Heart Institute. METHODS: One-hundred fifteen CHD pediatric and young adult patients and sibling control participants were recruited. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Version 4...

BACKGROUND: Research shows that only around half of all survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) disclose the abuse during childhood and adolescence. This is worrying, as CSA is related to substantial suffering later in life. The proportion of children and adolescents who have been exposed to CSA is significantly higher in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) than in the general population. Healthcare professionals report that uncovering CSA is a complex and challenging task. However, we know little about how they proceed when uncovering CSA...

BACKGROUND: Diabetes during pregnancy has negative effects on both mothers and their fetuses. To improve perinatal outcomes and women's experience of care, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests implementing health system interventions to enhance the use and quality of antenatal care. The main goal of this study is to implement and evaluate the outcomes of the Centering Pregnancy group care model for pregnant women with diabetes. METHODS/DESIGN: The study will consist of three phases: a quantitative phase, a qualitative phase, and a mixed phase...

BACKGROUND: Surgical trials are recognised as inherently challenging. Pilot and feasibility studies (PAFS) are increasingly acknowledged as a key method to optimise the design and conduct of randomised trials but remain limited in surgery. We used a mixed methods approach to develop recommendations for how surgical PAFS could be optimised. METHODS: The findings from a quantitative analysis of funded surgical PAFS over a 10-year period and in-depth qualitative interviews with surgeons, methodologists and funders were triangulated and synthesised with available methodological guidance on PAFS...

BACKGROUND: Clarifying the dimensions and characteristics of obstetric telephone triage is important in improving the quality of services in the health system because researchers can evaluate the effectiveness of treatment, care and diagnostic measures in the form of obstetric telephone triage by developing a guideline. Therefore, this study aimed to design an Obstetric Telephone Triage Guideline (OTTG) using a mixed-method study. METHODS: The present study was carried out using an exploratory sequential mixed method study in two qualitative and quantitative phases...

BACKGROUND: Informal caregivers (ICs) of patients with cancer provide essential and mainly uncompensated care. A self-perceived preparedness to care for the patient is associated with a lower caregiver burden, described as the extent to which caregiving is perceived as having adverse effects on IC functioning and well-being. ICs' well-being is associated with patient-perceived quality of care, suggesting that interventions to optimize ICs' health are essential in order to improve patient care...

Gliomas are highly heterogeneous in molecular, histology, and microenvironment. However, a classification of gliomas by integrating different tumor microenvironment (TME) components remains unexplored. Based on the enrichment scores of 17 pathways involved in immune, stromal, DNA repair, and nervous system signatures in diffuse gliomas, we performed consensus clustering to uncover novel subtypes of gliomas. Consistently in three glioma datasets (TCGA-glioma, CGGA325, and CGGA301), we identified three subtypes: Stromal-enriched (Str-G), Nerve-enriched (Ner-G), and mixed (Mix-G)...

Central nervous system (CNS) infections represent a challenge due to the complexities associated with their diagnosis and treatment, resulting in a high incidence rate and mortality. Here, we presented a case of CNS mixed infection involving Candida and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), successfully diagnosed through macrogenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in China. A comprehensive review and discussion of previously reported cases were also provided. Our study emphasizes the critical role of early pathogen identification facilitated by mNGS, underscoring its significance...

Communication is an integral component of effective healthcare delivery to patients, and this includes breaking bad news (BBN). However, clinicians in dentistry are rarely exposed to diseases that can negatively and seriously affect an individual's view of their future and pose a mortality risk, except for oral cancer. The aim of this study was to assess clinician practices in BBN of oral cancer diagnosis in Malaysia. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods study design was used. A qualitative study was conducted among 12 clinicians to gather relevant information regarding their practices in BBN of oral cancer diagnosis using a descriptive-interpretive approach...

AIMS: This study describes a program co-created with Aboriginal communities to strengthen cultural ties with the children. Food data are reported from two knowledge systems (lenses): Western and Aboriginal relational, focused on Country, community, and kinship. METHODS: A cultural program was undertaken with primary school children of Aboriginal heritage, on Yuin nation, over 10 weeks including culturally appropriate practices (painting, bushtucker, and dance)...

Microbial thermal inactivation in low moisture foods is challenging due to enhanced thermal resistance of microbes and low thermal conductivity of food matrices. In this study, we leveraged the body of previous work on this topic to model key experimental features that determine microbial thermal inactivation in low moisture foods. We identified 27 studies which contained 782 mean D-values and developed linear mixed-effect models to assess the effect of microorganism type, matrix structure and composition, water activity, temperature, and inoculation and recovery methods on cell death kinetics...

BACKGROUND: Nitrite (NO2 - ) and nitrate (NO3 - ) can be produced in the distribution systems of chloraminated drinking water due to the nitrification of ammonia. The most applied inorganic chloramine for this purpose, namely monochloramine (NH2 Cl), is also released into aquatic environments from water treatment plants' effluent and within industrial waste streams. Within the treatment process, the continuous monitoring of disinfectant levels is necessary to limit the harmful disinfectant by-product (DBP) formation...

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important grain legumes consumed globally, especially in Ethiopia, for its edible seeds, cash crops, and supply of protein for farmers. Efficient statistical methods must be employed for the evaluation of common bean varieties to accurately select superior varieties that contribute to agricultural productivity. The objective of this study was to identify promising large mottled bean varieties through analysis of multi-environment trials (MET) data using multiplicative spatial mixed models...

Over the last decade, there have been repeated calls to expand the operationalisation of food parenting practices. The conceptualisation and measurement of these practices has been based primarily on research with parent-child dyads. One unexplored dimension of food parenting pertains to the evaluation of practices specific to feeding siblings. This study describes the development and validation of the Feeding Siblings Questionnaire (FSQ) - a tool designed to measure practices in which siblings are positioned as mediators in parents' attempts to prompt or persuade a child to eat...