Social network characteristics in fibromyalgia or rheumatcid arthritis

Purpose. To describe trends in the personal social network characteristics of the fibromyalgia patients compared with the network of patients with another chronic disorder such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. A structured interview was applied to 10 fibromyalgia patients and 10 matched RA patients. Results. The networks of the 10 fibromyalgia and 10 RA patients were comparable in most respects, namely: the small number of intimate friends, the reliance for support on the spouse and the physician, and the relative lack of new social contacts. Furthermore, the fibromyalgia networks were closed networks within a small geographic area. These networks lacked initiative to establish and maintain relations, and can hardly fulfill the patients' psychosocial needs. Conclusion . Based on small numbers, the study provides some evidence that social networks of patients with fibromyalgia are more restricted than those of RA patients. Further studies should include larger numbers of patients to clarify cause and effect relationships and to suggest new directions in the treatment of chronic disorders such as fibromyalgia.     

Understanding the pathway between work and health outcomes for women during the preconception,pregnancy, and postpartum periods through the framing of maternal obesity

The link between work and health outcomes for preconception, pregnant, and postpartum (PPP) working women is complex. Further, innovation and enhanced understanding are required to address the work-related determinants of maternal obesity. However, workplace health promotion is not typically systems-based nor attuned to the specific needs and context of individual PPP women. We propose that to improve health outcomes for PPP women, we must understand the pathways between paid work and health for the individual woman by taking a systems-thinking approach. In this paper, we (a) outline the rationale for why the oversimplification or “dilution” of individual context may occur; (b) present a systems-informed pathway model (the “Context-Exposure-Response” Model) and overview of potential work-related impacts on health and wellbeing outcomes for PPP women using maternal obesity to provide context examples; (c) further investigate the role of motivational factors from a systems perspective; and (d) briefly examine the implications for policy, practice, and intervention design. It is anticipated that this research may act as a starting point to assist program developers, researchers, and policymakers to adopt a systems-focused perspective while contributing to the health improvement and obesity prevention of PPP women.     

Editorial: Evidence in the real world – the need for context and the gender gap

We are in a competitive, burgeoning market for journals and currently in a transition to open access publications, with the aim of making research more widely accessible. Where is the place for practice-based journals in this new and evolving world of publishing? The recent growth of CAMH in terms of Impact Factor, downloads and submissions suggests there is a need for such journals. Professionals are swamped with research findings, often contradictory, sometimes inflammatory, with little time to explore the meaning of these findings within the real world. This editorial reflects on the need for academics and practitioners to be able to debate the evidence base within the real world context (or to consider the lack of it) to inform practice and policy, and also on the importance of providing a platform for topics that are current and/or controversial. Recent contributions to CAMH are highlighted, namely the perceived gender gap in research on emotional disorders in women and girls, and the need for an ethical data sharing framework for academics to investigate the potential harms and benefits of technology. CAMH will continue to ask questions, and aim to remain relevant by focusing on both the evidence and real world context, in order to inform best practice and policy decisions.     

Exposure to neighborhood poverty from adolescence through emerging adulthood and sleep duration in US adults

Does exposure to neighborhood poverty from adolescence to early adulthood have differential influence on sleep duration across racial/ethnic groups? We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health that consisted of 6756 Non-Hispanic (NH) White respondents, 2471 NH Black respondents, and 2000 Hispanic respondents and multinomial logistic models to predict respondent reported sleep duration based on exposure to neighborhood poverty during adolescence and adulthood. Results indicated that neighborhood poverty exposure was related to short sleep duration among NH White respondents only. We discuss these results in relation to coping, resilience, and White psychology.     

Self-supporting wound care mobile applications for nurses: A scoping review protocol

AimMobile health (mHealth) is playing an increasingly important role in the computerization of wound care on an international scale with an aim to improve care. The aim of this scoping review protocol is to present a transparent process for how we plan to search and review the existing evidence related to self-supporting mobile wound care applications used by nurses.Materials and methodsThe scoping review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology. An exploratory search was performed using MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase, CINAHL (Ebsco), to identify concepts, keywords, MeSH terms, and headings to identify study types looking for mobile applications in wound care. The findings of this search will determine the final search strategy. Data sources will include MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, LiSSa, Cochrane Wounds (Cochrane Library) and Erudit. The titles and abstracts of the identified articles will be screened independently by two authors for relevance. Full texts will also be screened by two independent reviewers and data extraction will be performed in accordance with a pre-designed extraction form. All types of studies and literature linked to self-supporting mobile wound care application used by nurses will be included (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and grey literature).ConclusionThe results of the scoping review will give an overview of the existing self-supporting mobile applications in wound care used by nurses. These will also help to identify the existing applications, and describe knowledge in nursing about their utilisation, development, and evaluation, as well as synthesize the available literature on their impacts.