Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of State Self‐Esteem Scale: an analysis of data from a cross‐sectional survey of patients in the first four months after stroke

Aim. To establish the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the State Self‐Esteem Scale in stroke patients. Background. Self‐esteem is seen to enhance peoples’ ability to cope with disease: low self‐esteem may inhibit participation in rehabilitation and thus result in poor health and social outcomes. Although the Chinese version of the State Self‐Esteem Scale has been used as an outcome measure for stroke rehabilitation, no study has examined its factor structure in this patient group. Design. A cross‐sectional design. Methods. A convenience sample of 265 Chinese stroke patients (mean age 71·4, SD 10·3 years), with a minimum score of 18 out of a possible 30 for the Mini Mental State Exam recruited from two regional rehabilitation hospitals in Hong Kong. An exploratory factor analysis and an internal consistency analysis of the State Self‐Esteem Scale were conducted. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated between the State Self‐Esteem Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale to determine convergent validity. Results. The final factor solution comprised a three‐factor model with correlated constructs and accounted for 49·5% of the total variance. Significant negative correlations were found between the Geriatric Depression Scale and the State Self‐Esteem Scale subscale scores (r?0·31 to ?0·55, p < 0·01), indicating that the State Self‐Esteem Scale had acceptable convergent validity. The new three‐factor structure had higher Cronbach’s alphas when compared with the original three‐factor structure. Relevance to clinical practice. The State Self‐Esteem Scale appears to be a useful measure for assessing state self‐esteem in stroke patients. To establish the concurrent, discriminative and construct validities, the factor structure of the SSES could be further developed and tested.     

Antidiabetic and antioxidant potentials of spent turmeric oleoresin,a by-product from curcumin production industry

ObjectiveTo investigate the antidiabetic and antioxidant activity of spent turmeric oleoresin (STO).MethodsAntidiabetic activity of STO evaluated by α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzyme inhibition assays. The antioxidant capacity studied by DPPH., ABTS., superoxide radical scavenging and metal chelating activity methods.ResultsThe STO showed good antidiabetic activity by inhibiting key enzymes linked to type 2 diabetes, viz α-glucosidase and α-amylase with an IC50values of 0.71 and 0.16μg/mL respectively. The IC₅₀values for DPPH. and ABTS. assay were 58.1 and 33 μg/mL respectively. STO effectively scavenged the superoxide free radical with an IC50 value of 61.5μg/mL and showed a moderate iron chelation property.ConclusionsThe above study reveals that the spent turmeric oleoresin being wasted at present can be used as antioxidant and antidiabetic agent in food and neutraceutical products.