Josephson et al. (1997) sought to examine the symptoms that female nurses felt over a three-year period on their necks, back, and shoulders and to investigate whether an association existed between job strain and the muscoskeletal symptoms.
The female staff (565 at outset) answered a questionnaire at baseline and then once a year over the duration of three years. A Swedish version of Karasek and Theorells model was used for assessing job strain.
Results found that almost half of the health care workers showed significant correlation between muscoskeletal symptoms and job stress. The authors concluded that job strain is a risk factor for muscoskeletal symptoms and that the risk is higher when it is combined with intense physical exertion.
The independent variable in this study was the job strain. The dependent variable was the muscoskeltal symptoms.
Cronbach alpha coefficient was used for estimating the internal consistency among the questions. The whole was a cross-sectional analysis therefore a Mantel-Haenszel weighted statistics was used to combine the various subgroups into a single overall estimate.
The 2 variables were measured at...
Jongenelis et al.(2004) therefore, determined to conduct such a study.
33 nursing patients living in 14 different nursing homes in the Netherlands were surveyed with depressive symptoms measured by the Geriatric Depression scale (GDS). The authors discovered that prevalence of major depression amongst the nursing patients assessed was 8.1% whilst minor depression rated on a scale of 14,1%. A further 24% of the patients demonstrated sub-clinical depression.
Major depression was found to correlate with the following variables; pain, functional limitations, visual impairment, stroke, loneliness, lack of social support, negative life events, and perceived inadequacy of care. The same risk-indicators were found in connection with sub-clinical depression (the lowest level). The only element missing was lack off social support.
The authors concluded that optimal physical treatment and focus on psychosocial factors should be a key goal in…
