Patient classification in anaesthetic care is an undeveloped field and it is therefore urgent to construct an instrument for this purpose. The aim of the study was to develop an instrument to measure anaesthetic nursing care with focus on the unique care needed by every single patient. The Delphi technique was used. The method involved five series of inquiries to a panel of experts, consisting of ten nurses. The instrument developed, included 13 nursing care areas, with predefined alternatives graded from1 to 4, where 4 indicated high workload, and 1 indicated low workload. The instrument was tested in a pilot study and showed agreement with the clinical picture of the patients needs. An initial inter-rater reliability test showed very good agreement for all the nursing care areas. The instrument, however, needs to be tested for validity and reliability in a larger sample.

The aim of this study was to investigate validity and reliability of an instrument for patient classification in anaesthetic nursing care. The study included two parts. The first part involved two panels of experts, one internal consisting of nurse anaesthetists from the local hospital, and one external represented by nurse anaesthetists from nine different hospitals in Sweden and one in Iceland. The internal experts gave suggestions for improvements of the existing instrument. Thereafter the external experts gave their opinion about both the internal panels elucidation as well as the existing instrument. The instrument was thereafter adjusted in concordance to their suggestions. The second part involved an investigation of the inter-rater reliability, with one hundred double ratings before the changes in the instrument and one hundred ratings after the changes in the instrument. Statistical analyses for inter-rater reliability were performed with Spearmans correlation coefficient. The first assessment showed good inter-rater reliability in four of thirteen items, while the inter-rater reliability on the second version showed good agreement in eleven of thirteen items. Results indicated that the changes in the instrument were positive in terms of reliability. The instrument thus improved in terms of validity and reliability and may be of use in anaesthetic wards with similar context.

The aim of this study was to describe young women’s perceptions of lifestyle and how it was experienced in their daily lives. Traditionally, the outlook on illness and health is pathogenic, i.e. preventing illness and disease in order to achieve health, by focusing lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity and smoking. Lifestyle based on a salutary perspective cannot be measured or observed from the outside but must be described by the individual since lifestyle is an aspect of one’s life situation. Little is known about how lifestyle is perceived and what it means in ordinary people’s lives. Data were collected through interviews with 25 women selected by strategic sampling and analyzed using a phenomenographic approach. Three structural aspects emerged: enjoying life, living life, and balancing everyday life. Women described how they used lifestyle as a tool for achieving a sense of satisfaction, relaxation and happiness in everyday life. Lifestyle was also perceived as a never-ending balancing act between different personal needs and the expectations of others and society. It involved how the women used their time or lack of time as effectively as possible in order to organize their day. Lifestyle seems to be a tool in which intrinsic behaviors may be central to enhance quality of life and health. Intrinsic behaviors should be encouraged in salutary health promotion work.

Aim: Reviewing the scientific literature 2006-2011 on infant massage.

Background: The study is a follow-up of a literature review of studies on infant massage published 1995-2005, in which it was shown that infant massage has a favorable effect on weight gain, health, sleep and behavioral development in infants and on parental-infant interaction.

Methods: A computer-aided search utilizing the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Pubmed and CINAHL was conducted in January 2012, the MeSH term «infant massage», limited to clinical controlled trials (CCT) for infants aged 0-23 months, being employed.

Findings: A total of 29 articles were found, concerning 1670 children altogether who satisfied the inclusion criteria, 18 of the studies concerning preterm infants. Results in five different areas are taken up: weight gain (n=8), analgesia (n=5), health (n=5), behavioral development (n=7) and depression prevention in mothers (4).

Conclusions: No harmful effects of infant massage were reported. It was found to have positive effects on children's growth, health and behavioral development, and to have beneficial effects on the mothers' psychological well-being when they gave their children massage. It is concluded that parental education in infant massage is a cost-effective and health promoting measure.

Massage of infants has been practiced globally and been advocated by health professionals. This article provides an overview of studies of its effect involving randomised controlled trials (RCT) and clinical controlled trials (CCT) published 1995–2005. A computer-aided search utilizing Cochrane Library, Medline and Cinahl was carried out in May 2006, the search words «infant massage» limited to clinical controlled trials (CCT) for infants aged 0–23 months being employed. The twenty articles satisfying the inclusion criteria were analysed. Results in six different areas are taken up: weight gain, analgesia, behavioural development and sleep patterns, parent-infant interaction, bone mineralization, and protection against infection. The major findings were that infant massage increased weight gain and provided protection against infections in both preterm and full term infants. Massage intervention appeared to improve behavioural development and sleep patterns. Infant massage was found to improve mother infant interaction for mothers with postnatal depression and parental interaction with premature babies, its likewise improving bone mineralization in premature infants when combined with physical activity. Massage therapy was shown to provide analgesia and to sometimes help colicky infants. No harmfull effects of infant massage were reported.

The aim of the study was to investigate sleep duration, difficulties in sleeping, feelings of tiredness at school, television and computer habits, among primary school children. A questionnaire concerning television and computer habits and length of sleep was given to 208 children8-12 years of age from two public primary schools in southern Sweden in 2007 and 2008. For each of the school grades involved, differences in television and computer habits between children sleeping less than the median length of sleep in each grade and those sleeping more were investigated. Associations between short sleep, televisions habits and feelings of tiredness were studied using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Short sleep was found to be associated with having a bedroom TV (p=0.005), spending more than two hours a day either at the computer or watching TV (p=0.012) and feelings of being tired at school (p=0.001).

Overweight in childhood and adolescence is a major public health problem due to its medical and psychosocial consequences. The aim of this study was to investigate overweight and life style factors in children aged 10. The sample consisted of 138 children 10 years of age from three public primary schools in southern Sweden from whom data on height, weight, Body Mass Index (BMI) and life style were obtained during 2003–2004. Differences in life style factors between the overweight and the non-overweight children were investigated using the chi-square test and Fisher exact test. The association between life style factors and overweight was studied using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Omitting lunch at school and feeling tired at school were found to be associated with overweight. Headache and the experience of being bullied were significantly more common among the overweight children. Overweight was found in 24% of the children, a fourth of whom (6%) were obese. This is important problems that school nurses need to confront. A new and interesting finding obtained was that omitting lunch at school was associated with overweight. Additional longitudinal studies of the impact of life style factors on paediatric overweight are needed to assess school-based preventive programmes.

Urinary tract infections, which are often recurrent, can be painful and cause much suffering. The low-dose antibiotics used today to prevent themcontribute, however to the development of resistance to the antibiotics, to the need of more extended care and to an increase in health care costs.The present paper is a review of literature on the effects of cranberry in preventing urinary tract infections. The literature reviewed provides supportfor cranberry’s preventive effects, also in the case of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The effects were found to be dose-dependent and to bestrongest four to six hours after consumption. The physiological effects can be explained on the basis of efficacy mechanisms which have an inhibitoryeffect on the ability of uropathogenic bacteria to attach to the uroepithelial cells, preventing infection from occurring. Cranberry use canbe recommended primarily for women with recurrent urinary tract infections. Research on effects of cranberry use in other subpopulations appearscalled for.

Nursing workload according to Vårdtyngd Lund (VTL) has been registered at the unite since 1992. An earlier study showed that nurses interpreted the indicators of the instrument and the general outlines for using it differently. The aims of this study were to investigate the ability of VTL to discriminate among different patients, the internal consistency of the indicators of the instrument and the inter-rater reliability. Thirty-one nurses independently rated the workload of six patients earlier cared for at the unite. The results indicate that the instrument may have a low discriminative power. Cronbach`s alpha was 0.7. A high percentage of agreement (> 90 %) was found in 26 % of the measurements. In 10 % the agreement was very low (< 50%). The correlation measured as weighted kappa varied between 0.18 – 0.64. The results indicate that the indicators and the manual need to be developed further and more clearly defined so that the nurses can use them in a congruent way.

The aim of this study was to describe the formal care provided by the municipality and the staff’s description of care-related needs among non-Nordic older immigrants compared to older Nordic-born persons in Sweden. A further aim was to describe the occurrence of informal care provided. Cross-sectional data were collected concerning 111 non-Nordic immigrants from the longitudinal study «Good Ageing in Skåne» (GAS). Comparisons were made between them and a group consisting of Nordic born older people (n=111) with the same age and gender distribution. The findings showed that the non-Nordic immigrants to a higher extent cohabited with children or partners, had family members employed as caregivers, received help with Instrumental Activities in Daily Living (IADL) and Personal Activities in Daily Living (PADL) from their family, received more rehabilitation at home and more daytime home health care and were reported to have special care needs than the comparison group. Furthermore, the health care personnel had less knowledge about the non-Nordic immigrants, which in turn could mean that they do not receive the care they need.

Aim: The aim of the study was to illuminate older immigrants’ experiences of moving to a residential care facility.

Background: Increased immigration will lead to a future increase in the number of older immigrants in residential care. In order to adjust nursing care to their needs it is important to acquire knowledge of their situation.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with seven immigrants living in residential care in Sweden were analysed using a qualitative manifest content analysis.

Findings: Older immigrants’ experience of everyday life in residential care facilities was: Trying to adjust to relocation to residential care, Feeling alienated by communication difficulties, and Trying to stay connected by keeping ties to the origin and past, with internal variation seen as subcategories.

Conclusion: Older immigrants, who move into residential care are vulnerable and experience a major transition as they move from a familiar social and cultural environment into a place mainly designed for older Swedes. There is a great risk that they will become alienated and highly dependent on their relatives if not nursing care interventions with specific focus on their needs are developed.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe in a gender specific perspective, demographic data from adult patients that have been treated in an intensive care unit.

Background: Many studies show that there are differences between men and women when it comes to different aspects of health care. The knowledge of these differences is limited when relating to intensive care in Sweden.

Method: Demographic data registered in the Swedish intensive care register including all intensive care cases during the year of 2009 (n=695) in an intensive care unit in a hospital in southern Sweden was analyzed. A group comparison between the sexes was made with the following variables: number of patients admitted, length of stay in the ICU, SAPS 3 (Simplified Acute Physiology Score) points, the five most common diagnosis, mortality and mortality per diagnosis.

Results: The study showed an over-representation of men (62,2 %, p<0.001) in number of intensive care patients. The mortality was 9,9 % overall and significantly higher amongst men (11,8 %), compared with women (6,8 %, p=0.034). There were no differences between the sexes in length of stay, diagnosis, SAPS 3 points and mortality per diagnosis.

Conclusions: This study has shown that more men than women are treated in the intensive care unit and that more men die during their time in the intensive care unit.

Missing data is a pragmatic fact

that must be investigated and not

a disaster to be mitigated. It is a

property of the population to

which we seek to generalize and

can cause problems not only

through its impact on the sample

size available for analysis but

also through its potential hidden

biases. Making imputations without

first analysing the randomness

of the missing responses can

even be worse than doing nothing,

so care is needed while

imputing missing values. This

paper reflects on how to prevent,

analyse and handle missing data

and how effects of imputation can

be checked.