No health without mental health.

Students’ perceptions of their educational environment have been studied at all levels of the education system, from primary through post-secondary education. Recent imperatives towards enhanced quality assessment monitoring at a time when health professions education is increasingly committed to student-centred teaching and learning have stimulated a revival of interest in this field. This paper reports a body of research in health professions institutions around the world based on the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM), a reliable, validated inventory that claims to be generic to undergraduate health professions education and non-culturally specific.

The Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM)—a generic instrument for measuring students’ perceptions of undergraduate health professions curricula

Many Indian COVID-19 suicide cases are turning the press-media attention and flooding in the social media platforms although, no particular studies assessed the COVID-19 suicide causative factors to a large extent. Therefore, the present study presents 69 COVID-19 suicide cases (aged 19 to 65 years; 63 cases were males). The suicide causalities are included as follows - fear of COVID-19 infection (n=21), followed by financial crisis (n=19), loneliness, social boycott and pressure to be quarantine, COVID-19 positive, COVID-19 work-related stress, unable to come back home due to lockdown, unavailability of alcohol etc. Considering the extreme psychological impacts related to COVID-19, there emerges a need for countrywide extensive tele-mental health care services.

Aggregated COVID-19 suicide incidences in India: Fear of COVID-19 infection is the prominent causative factor.

Background
Breast cancer is the cancer most frequently diagnosed in women worldwide. Even though survival rates are continually increasing, breast cancer is often associated with long-term psychological distress, chronic pain, fatigue and impaired quality of life. Yoga comprises advice for an ethical lifestyle, spiritual practice, physical activity, breathing exercises and meditation. It is a complementary therapy that is commonly recommended for breast cancer-related impairments and has been shown to improve physical and mental health in people with different cancer types.

Objectives
To assess effects of yoga on health-related quality of life, mental health and cancer-related symptoms among women with a diagnosis of breast cancer who are receiving active treatment or have completed treatment.

Search methods
We searched the Cochrane Breast Cancer Specialised Register, MEDLINE (via PubMed), Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2016, Issue 1), Indexing of Indian Medical Journals (IndMED), the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) search portal and Clinicaltrials.gov on 29 January 2016. We also searched reference lists of identified relevant trials or reviews, as well as conference proceedings of the International Congress on Complementary Medicine Research (ICCMR), the European Congress for Integrative Medicine (ECIM) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). We applied no language restrictions.

Selection criteria
Randomised controlled trials were eligible when they (1) compared yoga interventions versus no therapy or versus any other active therapy in women with a diagnosis of non-metastatic or metastatic breast cancer, and (2) assessed at least one of the primary outcomes on patient-reported instruments, including health-related quality of life, depression, anxiety, fatigue or sleep disturbances.

Data collection and analysis
Two review authors independently collected data on methods and results. We expressed outcomes as standardised mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and conducted random-effects model meta-analyses. We assessed potential risk of publication bias through visual analysis of funnel plot symmetry and heterogeneity between studies by using the Chi2 test and the I2 statistic. We conducted subgroup analyses for current treatment status, time since diagnosis, stage of cancer and type of yoga intervention.

Main results
We included 24 studies with a total of 2166 participants, 23 of which provided data for meta-analysis. Thirteen studies had low risk of selection bias, five studies reported adequate blinding of outcome assessment and 15 studies had low risk of attrition bias.

Seventeen studies that compared yoga versus no therapy provided moderate-quality evidence showing that yoga improved health-related quality of life (pooled SMD 0.22, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.40; 10 studies, 675 participants), reduced fatigue (pooled SMD -0.48, 95% CI -0.75 to -0.20; 11 studies, 883 participants) and reduced sleep disturbances in the short term (pooled SMD -0.25, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.09; six studies, 657 participants). The funnel plot for health-related quality of life was asymmetrical, favouring no therapy, and the funnel plot for fatigue was roughly symmetrical. This hints at overall low risk of publication bias. Yoga did not appear to reduce depression (pooled SMD -0.13, 95% CI -0.31 to 0.05; seven studies, 496 participants; low-quality evidence) or anxiety (pooled SMD -0.53, 95% CI -1.10 to 0.04; six studies, 346 participants; very low-quality evidence) in the short term and had no medium-term effects on health-related quality of life (pooled SMD 0.10, 95% CI -0.23 to 0.42; two studies, 146 participants; low-quality evidence) or fatigue (pooled SMD -0.04, 95% CI -0.36 to 0.29; two studies, 146 participants; low-quality evidence). Investigators reported no serious adverse events.

Four studies that compared yoga versus psychosocial/educational interventions provided moderate-quality evidence indicating that yoga can reduce depression (pooled SMD -2.29, 95% CI -3.97 to -0.61; four studies, 226 participants), anxiety (pooled SMD -2.21, 95% CI -3.90 to -0.52; three studies, 195 participants) and fatigue (pooled SMD -0.90, 95% CI -1.31 to -0.50; two studies, 106 participants) in the short term. Very low-quality evidence showed no short-term effects on health-related quality of life (pooled SMD 0.81, 95% CI -0.50 to 2.12; two studies, 153 participants) or sleep disturbances (pooled SMD -0.21, 95% CI -0.76 to 0.34; two studies, 119 participants). No trial adequately reported safety-related data.

Three studies that compared yoga versus exercise presented very low-quality evidence showing no short-term effects on health-related quality of life (pooled SMD -0.04, 95% CI -0.30 to 0.23; three studies, 233 participants) or fatigue (pooled SMD -0.21, 95% CI -0.66 to 0.25; three studies, 233 participants); no trial provided safety-related data.

Authors' conclusions
Moderate-quality evidence supports the recommendation of yoga as a supportive intervention for improving health-related quality of life and reducing fatigue and sleep disturbances when compared with no therapy, as well as for reducing depression, anxiety and fatigue, when compared with psychosocial/educational interventions. Very low-quality evidence suggests that yoga might be as effective as other exercise interventions and might be used as an alternative to other exercise programmes.

/pdf/yoga-for-improving-health-related-quality-of-life-mental-uiyh9iirng.pdf

Yoga for improving health-related quality of life, mental health and cancer-related symptoms in women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Background: The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) was published in 1997 as a tool to evaluate educational environments of medical schools and other health training settings and a recent review concluded that it was the most suitable such instrument.Aims: This study aimed to review the settings and purposes to which the DREEM has been applied and the approaches used to analyse and report it, with a view to guiding future users towards appropriate methodology.Method: A systematic literature review was conducted using the Web of Knowledge databases of all articles reporting DREEM data between 1997 and 4 January 2011.Results: The review found 40 publications, using data from 20 countries. DREEM is used in evaluation for diagnostic purposes, comparison between different groups and comparison with ideal/expected scores. A variety of non-parametric and parametric statistical methods have been applied, but their use is inconsistent.Conclusions: DREEM has been used internationally for different pu...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3109/0142159X.2012.668625

The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM): A review of its adoption and use

Objective
This cross-sectional study was done to find the prevalence of eye strain and other ocular morbidities among students in Udupi, Karnataka.

/pdf/ocular-morbidity-among-students-in-relation-to-classroom-258hi5p0z8.pdf

Ocular Morbidity among Students in Relation to Classroom Illumination Levels.

The focus of nursing is caring and caring is an elusive concept. Caring is visible however it is difficult to capture the real caring in quantitative terms. Nursing is synonymous with caring and hence entrants to nursing programmes should possess a prerequisite ability for caring. Physical fitness and 50% of marks in 12th grade scores (in science stream) has been the eligibility criteria for nursing however, the growing quality oriented health care market seeks competent nurses in caring. Thus there is a need to assess the aptitude towards nursing and caring, an attempt in this direction is briefed here.

Measurement of caring: An ICE berg phenomenon

BACKGROUND: Academic stress is a predominant phenomenon among grade 11 and 12 students. The performance in Grade 12 is important for entry to higher education programs in India. The purpose of the study was to assess the magnitude of the perceived academic stress and identify the main stressors and the sociodemographic variables associated with the perceived academic stress among adolescents enrolled in the science stream in coastal Karnataka. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Upon Institutional Ethical Committee approval, a cross-sectional survey was carried out among pre-university students (science stream) of coastal Karnataka during February–April 2021. The study used Manipal Inventory of Academic Stress (MIAS) scale to collect data on perceived academic stress from 1859 students (response rate 68.3%). Stratified cluster sampling method was used to collect data from the study participants. IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 26.0 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics, unpaired t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple linear regression analyses were used to study the association between academic stress and various demographic variables. RESULTS: The study revealed that 28% of the Grade 11 students and 26% of the Grade 12 students experienced high or extreme stress. The significant stressors were lack of time for revision, queries from neighbors or relatives, and parental expectations on academic performance. Gender, residence, and the medium of instruction until Grade 10 were associated with academic stress. CONCLUSION: Measures at the institutional and national levels are necessary to reduce the academic stress in higher secondary education. The integrated curriculum proposed in the National Educational Policy 2020 addresses a few stressors identified in this study.

Academic stress and associated sociodemographic variables: A study of pre-university students in Karnataka, India


 
 Improper management of bleeding disorders in the dental setting can lead to complications that can endanger the lives of such patients.
 
 
 
 This study aimed to assess the knowledge and awareness of dental management of hemophilia among undergraduate students of a Malaysian university.
 
 
 
 A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the year 2018-2019 to collect the data. A 23-item questionnaire developed and validated by the authors was used to collect data on the knowledge and awareness regarding dental management of hemophilia patients. A total of 216 dental students participated in this research. Unpaired t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to compare the knowledge score between gender and academic year.
 
 
 
 Only 21% of the participants were confident in treating a hemophilia patient. About 97% of the participants believed that the dental curriculum must be modified to emphasize the dental management of bleeding disorders. The overall mean of the knowledge score was 47.38% and awareness was 73.7% regarding the management of patients with hemophilia.
 
 
 
 The study revealed significant scope for improvement in the dental students' knowledge, which can be achieved by modifying the dental curriculum suitably to provide more emphasis on the management of bleeding disorders.


Knowledge and Awareness regarding Dental Management of Hemophilic Patients among Students of a Malaysian University: A Cross-Sectional Study

Caring is a partnership approach, delivered in a dignified and respectful manner. Caring involves seeing someone in his/her context, for which one should be empathetic and compassionate. In the modern society of rising chronic and non communicable disease burden, patients are experts of their sickness experience. Hence technical knowledge alone from health care providers will not suffice, as patients foresee empathetic and compassionate communication. As patient is focus of care in any health care organization to meet the public’s demand for quality nursing care, it is essential that nurses possess caring values.

Shreemathi S Mayya

Papers

Ocular Morbidity among Students in Relation to Classroom Illumination Levels.

Measurement of caring: An ICE berg phenomenon

Academic stress and associated sociodemographic variables: A study of pre-university students in Karnataka, India

Knowledge and Awareness regarding Dental Management of Hemophilic Patients among Students of a Malaysian University: A Cross-Sectional Study

Nurses: Let your Patients Experience your Values