AIMS: To investigate the work stress among Chinese nurses who are supporting Wuhan in fighting against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and to explore the relevant influencing factors. BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 epidemic has posed a major threat to public health. Nurses have always played an important role in infection prevention, infection control, isolation, containment and public health. However, available data on the work stress among these nurses are limited. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey. An online questionnaire was completed by 180 anti-epidemic nurses from Guangxi. Data collection tools, including the Chinese version of the Stress Overload Scale (SOS) and the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), were used. Descriptive single factor correlation and multiple regression analyses were used in exploring the related influencing factors. RESULTS: The SOS (39.91 ± 12.92) and SAS (32.19 ± 7.56) scores of this nurse group were positively correlated (r = 0.676, p < .05). Multiple regression analysis showed that only children, working hours per week and anxiety were the main factors affecting nurse stress (p = .000, .048, .000, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Nurses who fight against COVID-19 were generally under pressure. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse leaders should pay attention to the work stress and the influencing factors of the nurses who are fighting against COVID-19 infection, and offer solutions to retain mental health among these nurses.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jonm.13014

Work stress among Chinese nurses to support Wuhan in fighting against COVID-19 epidemic.

Background: Over half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, and this proportion is expected to increase. While there have been numerous reviews of empirical studies on the link between nature and human health, very few have focused on the urban context, and most have examined almost exclusively cross-sectional research. This review is a first step toward assessing the possibility of causal relationships between nature and health in urban settings. Methods: Through systematic review of published literature, we explored the association between urban green space and human health. Results: We found consistent negative association between urban green space exposure and mortality, heart rate, and violence, and positive association with attention, mood, and physical activity. Results were mixed, or no association was found, in studies of urban green space exposure and general health, weight status, depression, and stress (via cortisol concentration). The number of studies was too low to generalize about birth outcomes, blood pressure, heart rate variability, cancer, diabetes, or respiratory symptoms. Conclusions: More studies using rigorous study design are needed to make generalizations, and meta-analyses, of these and other health outcomes possible. These findings may assist urban managers, organizations, and communities in their efforts to increase new or preserve existing green space.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/3/445/pdf

Urban Green Space and Its Impact on Human Health

http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/99572/1/gascon2015_2007.pdf

Residential green spaces and mortality: A systematic review.

Objective : To translate the Perceived Stress Scale (versions PSS-4, -10 and -14) and to assess its psychometric properties in a sample of general Greek population. Methods : 941 individuals completed anonymously questionnaires comprising of PSS, the Depression Anxiety and Stress scale (DASS-21 version), and a list of stress-related symptoms. Psychometric properties of PSS were investigated by confirmatory factor analysis (construct validity), Cronbach's alpha (reliability), and by investigating relations with the DASS-21 scores and the number of symptoms, across individuals' characteristics. The two-factor structure of PSS-10 and PSS-14 was confirmed in our analysis. We found satisfactory Cronbach's alpha values (0.82 for the full scale) for PSS-14 and PSS-10 and marginal satisfactory values for PSS-4 (0.69). PSS score exhibited high correlation

/pdf/perceived-stress-scale-reliability-and-validity-study-in-55v1qjk389.pdf

Perceived Stress Scale: Reliability and Validity Study in Greece

Natural outdoor environments and mental and physical health: relationships and mechanisms.

The aims of this study were to explore associations of the distance and use of urban green spaces with the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and its risk factors, and to evaluate the impact of the accessibility and use of green spaces on the incidence of CVD among the population of Kaunas city (Lithuania). We present the results from a Kaunas cohort study on the access to and use of green spaces, the association with cardiovascular risk factors and other health-related variables, and the risk of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. A random sample of 5,112 individuals aged 45-72 years was screened in 2006-2008. During the mean 4.41 years follow-up, there were 83 deaths from CVD and 364 non-fatal cases of CVD among persons free from CHD and stroke at the baseline survey. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were used for data analysis. We found that the distance from people’s residence to green spaces was not related to the prevalence of health-related variables. However, the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and the prevalence of diabetes mellitus were significantly lower among park users than among non-users. During the follow up, an increased risk of non-fatal and fatal CVD combined was observed for those who lived ≥629.61 m from green spaces (3rd tertile of distance to green space) (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.36), and the risk for non-fatal CVD–for those who lived ≥347.81 m (2nd and 3rd tertile) and were not park users (HR = 1.66) as compared to men and women who lived 347.8 m or less (1st tertile) from green space. Men living further away from parks (3rd tertile) had a higher risk of non-fatal and fatal CVD combined, compared to those living nearby (1st tertile) (HR = 1.51). Compared to park users living nearby (1st tertile), a statistically significantly increased risk of non-fatal CVD was observed for women who were not park users and living farther away from parks (2nd and 3rd tertile) (HR = 2.78). Our analysis suggests public health policies aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles in urban settings could produce cardiovascular benefits.

/pdf/accessibility-and-use-of-urban-green-spaces-and-q3vycrwsdr.pdf

Accessibility and use of urban green spaces, and cardiovascular health: findings from a Kaunas cohort study

Malinauskiene V., Leisyte P., Malinauskas R. & Kirtiklyte K. (2011) Associations between self-rated health and psychosocial conditions, lifestyle factors and health resources among hospital nurses in Lithuania. Journal of Advanced Nursing67(11), 2383–2393.



Abstract

Aim.  The aim of our study was to investigate the association between self-rated health and psychosocial factors at work and everyday life (job demands, job control, social support, workplace bullying, life-threatening events); health behaviours (smoking, alcohol, being overweight, obesity, low physical activity); mental distress; job satisfaction; and sense of coherence in a representative sample of Lithuanian hospitals’ internal medicine department nurses.



Background.  Recent trends to extend the retirement age in many countries of the European Union challenge future public health. Nurses are exposed to a broad variety of adverse psychosocial factors at work and in every day life that affect their health perception. As the retirement age in Lithuania is to be extended to 65 years for women, research on the associations of poor self-rated health with related factors is important.



Method.  A cross-sectional study was carried out in the period 2005–2006 using the representative sample of Lithuanian hospitals’ internal medicine department nurses. Data were collected from 748 nurses using questionnaire (response rate 53·9%).



Results.  About 60·4% of nurses rated their health negatively. In the fully adjusted model age, high job demands, low job control, low social support at work, life-threatening events, low physical activity, being overweight, obesity, mental distress, job dissatisfaction and weak sense of coherence were associated with negative self-rated health.



Conclusions.  Preventive strategies against adverse psychosocial working conditions of nurses should be implemented in the Lithuanian hospitals.

Associations between self-rated health and psychosocial conditions, lifestyle factors and health resources among hospital nurses in Lithuania.

Objective: To investigate the associations between burnout, gender, working experience and perceived stress among university coaches in Lithuania. Methods: A random sample of university coaches (N=203) was investigated (136 male and 67 female coaches; 131 coaches, with 10 yr or more work experience, and 72 coaches with less than 10 yr job experience). Two questionnaires-the Coach Burnout Questionnaire (CBQ) and Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10)-were used. The statistical hypotheses were tested by the independent samples t-test and binary logistic regression analysis. Results: Statistically significant differences at the 0.01 level for burnout among coaches with 10 yr or more (burnout average score and standard deviation 2.28 ± 0.42), and coaches, who less than 10 yr job experience (1.97 ± 0.35) were found. No differences were observed between males and females with regard to burnout. The odds ratio (OR) of perceived stress for burnout was 1.92; 95% CI 1.01-3.64. Conclusions: Significant association between burnout and job experience of 10 yr or more as compared to less than 10 yr among the university coaches was observed. High levels of perceived stress among university coaches are significantly related to burnout.

/pdf/burnout-and-perceived-stress-among-university-coaches-in-2c1ba672nw.pdf

Burnout and perceived stress among university coaches in Lithuania.

Background and aimsAlthough the peculiarities of problematic Internet use and Internet addiction have been analyzed previously by researchers, there is still no general agreement in the literature ...

/pdf/a-meta-analysis-of-psychological-interventions-for-internet-34p83zk90j.pdf

A meta-analysis of psychological interventions for Internet/smartphone addiction among adolescents.

Objectives The objective of the study has been to assess the associations between psychological distress and exposure to workplace bullying, taking into account possible influence of adverse psychosocial job characteristics and occupational burnout in a sample of Kaunas (Lithuania) teachers. Material and methods The study sample included 517 teachers from 13 secondary schools and was conducted in 2014. The participants filled in the anonymous questionnaire (response rate 71.3%). Twenty-two-item Negative Acts Questionnaire (H. Hoel and S. Einarsen) was used for measuring the exposure to workplace bullying, Goldberg 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) - psychological distress, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) - occupational burnout, Karasek Demand-Control questionnaire - psychosocial job stressors. The IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0 was used for performing the statistical analysis. Associations between psychological distress, exposure to workplace bullying, psychosocial job characteristics and occupational burnout were analyzed in the logistic regression and expressed in terms of odds ratios (OR). Statistical significance was determined using the 95% confidence interval (CI) level. Results Workplace bullying was prevalent among Kaunas teachers (occasional - 8.3%, severe - 2.9%). Twenty-five percent of teachers suffered from psychological distress. High emotional exhaustion was found in 25.6% of them, high depersonalization in 10.6% and low personal achievement in 33.7% of cases. Almost a half of respondents (47.4%) reported job strain and 59.6% - low social support at work. Occasional and severe bullying was associated with psychological distress after adjusting to job strain, social support and emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment (adjusted OR was 3.27, 95% CI: 1.56-6.84 for occasional and 4.98, 95% CI: 1.27-19.62 for severe bullying). Conclusions Occasional and severe bullying were strong predictors for psychological distress. Burnout did not mediate those associations. The effect of job strain and low social support decreased to the insignificant level in the final model. Preventive measures are necessary to improve psychosocial working conditions in secondary education institutions. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2017;30(4):629-640.

http://ijomeh.eu/pdf-63926-12094?filename=Workplace bullying and.pdf

Vilija Malinauskiene

Papers

Accessibility and use of urban green spaces, and cardiovascular health: findings from a Kaunas cohort study

Associations between self-rated health and psychosocial conditions, lifestyle factors and health resources among hospital nurses in Lithuania.

Burnout and perceived stress among university coaches in Lithuania.

A meta-analysis of psychological interventions for Internet/smartphone addiction among adolescents.

Workplace bullying and mental health among teachers in relation to psychosocial job characteristics and burnout