Vol 4-1 Original Research Article

Coping Strategies Among Spouses of Alcohol dependents at Gokarneswor, Kathmandu, Nepal

Srijana Pandey*, Kalpana Shrestha

Nepal Medical College, Nepal

Introduction: Alcoholism is characterized by an increased tolerance of and physical dependence on alcohol, affecting an individual’s ability to control alcohol consumption safely. Worldwide, researchers have been focusing on the effect of alcohol use on the family and children, which interact to diminish the individual’s ability to adapt leading to distress.

Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study with convenience sampling technique in which cage questionnaire was used to identify the alcoholic family and interviewed 162 spouses of alcoholics at Gokarneswor- municipality, Kathmandu, Nepal

Findings: The study revealed that coping level among spouses of alcoholics was average that was 98.1% and well was lowest that was 1.8%. The coping strategies used was in three subscales engaged coping, withdrawal coping and tolerant coping. In three subscale, withdrawal coping scored highest (55.57_+6.74) and engaged coping scored lowest (24.61_+3.43). There was a significant association between level of coping with the duration of alcohol intake and there was no association with other socio-demographic variables such as age, education, occupation, marriage, type of family, no. of children.

Conclusion: The study showed the average coping level and three ways of coping strategy that was withdrawal coping, engaged coping and tolerant coping. Most of the respondents used withdrawal coping. The study recommends the research on identification of alcohol abusers at community and provide early treatment and counselling to the family.

DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2019/1.1186 View / Download Pdf
Vol 4-1 Commentary

Commentary: Effectiveness of A Multimodal Training Programme to Improve General Practitioners’ Burnout, Job Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being

Carles Barcons Comellas1,2*

1Clinical Psychologist, Hospital Sagrat Cor, Serveis de Salut Mental Martorell, Spain

2PhD student. Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2019/1.1189 View / Download Pdf
Vol 4-1 Commentary

Commentary: Implementing and Evaluating SBIRT for Alcohol Use at a Level 1 Trauma Center: A Behavioral Medicine Approach

Kelly L. Gilrain*, Alexa M. Hays, Victoria A. Grunberg, Anastasia Bullock, Philip Fizur, Steven E. Ross

Division of Behavioral Medicine, Cooper University Hospital, USA

DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2019/1.1190 View / Download Pdf
Vol 4-1 Original Research Article

A Retrospective Review of Parent-Reported Anxiety and Emotional Functioning in Children with Developmental Challenges After Participation in the Brain Balance® Program

Rebecca Jackson1*, J. Michelle Robertson1,2

1Brain Balance Achievement Centers, USA

2Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Friends University, Wichita, KS

Children with developmental or learning challenges often have co-occurring difficulties in emotional functioning. There is a longstanding need to identify effective nonpharmacologic treatments to address these emotional difficulties. However, few studies have examined training programs that are multimodal in nature and their effects specifically on mental well-being. The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of an integrative multimodal training program (Brain Balance®) on mental well-being in children and adolescents with developmental or learning challenges, as measured by parental surveys. A retrospective review was performed on 4 years of archived survey responses from parents of enrolled students (4-17 years; 70.8% male and 29.2% female) before and after program participation. Before program participation, all students tested below age-appropriate developmental levels. The Brain Balance program consisted of three 1-hour in-center sessions per week (45 minutes of sensorimotor stimulation and 15 minutes of academic activities), along with other multimodal activities targeting proprioception and balance, vestibular functioning, fine motor skills, rhythm and timing, auditory and visual processing, and retained primitive reflexes. Parental responses showed that, after 5-6 months of program participation, 75% of children showed up to 25% improvement, and 25% of children demonstrated 60-85.7% improvement, in the following areas: panic/anxiety attacks, worrying, depression-like symptoms, mood, obsessive thoughts or behaviors, social withdrawal, pessimism, emotional regulation, emotional self-awareness, and emotional expressiveness. These findings suggest the potential value of nonpharmacologic training programs in improving mental well-being in children and adolescents with developmental or learning challenges, especially programs that are comprehensive and multimodal.

DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2019/1.1192 View / Download Pdf
Vol 4-1 Original Research Article

Social Determinants of Hookah Smoking in the United States

Shervin Assari1*, Hamid Chalian2, Mohsen Bazargan1,3

1Department of Family Medicine, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA

2Department of Radiology, Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, USA

3Department of Family Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

Background: Educational attainment and income are two socioeconomic status indicators with strong protective effects against cigarette smoking. Marginalization-related Diminished Returns, however, refer to less than expected protective effects of socioeconomic status indicators for the members of the racial and ethnic minority groups, particularly Blacks and Hispanics, compared to non-Hispanic Whites.

Aim: Borrowing data from a nationally representative study in the US, this study tested whether racial and ethnic differences exist in the effects of educational attainment and poverty status on cigarette smoking of American adults.

Methods: This cross-sectional study entered 28,329 adult participants of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH; 2013). Both educational attainment and poverty status were the independent variables. The dependent variable was current hookah smoking. Age, gender, and region were the covariates. Race and ethnicity were the effect modifiers (moderators).

Results: Overall, individuals with higher educational attainment were more likely to smoke a hookah. Individuals who lived out of poverty, however, had lower odds of current hookah smoking. Race and ethnicity both showed statistical interactions with both socioeconomic indicators suggesting that Blacks and Hispanics with high educational attainment and those who live out of poverty have disproportionately high odds of hookah smoking, compared to non-Hispanic Whites with high socioeconomic status.

Conclusion: In the United States, middle-class racial and ethnic minority people remain at higher risk of smoking hookah. As a result, we should expect a high tobacco burden in middle-class Black and Hispanic adults. We suggest that policymakers should not take an over-simplistic way and reduce the problem of race/ethnic inequalities in tobacco use to gaps in socioeconomic status between groups. Marginalization-related diminished returns generate tobacco disparities in higher socioeconomic status levels. Middle-class racial and ethnic minority people need extra support to stay healthy.

DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2020/1.1185 View / Download Pdf
Vol 4-1 Commentary

Racial Congruence in Physical Activity Interventions among Older African Americans

Leah Carter*, Callie Hebert, Owen Carmichael, Robert L. Newton Jr

Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2020/1.1194 View / Download Pdf