Eleonora Vivas

Characteristics of Venezuelan school refusers. Toward the development of a high-risk profile.

Parent, teacher, and child reports were used to identify situational and personal factors associated with school refusal in 114 3- to 13-year-old Venezuelan children. The sample consisted of 57 school refusers and 57 nonrefusers matched on age, school, and sex. As compared with nonrefusers, the refusers had changed schools more often, were rated as more dependent, had more school-related fears, and were perceived by their parents as more difficult to manage. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that school refusal status could be predicted by both situational and personality variables including the childs fear level, dependency, depression, frequency of school changes, history of refusal in the family, and other variables. Refusal onset frequently coincided with situational stress (e.g., the beginning of the school year, a new school or teacher, or trouble with a teacher or peers). Categories of refusal resembled those of other studies and included adjustment reaction, school phobia, and emotional disturbance. In the future, these risk factors can be used to identify and treat potential school refusers

La satisfacción del paciente hospitalario: una propuesta de evaluación

Resumen Objetivo Disenar y validar un instrumento para medir la satisfaccion del paciente hospitalizado hacia la atencion recibida. Material y metodo A partir de dos fases de estudio, se construyo el cuestionario Cuidado de su Salud durante la Hospitalizacion (CSH). Se aplico en una muestra piloto de 31 pacientes hospitalizados y luego se valido en una segunda muestra de 394 pacientes hospitalizados en el Hospital Universitario de Caracas-Venezuela, entre 2002 y 2004. Se realizo un analisis estadistico para la seleccion de los reactivos, un analisis factorial exploratorio de componentes principales con rotacion varimax para la validez de constructo y el calculo de consistencia interna (coeficiente alfa de Cronbach); se empleo el programa SPSS 10 para Windows. Resultados Se seleccionaron 43 reactivos dicotomicos que miden elementos asociados a la satisfaccion de los usuarios. El cuestionario (CSH) consta ademas de un reactivo final dicotomico que mide la satisfaccion general de los pacientes y un apartado de datos sociodemograficos de 6 items. A partir del analisis factorial exploratorio se identificaron 6 aspectos asociados a la satisfaccion del paciente hospitalizado hacia la atencion recibida que explican un 38,0% de la varianza: evaluacion de la labor y actitud del personal de enfermeria, la labor y actitud del personal medico, las condiciones ambientales de la hospitalizacion, la mejoria fisica percibida, informacion medica proporcionada y valoracion del rendimiento del servicio. Conclusiones El cuestionario elaborado (CSH) se presenta como una herramienta promisoria para la medicion valida y confiable de la satisfaccion del paciente. Se plantea un conjunto de recomendaciones con la finalidad de fortalecer el instrumento en investigaciones futuras.

Relaciones trabajo-familia y salud en mujeres trabajadoras

Objective. To study the relationship between gratifications and interferences generated in the work-family relationship and its impact on working women’s health. Material and Methods. A non-experimental, correlational design was used. A group of 402 working women between 27 and 71 years of age were tested in Caracas, Venezuela during 2006, to measure work-family relationship, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, wellbeing, health perception and number of symptoms. Results. It was found that the gratifications in the work-family relationship are related to better wellbeing and self-esteem, less depression, anxiety and symptom report. Presence of more interferences was associated with more depression, anxiety and number of symptoms. Conclusions. These results give an indication of protective and risk factors for multiple-role women’s health and could provide some guidelines for intervention programs.

Trastornos de alimentación y control personal de la conducta

Objective. To explore the three components of personal behavioral control: Objective control, subjective control and control beliefs among normal women, women at risk of anorexia or bulimia and women with sub-clinical eating disorders. Material and methods. In 1997, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Caracas, Venezuela. The study population consisted of 87 women: 21 with sub-clinical eating disorders, 33 at risk of having an eating disorder, and 33 normal women. Measurement instruments used were: Eating Attitude Test, Composite International Diagnostic Interview, Self-control Inventory, Inventory for Perceived Self-efficacy for Self-control, and the Locus of Control Inventory. Data analysis consisted of analysis of variance, and post hoc comparisons were done with the Student-Neuman-Keuls test. Results. Women with sub-clinical eating disorders were found to have difficulty for behavior selfcontrol, lower self-efficacy to regulate their behavior, and beliefs of control by powerful others over their behavior and its consequences. Conclusions. The results from this study are a first attempt to understand the role of the psychological variable “personal control of behavior”, as a protective or risk factor for developing sub-clinical anorexia or bulimia. The English version of this paper is available at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html