Glenda Lindseth

Measuring Physical Activity During Pregnancy

Few studies exist that identify a useful self-report measure of physical activity for pregnant women. The purpose of this study was to compare the self-report exercise diary with the pedometer and determine if self-report measurement provided useful physical activity measures during pregnancy. The pregnant women’s sleep, parity, and related demographic factors were further analyzed for relationships to the physical activity measures. Physical activity was assessed in a sample of 94 pregnant midwestern U.S. women ages 18 to 38 years. The women wore a pedometer during all waking hours for 3 consecutive days at 14 and 28 weeks of pregnancy for a total of 6 days. During the same 6 days of monitoring, the women kept a diary account of the minutes they exercised per day. The pedometer and self-report exercise diary results correlated significantly (r = 49, p = .02). When examining for usefulness in measuring physical activity, a comparison of the women’s occupational categories revealed no significant differences in self-reported minutes of exercise or pedometer counts per day.

Neurobehavioral Effects of Aspartame Consumption

Despite its widespread use, the artificial sweetener aspartame remains one of the most controversial food additives, due to mixed evidence on its neurobehavioral effects. Healthy adults who consumed a study-prepared high-aspartame diet (25 mg/kg body weight/day) for 8 days and a low-aspartame diet (10 mg/kg body weight/day) for 8 days, with a 2-week washout between the diets, were examined for within-subject differences in cognition, depression, mood, and headache. Measures included weight of foods consumed containing aspartame, mood and depression scales, and cognitive tests for working memory and spatial orientation. When consuming high-aspartame diets, participants had more irritable mood, exhibited more depression, and performed worse on spatial orientation tests. Aspartame consumption did not influence working memory. Given that the higher intake level tested here was well below the maximum acceptable daily intake level of 40-50 mg/kg body weight/day, careful consideration is warranted when consuming food products that may affect neurobehavioral health.

Effects of hydration on cognitive function of pilots

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of fluid intake and possible dehydration on cognitive flight performance of pilots. A repeated-measures, counterbalanced, mixed study design was used to examine differences in working memory, spatial orientation, and cognitive flight performance of 40 randomly selected healthy pilots after having high and low fluid intakes. Serial weights were also analyzed to determine differences in cognitive flight performance of the dehydrated (1-3% weight loss) and hydrated study participants. Results showed flight performance and spatial cognition test scores were significantly (p < 0.05) poorer for pilots who had low fluid intakes and experienced dehydration in comparison to the hydrated pilots. These findings indicate fluid intake differences resulting in dehydration may have safety implications because peak cognitive performance among pilots is critical for flight safety.

Nutritional Effects on Sleep

The purpose of this study was to examine the nutritional effects on sleep using actigraphy measures. A repeated-measures, counterbalanced, crossover study design was used to administer treatment diets to 44 adult participants. Participants served as their own control and consumed high-protein, high-fat, high-carbohydrate, and control diets. The study participants wore Motionlogger Actigraph sleep watches while consuming weighed food intakes for 4 days over four different treatment periods. Demographic and laboratory data were also analyzed. Actigraph results showed that the wake episodes and sleep latencies were significantly different when comparing the macronutrient intakes of the participants. Post hoc test results showed that high-protein diets were associated with significantly fewer (p = .03) wake episodes and high-carbohydrate diets were associated with significantly shorter (p < .01) sleep latencies than control diets. Thus, consumption of specific macronutrient intakes may have a significant influence on sleep.

Risk Factors for Cholelithiasis.

Gallstone disease is one of the most common public health problems in the United States. Approximately 10%-20% of the national adult populations currently carry gallstones, and gallstone prevalence is rising. In addition, nearly 750,000 cholecystectomies are performed annually in the United States; direct and indirect costs of gallbladder surgery are estimated to be

Dietary Effects on Cognition and Pilots' Flight Performance

6.5 billion. Cholelithiasis is also strongly associated with gallbladder, pancreatic, and colorectal cancer occurrence. Moreover, the National Institutes of Health estimates that almost 3,000 deaths (0.12% of all deaths) per year are attributed to complications of cholelithiasis and gallbladder disease. Although extensive research has tried to identify risk factors for cholelithiasis, several studies indicate that definitive findings still remain elusive. In this review, predisposing factors for cholelithiasis are identified, the pathophysiology of gallstone disease is described, and nonsurgical preventive options are discussed. Understanding the risk factors for cholelithiasis may not only be useful in assisting nurses to provide resources and education for patients who are diagnosed with gallstones, but also in developing novel preventive measures for the disease.

The Relationship Between Religiosity and Health-Promoting Behaviors in Pregnant Women.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of diet on cognition and flight performance of 45 pilots. Based on a theory of self-care, this clinical study used a repeated-measure, counterbalanced crossover design. Pilots were randomly rotated through 4-day high-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat, and control diets. Cognitive flight performance was evaluated using a GAT-2 full-motion flight simulator. The Sternberg short-term memory test and Vandenbergs mental rotation test were used to validate cognitive flight test results. Pilots consuming a high-protein diet had significantly poorer (p < .05) overall flight performance scores than pilots consuming high-fat and high-carbohydrate diets.

Preoperative Risks for Subsyndromal Delirium in Older Adults following Orthopedic Surgery

Pender’s health promotion model guided this descriptive/correlational study exploring the relationship between religiosity and health-promoting behaviors of pregnant women at Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs). A consecutive sample included women who knew they were pregnant at least 2 months, could read/write English, and visited PRCs in eastern Pennsylvania. Participants completed self-report surveys that examined religiosity, demographics, pregnancy-related variables, services received at PRCs, and health-promoting behaviors. Women reported they “sometimes” or “often” engaged in health-promoting behaviors, Hispanic women reported fewer health-promoting behaviors than non-Hispanic women, and women who attended classes at the centers reported more frequent health-promoting behaviors than those who did not attend classes. In separate multiple linear regressions, organized, non-organized, and intrinsic religiosity and satisfaction with surrender to God explained additional variance in health-promoting behaviors above and beyond what Hispanic ethnicity and attending classes at the PRCs explained in pregnant women at PRCs.

Work Re-Entry of RNs After Substance Use Disorder Treatment A Grounded Theory Study

overeating tendencies in children. Although hunger and satiety are important physiological mechanisms in the regulation of food intake, stress or negative emotions may trigger excess food cravings. As overeating plays an essential role in the development of childhood obesity, a valid and reliable instrument that can be used to assess children’s overeating tendencies is critical. The DEBQ-C was translated into Chinese (CDEBQ-C) using established translation and back-translation methods and reviewed by an expert panel for cultural equivalence. A convenience sample of 349 preadolescents was randomly split to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the first half and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the second. Internal consistency estimates for subscales were evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha. Construct validation with academic stress, a theoretically related construct, was also examined. Each subscale of the CDEBQ-C demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .72-.86). The theoretical dimension of the original DEBQ-C was supported with an EFA that revealed the presence of three factors with 41.23% variance explained and model fit was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in second subsample (χ2 = 223.87, df = 165, p = .002, χ2 / df = 1.36, root mean square error of approximation = .047, comparative fit index = .939, Tucker–Lewis index = .930). Construct validation was further support by correlation with academic stress (rs = .13-.16; p < .05). Finally, the overweight children scored significantly higher on restrained eating compared with the underweight and normal-weight children, F(2, 339) = 10.45, p = .000. To conclude, the findings suggest that the CDEBQ-C is a psychometrically valid and reliable instrument for assessing overeating tendencies with Taiwanese preadolescents. Replication studies with more diverse age, sex, ethnic, and weight groups are needed to provide further evidence of construct validity for the Chinese version of the DEBQ-C.

Neurobehavioral Effects of Consuming Dietary Fatty Acids

An estimated 10% of the 2.6 million registered nurses (RN) in the United States may meet diagnostic criteria for a substance use disorder (SUD), negatively impacting patient safety as well as the health and career of the nurse. There is a paucity of studies that explore workplace re-entry of this population. This study fills that gap by studying the topic from the personal experience of the nurse. The purpose of this qualitative, grounded theory study was to explicate a theoretical model describing the basic social processes operating when a RN reenters the workplace following completion of SUD treatment. Research questions were as follows: (a) What helped the RN re-enter the workplace after completion of SUD treatment? (b) What acted as barriers to the RN’s re-entry to the workplace after completion of SUD treatment? The theoretical frameworks of symbolic interactionism and pragmatism guided the study with the premise that people find meaning and experience change as a result of interactions with others in the environment. Semi-structured face-to-face or telephone interviews were used with a purposive sample of 22 participants from different regions of the United States who had re-entered the nursing practice workplace after SUD treatment. “Self-redefinition” emerged as the core variable of the theoretical model for successful work re-entry. It was characterized by acceptance and internalization of self as a person and a nurse with SUD. Recovery support, healthy self-care, compliance with regulatory mandates, and honesty about SUD status contributed to work re-entry success. Strong professional nursing identity also helped sustain participants through regulatory monitoring and job searches after SUD treatment. Conclusions reached were that nurses who return to work successfully do so with supportive strategies in place related to self-care and recovery. Stigma and deficits in knowledge and education about SUDs amplify the complexities for RNs who re-enter work after SUD treatment. Study results have implications for changes to nursing regulation, policy, and education, and suggest that additional research is needed about this topic.