Biomedical subjects

Monica W Nortvedt

Publications and source records attributed to Monica W Nortvedt.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Low health-related quality of life among abused women.

In a cross-sectional study, we sent a self-administered questionnaire to all the women's shelters in Norway to describe health-related quality of life among women who had experienced violence from an intimate partner. Every woman who could understand Norwegian and was staying at a women's shelter in Norway for more than 1 week from October 2002 to May 2003 was asked to participate. We described violence by intimate partners by using the Severity of Violence against Women Scale and the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Index. We used the SF-36 Health Survey to measure health-related quality of life. These women experienced a multitude of threats and actual physical and psychological violence during their partnership. Their health-related quality of life was low and significantly (p<0.001) below the norm for the female population of Norway in all dimensions. The SF-36 mental health dimension was 2.5 standard deviations below the norm. Women at women's shelters in Norway who had experienced domestic violence had very low and clinically significantly reduced health-related quality of life scores. Health care workers must give priority to developing intervention plans for victims of violence from intimate partners.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Are men more depressed than women in Norway? Validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: The aim was to evaluate the depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D) by comparing the gender-specific scores with another self-rated measure of mental health (MH), the SF-12 Health Survey, in a large general population (N=16,116). RESULTS: Using a score of 8 as a cut-off point for depression, the odds ratio for depression among men versus women was 1.29 [P<.0001; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16-1.43]. This contrasted with the results from the SF-12, in which the women had markedly and significantly poorer scores than men did. The women also reported a higher use of medicine for depression. Two of the seven HADS-D questions, related to interest in personal appearance and the ability to enjoy television, radio, and books, explained 70% of the higher depression scores among men. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the validity related to gender differences in HADS-D is highly questionable.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

The effect of salutogenic treatment principles on coping with mental health problems A randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Although the theory of salutogenesis provides generic understanding of how coping may be created, this theoretical perspective has not been explored sufficiently within research among people suffering from mental health problems. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of talk-therapy groups based on salutogenic treatment principles on coping with mental health problems. METHOD: In an experimental design, the participants (residents in the community) were randomly allocated to a coping-enhancing experimental group (n=59) and a control group (n=47) receiving standard care. Coping was measured using the sense of coherence (SOC) questionnaire. RESULTS: Coping improved significantly in the experiment group (+6 points) compared with the control group (-2 points). The manageability component contributed most to this improvement. CONCLUSION: Talk-therapy groups based on salutogenic treatment principles improve coping among people with mental health problems. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Talk-therapy groups based on salutogenic treatment principles may be helpful in increasing coping in the recovery process among people with mental health problems and seem to be applicable to people with various mental health problems.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2003

Smoking is a risk factor for multiple sclerosis.

The authors determined the relationship between tobacco smoking and the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) in a general population of 22,312 individuals living in Hordaland, Norway in 1997. A total of 87 individuals reported having developed MS. The risk of MS was higher among smokers than among never-smokers (rate ratio 1.81, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.9; p = 0.014). Studies on how smoking interacts with disease onset may contribute to determining the causal agents of this disease.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Occupation, lifestyle factors and health-related quality of life: the Hordaland Health Study.

Health-related quality of life was estimated using the physical and mental summary scores of the SF-12 Health Survey in a cross-sectional study of a general population of 23,312 individuals aged 40-47 years in Hordaland County, Norway. The mean scores in the main occupational groups were adjusted for lifestyle factors using a six-way analysis of covariance. The category of legislators, senior officials, and managers scored highest on both the physical and the mental components, whereas the drivers scored lowest on the physical health and agricultural and fishery workers scored lowest on mental health. Smoking showed marked dose-response relationships with reduced physical and mental health, and inverse U-shaped relationships were found for alcohol consumption and the body mass index, with the mental scale for body mass index peaking above the recommended range of 18.5 to 25.0 kg/m2. Although selection bias related to the choice of occupation cannot be ruled out, the low scores of the quality of life measure for the agricultural and fishery workers and the drivers most likely reflect the effect of known health stressors for these occupations.

Adult↗