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OBJECTIVE Investigation of the quality of life (QoL) of nursing staff in a Greek public hospital and its determinants. METHOD A cross-sectional study was conducted in a Greek regional public general hospital during November 2019 with a convenience sample of the nursing staff. QoL was assessed by the self-completed WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire of the World Health Organization. The independent variables were the demographic and professional characteristics of the participants (years of experience, income, shift work, etc.), and the dependent variable was QoL, according to the scores on WHOQOL-BREF. RESULTS The study population included 176 participants (response rate 88%). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was >0.7 for all the scales of the WHOQOL-BREF, indicating very good reliability of the questionnaire. The mean values on all the scales of the WHOQOL-BREF were high, indicating good to very good QoL of the nursing staff. Higher scores were recorded for social relationships, and then for physical health, mental health and environment. More hours of sleep and a higher educational level were associated with higher QoL. Participants that (a) took place in pleasurable leisure activities, (b) did not suffer from a chronic disease, (c) did not want to change their job, and (d) worked in a second job, recorded better QoL. CONCLUSIONS Various demographic and professional characteristics affect the QoL of nursing staff. Appropriate interventions should be introduced to promote the QoL of Greek nursing staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Descriptive statistics are used for the concise and detailed presentation of data in epidemiological studies, while inferential statistics are applied for the investigation of relationships between determinants and outcomes. Descriptive statistics concern the presentation of epidemiological data (univariate analysis), and inferential statistics include bivariate and multivariate analysis. Univariate analysis permits the separate presentation of each variable of a study, bivariate analysis the investigation of the relationship between a determinant and an outcome and multivariate analysis the investigation of the relationship between a determinant and an outcome, taking into consideration the effect of potential confounding and modifying factors. Univariate analysis permits the presentation of absolute and relative frequencies of nominal variates and the presentation of appropriate measures of location and dispersion of quantitative variates. Particular consideration is required in the case of ordinal variates, where the presentation is feasible of both absolute and relative frequencies and measures of location and dispersion. Measures of location are the values around which the observations appear to mass to a higher degree, while measures of dispersion capture the degree to which the observations are spread out. The most important measures of location are the mean, the median and the mode. The most important measures of dispersion are the range, the interquartile range, the variance, the standard deviation and the coefficient of variation. In the case of continuous variates, univariate analysis must include a check of normality of distribution. When continuous variates follow a normal distribution, the application of parametric methods in bivariate and multivariate analysis is feasible, but when they do not follow a normal distribution the application of non-parametric methods is required. A check of normality can be made as follows: (a) comparison between the mean and the median values, (b) estimation of the coefficient of skewedness and kurtosis, (c) application of appropriate statistical tests (e.g., Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk), and (d) use of graphs (histograms, normal Q-Q plots and box plots). Quantitative variates that follow a normal distribution should be presented as mean and standard deviation, while those that do not follow normal distribution should be presented as median and interquartile range or range. Ordinal variates, regardless of whether or not they follow a normal distribution, should be presented as median and interquartile range or range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing research articles is a complex and difficult task, which influences the publication of studies. The results of, or in other words, the information about a study becomes widely known in the scientific community via publication in prominent scientific journals. The completion of a study is achieved with the publication of its results. The title and the abstract of a research article are the most important parts. A declarative title is preferred over a neutral title, since this offers a higher level of information and directly informs the readers about the results of the study. The type of study should be included in the title of an article. Abbreviations and acronyms must be avoided in the title. Most journals adopt the format of a structured abstract, which is a help to writers, editors, reviewers and readers. The structured abstract usually consists of the following parts: Introduction, methods, results and conclusions. The introduction usually consists of one or two sentences, that declare briefly the general background of the research question, and a third sentence, that declares with clarity the objective or the aim of the study. The methodology of the study is presented with brevity in the methods section, while the most important findings are presented with clarity in the results section. The outcome of the study is presented concisely in the conclusions section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]