Search

Background: Mental health problems are highly prevalent among university students, but little is known about their underlying determinants. This study explores mental health among university students, the association between “effort-reward imbalance” (ERI), overcommitment and mental health, and to what extent ERI and overcommitment explain gender differences in mental health. Methods: Cross-sectional data were analyzed from 4760 Italian university students. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale-10 was used to measure self-reported psychological distress, as an indicator of mental health, and the ERI – Student Questionnaire to measure effort, reward and overcommitment. The associations between ERI and overcommitment with p

Background: General physiotherapy is a common means of rehabilitation after surgery for proximal humeral fracture (PHF). Better-targeted exercises seem worthy of investigation and the aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a rehabilitation program including task-oriented exercises in improving disability, pain, and quality of life in patients after a PHF. Methods: By means of a randomized controlled trial with one-year follow-up, 70 working patients (mean age of 49 ± 11 years; 41 females), who were selected for open reduction and internal fixation with plates caused by PHF, were randomized to be included in an experimental (n = 35) or control group (n = 35). There was a permuted-block randomization plan, and a list of program codes was previously created; subsequently, an automatic assignment system was used to conceal the allocation. The first group underwent a supervised rehabilitation program of task-oriented exercises based on patients’ specific job activities, and occupational therapy. The second group underwent general physiotherapy, including supervised mobility, strengthening and stretching exercises. Both groups individually followed programs of 60-min session three times per week for 12 weeks in the outpatient setting. The Disability Arm Shoulder Hand questionnaire (DASH; scores range from 0 to 100; primary outcome), a Pain intensity Numerical Rating Scale (scores range 0 to 10; secondary outcomes), and the Short-Form Health Survey (scores range from 0 to 100; secondary outcomes) assessed the interventions. Participants were evaluated before surgery, before and after rehabilitation (primary endpoint), and at the one-year follow-up (secondary endpoint). A linear mixed model analysis for repeated measures was carried out for each outcome measure (p < 0.05). Results: Time, group and time by group showed significant effects for all outcome measures in favour of the experimental group. The DASH and the DASH work achieved clinically important between

Aphasia is an acquired deficit following acute damage to the central nervous system that involves the difficulty or impossibility of understanding and formulating language. A typical disorder of non-fluent forms of aphasia is anomia. Anomia refers to the difficulty in finding words, in particular when trying to name objects and actions. According to the Embodied Cognition approach (EC), language is tightly connected to the motor system. In this view, language rehabilitation programs should stimulate language through the activation of the motor system. In this approach, since anomic deficits are often due to a weak link between the meaning of the word and its lemma, the Hebbs’ principles of coincident and correlated learning can be exploited, i.e., by intensifying the synchronous activation of lexicon and semantics and connecting them with the motor counterpart. In this study, we present an innovative training, based on the EC framework, in which we will make use of new technologies for anomia rehabilitation in post-stroke patients. Specifically, we will use immersive 360° videos representing everyday actions displayed from the first-person point of view, experienced through a head-mounted display. The training will be administered 3 times a week for 4 weeks. The control group will watch standard videos representing the same actions recorded from the third-person perspective. Naming abilities will be tested before and after the training together with other cognitive and psychological measures. We expect that the group who will undergo the 360° video-based training will show greater improvement of performance compared to the control group.

Background: Mental health problems are highly prevalent among university students, but little is known about their underlying determinants. This study explores mental health among university students, the association between “effort-reward imbalance” (ERI), overcommitment and mental health, and to what extent ERI and overcommitment explain gender differences in mental health. Methods: Cross-sectional data were analyzed from 4760 Italian university students. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale-10 was used to measure self-reported psychological distress, as an indicator of mental health, and the ERI – Student Questionnaire to measure effort, reward and overcommitment. The associations between ERI and overcommitment with psychological distress were estimated with multinomial logistic regression analyses. Results: 78.5% of the respondents experienced psychological distress, with 21.3%, 21.1%, and 36.1% reporting respectively mild, moderate and severe psychological distress. Female students were more likely to report moderate and severe psychological distress. ERI and overcommitment were strongly associated with severe psychological distress with ORs respectively up to 19.9 (95% CI: 12.2–32.5) and 22.2 (95% CI: 16.1–30.7). ERI and overcommitment explained part of the higher odds of severe psychological distress among female students comparing to males, attenuating the ORs from 2.3 (95% CI: 1.9–2.7) to 1.4 (95% CI: 1.2–1.7). Limitations: This cross-sectional study was performed on a large, but convenient sample. Discussion: More than one out of three students reported severe psychological distress. Decreasing ERI and overcommitment may be beneficial in the prevention of psychological distress among university students and may reduce gender differences in psychological distress. Longitudinal studies are needed to further investigate these associations.

OBJECTIVES: The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the University Stress Scale (USS) among Italian medical students. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional observational study based on data from an online cross-sectional survey from 11 to 23 December 2018. A total of 1858 Italian medical students participated in the study. OUTCOME MEASURES: We measured perceived stress among medical students using the USS, the Effort-Reward Imbalance Student Questionnaire (ERI-SQ) and the Kessler-10 (K10). RESULTS: Results showed that a bifactor-Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling solution provided excellent levels of fit to the data. Our results suggest that the modified version of 19 items of the Italian version of the USS does not have a simple unidimensional structure. Overall, an inspection of ancillary indices (omega indices, ECV and percentage of uncontaminated correlations) revealed that these were too low to suggest the use of the USS as a composite measure of university stress. We tested an alternative unidimensional short form (eight items; USS-S) that assessed all the five sources of stress. This version provided a good fit to the data. Evidence of convergent validity of the USS-S was observed by analysing the correlations between the USS and ERI-SQ (ranging from -0.34 to 0.37, all p<0.01). Finally, based on the clinical cut-off recommended on the K10, results from receiver operating characteristic showed that considering the clinical cut-off of the USS is 7.5 and that 59.70% of medical students reported stress levels in the clinical range. CONCLUSION: Finally, our results showed a lack of support for using the USS to measure a general university stress factor, as the general USS factor accounted for little variance in our sample. In this sense, stress scores among Italian students can be better as

In the Job Demand–Control–Support (JDCS) model, the combination of job demands, job control, and social support was hypothesized to lead to eight different constellations of job types. According to the model, these constellations are linked to wellbeing/health and learning outcomes. In the last three decades, these constellations of job types have been investigated by adopting a variable-centered perspective. However, latent profile analyses (LPA) enable a person-centered approach and empirically capture constellations of job types. In the present study, we used LPA to empirically identify distinct profiles of JDCS among Italian healthcare workers. Furthermore, we investigated the role of social stressors (workplace relationships and coworkers’ incivility) as antecedents of these profiles and the association of these profiles with job burnout and work motivation. Results from LPA (n = 1671) revealed four profiles: Isolated Prisoner, Participatory Leader, Moderate Strain, and Low Strain. Negative relationships at work and coworkers’ incivility increased the chances of being included in both Isolated prisoner and Participatory Leader profiles. Finally, the Isolated Prisoner and Moderate Strain profiles showed the highest levels of emotional exhaustion and cynicism and the lower levels of intrinsic work motivation. This study extends previous JDCS research, highlighting that researchers should consider empirically identified profiles rather than theoretically defined subgroups. Implications for stress theory, future research, and practice are discussed.

BACKGROUND: In the last decade academic stress and its mental health implications amongst university students has become a global topic. The use of valid and theoretically-grounded measures of academic stress in university settings is crucial. The aim of this study was to examine the factorial structure, reliability and measurement invariance of the short student version of the effort-reward imbalance questionnaire (ERI-SQ). METHODS: A total of 6448 Italian university students participated in an online cross-sectional survey. The factorial structure was investigated using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, the measurement invariance of the ERI-SQ was investigated. RESULTS: Results from explorative and confirmatory factor analyses showed acceptable fits for the Italian version of the ERI-SQ. A modified version of 12 items showed the best fit to the data confirming the 3-factor model. Moreover, multigroup analyses showed metric invariance across gender and university course (health vs other courses). CONCLUSIONS: In sum, our results suggest that the ERI-SQ is a valid, reliable and robust instrument for the measurement of stress among Italian university students.

Il contributo intende evidenziare come non siano sussistenti i presupposti per il riconoscimento del diritto al mantenimento, nella separazione giudiziale, qualora non si riscontri l'esistenza della comunione materiale e spirituale fra i coniugi