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This article considers recruitment and retention of study subjects, two vital elements of the research process. Using as an example a Canadian programme to engage older people in physical activity, Philippe Voyer, Sylvie Lauzon, Johanne Collin and Sandy O'Brien Cousins describe how these twin challenges can be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study reports the validation of the French version of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS-F), a questionnaire developed to measure health and social functioning of people with mental illness.Method: Once each statement was tested for readability, the scale was administered to 3 samples of people suffering from severe mental disorders to estimate its reliability and validity. More specifically, tests were run to establish the internal consistency, the stability, and the interrater reliability of the HoNOS-F. Confirmative factor analyses and mean differences according to age, sex, and diagnosis were also conducted to evaluate respectively construct- and criterion-related validity.Results: Coefficients obtained from the various tests show that the scale is reliable only when the total score is used. The confirmatory factor analyses indicate that the observed data do not fit the 2 proposed models, a unidimensional model and a 4-dimension model. However, the scale did show criterion-related validity.Conclusions: Results of the present study converge with those obtained on the original widely used English version. Therefore, we suggest that clinicians use the questionnaire by referring to each item separately and by considering such patient characteristics as age, sex, and diagnosis. We also suggest that researchers wishing to evaluate health and social functioning of persons with serious mental disorders use the total score. Caution is, however, warranted when interpreting the total score for a French-speaking population, because the factorial solution 1-dimension model did not prove to be satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the study was to compare caregivers who used psychotropic drugs with caregivers who were non-users in order to pinpoint differences in coping styles between the two groups. We performed a secondary analysis of a study on the stress and psychological well-being of persons caring for relatives with dementia. We compared elderly caregivers, as either psychotropic drug users (n = 61) or non-users (n = 133), over various psychosocial characteristics relating to the care-giving context. Results reveal that users, as compared to non-users were: (a) more disturbed (appraised a greater stress) by the relative's dysfunctional behaviours, after controlling for the frequency of the behaviours; and (b) experienced more conflict during interpersonal interactions, although their appraisal of self-satisfaction with formal and informal support to their care-giving activities did not differ significantly. Strikingly, users combined and called on a greater number of problem-focused and emotion-reducing coping strategies than did non-users. They more frequently used affective regulation and information seeking coping styles. Stress-related measures (especially stress appraisal and conflict) contributed more to the variation in mental distress of users than of non-users. Results provide a theoretical and empirical rationale for therapeutic interventions such as the cognitive behavioural approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]