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This scoping review explores the professional literature in allied healthcare to determine which self-assessments of mentor skills are the most valid and reliable for use in occupational therapy doctoral capstone programs. The aims of this scoping review include mapping evidence related to mentor assessments in healthcare, exploring implications for occupational therapy doctoral mentor training programs, and identifying common characteristics of mentor self-assessments for occupational therapy programs to consider when developing capstone mentoring resources. Researchers applied and reported via PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). A librarian and authors formulated keywords and database selections to search PubMed/MEDLINE/PMC, and Embase were searched from across healthcare professions for training outcomes, mentor self-assessment, mentor attributes, and use of researcher-developed assessments. The search was limited to English publications from the last 20 years. Data were extracted for quantitative information regarding study characteristics and qualitative information about mentoring skills. A total of 852 results were delivered across all databases. Nineteen papers met the final eligibility criteria and were included in the data extraction. Populations were included from several healthcare professions, including 11 nursing, four healthcare researchers, one pharmacy, one midwifery, one medicine, and one medical dietetics. Countries included the United States (n = 7), Finland (n = 5), United Kingdom (n = 4), Japan (n = 1), South Africa (n = 1) and Canada (n = 1). The authors identified four valid self-assessment tools, demonstrating III and IV levels of evidence, that may be implemented by occupational therapy programs as they develop resources for mentor programs. Occupational therapy programs can use the mentor attributes found in this scoping review to create their own mentor assessment measures or may choose to use a validated tool. The authors recommend additional research in mentor education and mentor skill acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/objectives: Sedentary behavior (SB), defined as sitting (nonexercising), reclining, and lying down (posture), or by low energy expenditure, is a public health risk independent to physical activity. The objective of this systematic literature review was to synthesize the available evidence on amount of SB reported by and measured in older adults. Data source: Studies published between 1981 and 2014 were identified from electronic databases and manual searching. Large-scale population studies/surveys reporting the amount of SB (objective/ subjective) in older adults aged ≥ 60 years of age were included. Appraisal and synthesis was completed using MOOSE guidelines. Results: 349,698 adults aged ≥ 60 within 22 studies (10 countries and 1 EU-wide) were included. Objective measurement of SB shows that older adults spend an average of 9.4 hr a day sedentary, equating to 65-80% of their waking day. Self-report of SB is lower, with average weighted self-reports being 5.3 hr daily. Within specific domains of SB, older adults report 3.3 hr in leisure sitting time and 3.3 hr watching TV. There is an association with more time spent in SB as age advances and a trend for older men to spend more time in SB than women. Conclusion/ implications: Time spent sedentary ranges from 5.3-9.4 hr per waking day in older adults. With recent studies suggesting a link between SB, health, and well-being, independent of physical activity, this is an area important for successful aging. Limitations: Different methodologies of measurement and different reporting methods of SB made synthesis difficult. Estimated SB time from self-report is half of that measured objectively; suggesting that most self-report surveys of SB will vastly underestimate the actual time spent in SB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This systematic review aimed to evaluate the scientific evidence on the efficacy of desensitizing mouthwashes for the treatment of dentin hypersensitivity ( DH) and root sensitivity ( RS). Material and methods A thorough search in MEDLINE, PubMed and Cochrane Plus Library was conducted up to February 2015. Randomized clinical trials, parallel, double-blinded and placebo-controlled, with a follow-up of at least 6 weeks, reporting changes on response to tactile stimuli, thermal/evaporative stimuli or patients' subjective assessment of the pain experienced during their daily life after the home use of desensitizing mouthwashes were considered for inclusion. Results The screening of titles and abstracts resulted in seven publications meeting the eligibility criteria. The desensitizing agents evaluated were potassium nitrate ( n = 5), aluminium lactate ( n = 1) and sodium fluoride ( n = 1). A meta-analysis for each of the hypersensitivity stimuli was performed. Results demonstrated statistically significant reduction in sensitivity scores favouring test group when DH was assessed by means of patients' self-reported pain experience ( SMD at 8 weeks = 0.77; 95% CI [0.23; 1.31]; P = 0.005). No significant effects were detected in response to tactile or thermal/evaporative stimuli. Meta-regression analysis demonstrated a tendency towards an increased effect favouring test group for the patients' subjective perception, whereas tactile and thermal/evaporative stimuli showed a slight tendency towards a reduction in the efficacy of the test mouthwash. Conclusions There exists a tendency towards a decrease in DH or RS scores with time in both treatment groups, with significant differences in favour of test group when sensitivity is evaluated in terms of patients' self-reported sensitivity symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the systematic differences in the self-reporting and valuation of overall health and, in particular, pain/discomfort between three countries (England/UK, Japan, and Spain) on the EQ-5D.Methods: Existing datasets were used to explore differences in responses on the EQ-5D descriptive system between Japan (3L and 5L), the UK (3L), England (5L), and Spain (5L), particularly on the dimension of pain/discomfort. The role of different EQ dimensions in determining self-reported overall health scores for the EuroQol visual analog scale (EQ-VAS) was investigated using ordinary least squares regression. Time trade-off (TTO) results from Japanese and UK respondents for the EQ-5D-3L as well as Japanese and English respondents for the EQ-5D-5L were compared using t tests.Results: For the EQ-5D-3L, a higher percentage of respondents in Japan than in the UK reported 'no pain/discomfort' (81.6 vs 67.0%, respectively); for the EQ-5D-5L, the proportions were 79.2% in Spain, 73.2% in Japan, and 63-64% in England, after adjusting for age differences in samples. The 'pain/discomfort' dimension had the largest impact on respondents' self-reported EQ-VAS only for EQ-5D-3L in Japan. Using the EQ-5D-3L, Japanese respondents were considerably less willing to trade off time to avoid pain/discomfort than the UK respondents; for example, moving from health state, 11121 (some problems with pain/discomfort) to 11131 (extreme pain/discomfort) represented a decrement of 0.65 on the observed TTO value in the UK compared with 0.15 in Japan. Using the EQ-5D-5L, Japanese respondents were also less willing to trade off time to avoid pain/discomfort than respondents in England; however, the difference in values was much smaller than that observed using EQ-5D-3L data.Conclusions: This study provides evidence of between-country differences in the self-reporting and valuation of health, including pain/discomfort, when using EQ-5D in general population samples. The results suggest a need for caution when comparing or aggregating EQ-5D self-reported data in multi-country studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which examines large-scale observational evidence of cross-cultural differences in facial behavior using advanced in computer science. Topics discussed include the automated facial coding used, the reliability of the facial action unit detection algorithms across different testing subsets, multilevel regression estimates predicting each facial action's base rate percentage.

When investigating the association between brain tumors and use of mobile telephones, accurate data on tumor position are essential, due to the highly localized absorption of energy in the human brain from the radio-frequency fields emitted. We used a point process model to investigate this association using information that included tumor localization data from the INTERPHONE Study (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Our main analysis included 792 regular mobile phone users diagnosed with a glioma between 2000 and 2004. Similar to earlier results, we found a statistically significant association between the intracranial distribution of gliomas and the self-reported location of the phone. When we accounted for the preferred side of the head not being exclusively used for all mobile phone calls, the results were similar. The association was independent of the cumulative call time and cumulative number of calls. However, our model used reported side of mobile phone use, which is potentially influenced by recall bias. The point process method provides an alternative to previously used epidemiologic research designs when one is including localization in the investigation of brain tumors and mobile phone use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Estimations of life expectancies (LE) in health and ill health are important for planning future health care support. This study aimed at quantifying whether an increased LE is accompanied by an increase in the duration of life with dementia (DemLE) in Hong Kong SAR. Methods: Two parameters from a logistic model were used to fit the overall trend of the weighted prevalence of dementia. Abridged age- and sex-specific life tables and Sullivan's method were used to calculate dementia-free LE (DemFLE) for 1998 and 2013. Results: In 2013, among elderly individuals in Hong Kong aged 65 years, men had lived with dementia for 1.8 years and women for 3.6 years. These values are similar to those for subjects aged ≥85 years, while the proportion of DemLE was much greater at advanced ages. Elderly female individuals tend to experience a greater number of years with dementia than males. Conclusion: Our results indicate although LE has increased for all older age groups over time, the increase in DemFLE has not been greater than the gain in LE, suggesting an absolute expansion of the burden of dementia to the community between 1998 and 2013. The results suggest that more caregiving resources and manpower will be needed in the future as the population ages. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some research suggests that the risk of physical aggression by an intimate partner is related to marital status, but this relationship may vary across cultures and by gender. In the present study, we systematically examine the relationship between marital status and physical partner aggression by gender across 19 countries. Logistic and multilevel regression confirmed previous findings of lower rates of physical aggression for legally married versus cohabiting and separated/divorced women and men across most, but notably, not all countries. Single status was associated with higher risk in some countries and lower in others reflecting possible cultural differences in risk for different marital statuses. For example, single women had significantly lower rates of victimization than did married women in India where violence against wives is often accepted. The variation in the cross-cultural findings highlights the importance of examining both men and women and considering the cultural context when interpreting the relationship between partner aggression and marital status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]