Objective

ICU nurses are repeatedly exposed to work related stresses resulting in the development of psychological disorders including posttraumatic stress disorder and burnout syndrome. Resilience is a learnable multidimensional characteristic enabling one to thrive in the face of adversity. In a national survey, we sought to determine whether resilience was associated with healthier psychological profiles in intensive care unit nurses.

Design

Surveys were mailed to 3500 randomly selected ICU nurses across the United States and included: demographic questions, the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale.

Measurements and Main Results

Overall, 1239 of the mailed surveys were returned for a response rate of 35%, and complete data was available on a total of 744 nurses. Twenty-two percent of the intensive care unit nurses were categorized as being highly resilient. The presence of high resilience in these nurses was significantly associated with a lower prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder, symptoms of anxiety or depression, and burnout syndrome (<0.001 for all comparisons). In independent multivariable analyses adjusting for five potential confounding variables, the presence of resilience was independently associated with a lower prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (p < 0.001), and a lower prevalence of burnout syndrome (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

The presence of psychological resilience was independently associated with a lower prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder and burnout syndrome in intensive care unit nurses. Future research is needed to better understand coping mechanisms employed by highly resilient nurses and how they maintain a healthier psychological profile.

Background

Ethnic minority adolescent women with a history of sexual or physical abuse and sexually transmitted infections represent a vulnerable population at risk for HIV. Community-based interventions for behavior modification and subsequent risk reduction have not been effective among these women.

Objectives

To evaluate the effects of a theory-based (AIDS Risk Reduction Model) cognitive behavioral intervention model versus enhanced counseling for abused ethnic minority adolescent women on infection with sexually transmitted infection at 6 and 12 months follow-up.

Design

Controlled randomized trial with longitudinal follow-up

Settings

Southwestern United States, Metropolitan community-based clinic

Participants

Mexican-and-African American adolescent women aged 14-18 years with a history of abuse or sexually transmitted infection seeking sexual health care

Methods

Extensive preliminary study for intervention development was conducted including individual interviews, focus groups, secondary data analysis, pre-testing and feasibility testing for modification of an evidence-based intervention prior to testing in the randomized controlled trial. Following informed consents for participation in the trial, detailed interviews concerning demographics, abuse history, sexual risk behavior, sexual health and physical exams were obtained. Randomization into either control or intervention groups was conducted. Intervention participants received workshop, support group and individual counseling sessions. Control participants received abuse and enhanced clinical counseling. Follow-up including detailed interview and physical exam was conducted at 6 and 12 months following study entry to assess for infection. Intention to treat analysis was conducted to assess intervention effects using chi-square and multiple regression models.

Results

409 Mexican-(n=342) and African-(n=67) American adolescent women with abuse and sexually transmitted infection histories were enrolled; 90% intervention group attendance; longitudinal follow-up at 6 (93%) and 12 (94%) months. Intervention (n=199) versus control (n=210) group participants experienced fewer infections at 0-6 (0% vs. 6.6%, p=0.001), 6-12 (3.6% vs. 7.8%, p=0.005, CI 95% lower-upper .001-.386) and 0-12 (4.8% vs. 13.2%, p=0.002, CI 95% lower-upper, .002-.531) month intervals.

Conclusions

A cognitive behavioral intervention specifically designed for ethnic minority adolescent women with a history of abuse and sexually transmitted infection was effective for prevention of infection. These results provide evidence for development of evidence-based interventions for sexually transmitted infection/HIV. Implications include translation to community-clinic-based settings for prevention of adverse outcomes regarding sexual health of adolescent women.

Background

Sex, race, and age disparities in pain assessment and treatment have been reported in the literature. However, less is known about how these demographic characteristics influence nurses’ assessment of the emotional experiences of patients who are in pain.

Objectives

To investigate the influence of patient demographic characteristics and facial expressions on nurses’ assessment of patient mood in the context of pain.

Design

A cross-sectional study employing Virtual Human (VH) technology and lens model methodology.

Settings

The current study was delivered via the internet.

Participants

Participants consisted of 54 registered nurses currently engaged in clinical practice. Nurses were recruited from healthcare settings across the United States.

Methods

Nurses viewed 32 patient vignettes consisting of a video clip of the VH patient and text-based clinical summary information describing a post-surgical context. Patient sex, race, age, and facial expression of pain were systematically manipulated across vignettes. Participants made positive and negative mood assessment ratings on computerized visual analogue scales. Idiographic multiple regression analyses were used to examine the patient characteristics that were significant predictors of nurses’ assessment ratings. Nomothetic paired samples t-tests were used to compare ratings within cue for the entire sample.

Results

The results of idiographic and nomothetic analyses indicated that VH sex, race, age, and facial expression cues were significant predictors of the mood assessment ratings of many nurses. The age cue had the largest impact among the demographic variables.

Conclusions

The results of the current study suggest that patient demographic characteristics and facial expressions may influence how nurses assess patient emotional status in the clinical pain context. These findings may lead to greater awareness by individual nurses and nursing administrators about the influence of patient demographic characteristics on clinical decision-making. Future research is needed to better understand these relationships, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.

Background

The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) is a widely used assessment tool for measuring parental characteristics that affect parent-child bonds. The measure was developed for and has been most administered in Western populations. Psychometric analyses have yielded discrepant results as to whether the PBI is best represented by a two-factor model (care and overprotection) or a three-factor model (care, overprotection, and autonomy).

Objectives

Little is known about how the PBI performs in Chinese samples, and there is limited data from Eastern populations as a whole. The purpose of this study is to 1) explore the data and identify the underlying structural model that best fits the Chinese culture, and 2) to further compare the factor structure that emerges in a Chinese sample with that which has emerged in other Eastern cultures (i.e., Japanese) and Western countries.

Methods

The present study investigated the psychometric properties of a Chinese translation of the PBI among a sample (N = 1417) of mothers of kindergarten children. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to identify the best-fitting model.

Results

Results supported a four-factor model that included an indifference factor (χ2/df < 3.0; RMSEA ≤ 0.06; SRMR < 0.08). Both the two-factor and three-factor models performed poorly (χ2/df > 5.0; RMSEA > 0.08; SRMR > 1.0; CFI < 0.90 for both). In this sample, use of a Chinese translated version of the PBI was successful. Support for the four-factor model is consistent with findings from previous studies of Eastern populations and discrepant from those among Western samples.

Conclusions

The indifference factor may reflect aspects of parenting specific to Eastern cultures, which tend to value group cohesion over individualization and independence. More research is needed to determine whether these findings are generalizable to all Eastern countries and whether aspects of Chinese culture (e.g., the single-child law) produce unique effects that may impact PBI administration in China.

Background

Antiretroviral treatment for HIV is gradually being made available across sub-Saharan Africa. With antiretroviral treatment, HIV can be approached as a chronic, manageable condition rather than a shorter-term issue of palliative care. This treatment involves repeated interaction between health staff and patients for ongoing check-ups and prescription refills.

Objective

This study aimed to understand patient and healthcare staff perceptions of good clinical antiretroviral treatment care.

Design

Over 100 h of ethnographic observation at healthcare sites; interviews and focus groups with 25 healthcentre workers (mostly nurses), 53 HIV-positive adults taking ARVs and 40 carers of children on ART. The data were analyzed using thematic content analysis.

Setting

Three healthcare sites providing free antiretroviral drugs in rural Zimbabwe, where the adult HIV infection rate is approximately 20%.

Results

Contrary to reports of poor antiretroviral treatment adherence and task-oriented rather than patient-oriented nursing, our study found great patient commitment to adherence, outstanding nurse dedication and a pervasive sense of hope about coping with HIV. Within this context however there were some situations where patients and nurses had different expectations of the medical encounter, leading to stress and dissatisfaction. Patients and staff both emphasized the importance of nurse kindness, understanding, confidentiality and acceptance (i.e. treating HIV patients ‘like normal’) and patient adherence to medical directions. However, nurses at times overlooked the negative effects of long wait times and frequent hospital visits. Further, nurses sometimes conflated medical adherence with general patient obedience in all aspects of the nurse–patient relationships. Patients and staff were frustrated by the ambiguity and unpredictability surrounding key elements of hospital visits such as how much patients had to pay for service, how long it would take to be served, and whether drugs or the doctor's services would be available.

Background

Despite a common view that women are better at self-care, there is very little evidence to support or challenge this perspective in the heart failure (HF) population.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are cross-cultural gender differences in self-reported HF self-care and to describe gender differences in the determinants of HF self-care.

Design, Setting, and Participants

A secondary analysis was completed of cross-sectional study data collected on 2,082 adults with chronic HF from the United States, Australia and Thailand.

Methods

Comparisons were made between men and women regarding self-care maintenance, management and confidence as assessed by the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index, as well as the proportion of subjects engaged in adequate self-care. Multivariate comparisons were made to determine if gender explained sufficient variance in HF self-care and the likelihood of reporting adequate self-care, controlling for nine model covariates.

Results

The sample was comprised of 1,306 men and 776 women. Most (73.5%) had systolic or mixed systolic and diastolic HF and 45% had New York Heart Association class III or IV HF. Although small and clinically insignificant gender differences were found in self-care maintenance, gender was not a determinant of any aspect of HF self-care in multivariate models. Married women were 37% less likely to report adequate self-care maintenance than unmarried women. Comorbidities only influenced the HF self-care of men. Being newly diagnosed with HF also primarily affected men. Patients with diastolic HF (predominantly women) had poorer self-care maintenance and less confidence in self-care.

Conclusion

Differences in HF self-care are attributable to factors other than gender; however, there are several gender-specific determinants of HF self-care that help identify patients at risk for practicing poor self-care.

Background

Coronary heart disease and acute coronary syndrome remain significant public health problems. The effect of acute coronary syndrome on mortality and morbidity is largely dependent on the time from symptom onset to the time of reperfusion, but patient delay in presenting for treatment is the main reason timely reperfusion is not received.

Objectives

We tested the effect of an education and counseling intervention on knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about acute coronary syndrome symptoms and the appropriate response to symptoms, and identified patient characteristics associated with changes in knowledge, attitudes and beliefs over time.

Methods

We conducted a 2-group randomized controlled trial in 3,522 people with coronary heart disease. The intervention group received a 40 minute, one-on-one education and counseling session. The control group received usual care. Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs were measured at baseline, 3 and 12 months using the Acute Coronary Syndrome Response Index and analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance.

Results

Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs scores increased significantly from baseline in the intervention group compared to the control group at 3 months, and these differences were sustained at 12 months (p = .0005 for all). Higher perceived control over cardiac illness was associated with more positive attitudes (p<.0005) and higher state anxiety was associated with lower levels of knowledge (p<.05), attitudes (p<.05) and beliefs (p<.0005).

Conclusion

A relatively short education and counseling intervention increased knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about acute coronary syndrome and response to acute coronary syndrome symptoms in individuals with coronary heart disease. Higher perceived control over cardiac illness was associated with more positive attitudes and higher state anxiety was associated with lower levels of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about responding to the health threat of possible acute coronary syndrome.

Background

Studies have linked nurse staffing levels (number and skill mix) to several nurse-sensitive patient outcomes. However, evidence from European countries has been limited.

Objectives

This study examines the association between nurse staffing levels (i.e. acuity-adjusted Nursing Hours per Patient Day, the proportion of registered nurses with a Bachelor’s degree) and 10 different patient outcomes potentially sensitive to nursing care.

Design-setting-participants

Cross-sectional analyses of linked data from the Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset (general acute care and intensive care nursing units: n = 1403) and Belgian Hospital Discharge Dataset (general, orthopedic and vascular surgery patients: n = 260,923) of the year 2003 from all acute hospitals (n = 115).

Methods

Logistic regression analyses, estimated by using a Generalized Estimation Equation Model, were used to study the association between nurse staffing and patient outcomes.

Results

The mean acuity-adjusted Nursing Hours per Patient Day in Belgian hospitals was 2.62 (S.D. = 0.29). The variability in patient outcome rates between hospitals is considerable. The inter-quartile ranges for the 10 patient outcomes go from 0.35 for Deep Venous Thrombosis to 3.77 for failure-to-rescue. No significant association was found between the acuity-adjusted Nursing Hours per Patient Day, proportion of registered nurses with a Bachelor’s degree and the selected patient outcomes.

Conclusion

The absence of associations between hospital-level nurse staffing measures and patient outcomes should not be inferred as implying that nurse staffing does not have an impact on patient outcomes in Belgian hospitals. To better understand the dynamics of the nurse staffing and patient outcomes relationship in acute hospitals, further analyses (i.e. nursing unit level analyses) of these and other outcomes are recommended, in addition to inclusion of other study variables, including data about nursing practice environments in hospitals.

Background

In the Rationing of Nursing Care in Switzerland Study, implicit rationing of care was the only factor consistently significantly associated with all six studied patient outcomes. These results highlight the importance of rationing as a new system factor regarding patient safety and quality of care. Since at least some rationing of care appears inevitable, it is important to identify the thresholds of its influences in order to minimize its negative effects on patient outcomes.

Objectives

To describe the levels of implicit rationing of nursing care in a sample of Swiss acute care hospitals and to identify clinically meaningful thresholds of rationing.

Design

Descriptive cross-sectional multi-center study.

Settings

Five Swiss–German and three Swiss–French acute care hospitals.

Participants

1338 nurses and 779 patients.

Methods

Implicit rationing of nursing care was measured using the newly developed Basel Extent of Rationing of Nursing Care (BERNCA) instrument. Other variables were measured using survey items from the International Hospital Outcomes Study battery. Data were summarized using appropriate descriptive measures, and logistic regression models were used to define a clinically meaningful rationing threshold level.

Results

For the studied patient outcomes, identified rationing threshold levels varied from 0.5 (i.e., between 0 (‘never’) and 1 (‘rarely’) to 2 (‘sometimes’)). Three of the identified patient outcomes (nosocomial infections, pressure ulcers, and patient satisfaction) were particularly sensitive to rationing, showing negative consequences anywhere it was consistently reported (i.e., average BERNCA scores of 0.5 or above). In other cases, increases in negative outcomes were first observed from the level of 1 (average ratings of rarely).

Conclusions

Rationing scores generated using the BERNCA instrument provide a clinically meaningful method for tracking the correlates of low resources or difficulties in resource allocation on patient outcomes. Thresholds identified here provide parameters for administrators to respond to whenever rationing reports exceed the determined level of ‘0.5’ or ‘1’. Since even very low levels of rationing had negative consequences on three of the six studied outcomes, it is advisable to treat consistent evidence of any rationing as a significant threat to patient safety and quality of care.

Context

Despite growing evidence in the US, little evidence has been available to evaluate whether internationally, hospitals in which nurses care for fewer patients have better outcomes in terms of patient survival and nurse retention.

Objectives

To examine the effects of hospital-wide nurse staffing levels (patient-to-nurse ratios) on patient mortality, failure to rescue (mortality risk for patients with complicated stays) and nurse job dissatisfaction, burnout and nurse-rated quality of care.

Design and setting

Cross-sectional analysis combining nurse survey data with discharge abstracts.

Participants

Nurses (N = 3984) and general, orthopaedic, and vascular surgery patients (N = 118 752) in 30 English acute trusts.

Results

Patients and nurses in the quartile of hospitals with the most favourable staffing levels (the lowest patient-to-nurse ratios) had consistently better outcomes than those in hospitals with less favourable staffing. Patients in the hospitals with the highest patient to nurse ratios had 26% higher mortality (95% CI: 12–49%); the nurses in those hospitals were approximately twice as likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs, to show high burnout levels, and to report low or deteriorating quality of care on their wards and hospitals.

Conclusions

Nurse staffing levels in NHS hospitals appear to have the same impact on patient outcomes and factors influencing nurse retention as have been found in the USA.

Background

In most multicenter studies that examine the relationship between nurse staffing and patient safety, nurse-staffing levels are measured per hospital. This can obscure relationships between staffing and outcomes at the unit level and lead to invalid inferences.

Objective

In the present study, we examined the association between nurse-staffing levels in nursing units that treat postoperative cardiac surgery patients and the in-hospital mortality of these patients.

Design-setting-participants

We illustrated our approach by using administrative databases (Year 2003) representing all Belgian cardiac centers (n = 28), which included data from 58 intensive care and 75 general nursing units and 9054 patients.

Methods

We used multilevel logistic regression models and controlled for differences in patient characteristics, nursing care intensity, and cardiac procedural volume.

Results

Increased nurse staffing in postoperative general nursing units was significantly associated with decreased mortality. Nurse staffing in postoperative intensive care units was not significantly associated with in-hospital mortality possibly due to lack of variation in ICU staffing across hospitals.

Conclusion

This study, together with the international body of evidence, suggests that nurse staffing is one of several variables influencing patient safety. These findings further suggest the need to study the impact of nurse-staffing levels on in-hospital mortality using nursing-unit-level specific data.

Aim

To study the relationship between nurse work environment, job outcomes and nurse-assessed quality of care in the Belgian context.

Background

Work environment characteristics are important for attracting and retaining professional nurses in hospitals. The Revised Nursing Work Index (NWI-R) was originally designed to describe the professional nurse work environment in U.S. Magnet Hospitals and subsequently has been extensively used in research internationally.

Method

The NWI-R was translated into Dutch to measure the nurse work environment in 155 nurses across 13 units in three Belgian hospitals. Factor analysis was used to identify a set of coherent subscales. The relationship between work environments and job outcomes and nurse-assessed quality of care was investigated using logistic and linear regression analyses. Results: Three reliable, consistent and meaningful subscales of the NWI-R were identified: nurse–physician relations, nurse management at the unit level and hospital management and organizational support. All three subscales had significant associations with several outcome variables. Nurse–physician relations had a significant positive association with nurse job satisfaction, intention to stay the hospital, the nurse-assessed unit level quality of care and personal accomplishment. Nurse management at the unit level had a significant positive association with the nurse job satisfaction, nurse-assessed quality of care on the unit and in the hospital, and personal accomplishment. Hospital management and organizational support had a significant positive association with the nurse-assessed quality of care in the hospital and personal accomplishment. Higher ratings of nurse–physician relations and nurse management at the unit level had significant negative associations with both the Maslach Burnout Inventory emotional exhaustion and depersonalization dimensions, whereas hospital management and organizational support was inversely associated only with depersonalization scores.

Conclusion

A Dutch version of the NWI-R questionnaire produced comparable subscales to those found by many other researchers internationally. The resulting measures of the professional practice environment in Belgian hospitals showed expected relationships with nurse self-reports of job outcomes and perceptions of hospital quality.

Objectives

Cross-language qualitative research occurs when a language barrier is present between researchers and participants. The language barrier is frequently mediated through the use of a translator or interpreter. The purpose of this critical review of cross-language qualitative research was three fold: 1) review the methods literature addressing cross language research; 2) synthesize the methodological recommendations from the literature into a list of criteria that could evaluate how researchers methodologically managed translators and interpreters in their qualitative studies; and 3) test these criteria on published cross-language qualitative studies.

Data sources

A group of 40 purposively selected cross-language qualitative studies found in nursing and health sciences journals.

Review methods

The synthesis of the cross-language methods literature produced 14 criteria to evaluate how qualitative researchers managed the language barrier between themselves and their study participants. To test the criteria, the researcher conducted a summative content analysis framed by discourse analysis techniques of the 40 cross-language studies.

Results

The evaluation showed that only 6 out of 40 studies met all the criteria recommended by the cross-language methods literature for the production of trustworthy results in cross-language qualitative studies. Multiple inconsistencies, reflecting disadvantageous methodological choices by cross-language researchers, appeared in the remaining 33 studies. To name a few, these included rendering the translator or interpreter as an invisible part of the research process, failure to pilot test interview questions in the participant’s language, no description of translator or interpreter credentials, failure to acknowledge translation as a limitation of the study, and inappropriate methodological frameworks for cross-language research.

Conclusions

The finding about researchers making the role of the translator or interpreter invisible during the research process supports studies completed by other authors examining this issue. The analysis demonstrated that the criteria produced by this study may provide useful guidelines for evaluating cross-language research and for novice cross-language researchers designing their first studies. Finally, the study also indicates that researchers attempting cross-language studies need to address the methodological issues surrounding language barriers between researchers and participants more systematically.

Background

Self-rated health has been shown to be a significant predictor of mortality. However, there is limited knowledge on what factors contribute to the global perception of self-rated health in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Objective

To describe the associations between physical and psychological symptoms, physical and mental health functioning, and perceptions of mastery with concurrent and longitudinal global self-rated health in patients with COPD and to determine if gender modifies these relationships.

Design

Cross-sectional analysis of data from a longitudinal clinical trial

Setting

University medical center in the United States

Participants

115 patients with moderate to severe COPD

Methods

Global self-rated health was measured using one question from the Medical Outcomes Study, SF-36 which states “In general, would you say your health is: excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor”. Physical and psychological symptoms were measured with the Shortness of Breath Questionnaire, Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ), and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD); the SF-36 was used to measure physical and mental health functioning; mastery was measured by a sub-scale of the CRQ. The BODE Index, a multidimensional disease severity grading system was also included. Stepwise logistic regression analyses were performed.

Results

In cross-sectional analyses, only disease severity as measured by the BODE Index was associated with GSRH [Odds Ratio, 1.52; 95% confidence interval, CI (1.08, 2.15)]. Stratified analyses by gender showed that the association between the BODE index and GSRH held up for men, but not for women. Higher perception of symptom control was associated with positive health ratings in women. Subjects with less fatigue at baseline had a lower risk of reporting poor health 12 months later, [OR 0.84; 95%CI (0.72, 0.98)].

Conclusions

For patients with COPD, ratings of global health were mostly influenced by measures that reflect their physical state, e.g. disease severity and fatigue. While additional work is needed to better understand gender differences in factors that contribute to GSRH, therapeutic nursing interventions might place greater focus on symptom management if the goal is to improve patients’ perceptions of their global health.

Background

Traditional Korean American discipline is characterized by a lack of expression of affection and use of harsh discipline.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to pilot-test the effect of the Incredible Years Parenting Program among Korean American mothers.

Methods

A randomized controlled experimental study design was used. 29 first-generation Korean American mothers of young children (3-8 years old) were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 20) and control (n = 9) groups. Intervention group mothers received a 12-week parenting program. Control group mothers did not receive the intervention. Mothers reported on discipline styles (positive, appropriate, and harsh), level of acculturation, and their child's outcomes (behavioral problems and social competence) at pre-, post-, and 1-year follow-up intervals.

Results

After completing the program, intervention group mothers significantly increased use of positive discipline as compared to control group mothers. Among intervention group mothers, high-acculturated mothers significantly increased appropriate discipline whereas low-acculturated mothers significantly decreased harsh discipline. In the 1-year follow-up, intervention group mothers maintained the significant effect for positive discipline.

Conclusions

Providing this program appears to be a promising way of promoting positive discipline among Korean American mothers.

Summary

What is already known about the topic?

Highly active antiretroviral therapy has dramatically decreased morbidity and mortality and improved the quality of life in persons with HIVMedication-taking self-efficacy beliefs may predict medication adherence in persons with HIV.Depressive symptoms and perceived social support consistently influence medication-taking self-efficacy beliefs

What this paper adds.

Depressive symptoms mediated the prediction of medication-taking self-efficacy by perceived social support.Medication adherence self-efficacy mediated the prediction of self-reported medication adherence by perceived social support and depressive symptoms as self-efficacy theory suggests.This study provides researchers with increased understanding of the mediating role of medication-taking self-efficacy beliefs between selected psychological variables and self-reported medication adherence in persons with HIV.

Background

To date, only a few studies have examined the mediating role of self-efficacy on the relationship between depressive symptoms or perceived social support and medication adherence in persons with HIV.

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of perceived social support, depressive symptoms and medication-taking self-efficacy on self-reported medication adherence in persons with HIV. A proposed comprehensive model included three mediation hypotheses in order to examine the mediating roles of medication-taking self-efficacy and depressive symptoms

Method

Baseline data from “Adherence to Protease Inhibitors” were used. The 215 persons with HIV aged 19–61 (mean= 40.7, SD= 7.58) were recruited from multiple sites in Pittsburgh, PA (USA) and through self-referral. The participants were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory, Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, the Medication Taking Self-Efficacy Scale, and the modified Morisky Self-report Medication Taking Scale. Structural equation modeling (EQS version 6.1) was used. The Satorra-Bentler Scaled χ2 test statistics (S-B χ2), comparative fit index (CFI), and the Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual (SRMR) were used to assess the fit of a comprehensive model including three mediation hypotheses.

Results

A comprehensive model with the three hypotheses showed a good model fit (S-B χ2 (24, N=215) = 69.06, p<.001; CFI=0.95; SRMR=0.057). Medication adherence self-efficacy fully mediated the prediction of self-reported medication adherence by perceived social support and depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms partially mediated the prediction of medication-taking self-efficacy by perceived social support

Conclusions

The findings of this study provide researchers with increased understanding of the mediating role of medication-taking self-efficacy beliefs between selected psychological variables and self-reported medication adherence in persons with HIV. Future studies need to test the moderating effect of gender, ethnicity and risk factors for HIV on this model and the intervention effect of self-efficacy beliefs using longitudinal data.

The purpose of this paper is to provide future directions for the usage of Internet communities (ICs) for recruitment of research participants based on issues raised in an Internet survey among 132 cancer patients. 317 general and 233 ethnic-specific Internet Cancer Support Groups and 1,588 ethnic-specific ICs were contacted to recruit cancer patients. Research staff recorded issues and wrote memos during the recruitment process. The written memos and records were later analyzed using content analysis. The issues included: (a) difficulty in identifying appropriate ICs and potential participants, (b) meta-tags, (c) dominant white and women groups, (d) dynamics inside ICs, (e) difficulty in trust building, and (f) potential selection bias. The findings suggest that researchers thoroughly review the ICs’ information, be recognizant of potential gender and ethnic issues and current trends in Internet interaction, and consider potential selection bias.